Buddy is a bit scruffy as he had his teeth cleaned. Am thankful to the Lord that the special diet the vet assigned to Buddy seemed to improve his kidney function. God does care about our pets. After all, He created them and sustains their lives.
Hanging out with my Dad tonight. So no usual post. God bless you. Thank you, always, for taking your time to read my posts.
Have a great weekend!
Buddy is mostly a good boy. He tries to get my attention when he needs to use the “outside toilet” and almost always comes when I call. But he definitely is not a perfect little pal. He’s selfish like everyone else who exists on the planet. Buddy would never consider, “Hey, my human is eating right now. I’ll wait and bother her when she’s done.” No, what he does is either say, “I want outside right now” or “Give me your sandwich.”
There are many Christians who misunderstand the gospel message and most times it is not their fault. There is a lot of bad, legalistic and misleading teaching in Christendom. No matter how much we disagree with one another, if someone is born again, they have been accepted into God’s kingdom and are our brothers and sisters in Christ. We are commanded by Jesus “to love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another (John 13:34).” We are to love our fellow Christians regardless of their faults, for we all “sin and fall short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23).”
Jesus declared something very profound during His Sermon on the Mount that I don’t believe gets emphasized enough. The Apostle Matthew records in Matthew 6:33:
“But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness…”
It seems to me that many people misread the admonition to seek HIS RIGHTEOUSNESS. They seek their own righteousness. They believe that their salvation and right standing with God was, and is earned, because they do so many good deeds and are such a nice person. Most of them are sincere and are trying REALLY hard to be good people. But what does God declare about our good deeds through the prophet Isaiah?
“For all of us have become like one who is unclean, and all of our righteous deeds are like a filthy garment (Isaiah 64:6).”
And Jesus “also told this parable to some people who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and viewed others with contempt (Luke 18:9).”
Jesus praised the tax collector who felt unworthy of God’s kindness and asked for mercy, acknowledging that he was sinful. But warned not to behave like the self-righteous religious leader who believed he was better than other people because of his good behavior. The religious leader thought he was “gooder” than others, condemning others for falling short of his own good behavior.
Jesus reminded His hearers, shortly after relating the parable that “No one is good except God alone (Luke 18:19).”
Many well-meaning Christians are sincere in trying to please God and to do what is right. But they turn people off by not realizing that the gospel is all about God’s goodness, not their own. Most self-righteous Christians sincerely want people to escape Hell and enter into God’s kingdom.
But, they drive people away from Christ by unintentionally preaching bad news: You must keep the Law, be really good like I am, to please God.
James, the half brother of Jesus, pointed out the error in trying to earn one’s right standing before God by obeying all of God’s commandments: “For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles in one point, he has become guilty of all (James 2:10).”
Jesus said that the only way for a person to earn their way into heaven was “to be perfect, as your Heavenly Father is perfect (Matthew 5:48).”
It’s not wrong to try to obey Gods commands. Following God’s rules keeps us from harming ourselves and others. But when a Christian thinks that he or she is superior to others and has earned their ticket into heaven by being a good person, they’re missing the whole point of the gospel:
“But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us (Romans 5:8).”
Jesus had to become incarnated as a human being to take God’s punishment for sin because it’s totally impossible for any human being to be perfect. It’s totally impossible for any person to earn their way into heaven because only Jesus is perfect. No person, no matter how sincerely they love God and others, can be good enough. As both Jesus and James taught, one sin declares you guilty before God.
And that’s the true gospel that frees people from bondage: “Through the obedience of the One the many will be righteous (Romans 5:19).”
When a person repents of their sins, accepting Jesus as Lord, Jesus takes away their filthy rags and clothes the Christian in His white garments of righteousness.
So rejoice. God loves you, not because you are, or can attain perfection, but because you are His child.
And rejoice that you can be saved and enjoy eternal life with God, not because you are good enough—but because when you ask for mercy, recognizing that you are NOT good enough to earn your way into heaven, He adopts you as His beloved child.
Now that is GOOD, not bad, NEWS.
God bless you.
Much love from Dawn and Buddy
***
I hope you understand that you don’t need to “clean your act up first” to come to the Lord. He knows that you cannot be good in your own power and strength. What He desires is, like the tax collector, that you admit that you’ve fallen short of His righteous standards and ask for His mercy to save you. You can never clean yourself up enough to be choir enough in His eyes. You’re stained with the sins you’ve committed during your lifetime.
“‘Come now and let us reason together,’ says the Lord. ‘Though your sins are as scarlet, they will be white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they will be like wool (Isaiah 1:18).’”
All that God requires is that you humble yourself and admit that you are a sinner. It is why He hates self-righteousness so much: because proud people think they are good enough to earn their way into heaven, so they don’t ask to be clothed the white garments Christ bought with His righteous deeds and His blood.
Pride is what caused Satan’s downfall.
If you’re willing to admit that your ways aren’t working and that you need God to define right and wrong, to be your Lord, please pray the following:
Dear Heavenly Father, I call on Jesus to be my Lord and Savior. Please forgive my sins. Wash me clean with the blood of Jesus. Fill me with Your Holy Spirit. I give my life to you. Thank you for loving me. In the precious name of Jesus, amen.
If you prayed with sincerity, congratulations. You are a born again child of God. Just as your body needs daily food to survive, so your spirit needs soul food—the word of God. Please start reading your Bible. I suggest starting with Matthew as it’s easy to understand.
And please join a Bible believing church or Bible study. If that’s not possible right now, these are three ministries that I like and have apps, if that’s your preference: http://www.InTouch.org, http://www.LTW.org and http://www.AndrewFarley.org.
God bless you. See you in heaven.
It’s the Twelfth Day of Christmas, Day of the Epiphany (January 6th, 2021). I was going to keep my decorations up till tomorrow but a rat infestation blew my mood so everything was taken down shortly after the New Year. Buddy discovered the unwelcome visitors before I did. Fortunately, God protected him from tearing up his paws on the carpet tacks after he ripped up a portion of my living room carpet in an attempt to hunt down the rodents who had camped out in our supply closet.
I was not raised in the Christian religion, so my family never celebrated the Day of Epiphany. Church tradition celebrates the visitation of the three magi who recognized the incarnation of the promised Messiah.
“Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, magi from the east arrived in Jerusalem, saying, ‘Where is He who has been born King of the Jews? For we saw His star in the East and have come to worship Him.’…When they saw the star, they rejoiced with exceeding great joy. After coming into the house they saw the Child with Mary His mother; and they fell to the ground and worshipped Him. Then opening their treasures, they presented to Him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh (Matthew 2:1-2, 10-11).”
Much has been written and speculated about the Three Wise Men, but they had been watching the skies in anticipation of the incarnate God visiting His creation (Matthew 1:23). Scholars claim that the magi determined the timing of God’s visitation upon prophecies in the Old Testament book of Daniel, Chapter 9 (https://creationtoday.org/the-wise-men-and-the-star/). Unlike most of the world at that time, they recognized that the Lord had been born and had traveled a great distance to celebrate this great event and to worship God in the flesh. Although Mary and Joseph were aware of their first born’s special status, it must’ve been a surprise to have three foreign ambassadors arrive and worship their child.
The first epiphany was a life changing event: for the wise men who celebrated the arrival of the King whom they were anticipating, and for Christ’s parents to have their Son’s status confirmed but also to have been given expensive gifts. The gifts would soon provide financial assistance when Joseph and Mary flee to Egypt to protect their son from being murdered by Herod, who did not want competition for his throne.
I also had my own life changing epiphany during the Twelve Days of Christmas. I’m sharing my experience in the hopes that my insight will help other Christians who have been struggling with the same problem that I have for decades.
After coming to Christ, I felt aimless in life. Previously, I had been very active creatively and had hoped to become a syndicated cartoonist or create my own animation company. But after experiencing the power and presence of God during my born again experience, nothing seemed as important as people coming to know God through Jesus Christ and escaping eternal separation from Him. The ambition that fueled my creativity seemed shortsighted and selfish in comparison.
Only souls are eternal. Everything else was going to be burnt up at the Second Coming to make way for a new heaven and a new earth (Revelation 21:1).
Of what value were my cartoons and stories when Jesus is going to return and destroy the earth and all of our human works? Anything that I created, apart from proselytizing and saving souls, was transient. Not lasting. A waste of precious time.
In fact, God even declared through His prophet Isaiah in Isaiah 65:17: “For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth; and the former things will not be remembered or come to mind.”
Not only is this decaying and corrupt planet going to be destroyed, but after Christ establishes His kingdom, Christians won’t even remember their prior lives or the evil they once had to endure.
Therefore, nothing I create is lasting. It’s all going up in a puff of smoke one day.
Not that I think I’ll ever attain the status of Ernest Hemingway or Shakespeare, and be remembered by future generations long after my death. But at least I’d once hoped I could attain the status of Charles Schultz or even JK Rowling.
But it’s all going “poof” one day, does anything I create really matter?
I loved my characters that I published in my novel (Cattle Capers ™: Search For The MooMoo Pearl) in 2005 and other works, but the energy that fuels creative efforts after long work days and exhaustion dried up. Particularly after my main computer crashed, just before I’d planned to publish the second Cattle Capers ™ novel in 2020.
I struggled with a sense of worthlessness. I had many story ideas and ambitions, yet it all seemed so pointless. Why bother?
But when taking down the year 2021 Christmas decorations, just like the magi, I had my own life changing epiphany.
A life changing realization.
But then I thought, what made the sculptures wouldn’t be so special or delight me so much if I kept them out all year long. It was unboxing them and putting them on display for only about five weeks a year that made them so special.
Fortunately, most of my Yorkie Christmas sculptures survived my move to Arizona. They are beautifully detailed Christmas events performed by Yorkie dogs in ceramic. Dogs decorate a Christmas tree topped with a dog bone star and help hang strings of lights on a house made of ice blocks. I sighed, admiring the marvelous creativity and loving detail of the designers of each sculpture, but knowing I would soon box these treasures up for another year and no longer gaze upon them each day.
Then came the light bulb moment that will illuminate the remaining years of my life occurred: It’s the transient nature of things that makes them so precious, so special, so adored.
Cut flowers are appreciated because their fragrance and beauty are short-lived. Childhood innocence is cherished as the time period is brief. College years are enjoyed as the time for the freewheeling social life is limited. Family is prioritized as free time is sparse and death is unpredictable. Youth is appreciated before age and adult responsibilities saps the strength.
My great epiphany: My life, my creative work, my stories and characters and cartoons, are precious BECAUSE THEY ARE TRANSITORY, because they are not lasting.
Brief moments must be captured and appreciated. Laughter and runs along sandy beaches and birthday parties and playing catch with the dog or watching a cat attempt to climb to the upper shelf or little kids flying down the slide—family and life is precious because its existence on this earth is brief.
Every human life is precious because we never know when the laughter, the conversation, the concert or the ballgame with a cherished friend or family member will be the last.
Every human life is precious because every single person is a unique person fashioned lovingly by God (Psalm 139:16-19) with a unique mission (Ephesians 2:10). We exist on earth for a limited period of time. So what we do matters.
Because if we don’t do it, our unique expression of our existence will one day disappear.
“Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might; for there is no activity or planning or knowledge or wisdom in Sheol (death) where you are going (Ecclesiastes 9:10).”
If you’ve been struggling with a sense of worthlessness as I have for most of my Christian life, I hope that this post is helpful to you.
Or even life changing.
Now I need to finish up my cartoon for my Sherlock Holmes Club.
God bless you.
Much love from Dawn and Buddy
***
Perhaps you wonder what life is all about. Why am I here? Why was I born?
We were created to love God and be loved by Him.
But humankind turned away from God and has been living under a curse, dwelling in Satan’s domain. It is only by God’s kindness that we have not been destroyed by the devil or self-destructed through sinful behavior.
The word “sin” is not popular today, but God incarnated and died to rescue “us from the domain of darkness” and transfer “us to the kingdom of His beloved Son in Whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins (Colossians 2:13-14).”
God wants you to experience the fullness of His love in a personal relationship with Him.
God‘a love shines light into this dark world. He is real and you can experience Him as real.
You can become born again through the Holy Spirit and begin anew.
What Jesus came to do is reverse the curse that Adam and Eve brought upon humanity by rejecting God’s authority and presence. Jesus died to take the punishment for our sins, our disobedience.
If you’re ready to humble yourself and accept God as your Lord with the authority to define what is right and wrong, please pray the following:
Dear Heavenly Father, I confess that I’ve lived life my way rather than Your way. Please forgive my sin. I call on Jesus to be my Lord and Savior. Fill me with Your Holy Spirit. I give my life to You. I don’t understand much right now, but be my Good Shepherd, leading the way and lighting my path. In the mighty name of Jesus, amen.
If you prayed with sincerity, congratulations, you are born again.
But just as your body needs regular meals, so your soul needs daily food: This soul food is the Bible.
Please start reading the Bible daily to grow in the knowledge of who God is. Also, God speaks to our hearts as we read the word. I recommend starting with the book of Matthew as it’s easy to understand.
You also need Christian fellowship to stand strong and to grow, so join a Bible-based Church or Bible-study. If that’s not possible right now, please check out these three ministries, which also have apps, if that’s your preference: http://www.InTouch.org, http://www.LTW.org and http://www.AndrewFarley.org. (BasicGospel merged with the latter this year.) There are other godly ministries, but these are my personal favorites.
May God bless you richly.
See you in heaven one day!
Meditations About God and Buddy 