Category Archives: Christian Living

Christian Living, Forgiveness, Repentance, Salvation

Blot and Spots Continued

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So did you mull it over?

The Blot, I mean.

Is there a one dark blot that leads to the many other spots Charlotte Elliot lyric-ed about? If you missed that post, click HERE to read it.

I think there is.

And do you know what I think it is?

Unbelief.

Yeah. Unbelief. I think, unbelief is what keeps people lost.

So what do people not believe?

Perhaps they don’t believe that Jesus (Yeshua) is. Is the Son of God. Is the Savior of the World. Is the only way to be saved. Or. Perhaps they don’t believe they need to be saved; perhaps they don’t believe they are hell deserving sinners. (Romans 6:23) (John 14:6).

Either one of those two things alone will keep one lost and all those spots caused by the blot keep mounting. Is there anything more tragic? And is there anything more surely avoidable than being lost?

But that song Just as I am doesn’t stop speaking to me this side of Salvation. I can still be guilty of unbelief and I can still mount up some spots. I NEED regular and often foot washings. (John 13:6-11) How about you?

Do you know what else I think? I think unbelief is what causes my need for foot washings. Yeah. I really do. Because if I wholly got my heart convinced of the depravity that disobedience is, I’d disobey less. But as I said recently – it’s a process. It’s like I heard a man say many years ago: I am not sinless, but I do sin less than I used to. I say that too now. It’s good that I am making progress in the process.  Probably others think so too.   :)

So let us be encouraged. The Blood of our Savior washed us cleaned from all our sins the day we said Yes to Him for Salvation and every day after He keeps on washing us clean. That’s just how He is! So I’ll keep going to Him moment by moment Just as I am. I hope you will too.

Thank you for listening, Dear Friends.

Day 238 of 2014, a day to give Thanks.

Kathie

Christian Living, The Loft

Loft Topic 8.19.14

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Writing for the Loft

the-loft today, along with many others. I hope you will check out the place and get connected with some great blogs (just click the pic). This week’s topic is insecurities. Let’s see . . . how many of mine do I dare publicly expose?

Leah wrote about not enough. I can so identify! A few months back I listed my not enoughs, I typed them out even, I admit I stopped on number 27, there are more. And no I am not revealing the list.  :)  

So what am I going to reveal? 

That I am 62  and weigh 15 pounds more than is optimally healthy for me, I can easily be sucked into a family-friendly chic flick and ignore more important matters; which leads me to my point: here of late I have come to fear that I will come to the end of my days (which are fewer than I have already spent) and I will not have lived well for JESUS. 

And you might say now wait a minute, Kathie, the topic is insecurities and you are talking about fear. 

That’s right. For me, all insecurities are rooted in fear.

The fear that I am not acceptable as I am. And you know what that ultimately means? It means I am afraid that I am not fully loved! And you know what else? Even if the whole world loved me that still would not be enough. Because I can only be completely satisfied and fully secure if I moment by moment accept the fact that GOD loves me unconditionally.

(Is this an excuse to live sloppily? ABSOLUTELY NOT! It’s the freedom, the strength, and the courage to keep on getting back on track when we do fail to walk in love!)

So I am working on it, one moment at a time. And we are making progress!  :)  Some days more than others — it’s a process.

6 And I am convinced and sure of this very thing, that He Who began a good work in you will continue until the day of Jesus Christ [right up to the time of His return], developing [that good work] and perfecting and bringing it to full completion in you. via Phil 1:6 AMP – And I am convinced and sure of this – Bible Gateway.  Philippians 1:6 Amplified Bible (AMP)


Day 231 of 2014, a day to give Thanks.

Kathie

Christian Living, Just Chatty Today, Pictures

Ruthie

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It has been said, “Curiosity killed the cat.” 

This morning our cat, Ruthie, was curious. Actually, Ruthie is curious every morning but this morning I got pictures. :)

As often as weather permits I go out to our deck to enjoy my Bible Study time; right now I am continuing with Hebrews a Better Blend by Leah Adams and Ruthie is often near by. This morning she decided to get an up close and personal look at what occupies me in the mornings.  It is also said a picture is worth a thousand words. Here’s two. But never fear the words are coming as well – just not two thousand, not today anyway. :)

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Curiosity. It’s not always deadly. There is a curiosity that leads to life. 

Like Ruthie wouldn’t it be thrilling for our morning routines to pique the curiosity of our family and friends, intriguing them enough they would examine the WORD of GOD for themselves? To peek in on what He has to say, to come closer to the Holy Scriptures and there learn they could have better than nine lives they can have Eternal Life trusting the One and Only Savior clearly revealed within the pages of Holy Writ? 

After Yeshua had said these things, he looked up toward heaven and said, “Father, the time has come. Glorify your Son, so that the Son may glorify you — 2 just as you gave him authority over all mankind, so that he might give eternal life to all those whom you have given him. 3 And eternal life is this: to know you, the one true God, and him whom you sent, Yeshua the Messiah.
via John 17 KJV;CJB – These words spake Jesus, and lifted up – Bible Gateway.

Well. That’s it. That’s what came to mind. Aren’t you glad I shared it with you? :)

Day 212 of 2014, a day to give Thanks.

Kathie

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Christian Living

Yellow Specks

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If I had known they were going to give me such a poignant lesson I would have taken pictures.

There were two of them.

Very green with specks of yellow.

I was so excited. 

Two tomato plants fresh from the store with blossoms already on them! Yippee! 

I didn’t pluck them off. And the longer I waited — well, I just couldn’t. You know what I mean? 

And so the yellow blossoms in time became tiny, tiny green tomatoes. I sure couldn’t pull them off then!

And so they grew. But the plants didn’t grow much, hardly any at all the truth be told. Poor little things. They were putting all they had into growing fruit on little stems and branches starving for nutrients themselves. Spindly little things they were. Sad but valiant. 

And today because the plants look so flat-out worn out, I plucked the fruit. wpid-img_20140721_121042_990.jpg

Yep! that’s it. The whole crop!

Short-sighted, sentimental, whatever label to give my reasoning, (or lack of reasoning) my harvest is way limited. And why? It’s simple really. The plants were too immature to support the fruit. The stem, the root system, the plant as a whole needed more growing of its own before it tackled growing a crop.

If we want a future harvest of plenty, be it tomatoes or life, sometimes we have to cut off even some things that look good to give strength and nourishment for better things. Even things we are excited about and would really like to keep – good things — we have to be brave enough to pinch ’em off!

If I had plucked off the specks of yellow, cultivated some organic bone meal in the soil, watered well and patiently waited — well, we won’t know that now, not this go round. But I am already planning for next season.

So do you have some yellow specks that need pinching off? You just might get a bumper crop later if you do the brave thing today.

. . . and every branch that does bear fruit, he prunes, so that it may bear more fruit.
3 Right now, because of the word which I have spoken to you, you are pruned.
4 Stay united with me, as I will with you — for just as the branch can’t put forth fruit by itself apart from the vine, so you can’t bear fruit apart from me.
5 “I am the vine and you are the branches. Those who stay united with me, and I with them, are the ones who bear much fruit; because apart from me you can’t do a thing.
via John 15 KJV;CJB – I am the true vine, and my Father is – Bible Gateway.

Day 203 of 2014, a day to give Thanks.

Kathie

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Praying for Friends, Janet & Steve, Sheila and others.