Written Upon The Heart

1979 I took a pocket knife and carved on the side of our door jambpost the date March 11, 1979. Dad would have killed me. At the time I wondered what I would be doing in 10 years as I reflected on that date. Here it is 30 years later and I remember that thought and it's still etched on the jambpost.

1984 I had a class in high school learning how to program in Basic language. I have a print out of a program that shows Mike and Barb 10-11-84.

1985 while Darren and I are hunting we decided to carve our girlfriends names on a tree surrounded with a heart. Both of them now our wives.

The software application that I work in is shown throughout the nation at Home Depot and Lowe's stores. In that application I have Emily's and Andrew's names that a customer can see to choose the font that they want to write upon their door.

As I think about all these different events at a point in time I can't but help to think of God's Word about what He has written upon His heart. He has our names written down in a book, called the Book of Life for those of us that have asked Him to save us.

As I've recorded special events, God too has special events recorded. One of these days in heaven He'll remind us of those events. I always wonder how that will be? Will we sit with God as He flips through the scrapbook of our life? I pray that there will be many times that God will be pleased with my heart, my thoughts and my actions throughout my life.

Making Dreams Come True

"The best way to make your dreams come true is to wake up!"

God has given us the ability to do so many things. But what causes us not to do them? Are we talked out of them? Do we look at the end result and say, "Wow, I don't know how I'm ever going to get there, I'll do something else."

There are so many things that I would love to do and one of them is that I would love to be a cartoonist. I enjoy looking at life and coming up with witty sayings or a twist of words on an event. The problem is though I cannot draw, so this year I plan to learn to draw and start on my project cartooning some of my thoughts. In effect I'm going to wake up and start doing it.

I'm reminded in the Bible in Acts 12:12 about a guy named John Mark. He was Barnabas' cousin and went with him on Paul first missionary journey. But along that journey for some reason John Mark stopped going. We don't know what happened, but for some reason it made Paul mad. Barnabas wanted to give John Mark a second chance but Paul refused to do so insomuch that he and Barnabas separated themselves.

But John Mark evidentily woke up, because Paul in 2Tim 4:11 says to Timothy, "Take John Mark because he is profitable to me."

We may never see any cartoon drawings of John Mark, but we sure can read what the Holy Spirit gave him to write and that is.... the book of Mark.

Is there something that you desire to do, but have not done it? Wake up, because it's God that gives us the ability to do things. God has a promise in Psalm 34:7. Desire in Him and He will give you the desires of your heart.

I am stuck on you, O Lord

Psalms 119:31 I have stuck unto thy testimonies: O LORD, put me not to shame.

I was trying to memorize this verse and for some reason it was hard to memorize it. After a while the song popped in my head.... I am stuck on Band-Aids and Band-Aids are stuck on me. It's amazing what sticks in our mind over the years and what doesn't stick in 30 seconds. One of my earliest memories was when I was around 3 or 4 and I stuck a butter knife in the mayonaise jar, got a big g lob of white goo. It looked good and I took a taste. Not good as I thought, in fact my body agreed and decided to help me get rid of it. Not until my adult years did I learn to like mayonaise again.

God has giving us the ability to remember things and He wants us to fill our hearts and minds with thoughts about Him and His love towards us. God remembers and forgets too, although He forgets intentially. He remembers the love that we have toward Him and He forgets the sins that we ask forgiveness for.

That word stuck is the same as cling. Have you ever had someone get to close to you, being all clingy where you want to say, "Stop clinging on me!". God doesn't mind and He'll never let us down especially when we cling unto His testomonies.

I remember Andrew just loved Band-Aids. When he would get an ouwee he would want a band-aid. When we were building our chuch I would sometimes take Emily and Andrew with me and they were about 5 and 7. Pastor would always say that Andrew always knew where the band-aids were.

So lets stick unto God's Word because He is the greated healer of all.

Bible Reading

Assist News Service Rhodes quotes a recent poll, which indicates that 35% of born-again Christians do not read the Bible at all.

In addition, Rhodes indicates that among those who say they read the Bible, the vast majority only read it during the one hour they attend church each Sunday morning.

With these statistics it's easy to see why Christians are easy prey for spiritual deception.

The Bible is God's letter to us to help us with our life. I love getting letters, notes or cards from my family. It's a note that takes the time to formulate our thoughts from our heart and time to write those thoughts down. Sometimes it's thoughts that are never conveyed verbally and without the note we might have never have know the person's thoughts.

Think about a special note that you received. It might have been an encouragement from your teacher, "Good Job Emily" or "Way to Go Andrew". It could have been a recommendation letter from someone. "Emily's character is impeccable" or "Andrew is a blessing with his guitar". How does that make you feel? Yes, special and with righteous pride.

We need to take the time and read God's Word as a personal letter to us. In that context it will help us to read God's Word with a great fervor.

John 15:4 - Emily abide in me, and I in you.
John 15:5 - I am the vine, Andrew is the branches:

The Bible is God's letter to us. Let's find out what He is saying to us today.