Month: February 2024

ONE SECOND IN TIME

ONE SECOND IN TIME

Recently, here in Kansas City, in one second, we were enjoying and celebrating our town’s Chiefs winning the Super Bowl, and the next second shots rang out, killing one and injuring 22. Nine of those were children. Thousands were gathered smiling and shouting for our win. So many families. Even schools suspended classes for that day. Then, one second in time, chaos ensued. How could this happen at such a joyful occasion? Why would a person or persons, shoot randomly into a crowd? The police have found two people who got into an argument. Got angry. Pulled out their guns (my question is why did they have the guns there anyway) and started randomly shooting into the crowd, causing so much physical and mental pain for those who were there and those of us watching it on tv. Many are seeking out professional help because of the trauma. How can that happen? How can anger stir up someone to do that? In one second in time, the men who shot the guns, are facing prison sentences-a family started burial arrangements-sweet children’s parents sat by their bedside in shock.

Have you ever been angry? I know I have. I am angry at those who killed and hurt people the day mentioned above. It is a normal response to what is going on around us. But we have to learn how to control that anger. Those men who used their guns and shot innocent people that day, let anger take control of them. Let’s look at a couple of verses about anger.

1. Ephesians 4:26-27 “Be angry, and do not sin, do not let the sun go down on your wrath, nor give place to the devil.”    Psalm 4:4 “Be angry and do not sin. Meditate within your heart on your bed, and be still.” These verses show getting angry could lead to sin and anger can let the devil within our hearts. Instead of immediately reacting to a situation, God tells us we need to think before we act. Anger is a foothold in our heart to do wrong!
2. James 1:19-20 “…my beloved brethren let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath. For the wrath of man does not produce the righteousness of God.” Romans 12:17-21 “Repay no one evil for evil. Have regard for good things in the sight of all men. If it is possible, as much as depends on you, live peaceably with all men. Beloved, do not avenge yourselves, but rather give place to wrath; for it is written ‘Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,’ says the Lord…Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.” When someone wrongs us or gets angry with us, the natural reaction is to retaliate,  verbally and/or physically. But this response does not glorify God. We can demonstrate Godly love by being “slow to speak, slow to wrath.” There will be situations, when peace is not in our control. We need to remember that God will punish those who sin against us. We have to actively defuse the anger in OUR hearts. We will answer for OUR lives when we stand before God. We need to be swift to hear and try to defuse the situation with love. Proverbs 15:1 “A soft answer turns away wrath. But a harsh word stirs up anger.”
3. Colossians 3:8-10 “But now you yourselves are to put off all these: anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy language out of your mouth. Do not lie to one another, since you have put off the old man with his deeds, and have put on the new man…” Ephesians 4:31-32 “Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and evil speaking be put away from you, with all malice. And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you.” When we are a Christian, we are to become a new man (woman), doing away with our old self. We are to do away with the immediate reaction to all the things that so easily come out of our mouths in anger; those emotions that tend to want us to lash out at another. We are to be kind to each other and forgive readily when others sin against us.

I feel I have the personality of being slow to anger. Although, if someone says or does something to or against one of my family, the “momma bear” in me comes out. There were many times when I was caring for my husband, that he said, did or did not do, something that caused me to “blow.” I am sure you have something that causes or has caused your anger to rise up. We all do. That is part of our human emotions. God created us and He also tells us what to do when we get angry. Notice the verses under number 1 above, which start out with, “Be angry…” God knows there will be things in this world that cause us to become angry. But He does not create in us that emotion without showing us how to deal with it. God does not want us to stay in or hold onto that emotion of anger, because it can totally destroy us and others! We cannot hold onto it! Notice the above verses and the words that I underlined that give us the tools to overcome that emotion-feeling of anger.

Anger is a warning signal to stop and think. Some things we can do when we get angry, are: take a walk, listen to God’s nature, make a positive list about the person or thing we are angry to or about, meditate on God’s word the bible, go to a quiet place and pray, do something good for another, talk to a trusted friend, journal about the situation, make a plan to solve the reason for the anger, take a deep breath and simply breathe. It seems if I get those feelings out to God, written on a piece of paper or talk to a trusted friend, that the anger starts to dissolve away. If the anger does not dissolve, it can turn into sin. Reach out to someone or the anger can lead to so many different sins. The anger I mentioned at the top of this article, led to murder!

God allows a type of righteous anger when we experience injustice or wrong is done to us or another. But this type of anger is not driven by selfishness, pride, desire for revenge and its ultimate goal is not to harm others or assert control. We should never be led away from our faith or morals. Instead use the power of your emotions to bring about righteousness. Jesus exhibited righteous anger in Matthew 2:12-13, by overturning the tables on the steps of the temple. Also read, John 2:13-16. Right after, in Matthew’s account, we see Jesus healing people in the temple. His anger turned to healing.

Proverbs 16:32 says “He who is slow to anger is better than the mighty, and he who rules his spirit than he who takes a city.” We all get angry. We all have injustices done or said about us or those we love. But the point of this blog, is to say, when we get angry, let it go and let God. If we let it swirl in our hearts and thoughts and stay there, anger can only lead to sin. Rather, as Paul tells us in Philippians 4:8-9 “…whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy-meditate on these things. The things which you learned and received and heard and saw in me, these do, and the God of peace will be with you.”

Anger can be like an erupting volcano! Stop it before it destroys you and others! One second in time in anger, can change a person’s life forever!

Till next time!                                                  Keela

CHILDREN OF LIGHT

CHILDREN OF LIGHT

If you have been following me for very long, you know of my love of anything that produces light, especially lighthouses. In this blog, I want to talk about the strength of the lighthouse and the fact that we are to be a beacon of light, children of light in service to God. Ephesians 5:8-14 tells us, “For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light (for the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness, righteousness, and truth) finding out what is acceptable to the Lord. And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them. For it is shameful even to speak of those things which are done by them in secret. But all things that are exposed are made manifest by the light for whatever makes manifest is light. Therefore, He says: ’Awake, you who sleep, arise from the dead, and Christ will give you light.’” Manifest means: “to display or show by one’s actions or appearance, to be clear or obvious to the eye or mind.” (Oxford Languages) These verses show me that we have to put into action our light. We have to live our lives in such a way that when we go into a room, others can see that we are different. They can see, hear and are drawn to us as children of light.

Lighthouses are generally made with brick and stone masonry. They are usually built on rock. They are constructed in such a way that the harshest conditions, which seem to have the ability to blow them down, beat against them and yet they stand strong and firm. They have stood and lasted for generations because of what they are made of and the foundation they are built on. Even the fiercest storms do in fact blow around and against them, yet they continue to shine out of the darkness. They are made to withstand the darkness and boisterous winds. Beaten on, but still standing firm.

Isn’t this how we are to be also? Matthew 7:24-27, when Jesus was talking to His disciples reads: “Therefore whoever hears these sayings of Mine, and does them, I will liken him to a wiseman who built his house on the rock: and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it did not fall for it is was founded on the rock. But everyone who hears these sayings of Mine, and does not do them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand, and the rain descended the floods came and the winds blew and beat on that house, and it fell. And great was its fall.” There are so many verses in the Bible that tell us who is the rock we are to build our lives on. (look under rock in your concordance or google search) One is in Psalm 62:2, “He only is my rock and my salvation, He is my defense, I shall not be greatly moved.” Even when the storms come our way, God is by our side giving us strength!

What are some things we can learn from a study of these verses? One big thing they all tell us is: that our Lord is the ONLY rock we are to build on to withstand the crazy winds of this life on earth. This world tries to build their lives on worldly things: drugs, alcohol, sex, riches. These things do not help us to stand firm when the effects of them, end up sending us into darkness. God is the only way to find the light! Another thing is: we have to do something-put action into building on the strength of our God. How do we do that? How do we know how to build? How do we get to know Jesus-God-Holy Spirit? How do we get the strength to do the task of building our lives, so we can be children of light? The easy answer is, we have to first know how to build our lives. The builders of lighthouses drew up plans and knew what to use to make them strong and able to withstand the blowing wind, the flood of water overtaking them and the wind that would threaten to blow them down. So, what is our plan to follow? Psalm 119:105 “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.” Psalm 119:130 “The entrance of Your words gives light; it gives understanding to the simple.” The Bible, the Word of God is our plan! It shows us how to get strength so we can withstand the evils, the pain, the depression all the things of this dark world that can try to blow our lights out. We have to sit down and focus on the words God has given us to follow. In order for us to reflect the light of Jesus, we need to absorb light by studying the Word of God. God’s way is how we become children of light-the worlds’ way leads us to be children of darkness.

“Sometimes we need only a single star to follow one point of light to unite and guide us showing us in the darkness something greater than ourselves” -anonymous-               

When our light is showing, we are children of light. It can shine in the grocery store-at work-at home with your husband or children-when we are stuck in traffic-when you have been on hold for a long time on the phone (that is a hard one for me)-when someone has told a lie about us-when we are backed into a corner and don’t know how to get out without going into dark thoughts or actions. There are so many scenarios you could add to the everyday experiences we all have. We have all felt the pressures of this world that move our emotions to fall back into darkness. But if we keep our light shining, at least lit, we can keep that light beaming from us to help others. What if we are the only point of light that a person sees in their life? What if we have missed an opportunity to shine for the Lord to let others know there is hope, strength, power and promises? What if we were the light that a person has been looking for?

There have been many times that the devil tried hard to extinguish my focus of God’s light. When the world comes so hard on us and causes our light to dim, we have to stir up those embers and cause the light to come into our focus again. When we shine with light out of darkness, we are pushing the devil away who is darkness. Faith is seeing light in your heart when all your eyes see is darkness. Never doubt in the dark, what God told us in the light.

Lighthouses symbolize: danger-when not looking at the light and following its warning, strength-the light is on the rock cliffs on a good foundation, safety-showing us the way and the way not to go, hope-first sign of land and safety pulling ships to it showing land ahead, no death-if we follow the message of the lighthouse to stay away from the darkness and focus on the light, end of journey-the end and promises are welcoming us into its light eternally.

We, as children of light, are like the lighthouses. We need to be a symbol of hope and security, a guide for safe passage and shine showing the protection given only through our Lord and Savior. The lighthouses that no longer are in use, no longer shine, only show loneliness without their light. They are strong but yet they need their powerful light to fulfill their purpose and shine showing the ships the safe, light filled way. The lighthouse is built to withstand the violent storms. In the same way, we, as children of light, are built on a strong foundation to stand strong and firm when the violent winds of this life threaten to blow our light out!

Isaiah 60:19-20 “The sun shall no longer be your light by day, nor for brightness shall the moon give light to you; but the Lord will be to you an everlasting light, and your God your glory. Your sun shall no longer go down, nor shall your moon withdraw itself; for the Lord will be your everlasting light and the days of your mourning shall be ended.”

Did you realize that a lighthouses’ light and our light, shines brightest when it and we are in the darkest of storms? Can others see that we are children of light or have we let our light go out and we are children of the dark? If the last option is who you are, take out the Word of God and come back into God’s marvelous light! The darkness of this world is searching for the light! Searching for us, the children of light!

Till next time!

                                                                    Keela