Inspirations from the Funny Farm

I Thessalonians 5:16-18 Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.

I haven’t always been a prayer warrior. It has taken 54 years to become the person I am today, and likely that is the result of many hours of prayer from my grandparents and parents. I’m still a work in progress. I’m still not who I want to be, but at least I’m not who I used to be! A few years ago, I started praying as soon as my eyes opened in the morning. I then pray on my drive to work. I say silent prayers throughout the day for patients, family, friends, and strangers. I see requests for prayer on Facebook, and I pray. I pray before going to sleep at night, and sometimes I actually fall asleep praying. There’s no better place to fall asleep than in the arms of our heavenly Father. And if I wake up during the night I pray. I have made it my habit to pray. I talk to God all day long. I rejoice in Him for who He is, praise His name, and thank Him for everything, even the hard stuff. I ask forgiveness for my sins and failures, and He wipes the slate clean.

I Thessalonians tells us to rejoice always, pray continually, and give thanks in all circumstances. This means we are to pray and pray a lot. I don’t think the scripture means to get down on our knees and pray nonstop for days on end. Rather I think it means we need to develop a relationship with God in which we can go to him all day and night at any time for any reason and just talk to Him. We can’t get to know someone if we don’t talk to them. And we sure can’t get to know God if we don’t talk with Him regularly.

I have sometimes thought, why in the world do I need to tell God this or that? He already knows everything anyway. He knows my needs. He knows my life. That’s true. He does, but He wants us to come and communicate with Him on a personal level. He wants us to share our joys, our life, our good times, our bad times, and everything that’s going on in our lives. He wants us to talk with Him. He wants us to praise Him, honor Him, and glorify Him. He wants us to recognize His authority and power and ability to take care of us and all situations we encounter. As we get to know our Father on a personal level, with each prayer we become closer to Him. We start feeling unspeakable joy, we feel closeness to the God of the universe, and we find peace in every situation. When we truly get to know our Father, we begin to truly see His power, and soon we realize that the Creator of the universe created us, and He is working behind the scenes in every situation that we are encountering. He is working it all out for our good and His glory.

So today, if it hasn’t been your habit to pray always, I ask you to start now. Pray about everything and anything. Just talk to God. All you have to do is say, “Hey God. It’s me again. Can we talk?” I assure you He is waiting for you to call out to Him today. Rejoice in everything. Pray always. Be thankful for everything.

I Thessalonians 5:17 Never stop praying.

Romans 8:26-27 In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God.

Hebrews 4:16 Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.

Intercession is defined as the action of saying a prayer on behalf of another person. When someone is going through a hard time, we intercede in prayer for them. When someone is lost, we intercede in prayer. When someone strays from their walk with Christ, we intercede for them. And praise God, He sent the Holy Spirit to intercede for us.

Last year on this day, someone I love with every fiber of my being, walked away to pursue life. I’m not talking about pursuing a dream. I’m talking about chasing the world rather than living for the Lord. I worried about her safety, security, health, well being, and most of all that she was seeking a lifestyle that was far from one of God. So, what did I do? I cried. I cried for pretty much 24 hours straight. Yea, as you might suspect, that didn’t do a lot of good, but hey, even the guys in the Bible wept and tore their clothes when they were upset. After the crying began, crying out to the Lord came next. In hindsight, this probably should’ve been first thing I did, but it didn’t take me long to realize that I needed to call on the Lord on behalf of this person. I know she is a Christian. I know that she knows the Lord. So I prayed…and prayed…and prayed. Through the years, I have learned that we can’t make important life decisions for others, even those we love deeply. God gave each of us free will, and one can not control another person’s free will.

So what did I do next? I entrusted this person to God, and I trusted that God was in control then just as He was last week, last year, and every year before that. God is in control, and He loves His kids. So I prayed, I gave her to God, and I am trusted that He would do a mighty work in her life. I interceded, and I trusted Him to intervene. Lastly, I kept on loving this person and showing her the love of God. It’s hard to show love when you are hurt, angry, or upset, but no matter what, that love is still there. You want to know something? God didn’t change things that night or even the next week, but I didn’t stop praying and trusting Him. No, change didn’t happen overnight, but God worked that situation out just as I had trusted that He would. He always works everything out for our good and His glory.

I wrote today’s devotional to speak to myself, but I’m hoping and praying that maybe by sharing my heart someone reading this can find comfort. The prayers we are praying are not falling on deaf ears. Our Father hears us. We only need to call on Him. That’s the easy part. Making that call to Christ is an easy thing to do. The trusting Him to handle the situation part…well that’s a little harder for us, but Peeps, God is God! There is nothing He can’t do! He’s our heavenly Father. He loves us more than we love anyone in the whole world. We have to trust Him to handle it. Let go and let God do what He needs to do. Keep on showing godly love for those you are praying for, and finally, don’t ever give up. Keep on praying and keep on trusting God. He’s got this.

I John 3:16 We know what real love is because Jesus gave up his life for us. So we also ought to give up our lives for our brothers and sisters.

Romans 5:8 But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners.

john 15:13 There is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.

It’s Memorial Day, Peeps. It is not the day to celebrate our fighting men and women. Today is not their day. It is also not the day to celebrate our veterans who have come home from wars and battles. No my, friends, today is not their day either. Today we remember those who did not come home. We remember the hundreds and thousands of men and women who went into battle for our freedom and for the honor of this country but never returned. Today, we honor the memory of those who gave their lives in order that we may continue to have life. As we enjoy our long weekend, our minds are filled with mixed emotions. We can not easily celebrate the death of those soldiers without sadness and tears, but we can celebrate the freedom that each of us have in the United States of America because of those who freely gave their lives for our freedom. We must take time today to recognize the great price each and every soldier paid for the country that they loved.

The soldiers were not old men ready for the grave. No, on the contrary, most of the soldiers who have given their lives for this country were young men and women. They had families. Some were young fathers and mothers. They were sons and daughters, sisters and brothers, and each one was loved very much by the family they left behind. They had plans for the future that were abruptly changed one sad day on the battlefield. Their lives were halted, much too soon, well before they had planned, but why? They shed their blood on the battlefield for freedom and honor and glory. May we never forget the price they paid. We continue to live in a free society because of the great price paid by our friends in the military.

We must honor the memory of these fallen soldiers today. They gave their life so that we may live free. It is also a great day to praise our God for the awesome freedom in which we live. God sent His Son, Jesus, as the ultimate sacrifice for our sins. He willingly suffered and died on the cross so that you and I may be free eternally. Jesus gave us ultimate freedom through his death, burial, and resurrection, “So if the Son sets you free, you are truly free.” (John 8:36)

May we never forget! We live in a free country because of the men and women who gave their lives for our freedom, and we live free from sin’s grasp because Jesus died for our sins. Oh, my friends, may we never forget!

2 Peter 1:5-11 In view of all this, make every effort to respond to God’s promises. Supplement your faith with a generous provision of moral excellence, and moral excellence with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with patient endurance, and patient endurance with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love for everyone.  The more you grow like this, the more productive and useful you will be in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. But those who fail to develop in this way are shortsighted or blind, forgetting that they have been cleansed from their old sins. So, dear brothers and sisters, work hard to prove that you really are among those God has called and chosen. Do these things, and you will never fall away. Then God will give you a grand entrance into the eternal Kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Yesterday, we made a whole bunch of plum jelly: 33 half pints and 27 quarter pints. Making jelly is a little bit of a tedious task, but when the jelly sets, it is all worth it. The final product is shiny jars full of beautifully colored and delectable sweetness. As the jar lids begin to “ting” as they seal, we can hardly wait for the batches to cool down to see if the jelly is going to set. It should set every time because we follow the recipe, but sometimes it doesn’t. Sometimes it is human error, and other times, we don’t have the correct recipe. We have learned through the years that if we want to make jelly, we need to have Sure-jell, lots of pure cane sugar, fruit juice, and a Sure-jell recipe for the type of fruit juice that we have on hand. Measuring is absolutely necessary when making jelly. You can’t estimate or guesstimate. You have to have exact proportions of pectin, sugar, and juice. Most of the time (not always, but mostly) if we follow the recipe, the jelly sets beautifully. However, on occasion, we will try a new fruit and try to find an equivalent fruit recipe, and we end up with a big old batch of syrup. If you give me a fruit, I’m going to try to make jelly out of it. My husband says that I can make jelly out of a rock. I must admit that I haven’t tried that one yet, but I have tried some odd fruit jelly experiments.

Following the recipe is necessary for me. My husband could compete with world class chefs, and not ever use the first recipe. He is a fabulous cook. I have a small binder full of recipes in my head, but other than that, I’m a recipe Googler. I can cook just about anything, but I need to follow a recipe. In life, we also need a recipe to follow. I have often wished that life came with a recipe book, but with the passing years, I have realized that there are no secret hidden ingredients. The recipe is as simple as simple can be. It begins with faith in our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. If we have faith in Christ, follow Him, and allow Him to be the King of our hearts, well my friends, Christ is the ONLY ingredient we need for the recipe of life. However, Peter shared some of the necessary ingredients that will make our lives even better. Let us look at the scripture again.

Peter reminds us that we are to supplement our faith with a generous portion of moral excellence. We must strive to live a good and moral life following the instruction manual given to us in God’s Word. To moral excellence, we must add knowledge. How do we gain knowledge? We ask God for it, and He will provide. The Bible is filled with knowledge. We must learn to devour it and soak in the words of wisdom on every page. Next, Peter says we must have self control. That one is a little bit harder. We must learn to tame not only our tongues, but also our minds. We must control the words that are coming out of us, but we must also control the thoughts that are inside of our minds and the actions that result from these thoughts. Next, we must add patient endurance with godliness. Oh boy, this recipe is getting harder and harder. Don’t fret, Peeps, we are not following this recipe alone. We have the Holy Spirit to guide us along the way, and with His help, patient endurance with godliness will follow. With godliness, we must add a good helping handful of brotherly affection and love for everyone. That one is not even an option. It’s a command!

Peter tells us that the more we grow like this, the more productive and useful we will be in our knowledge of Christ, but if we fail to develop in this way, we will be shortsighted or blind, forgetting that we have been cleansed from our old sins. It will be like making jelly that doesn’t set. Instead of being the children of God that we are chosen and called to be, we will turn into a bunch of big old messes that are not useful for the Kingdom. The main ingredient to living the good life is easy: accept Christ as your Savior. Once we do this, we can’t help but following the recipe of additional ingredients listed by Peter. When we fill our hearts with Christ, our hearts desire will be to become more like Christ on a daily basis. Our lives won’t always be perfect. God doesn’t expect us to get it right every time, and He doesn’t even expect us to perfect all of the qualities listed by Peter, but he does tell us that we can possess these qualities in increasing measure, growing in each of these areas, and growing in our relationship with Christ daily. This, my friends, is the best recipe for life!

John 15:9-13 I have loved you even as the Father has loved me. Remain in my love. When you obey my commandments, you remain in my love, just as I obey my Father’s commandments and remain in his love. I have told you these things so that you will be filled with my joy. Yes, your joy will overflow! This is my commandment: Love each other in the same way I have loved you. There is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. 

How do you define love? I’m guessing that we all have a fairly different definition of what love means to us. I look at my husband, and I feel loved. I see love in every action and deed that he does for me and for our family. It is not just a word he uses, it is an action word. He does so many things on a daily basis to show his love, and I have no doubt he loves me. Love isn’t always easy, but the old saying is true. It is always worth it! Love doesn’t always look like the movies either. We watch a lot of Hallmark around here, and we have come to find that true love writes it’s own story. That story is always so much better than a scripted TV movie.

Love can be hard at times, but it can also be fun. Just this past week, I arrived home from work, and my dear husband asked me to take a ride with him. He took me out for a steak dinner, and then he took me to pick Catalpa worms. Yes, you read that correctly. I filled my belly with steak, and then went out to a Catalpa orchard to pick worms. Why in the world would we do that? It’s simple. Catalpa worms make excellent fishing bait, and the river is finally going to get closer to a reasonable stage for fishing, and we love to fish. In order to catch fish, you must have the right bait, and how convenient it is that the bait is literally growing on trees! Love comes in all shades and colors. Date nights range from romantic dinners to picking worms. Who knew that love looked like that?

My sweet husband doesn’t always show his love with steak dinners and worm picking. No, he is a man of many talents, and he lets them shine through on a daily basis. He always makes a Yeti cup full of coffee and a big cup of ice water for me to take to work. He starts my car on cold mornings so that it is nice and toasty when I leave for work. He checks to see if I arrived safely. He does a million little things a day that show me he loves me, but most importantly, that man prays with me and for me daily. I am truly blessed to be married to this man.

But I know, there is still a greater love than this. Our love story is one of my all time favorites, but there is one that tops our story. There is a love story that is so much better than steak dinners and picking worms. It is the story of the gospel. It is the story of the love that our Lord and Savior has for each and everyone of us. Jesus laid down His life for you and for me. He took our sins upon Himself so that we may be made right with the Father. He died for our sins. He suffered immensely because we are sinners. He took on the cross for the good, bad, and even the terrible sinners in this world. But he overcame the cross. He was resurrected just as He promised. Jesus set the greatest example of how to show love that has ever been seen by man. He defines true love like no other.

John reminds us to share this great love in chapter 15. I have loved you even as the Father has loved me. Remain in my love. When you obey my commandments, you remain in my love, just as I obey my Father’s commandments and remain in his love. I have told you these things so that you will be filled with my joy. Yes, your joy will overflow! This is my commandment: Love each other in the same way I have loved you. There is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. We are to love like Jesus loved, y’all. That’s a tough act to follow. Jesus walked this earth as fully man and fully God, and He did it with perfection….no sin…no mistakes…pure perfection. He gave up His life so that we may have eternal life. There is no truer love than this. What does He ask us to do? He simply asks us to love like He loves. I don’t know what kind of situation you are in right now. It may not be full of steak dinners or picking Catalpa worms, but no matter what is going on in your life, you can rest assured that you are loved unconditionally and most abundantly by the giver of life. Jesus loves you. He loves you right now, just as you are. He desires a relationship with you. You don’t have to “get right” first. You don’t have to do anything except accept the gift of salvation. And if you accept that gift, then my friend, you will know true love, and I guarantee you that it is a love like no other love!

Psalm 46:10 He says, “Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.”

Romans 8:28 And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.

Being still. Boy do I have trouble with that one. Anyone who knows me knows that I don’t do “being still” very well. My body is in constant motion. I’ve made a point of making myself stop and be still while writing these early morning devotionals. It’s nice to get into God’s Word and spend some quiet time with Jesus and coffee. I am currently sitting out on my deck listening to the sound of the creek as it ripples by. The birds sound like a beautiful praise team, chirping and singing away. I can hear a few frogs chime in with their ribbits here and there. I even hear some coyotes howling in the distance. Yes, this is a great place to be still although I won’t sit here very long. I have a full day ahead of me, and I can’t be still for long at all. It’s springtime on the farm, and I’m too young to retire despite what my creaking bones and joints keep telling me. Yet, God commands us to be still. Not only that, He tells us to know that He is God. That is some seriously important information right there, Peeps! Be still and know!

I don’t think that God wants us to stop working. He gave us hands and feet, and He expects us to work. There are dozens of verses in the bible about not being lazy or about being slothful. God is speaking here to His battle prone people. He is telling them to cease and desist, to stop, to be still. He is letting them know that He is in control. After all, He is God almighty! He is letting them know, “I got this. Let it go. I’m in control.”

Oh, the battles that rage on in this curly head of mine. I spend way too much time trying to fight the battles in my head, solve the problems of the world, or figure out how a situation will end or resolve. I’m a problem solver. That’s a big part of who I am. Oh, I pray about the problems. I give them to God, but I admit that I’m guilty of grabbing them back far too many times! God doesn’t want us to do this. He is bigger than any problem we will encounter, and guess what? He already knows the solution. There is no reason to sit and fret. God’s got it! We only have to be still and know that He has it. He is going to work everything out for our good and His glory. We only have to be still and know that He will! Give it to God and let it go! Be still and know!

John 15:1-8 “I am the the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.

Every winter, Jeff prunes the scuppernong vines. He prunes all of the branches off. When he finishes there’s not much of a plant left. All the branches that were cut off are dragged away. The scuppernong plants look very unfruitful at this point. There are minimal vines. There are no branches. There is no fruit. All that is remaining is the base of the plant stems and the root system. Through the winter months, it appears dead and lifeless, but then along comes spring. New shoots and bud spurs develop, and before we know it, there are vibrant green vines covering our trellises. Then tiny fruit begins to appear, and by August we have sweet scuppernongs to tease our tastebuds.

But what about those branches we cut off last winter? Are they producing fruit? No way! They are no longer connected to the vine. They are just dead branches now. We could make some wreaths out of them, but otherwise, they are pretty useless at this point.

In John 15, Jesus tells us that He is the true vine, and His Father is the gardener. He cuts of the branches that aren’t bearing fruit, and He prunes the ones that are bearing fruit so that they will be more fruitful. God prunes us. Have you ever thought about that? The pruning process occurs when we go through transitions in life. God will sometimes use these opportunities to prune us and take away things that are keeping us from Him. He removes things that are getting in the way of our growth and spiritual walk with Him. In doing so, we focus more on Christ and less on ourselves, and thus we become more fruitful. Just as those scuppernong branches thrive when attached to vine, we will thrive when we stay attached to Christ. If we aren’t attached and clinging to the true vine, we aren’t going to be able to produce any fruit because in reality we can’t produce fruit on our own. Christ produces the fruit through us. We have to remain in Him. We must remain attached to the vine and rooted in Him. Pruning can be tough. Change is hard. But changing for Christ is always worth it. If you feel like you’re being pruned currently, take heart, spring is here. The fruit is coming. We just have to be patient and cling to the vine!

James 5:16 Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.

2 Timothy 1:7 For the Spirit God gave us does not make us timid, but gives us power, love and self-discipline.

Galatians 5:22-23 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.

James 1:19-20 My dear brothers and sisters, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, because human anger does not produce the righteousness that God desires.

Have you ever been so angry about something that you couldn’t think straight? Or maybe someone said something to you that hurt your feelings severely. Our first reaction and instinct is anger. We get angry at that person who offended us. We get boiling mad. We want to lash out. We call up a friend and vent. Sometimes we even turn to social media to tell the world how we have been offended. We cry, we scream, and we fuss. But after we do all of that, we are still angry. Did it help? Nope! Did we resolve anything by our actions during the heat of anger? Nope! So why then do we react that way? I think the answer to that question is that it is human nature.

It’s easy to get caught up on the heat of the moment and say things that we may later regret. It’s easy to be mad. It hurts, but it’s easy. It’s not so easy to deal with the problem. It’s not easy to be confrontational. I for one hate confrontation. I don’t like to tell someone that I’m angry about something that they said or did. It’s hard for me to be that person. But do you want to know what is even harder? Hanging on to that anger. When you hang on to the anger, you slowly become burdened down by the weight of it. Relationships become strained and torn apart.

There’s an old quote I once heard during a sermon, “Holding onto anger is like swallowing poison and expecting the other person to die.” We are slowly killing ourselves and our relationships with the anger inside of us.
How do we fix this problem? Conflict resolution is the key. We must connect one on one with the person and share our heart with them. James 5:16 tells us that earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power and will produce wonderful results. Before we move into conflict resolution, we have to talk to God about the issue. Make sure we are going about things in the right way and make sure our hearts are right with God. After we have prayed about it, then we can move on to the good part: healing. Pray for the person who has hurt you, and then go to that person, share your heart with them. When we are hurt or angry, rather than sitting on the anger and letting it fester and grow, we must go to that person in a loving, gentle manner and talk it out. Share with a kind and gentle spirit. Screaming will not help! Speak softly and talk it out. Make sure that the other person understands your heart’s intention. The intention should be one of moving forward and working through the conflict.

It is never easy. Things that really matter usually don’t come easy, but it is definitely worth it. Don’t hold on to grudges. Set yourself and the other person free!

Matthew 5:13 “You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot.”

Colossians 4:6 Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone.

I have been off work the last couple of days and it’s springtime on the farm, and springtime means garden time. Garden time means preserving. Saturday, the kids helped Jeff and I snap a bushel of green beans.. We then canned 26 quarts of green beans, and we put 19 quarts of cauliflower in the freezer.. We love working together as a family canning and preserving. It is a lot of hard work, but the food tastes oh so much better than anything that you can buy from the store.

One of the important ingredients used in canning vegetables is salt. Salt has been used for many years in food preservation to prevent decay of food. Back in the first century, Middle Easterners used salt to preserve food due to lack of refrigeration. The salt helped to keep the food from decaying quickly. We also use salt to add flavor to the foods we are preserving. Salt just makes foods taste better. Also, when we eat foods flavored with salt, we become thirsty. These are three of the functions of salt: preservation, flavor, and increasing thirst.

You have probably been told once or twice in the past to “stop being so salty,” but today, I’m going to tell you to be even more salty! As a Christ follower we are to be preservatives to the world. We are to help preserve the world from sin and evil by living for Christ daily. We are to share Christ’s love with a dying and decaying world. That’s part of our calling as salty Christians. We must share our faith so that others can cling to the beautiful gift of salvation.

Secondly, we are supposed to add the flavor of life to the world. Think about the difference a little salt makes. Try frying up an egg and not adding any seasoning. How bland would that be? How much better is it if you add a little salt and pepper? Now we’re talking. What a difference it makes in the taste of the food! Salt adds flavor. As Christians, we should be making a difference in the world. This world is in a mess. There is so much evil everywhere we look. As followers of Christ, we should be doing what we can to make a change. We can’t reverse the corruption of this old world, only God can, but we definitely can make an impact.
When things go wrong, we tend to give up, run the other way, or look the other way. We don’t want to do what is necessary to make a change. But we can’t lose our saltiness too quickly. There’s work to be done, and you may be the saltiness someone has been looking for that points that person the Christ. We must daily strive to live life out flavored with the goodness of Christ.

Salt also makes us thirsty. Jesus wants us to thirst for Him. The saltier we are, the thirstier we will be for Christ. We will crave Him more, and we will constantly be trying to quench our thirst for Him. After all, He is the living water.
One other thing I’ve learned about salt is that the old devil doesn’t like it at all! The saltier you become in your Christian walk, the madder he becomes. The closer you walk towards Christ, the harder he will work to try to break you down. He’ll try to throw troubles in your path, but you just have to persevere towards preservation of faith in Christ. You have to keep sprinkling salt all over the place and keep your words and your life seasoned with love for Christ and others. Continue to thirst for the Lord no matter how trying things become. Get put there and be salty today!