An Engraved Invitation to an Elaborate Life!

I really do enjoy cooking. I just don’t have much time or need for those old time elaborate meals anymore. Danny and I are on the road a lot and when we’re home we enjoy simple fare or picking up a salad or such from a local eatery.  It doesn’t take so much to fill us up anymore.

Elaborate meals require elaborate planning, elaborate menus and elaborate recipes. You can’t have elaborate without the planning. You can ask my kids, I can throw together an awesome pot of spaghetti, but it’s not elaborate. It’s quick and it’s good, but it’s just a pot of spaghetti. On the other hand, my father, who was a true chef, worked all day to make homemade meatballs, homemade spaghetti sauce and just right pasta. He served it just so – spaghetti noodles covered with the meatballs and then sauce. Never, never would he whip up a pot of it all thrown together! His meal was elaborate!

God has given us an elaborate life! He wants us to feast with Him from His sumptuous table of blessings. He wants us to taste every dainty morsel of His Word and live in the Truth of all of His Word! This elaborate life was planned well before the foundation of the world! Your name was on the engraved invitation before He even went to the cross. Everything about your life in Christ has been planned elaborately!

In order for you and I to enjoy this wonderful life in Christ we must plan elaborately as well. The walk of faith is no thrown together at the last minute event. It’s a day in and day out work of art. We must plan our life so that Christ gets first place.  Without planning we will be throwing together something much less than we were meant to enjoy and we will be feasting on dry crumbs rather than hearty banquets. God’s Word is not fast food! Oh you can go pick a taste up somewhere, but in order to have that elaborate life in Christ, you have to spend time with the Head Chef, and let Him slow you down as you take time to ingest the menu of the Word and read the recipes for a blessed life for yourself! No one else can prepare an elaborate life for you other than Christ Himself!

Have you been running here and there doing good things, having great fun and being busy, busy busy? Are you stopping to pick up an occasional bite on Wednesday evening or Sunday morning? Maybe you just drive through the local channels and try to get a bite to eat. Do you take little tastes and throw your faith meal together at convenient moments? Maybe you’re finding that your heart, mind and spirit are feeling sluggish and drained. You’re wondering why you feel so down, disheartened, lonely, fearful, and malnourished!

Oh beloved, make a dinner date right now! Stop in at the Lord’s Banquet Table and really feast on His Word! You may think you don’t have time, but God says if you will stop and let Him feed you the Elaborate Manna of His Word you will be blessed beyond measure – you will find new strength and fresh hope for the days ahead. Not only will you be ready for what comes in the future, you will be refreshed for the present time! He is calling you to His Banquet Table and He’s speaking to your heart – Don’t stress over the time you don’t have, but let Me seat you at My Table so that you will feel My Presence! Then you will be able to take My Presence with you! Every feast I desire to serve you is elaborate and you will have to plan your time with Me! I will be your nourishment, your refreshment and your way of blessing! I AM that I AM and absolutely no one else in all the earth will give you what I AM for you!

Stop a moment and come and dine! Feast, don’t nibble, on His Word and watch as your life flourishes and your ministry to others flourishes as well! His plans for you will be even more elaborate because He loves you and He’s for you and that’s worth taking the time!

Jeremiah 15:16 When I discovered your words, I devoured them. They are my joy and my heart's delight, for I bear your name, O LORD God of Heaven's Armies.

Joshua 1:8 Study this Book of Instruction continually. Meditate on it day and night so you will be sure to obey everything written in it. Only then will you prosper and succeed in all you do.

John 6:35 Jesus replied, "I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to Me will never be hungry again. Whoever believes in Me will never be thirsty.” (NAS)

John 4:14 But those who drink the water I give will never be thirsty again. It becomes a fresh, bubbling spring within them, giving them eternal life.

A Marriage Made in Heaven!

When Danny and I got married I instantly had access to many things I didn’t have on my own. He had a truck, a car and a motorcycle.  He had furniture, a bank account and a savings account.  He didn’t keep his things to himself.  He put me on his checking account. It no longer read “Danny Beene”, but the checks said “Mr. or Mrs. Danny Beene”.  Really everything he had when we married, I was privileged to have access to when we said our vows.

No longer was I known by my maiden name. I took Danny’s last name as my own. I took his entire family as mine as well.  Although I’d never known my own grandparents, Danny shared his two grandmothers, his two grandfathers, and his great grandmother with me. There were aunts and uncles and cousins as well. Although I was born into my own family, because of our marriage, I became a member of a completely different family.  

Although they didn’t do everything the way I had been taught by my family traditions, I learned new ways of living and doing things. All in all, I made a commitment to take on his name, his family and his ways.  Literally, I was no longer my own, but I was his. Everything I had was his as well. I held nothing back – I gave it all to him.  Because I put all my trust in my husband, he took complete care of me. I really had no needs, for he provided everything for me.

When we’re born again, we become members of a completely new family – the family of God. This family is comprised of other believers who have made a commitment to Jesus Christ – to follow Him and live according to His precepts throughout the world. We have taken on His name, His nature and His identity. Everything that Christ has – we have access to.   We are no longer our own and as we hold nothing back and give everything to Him, He takes our lives and completely changes us.  Because of this amazing access to the riches and blessings and precepts of God, we have everything provided for us – we are completely taken care of all the rest of our lives.

Are you lacking anything this morning? Have you put your trust in Christ? Have you said yes, I do, to Him and given your whole heart to let Him live through you? Maybe you’ve been trying to meet your own needs – working, planning, doing – and still coming up short.  You may have been in relationships where the other party didn’t treat you so well.  Whether marriage, family or friendship – the other party kept back some of their love, their kindness, their compassion, their forgiveness. They stopped short of complete acceptance and complete commitment. 

Oh beloved, run to God’s Word and read! Rejoice in your marriage to Christ this morning! You who are in Christ are very rich indeed! He is speaking to your heart this morning and He says, beloved, all you have need of My hands have provided! All my good and perfect gifts I give to you from My Father.  Everything you will ever need for your physical and spiritual life I have provided.  I AM everything for you! I will be your access to perfect love, perfect peace and complete joy. I AM yours and you are Mine. I love you and because I laid down My life for you, all your past has gone into the grave with Me. I love you and because I rose to live again, you have a completely new life in Me.  I love you and because I live to make intercession for you, you are protected, provided for and redeemed. You are safe in My arms, always in My heart and always on My mind.  

 

Whatever your needs are this morning, beloved, give those needs to the Lord. He will either fix the situation, replace the broken condition or make all things new. Everything He does for you will be oh so very good because He loves you and He’s for you and that’s your access to all you will ever need, even all the way to heaven!

2 Corinthians 5:17-18  This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun! And all of this is a gift from God, who brought us back to himself through Christ...

2 Peter 1:3-4 By His divine power, God has given us everything we need for living a godly life. We have received all of this by coming to know Him, the one who called us to Himself by means of His marvelous glory and excellence.  And because of His glory and excellence, He has given us great and precious promises. These are the promises that enable you to share His divine nature and escape the world’s corruption caused by human desires.

Colossians 1:12 always thanking the Father. He has enabled you to share in the inheritance that belongs to His people, who live in the light.

Psalm 23:1 The Lord is my shepherd; I have all that I need.

Freedom to Live for Christ!

A new car now sits in our driveway and I can tell you it was an amazing process. Unfortunately not everything that amazed us was good stuff! We basically dealt with two dealerships. One was high pressure to the max. The other was laid back yet treated us like we were the best folks ever to walk in their door.  Guess which dealership we bought from? When it finally came down to it mere dollars separated the price. But the way we were treated made all the difference.

There was also a way to look up internet pricing in the area of the kind of vehicle we wanted. I didn’t know when I went online that we would get contacted personally, I just thought we’d see the prices.  When the 1-800 calls and the emails started rolling in I knew I had made a big mistake. I ignored the calls and responded to the emails asking to be taken off their list. I am still getting emails from the same folks I asked to be removed from.  Although we have made a decision and gone on with our car buying life, they want to keep us hooked.

In the Christian life there is the immediate blessing of being born again. As humans, we all look for significance, love and acceptance. In Christ we have that as newborn children of God! We don’t have to look back to the past, look around to the mistakes or look forward to future problems. It would be great if the enemy of our soul would just go on and leave us alone! But life is still tough at times and satan still tries to hook us back with him. Not only that, while our hearts are new and we’re born again, our flesh cries out for more self-centered things. 

Unlike high pressure salesmen, we have the Holy Spirit who, through prayer and study of God’s Word, can remove us from temptation and put us on the do not call list! We’ve been removed from the law of sin and death and we’re moving on. Don’t let one call or one message take you back to your former ways.  Move on with the new – for it is surely a new day with the Lord!

Oh beloved, you may have been signed up, chained up and fed up with your old life. But in Christ you have a new mode of transportation! The life of Christ is meant to be lived with gusto and blessings! Regardless of bad conditions, bad times or bad decisions back in the old days, your life is hid in Christ!  You don’t have to answer the phone or return the emails anymore! God says to you today, rise up and live in ME! I AM your new life, I AM your new ways and I AM your everything! I give you a new life, I give you a lifetime warranty and I give you roadside assistance all the days of your life! You are now Mine and you will never need another Savior or Comforter! I love you and I AM for you and that’s all that really matters.

1 Peter 1:23 For you have been born again, but not to a life that will quickly end. Your new life will last forever because it comes from the eternal, living word of God.

Isaiah 26:4 Trust in the Lord always, for the Lord God is the eternal Rock.

2 Corinthians 5:17 This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!

2 Corinthians 3:17 For the Lord is the Spirit, and wherever the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.