Cleaning House

This weekend was spent cleaning house with my daughter.  Now Christine who is the youngest of my kids is 12 and thinks that she's 18.  She also has NO idea on the proper way to clean.  However, at her age, I'm the one who doesn't know what I'm talking about.  So, she starts cleaning one area.  She gets that one area clean and everything else is wrecked.  Then she goes to another area and makes the mess bigger.  Before long the whole place is trashed and I've acquired a new way of thinning my hair which, I might add, is not pleasant.  Oh, and let's not forget my constant looking up and asking, "Why God?".

Because she's human, like her mother and every other homo sapien on this planet.  We do the same thing to God.  And as frustrated as I was getting with her, I don't even want to consider how much worse we must be with God.

Think about it.  How many people have you heard come up with the excuses that they'll come to Jesus after they "sow their wild oats" or "gotta clean a few things up in my life"?  Every time that we try to clean up our act without Jesus, we just make a bigger mess.  And it's not just people talking about becoming saved either, the saved are just as guilty.  Don't believe me?  Then just check out David and Bathsheba.  He slept with a married woman then when she conceived, David had her husband killed.  He knew God when he did it.  I'll clean it up before God sees it.  Yeah, right.  David thought the same thing and it worked for Him about as crappy as it works for us.  God sees EVERYTHING.  In fact, God would be the worse being to ever play hide and seek from because there is NO WHERE TO HIDE.  He sees the mess, He saw us make the mess.  He was there the whole time.

When Jesus knocks on the door to our hearts, He knows that there is a mess waiting for Him inside.  That's why He is there.  That's what He does.  He junks out all of the bad, piece by piece, and replaces it with His stuff.  The good stuff.  It's not always easy watching Him throw out things that we deem important but that is where we need to learn faith and trust.  What He replaces these things with are so much better.  What we have is old, worn out, and second-hand.  He is bringing in top of the line, never been used before, Grade A, Kosher, God approved.  He is replacing our little playground with DisneyWorld.  How fab is that?

So, are we ready for our spiritual housecleaning?  Well, step one is to get the ultimate housekeeper.  If you don't have Jesus in your life then I would strongly encourage you to check out this website at freshlifechurch.com and get yourself plugged in.  They are more then excited to help get you on track.

What's funny is the thought that if somebody ever came over to clean my place, I'm the type who would clean before they get there.  Yet with Jesus, He wants us to just give the mess to him.  And it's okay.  Remember, He did watch us as we were making it.

God Bless and always be a snakebird.

Trading Places

This morning while coming in to work I was listening to Skillet's CD Awake.  Two of my sons both love Skillet and neither of them are saved.  While it was playing, all that I could think about was what will happen to them if they remain like they are when the rapture takes place.  Don't get me wrong, I can't wait for it to happen.  However, the mother in me is screaming WAIT FOR MY KIDS!  The very thought of what they will endure just makes me cringe.  If there was any way that I could trade places with them, I would.  Heaven doesn't work that way though.  It's a one way ticket and non-transferable at that.  Besides, I'm an imperfect single mother.  I'm not qualified to take their place.  Nor do I have to.

Our destiny, or fate has already been switched.  There was one perfect man, one that left Heaven itself to take our spot.  "Jesus came into the world not to condemn the world but that the world through Him might be saved." John 3:17.  He never intended to constrict us with a bunch of rules and regulations but to free us from the slavery of our own sins.  To trade places with us and take the punishment that was to be ours.  Jesus is the only one qualified to do that for us.  And He did.

There have been times when I've wondered why He would even considering doing such a thing.  We are so messed up and can't seem to ever learn from our mistakes.  For Him to even think about leaving Heaven and coming onto this earth to die the most horrifying of deaths...  but perhaps this morning I got a small taste of what it was.  Love.  The thought of even one of my kids choosing Hell over Heaven just tears into my very soul.  It rips my heart into shreds.  It such an overbearing pain that makes every atom in my body scream out.  These are my babies.  No matter their age or what they've done they are still my offspring and I will always love them.  When I tell them no it's not to be mean or a bully but to assist them and help give them a better life.  Does it sound familiar?

God is the perfect, ideal father.  If I love my children even with my own imperfections and mistakes that I've made with them then how much more does God love us?  We are His children.  And just as living eternity without my kids there haunts me to no end, maybe that is why Jesus went to that cross willingly.  Because His love for us is so great that He can't bear the thought of spending it without us in it.  We are the children of God.

Jesus doesn't tear down the door of your heart like a SWAT team busting in and forcing Himself on you.  He's a gentleman who is knocking at the door.  It's up to you to get up and answer the door, to invite Him in.  If you haven't done that yet then I pray that you do, just as I pray for my sons.  He desires that none should perish, it tears at Him just as the idea of my children does to me.  For more information if you are seriously looking at that door and hearing the knock, please go to this website at freshlifechurch.com and they are more then syked to help you.

God Bless and always be a snakebird