The sign read "Dismount before crossing bridge."  The bridge looked fine to me.  I wanted to just ride my bike across the bridge and keep up the pace, keep my speed, get my ride in. The law says, "Dismount".  Do I obey the law? Do I do what I want or what's right? No one will know whether I obey or disobey--but God.  He is reason enough for me to obey.  If you love someone you want to please them. If you love someone you honor their request in private or in public.  Who do you love? Figure out who you are living to please and you will find out who you love.

John 14:15 (KJV) "If ye love me, keep my commandments."

God gave His only begotten son to come to this earth to purchase me and you, to save us from our sins.   That's the greatest thing anyone can do for the one they love. The least that I can do is obey Him.  But there's another twist to this story. He asks us to obey because He wants what is best for us. See I couldn't see that there were boards missing in that bridge. Check out the picture below and you will see how dangerously close my tire came to the missing planks.  

How close are you to the missing planks in life?  Is your next act of disobedience going to be the last thing you do on this earth. Run a red light--that could be the last disobedient thing you choose to do.  No one may be watching, but our heavenly father never takes His eyes off of us. The choice is ours. Choose wisely. We don't have the view nor the perspective He has.  What lies on the bridge of disobedience in your future? 

So the other day I was taking a break and grabbing a bite to eat with a friend.  My exposure to the world at large is pretty minimal.  So when a man asked if he could buy me a drink for a ride on my bike I simply said, “No thanks my bike is worth a lot more than that”.  I figured that would make him back off and that would be the last I heard of him. No instead he said, “how about two drinks”?  To this I walked away and went to join back up with my friend.  He literally walked over to where we were and struck up a conversation.  He asked us, “Guess what I’m thinking?”  Now being a prophet it is not necessarily what you want to be at asked at these moments.  I could have told him exactly what he was thinking but instead my friend came to the rescue and we hopped back on our bikes and rode off.  “Man what was with that guy?” My friend said to me,”It’s really been a while since you were out among the world hasn’t it?”  She was right I was out of touch at how much the world has changed, perhaps more accurately how much people in the world have changed.  I was a good ten years this man’s senior and had on my wedding rings which are pretty blinging (thanks to my wonderful husband of 39 years). However, this man did not either notice or care, hence todays blog. What to do to steer clear of the impure that you remain pure? 

I started looking up statistics.  According to Forbes Magazine pole in 2006, “The best estimates are that about 3% to 4% of currently married people have a sexual partner besides their spouse in a given year and about 15% to 18% of ever-married people have had a sexual partner other than their spouse while married.”

Infidelity.com reports that 57% of American men and 54% of American women admit to committing infidelity in any relationship they have been in.  The same site reports that 53% of American marriages end in divorce and that 74% of men and 68% of women says they would have an affair if they knew they would never be caught.

Read more: http://www.whatchristianswanttoknow.com/what-does-the-bible-say-about-adultery-five-important-lessons/#ixzz3a4oPGo5c

Adultery is a Sin against God and One’s Spouse.

Exodus 20:14 (NIV) “You shall not commit adultery” 

Leviticus 20:10 (NIV) “If a man commits adultery with the wife of his neighbor, both the adulterer and the adulteress shall surely be put to death” 

Marriage is to last for a lifetime. Remember this song?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UalVQCCTNPg

God instituted marriage. It is between one man and one woman.  If we rewrite what marriage is then we are rewriting the Bible and that my friend is road we don’t want to go down.  God does not make mistakes. I pray that we will all come to our senses and be so pure in thought and deed we miss anything the devil puts in our paths because to the pure all things are pure.  If you don’t even notice someone is making a pass then it will pass on by.   Keep up your guard.  Travel with a friend who walks the high road.  Stay prayed up and full of the word of God.   Avoid even the mere appearance of evil.  

Did you ever have one of “those days?”  Every now and then I have one of “those days” when everything that can go wrong goes wrong and nothing seems to turn out right.  You say the wrong thing. You hear audibly what someone says but somehow before it got out of their mouth and into your ears the words got misarranged because that is not what they said.  Anybody tracking with me?  This isn’t simply I spilled a little coffee on me day,  this is the lid fell off my Starbucks Grande Stainless mug and went into my console, my purse, between my legs and it was hot, kind of day.  Now you feel better because your day wasn’t really that bad, right?

See we think we have it so bad until we see someone who is a lot worse off than we are.  Our arm hurts and then we see someone with no arm.  We have a fender bender then we read in the paper where a teen driver hit a family head-on and no one survived. My mother use to say, “Misery loves company.”  As a believer we are to see things differently.  We are to see the good in everyone and give thanks.

1 Thessalonians 5:18 (ESV) 18 give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.”

The man at the pool of Bethesda had a victim mentality.  “No one will put me in when the water stirs, everyone else gets in a head of me…” it’s another one of those days. Even after he was healed he blamed someone else for his healed condition, "It is the Sabbath; it is not lawful for you to carry your bed." He answered them, "He who made me well said to me, "Take up your bed and walk". (John 5)

It is up to us what we are going to do about the kind of day we are having.  We can have a victim mentality or we can get up off our backside and chose to do something even if the only thing we can do is praise God.

A great book to read is, “The Applause of Heaven” by Max Lucado.  Sometimes we need to just take up our bed and walk, even if it is just to the chair. Be encouraged.  Do what you can do and God will do the rest.

"A car is made to run on gasoline, and it would not run properly on anything else. Now God designed the human machine to run on Himself. He Himself is the fuel our spirits were designed to burn, or the food our spirits were designed to feed on. There is no other." - C. S. Lewis 

It’s that time of year for rain, hail, high winds, tornado’s, hurricanes, you name it because it's "storm season".  Now I realize that a lot of people go around chasing the wrong things,  but storm chasers? They are in a class all of their own.  Not to many people I know go around chasing storms, for the most part we all run away from them.  One summer while on vacation at Daytona Beach Florida I drove for four hours all the way to the Keys to stay out of the storm.  At home I hustle to take in the plants, cover the lawn furniture, remove the chimes, and pull my car in the garage and several others things I won’t bore you with.  I have never, that I recall tried to chase a storm or be anywhere near a storm if I could help it. While I was contemplating on this I heard the Lord say, "Lots of people stir up a storm, purposely create one and actually do all they can to keep the storm going."  Of course when God tells you something no need to argue, He’s always right.  So I decided to ask Him to explain since I was obviously a little slow on the uptake.

Storms are unpredictable.  They move in and move out.  Many times they leave a lot of damage behind.  At times they are caused from two different fronts or climate conditions; for example cold meets hot and you got a storm.  For the most part we see lightning flash and thunder roar and put those together and you got yourself a storm. Rather than compromise or concede the point and walk away some people stay and start to dual it out.  They purposely raise the others temperature by being co

Ephesians 6:12 (NIV) “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.”

“if it takes great courage to stand and fight for something... sometimes it takes even greater courage to just walk away and leave things behind...” Author: civerjhon11

So the next time you see tempers flaring or feel the heat rising perhaps the best thing to do is simply walk away.  Find yourself some quiet shelter until the storm passes over; it only causes needless work and costly repairs.  Better to void a fight than pick one, you may be stirring up something that will turn on you. Oh and by the way weather experts say a storm in one area can cause a storm in another area….just saying.

While putting fresh mulch down in my flower bed and pulling up what doesn't belong there I noticed something.  My mums are already starting to break through the dark damp dirt of the earth.  What are those doing up already I said to myself. As quickly as I asked myself the question the answer came to me. This by the way is how God often speaks to me; I guess it's because I am usually quiet after I asked a question, so He can get a word in.  The answer was, "Because when you have something you are supposed to do, you need to be preparing and getting ready while no one notices.  See hidden behind my beautiful Bleeding Hearts are the fall Mums.  Well, mum was the word on them until they were exposed by my meticulous mulch placement.  I tend to be just a bit OCD and Melancholy detailed.  There they were already in leaf and reaching toward their soon to be moment, when the Bleeding Heart Bush will have already had its moment and have died off again until next year.  I've never noticed this before so now I am wondering do the Bleeding Hearts Bush prepare while the Mums are in full bloom. I don't think so because the cold of winter and snow would kill it.  So we need to know when to rest, when to wait, when to work, when to hide in the background and when to push ourselves to the forefront.  How is it we will know what we are to do, by listening to our creator?  He alone knows our times, they are in His hands.  

Psalm 31:15 (KJV) "My times are in thy hand: deliver me from the hand of mine enemies, and from them that persecute me." 

The seasons of our life will change.  What's important today will not be important tomorrow or perhaps it will be urgent?  Sometimes we will need direction and other times quite assurance.  One thing is certain God and God alone orders our steps and directs our future and in Him alone we can trust.   See the Lilies of the field... 

Luke 12:27 (KJV) "Consider the lilies how they grow: they toil not, they spin not; and yet I say unto you, that Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these."

I'm not ready for fall nor do I need to be.  I'm going to enjoy this season of my life and mums the word about what's springing up in my future.

So today as I was riding my bike on the Rails Trails this little bird who couldn’t fly yet was in the middle of the trail.  My friend saw him first and stopped to help. We knew we couldn’t touch the little bird or his mother wouldn’t come get him.  We were trying to help and this little guy was making that very difficult.  He opened his mouth really wide as if to either scream at us to stop (perhaps he did not want help) or to feed him.  We were clueless.  Neither of us spoke bird.  Feeling a bit bird brained ourselves we continued our lame, (no pun intended) attempt at helping this helpless little bird, who was barely covered with enough feathers to prove he was a bird.  Once we had him safely off the road and into a grassy patch we figured momma would find him and all would be well.  We figured wrong.  Upon our return trip to our cars we see up ahead the bird back in the middle of the trail with a pit bull sniffing a bit too close.  The owner oblivious to the little guy and startled by my, “Don’t let you dog eat the bird” comment jerked the dogs chain and kept the little bird from certain death.  Once again we dismounted our bikes to play Captain America and save the day.  This time however the little guy hopped to the grass all by his little self.  I was beginning to think this little guy has us snowed.  Now I am thinking this little bird didn't fall from his nest, his mother threw him out or he ran away.  Now wait a minute I tell myself are you thinking some bird brain thoughts again? This brings me to the reason for this blog.

Ask yourself a few simple questions.  How have I been acting lately? Am I acting bird brained?  See birds of a feather flock together.  Who have you been hanging with?   What causes us to think we can make it on our own?  What is it that makes us think we know better than those that are to take care of us?  God in his infinite wisdom has given us authority figures in our life to keep us safe.

Proverbs 1:1-5 (NIV) "The proverbs of Solomon the son of David, king of Israel: To know wisdom and instruction, To discern the sayings of understanding, To receive instruction in wise behavior, Righteousness, justice and equity;"

Good day friends. Let’s get happy, come on we are over "Hump Day" and the weekend is only two days away.  We can make it till the weekend. While you read this morning click on this link and let it play in the background. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IdwV6O_x2jA

We all need to be loved.  When we are young we often had our feelings hurt by those who weren't intentionally trying to hurt us, let me explain.  Do you remember picking teams to play ball and no one picked you? You knew you were lousy at baseball but never the less your feelings got hurt as you were the last one picked.  They had to take you; you were the only one left.  Well I have good news for you.  God chose you.  He chose you before the foundations of the world.  He thinks you are pretty special.   He didn't pick you last He chose you before you were even born.  

Often times we get down and think nothing is going well.  We can't do this or that and we are really bad at _________ (fill in the blank) whatever is left. The fact of the matter is we all have our strengths and weaknesses this is true, but that has nothing to do with how much God loves us.  God does not love us for what we can do but for who we are.  When you feel picked out, not picked on, everything changes.  We hold our head a little higher and we carry ourselves with more confidence. The extra boost of confidence causes us to smile and be more open to others.  We start to make connections, friends, and the next thing you know we get a promotion, a raise, a new relationship blossoms, life is good.   The ole' song we sang was, "Don't worry, be happy."  Happiness is a choice we make.  I saw a cartoon on Facebook of an egg and a potato both in hot water. The caption read, “It’s what we are made of that determines what happens when we find ourselves in hot water.” 

Today choose to be happy.  Rejoice over the fact that God chose you.  Now choose Him.

Joshua 25:15 (NIV) "But if serving the LORD seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD."

More than likely we have all driven cars that pull to the right or the left and maybe have even shaken while we drove them. You may have heard someone say my car is pulling I need to get my front end aligned.  We can see that cars still operate even though they pull to one side or the other.  It is extra work however, to drive a car that is not properly aligned.  When we get the adjustment made it is almost effortless to drive the same car that was previously giving us trouble.  

We also as people find ourselves in situations where we may need an alignment.  It is not that we are bad people but the pot holes and the simple wear and tear of use causes us to need adjusted.  Just like the car pulls to the left or the right, we are also pulled by temptation, apathy, resentment and a vast plethora of emotions and feelings.  If we sat in the garage like a car never used we probably wouldn't need much adjustment, however we would not accomplish much either. We live our life on the road not in the garage so we need maintenance which brings us to the place where we need to align our lives scripturally.  

There are proper steps to doing an alignment on our cars and we can read in the word of God the proper steps to align our lives.  Number one in the process of alignment is to have the right relationship with God. When we are aligned properly with God we have confidence that He will be with us in times of trouble. Other important relationships are your pastor, your spouse, your immediate family and others that have authority in your life such as bosses, teachers, police and other governing authorities.  Being in right standing with these relationships causes us to be able to navigate the highway of life successfully.  The word of God clearly describes the benefits of this lifestyle and the boundaries and the consequences of an unaligned life.  Always remember God has plans for you for good. (Jer.29:11)  

Have a daily maintenance schedule of prayer (which is time spent with God), read His word to adjust your thoughts. Thank God for the relationships with the people He has given you. Time spent with God, the word of God and the relationships with people are all God's grooming tools to set you up for a life of success and a lifetime of enjoying the drive we call life.  

John 3:20-22 (NIV) "…20in whatever our heart condemns us; for God is greater than our heart and knows all things. 21Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God;22and whatever we ask we receive from Him, because we keep His commandments and do the things that are pleasing in His sight.…"

"When you become comfortable with being uncomfortable, there is no limit on your growth.  Embrace discomfort." - Dr. Henry Cloud

Many times in life we come to a leg of the journey that slows us way down.  We have to merge into a much slower pace in life.  I have a saying about those times, "Do don't stew."  When life comes to a screeching halt and it will for all of us at one time or another; our first reaction is to complain about how bad it is.  We go into the poor pitiful me scenario. I tell my mentees for those times--carry a book, some "Thank you's", a journal and do something other than complain. There will be days when the lane we are in will close, temporarily or permanently.  I've heard it said when life gives you lemons make lemonade--well its a good saying but who wants lemonade with no sugar? We have to find the sweetness of life sometimes in the most sour conditions.  

There are over twenty scriptures in the bible about trials.  Here is a link to view many of them:
http://www.whatchristianswanttoknow.com/bible-verses-about-trials-20-scriptures-on-tribulations/

For those of you that are needing a bit of encouragement today I will share three of my favorites.

James 1:2  (ESV) "Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds,..."

1Peter 1:6 (ESV) "In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials."

Romans 12:12  (ESV) "Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer."

In this world we will have tough times but if we seek the Lord during those times He will be found and when we find ourselves on the other side of the situation and the lane is wide open and we are cruising down the highway with the roof down and the sun on our faces we will be grateful for choosing to "do" instead of "stew" for the time will not have been wasted complaining.  Complaining kept the Israelite's in the desert for forty years and kept them out of the Promise Land.  

We are to be living testimonies.  We are to be a light unto the world.  The only way that a light shines is in the dark.  The only way to have a testimony is to have gone through a test.  So let's encourage one another and more over into the lane with a new attitude and praise God that there is a better day coming.

Today is Monday, the dreaded beginning of a new week, four more days until the weekend.  I can remember when I was in college and couldn’t wait for the weekend to get here.  I went to school from 8AM until noon, then worked college work study at the B&E building noon to 4PM and then off to Murphy’s Mart from 5PM to 9PM.  By the end of the week I was so ready to sleep in and do nothing.  I didn’t realize how fast time was going to go by.  I wish I would have known what I know now.  It is only because of God that my life turned out as well as it has.  I always wanted to be a News Reporter.  I grew up with the TV on.  My parents were always up on the news. When I went to school I would tell everyone what was going on.  My mom would even give me the headlines from the newspaper before sending me out the door to catch the bus.  Most of the time she would even read me my horoscope which incidentally I don’t read and don’t believe in but that’s another Blogging subject.  I was going to report the news to the world. 

How about you?  What are you planning to do with your life?  We are all limited by time and had it not been for the grace of God I would not be living my dream—because I didn’t know what my dream looked like; I was trying to live what it looked like by looking at others.  When I watched others report the news I wanted my life to look like theirs and that seemed impossible so happiness eluded me.  Then, I realized the news I was to report was the “good news” the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I quit wasting time trying to look and be like someone else and settled into what God wanted for me.

Steve Jobs: “Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else´s life.” 

Ecclesiastes 3 :1 (KJV) “3 To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:” 

Your challenge for the day is to think about what your purpose is.  What are you called and created to do with your life?  God created you for a specific purpose, so don’t waste it trying to live someone else’s life.  God has given us a limited amount of time on this earth, let’s make the most of it.  Weekends come fast enough, so enjoy your week. Your "someday" starts today.  Change the world one day at a time.