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December 29, 2012

No Looking Back – No Looking Back

Filed under: Charleen's Kitchen of Life — admin @ 4:08 pm

No More Looking Back For Me

Was I looking back like Lot’s wife resulting in sorrow? Gosh, nailed me again. I am really thankful for Holy Spirit’s lessons on what to do and what not to do, and the consequences that develop.

I found myself feeling a bit sorrowful regarding some choices I made in following Christ.  Please, get this straight, it wasn’t the part about following Jesus who I prefer to call Yeshua, because there never really was a choice for me, but it was things that resulted in my life, circumstances, that at the moment seemed a bit hard to deal with.

Waking up this morning, with lots of Holy Spirit assistance, I was remembering Lot’s wife and her mistake of looking back, resulting in her turning into salt.  What a great teaching this is, regarding following the Lord- the safety in it, and the foolishiness of questioning, or looking back at all!

I was feeling completely undone, abit like like the grandfather in Little Lord Fauntleroy when he realized what he had done to his son’s widowed wife. (If you haven’t seen this, it is one of our family favorites, such a loving story!)

All I can say is, Forgive me Father, for I have sinned, and thank you for keeping my sin ever before me! Truly, where would I be without His great amazing ever present GRACE!

It became even clearer, as I began to read in Proverbs 1:23-33 “Turn you at my reproof: Behold, I will pour out my spirit upon you; I will make known my words unto you.Because I have called, and ye have refused; I have stretched out my hand, and no man hath regarded; But ye have set at nought all my counsel, And would none of my reproof:I also will laugh in the day of your calamity; I will mock when your fear cometh;When your fear cometh as a storm, And your calamity cometh on as a whirlwind; When distress and anguish come upon you.Then will they call upon me, but I will not answer; They will seek me diligently, but they shall not find me:For that they hated knowledge, And did not choose the fear of Jehovah:They would none of my counsel; They despised all my reproof.Therefore shall they eat of the fruit of their own way, And be filled with their own devices.For the backsliding of the simple shall slay them, And the careless ease of fools shall destroy them. But whoso hearkeneth unto me shall dwell securely, And shall be quiet without fear of evil.”

Then, I found myself reading in Luke 17:32-33 “Remember Lot’s wife. Whosoever shall seek to gain his life shall lose it: but whosoever shall lose his life shall preserve it.”

By the time I began reading Luke 9:62 “But Jesus said unto him: No man, having put his hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.”  I had read this Scripture many times before. This time it spoke volumes to how dumb it is to be sorrowful, when you are following Christ.

Holy Spirit reminded me of Luke 9:59-60. “And he said unto another: Follow me. But he said, Lord, suffer me first to go and bury my father.But he said unto him, Leave the dead to bury their own dead; but go thou and publish abroad the kingdom of God.” It sounds like following Him should take preeminence over all, everything!

Following Christ may not always be easy, but it is always best. When you are tempted to be sorrowful for a second remember Lot’s wife and the result.  The joy of the Lord is our strength.

The Creator of Everything knows everything!  What He wants is the best and our only choice!  The surrounding circumstances will work for good because He promised. If I could only not hate myself right now for letting Him down with such nonsense!

Charleen

December 9, 2012

T’was The Night Before Christmas – Not

Filed under: Charleen's Kitchen of Life — Tags: , — admin @ 2:56 pm

T’was The Night Before Christmas

Twas The Night Before ChristmasT’was the night before Christmas and all through the house… Brings back all kinds of memories.

No one could have convinced me that I would ever decide to not celebrate Christmas!  There would be no one on earth who could have persuaded me, even with 1,000 bullet points.  Not my family, not my friends, not even my husband could have dared to keep me from celebrating what I saw as the most glorious of holidays, at least, not willingly!

After all this occasion was celebrating My Savior, My Life Giver, My Helper, My Friend, My Redeemer, and My Everything’s birth; and I loved every part of it!

The night before Christmas was to be no more for me, but it didn’t happen overnight. It was a process which I will try to handle with care.

There I was one starry evening, sleeping away, probably with visions of sugar plums dancing in my head. I had a very unusual dream.

In the dream, I saw Santa, like I had never seen Him before.  Santa was evil in my dream, and he was taking worship from My Lord.  It was a very vivid dream, and it woke me up, that’s how frightening it was!  I asked the Lord about it, and He began to lead me down a path I never thought I would go.  This path was leading me out of Christmas, and no more stockings would be hung.

I had no inkling of not celebrating Christmas, but I knew for a fact I needed to forget Santa. I threw everything I had about Santa into the garbage can.  For me to get rid of all the Santas was quite a task.

After all, I was the same person who had purchased a figurine of Santa bowing down to Jesus in the manger for my mom years before.  Now, Santa was like the plague to me. Santa was no longer a merry dude with a little round belly.

Funny how it works, I began hearing from all sorts of places how bad it was to lie to your children period – any kind of lie, even cute little surprise them lies. Lying to them about Santa who is so much like Jesus, and then telling them that  Jesus is real, but Santa is made up. This was really getting to me. The Lord was clearly opening up my shutters!  These thoughts had never occurred to me before.

I really thought that was the worst of it, Yeah! All of that behind me.  Now, I will celebrate Christ’s birth, but NO MORE SANTA!

A few years later, as I was preparing for Christmas, I believe I heard another strange thing from the voice of my God.  He asked me to not celebrate Christmas at all one year.

I agreed, of course. My thoughts were, Oh, I get it, guess He must want me to fast Christmas.  Well, if I could convince my children, we could make it through. They knew about fasting, and the benefits of obedience to the Lord, but this was going to be a tough one, or so I thought.

Actually, I think the kids handled it better than me, and I really believe my husband was completely delighted, I had always called him a bit of a Scrooge!  Was I the only one struggling with this?  Okay, the Lord wants me to fast Christmas this year, and then, it will be over, and I will get back to all the Christmas cheer!  Surely this holiday season would go by more rapid than eagles.

When what to my wondering eyes did appear, more reasons for not ever celebrating came to my ear.  First, it was shocking how many people the Lord brought upon my path to confirm His wishes through teachings, conversations, or personally.

It was like every Christmas tradition was being smashed to bits. The Lord was confirming to me over and over again His wishes for me and my family.

The whole origin of this celebration was becoming suspect, in spite of myself. One thing after the other began falling in my lap. Preachers whom I respected were confirming what I felt the Lord was telling me in my quiet times.

Everything I thought was so precious about this event, was dashing away, dashing away, dashing away all! It was amazing, how the Lord began to put the pieces of a puzzle in place when I was able to listen.

Am I saying that you should decide to not celebrate Christmas?  I don’t really know.

All I know is, as dry leaves before the wild hurricane fly, the Lord has led me down this path. I have decided to not celebrate Christmas, and there is no turning back, no turning back!

Charleen

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