Healing is Messy

July 20, 2023July 20, 2023 / The WheatandTares

Healing is never easy.

Healing is not for wimps.

Just as a broken bone takes time to mend, it takes time for a wounded heart to heal.

Really, more often than not, it takes longer for the heart to take the journey of reconciliation.

And sometimes, the healing, the mending, and the restoration of peace and sanity may come while reconciliation never does.

Forgiveness is for the heart to heal and for the soul to be freed.

Forgiveness may not bring the reconciliation that was once hoped for or demanded.

For some things can be so damaged, the body cannot be recovered.

For some things can be so destroyed, the explosion left nothing but the crater that had already been formed.

For some things can be lost forever.

Never demand harmony when you’ve caused the destruction.

Never demand compromise when you were the source of the wound.

These are hard words to receive and much harder ones to actually live out.

But we all live by grace, and by grace we go forward.

So, forgive again and again.

Repent as needed.

Heal over and over.

And leave the rest up to the Creator of your soul.

For He knows all, and He will bring healing that soothes the soul and brings redemption.

Heal me, O Lord, and I shall be healed; save me, and I shall be saved, for you are my praise.
Jeremiah 7:14

Behold, I will bring to it health and healing, and I will heal them and reveal to them abundance of prosperity and security.
Jeremiah 33:6

He who covers his sins will not prosper,
But whoever confesses and forsakes them will have mercy.
Proverbs 28:13

Flippin’ Tables

July 19, 2023July 18, 2023 / The WheatandTares / 2 Comments

What are you allowing in your life that Christ would urge you not?

What are you coveting that He would have already cast away?

Sometimes, our lives seem to be on hold, and we blame it on circumstances, being held back, and maybe even our own incapacity to overcome a certain handicap in our lives.

Yet, I have found too often, my limitations aren’t due to someone or something around me, but rather it’s from pursuit of something I should have never been chasing in the first place.

When we start chasing God stuff rather than me stuff, we will find success will come on a whole new level.

Ask Him what tables He would flip in your life, and let Him start cleaning house.

It’s a whole better place when He’s in charge and He comes to abide.

Then Jesus went into the temple of God and drove out all those who bought and sold in the temple, and overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who sold doves. And He said to them, “It is written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer,’ but you have made it a ‘den of thieves.’ ”
Matthew 21:12-13

Stay on Mission

July 18, 2023July 17, 2023 / The WheatandTares

Keep going.

Keep striving.

Keep achieving.

Their words don’t matter.

They didn’t call you.

He did.

Stay on mission.

We’re not home yet.

And we have a battle to win.

Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me. Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do,forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
Philippians 3:12-14

Choose Well

July 17, 2023July 17, 2023 / The WheatandTares

It’s so true that there are many things of which we have no control of our choices.

Decade in which we are born.

Parents. Birth location. Upbringing.

Physical attributes. Talents. IQ.

These things are given to us, and we have no say.

Yet, we do have a say in how we respond, in how we handle, and in how we carry on once we have them.

And this choosing results in our character.

Which is also a choice.

And it also will become our voice.

How we respond to the things we cannot control will determine our promotions, our successes, and our influences.

We are never a victim.

Being a victim is a choice. And that choice brings about our character.

When we choose to hate these things out of our control, or maybe just fight against them in a rage that wounds all those around us, it shows our character as rude, spiteful and selfish.

When we choose to embrace these things out of our control as chains, and we are just a martyr for the cause, or maybe we just can’t do any better because of all that has befallen us, it shows our character as weak, whiny and self centered.

Yet, when we choose to accept these things out of our control, fight against the things that would try to inhibit us, and become overcomers inspite of the pain, the turmoil and the difficulties, it shows our character as bold, courageous and focused.

And when we take this tenacious attitude a step further and begin to show others how to overcome their own obstacles, it shows our character as loving, giving, and outward seeking.

We can be a hero or a zero.

The choice is ours.

What will you choose today?

Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.
Romans 8:37

What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?
Romans 8:31

And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.
Romans 8:28

Concerning this thing I pleaded with the Lord three times that it might depart from me. And He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.”Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ’s sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
2 Corinthians 12:8-10

Perspective Changes with One Shift

July 10, 2023July 15, 2023 / The WheatandTares / 1 Comment

HOPE To NOPE

(Deleted GIF because it was corrupted and changing other blogs.)

I saw this little gif today, and it made me think how easily our perspective can change.

NOPE can change to HOPE

With one little shift in a letter.

Something broken can be healed with one little dot of super glue.

A rainy day can become sunny with one little wind surge.

The altered state can seem simple, small, and even insignificant,

But to the NOPE, it becomes HOPE.

To the broken, it becomes mended.

To the drenched, it becomes dry.

To the hopeless, it becomes a tomorrow.

Let your walk be realigned.

Let your vision be refocused.

Let your speech be rearranged.

Let your mind be rallied.

Let your heart be restored.

Love can overwhelm you.

Hope can consume you.

And you’ll never be the same.

And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.
Romans 12:2

Define Freedom

July 6, 2023July 15, 2023 / The WheatandTares

What is freedom?

Is freedom being able to “do what I want when I want and however I want?”

Is freedom having an absence of confinement and restrictions?

Is freedom being able to speak, work, and live without rules and boundaries?

Truly, in this day and age, freedom seems to be negotiable to the person or parties making those decisions.

However, because we are children of God, our truth doesn’t change with culture nor with man.

Our truth comes from the Word of God; so, when seeking the definition of freedom, we must seek what God tells us is true.

Jesus said, in John 8:36, “Therefore if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed.”

Then, Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 3:17, “Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.”

And in Galatians 5:1, “It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.”

Christ has given us a clear picture of what freedom is and what He has meant it to be in our lives: true freedom can only be found in the redemption fo Jesus Christ!

So, if you are a child of the King today, YOU ARE FREE!

If you are saved by the Blood of the Lamb, and your name is written in the Lamb’s Book of Life, YOU ARE FREE!!

Let us rejoice in His freedom!

Let us praise Him for the great things He has done!

Let us raise our hands and lift our voices with a grateful heart for the freedom He has brought us both within our spiritual lives and within this country that we live because we are free to worship Him today!

I have the right to do anything,” you say—but not everything is beneficial. “I have the right to do anything”—but I will not be mastered by anything.
1 Corinthians 6:12

Freedom to Be

July 5, 2023July 15, 2023 / The WheatandTares

We have the freedom to live free or chained.

We have the freedom to live free or caged.

We have the freedom to live free or bound.

It is our choice.

We are slaves to whom we lend ourselves.

If we choose anger, confusion, fear or agony, that is our prison.

If we choose joy, love, hope and grace, that is our sentence.

It is a choice, and it becomes our confinement.

Choose well.

For your choices will overwhelm and set shackles on you.

One is for life and one is for death.

And you get to pick and choose.

What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? Certainly not! Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves slaves to obey, you are that one’s slaves whom you obey, whether of sin leading to death, or of obedience leading to righteousness? But God be thanked that though you were slaves of sin, yet you obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine to which you were delivered. And having been set free from sin, you became slaves of righteousness.
Romans 6:15-18

For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Romans 6:23

For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.
John 3:16

What is Freedom?

July 4, 2023July 15, 2023 / The WheatandTares

FREEDOM!

What do you think of when you hear the words freedom, liberty, and independence?

What images come to mind when you hear, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness?”

For our modern culture, these words do not seem to invoke the same images and thoughts that appeared to be more commonplace among Americans in years prior. As a matter of fact, the other day I googled the words “liberty and justice,” and one of the first entries said, “pledging this means accepting the reality that today there is injustice and fairness in the society,” followed by numerous political views stated pertaining to diversity and inclusion.

These ideals have their place, and I’m not going to get tangled in a political war of words and opinions; however, it’s important to remember that our Constitution’s message and the words of freedom contained within it were not created solely in response to the issues our society faces today. We, as a people, had constructed these words and this declaration so many decades past in order to set the foundation for which our nation stands for freedom. We decided to make these words the very cornerstones for how we should live and respond as a nation.

It’s not a reaction. It is a declaration, a belief system, upon which to build a great nation that will sustain the test of time.

And it is a fragile one. It is one that, if not protected, fought for and defended, can be stolen within a blink of an eye. It is to be cherished, valued and upheld, or it will be taken away by those who work harder to defend their own tyrannical desires.

I love the quote by Ronald Reagan in reference to this concern:

Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn’t pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same, or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children and our children’s children what it was once like in the United States where men were free.
President Ronald Reagan, 40th President of USA

As we celebrate this Independence Day in the great country of America, let us ask ourselves what we are doing to protect our freedoms in this country. Let us ask ourselves if we are fighting to value and cherish those freedoms, or are we conforming to the loudest voices amount us who may hate, demean and devalue this great nation.

Let us forever remember that she may have her issues, her difficulties and her need for improvement, but anyone who hates her, I ask you to go to a third world nation and compare. I ask you to travel to the war torn countries around the world and see if you’d prefer their fate.

I ask you to visit the nations who love her and wish they could be like her. Ask them how you should cherish her…

Happy Independence Day!

And seek the peace of the city where I have caused you to be carried away captive, and pray to the Lord for it; for in its peace you will have peace.
Jeremiah 29:7

Faith Over Fear Brings Freedom

July 3, 2023July 15, 2023 / The WheatandTares

Sometimes, you just have to saddle up and ride the horse scared.

Sometimes, you’ve just got to take a deep breath and dive in deep.

Sometimes, you’ve got to put one foot in front of the other and keep climbing.

If you don’t, you may never see the landscape from the mountain too.

If you don’t, you may never experience the exhilaration of exploring the utopia of the abyss.

If you don’t, you may never realize that he courage you had hidden deep within.

So, take the plunge.

Take the ride or die.

Chase the dream and see what is to come.

You never know the freedom of success until you do.

And David said to his son Solomon, “Be strong and of good courage, and do it; do not fear nor be dismayed, for the Lord God—my God—will be with you. He will not leave you nor forsake you, until you have finished all the work for the service of the house of the Lord.
1 Chronicles 28:20

Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.
1 Corinthians 15:58