The Ultimate Fireman

Good evening friends. On our church property there is a old house (nearly 100 years old) we have used for many different purposes but the foundation was getting is disrepair and was deemed unsafe after too much longer. After consulting with our fire department, we donated it to them for training purposes. When I came out of church on Wednesday, there was smoke billowing out from the upstairs windows. The smoke was from a machine but it gave them a real life scenario in dealing with the real thing. It reminded me of our Ultimate Fireman…

Our Ultimate Fireman may not be dressed in a fireproof suit like this but he tenderly holds each one of us like this and saves us from the burning fire of hell.

But while we need to understand this, we don’t need to dwell on this because of His gracious gift.

This morning Oswald Chambers’ devotion reminded me of the power of our salvation. How that we need to always be looking to Him, during good times or bad.

The basic lesson of the Sermon on the Mount is to narrow all your interests until your mind, heart, and body are focused on Jesus Christ. “Look to Me, and be saved….” Oswald Chambers

When I was a new Christian, I remember some advice I got from a more seasoned Christian that said “Life is a series of hills and valleys. While we love being on the hill top, the valleys are inevitable and it is the bottom of the valley that makes us appreciate the hilltop even more. So let us never forget the journey we made to get to that hill top and always keep our “eyes on the prize” – Jesus.

Looks like we are going to get some more of that white stuff this weekend. But I guess I cant complain, it is January in Iowa. As we get through these colder months, waiting so patiently for spring, let us remember the beauty of Kindness, even in the snow.

Frustrations into Lessons

Today I want to talk about dogs, shocker, I know. But more specifically rescue dogs. This morning as I was on a mad and frustrating search for Mimi’s collar due to their wrestling antics last night, the Lord turned on a light bulb in my head about rescues and I wanted to share that with you this this afternoon.

If we allow it, God always turns our frustrating moments into a lesson.

These is Mimi and Daisy Mae, both are rescues. Mimi is the one farther back and Daisy has the white markings.

Rescue dogs have a very different view on life and the relationship with their owner depending on where they came from. I see this as similar to how we look at God. At one point though, if we are a believer in God, we were all rescued by His love, maybe not from a bad situation but from a situation that could cause us harm. And He stepped in to rescue us.

Jesus reaches down to us as God holds on to Him

My dogs are loud protectors, letting me know the instant when someone is on the sidewalk, a cat walks through the yard or the squirrel is again getting in the feeder while the bird watches disgustingly on.

My dogs are ever watchful over me. And God is ever watchful over all of us. As we wake up every single day, we are rescued from the trials of yesterday, fortified to stand before the trials of today because He rescues us and stands with us every moment of every day.

Currently things are going crazy around us and unfortunately some us are going to get trapped in it needing rescuing. And while the rescuing to us may look like an non-rescue or the loss of a loved one, to Him it is a full rescue as he brings them home. So we stand firm and pray hard for all of THE church family across the world and for those needing to come into the fold of His love. One day we will come out of this but let us never lose the lessons of His love that has been spread out over the entire world as he tries to rescue us and pull us into his lap of love and peace.

May you all have a very blessed and peaceful day as we sit in His lap of caring and rescue. I remind us now especially in this time of severe trial, we need to always be be kind.

Character in a Face

We have all heard the saying of “judging a book by its cover”, and how sometimes a person with strong looking character doesn’t live up to that character as seemingly thought because of how others perceive those looks, which in itself is a stupid way to judge anything. Yet we still do it.

judging

But does the same judging premise work for other things like animals. Well, if we are talking about wild animals, even the smaller ones need to be given plenty of room as they understand the thought process behind survival of the fittest so regardless of their character looking cute and cuddly…they are still a wild animal and you are a lunchbox.

But domesticated animals are different, depending on their caretaker of course, and I won’t get on that soapbox for now. For now we are referring to visual character and do they really have it. I think we humans are the one’s who place that character on anything we see and judge it accordingly. We are a creation that tends to judge and give opinions on people and animals. When you go to the shelters, which I tend to stay away from as I will bring them all home, people will judge the validity of a family pet on how it looks, especially a puppy, without any consideration of it one day being a full grown dog. Then they don’t like how the animal behaves due to their own poor training practices or the fact that “That’s a cool breed, lets get one of those” doesn’t really work for you now that it weighs 85 lbs.

The reason I bring this up is because of “the church rescue”. Yesterday, a neighbor of the church brought over a small dog he thought originally had been hit right in front of the church and just left to die. All of us at the church are animal people so once we checked him out and realized he was not hurt, probably just an older fellow we got in touch with all rescue type people to see if anyone had lost their pet and such. It just so happened that the monthly Vista luncheon was going on at the same time. Vista is a program we have for people 50+ that has a monthly program combined with lunch. A good time for combining information of interest and fellowship. One of the ladies well into her 80s, came to the office to ask a question and fell in love with this dog. She had lost her long time family pet about a year prior, and due to her age, really did not want to start out with a puppy. Now this dog probably weight about 6 pounds soaking wet, was dirty with long matted, flea bitten and could not walk properly due to an issue with his hip, not at all a good visual judge of character. You could tell he had been someones pet at one time as he understood commands and kindness. So now this bedraggled creature went to a new home. She took him today to the vet and had him checked out, got him bathed, haircut and yes…a bow in his hair, its what some little ole ladies do. Then she brought him by the church for us to see the transformation. He has a caring new home and she has someone to take care of and talk to, a win-win in my book. We need to remember that older folks still need to be needed and loved. This was a good lesson for some of the younger folks.

When we look more at the heart than at the visual, we begin to see the real character. That is what Jesus does. We are all of utmost value to him regardless of how we look. He knows our hearts and he wants everyone in his hands where he can take care of us.

But there is a little more to this post on “character in a face”. There are some dogs that just ooze character, again, to some people. I am working on a birthday present for my daughter and have compiled some precious photos that I believe have character as his heart is very close to the preciousness of these pictures. So enjoy them or if not a dog lover feel free to move on to the next post.

Life of Maximus, the basset hound. I have posted several of his adult pictures in the past as he makes me laugh.

Baby pictures are always too cute, regardless of type of creature. Just go to the zoo and see all the babies in the spring.

Max’s personality coming through. He is a very sad creature as most bassets are.

Maximus, sitting as on a throne of power after the royal he was so named.

But in reality, he just loves his mommy and is so sad when she isn’t home so we stare at the door until she arrives.

Max missing mommy

I hope I made you smile today and encouraged you for a few minutes to forget possible life situations you may be going through. Remember God is never far from us and all we have to do is lift an hand to him for his help.

Kindhelp