Lesson Of The Creaking Chair

Making time for devotions is probably one of the biggest struggles a Christian faces. What is the best time in the day to study God’s Word and pray? I suppose this varies for every Christian. With seven kids, one of which being two and one being 10 months old the mornings are filled with little feet getting me out of bed wanting breakfast as soon as their feet hit the floor. Sometimes this “great awakening” comes between 6:45 and 7:00 am so mornings have always been a challenge for me. Mid-afternoon is no good consistently for me either. Something always is needing attention around this time. If it gets real quiet in the house (This seldom happens) after lunch you may find me napping. Finally, I generally get to the end of my day and in utter exhaustion fall into bed between
10:30 and 11:30 pm.

For a very long time I have tried to fit time in for devotions whenever I felt I had a free moment. This method has failed me miserably. The Lord really began to deal with me concerning the excuses I would give to explain my ultimate lack of time spent with Him. One day I decided, if I had a public job ( I am a WORK at home Mom) I would most likely have to get up at
6:00 am every morning whether I felt like it or not. Why could I not show as much devotion to the Saviour of my soul?

I began my plan of action, one morning, by rolling over in bed at 6:00 and picking up my Bible. I began to read while my husband snored. The temptation to fall back to sleep was too great. My sleep filled eyes would get heavier and heavier until finally I was startled awake by the sound of my closing Bible when the hand holding it would fall over because it was attached to a sleeping body. I realized if I was going to be successful at consistency I would have to leave the bed behind to have my time with God.

The next morning the house was in a hushed silence ( which happens rarely in a house containing so many bodies) I creeped to the living room to avoid waking sleeping lions. When I sat down in my recliner it made a creaking noise as if to protest being used so early. The sound it made brought back unexpected memories from my childhood. How many times had I heard that sound wake me in the mornings? My parents took their place in their chairs early in the morning to have their time with God throughout my memories of childhood. My parents, however, were not the only ones who came to my mind this morning. I remembered spending the night at my Grandparent’s house and sleeping on the couch only to be awakened early in the morning as my Grandfather, Riley Hensley, took his place in his oversized chair. I remembered opening up sleepy eyes to see him reaching for his Bible, placed on a table, by that chair side. I closed my young eyes and contentedly went back to sleep in the soft glow of his lamp light and the gentle sound of turning pages. All these memories came flooding back to me the moment I heard the creaking chair of mine. I was no longer alone in my living room. I was surrounded by a great crowd of witnesses. They had set the example and unknowingly had witnessed to me of the importance of this sacred hour I now spent with God. I wept as I wondered if my children were listening. I wondered if I would be that witness to them. Would I continue the legacy of the creaking chair?

Each morning now when I wake up and I think about just rolling over and falling back to sleep I remember the sound of the creak in the chair and I think to myself, “What if that chair doesn’t creak today?” Any morning could be the morning my children would hear and learn the importance of such a time spent with God. A memory could be created that would get them out of bed in the later years of their life to nurture the treasure of a relationship with the Most High God. My faithfulness now could result in a lesson taught that would one day lead them to discover the love they can experience while spending time alone with God.

Maybe you have a chair like mine that should creak tomorrow morning. God Bless.

Positive Outlook

Positive thinking is something we hear quite a bit about nowadays. The theory is that I can change my circumstances just by thinking positively. How true is this?
The Bible doesn't say positive thinking changes things what it teaches is prayer changes things. The Bible says in:

James 5:16 - Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.

The Bible also says in:

Matthew 17:20 - And Jesus said unto them, Because of your unbelief: for verily I say unto you, If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you.

Wow that is incredible....all this comes through prayer. Prayer if done sincerely and consistently creates and feeds faith and faith creates a positive outlook. If I am praying in faith about a circumstance in my life I will not be talking negatively about it. I will be conducting myself in a way as to be expectant of the answer to my prayer. I will be changing my surroundings by changing my attitude towards them.
Negative thinking comes from a lack of praying and an abundance of complaining. This approach to life will keep you in a cycle of depression and apart from the heart of God. If you are caught here the first step is to repent. The second step is to count your blessings. You have much to be thankful for; food, clothing, a roof over your head, air to breath, family that loves you, a Heavenly Father who died for you .... etc. If you are homeless and sleeping in your car then thank God for your car. If your family hates you then thank God that He loves you and is willing to forgive you no matter what you have done. The importance of this exercise is that you think and meditate on how much you take for granted. There is something somewhere you can thank God for no matter how low you are now. The third step is to start a consistent devotional time with God. This time should include Bible reading and fervent prayer to God. Quit asking God to give you what YOU want and start asking God to make you what He wants. If you do these three things it will impact how you feel, how you think, and how you are perceived, and most importantly how you stand before God.

Please note that this blog spot address has changed from inclined2analyze to devotionsandopinions.blogspot.com

The Dawn

God came to me in shades of night
Dark so thick I could not see
And there within the blackness
Spoke light and love to me.

In my fears I trembled
So weak I couldn't stand
But then I felt Him reaching
Found Hope within my hand

I discovered there a strength
I hadn't known before
The things I thought were lost to me
He spoke and did restore

I've faith enough to follow
Where He leads me now
And though I do not know just where
It matters not somehow.

Grey streaks of light now fill my sky
And so I follow on.
His love my light and dawning
Soon the darkness will be gone.

Written by: Laura L. Grapes
Copyright 2008

I Corinthians 13:12 For now we see through a glass darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.

Legacy of Anger

Proverbs 22:24 -25 Make no friendship with an angry man; and with a furious man thou shalt not go: Lest thou learn his ways, and get a snare to thy soul.

Are you easily angered?

Many times I have heard the laughing comments of people referring to someone's fiery temper as if it were something to be admired. Being a red head I have heard the endless comments regarding the supposed terrible tempers of all red heads. Comments made with a silly grin as if they would like to see a demonstration of the supposed temper in the next few minutes. The truth however is, according to the Bible, an inability to control one's anger is not something to be admired. The truth is it is a snare to our souls and the souls of whomever finds themselves in our company. Sadly the ones we are laying this dangereous snare for are the ones we love and care about the most; they are our own children and close family members.
The Bible says we are not become friends or go anywhere with a furious and angry man. Our children and spouses have no choice however but to be subjected to our fits of temper and thus they learn our ways and this cycle of ensnarement lasts generations.
Anger and the inability to control the emotions can grow into so many full blown manifestations with consequences that are far reaching. Many things can be traced back to uncontrolled emotions....anger, quarreling, bitterness, hate, murder...do we really want to lead our loved ones into this treacheous territory? My mother has always quoted what she heard somewhere,"What parents do in moderation, children do in excess." Do we really want our children fine tuning the abilities to fly off the handle...or storm out of a room...or throwing objects...or yelling...or screaming...or pouting and sulking?
If these are your vices your pet sins...REPENT. Ask those around you who have seen the anger rule you to forgive you and share with them this verse in Proverbs.
Anger and uncontrolled emotions do not just cost you. Our children are watching and learning from us. Let us not leave to them this legacy of anger. Let us put it off like an old garment and ask God to cloth us in His meekness, quietness, and righteousness.

Sacrifice of Others

Have you ever pondered how the sacrifice of others has made or makes your life possible?

For instance when we were kids we never dwelt on how much Mom or Dad sacrificed to put food on the table every meal. We just sat down and dug in. Just think about the hours working earning the money to buy the food, the labor in meal planning, cooking, and the cleaning up afterwards. Now that some of us are grown up with families of our own we are just beginning to truly see and appreciate the countless sacrifices our existence has required.

Almost everything we enjoy in life has come through the hard work of others. The items we purchase in the store, the cars we drive, the businesses we work at, our education, the beds we sleep in, the homes we live in, the wood we used to construct our homes, and even the air we breathe and for those who are blessed by it....the salvation of our very souls... can be attributed to the hard work, ingenuity, careful thought, and grudging or loving sacrifice of either mortal man or God Himself. None of us are self sufficient...with any meditation on our dependency we can see how any such thought is mere ignorant pride. Even if we lived in the days when men grew their own food and felled their own trees to build their houses we would still need God to supply the rain and fertile soil in which to grow our food. No two ways around it we certainly need God for survival here on earth and in the afterlife....and I have already made the case for needing others here on earth in this post-modern world we now live in.

Take a moment to humbly reflect on the sacrifices others make to bless your family. Think about God's Supreme Sacrifice given for your soul's salvation. Then think about what you are sacrificing for the well being of others. Do you give it cheerfully or grudgingly? Then search your soul deeply; are you sacrificing anything for God? If so do you sacrifice it cheerfully and humbly or grudgingly and hatefully?

Remember God says He loves a cheerful giver! Are you busy giving cheerfully? Think and pray about it.

Vote!! Vote!! Vote!!

The last day before the election and the politicians are out in numbers in Missouri. Sarah Palin, John McCain, Barack Hussein Obama, and even Hilary Rodham Clinton will make an appearance here today. Each one of them are trying to persuade you to vote for them tomorrow. Each one of them with distinctive views on where this country should be headed.

So much is at stake in this election....if you value your freedom and want America to keep the same great liberties we have experienced for 232 years your choice on which canidate to vote for could enable those freedoms to survive or could begin the dismantling of what we have always known America to be. Barack Hussein Obama in a recent comment said he wanted to create a civilian task force....Sounds a little bit like the KGB to me. He has also said our founding fathers squelched our liberties and didn't go far enough....they didn't spread the wealth. Hello!!! that was because they weren't creating a communist country.

Will this man even spend one day in the White House holding up the Constitution? So far his statements all point to the fact that he thinks he could have done better than our founding fathers. He isn't happy with our nation...the way it has been for 232 years....he wants to change it. Is that what you want? Do you honestly think we would be better off if we were more like the nations in the European Union? Does the United Nations have the answers on a better form of government with members like China and Russia? They make a lot of proclaimations but they turn out to be clouds with no water all they know is how to oppress a people successfully.

Government is not God and cannot solve our nation's ills. Vote to protect the freedom that allows us to turn to the ONE TRUE GOD who can heal our land.

I am voting for John McCain and then I'm praying for him because he doesn't have all the answers either....because he is a mere mortal man....he will just hopefully allow us to continue to live in the freedom to pursue life and liberty....without telling us how much we can make, buy, or own...and without a new version of the KGB.

Wise Words from Wise Men

With the election just days away, I think it would be helpful if we reflected on our founding fathers and what direction they intended this country to follow. Constantly, we are bombarded with what our founding fathers "really meant" by what they said long, long ago. Our polititians will make speeches concerning these intentions and never truly quote what they really did say.
Let us not presume what these wise men intended without first hearing what they actually said.

William Penn a founder of Pennsylvania said," Men must be governed by God or they will be ruled by tyrants."

Horace Greeley founder of the New York Tribune in the pre civil war times said, " It is impossible to enslave, mentally or socially, a Bible-reading people. The principles of the Bible are the groundwork of human freedom.

Patrick Henry most know for his statement "Give me liberty or give me death" said, " Bad men cannot make good citizens. It is impossible that a nation of infidels or idolaters should be a nation of free men. It is when a people forget God that tyrants forge their chains.

It is clear, from these men, they did not have any intention of God being kicked out of government...because they intended it be run by men ruled by God.

Men and women in this generation look to the government to be their god. Polititians make speeches that spew forth socialist ideas and people in this once greater republic cheer. We seem to want free health care, welfare, food stamps, tax breaks, and our houses guarenteed to us even if we don't have the money to pay the bank who lended us the money for our house in the first place.....YES!!! government should take care of that ....after all it is their fault we lost our job anyway. Right?
Some polititians declare we need to spread the wealth around.... which by the way was a slogan pitched by communist leaders seeking power to people ripe with higher class hatred.

Communist Karl Marx said, " The first thing necessary to control the people, is to separate them from their heritage."

We are constantly being told...didn't Barack Obama say it at the democratic convention?...that the Bible has no place in government ...attack #1.

Our founding fathers sought to end class wars. The democrats seek to start them. Attack #2 Statements they make are riddled with the attempted persuasion of making us hate the rich. When pinned down and asked, "Who are the rich" they pull some figure out of thin air of what a "rich man" currently makes....only problem is is that figure keeps changing...generally going down. Before you know it they will end up talking about you and you never even knew you were rich. By the way, most of them make more than they are talking about the rich making and they want you to vote for them and help them make more by tapping into the vast supply of your tax dollars which they love to increase regularly in order to pay for all the promises made to you in order to get elected.

Abraham Lincoln said,...

*you cannot help the poor by destroying the rich.

*You cannont strengthen the weak by weakening the strong.

*You cannot bring about prosperity by discouraging thrift.

*You cannot lift the wage earner up by pulling the wage payer down.

*You cannot further the brotherhood of man by inciting class hatred.

*you cannot build character and courage by taking away men’s initiative and independance

*You cannot help men permanently by doing for them what they could, and should, do for themselves.

Sounds like Abraham Lincoln could have been running against a man like Barack Hussein Obama.
What simple common sense .... what profound wisdom....too bad there aren't more Abraham Lincoln's living today to recognize the foolishness behind the democrate's tactics, plans, and stratigies.

A statement most attributed to Lord Woodhouselee is as follows:

Alexander Fraser Tytler Lord Woodhouselee
An Observation on Democracy
The most interesting observation is how closely the US has followed this scenario.

"A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves money from the Public Treasury. From that moment on the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits from the Public Treasury with a result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy always to be followed by dictatorship. The average age of the world's greatest civilizations has been 200 years. These nations have progressed through the following sequence:

* From Bondage to Spiritual Faith
* From Spiritual Faith to Great Courage
* From Courage to Liberty
* From Liberty to Abundance
* From Abundance to Selfishness
* From Selfishness to Complacency
* From Complacency to Apathy
* From Apathy to Dependency
* From Dependency back into Bondage"

--- most commonly attributed to
"The Decline and Fall of the Athenian Republic"
by Alexander Fraser Tytler Lord Woodhouselee (1748-1813)
(Scottish judge and historian at Edinburgh University)

On election day, I pray you will keep in mind what these wise men have said. The Democrats entire agenda goes recklessly headlong down paths these wise men warned us about. We as a nation cannot thumb our noses at God and go against the council of wise men who could foresee so clearly the danger which is to follow for a nation who forgets God.

If you are a Christian fast and pray for this election!!!