Skip to main content

A Morning View By the Wood Stove

1.What do you see when you look at someone? 
2. What do you experience when you encounter someone? 
3. What do you really know? 

1.We see the surface. We see the painted picture of the moment. We see what the person wants you to see.
2. We experience whatever the person desire for us to encounter. We might hear words and see actions which do not match the painted picture in question 1. We often can experience something not quite right with the persons soul, but we experience mostly what someone is willing to allow us to experience. Something I confidently can say which someone cannot hide is that when they are a believer in Jesus Christ, even in their worst, we will experience Jesus in he presence of the Holy Spirit.
3. Really, we absolutely know nothing about them unless they are willing to share. 

I see a lot of people putting puzzles together during the pandemic. It can be a productive way to spend time with one another and not just sit around. There is a completed picture when it is finished. I have never really enjoyed puzzles. What I have always enjoyed was standing and helping for awhile, becoming "frustrated." Then walking away allowing people to see the outside fake joy of "helping." When I do walk away, I would take one piece of the puzzle and put it away until the puzzle was completed and there were "no more pieces." I would then come and be the person to "complete" the puzzle. 

With one another, we can put the puzzle pieces together which we are allowed to see, but we cannot complete the puzzle without all the pieces. The opportunity we have is to only work with what we've got. Making snap judgements both good and bad are not fair and are not right. We only know what we know. We do not know the whole story of the past present and future of any person we encounter. We may get clues but not facts in our conversations. We just can only really know someone to the depth they allow us to know them. 

People spend their whole lives living lies to hide their pain and struggle. They find temporary fixes through worldly addictions as well as through spiritual addictions. This happens, perhaps not intentionally, but most often avoiding pain and happens quite often running because of self worth. The surface looks perfect, but the depths are in turmoil. You would never know based on 1-3 above. 

Well, PB they are a good person. Yup. They go to church. Yup. They are a leader in the church and are even pastors. Yup. The better observation is are they authentically surrendered to Jesus Christ? Is their soul complete with God? Is there an insatiable desire and passion to completely give their life to save their soul and serve God before serving self, desires and the flesh things of this world? 

I have said before that salvation is so important, and it is. But salvation is only the starting point of our life journey with Jesus Christ. First reconciling in total surrender to God is necessary. Our soul must be complete. Second following the call of God no matter the journey is imperative. Last we must help others complete their puzzles with how ever many pieces are missing. 

But the Lord said to Samuel, “Don’t judge by his appearance or height, for I have rejected him. The Lord doesn’t see things the way you see them. People judge by outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.” - 1 Samuel 16:7 NLT


How is your soul? Are their pieces missing? I am working on mine.

Peace,
PB

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A Morning View By the Wood Stove

If you proclaim Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, then I must ask you a question. Are you seeking the deepest possible intimate relationship with God that you can ever experience on this earth? Because I know what I am about to say to be absolutely true. If you are not and if you are pursuing anything other than God you will not ever be satisfied and ultimately any other relationship will fail. It does not matter how deeply connected with another person you are without God it will fail. Failure may not mean completely walk away, failure can mean that a relationship will not be what it is intended to be and you settle for it because at least it is there, it's the best I can do, it could be worse and for many other reasons.  We are created to be in relationship with one another. We have many relationships and many depths within those relationships. We have social relationships. We have relationship with many forms of addiction and substitution. We have friends and we have FRIENDS...
Post a Comment
Read more

A Morning View From the Balcony at OBX

So far the weather has not been at its best for us. It is a very cloudy morning. It is rainy with a good chance of clearing up later in the day. But as I sit here this morning I noticed that it does not matter if it is sunny and clear, partly cloudy or even ugly storm cloudy, the sun comes up. We just need to decide how to navigate the day!  Our lives are the same. We need to decide how to navigate each and every day we face. It does not matter what we face, if it is sunny and clear, partly cloudy or even ugly storm cloudy, we still have another day to live and the Son is with us.  I know to some of you this sounds like a no brainer message. Well of course PB, this is the day the Lord has made! Everyday is a great day. To others this is such a difficult message to swallow. It becomes a difficult task to simply tie your shoes. We are all different in our view and response and it is alright to be different.  But please recognize that the sun does come up no matter what. Als...
Post a Comment
Read more

A Morning View By the Wood Stove

I really struggle with what I see and experience in our world today. I say this and am really not sure it is the world as much as it is our country.  I guess it is not so much our country, but with those who proclaim and profess Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior. I realize in my setting I am making blanket statements, so this is not intended as an attack on anyone, but as a thought provoking moment for everyone.  My heart has been impressed with proclaiming what it means to be a Christian. I grew up with a checklist and if I did not check the proper blanks, I was not a good Christian. I have found out that living that way is full of a bunch of lies and a dangerous understanding of perceived salvation. I believed that there was no way God could ever forgive me for what I have done and who I have been. Again a dangerous lie. I see and read comments people make about issues, government, religion and their faith in Jesus Christ and I cross reference what is said with how Jesus l...
Post a Comment
Read more