Bible

SHHHHH………..

/ Kelly Savage / Leave a comment

Ok….I have an experiment for everyone.  I did it and it became real.  It isn’t the first time I did it and certainly won’t be the last because of the mere fact that every time I do it, it brings on insight and growth.

So, before we proceed, if you don’t want insight and growth and I do know people who have said “no thanks”, you might not want to do this.

Remember, if we are staying in the attitude of love, then every person has the ability to choose and we would love them through that choice.  It doesn’t mean that we condone or even agree with what people do and vice versa, may not agree with what I do, but love would still be present allowing for people to grow more as they desire.

First, before we get to the experiment, that last paragraph paralleled something in the Bible – judgement.

What I try to bring to my writing and I truly hope it comes across is that I, myself, am a believer in God, Jesus, the Cross, redemption and the fact that I believe in the Bible’s teachings.  I also will not argue, debate or “thoroughly discuss” as some have put it unless we want to get into a deep conversation about God’s love.

What I also try to bring to the table in my writings is I am not here to judge, nor do I want the job as it is way too burdensome and heavy for me to carry.  I try to give out scriptures for people to read, pray on, and ponder for themselves and if they want more understanding, my hope is that they ask God through prayer to shed light on the scriptures.

My relationship is with God, through Jesus, and I am not here to preach it, pound it, throw it or Bible beat anyone.  I am here to try, my very best, to live the Bible and its’ teachings, which by the way, is not always easy.

Now……….experiment time!!!!!  Who’s in?

Take 30 minutes or even 20 minutes if you can’t take 30 🙂 –

Sit in a room…..no TV, no cell phone, no one else, no radio, no music, no noise.  I know……. it just became real already in the world we live in!

Take a note pad and pen in your silent room.

Ready? Go!

What is on your mind?  The first 5 minutes or possibly 10, will be all the things racing through your head…..what you need to get done, what you forgot, how silly this experiment is……..all kinds of things will race through your mind………….yet, sit, wait and write down what ALSO is on your mind.  What is your heart trying to tell you.  What IS bothering you?  What images come?  Maybe it’s a word, phrase, paragraph or images.

To make this even more intense, take the leap of faith in prayer and ask to be shown something that needs to be addressed in your life, your heart, to come to a place of working through things.  Everyone has “things”.  Everyone has something that they could improve or need healing of some sort.  Sometimes, just sometimes, you get something much more out of it than you even expected.

This has been a very successful experiment with me countless times.  My mere desire was to share with you and hope you get just a little out of it, well, a lot of out it 🙂

Again, I will say it as a disclosure, if you don’t want to look deeper in your life where sometimes we all have to grow or heal, this experiment might not be for you.

I hope it is and you are touched deeply today.

Experiment on!

Kelly Savage

 

 

 

 

Christianity 101

/ Kelly Savage / Leave a comment

Love. 

Not enough information?  Ok – Let me try this…….

John 13:34 – “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another”

Galatians 5:14 – The entire Law is fulfilled in a single decree: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”

Galatians 6:2 – “Carry one another’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the Law of Christ.”

Does that clarify some things?  It does for me.

I could keep on giving scriptures but if we soak on those for awhile, it would change us with just those.

I am a simple person and I don’t like to complicate things or confusion.  I am also the kind of person that likes truth.  Does truth feel good all the time?  No.  However, when truth, spoken in love, can help me, as a  person, to see things and consequently, with the same love, be there for that person.

Does truth challenge me at times?  Yes.  However, when truth challenges me, it means I have am getting there – I am growing – I am seeing things inside myself that can be tweaked to maturity and I haven’t reached the end.

Here’s the big question…………

Have I perfected the love road at all times?  No.  God’s love will continue with me to the very day that I leave earth and to go be with the Perfect One.  In the meantime, I have His love, unconditional love, and our call is to freely give out that love to others.  The thing we need to see is loving people, with unconditional love, is powerful and life-changing.

That’s Christianity 101.

This is not what I say.  The theme of love, us receiving it and living and giving love out, is all over the Bible.  You know the old saying – don’t shoot the messenger.

I am also one that will never argue or debate the Bible.  The theme of love has been shown to me time and time again, trusted and true and never failed…………mostly when I have asked to see how love is flowing in my life.  We ask and we receive.  Maybe not exactly how we want it, feel we should have it or when we should, but if we seek, we will find.

Here is the thing………….Each of our walks need to be walked individually…….I am where I am in my view of life, some are at other places.  The common denominator should be love and acceptance of where others are at in their life as they grow.  God is always there. No doubt for me.  As I walk with Him, talk with Him, spend time with Him, and seek answers out, it is constantly shown.

And that, my friends, is peace in the heart.

I do pray that all have a wonderful 4th of July, remember those who fight/have fought for our freedom we have, receive love from God and freely flow it out to others.

With Love,

 

Kelly

 

 

 

 

Wait? Are you worthy?

/ Kelly Savage / Leave a comment

 

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I know we do not go up to people we know or don’t know and ask the question……”are you worthy of my presence”, or me talking to you or my time, attention, etc?  But do we give off that attitude?  Ever?  Listen, I believe the key to self growth is evaluation of ourselves – the old looking in the mirror and that – my friend – is not always the easiest, fun or top priority on our list.  But, do we want to be approachable ?  Loving?  Kind?  A person that is thought of that has love, patience, and acceptance?  Or  a heart that has hate, judgment, an unforgiving heart or just a know it all attitude.  Our job really is just to love.  We truly do not know what other people are going through in their life, at the moment we meet them – even if we know them – what they are going through if they are keeping it inside.  True love breaks down barriers and lets healing begin.  It covers, protects and makes people feel safe and worthy.  And we all know those are wonderful feelings.  We have the power to make that happen for others – and yes, the real power is when they don’t really deserve because they are going through something and are acting out and our tenderness speaks to them.  Think about it.  Hope you are having a wonderful Monday!

Until next time – remember – Enjoy Life — Have Hope/Keep Faith/Spread Love

Kelly

 

It Starts In the Heart…….

/ Kelly Savage / Leave a comment

I love the saying that just because you sit in a garage, that doesn’t make you a car……..so sitting in a church…doesn’t make you a Christian. That saying also made me chuckle….however, it is the truth.

I have been going to church again. I wasn’t going for quite a long time. What? I haven’t been going? I know. There are some that would gasp at that and might even judge. I had my reasons. Yet, all along, I knew I was still loving the Lord and my relationship was still intact. At times, I was barely hanging on to tell the truth and I was spiritually treading water at times too. Ever been there in your walk with the Lord? However, deep down, I knew He was still loving me. And as the Bible states, He is the same yesterday, today and forever……never changing. That IS the great thing about Him and one of the things I love the most because HIS love is secure…..that you can count on…….you can count on HIM……..HE is your security and His never changing ways and love.

I was asked yesterday about this blog and why I am not writing because they miss it. I didn’t know, honestly if people enjoyed it or not, however, I got a reminder yesterday and then I stayed home today because the other reminder I got was going to church doesn’t make you a Christian. The same person who asked me about the blog reminded me that she is mostly homebound and most times, for her, this is the only “Jesus” she sees and is refreshed and loves the honesty and transparency she gets from me. I want to be transparent. I have been in a desert with the Lord for awhile now. And I believe we all go through those times with our walk with the Lord. And they are not fun. We have our mountaintops, valleys, deserts, etc. and boy do we have some questions at times. Sometimes we don’t even know how to ask our questions because we are dumbfounded…..and all we can do is say, really God? But, what I have been reminded of is that HE is the one that can handle all the questions and He already knows what is on our mind and in our heart so we might as well get it off our chest 🙂 and give it to Him because He is the one who can help.

The key is this…..we can go to church all we want….. but if our hearts aren’t changed or renewed or touched or whatever word you want to put in their, it becomes religion. And religion will eventually leave us spiritually dead. God has allot to say about hearts. HIS WORD has allot to say. It begins with our hearts……..every morning, I try to remember to give him my heart in prayer and ask Him to change my heart first to be more like His so that it can affect others throughout the day. If we have His heart more, how would our world be different…….or our relationships? Hate would disappear…..unforgiveness would cease……grace would cover…..mercy would rule……patience would be greater…because His love would be ruler of our hearts…we would see people as He sees people….and we would hate sin and love righteousness more and more…….. And we can pray for that 7 days a week and not just on Sunday…..yes, it is transformation and boy, am I am work in progress and I am SO thankful for His grace, mercy and patience on me.

Will  I continue to go to church?  Sure!  That is where His people gather to worship His name in Praise!!!  and Hear  and be transformed by His Word and to help with our transformation!  But we continue our relationship with Him from the depth of our heart the other 6 days of the week!!!

Matt 6:21, Psalm 51:10, Proverbs 4:23, Jer 17:9, Matt 23:27, Matt 15:19, Rom 10:9, Psalm 24:4

Something to think about……….

/ Kelly Savage / 1 Comment

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So I came across this post on Facebook today………and it was one of them that I least it made me take that second look, then after the second look, I went, “wow, what if!”  Think about it………What if we woke up tomorrow and looked around and only had the things that we were truly thankful for and thanked God for yesterday?  Took that moment the day before and thanked Him?  What if our children were no longer there?  Our spouse?  Would it be our car that was still remaining?  our house?  our materialistic things?  So, what would be missing and what would be remaining?  Would anything be there because have we taken the time to thank God?  Do we have that thankfulness in our heart?

The Bible says a lot about thankfulness and prayer.    In fact, I believe if we have even this attitude of this post, we might even live our life differently……….something to think about…..ponder on…….if we knew that we knew that what was important to us was about to be taken from us and we needed to thank God for it for it to stay, I am sure we would, BUT, would we be just saying it or meaning it?

An attitude of gratitude, so to speak, I believe is one that is truly cultivated over time as we mature.  In life, we learn, as we grow and as we become older and appreciate life for what it is.  God has truly changed my heart over the years to appreciate all in my life, good and bad.  It is easy to appreciate the good but when it comes to the bad, we can still appreciate it.  The bad times refine us, mature us, grow us and even make us more in the attributes of Him.  They certainly are growing times, stretching times and not so much “fun” times, but it is in the valley times that we grow allot and I wouldn’t change them at all.  It has made me who I am today and I thank Him for that 🙂

So, let’s try it.  Each morning, each day, let’s look around and ask Him for help to see because naturally we don’t always see the smallest of blessings.  With Him, He will definitely help us.  He opens up our eyes to things we will never see ourselves.  The world becomes something so beautiful, serene, peaceful in a world that is not.  Just because we are looking through His eyes.  Yes, it is possible…..try it…….and thank Him, for the small and big things……it really can change your whole perspective even through not so good times……

Be blessed!  🙂

Been a While…..

/ Kelly Savage / 1 Comment

Sooooo, it’s been a while………I went on a reprieve…..a little retreat…….not really…..I have actually been very busy……life busy…..which is not always a very good busy…..just busy busy……

I had some really good God conversations lately with several different people and then in my quiet conversations with God that, quite honestly, have lacked lately, I have sensed to get back to writing blogs that I have not been busy with.

A few of these conversations really stuck out at me as those that got me to go back into the Word, and dig.  Dig at His truth and dig deep.  We come across people in our lives and vice versa for many different reasons and sometimes they are merely God reasons – to learn from, to grow with, to mature with , to be refined and sometimes to learn love from…………..

The conversations that I seemed to be having in the last month or so were, should I say, “flipped flop” conversations, meaning I found myself on the other side.  Put me back 13 years ago, I would have been on the other side.  As I listen to the flip flop side, the other view, or the questions that people have about Christianity, I realized that was me……………13 years ago, when I was “seeking”  or on my spiritual quest.  I believed in God.  I believed in prayer.  I believed in that all my life.  I was a “church-going” girl………..

But, if I am going to be honest, I didn’t know the “Jesus” piece and where He fit nor the salvation piece, the “born-again spiritual” piece until I was around 31 years old and was on my spiritual quest which involved many different types of things I sought after.  You have a few hours? Probably if you asked me, I could answer been there, done that, tried that, sinned there, sinned here, been everywhere! ”  You wanted honesty, right?

It wasn’t until, I had several hard knocks in my life, several knock outs that took me down and my temporary spiritual quests that put me on temporary highs that try to compete with the real thing (Jesus)  that totally led me to new lows………that I found myself lower than I ever been that I finally knew that I couldn’t get any lower……HOWEVER, the good news, there is a God, that sent His Son, that will meet you WHEREVER you ARE, and the BIBLE says that He did this while we are STILL yet sinning………..now THAT is unconditional, self sacrificing, selfless, LOVE that I had never received and needed…….PLUS PLUS PLUS this gift is free, we just need to receive it by faith.  It wasn’t free for Him, by a long stretch, but it is for us because He loves us that much.

Do I like everything that is written in His Word? hmmmmm, not quite…….again……..you want honesty, right?  Sometimes, my word when I read the Bible is “ouch!”  or my phrase that happens to come out is “really God?”.  Look, God honors an honest heart and He already knows what’s in our hearts.  That’s the best thing about having a really honest, raw relationship with Him and a best friend relationship with Him.  We can be real with Him!  You really can’t argue with me what’s in His Word.  He wrote it.  Not me.  He’s God.  Not me.

This I do know, every question that I had…..,when I came to accept Christ and His free gift to me, I looked it up in His Word and it was there.  Not once did the Bible ever fail to give me an answer.  Not once.

Does that mean I have had a rosy Christian life?  NO!!!!!!!  However, I have had peace throughout circumstances that weren’t peaceful.  That was always there for the asking.  I just have to ask.  My God is always there, never leaves, never forsakes…..and if you could give me hours, I could give you stories of His faithfulness as well as His love.

Billy Graham said it best…………. It is Holy Spirit’s job to convict, God’s job to judge and my job to love……… 🙂

Have a great day!!