Christian

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

“Death” of a Loss One –

/ Kelly Savage / 2 Comments

I am embarking on a new journey starting on Monday – a new journey without “my buddy”. I didn’t lose her by a physical death. She is still here in this world. My new journey starts with a lesson that I have leanred that death isn’t always about a physical death. You can lose someone in your life that is truly significant, that has made one of the greatest impacts on your life and feel one of the deepest pains in your life and it feels like a death. That would be the case of “my buddy”, my co-worker. In a very unfortunate turn of events and deeply painful, she will no longer be working side by side with me.  The one that I went to work with for 25 years. I met her when I was merely 19, when we think we know everything and now I sit at the age of 44 and I am saying to myself, “holy crap, I am just now learning some things now!”   Her and I side by side – 25 years. We laughed – we cried – only raised our voice probably handful of times – but we did it all together. We took a stressful job and we made it fun – we made everything a game – we made fun of it and each other – but we did it together and together we were each other’s confidants. How do you replace that? You don’t.

 

Lord, take the pain away, I have been crying. The deed was done on Tuesday. I went away on vacation on Wednesday. Let me tell ya……..drinks don’t take it away, taking picture on vacation and smiling doesn’t take it away, seeing beautiful sites and laying by the pool and even relaxing, as nice as that sounds and it was, doesn’t take it away. My lesson continues. Pain is pain. Loss is loss. We will experience some things in our life that are devastating. This is one of mine. I know it is one of hers.

Hows? Whats? Whens? Whos? Questions fly in my head, heart, everywhere……………….Time, prayer, giving Him the pain, – it is one of the holes that only He can fill – not one person, not one thing, only Him…….

I am once again reminded that The God of Comfort and Peace needs to be my all in all……

1 Corinthians 1:4-5 “God of all healing counsel! He comes alongside us when we go through hard times, and before you know it, he brings us alongside someone else who is going through hard times so that we can be there for that person just as God was there for us. We have plenty of hard times that come from following the Messiah, but no more so than the good times of his healing comfort—we get a full measure of that, too”

1 Peter 5:7 “Casting the whole of your care [all your anxieties, all your worries, all your concerns, once and for all] on Him, for He cares for you affectionately and cares about you watchfully. ”

Psalms 30:5 “Weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning”

Psalm 56:8 “You number and record my wanderings; put my tears into Your bottle”

 

so as I wrapped up my time with God , knowing this is another one of those times where I need Him to get through it, I thanked Him for being there and guiding me through, giving me strength, grace and His love.  Then I said “ok God, I got this” ………then He gently whispered and said” no, WE got this”………I love God!!!!!

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!!