JESUS

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

 

 

 

 

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!!!!!

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!!

 

 

 

Hold Me Jesus

/ Kelly Savage / 1 Comment

Do you Like Hugs? Do you Ever FEEL like you need a hug? Do you ever FEEL you need peace from the everyday stresses of this world? I know I do!! Sort of like that old commercial…….Calgon…..take me away!!!!!!!………Am I showing my age now????!! 🙂 I posted a video of one of my favorite songs and the lyrics are just as good! But the meaning goes deep as well. The Bible speaks of peace that passes all understanding and that kind of peace……only comes from the Lord…….not from ourselves, anyone else or of things…….

My sister in law, Shelli and I have embarked on a journey together for the last several months now. We pray every Monday morning (or more whenever needed) and we have prayer focuses and have even went as far as the prayer of “do whatever you need to do Lord” in certain situations! Boy, be careful of that prayer! 🙂 That prayer will take you places that you might have never been…..deep deep places…..and Praise the Lord, we have seen answers as we walk through WITH him…….

However, our journey reminded us of one thing consistently…….we CANNOT do our journey in our own strength….or we will fail…..hands down. We will burn out. It really is that simple.

We have a tendency to trust in things, sometimes other men, and especially our own strength……and that will leave us empty every single time. Our strength is only so strong and lasts only so long. In fact, listen to some the wisdom of the Word of God……

Jeremiah 17:5-8

“This is what the Lord says:

Cursed is the one who trusts in man, who depends on the flesh for his strength and whose heart turns away from the Lord. He will be like a bush in the wastelands; he will not see prosperity when it comes. He will dwell in the parched places of the desert, in a salt land where no one lives. But blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence is in him. He will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream. It does not fear when heat comes; its leaves are always green. It has no worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit.”

Here are my thoughts for today: I want to to be like that tree by the stream. I want to trust in the Lord and not in my own strength and I have come to know in my life (and what a beautiful knowing it is) that the only true PEACE I really need is that of Jesus. Enjoy the song. Over and over again if you need. Sometimes I do many times a day, depending on the day! 🙂

Blessings!

Kelly