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tesnusxenos
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Name: Rachel
Gender: Female
Interests: Jesus, Shorty Robinson, Koine Greek, Theology, Ministry, China, Hermeneutics, Horses, Cats, dogs, Whipped cream, Expresso, Hiking, Mountain Climbing, Yoga, Swimming, Cooking, Chocolate, Star gazing, Pecans, Steak, Nachos, Elephants, Dreams
Expertise: Procrastinating!!!!!!!
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Member Since:
9/28/2005
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Knowing What You Have
Sometimes we forget what we have. We sold calves at the auction this week and the price went up and down and up and down, causing me to forget that we have good calves; I became nervous and couldn’t watch and went outside and sat in the pickup.
It is easy to become discouraged when you forget what you have in Jesus also.
Joshua 1
9 Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go. (NIV)
We have been commanded not to be discouraged! The question that you are probably asking is how do we do that. It feels out of our control.
An old hymn that I love has a chorus that says - “but I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I’ve committed unto him against that day.”
Knowing whom we have believed is the secret.
2 Timothy 1
11And of this gospel I was appointed a herald and an apostle and a teacher. 12That is why I am suffering as I am. Yet I am not ashamed, because I know whom I have believed, and am convinced that he is able to guard what I have entrusted to him for that day.(NIV)
A few years ago I took my horse to a Jumping clinic. My husband dropped me off and took the truck to see what kind of deal he could get as a trade in. I came down with a monster headache. When it came time for my group to jump, I was barely functioning. But I went ahead; the clinician, who knew neither my horse nor me, was convinced that we did not belong in that group. She kept harping on about how green horses and green riders didn’t mix since we could not seem to pick up the correct lead. But I knew my horse belonged in the group and just hung in there and by the end he had proved himself. There were some frustrating minutes as the clinician berated me in front of my friends over the loud speaker, but since I had faith in my horse I just struggled on. I was willing to look like a fool, only because I knew my horse and could not be convinced that he was lacking. Every day we decide if we are going to accept performance or excuses from ourselves, I had decided that I was going to make the effort since I had paid my money and I was there. We need to similarly be convinced of our Lord and His plans for our good. We have to choose each day who we are going to serve. If we have the assurance that the Lord is who he says he is and his plans are for our good that is not too difficult.
Jeremiah 29
11 For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD , "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. (NIV)
The way we know the Lords plans is by knowing Him and having an assurance of our salvation is an important part of knowing Him. Sometimes when things get tough we are prone to ask ourselves, “Am I really saved?” Or “Is this whole Jesus thing real?”
Sometimes we need assurance of our salvation when things don’t appear to be going our way.
For me the assurance of salvation is that I care what Jesus thinks of me, I hate sin in my life. I have a desire not to hurt God. These are things you don’t find in the unsaved. Have you accepted Jesus as your savior? Test yourself by asking yourself how you feel about the sin in your life.
2 Corinthians 13
5Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves. Do you not realize that Christ Jesus is in you--unless, of course, you fail the test (NIV)
The first step to getting free of discouragement for me is being assured of my salvation. The second step is getting to know God better, knowing His personality, for me that means reading the Bible again and again and spending time in prayer and listening to what other people who know Jesus say about Him and how He is working in their lives.
2 Timothy 1
12That is why I am suffering as I am. Yet I am not ashamed, because I know whom I have believed, and am convinced that he is able to guard what I have entrusted to him for that day (NIV)
Often people who love Jesus are made out to be fools by the world around them; but since we know Jesus; we need not be ashamed. We know whom we have believed and we know He is not a liar. So we have no excuse; we are to choose each day to serve Jesus. When we feel discouraged we need to get to know Him better, we can always become more certain; faith can always be strengthened.
Hebrews 11
1Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. (NIV)
Being sure of your horse will give you confidence when the going gets rough. The way to develop confidence in your horse is by spending time with him and getting to know him better.
The same is true with our Lord, get to know Jesus better; spend time with Him read His book, talk to people who know him and talk to Him yourself!
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| For the Good of Those Who Love the Lord
Galatians 4:4
But when the time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under law (NIV)
When the time had fully come. Things happen when there time comes. When I work with my horse and my instructor, we do a lot of preparation work. My instructor, Whit tries to teach me the feel of my horse when he is ready. I need to wait until my horse is completely balanced and forward. There is a period of time where I have to wait for the balance and impulsion. At a clinic I watched another instructor, Cesar Para, work; he encouraged the riders not to ask their horses to trot until the horse was warmed up enough to be relaxed and flexible enough to give a really great trot. A theme, of his seemed to me to be not to try a movement until the horse was ready to do it well. The warm up and preparation work was more intense then the actual asking for the movement. My tendency is to get ahead of the timing; to just do it. Waiting on the Lord is a lot like that. I want to go fix things even when He says wait or that’s not for you. I often want to be mad about things that I am not the one to change, some of the recent Supreme Court decisions for instance. When we see bad things happen that we have little control over, we may tend to forget these verses.
Romans 8:28
And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God who have been called according to his purpose. (NIV)
Ephesians 1
11In him we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will, (NIV)
I often watch my life like I watch a movie when I have already read the book. I know how it turns out. But the little sub-plots are intriguing. I love it when the hero wins. The Lord has a way of turning bad into good. Think of Joseph, what people intended for evil turned out to be good. And what about the Israelites under Pharaoh; if they weren’t abused and subjected to bitter labor would they have wanted to follow Moses? These people are just like us. When things are bad we turn to the Lord. When things are great we want to take care of ourselves. They had to have been pretty abused to follow Moses into the desert. Moses didn’t try to make pharaoh improve the peoples working conditions. He wanted his people to be really free, free to follow God.
Ecclesiastes 3
1There is a time for everything,
and a season for every activity under heaven:
2 a time to be born and a time to die,
a time to plant and a time to uproot,
3 a time to kill and a time to heal,
a time to tear down and a time to build,
4 a time to weep and a time to laugh,
a time to mourn and a time to dance,
5 a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,
a time to embrace and a time to refrain,
6 a time to search and a time to give up,
a time to keep and a time to throw away,
7 a time to tear and a time to mend,
a time to be silent and a time to speak,
8 a time to love and a time to hate,
a time for war and a time for peace. (NIV)
This makes me think of Kings and Chronicles and of all that times the Israelites went back and forth between good and bad government. All the people needed to do was to change and cry out to God (God sets up the situation so the answer is easy).
I am not saying that we are called to be inactive and to complacently let things happen.
We are each called to different things, some will be active; some will be silent, but the Lord wakes us up to our need of him, and the situation is rectified when people start worshiping Him. Sometimes all an activist can accomplish is bringing the situation to our attention. We need this; we need to know how bad things are. But we also need to be ready to leave with the Bridegroom. America isn’t in Revelation! As much as I love my country, I need to be prepared if God says “Go!”
2 Corinthians 6
16What agreement is there between the temple of God and idols? For we are the temple of the living God. As God has said: "I will live with them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they will be my people."
17"Therefore come out from them
and be separate, says the Lord.
Touch no unclean thing,
and I will receive you."
18"I will be a Father to you,
and you will be my sons and daughters", says the Lord Almighty. (NIV)
We need to be motivated by God, not by guilt. When the Lord asks us to do something, I think, He is usually very specific. When we are guilt-motivated, we just feel like we should be doing something. The waiting on him is so hard sometimes. Each of us has our individual assignments (our part in the story). Some things God has us do to mature us and some things he has us do for others or to change a situation. He is training us to respond to Him and not respond to the situation. Just as a horse can be over eager and stop listening in his desire to please and make mistakes, so can we. People often make mistakes when they do the things society says good Christians do instead of doing what God wants them to do. Taking a part that is not ours may interfere with someone else’s growth. When we do the wrong job the burden is often heavy and Jesus said His burden is light. If the burden you are carrying is heavy chances are you are not carrying the right load. God knows us; he knows what it will take to change us so that the story comes out right. He changes some people to be more active. Some lead, others follow. God has plans for us. Things always work the way he planned.
Psalm 139
1 O LORD, you have searched me
and you know me.
2 You know when I sit and when I rise;
you perceive my thoughts from afar.
3 You discern my going out and my lying down;
you are familiar with all my ways.
4 Before a word is on my tongue
you know it completely, O LORD.
5 You hem me in-behind and before;
you have laid your hand upon me.
6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me,
too lofty for me to attain.
7 Where can I go from your Spirit?
Where can I flee from your presence?
8 If I go up to the heavens, you are there;
if I make my bed in the depths, [1] you are there.
9 If I rise on the wings of the dawn,
if I settle on the far side of the sea,
10 even there your hand will guide me,
your right hand will hold me fast.
11 If I say, "Surely the darkness will hide me
and the light become night around me,"
12 even the darkness will not be dark to you;
the night will shine like the day,
for darkness is as light to you.
13 For you created my inmost being;
you knit me together in my mother's womb.
14 I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
your works are wonderful,
I know that full well.
15 My frame was not hidden from you
when I was made in the secret place.
When I was woven together in the depths of the earth,
16 your eyes saw my unformed body.
All the days ordained for me
were written in your book
before one of them came to be.
17 How precious to me are your thoughts, O God!
How vast is the sum of them!
18 Were I to count them,
they would outnumber the grains of sand.
When I awake,
I am still with you.
19 If only you would slay the wicked, O God!
Away from me, you bloodthirsty men!
20 They speak of you with evil intent;
your adversaries misuse your name.
21 Do I not hate those who hate you, O LORD,
and abhor those who rise up against you?
22 I have nothing but hatred for them;
I count them my enemies.
23 Search me, O God, and know my heart;
test me and know my anxious thoughts.
24 See if there is any offensive way in me,
and lead me in the way everlasting. (NIV)
Enjoy the ride. I know that I need to ride my horse where he is right now. I need to pay attention and communicate with him. I also understand that progress takes time. We need to do what God asks us to do. We need to wait for His direction and not rush. Sometimes the hardest thing is watching and waiting. Sometimes things that appear evil result in good.
Sometimes we just need to relax and enjoy the plot. Rest in the Lord and renew our strength. I know it will turn out good in the end; I’ve read the book!
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| Follow the Leader
When we move a group of cows and get to a place where we have trouble making forward progress with them we often grab a little group and take them on as leaders. We separate ten or fifteen head from the main bunch and shove them ahead of the others and the rest of the cows seeing those out front are more eager to go that direction.
Philippians 4
9Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me--put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you. (NIV)
Here Paul tells us to follow him, a mere man. It helps us to have leaders out front just like it helps the cows. When the cows see the other cows headed down the trail they are more eager and less fearful of taking the trail themselves. When we see others following Christ it gives us courage to follow also.
Hebrews 12
1Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.(NIV)
When we are surrounded by other Christians we should find it easier to throw off the fear and doubt that hinders us from becoming mature Christians who can boldly do whatever the Holy Spirit calls us to do.
Hebrews 10
24And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. 25Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another--and all the more as you see the Day approaching. (NIV)
How do we spur one another on? Do we eagerly listen to the others around us as they tell us about the work Jesus is doing in their lives? Do we tell others what is going on in our relationship with God? Do we ask questions of the people who are silent so often trying to draw them out? Many people are finding today’s churches superficial, without the relationship between believers that both hold us accountable and spurs us on toward being who we were made to be.
People may say, “My church doesn’t do this”. It only takes one person to start. Someone has to make the first move if you are to build relationship. A few people need to be in that group that takes off down the trail. When you look back and find others following, you will yourself be encouraged.
Ephesians 3
17so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, 18may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, 19and to know this love that surpasses knowledge--that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. (NIV)
Our power to grasp the love of God here is partnered with all the saints! I feel that this is something we do together with other believers, not as lone rangers. By seeing the Lord working in other people’s lives we get a larger picture of Gods love then we could ever get from just our own experiences.
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| Weeds
Today I went for a walk with my husband out through the horse pasture looking at the grass and weeds. I thought about how when an area is stripped bare of weeds more weeds come back unless something is planted. People do a lot of weed poisoning. But the land seems to be either bare or come back with more weeds where it has been worked. It reminded me of this verse-
Matthew 12
43"When an evil spirit comes out of a man, it goes through arid places seeking rest and does not find it. 44Then it says, 'I will return to the house I left.' When it arrives, it finds the house unoccupied, swept clean and put in order. 45Then it goes and takes with it seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and they go in and live there. And the final condition of that man is worse than the first. That is how it will be with this wicked generation." (NIV)
I also have noticed that in areas where we have brush we have the most grass. The grass seems to take shelter at the base of the brush. In places where the brush is removed and nothing is planted, we have erosion and more brush; we lose the grass that has established itself at the base of the brush.
Matthew 13
24Jesus told them another parable: "The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field. 25But while everyone was sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and went away. 26When the wheat sprouted and formed heads, then the weeds also appeared.
27"The owner's servants came to him and said, 'Sir, didn't you sow good seed in your field? Where then did the weeds come from?'
28" 'An enemy did this,' he replied.
"The servants asked him, 'Do you want us to go and pull them up?'
29" 'No,' he answered, 'because while you are pulling the weeds, you may root up the wheat with them. 30Let both grow together until the harvest. At that time I will tell the harvesters: First collect the weeds and tie them in bundles to be burned; then gather the wheat and bring it into my barn.' "
36Then he left the crowd and went into the house. His disciples came to him and said, "Explain to us the parable of the weeds in the field."
37He answered, "The one who sowed the good seed is the Son of Man. 38The field is the world, and the good seed stands for the sons of the kingdom. The weeds are the sons of the evil one, 39and the enemy who sows them is the devil. The harvest is the end of the age, and the harvesters are angels.
40"As the weeds are pulled up and burned in the fire, so it will be at the end of the age. 41The Son of Man will send out his angels, and they will weed out of his kingdom everything that causes sin and all who do evil. 42They will throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. 43Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears, let him hear.
I wonder if we sometimes do harm trying to remove sin from the world? In our quest to remove evil maybe we trample on the trust that is like that baby grass in some seekers?
Matthew 13
1That same day Jesus went out of the house and sat by the lake. 2Such large crowds gathered around him that he got into a boat and sat in it, while all the people stood on the shore. 3Then he told them many things in parables, saying: "A farmer went out to sow his seed. 4As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up. 5Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow. 6But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root. 7Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants. 8Still other seed fell on good soil, where it produced a crop--a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown. 9He who has ears, let him hear."
I heard a sermon on this parable. The point that struck me was, the farmer sows indiscriminately. He plants among the weeds and on the hard ground; he just plants. Probably we all need to do more planting and less weed control.
I run into a similar scenario in my riding when what I think is the problem isn’t the problem at all. Two horsemen whom I greatly respect often have their students work on something entirely different then the issue that the riders think is the problem. I have seen Joe Wolters and Whit Watkins both attack training problems in this manner. Sometimes their students are impatient with this, but I have realized that though it may seem odd to work on something that seems entirely unrelated, often the instructor can see and understand things that I can’t. I have seen Joe work with a horse and rider that wouldn’t take a particular lead by having the rider see if he could just step forward at a walk with the leg on that side. This little exercise helped the rider to see the subtle balance shift that would help his horse step forward with the desired leg to take the correct lead. Right now I am working, with Whit on flying changes and canter pirouettes; I seldom actually do a change or a pirouette I work on shoulder in at the canter and suppling while doing counter canter and canter half steps. The exercises are all related to the balance the horse and I need to perform the pirouettes and changes. We work hard preparing the muscles and balance needed to perform (this is the planting) and we ignore the mistakes (the weeds). The mistakes will disappear on their own when the balance and muscles are ready to do the exercises. We crowed out the bad by increasing the good! By dealing with the problem beneath the problem the horse and rider improve.
Often the Lord is not dealing with the surface symptoms in people he is dealing with the problem under the problem. It is easy to focus on the visible problems. I think we need to wait for the Lords direction when it comes to dealing with sin. Especially when dealing with others those that haven’t accepted Christ yet. Our main job is to be imitators of Christ and he planted indiscriminately. The Lord knows what areas of our lives need to be dealt with first and sometimes he leaves a problem and after awhile it is gone without us working on it (when the good squeezes out the evil). I think of Zacchaeus (Luke 19:1-9), Jesus didn’t chew him, out he said let’s go eat!
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| Using What We Have
I once read an article that stated that the greatest crime against our horses was not using them. I think we can say that about many things in our lives. When we have animals that stand around in the pasture or in their stalls they do us no good. Horses that are not ridden lose muscle tone and our ability to communicate our requests to them suffers also. They become less tuned with us and we with them.
We can see how this plays out in all of our relationships. Recently my children both started college, and because they have been gone, I spend more time with my dogs. Where before they were often a chore, now I really enjoy spending time with them. I notice little things about their individual personalities. I am glad to see them and they are eager to see me when I come out of the house in the morning.
My relationship with the Jesus is similar to this, the more time I spend praying and studying the Word, the easier it is to do. As I spend more time with Jesus, I notice more of him in the world around me. It is as if my ears and eyes and heart become sharper, and I am more aware of His presence. Just as spending time with my dogs and horses makes me more attached to them and more aware of little personality traits that others miss, spending time consciously communicating with the Lord draws me closer to him.
As we spend time with people we build relationship with them. The more time we spend, the deeper the relationship can grow. With my dressage horse that I work with most days I have a level of communication that I don’t with the other horses in our herd. When I am welding if I go too fast and don’t spend the time I need the bond is only a superficial surface bond. Our relationships with people and with Jesus are like that, we have to spend time for the bond to develop and to go deep.
Acts 2
37When the people heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the other apostles, "Brothers, what shall we do?"
38Peter replied, "Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. 39The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off--for all whom the Lord our God will call." (NIV)
We have been given a gift, the Holy Spirit (Jesus dwelling in us) and our tendency is to just ignore it, just as some people who leave their kids in daycare, their horses in the pasture and their exercise equipment gathers dust. Some people have kids and never spend time with them. They are too busy with other things, and when they do spend time together, it is often difficult because they don’t really know each other. There are also people that have horses that are mostly left in the pasture, or in a stall, and when they do ride them, they no longer can communicate well with them. When we dust off the exercise equipment and use it, we often become sore. These three illustrations help us to see how normal things can be come unpleasant just from lack of use. If we have it and don’t use it, what good is it to us? We are like the person who looks in the mirror and sees that he has mustard on his face and goes away without washing it off.
James 1
22Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. 23Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like a man, who looks at his face in a mirror 24and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. (NIV)
It is like a gift we never open. How can we really appreciate a gift if we don’t open it and use it? Part of the gift we are given by God is the relationship with him. When we receive a gift we may say, “You shouldn’t have done that, it costs too much”, but we usually go ahead and use the gift we are given. It would seem foolish not to. If someone gives us a ticket to a movie, and we don’t use it, we insult the giver. We are given many gifts, husbands and wives, children, horses, pets and most importantly Jesus. We were given Jesus for a reason. We were made clean so that we can have relationship with the Lord.
Why do we waste what we are given by being so busy with temporary passing things? How much time do we kill watching television or thumbing through catalogs?
Spending time with Jesus is probably the most rewarding thing you can do. The more you do it, the more enjoyable it gets. The more time you spend really getting to know your kids the more you will enjoy them. If we spend time with our horses they have the opportunity to become better horses. If we leave them alone we are wasting a gift that we have been given.
Luke 10
38As Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him. 39She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord's feet listening to what he said. 40But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to him and asked, "Lord, don't you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!" (NIV)
Here we see Mary exchanging the chance to spend time with the Lord for the role that she feels is her duty. It is so easy to trade spending time with Jesus for the chance to look the way people think you should. Try hard not to be distracted by people’s expectations of you. Spend time with those you love. Duty is often nothing more then an ever changing race to have more and better stuff. Don’t be distracted by the things of the world. Spend time doing the important things. Build relationship with your Lord, your family, your friends, your horses and your pets. It gets easier with practice. Remember take small steps at first, but take them over and over.
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