Chasing the carrot

What does carrot dangling mean?  "It's a false bait to take advantage of you.  A carrot dangler is someone who promises something to help you out, to give you something, to introduce you to someone…and never comes through.  When you try to collect on the promise, there is always some reason why they can't give it to you right then."

- unknown

Have you ever chased a carrot, only to be let down?  

Sure, there are many outward things we can pursue and obtain in this life.  I wanted to include love & joy in the obtaining, but realized that love & joy can only be known fully through a missing link.  This link makes it pure and complete. 

No carrot dangling here!  No state of uncertainty with this promise, but a sure thing.  Here is a promise of love & joy perfected.

If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love…these things I have spoken to you, that My joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full.  John 15:10-11

This is not a fleeting love or joy but one that is a continual discovery.  A love & joy that can be known through the one who IS love & joy in totality.  

The link to this promise is found through Jesus who paid the ultimate price of death on the cross, to pay the penalty for the sin of humanity.  

If you do not know Him yet, repent (choose to turn from your sin) and ask Him to come into your heart and be your everything.  To lose your life is to gain it!  The promise of His joy & peace is for those who believe in Him. 

And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God... John 17:3 

Don't be like them!

Wisdom?  

Mom has given me a few one-liners of wisdom that have stuck with me & helped in many circumstances of life. Hope it will be helpful to you too :)

Some years ago while I was in bible school, I was sharing an apartment with a friend.  I wanted to show her my gratitude by words and my actions, always looking for the opportunity to help her in whatever she needed. 

This particular day, I was stuck at the mall and called my friend for a simple ride from the mall to our home.  Her behavior proved to be quite odd as she rudely rejected me for thinking I would ask such a thing of her.  Stunned by her attitude, I chose not to retaliate.

I eventually made it home and immediately called my Mom because I wanted to express my hurt from what seemed like harsh words spoken to the innocent (me!).  It was as though my mother did not even hear my complaint and said to me, "Don't YOU be like them."  Imagine! "Don't YOU be like them" is what I got.  She didn't try to make me feel better, but instead was telling me that I was going to have to choose the...well you know, the 'high road' (the hard road).  YES! The hard road, which is difficult but leads to LIFE.

Just recently, while reading a scrippy, I found the very words she spoke to me and did a little inside dance over it, knowing it to be true!

Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask Him.  Matt. 6:8 NIV

If He is telling us to not be like 'them', then 'who' is He telling us to be like?  Imitators of HIM!

Imitate God, therefore, in everything you do.  Ephesians 5:1 NLT

For those who have decided to follow Jesus, we are to be imitators of Him and not those who choose to follow their own ways of decisions.  They only have the dim light of their nature to guide them.  It would be shameful for us to do as they do when we have a divine revelation for direction from above.

I can't get no satisfaction

Surely you have heard the song by Mick Jagger which conveys his feelings of dissatisfaction through the words in his song.

I can't get no satisfaction

I can't get no satisfaction

Cause I try and I try and I try 

and I can't get no, I can't get no

When I'm drivin' in my car

And that man comes on the radio

He's tellin' me more and more a

bout some useless information

Supposed to fire my imagination

I can't get no, oh no no no

Hey hey hey, that's what I say

We have so many things to desire in this world! Yet, with all the 'getting' we are still not satisfied.  What is the missing ingredient to fill us continually with the happiness of life we crave?

The Word suggests that we can decide on true life fulfillment.

Why spend money on what is not food? Why work for what does not satisfy you?

 Listen carefully to Me. Then you will eat what is good. You will enjoy the richest food there is.Listen and come to Me. Pay attention to Me.  Then you will 

live. 

I will make a covenant with you that will last forever. I will give you My faithful love.
Isaiah 55:2-3 NIRV

On what terms is happiness offered to us?  On the basis of making the choice to not only listen to, but also in choosing to come to Him as your answer. We cannot find satisfaction anywhere but in knowing Him.  It does not matter what substitute you may search for to fill the longing, after it is attained, there is an emptiness that follows.
  
"All the wealth and pleasure in the world will not yield solid comfort and content to the should.  They do not satisfy even the appetites of the body; for all is vanity and vexation.  Let the disappointments we meet with the world, help to drive us to Christ, and to seek for satisfaction in  Him only." Matthew Henry

Will you make the choice today to listen and come to Him so you will know true satisfaction?

Prisoner?

My brother John is behind bars.  Is he a prisoner?  

Is it possible that there are two types of prisons?  One behind bars and one without bars?

Though not confined behind the bars of a correctional institute, many may find themselves in a prison in their life...a prison of selfishness, laziness, alcohol, drugs, etc.  I believe many are in internal prisons, barred up in the thoughts of their minds, unable to escape.  And though from the outside, it may seem that life if fine...they suffer in an inward turmoil.  Is this prison not sometimes more confining than the the state of a prison with bars, security & fences?    

There is a way of escape to true freedom that surpasses anything that man could possibly strum up.  There is a freedom from self that is so freeing like a weight that has been lifted off the shoulders! 

This freedom can only be found by accepting the One who gave His life for each one of us that we could find and know eternal life through Him, Jesus.
And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.  Therefore if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed.  John 8:32, 36 NKJV

Please hear my heart, as I speak from one who knows a family member behind bars, as well as myself who was once a prisoner to darkness.  I understand and know that true freedom can be found in Christ. 

Here is part of a letter I received from my brother John today.  John told me that Jesus is his best friend, who truly understands him (as of April 2013).  I feel his experience will reveal that, though he is still behind bars, he is a free man.

You know, before I came to the Lord, I thought I knew everything there was to know, and had all the answers.  Well, the Lord proved me wrong and I am so glad for that because the Lord teaches me something new every day.  And what's so good about it is He teaches me things about myself whether they are good or bad.  That's what I like about the Lord is He doesn't hold anything back because He wants us to learn everything we can about Him. 

Do you want to know this freedom - the freedom to be and know the real you?  You can!  It is found in a relationship with the One who created you. Accept that He paid the price on the cross for your sins, and allow Him to come into your heart and set you free from the prison cell!  It is said in scripture about Jesus...

The Lord has anointed me to tell the good news to poor people.  He has sent me to comfort those whose hearts have been broken.  He has sent me to announce freedom for those who have been captured.  He wants me to set prisoners free from their dark prisons.  Isaiah 61:1 NIRV

New web @ www.simplewithsyd.com

the letter ended...

…home is wherever you are.  

This was the end of a beautiful love letter from my husband to me.  I wondered...did he literally mean home was any place 'I' was, and not a physical home?  

Over the years, I have come to better understand that home is where your heart is (given to).   

What does home mean to you?  Is it a place or a person?  People long to be at home; your home is whatever place you long to be.  Home is a place of rest, security….of love.  

While reading the scrippys (His Word), I began to see that Jesus wants to make His home with us, in our hearts.  He wants us to know His friendship and love so that no matter where we are, we will be at home! This takes place through our covenant (like a marriage) with Him.   

Jesus replied, “Anyone who loves me will obey My teaching.  My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them."  John 14:23 NIV

Do you want to know Him?  Open the door of your heart.  He is one open door away :)

Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me. Revelation 3:20 NIV

 web @ www.simplewithsyd.com

Loose lips sink ships

 

Even though it has been 20+ years, I still remember a time at my Mom's house like it was yesterday.   It was 5:30am and I was reading in James, chapter 3.  

I jumped out of my seat and went running down the hallways to my mother's room.  Mom was clearly asleep and my one-sided, enthusiastic conversation went something like this:

"MOM?!!  Are you up?!!.....I was just reading in James 3.  Loose lips sink ships!  LOOSE LIPS SINK SHIPS!!"

What are we speaking to one another, and in the hearing of others?  We either speak life or death - that's the power of the tongue.   

We all stumble in many ways. Anyone who is never at fault in what they say is perfect, able to keep their whole body in check.

When we put bits into the mouths of horses to make them obey us, we can turn the whole animal.  Or take ships as an example. Although they are so large and are driven by strong winds, they are steered by a very small rudder wherever the pilot wants to go.  Likewise, the tongue is a small part of the body, but it makes great boasts. Consider what a great forest is set on fire by a small spark.  James 3:2-5 NIV

I had certainly heard this phrase before, but now I saw it in the Word.  Loose lips sink ships.  I found out that this phrase was coined as a slogan during WWII as part of the US Office of War Information's attempt to limit the possibility of people inadvertently giving useful information to enemy spies.

Do you realize that there is an enemy in this world who is looking for the opportunity to get us to agree with his side?  One tactic is through our tongue, as the tongue gets us into trouble because we forget to monitor what it is we are saying.

Loose lips can cost us to lose part of life and the life of our hearers.  Do you want to be a life-giver or a life-taker, by your words? 

is carrot cake.....

....so incredibly yummy that it is not of this world to you?  

Maybe you would consider a certain relationship you have as not of this world? 


I wonder if this is because we think a particular thing or person is almost too good for this world as we know it?  Could it be that out of this world is something that is extra-ordinary? 

I find it fascinating that Jesus spoke of something that was truly out of this world.  It might surprise you to know that He considered US to be not of this world! 
 
This is what I command you:  that you love one another.  If the world hates you, know that it hated Me before it hated you.

If you belonged to the world, the world would treat you with affection and would love you as its own. But because you are not of the world [no longer one with it], but I have chosen (selected) you out of the world, the world hates (detests) you.  John 15:17-19 AMP

It sure seems like a bit much for the natural mind to conceive, right?  But Jesus said that those who believed in Him and received Him become of another world - not the world that we only see with natural eyesight.  What world?  A world that is from above, a spiritual seeing and knowing, not natural but super natural. 

You can hear the sound of the wind, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.  John 3:8

This is just what He meant when speaking of those who are born again.  To receive a new life in Him, not from the natural birth of a mother, but a new birth by His Spirit.  

Are YOU of this world?