Tell it as it is/Donna MANN

According to my June 25th morning devotion, "Religious books with a self-help theme sell better than other kinds of religious books. People who visit the religion section are looking for the same thing they would look for in the self-help section: advice. However, Jesus did not preach self-help or how to have "your best life now."  He did not try to fill people with positive thinking and mantras."


I've written two 'self-help' books and I think they have a place in today's lifestyle, however, I know what the author means about ‘not filling people with positive thinking’.  Having said that, thinking positive reduces stress and limits negative self-talk, so it has its place.  

Yet, I can be guilty of positive thinking when I should be cautioning. The question I'm asking myself in this blog is how much do I pass it on in the form of encouragement or building another up, just for something to say. Maybe I should be finding a way to be forthright in a loving manner.

The term, "build one another up" is often used in sync with the word encouragement. “Therefore encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doing” (Thessalonians 5:11). Can building up be honest and encouragement at the same time? I think so.

When people asked me how I was after my daughter died, they wanted to hear, "I'm good. Getting back to normal." If I had responded, as I would have liked to, I would have probably rendered people helpless.

How many times do we allow ourselves to be honest? Can ‘building one another up’ or opening the way for someone to build us up help us consider the difference between positive thinking, thinking positive, being honest with one another and telling it as it is?

Blessings,

Donna

Come on over to donnamann.org - some good news over there about my new novel, Emma's Call.

Summer's Sunset Approaching - Tracy Krauss

It's been a crazy summer. Wildfires, floods, heat waves and downpours. 

Sometimes my resolve, commitment, and ambition are just like the weather. Hot one day and cold the next. If I lived my life according to my feelings, it would be crazy indeed!

I'm so glad God never changes. Here are some scriptures to uplift your day no matter the weather outside (or in your heart):

James 1:17 Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.

Numbers 23: 19 God is not human, that he should lie, not a human being, that he should change his mind. Does he speak and then not act? Does he promise and not fulfill?

Romans 11:29 for God's gifts and his call are irrevocable

As the days of summer draw to a close and the evenings begin to stretch out, remember that God is still the same yesterday, today and forever. 

*scriptures taken from the NIV






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Tracy Krauss writes from her home in Tumbler Ridge, BC, where she is currently lamenting the passing of summer and the arrival of the school year... Visit her website for more: tracykrauss.com - fiction on the edge without crossing the line - 

Attitude Adjustment by Glynis M Belec

    There is so much to be sad about these days. All I have to do is look at family members and friends who are dealing with cancer and heart problems and impending surgery and grief. I get to complain because all this is happening to me and around me.

     My ire can be triggered in a moment if I let it. I watch the news. Murder & crime against our neighbour is on the increase. Families are being torn apart. Children are abused. Men and women are hurt by poor choices and the lies of a society with upside down priorities. I get to get angry and make amends in the way I see fit because all this seems so unfair.

     People make crazy decisions and say too much sometimes. Society teaches us to look out for number one; do what feels good; demand pampering; don't worry about accountability. I get to lash out and my response is justified because that's what retaliation is all about.

     The only problem is when I complain, or get angry or lash out because I think my response is justified I am falling into the same trap and the cycle continues. That's how war happens. I told that to my lovely grandchildren the other day who were trying for a battle of wits - he did this/she said that so I have the right to come to my own defense! And it's true as far as the world is concerned. I am entitled to defense.

     But as a believer in the spilled blood of Christ and the risen body of  my Saviour, Jesus, I think I have it all wrong. So I have to control myself and take another approach.

     Every day I spend in this world is about attitude. I get to open my eyes every morning and choose the way I will approach the day. 

     I love the way Phillipians 2:14-15 says, "Do all things without grumbling or questioning, that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world."

     I see this lovely bit of Divine instruction, really, as an attitude adjustment. Just when I think I have the right to come down hard on all that is wrong and all that will go wrong and all that has been done to or affected me, God tells me, "Sit down silly girl and think about this."

"And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him." Colossians 3:17

     It's hard to talk about the love of Christ with a furrowed brow and high pitched whining. 

     Can you even imagine what this world would be like if we followed the instruction in those verses in Philippians and Colossians? Don't grumble about a single thing. Work through the bad stuff. Trust God without whining and asking a bunch of questions that have already been addressed by the Maker. Do everything and say everything for God's glory!

     There is sin, plain and simple, in this world. Satan lures and lies and makes people mistrust one another and most of all mistrust and doubt God.

  

  But I, for one, will try my best to choose a better attitude as I toss back the covers each morning and crawl out into another day. Instead of thinking about all the negativity in this world, I think I just might be better off saying something like, "Okay God, I'm going to need you big time today. What's on the agenda? Oh, and thanks for this big ol' breath I'm taking this morning."

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Glynis lives, loves, laughs and does an awful lot of reading, writing, publishing and praying in her home office. 

Her latest children's book, JESUS LOVES ME WHEN I DANCE, celebrates and shows us that with Jesus Love, we'll never lose! 

www.glynisbelec.com 

Honesty or Dirty Laundry? - by Heidi McLaughlin

The month of August is historically very hot in Kelowna, British Columbia. The kind of heat that makes your glasses steam up when you open the oven door. Even though it’s cooler this year, there is a different heat steaming up the air. It’s in the form of a hot question in our mind that we might be afraid to verbalize. So here goes: “When do we cross the line from honesty to hanging out our dirty laundry?” 

I am drawn to authentic, honest people. As I watch the U.S. Presidential campaign and hear the deplorable balderdash, my heart hurts that we transgress from reality and honesty into verbosity and yes; at times lies.  So what is honest authenticity?

The World Craves Honesty

Wouldn’t it be fun to get an honest Christmas letter? Something like this:

“The family trip to Swaziland went off the rails when everyone got sick and the luggage and passports were lost. You're so tired of your children you want to send them to Antarctica or sell them at the next garage sale.”

How refreshing to witness authentic living. I’m not talking about hanging out dirty laundry for sensationalism or getting attention, but being honest about our sometimes messy and complicated lives. We all have them.

With all the deception and duplicity in politics, large corporations and even families, I know that more than ever we crave honesty and authenticity. But we pretend or exaggerate because we want people's attention. We want to feel important, different, admired. So sometimes we cross the line just to know we've been heard.

I want to be an authentic and contagious Christian author and speaker that is not afraid to speak the truth, who has no hidden agenda for self promotion and whose desire is to be honest about my relationship with God and others. So how do I do that?

The Hot Truth

First, I need to be honest to accept and admit my motives, mistakes and shortcomings. Sometimes this might mean talking to someone I can trust, a friend or counsellor. Someone who will listen but not judge me. Then I need to be honest with God because He made me and I know He can handle it. I want to be like David in Psalm 139:23, 24.

“Search me, O God, and know my heart;

Point out anything in me that offends you.”

Hanging out our dirty laundry, perfection and bragging turns people off but I know honesty draws them in. To stand out from the crowd and reflect God’s love, I believe honesty has to be at the top of our list. Make our yes be yes and our no be no. Let it be truth that will stand the test of the refining hot fire.  During these hot summer days, let our hot topics be honest and authentic.

Heidi McLaughlin lives in the beautiful vineyards of the Okanagan Valley in Kelowna, British Columbia. She is married to Pastor Jack and they have a wonderful, eclectic blended family of 5 children and 9 grandchildren. When Heidi is not working, she loves to curl up with a great book, or golf and laugh with her husband and special friends. You can reach her at: www.heartconnection.ca

Her latest book RESTLESS FOR MORE: Fulfillment in Unexpected Places was released this July and can be purchased through her website or Amazon.ca; Amazon.com or Goodreads.com

The Best Day by David Kitz

            Lately, I have been spending a lot of time in the Psalms. Throughout Psalm 84 there is a longing to be with God—a desire to be close to Him. So we hear the Psalmist declare, "Better is one day in your courts than a thousand elsewhere" (Psalm 84:10).

            If you were to plan for the best day in your life, what would that day include? What would it look like? How and where would you spend your best day? Would the LORD be at the center of it all?

           

Choosing the path of love - Gatineau Park, QC

          Love is at the core of every special day. Think back to some of the best days of your life—days marked by joy and excitement. If you scratch beneath the surface of those days, you will find love at the core.

         We are in fact love starved people. We need it as much as the air we breathe. Experiments have shown that the unloved, un-caressed, unspoken to baby will die, even though all its physical needs are met. So when love comes to us, we celebrate it, frolic in it, and throw a party to announce it.

        Some of the best days of my life were falling-in-love days. To think someone loved me, simply wanted to be with me, well, it put a real bounce in my step. To be more accurate, it fried all my circuits. Thinking of her made me dreadfully forgetful. I would routinely forget what I was doing mid-task. I was noted for being calm and sedate. Now suddenly, I was doing outrageous, crazy things. Love has a special way of breaking down barriers, and freeing us from inhibitions. Real love is never rational; it doesn't make sense.

               We need love. We need to receive it. We need to give it.

            In Psalm 84, it was love that brought the psalmist to the House of God. It drew him like a magnet, pulled at his heart, tugged at his sleeve, and finally ushered him through the door. Love set him on this pilgrimage. It kept his weary feet moving mile after dreary mile. When he finally reached his goal—the object of his love—in wonder, we hear him exclaim, "How lovely is your dwelling place, O LORD Almighty! My soul yearns, even faints, for the courts of the LORD; my heart and flesh cry out for the living God." 

            In reality Psalm 84 is a love poem. It's all about the psalmist's quest for love. These opening lines express it best. The psalmist is thirsting for a drink from heaven's Eternal Fount of Love. He yearns, faints and cries out for the living God. He expresses all this in what any poet would call the language of love. Here we see the psalmist as the love-starved lover in search of the Divine Love of his soul.

            As the deer longs for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When can I go and meet with God? (Psalm 42:1-2).

Saskatchewan Sunset - Photo by Donald Adam

          This hunger and thirst for love, is in fact, a recurring theme throughout the Psalms, and indeed, all of Holy Scripture. Psalm 42 begins with these words.

        Best days are days spent in pursuit of love, with the one we love. We yearn for such times. This pursuit of love is what drives the sales of a thousand romance novel titles. It is the wellspring for a million songs. It powers a large part of the movie industry. It turns Valentine's Day into a global celebration.

            The psalmist was pursuing love with the one he loved—the LORD Almighty. Have you spent time pursuing him lately? Is a day spent with Him, something you yearn for? Or, are you embarrassed by the blatant language of love that the psalmist uses here? Do hymns of praise and worship choruses bore you?

            All true worship is an act of love. It extols the virtues of the one we love, and it delights in simply being together. It unites the worshipped with the worshipper.

            Better is one day in your courts than a thousand elsewhere; I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than to dwell in the tents of the wicked (Psalm 84:10).

David Kitz is the author of Psalms Alive! a devotional study of the Psalms. 

Visit http://www.davidkitz.ca/

In a Time of Drought—Carolyn R. Wilker

It’s August and very hot these days in our part of Canada. The rain seems to go around us instead of where we want it to, so that the grass and trees and all will gain refreshment and the air cools to make us feel better too.

We have rain barrels at our home to collect the rain when it does come, and we use that for the garden plants. We don’t worry about the grass getting dry. It will come back later as it always does. But the food we grow is quite another thing.

Nephew's farm

The farm crops in our area need rain desperately. I tell people, when they’re not wanting rain in the middle of their summer activities, that if the farmer’s crops don’t get watered, we don’t eat. Quite often city people don’t have it on their radar. But I do, since I grew up on a farm where my parents made their livelihood.

Prices of produce are higher the less there is, whether it’s grain crops or fruits or vegetables. Think of the $8 cauliflower last winter or the apricots that are quite scarce this year and thus more expensive. 

Our water barrels

 tomato plants affected by heat, but with water, they produce

Buying power is less if your crops don’t grow when they should. I remember years when the egg prices were down (since we had laying hens) and crops got hit by too much wind. We got what we needed that winter, but maybe not any extras. Our parents were frugal—not stingy, just careful with money—they learned to stretch what we had.

Another year the crops might fare better and the egg price goes up, then we might get something extra, such as new roller skates. I remember being excited about that conversation when I was about 14 years old.

            Just as our parents cared for our needs, fed and clothed us, and provided anything extra, so too our Heavenly Father takes care of us—through the good times and also the lean times too. Not just our physical needs, but also our spiritual ones, when we let him in, and maybe too when we’re not so aware of the care.

It reminds me of the late winter and early spring when my father was in hospice. It felt somewhat like a wilderness with us wandering around putting in time, unsure how long that would last. We’d asked for prayer, even when we were sometimes not sure how to pray ourselves.

Knowing people were praying for us helped on the sad days when Dad’s physical abilities declined with each day, or our energy flagged with the frequent visits and the rest of life that was going on around us. God was with us. Then on my father’s last day, when the pastor came and gave a bedside service in Dad’s room, I felt God’s care too.

In the Old Testament book, Hosea (13:5), we read, “I cared for you in the wilderness, In the land of drought.”  The earth is dry and desolate and we feel that way too at times.

God knows when we’re feeling sad, discontented and in need of a hug and he often sends someone to do just that, when we need it most. He knows about our wilderness experiences. God knew too that the church full of people come to pay tribute to our father would encourage us, because they cared enough to be there. The calls from others who could not attend have been just as welcome, like water in a drought, even after the funeral is over. It reminds me that people care and that God does too.

 

Carolyn R. Wilker is a writer and editor from southwestern Ontario, where she likes to spend time with family and friends. Having been raised on a farm, she has learned to conserve resources, such as water and to treat the earth with care.

www.carolynwilker.ca