God's Heart Is A Firefighter.

Recently Laura and I have been reading through the book of James together before bedtime. Last night we studied chapter three which is all about having untamed tongues. In verse five of chapter three James said "So also the tongue is a small member, yet it boasts of great things. How great a forest is set ablaze by such a small fire!". When we read this I was instantly reminded of when people say "Don't burn your bridges", and it got me thinking, how many bridges are burned down in our lives because of our untamed tongue? Whether they are friendships, ministry opportunities, relationships with family members, or even relationships within the work place. The tongue is a direct line to the heart and most of the time we don't think about the repercussions of our actions at the time that we are gossiping, lying, cursing, cheating, or even disobeying by not saying what God wants us to say. In verse nine he said "With it we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse people who are made in the likeness of God." I don't know why as human beings we are inclined to esteem ourselves higher than one another but when it comes down to it, we were all created in the likeness of the true and living God. We should be lifting each other up with our words, sticking up for each other when the other one is not around. Imagine the conflict that would be deflated if we just didn't speak badly about one another, imagine the fires that would be put out. After I read this chapter I started praying that God would give me HIS heart for HIS people and that rather than starting fires, I would be on a mission to extinguish the fires that I come across (or have already started). After all, God's heart is the ultimate firefighter.

Life's A Treat

Every night when Laura and I are ready to go to bed we bring the dog inside and put him in his cage. It is routine that we put the dog in the cage, he sits down, and we give him his treat. The bag of treats comes with about 40 treats per bag so it lasts us a little over a month. Normally we make our trip to Wal-Mart to by the treats when we notice that we are getting low. This month was an exception, due to a temporary lack of funds we actually ran out of treats. The night that we ran out was like every other night as far as Zeke was concerned, he came inside, went straight for his cage, and sat down. He looked at me with such certainty, having full faith that in a couple of seconds he would get his delicious treat. I was sad to let him down so I got on my hands and knees to his level and started hugging him and kissing him. That night really got me thinking, if you think about it, life is like a bag of treats, we have no idea when we are going to run out of time or why. When Zeke had his last treat he ate it with tremendous speed (just like every other night), he had no idea that would be his last one for a while. I drew a parallel to my life and how I take every day for granted. If I knew for certain that this day would be my last, how would I spend it? What really matters in life? We are not guaranteed tomorrow so we must live like today is our last.