October 31 2015

October 31 2015 Greetings My Friend I am getting ready to move into my day. One of the first thoughts I have is what can I make for lunch and soup comes to mind. While thinking about what kind of homemade soup I will make I find myself reflecting on one of my favorite stories “Stone Soup.” One day a poor man decides to throw some stones into a pan of water and places it on the fire. Soon people stop by and see the pan on the fire, they ask “What are you making?” He replies “stone soup.” Afterward they go off and come back with potatoes, vegetables, meat and spices to add to the stones and water. In the end soup is made for all to eat. More often than not this story runs through my mind each time I make soup. I think things like “a little feeds many, someone grew the vegetables, another grew the herbs and still another tended the cattle. I see how God brings others into our lives some to provide food for the stomach. I also see how special people appeared in my life when I was in need. Other times I see where the food I had also provided for others. I also see that the pot of soup is soon gone and once more I am thinking of making another pot of soup. Feeding our bodies is a daily requirement to be healthy and slowly I see that God is also the bread of life. For the longest time I associated “bread of life” with food for the body and I truly saw the need. What it took forever to grasp is that we also need to fill our “spirits”. In my younger years I felt there were many ways to find inner peace. God was always at the back of my mind but I felt we could get to Him through various ways. I was big on the Eastern religions and honestly I would sit in church thinking cleansing type thoughts. I wandered for an hour all over in my mind and I felt I had given God my worship. Later when I did not find the peace I so desperately wanted with all these “positive” ideas I found myself at rock bottom. In the pit of despair I finally began talking to God with my heart and my pain and my fear. For the first time I started “hearing” God. I was challenged to read my Bible and I was afraid that it was too deep for me. I started reading it anyway. I learned to pray “Open my eyes and heart to You and grow me to look like Jesus.” Slowly as I read day in and day out passages seemed to jump out at me. reading the Bible all the way through one year I saw God’s love for us even in the OT. I saw God teaching tiny step by tiny step. I saw His people time and again fall off the wagon so to speak and after a period of correction God was teaching, loving and leading. I have a deep love for King David. He loved God so much and God kept growing David’s faith in His provision. Then one day King David sinned big time. He saw a woman bathing on a rooftop, called for her, slept with her and sent her off. She informed him that she was pregnant. Her husband was in David’s service and eventually had her husband killed. He then took this woman as his wife. God sent Nathan the prophet to David to let David know God knew what he did. I see David repenting deeply. He knew what he did was wrong, he admitted it from his heart. David paid a great price for his sin, he lost the child. Later God gave Bathsheba another baby and one day he was to take his father’s place. I learn that we all will fall and if we are sincere in our repenting God is faithful and just and will forgive us. We can’t keep doing what we once did and we can be forgiven through Jesus. I think the original stone soup was “God loving us so much that He sent his only son that whoever believes in Him shall not die but have everlasting life.” I hear again “Go forth baptizing all nations in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost.” May God bless you and you make His face shine on you. Love Jane