God’s Topshelf

There Are The Forgotten Seeds

Ξ February 28th, 2007 | → Comments Off | ∇ Christian Living, Growing In The Lord, New Christians |

Some years ago, I wrote a devotional called "
The Forgotten Seeds". It’s about some seeds in a packet that I had
bought thinking I would plant them in a couple of days. I put them on a
shelf. Years later, I found them. They were dusty and unused, unplanted.
I had not done a thing with them.

At the time, the Lord gave me the lesson that if you do not use your
talents, prayer time and reading the Bible, those things would be much
like those seeds on the shelf, dusty and unused, growing older. It was a
powerful lesson that I did not soon forget.

Now, several years later, I look back on that same devotional and say
"Ouch!". Seems I forgot the lesson again. God has reminded me that if I
do not use my talent, if I do not pray as I ought to, if I do not read
like I should, these will get dusty. Have you ever felt that way? Are
your talents unused because you have forgotten them or because you do
not have time? Not enough prayer time? No time to read? Too busy?

God asks us all to witness about Jesus. I am in ministry with a website
to teach, enlighten when possible and to uplift. When I do not do what I
am supposed to, someone may not get the word about the Lord. So, I must
get the seeds of the Word of God, dust them off….read my Bible, pray
and start to write what I can about my wonderful Savior.

Are you wasting your seeds? Are they on the shelf getting dusty? Time to
enjoy those seeds. Did you know that the packet of seeds were flowers
that I could have enjoyed all spring and summer if only I had planted
them? Time to plant the Word of God! Time to enjoy the beauty. Time to
be ready for an
abundant harvest.

Lost Tomb Of Jesus? Real? Hoax? Mistake?

Ξ February 26th, 2007 | → Comments Off | ∇ Christian Living, End Times |

James Cameron, of Titanic fame, has made a documentary that, in the
words of ABC news anchor Charles Gibson, strikes at the heart of
Christianity. Frankly, I do not believe that. The documentary is about
an archaeological dig in the 80’s where they uncovered a tomb that had
small coffins in them called "ossuaries" that held bones of family
members. The documentary maintains that these bones belonged to Jesus of
Nazareth, family and son. The original archaeologist disagrees saying
that the names Jesus and Mary were particularly common at the time of
uncovered bones. In addition, he states that the names on the ossuaries
were very difficult to read and hard to interpret.

It seems that James Cameron, whether by mistake or design, is trying to
discredit the beliefs of many hundreds of thousands of Christians. It
may be that he is not doing this deliberately but there are others who
are only too happy to discredit any Christian but are ecstatic to try
discrediting Jesus of Nazareth. However, that is not possible. Jesus is
Who He says He is according to the Bible. There is entirely too much
proof of His existence and His deeds. The only real question is…..did
He die on the cross, get buried and then rise from the dead? My Bible
says yes!!! But you will need to determine that answer for yourself.

The scriptures are quite clear that in the last days (end times) there
will be things coming up that will sway the faith of those who do now
believe. I tried for a long time to figure out what event could possibly
make so many people defect if they were truly dedicated and believed in
the Lord Jesus.

There was a book some years ago, I believe it’s called The Skeleton in
God’s Closet", a fictional account of just this scenario finding what
appeared to be the bones of Jesus. In the end, it proved to be a hoax.
Today, there is another hoax being put forth to the public designed
specifically to destroy the faith of those who are already believers.

The scriptures are also quite clear that there comes a time when there
is a "falling away" (2 Thessalonians 2:3, "Let no man deceive you by any
means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away
first,"). The Greek word for falling away is "apostasia". That says that
there will be people who have proclaimed a belief in the Lord Jesus who
will leave that faith and go against all they have believed, denying the
Lord.

Many folks like to think that this is talking about people who said they
were Christians but were not. However, that does not work here. The word
"apostasia" means to fall away from something or forsake. You cannot
fall away if you never had it to begin with. A person can only forsake
something that they already believed to be true. The question then
becomes…what could possibly make people forsake the Lord? Now we have
come full circle.

Lost Tomb Of Jesus? Real? Hoax? Mistake?

Feb. 26, 2007 — In late 1982, Tova Bracha’s family moved into a
modest apartment in a cluster of cookie-cutter housing units in
Talpiyot, a Jerusalem neighborhood.

A few days after moving in, her children were playing in the
construction debris downstairs and came across what James Cameron’s new
documentary, "The Lost Tomb of Christ," maintains is the tomb of Jesus
and his family.

Two years earlier, Israeli archaeologist Amos
Kloner was the first to find the tomb. He found the tomb and the
ossuaries — the urns or vaults used to hold the bones of the dead —
interesting but of no particular archaeological importance. He said
there are more than 900 buried tombs just like the "Jesus" tomb within a
2-mile radius of Talpiyot. Of them, 71 bear the name Jesus and two
Jesus, son of Joseph. The tomb in Talpiyot is one of them. But the
inscription, he said, was barely decipherable and therefore questionable.

Have they found the bones of Jesus? I say a resounding NO! NO! NO! they
have not. It is a hoax, mistake, or whatever you choose to call it. What
it is not is reality.

This is something that each individual has to face for him/herself. Come
before the Lord, seeking the answers to the questions you ask and He
will give them to you. Ask for forgiveness. That is a
free gift from God. Believe that Jesus died on the cross for
you, personally, and you will find salvation, freedom, safety. However,
if you buy into the belief that the bones of Jesus have now been found,
you will lose more than you can possibly understand or know.

For more information about this and other questions you may have, please
come to my website.

Lura’s
Bookcase

This ministry is determined to tell the truth about the Lord, to teach
about Him, to love Him, to witness of Him. Please come.

My People Are Destroyed For A Lack Of Knowledge

Ξ February 22nd, 2007 | → Comments Off | ∇ Christian Living, Growing In The Lord, New Christians |

In Hosea 4, verse 6 God says that His people are destroyed for a lack of
knowledge. That verse hits me between the eyes. Why? Because each day
that I am on this earth and each day that God allows me one more breath,
I realize that I know absolutely nothing. God is who He is. He is love.
He is compassion. He is righteousness. He is goodness. He is my breath,
my life and all that is in me praises His Name.

Yet, I fail Him day after day, moment after moment when I do not do the
simple things that he asks of me. We need to read our Bibles and study
to "show thyself approved" (2 Timothy 2:15). Know what that means? He is
saying that we must study and learn all we can about our Lord and then
show ourselves to be like Him. Yes, we must seek to copy Him in what we
do and how we think.

Paul also felt that he was doing things that he did not want to do and
not doing the things that he must do. I surely do know exactly what he
meant by that. More often than not, I do not do what I had intended to
do each day. More often than not, I fail my Father in so many ways.

Yet, I must hold onto the promise that Jesus said He would never leave
me nor forsake me. If we do not turn our backs on the Lord, He also does
not turn His back on us or more specifically YOU. If you did turn your
back on Him, seek Him out and come right back to where you belong in
Him. He loves you so much. He desires to have communion with you. That
does not just mean to have the bread and the grape juice. It means to
commune with Him like Adam did. In the cool of the day, the Lord walked
with Adam. They spoke together, they joined in thought together.

Before the fall of Adam and Eve, the Lord and Adam could be together,
talk, walk. There was no barrier, no sin, no devil. All was clear. All
was seen. Nothing hidden. Nothing broken, Nothing gone. You can get to
that place again with the Lord. The problem is that in order to do so,
you must seek His face. The verse says that we perish for a LACK of
knowledge. We must change that. We must fill in the knowledge. It is
time to seek our Lord, His face, not what He can do for you…although
He is willing to help you in all things.

I wrote down a conversation I had with the Lord one day. It has a
strange title but then it was a heart wrenching conversation. Strange is
normal for God. So, here is the conversation in an article called
"If I Scream Will The Trees Hear Me?"

"My people are destroyed for a lack of knowledge" Why? Because we do not
seek Him.

2 Timothy 2:15, "Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that
needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth." Crack
open that Bible and drink and eat. It is time.

Seek God First

Ξ February 19th, 2007 | → Comments Off | ∇ Christian Living, New Christians |

Once again, I have been hit with the fact that I did not seek my Lord
before I did things. It is a constant problem. You know why? Because we
are taught from a very young age to do things ourselves. In fact, we
were rewarded for accomplishing tasks and being self reliant. As I grew
up, I was able to make more and more decisions on my own, some I made
before I was ready, certainly not all wise ones. But it was a learning
experience. After all, there is a big, bad world out there. You must get
ready to face it. You must learn just how rotten things can be and be
able to exist and survive in it.

These days are far worse than when I was a child. At that time, I could
walk by myself to and from school at age 6, crossing streets alone. Why?
Because it was not feared that someone would come along and take a
child. We were taught to cross streets, look out for strangers but that
simply wasn’t a big worry. I was taught to be independent, to do the
tasks set before me in school. It was expected to get homework in on
time. Be responsible. Grow up.

I came to the Lord later than some, in my late twenties. I had a lot of
years being independent and self reliant. But God asks us to seek Him
FIRST before we do anything else. Not an easy task BUT if you do that,
the reward is great. He teaches us to go against almost all of what we
learned as we were growing up. We MUST trust Him and look to Him for all
our needs. We must seek Him when the problems arise. Why? Because if we
do not, we tend to reinvent the wheel in all our mistakes, destined to
repeat each one. God sees things we cannot see. He sees the end from the
beginning. He knows what we are going through and He can deal with the
problems if we will just let Him. But that requires trust.

Isn’t it about time you decided to trust God for everything? Isn’t it
about time you chose to seek Him when you have worries? He can help.
Don’t worry. When you need God, He isn’t on the golf course like your
friends might be. He isn’t sleeping or on vacation. He is right where He
is supposed to be. With you, if you will only let Him into your life.

Selfless Acts of Kindness

Ξ February 17th, 2007 | → Comments Off | ∇ Christian Living, Growing In The Lord, New Christians |

Perhaps the most interesting people these days are those who are willing
to go out on a limb for someone else instead of caring about their own
situations and problems. Thing is, I have noticed that there aren’t that
many people willing to do this anymore.

I was pulling out of a parking space today when someone came up close
and personal to our car so that they had to go by before I could get
out, actually risking an accident if I had not seen them. Not that big a
deal except that they wanted a parking place. They pulled into the one
next to me on the other side. Had they waited for half a moment, allowed
me to continue backing up, they could have had a closer parking space.
But they could not wait those extra few seconds. That would have been
courtesy, something missing these days.

It is a little thing, I admit, but it is typical of people’s thinking.
They MUST do what they need, first, now. I did not mind waiting. I was
in no hurry. It is a sign of the times, however small.

God tells us that we need to love our neighbor as ourselves. There is
the rub. Like ourselves. Most folks love themselves far more than any
neighbor. In fact, many people would mow down the next door neighbor if
Ed McMahon came around to hand out checks to the first people in the
line. Hey, I have GOT to get mine first. Can’t wait on the slow guy.

The Lord IS love. It is His nature to love people. Love flows from the
Father to us abundantly whether we can feel that or not. His love is so
great that He sent His only Son to die for us. When we acknowledge the
Son as our Savior and Lord, we are flooded with the love of God as part
of His family.

So, maybe it is a bit hard to love the neighbor but remember that God
loves that person whether they are lovable or not, just like He loved us
when we were not lovable. How about it? Love your neighbor as you love
yourself and you will be walking in the path God has for you. The
blessings are awesome.

My Bad

Ξ February 16th, 2007 | → Comments Off | ∇ Christian Living |

As you can tell, I have not been as faithful as I would like to be on
this blog. My intention was to write something here each day, hopefully
inspiring and uplifting. Frankly, I have not spent as much time trying
to be uplifting, even to myself, as I have been trying to find silly,
ridiculous or downright assinine stories for a couple of other blogs.
Because of that, this one seems to go wanting. I am going to try and
change that.

If a person does not spend some time studying and praying, they will not
find themselves enlightened by the Lord. It’s that simple. I should
know. God asks that we seek Him first and that if we do that, all those
things we need and desire, as long as they line up with God’s Word, will
be added to you. It’s a promise.

We must find the time to get together with the Lord to discuss our
future. Only He knows what that is. If you are willing to do that, He
will guide you through the good times and the rough ones. Frankly, I
think that rough times are on the way (not here yet, no matter what you
may think) and will only get worse before they get better. The sign to
watch for is when Jesus comes back to rule the planet. THEN and ONLY
THEN will things get better. They might seem to get better now but that
is an illusion. The enemy is on the prowl, walking around, roaring like
a lion but his teeth are pulled. It’s just that he is trying to fake us
out so that we believe he is something he is not.

If we will seek God and walk the path that He has for us, we will be
able to tell when the enemy is lying to us. Otherwise, we are open to
accepting the lies we are told.

I will see you tomorrow with something uplifting and inspiring. I pray I
do anyway. Thank you for reading.

Drop The Guilt

Ξ February 11th, 2007 | → Comments Off | ∇ Christian Living, Growing In The Lord, New Christians |

Today, I was reading someone’s plea for a prayer request. They said they
were born-again but dealing with the problems and faults of their past.
I understand that completely having dealt with such things myself.
However, the first thing that I thought of was that Jesus died on the
cross for those past sins. Why would the past come back to haunt us now?

Just because our past has been forgiven does not mean that we have
forgotten where we were and how far we have come. The problem is that
the past usually comes back because we don’t FEEL forgiven and
we can’t seem to FORGET it.

When I think of my
own past, the first thing that comes to mind is that Jesus really
DID die so that I wouldn’t have to live with my own past sins. He
forgave me! Then, I remember that He said I was a new creation. But the
best thing was that God forgets what we have done when we ask for that
forgiveness.

So, today is the time to rededicate ourselves to the Lord Jesus. Today
is the day we decide that the past needs to stay where it belongs. Yes,
we do have to live with the consequences of our actions but they do not
have to rule our lives. We can live beyond that and come to a place
where Jesus is the Lord of our lives. When that happens, you
seek His Face and follow Him whereever He leads. The past is just
something that the enemy shows us to get us to focus on it instead of
focusing on the Lord.

Hey, the next time the devil gets in your face about your past, how
about getting back in his and telling him about his future?!!!! Makes
him take a hike! And THAT is a blessing indeed.

Cabbie Gets 30 Cent Tip For Good Deed

Ξ February 9th, 2007 | → Comments Off | ∇ Christian Living, End Times, Growing In The Lord, New Christians |

The N.Y. cabbie was doing the right thing. He found 31 diamonds in his
cab that a lady passenger had left behind. Now, what would you have
done? The right thing is to return them whether there is a reward or
not. That is exactly what the driver did. It took quite a bit of time
for him to track down the passenger. He remembered that his $11 fair
tipped him 30 cents. Having been a taxi driver in my youth, I do know
that the tip was excruciatingly small and totally thoughtless of the
lady. Yet, he was willing to still do the right thing and return the
possession.

Anyway, he found the passenger and returned the diamonds, which would
have been a devastating loss to her. For his efforts, he was rewarded
with $100 for the return of what must have been thousands of dollars
worth of diamonds. Ah well. She certainly didn’t want to give this guy a
big head, did she?

All of this reminds me that our Lord requires us to be at our best,
whether we are in company or home alone where no one can see us. He
knows that what we do in secret will one day be revealed in the Light,
both good and evil. We are to learn to walk the path of the Lord and
walk in His Light. It sounds easy, doesn’t it. I realize that it is not.
But it is essential to our growth as Christians. We must be the same
today and tomorrow. We cannot put on our "company face" for others and
expect God to honor that. It doesn’t fly. Not honorable.

So, today is a great day to rededicate your life to the Lord, working on
honoring Him in all you do. Remember, you are God’s witness at home,
where you work, where you party, with your family and friends or while
you are shopping. It matters not where you are. It matters how you act.
Are you a good witness for the Lord?

Thank you for coming to see
me. I invite you to my website where there are many articles, stories
and poems to honor our Lord and to help you grow in your Christian walk.
Please come to Lura’s Bookcase.

Faithful Pray Around Fla. Church Rubble

Ξ February 5th, 2007 | → Comments Off | ∇ Christian Living, Growing In The Lord |

This is one of those stories that some people just do not understand. I
do understand it and love reading about it. These folks had a most
difficult time. Their church was demolished by a tornado in the recent
weather activity in Florida. The fact is they were down but not out. So,
instead of sitting around crying over the problem, they decided to get
up and do something about it. You have to admire such love of family,
friends and community but more importantly, the Lord.

I am just going to invite you to read this article of praise and faith:

Faithful Pray Around Fla. Church Rubble

LADY LAKE, Fla. (AP) - Gospel singing and shouts of "Hallelujah!"
competed with the sounds of hammers, chain saws and dump trucks Sunday
as parishioners of a church obliterated by a tornado gathered around the
rubble to remember the dead and pray for the strength to rebuild.

The Lady Lake Church of God’s splintered wreckage has become a
rallying point in this rural area of central Florida hit hard by three
tornadoes that killed 20 people and destroyed hundreds of homes early
Friday.

This is a witness to faith in our Lord and strength in those wonderful
people.

For more information, please come to my website…
Lura’s Bookcase

We have articles, poems and stories to help you in your
growth as a Christian. Thank you for visiting.

Honorable Police Chief Sites Self With Fine

Ξ February 4th, 2007 | → Comments Off | ∇ Christian Living, Growing In The Lord, New Christians |

It isn’t often that the news shows that there are still some good,
honorable, truth telling folks out there but there certainly are. The
story is that the police officer was patrolling and failed to see a
school bus in time and passed it, which is against the law in all
states. This Wisconsin Chief decided to do what any officer would do
when he saw a violation of the law, he ticketed the guilty
party….himself.

Our Lord makes it clear that it is honor that He requires from His own
and He rewards those who are willing to be an honorable witness.

Rom 2:10 But He will give glory, honor and peace to every man who works
good, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.

Rom 12:9-10 Let love be without hypocrisy, shrinking from evil, cleaving
to good; in brotherly love to one another, loving fervently, having led
one another in honor.

Without honor, we cannot please our Lord. So, let us strive to attain
honor in all we do. The officer that was in the story did not care
whether anyone saw him or not. He knew that he had done something wrong
so he took care of it in the most honorable way possible. What we do in
secret will someday be known in the Light. It is so important that we be
the same in private that we are in public, honorable.

For more on the story about the Police Chief of the Wisconsin town,
please go to:

Wis. Police
Chief Tickets Himself $235

For more information on
Christian living, new
Christians,
becoming a Christian or
end times, please go to my website at
Lura’s Bookcase where you will find many articles and stories to answer
your questions. Thank you for coming to Topshelf.