November 6th: Am I For or Against Jesus?

Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.   

 

John 14:6 KJV

 

I received an email yesterday from a very prominent Christian leader encouraging me to vote Christian values on November 6th.  So, I’ve been thinking, what are my Christian values?  And, of them, which one is most important?

My choices in this election are not ideal.  Neither candidate fully represents me and what I believe.  So, I’m left with picking the lesser of two evils.  I must choose the candidate who will do the least harm as my President.  Why do I say this?  I’ll tell you.

One candidate believes in the right to choose whether or not a woman gives birth and that marriage can take place between any two people regardless of their sex.  The other candidate believes in a religion that denies the deity of Jesus.  So, which candidate should I pick?  Well, that depends on what belief I feel is most important.

I’ve asked myself several questions to get to the heart of what I believe to be the foundation of a Christian.  Questions, such as, can a woman who has an abortion still enter heaven?  Will a Mormon who is pro-life enter heaven? Finally, what would Jesus do?

As I asked myself the questions about abortions and being a Mormon, I found that a woman who has an abortion, but accepts Jesus as her Lord and Savior, will go to heaven.  However, a Mormon who fights to stop abortions, but does not accept Jesus as her Lord and Savior, will not enter heaven.  At the end of her life, in spite of all the good she did here on this earth, she will burn in the lake of fire for eternity.

I came to the realization that of all the issues before me, the most important one is the eternal state of our souls.  I had to ask myself why was there ever any question to begin with?  When did these social issues become more important to me than Jesus?  I reminded myself that the foundation of a Christian has and always will be Jesus Christ and His Lordship.  How could I ever vote for a candidate who does not believe Jesus saved me?  As a Christian, my God has commanded me to go out and tell the world about the saving, healing power of Jesus.  My pastor tells us that placing the jewel of a soul in the crown of Jesus Christ is our highest calling.  If this be the case, then why on God’s green earth would I vote for a candidate who rejects Jesus?

Do I want to put a candidate in the white house who, merely by being president, will influence a soul to choose to be a Mormon and thereby go to hell?  When I ask the question, what would Jesus do?; I’m really asking would Jesus vote against Himself?  Would He put a leader in the white house whom would cause someone’s child or those still “undecided” about Christ to reject His saving power?  No, I think not.  I cannot imagine Jesus voting against Himself.  Neither will I.  I will vote the highest Christian value there is on November 6^th.  I will vote for Jesus.

Peace be with you…

India N. Keith

Minding My Own Business

Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?
Matthew 6:27 NIV

About a month ago, give or take a week, the Spirit of Prophecy (http://ft111.com/ ) had a word that really resonated with me.  In it, the Lord talked about anxiety.  He said that we should view anxiety as something outside of our boundaries; something we do not have any right to entertain.  The Lord said His children need to understand that anxiety is none of our business.  I laughed out loud when I read it.  I felt spanked and relieved at the same time! 

This meant I did not have to be anxious about anything anymore because it was not a part of my life.  I also felt like God was telling me to knock off all the worrying I’d been doing because it was wasting my time and His. 

 

Lately, I’ve been making a conscious effort to remind myself to mind my own business.  You see, my business does not include anxiety in any way.  It’s definitely a process to get to where He’s calling us, but well-worth it.  The circumstances of life still exist.  However, the peace and calm I’ve been able to tap into during times of pressure help me want to mind my own business daily!

I just had to tell somebody.

Peace be with you…

 

India N. Keith

In Your Element

Let the LORD be magnified, which has pleasure in the prosperity of his servant.
Psalm 35:27b

Recently, I have been in awe of the many abilities of God’s people.  My husband and I watched a track and field competition the other week.  I think the athletes were trying to qualify for the Olympics.  To see the women and men move around that track as naturally as if they were breathing was beautiful.  And then I saw the contestants on So You Think You Can Dance.  The young men and women were so graceful and agile.  They could do things with the human body most of us will never do in a lifetime.  Over the weekend I watched HGTV.  There is this show called Cash and Cari.  This woman re-purposes items and facilitates estate sales for the living.  At one point she talked about what she does and I tell you her eyes were gleaming.  The joy she described as she searched through dark, dirty, cellars, basements, barns, etc for a gem was just beautiful.  Cari set a goal of how much she anticipated the estate sales to make at the start of each show and never fell short of her goal.  It must have been a marathon because I had to watch half a dozen episodes or so.  I’m not one for antique shopping and the like, but I was captivated by how well she did what she did.  I could not stop watching.

I’ve heard people say a person is in their element.  I’ve even said it myself.  I’m not sure I really stopped to think about what that means.  Nevertheless, I’ve been getting a wake up call.  I really hear God speaking loudly to me about doing what you do best and loving it.  God is proud when He sees us doing what He gifted us to do in an excellent way.  It wasn’t that I have never seen a person run a race or watched people dance before.  What struck me and still plays in my mind is the perfection of the gift.  The athletes, dancers and designer had developed their gift to such an extent the gift had become alive. God loves to see this.  God is happy when we are prospering in our gifts.

Doing what God has gifted me to do with excellence is something I’m working toward.  And, considering I’m not alone in this pursuit, I will be successful.  I just have to keep perfecting the gift.  I know those women didn’t wake up one morning and run 400 meters in less than 2 minutes and those dancers didn’t learn to glide effortlessly through the air in one day.  It took practice and years of it for some.  I shouldn’t think I will be excellent without practice either.  Practice, in some cases, does make perfect.  I’ve seen it.

Peace be with you…

India N. Keith

Creating Your World

“There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven”

Ecclesiastes 3:1 NIV

You know how God has been telling us He would like us to enjoy the pleasure of life.  I have been trying to figure out how I get to that point and still complete everything I need to get done for my family and ministry and myself.  Well, this morning it became very clear.  One can not have freedom with out planning it first.  It seemed a bit oxymoronish, but it is true.

You see I realized this morning that my day goes by so fast and I don’t get anything accomplished if I have no plan.  This may seem elementary to some of you, but it was a real eye opener for me.  I have to make sure I have a plan for each and every day if I want to enjoy the freedom of life my way. 

I simply can not afford to waste my time.  Otherwise, I feel like I miss out on all the fun stuff because I have so much housework to do or I’m feeling guilty for basking in the rays while my kitchen sink is full of dishes.  I am finding that to create the life I want, I must view my housewife and mother duties as a full-time job. 

When I worked outside of the home, I knew what the days looked like.  I had a start and end time to my day, I had deadlines-some self-imposed others given to me.  I knew how to finish what needed to be finished by the deadlines.  It was a dancing game some days, but it was fun.  I enjoyed the programs I had the opportunity to create and the people I encountered in my role.  Of course, there were parts of the job that I did not like very much, but you get that with any job.

So it is with my new life.  All of the same rules apply just in a different arena.  I must have a start and end to my day.  I must pace myself so as to get what needs to be done completed in a timely fashion.

To be successful and enjoy the pleasures of life there are four things I must have in my tool box:  Organization, Discipline, Efficiency and Consistency.  Without these four traits I can not enjoy the good life.

My world requires me to organize my days projects, be disciplined enough to complete them when I don’t feel like it, be efficient enough to get things done during my babies 20 minute naps and consistently start and end each day with prayer.

As Paul said, I’m not there yet, but I’m better than I used to be.

Hope you are too!

Peace be with you…

India N. Keith

Time Well Spent

I woke up this morning with a message from the Lord.  He is concerned about how we are spending our time.  It’s not that we’re not busy doing things.  We are very busy.  He wants us to know we are too busy to enjoy the time He has given us.

As I was contemplating all of this I popped a movie in the DVD player called Eat Pray Love.  Julia Roberts stars as the main character Liz.  The book has to be phenomenal because the movie gripped me from the first scene.  God really wanted me to watch this movie this morning.  I learn from movies.  I also learn from books.  These are the two surest ways for me to get a point and He knows it.

His message to us today is about our time and what we should be doing with it.  These are some of the things that please Him…

Be Your Real Self

We spend so much time focused, even consumed, by the mundane, energy-sapping trappings of a commercial life.  But, is it really the life we want or the life someone said we were supposed to have?  There is a line in the movie Eat Pray Love where the main characters love interest tells her to stop waiting for something to happen.  That is so true!  How many times do we sit around waiting for something to happen instead of going out and making it happen?  You create the life you want with each moment you live.  You decide your life by what you do with your time.  Make good use of your time.  We’re all unique and created to marvel in that uniqueness.  People say Christians are boring.  Maybe we are, but we’re not supposed to be.  We’re supposed to give ourselves to our own personality.  My way of living doesn’t have to look like yours.  It just has to have one singular purpose; to glorify God.  How we do that is our choice to make. 

Failing Wonderfully!

I’m loving my life right now.  It’s the life I asked God for and He gave it to me.  I must add that I did ask Him for His will over my will just in case I was not listening very well!  I’ve learned that His will for my life is so much better than anything I could think of for myself.  So, when I saw an opportunity to do what I wanted with my life, I took it.  I could have kept waiting to do what I’m doing now.  I tried it once before and failed miserably.  But, like the medicine man said in Eat Pray Love “Ruin is a gift.  Ruin is the road to transformation.”  I would not be where I am now if I had not experienced a form of ruin in the past.    Yes, it did transform my life.  I did not embrace all of the experience when deep in the heart of the work of the transformation.  I actually cried and fretted a lot.  Now I see how much it was necessary to my growth.  In the book On Becoming A Leader, Warren Bennis interviews a successful leader Marty Kaplan.  Kaplan attributes much of his success to his ability to have an “appetite for experience.”  He goes on to say that one needs to have “…a kind of fearlessness and optimism and confidence, and you’re not afraid of failure.”  You see--failing is a perfectly good use of your time!

Selfless Devotional Work

What’s yours?  Our time should be spent doing something for others.  We are supposed to help someone in need.  How we help is up to us.  Opening our hearts to hear what that is from our source, our creator, is an excellent use of our time.  If you are already listening, good for you!  If not, give it try.  Your whole life will be better for it.  And, you just might make a world of difference in somebody’s life.

God says to us today: use your time wisely.  Don’t waste it. Cherish it.  Love it.  Enjoy it.  I give it to you for your pleasure.  Time is what you make of it.  Make it good!

Peace be with you,

India N. Keith

His Day

 

I had an interesting experience yesterday.  I was planning what I was going to do for the day, which was basically give the house an overhaul, when I got up to get started and heard “No.”  I stopped for a second to make sure I heard this and then I heard “This is My day.”  Okay, I thought Lord.  Well, what am I supposed to do on your day.  He said, “Sit down.”  From that point forward, at different points throughout the day, He shared with me what He wanted me to be doing.  God instructed me to clean on Monday.  He wanted me to rest, watch World Harvest Live, play with the kids, not watch TV, spend time outside, eat dinner at the table as a family and enjoy the day. 

I guess the thing that threw me was that what He wanted me to do seemed like a lot of play when I had so much housework to do.  I was thinking that getting the house in order for my family was giving Him glory when it was actually not His hearts desire for me.  What I learned as the day went on was that He wanted me to worship Him with my time.   God desired for me to seek Him first to learn how He wanted me to spend my time and then go worship Him His way.

Yesterday was a great reminder that we can get really busy thinking we are doing something for the Lord when we are actually far off base.  He has a plan for us everyday, but especially on His Day.

Have you asked Him how He wants you to worship Him on His Day?  Not just during your church services, but before and after church service.

I learned that the whole entire day is important to Him. 

Peace be with you…

India

LOVE IS...

I Corinthians 13:4-8 NIV

Love:

• Is Patient
• Is Kind
• Rejoices with the Truth
• Always Protects
• Always Trusts
• Always Hopes
• Always Perseveres
• Never Fails

Love is not:

• Envious
• Boastful
• Proud
• Rude
• Self-seeking
• Easily Angered
• Keeping Record of Wrongs
• Delightful in Evil

Do a heart check today.  Which are you more of?  If you are more of Love is not, Love more.  If you are more of Love, Love more.

I know there are easy people to love and then there are the hard ones.  We must love them both.  Without this most important character trait, we can win the Nobel Peace Prize and still not bring joy to the Father’s heart.

If you love Him, love them.

I’m doing a heart check today.  I hope you do to.

Peace be with you,

India N. Keith