Paperclip Faith

A paperclip on a hot, asphalt parking lot.

“Life is like a paperclip, you have to bend yourself in circles to hold on to what you know.” 

~Laurie Beth Jones~

            My daughter texted: “What’s the meaning behind the paperclip?”

            Awww, she remembers, I thought.

            Years ago, there was a time when it seemed as though anywhere I went I found a paperclip on the ground, the sidewalk, a parking lot, the floor of the grocery store, the bank, the school, the church - EVERYWHERE! At supper one night, I asked my kids and husband, "Do y’all find paperclips everywhere you go???”

            They all looked at me as if I had four eyes and said, “It’s okay, Mama. Just eat something or drink some water. You’re probably just hungry, or dehydrated, or delirious, or maybe a little nuts!”

            A few weeks later, I was reading Laurie Beth Jones’ Jesus in Blue Jeans and ran across her quote: “Life is like a paperclip, you have to bend yourself in circles to hold on to what you know.”

            Ah-ha! I’m not crazy! There is meaning behind this madness!

“Lord, what’s up with the paperclips?” I asked.

“Break down the quote and look it up in My Book,” the Lord replied.

·      BEND: “But He gives a greater grace. Therefore it says, ‘God is opposed to the proud, but gives grace to the humble.’  Submit (bend) therefore to God…”

(James 4:6-7)

·      HOLD ON- “Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful!” 

(Heb. 10:23)

·      KNOW- “More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord...” 

(Phil. 3:8)

            So the next time you randomly find a paperclip (like the one I found today that is pictured above), join the “Paperclip-Faith Club" and heed God’s call to bend, hold fast, and know Him!   

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Pass It On!

Jesus loves the little children!

“for it is God who is working in you, enabling you both to desire and to work out His good purpose.” 
(Phil. 2:13 HCS)

            Throughout the month of June, I get to tell Bible stories to mamas and their precious kids in three communities around Birmingham. Tuesday in Woodlawn, we had several women but only one little girl show up, but we still sang the hymn with motions and told the story of Abraham and Isaac just as if that room had been overflowing with little children.

            The Holy Spirit softly nudged, “Now, encourage these women to take a coloring sheet home and find a child to share Jesus with this week.” 

            One lady asked for four sheets!

            May all that God pours into us gush out to others!

Jesus said, “He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, ‘From his innermost being will flow rivers of living water!” (John 7:38)

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Search and Rescue Team

"A little love can change a life!" - Max Lucado
(Phillip baptizing one of our "Wednesday kids")

“Grace is love that cares and stoops and rescues.”

~John R. W. Stott~

On a Wednesday evening in the late 1990s, some teenagers were skateboarding in our church parking. When Phillip and I tried to invite them to the youth group, they ran and we chased – into the building, down the hallways, back outside, around the parking lot. Huffing and puffing, we cried, “Stop!” They did.

Although the four guys and three girls refused to go into the youth service, they agreed to meet with us on Wednesday nights. That group of seven skaters soon grew to over fifty teens! For a valuable season of time, we got to love on, pray for, and teach those kids about God and the Bible.

Then just as quickly as that door had opened, it closed on another Wednesday night three years later.

Late last night, I got a text:

“I’m engaged to be married. I had to find out if Phil is able to perform wedding ceremonies since you and him brought me closer to God, baptized me, and brought (church) to my attention.”

Join Jesus’ search and rescue team today! For “God sees not as man sees, for man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart” (1 Sam. 16:7 NASB) because Jesus loves ALL the little children of the world!

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Super-heroes!

Our Superman!

 

Encourage one another and build each other up!” (1 Thess. 5:11)

At the beach, our three-year-old grandson told our daughter, “Mama, Granddaddy’s a super-hero.” After a pause, he added, "Memaw says he's a super-hero!"

These days, you only have to watch a few minutes of television commercials or sit-coms to see the dad portrayed as the poor, numskull-ignoramus who's lost without the "wise counsel" of his wife and kids. The family patriarch is often discredited, torn down, underrated, belittled, and lampooned! Shame on our society!

 Check out your words and actions toward your husband or dad. Do you make him feel like Superman or Blockhead?

                            "...love builds up!" (1 Cor. 8:1)

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Perfect Plans with Detailed Instructions

"As for God, His way is perfect: the Lord's WORD is flawless..." (Psalm 18:30)

While toying with the idea of building a river cabin, we believe God told us exactly what to do through Proverbs 24:27: “Complete your outdoor work, and prepare your field; afterward, build your house.” SO, my Paul-Bunyan man chopped down the trees, pulled up the stumps, and cut the trunks into firewood, and his pioneer woman (me) burned the branches. 
     In Gen. 2:16, God instructed Adam, "From any tree of the garden you may eat freely; but from the tree of the knowledge of good, and evil, you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you will surely die!" Now the serpent was more crafty than any beast of the field which the Lord had made. And he said to the woman..."You surely will not die!" (Gen. 3:1,4)
     What ideas are you toying with? Ask the Lord, the only wise, all-knowing God, and He’ll give you perfect plans with detailed instructions! And BEWARE, of voices that contradict God's WORD! "There is a way which seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death." (Proverbs 14:12)

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