Wednesday, December 31, 2008

Prodigal Son


I think everyone has a time in their life
in which they have said or done something
they shouldn't have. Making a mends is one
of the hardest things I think any us can
ever do. I know it is for me, because I don't
like to admit that I'm wrong.

We are people of pride and honor, and
making a mends typically means someone has
to admit to making a mistake. What you should
realize is that when that person comes to you, and
comes to you before you go to them, they are
humbling themselves before you. They are the
ones that humbled themselves to come to you, and
take blame. Most likely it's not even all of their
fault or might not be their fault at all.

We should not make that hard for anyone to do.
I'm thankful that God doesn't make that hard for
me to do. I know that I'm guilty of making it
hard for someone else to do to me. Then I tend to
guard my heart a little closer, not truly trust
that person the way I used to.

Time and time again I have heard a
pastor say that we tend to think that God is
waiting there to strike us down with lightning
every time we do something wrong. What if God
guarded his heart the way I guard mine? He took
the punishment for my sins, and we can't accept
an apology and give people the chance to move
forward.

But he's not, he loves us with a love far greater
than any love we can imagine or even truly
feel ourselves. When you come to Christ, humbly,
and asking for forgiveness, I can only imagine the
overwhelming joy in his heart. We expect Christ
to do that for us, but we don't think we should
do it for anyone else.

I wonder how Christ feels when he sees someone
come before us with a humble, forgiving heart, and
we lay down guide lines for the way things are
going to work if we are going to forgive. Do you
think he looks at us and shakes his head, and says
the only guide lines I have for you is to love your
neighbor as you love yourself and love Jesus. I don't
think we would set guidelines for our self, the way
we set guidelines for other people.

Christ says all we have to do is believe in him, and
we will have eternal life. WOW! I think it's time
to quit setting guidelines, accept forgiveness,
and move forward in our relationships.For those
asking for forgiveness, once you have asked, you
are free from whatever is holding you down. Those
that choose not to forgive you, they will have
to answer to God.

Let the New Year be a year of forgiveness, whether
it be asking or granting. Let's love people the way
Christ loves us. We all screw up, we should
understand that if we want to be forgiven we have
to first forgive.

I hope you all have a Happy New Year.
I am blessed with so many great friends
and loved ones. I wish you all the best, and
thank you for your love and friendship.

Love Angie Duke

Tuesday, December 30, 2008

What has changed????


Whenever something tragic happens
I'm quick to examine my life.
What more could I have done?
What more could I have said?
It becomes an eye opener
of things you could do different.

Only thing is, that as time goes by
those same questions seem to fade.
And before you know it
A year has gone by
and nothing in your life has really changed.

The song called "Celebrate The Day"
says..and here is where your finding
me, in the exact same place as New Years Eve
and from the lack of my persistencey were
less than half as close as I wanna be.

So I'm reexamining my life once again.
New Years Eve is approaching,
we have lost family on January 1st, 2nd, and 3rd.
I don't want to find myself asking the
same old questions next year or when someone
else dies.

Are you exactly where you were a year ago?
Have you done anything in the last year
to reach out to someone else?
What have you done in the last year for Christ?
What can you do in the next year?

Sit down, and write it out....
Your goals for the next year.
Stick it some place you can look
at every single day.
So maybe next year we are more than
half as close as we want to be.

Make 2009 better than 2008.
Lets reach more people,
say what needs to be said,
do what needs to be done.
Lets feel as though we have
truly made a difference in someone's life.

Sunday, December 28, 2008

The Silence



Silence....what an intense word. What lies within the silence? I was thinking today about a song by Caedmons Call called "Center Aisle". In this song it talks about someone who committed suicide. What was so bad in life, that someone would want to take their own life. What if the phone could have rang in the five minutes it took for someone to kill them self, or kill someone else. Maybe it's not even to that extreme, maybe in the five minutes it takes to make some really bad decisions, you wish you wouldn't have made, what if someone would have knocked on the door. How many of those things could we have diverted just by breaking the silence.
It's been almost a year since my friend died. I still question my silence. I knew he was sick that day, I wish I would have been more influential in his life. I wish I would have made him go to the doctor. But I didn't, I know it's not my fault, he was sick and maybe it was just his time to go. Did I truly show enough of the love of Christ to him? He was one messed up person, he was gay, he was addicted to pain pills. Did I really do enough? Maybe he would have never listened, I don't know. I know that I wasn't expecting him to die within an hour from which I saw him. My husband reminds me that there was nothing I could have done, but it reminds me that I don't know what lies within even 30 minutes time. Whatever you need to say, you need to say it now. Whatever you think God is telling you to do, you need to do it now.

At Wal-Mart we have this little thing we call the ten foot rule. Anyone within ten feet of you, you are suppose to greet and ask them if they need help with anything. This is to help to divert people from stealing. What if we practiced that ten foot rule in everyday life? You never know when it could help prevent people from making bad decisions. Shake a hand, give a smile, or "hey, is there anything I can help you with," might be the very thing that saves a life, or prevents someone from making one of those five minute bad decisions.

Do you have times when someone is around you, they are silent and their hearts seem heavy? You can tell that the weight of the world is on their shoulders, and instead of reaching out to them, we ignore what we see. It's time we break the silence, it's time we reach out to the broken hearted, it's time we open up our own hearts and quit being silent to everyone else. Quit wondering why you didn't get a second chance, use the chance God gave you. That second chance may never come.

Saturday, December 27, 2008

Does Christ care more about TV's than you



I was listening to Rick Warren on C-Span today and was amazed at his simplicity and humbleness. He wrote a book called Purpose Driven Life, in which most of us probably own. It has sold more copies than any book ever, and is written in more languages than any book other than the bible. This book has made Rick Warren a wealthy man. However, he chooses to live in the same house he has lived in for 16 years, he chooses to wear a watch he bought at Wal-Mart, and he chooses to drive a 10 year old Ford Truck. He also chooses to no longer receive a salary from his church, and he paid back to his church 25 years of the salary they paid to him. As if that is not enough, he now tithes not 10 not 20 not even 30 percent, but he tithes 90 percent of what he makes and lives off of 10. Not to mention the charities that he has started to help other people. He reminds me a little of Rich Mullins, only Rich Mullins sold everything he owned.

Why did they do this? Because they did not want to be consumed by materialism. They did not want to take away from what they could give to someone else to further the work of Christ. Francis Chan is another great preacher that lives a very simple life. He to in reverse of the world, he chose to down size his house, and move into something smaller rather than something bigger. He chooses to only accept a salary of about $36,000 a year, from a church that takes in millions. Why, because every penny that he doesn't consume on useless things, helps further the work of Christ. Helps feed the hungry, and reach out to people in need.

What kind of life are you choosing to live. I admit I have chosen some pretty stupid things. I did not need to go out and eat at Chili's today. God has blessed my pantry to be full of food, how many people could I have fed just by choosing to not go out and eat. Some people choose to buy things far nicer than what they actually need to get the job done. How many lives are being neglected so we can have a $50 shirt from A & F, when you can get a shirt for $15 somewhere else. How much do you really need a $400 cell phone. It's real easy to waste money when the people that need it more than you need to look good, is not sitting right in your face. How many people are we stepping over, and over looking, so we can buy something that makes us look cool.

What if Christ overlooked you because he really wanted that 70 inch plasma TV. I guess that sounds pretty silly when you say it like that. Of course Christ would never care more for a TV or a Cell Phone, more than he cares for us. So why do we think he wants us to act any different? Food is food, when I was a kid we didn't eat at restaurants or even fast food for that matter. If we did, we did it maybe once a month. When we did do it, we appreciated it, unlike people today. Today eating out is normal. Some people even eat out every day of the week. I admit, I am guilty, but God has been speaking to me today. I need to change some things in my life. I need to spend less on stupid stuff, and give more to God. If you don't think you can do it, your wrong. You can do it, it's just about whether you choose to do it or not.

I want to be a Rich Mullins, I want to be a Francis Chan, I want to be more like Jesus. Don't YOU? It's time we shed the arrogance in our lives, and put on the armour of God. It's time to quit saying, I really wish I could do more, and just do more. It is easier for a humble man to win souls to Christ than an arrogant one. People watch you more than you think. What do you think they see when they watch you?

Thursday, December 25, 2008

My Christmas Memory

The presents are unwrapped, everyone is playing with their new toys. But for me the joy of Christmas has nothing to do with presents. I have a big family. My parents are 2 among 23 brothers and sisters. You add their spouses, their kids, their kids kids, Christmas was a big family get together. Houses so packed you could hardly find a place to sit. We would sit on beds, floors, couches and chairs, front porch, anywhere there was an available space was filled by someone. Christmas at my grandparents was never about getting presents. If you did get anything it was a pair of socks out of a big package of socks, or underwear that also came from a big package that my grandma tried to distribute amongst all of the grand kids. Shopping for 30 grand kids, even just buying socks and underwear can get pretty expensive. My grandma always tried to get us a little something. That's probably wear my big heart comes from. But the presents did not matter. It was all of the time we spent with our family. As a kid, being able to be around 60 other kids, was awesome. Of course they were not all kids. Some of my cousins are old enough to be my parents. My parents are the baby's of the big family's, so that makes us the baby's of the cousins.
Anyway, all of my grandparents have passed away, and those big family get togethers do not exist anymore. But every Christmas Eve we go to my parents house, and Matt's mom joins us as well. For many years it is tradition that all of the kids sit in the floor, and my dad sits in his big recliner and gets out the big bible. This bible he received when his mother passed away, its one of those big hard cover Bible's with a big picture of Jesus on the inside. He reads the story of the birth of Jesus. We are not allowed to touch the presents without sitting and listening to him read the story first. I have photo after photo, from year to year, the kids have grown in size and in number. I sat and watched my 16 year old nephew, the oldest of the kids, find his normal spot in the floor so he could hear his papa read the Christmas Story. This year, eleven kids sat in the floor, all from the ages of 3 months to 16 years. I told my husband that I never tire of seeing all of those kids sitting at my dad's feet while he talks to them about Jesus. I hope that it is something that they carry in their hearts forever.
I didn't even want to leave last night. I miss being surrounded by the big family. The hugs, the I love yous, and just hanging out together. I cherished every single minute of it. I am very thankful that God has blessed us with so many family members all around us. I pray that everyone cherishes the time they spend with their loved ones. Maybe we should make everyday a little more like Christmas.

Zach and Abby's Baptism