ASLEEP ON THE JOB

If you’ve been following my blog or read my books, you know I’m not one of those Christians who pretend they’ve never done anything wrong. We all have a past, and at some point, we've all said and done things that God has told us not to. The Bible says we've all sinned (Romans 3:23) and none of us are righteous (Romans 3:10-12). We like to think we're good on some level, but without Jesus, we're nothing. Ronnie Freeman sings a song that says, “The only thing that’s good in me is Jesus.” That's a profound statement, and no matter what we like to think about ourselves, it's a very true statement.

God tells us in Hebrews 8:12, that after we come to Jesus and have been forgiven for our sins, he doesn't remember them anymore. That doesn't mean that God loses his memory. He says the same thing in Isaiah 43:25. It simply means that he doesn't hold our past against us.

Satan, on the other hand, does hold our past against us. He uses our past in any way he can, to hurt us, and keep us from moving forward. God forgives us, but he can use our past to bless others, both by their learning from our experiences and by us using what we learn to help them. People can come to trust and believe in God when they see what he's done in our lives, the way he has changed us, and the things he's brought us through. That’s one reason why I tell people about my past. I want others to know they're not alone in their struggles and that there is hope in Jesus.

Everything that has happened in my past hasn't always been bad. I've had many good things happen to me, lots of funny things, and I've had a lot of good, clean, fun times with my family and friends throughout my whole life. I guess I write more about the negative things because I want to share the lessons I learned from them, but I want to find better ways to share more of my positive experiences.

As I said before, I left home when I was sixteen years old, and for about three years I did whatever I wanted to. I did whatever I thought was fun and entertaining. I certainly wasn't living a moral, or healthy lifestyle. I was very unhappy. I wanted to do better so I made several changes. One of them was that I started going to church again.

That’s when I met Jesus and gave my life to him. He gave me a new job that I really loved, with an awesome supervisor who was a godly man. It's amazing how God can change a person's life if we just allow him to. Many of us are so self-destructive that we get in the way of God's blessings. We want what we want and often refuse to even consider doing what God wants us to do. Jesus said if we will first seek his kingdom and his righteousness, then he'll give us all that we need. I started seeing that in my life as I submitted my will to my heavenly Father, and the joy in my heart was unbelievable.

I was still young, and I still liked to go out and have fun, only now it was all good, clean fun with some of my younger cousins and other young people from the church. I was really enjoying my life for the first time in years. We had services several nights each week. We had Sunday services, prayer meetings, prayer service, youth night, and choir practice. Many times we would go out to eat before or after church. We would take somebody home or just ride around the town.

My new job was farther away than what I was used to, so I had to get up pretty early to get to work on time. Some days I would be really tired by lunchtime. I was reading the Bible every chance I got, so that's what I would do while I ate lunch if I didn’t fall asleep. One day, I was so tired that all I wanted to do was sleep during lunch. I had an hour, so I set the alarm on my watch, went into the sample room, and lay down on the sofa. As soon as I closed my eyes, I was out.

When lunch was over and I hadn't returned to the line, my supervisor and the floater started looking for me. When they found me, I was still in a deep sleep. They thought it would be funny to wake me up by screaming and beating on something. When I actually woke up, I was standing in the corner of the room holding my chest, and they were both laughing so hard they could barely breathe. As startling as it was at first, I'm glad they did it that way, rather than yelling and cursing, or firing me like some supervisors might have done. We all had a good laugh and went back to work. Thanks, Bobby and Al. I miss you guys.

Memories are funny things. They have the power to change our mood in a variety of ways. Some memories can make us sad, some can make us angry, and some can make us smile, laugh, and bring us all kinds of joy. We should try our best to keep the good memories on top of the pile. They can help us to be happier as we realize how blessed we really are.

Related Topic: Once Saved, Always Saved

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OUR BEST FRIEND

When I was really young I remember visiting my Aunt who lived just through the woods. We walked there quite often with our grandmother. She had a dog named Clete. I don’t know what kind of dog he was but my sister and I liked him a lot, and I guess he liked us, too. We played with him every time we would visit. Then one day she told us that he once belonged to her brother, who was our uncle. His name was Marvin.

Later, we learned a couple of interesting things about Uncle Marvin and Clete. First, Marvin was our uncle’s middle name. His first name was actually Cletus. He named the dog after himself and just called him Clete for short. Cletus is a strange enough name to me, but Clete doesn’t even sound like a name at all. I’m glad I found out where the name came from.

The second interesting thing we found out was that Uncle Marvin had given Clete to me and my sister, and our aunt was just keeping him for us. I never did find out why. Maybe we were too young. I don’t know. Eventually, though, we got to take him home. We had to keep him tied on a chain in our side yard, but we played with him every day. He was like a member of our family. He was our best friend.

We moved several times over the next few years and our buddy went with us. We grew up and he was still there, just as loyal and loving as ever. Then one day he got sick. We got medicine for him and he seemed to get better, but eventually, he died.

I’ll never forget the pain I felt knowing he was sick and there was nothing I could do to make him better. I wanted to hold him and pet him and comfort him, but we couldn’t even touch him. I’ll also never forget the pain I felt when he died. All my sisters and I could do was cry. We were all heartbroken. He was our best friend for so many years, and we loved him very much.

We missed our best friend after he died, but we still had each other and we were glad for that. At least we didn’t have to miss him alone. Our grandmother was there for us, to hug us, and hold us, and tell us it would be okay. We also had Jesus to help us through that tough time. Our grandmother had told us all about him early on, and how much he loves us, and the animal he created. She told us about death and why everything has to die. It’s because of sin.

When God created our world, everything was perfect and he gave everything to Adam to take care of. Then Satan came along, and Adam, by disobeying God, forfeited his governorship to the father of lies. Then Jesus came and lived a sinless life and died, and was resurrected, and he took the kingdom back from Satan.

Yes, death is still here, but it has no power over those who trust and obey God. One day Jesus will physically return, and destroy death and sin once and for all, and those who have been born again will live with him forever. I’m looking forward to that day. I can’t wait to see Jesus. I’ll also get to see my grandmother, my dad, and my sister all again. I don’t know about Clete. The Bible doesn’t say whether or not we will have our animal friends back, but I certainly think it’s possible. I know that God is powerful enough to do anything. I’d like to see Clete again, and all our animal friends we have had over the years as well as our family.

It’s a blessing to have family and friends in our lives, whether they are humans or animals. It’s also a blessing to be part of God’s family and to know that Jesus is there for us, no matter what we have to go through in life. He’s our friend, and he loves us. He wants to be our best friend. If he’s not your friend then, you don’t know what you’re missing. Get to know him, today.

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My books are available in paperback and digital format on Amazon @ 
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FROM JOY TO DESPAIR, AND BACK

The night my daughter was born, my wife was lying on the couch watching TV. She told me she was hurting. She was far enough along for the baby to come at any time. I told her we needed to go to the hospital, she could be in labor. She said she didn’t want to go because it might only be gas. I told her it was better to be safe than sorry. The hospital we were using was about forty miles away. She said she would feel stupid if we went that far only to find out it was gas. After about an hour, with no relief, I finally talked her into going. When we got there, and they checked her out, we were both glad we had gone. She was in labor.

There had been two complications with her pregnancy. One was the RH Factor blood incompatibility. My wife was RH-positive, and our daughter was RH-negative. This can cause problems, and if you don’t understand it properly, it can cause a lot of fear, and worry. Her doctor had not done a good job explaining all this to us, in the first place. Then, on one of her later visits without me, he was out, and the doctor who was seeing his patients evidently didn’t understand it himself. He rattled on, and on about the dangers, throwing in some words like MAY and MIGHT. He upset her so bad that she was worried to death.

The second complication was that our daughter was breech. By about thirty weeks, the baby was supposed to be turned with her head down toward the birth canal. With each visit, the doctor had noticed she wasn’t turning, so he kept a close watch on the situation. He said there was nothing to worry about, she still had time to turn. Well, she never did, and soon she was too big to turn. At that point, he told us natural birth was out of the question. She would have to undergo a C-section to safely deliver the baby. Now, it was time, and our little girl was ready to get out of there.

Well, the doctor was called, and the nurses started getting things ready. While the doctor’s nurse was checking for dilation, she said she felt the baby’s head. I thought that was strange because we knew she was breech. I didn’t know much about pregnancies. I guess she could have turned, but the doctor had said she wouldn’t turn this late in the pregnancy. I told the nurse the baby had been breech, and I asked if she had turned. She said, “Oh, I’ll check again.” She checked again and said she was still breech. At this point, we became even more worried. I wondered, “Does this woman not know what she’s doing? Has she not looked at my wife’s chart?” We were already praying, but that made us pray even more.

Soon the doctor came in, and talked to us, and made us feel a little better about the situation. We went down to surgery, and I held my wife’s hand as our beautiful little girl came into the world. The doctor said, “It’s a girl. She has ten fingers and ten toes.” We were glad to hear that. When my son was born a few years earlier, in the same hospital, there was a baby born with six fingers on each hand. It’s not as rare as you make think, but all was well with our little girl. Praise the Lord. She was now in the safety of our arms, and we were so thankful to God for working everything out.

She’s all grown up now, with a family of her own. She has grown into a strong, beautiful young woman. I was blessed and honored when she asked me to perform her wedding ceremony. She was so beautiful. I was reminded of the day that I married her mother. I’m so thankful I was able to be a part of her life, and have the opportunity to teach her about Jesus. I pray that God will continue to bless her, and her family in every way possible.

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My Blogs
https://teddylynn.blogspot.com
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© 2016 Teddy Lynn – All Rights Reserved

My books are available in paperback and digital format on Amazon @ 
https://www.amazon.com/Teddy-Lynn/e/B01MZDB6L6