Parker Inspirations

On May 15 I wrote about extended blessings to others through our faithfulness. I am so excited today to just give God the Glory. Last night my brother called and told me that he was picked to get the bionic hand. He also said he wanted to call me because he knew that I had a lot of people praying for him. He knows that God is the giver of a second chance.

Yet, we are not always ready to give someone a second chance. We sometimes use the phrase three strikes you are out. Life is not a baseball game. We do not want people to write us off when we do wrong. We want them to be loving and honest with us and exhort us to do right. Pastor just preached on this recently. A lot of what he said it what God has given me over the past view months.

Look at the disciples, Jesus did not pick them all because they were the same. Some were fishermen, others were tax collectors, one was a doctor and all of them were sinners needing a Savior. What makes us think we are better than someone else? If we took a stack of blocks and lined them up in a straight row and made stacks representing sin, we would have small stacks and large stacks of blocks. However, when you look from above, all you see is a line of blocks.

That is how God sees sin. As humans we categorize sin from small to large.

We pick our friends the same way. Kind of like checking the boxes. Do they fit? So to speak. Then when they do something wrong, we mark them and stay away from them. Pastor was talking about going to people and finding out what is wrong. With the right attitude though. If we show love one to another, we can help each other when something is wrong. 

Seeing the blessing, not the disappointment                June 27, 2019

Blessings come in all sizes. A few weeks ago my brother was given the hope of possibly having his right hand back. The organization even called him and said he was selected. This week they told him they were going to go with a younger man who was a Veteran. My brother was disappointed, but he also was not bitter. He said, “I have had 32 years like this, going the rest of my life will not change anything.”

How we look at things that come in our life, will determine the outcome. We can look at the past and let it hold us back from being successful. We can look at the future and give up because it will all pass away. Or we can look at the present and work hard for today. Today is the day that really matters. Today is the day that will determine tomorrow. What we do for the Lord today is all that matters. If we give it our all as if today is the last day, we will be successful. We can accomplish great things for the Lord if we wake up each day ready to live as if it was our last. (Psalm 118:24, “This is the day which the LORD hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it.”)