WHAT ARE YOU MADE OF? 11/21/10

I ALWAYS say that your past helps to make you, who you are today! God gave us all that is necessary for life, but our choices, takes His design in directions, He didn't plan for us. We have a tendency to take His design, and to a certain extent, take it where we want to go. God wants to hear instead; "mold me and make me Lord, what you want me to be!"

HAVE YOU ever been asked; "What are you made of!" How do you answer this very simple, yet profound question? Is your answer; "Blood, sweat and tears?" Or is it; "Sugar and spice and everything nice!" Could it be both? It's funny when you realize that God created us out of the very same stuff, he placed on the ground for us to walk upon. It's funny when you think about having to work your way from the bottom to the top. And yet, God says; "Lean upon me and you will learn to fly!"

I HAVE always had questions! My Mother use to say; "Your middle name should have been why!" One of my questions today is; "Why do I think this way and other's think another way?" Life is simple, but we make it hard! Life can be good, but we struggle! Life is a moment to moment existence and we want to plan it for decades and decades.

THE COWBOY spends his days in the saddle. He spins his thoughts around the countryside, the rivers and looking for a place to spend the night. A cool drink of water is what the song says; but I am sure the cowboy would drink anything that was wet and would take away the parched dryness of his throat, caused by the heat; the winds and lack of water.

THE SINGER practices her songs to prepare for a performance. Over and over again she repeats the lines, so she can say her words as though they were fresh in her mind; sharing her passion of thought, speaking them with sustained tones. Yes, that is what singing is; speaking in sustained tones. She too seeks liquids, that sooth her throat; to keep it moist and flexible as she exercises all of her many vocal cords.

THE SINGER AND THE COWBOY are very much alike. Both doing what they feel they were meant to do. Cowboying is hard work! Being the singer is hard work! Daily routines, some from experience and some from practice. We all discover, what we are made of, when we are called to task. When pressures are laid upon us! We all discover, what we are made of, through our responses to situations and/or how we react.

"IF ANYONE thirst, let him come to me and drink. He who believes in me as the scripture has said, out of his heart, shall flow rivers of living water." John 7:38b-39 When Jesus said this, He was still with the Apostles and the other Disciples. The Holy Spirit had not yet come! Jesus was reiterating that when He was gone, the Holy Spirit would come to those who believe in Him. The Holy Spirit would fill you with the living water and you would not thirst again. Jesus is talking about a different kind of thirst; a yearning of your soul to be satisfied!

JIM SAYS; "we are made of star stuff!" I know he heard that somewhere! In other words; God made us in a mystical and magical way. Because God was and is the creator! The one who made things out of nothing! Water is essential to our physical well being and our spiritual as well!

REMEMBER the story of the woman at the well? "But whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst; the water that I shall give him will become in him a spring of water, welling up to eternal life." John 4:14 Can we, like the woman, say; "Sir, give me this water?" Can we, like the woman, take it to heart that which our Lord gives us, and learn to drink from this eternal well? Can we? By Jane Ann Crenshaw 11/16/10