Bonfire - B-On-Fire!

Be an arson for God, Candice!  Go around town, around your community and light fires for God!  Start something.  You are an instigator by nature, now go and do the same for God.  God wants everyone to be ON FIRE for HIm.  God wants everyone to feel His burning LOVE for them.  God wants a deep, satisfying, powerful, transforming relationship with EVERYONE….and it is not going to start in the churches until it starts in the community…in our homes, in our neighborhoods. 

God clearly told me one day to LOVE MY NEIGHBOR, literally…my neighbors.  He told me this as I was throwing a fit by the dumpster one morning since my neighbors had yet again left trash bags lying next to the dumpster for animals to break open and spread around the parking lot.  Additionally, the dumpster door was often left open allowing trash to come out of the side when emptied and yet again spread over the area.  My tantrums were not a pretty site!  I stomped around muttering loudly how lazy they are, and projecting their inability to ever move up and out of our neighborhood with that kind of laziness.  I usually start by saying, “Really!  Really!  Again!  You lazy people!  No wonder you live here.  You will never move away from here with that kind of laziness!”  Yeah, I know.  Not good.  God let me throw my fit, and then gently said to my heart and in my spirit.  “Love your Neighbor….literally, your neighbors, Candice,….here…your neighbors here….the ones that put the trash next to the dumpster and won’t shut the dumpster door…..love THEM!”

So, here’s the deal.   Why don’t I ask friends to let me come to their house and just share how i seek God…my morning devotions, journaling, singing prayers, listening to inspirational music and dance around ringing my bell.  I would share how i choose the Bible i like, my favorite Oswald Chambers “My Utmost for His Highest” devotion book, my God Spot, my colored pens and stickers etc for my journal. 

Find where you feel peace and GO THERE!  Listen with your heart. Make a prayer list.  Be who God created you to be. 

 Spread the love and watch it spread like wildfire!

Love Day

If God IS love, shouldn’t we give “God” to people on Valentine’s Day?  How can I do that?  Show love! Show kindness.  Show generosity.  Show joy and compassion and caring and patience.  Pay for the person behind you at the drive through.  Send an anonymous card.  Smile at everybody.  Compliment someone.  God can use you, like a well lit street,  to lead others to him.  Light up with love and God will be glorified….and “they will know we are Christians by our love, by our love, yes they’ll know we are Christians by our love.” 

Don’t forget the most loving part, tell them about Jesus!  He is the key that opens the door to Heaven!

He Loves Me!  He Loves You! He IS Love!

My "Deer" God Spot

The space in which I choose to have my devotion/quiet time is radically important for my focus..…evidently. I didn’t realize how important “my spot” was to the quality and satisfaction of my God time until I moved to a new home.  For 17 years, I looked forward to settling in at the island in my kitchen facing the open great room and back deck with bird feeders and flowers and a view of the great outdoors.  I felt a peace in “my spot”.  More importantly, I could focus on God and His Word and hear him speak through nature.  In my new home, I tried several spots in search of “my spot”.  I tried my cute covered brick patio, but it was too hot or cold or buggy or loud with the AC unit right next to it.  I tried the couch, but I was too comfy, and I would drift off mentally.  Plus, it didn’t feel special since I watched TV from there nightly.  I tried the desk in my office because it had windows floor to ceiling, but it felt like work – somehow less personal or intimate.  At last, I have landed back in the kitchen.  Since I have no island, I sit at the table facing my bay window with a bird feeder, bird bath, swing, flowers and woods.  Just out of view stands an apple tree.  Because of the all the apples on the ground (and sunflower seeds in the bird feeder, and clover and grass on the ground), I have animals to watch most days and feel God again in “my spot”.  At first, I only had birds, squirrels and chipmunks to watch.  Then I had a ground hog, a possum, a fox, bunnies, cats and, at this time of year, DEER.  Deer love apples!  How convenient for me.  I have bucks and doe at least twice a week at my quiet time.  Now, each morning, I get my cup of coffee, Bible and journal and settle into my “Deer, God Spot” for my most peaceful time of the day!  I love my new spot.  Where’s yours?

Try On!!!

My thoughts often come out of my mouth as words before passing through any filters.  Given the oddity of my thinking, this can be an exceptionally dangerous thing….for my reputation of being “normal,” that is.  Those who know me, however, lost that notion long ago.   An example of my thought outbursts follows.  I was in Charlotte, North Carolina visiting my middle son who was attending college at UNCC at the time.  We had a car full of people, and I was sitting in the back seat taking in the surroundings as we drove to a restaurant.  If you know Charlotte, you know that there are numerous streets and establishments with the name Tryon in them.  I made the comment that it was such a positive, motivational name, and the whole gang questioned what I meant.  I did a fist pump and said, “Try On!!”  To make matters worse, I couldn’t think of the term “fist pump” and said “arm pump” instead and still haven’t heard the end of that misspeak.  No explanation was needed on the motivational properties of Tryon once it was said that way.  Whatever you’re struggling with, “Try On!! (pump pump)!!”

Heaven's Door

Someone is knocking at the door.  I don’t know about you, but if somebody knocks at my door, I want to know who it is and what they want.   I don’t, however, want to take the chance of it being a Jehovah Witness, or a salesperson, or a particular neighbor.  So what I do is carefully peek out a window first to see who it is.  Am I alone in this?

From the Via Dolorosa in Jerusalem

Allow me to peek out the window for you and tell you who is knocking at your door AND what they want.   If you feel an emptiness in your life, I can tell you what it is.  It is Jesus knocking on your heart’s door.  Jesus says, Revelation 3:20 “Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, andwill sup with him, and he with me.”  Open the door.  Jesus will come into your heart and replace the emptiness with love, joy, and peace.  You will be forever satisfied.  Jesus wants YOU to be able to live with him in Heaven forever.  That’s who is knocking and that is what he wants.

If Jesus is already in your life, perhaps you’ve locked him out of some areas, and he’s knocking there.  Once you let Jesus in, allow him into all rooms of your house, not just the foyer.  It is then that the real adventure begins.  It is then that deep satisfaction never leaves.  It is then, that Heaven becomes a reality here on earth.

I have a fascination with doors.  I collect them – pictures, posters, paintings.  There is a room in my home that I actually call The Door Room because the walls are covered with them.  The door headboard, my son made me from a dumpster rescued door, is in the other bedroom.  Doors represent opportunity, hope, adventure.  Think of the common saying, “If one door closes, another one opens.”  Or the Let’s Make a Deal game show.  The excitement in finding out what is behind Door #1, #2, #3.   That’s the excitement that I feel about Heaven’s Door.   I wonder what’s on the other side.  I visualize myself opening it and stepping through.   It’s exciting.  

Jesus taught that thinking on the things of Heaven would make our life easier now.   John 14: 1-6 “Do not let your hearts be troubled.  Trust in God; trust also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you.   And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.”  He’ll come get us!  Don’t you like it when someone else drives and you don’t have to navigate at all.  Jesus is doing that for us.

He WANTS us to think about Heaven.   He knows that it will ease our troubled hearts. 

What does your picture of Heaven look like?  Have you thought about it?

God gave me a curiosity about Heaven, so I began to research.  I searched scripture and read books of people with near death experiences and others who had been taken up like the apostle John.  You may think that you cannot know what’s on the other side because the door is still closed, but God HAS provided a peep hole.

Heaven is referred to in scripture more than you think.  

• Pearly gates, streets of gold
• In my father’s house are many mansions,  I go to prepare a place for you
• River of life, tree of life, lamb’s book of life
• Robe of righteousness, crown of jewels
• The lion will lay down with the lamb, The lion will eat straw like the ox
• A new heaven and a new earth, a new Jerusalem
• Choirs of angels

In my readings, I have found some common threads among people with near death experiences or “taken up” experiences like the apostle John. We will have recognizable bodies....perfect bodies, but recognizable as ourselves, but they will have the glory of God on them.  When Jesus walked the earth after resurrection, he told us that WE would have bodies like His then.  There is no sickness, disease, decay or infirmities of any kind in Heaven.  There are children in Heaven who play with Jesus and with animals, and are schooled by angels in the ways of God.  We eat fruit from the Tree of Life to renew our energies.  If we drip the juice on our robe, there is no stain.  Nice! When we leave earth through death, we are escorted to Heaven by an angel and immediately taken to the River of Life where the ways of earth are washed away from us and our bodies begin their transformation.  When we step out of the water, we are dry. We wear gleaming white robes which magnify the beautiful colors of nature – colors human eyes can’t see.  We will see friends and family and people from other eras and times that we have only heard about – Abraham, Jonah, Mother Theresa.

WHAT WILL THE SURROUNDINGS BE:  There will be flowers of kinds and colors we’ve never seen – technicolor.  There will be no wilted ones as there is no death.  If they are stepped on, they will pop back up.  Fruit trees are no different.  They will be full of fruit with none on the ground underneath.   All things have been resurrected including nature and time.  Animals and birds are everywhere and play with the children. The streets really are made of gold – shiny gold like a gold bar – and the curbs are gold as well.  The gates of heaven are made of ONE big pearl with a door carved into it.  Our mansions are made of marble, stone, jewels, and inlaid wood with wide verandas and personalized touches.  God’s resources are unlimited and beyond our imaginings.  He knows the longings of our heart and provides them for us in Heaven.

WHAT WILL WE SPEND OUR TIME DOING: There will books in heaven, and all forms of the arts, music, singing, dancing, celestial skills and tools with unlimited resources, and we will train others in the ways of Heaven, visit friends, and, of course, praise and worship God along with the angels and even plants swaying in praise.

REWARDS INTENDED FOR US WHILE WE WERE ON EARTH ARE STORED IN STOREHOUSES  - AND THEY ARE FULL:  body parts, blessings and riches of all kinds  - GOD WANTS THEM EMPTY...He wants to give them all to us!

ANGELS:  God’s helpers.  There are numerous and varied.  Some are messengers, some keep the record books, some are warriors.  They all sing and praise God along with us and on their own.   Angels are never humans, humans are never angels.

BABIES:  God tends the babies personally, including the aborted ones.

JESUS LOVES US:  Foremost, Jesus wants us to know how much He loves us.  He died for us, and His blood washes away our sins….literally.   One depiction showed that when a person accepts Christ as their savior, an angel goes to a record room and takes down the Life Book for that person, he then dips a cloth in Christ’s blood, and wipes clean each page of sins, erasing each page with the blood until the book is completely blank.  Our sins are literally washed away by the blood of Christ!  Christ grieves that His worst day has not yet happened.  It wasn’t leaving His Father to come to earth.  It wasn’t dying on the cross or the 3 days before he arose.  His worst day will be the day when He can wait no longer, when He cannot give us any more time, when the lost will forever remain lost  – THAT will be His worst day.  The door will be locked!

 Heaven is wonderful place!  Look forward to it.  It will be more exciting and more full of adventures than anything on earth.  Don't miss out!  Ask Christ to come into your heart today.

Fall in North Carolina cannot be beat...the closest thing to heaven on earth. Life is simple. The people are friendly. Cities are kept clean. Cultural activities are vibrant. I love my state! I have lived all over the country and have found my home in North Carolina. Sorry to be bragging, but I have something to brag about. Come see for yourself!

Jump into the Chalk Picture

Do you remember the scene in Mary Poppins where Dick Van Dyke has drawn chalk pictures on the sidewalk in the park - scenes of picturesque meadows and such. Jane and Michael want to jump into a picture and travel there - which, of course, Mary Poppins makes happen. That is my goal for this blog, to draw such a vivid, colorful picture of heaven that YOU want to go there; that you want to jump into the Heaven Picture! Not only that, but that you want to take everyone with you.

Heaven. Perfect in every way.