Cathy’s Corner

One morning last week I was riding my bike out of the driveway when I heard high heel footsteps on the other side of the fence. When I got to the end of the fence my neighbor stuck her head around the corner and asked if my husband was home. I told her no that he was already gone but asked if there was something I could do. She said her Montero wouldn’t start and she was going to see if he could look at it. So I got off my bike and said let me look at it, like I know anything about cars. Heck I don’t even have a car. But she had the hood up and it was parked blocking the garage where a Lexus sat. There was another white car parked at the edge of the driveway. I asked if she thought it was the battery and she said yes but she didn’t know how to charge it. I told her that I did and if we could move the white car closer I could hook up the battery cables and try to charge it. She said she just wanted to push the Montero out of the way but if she moved the white car then maybe we could push the Montero over there. So she went and got the keys and moved the little white car. Then she was trying to steer and push the Montero while I was pushing from the front. We moved it back and then I told her to turn the wheel so we could push it forward. She was trying to steer and push and I told her just to get in and steer and I would push. So she did and I did and we pushed it out of the way. She thanked me and I told her I was a horrible neighbor because I had not gotten over to see her, in fact we have never officially met. Gary has talked to her a couple of times and she’s come and asked him for help. Now this is why I’m such a terrible neighbor. Her husband passed away last year during one of our children’s weddings, I can’t remember which one but either July or August. I have had good intentions to get over there and check on her and invite her to church. There is no excuse I’ve just let the hectic pace of my life keep me from being a good neighbor. After we got the Montero moved she thanked me and with tears in her eyes said, “He always took care of things like this. You get used to depending on someone and it’s just so hard.” I hugged her and said I was sorry and that we were there for her anytime she needed anything. I told her I had meant to come over and invite her to church with us many times and I was terrible because I had not done it. She said, “I knew you were active at a church. (ACTIVE – I hated to admit I was a Christian let alone a Minister.) What kind of Christian am I when I didn’t even check on someone that I knew was going through a terrible time? I was going to but I never did. She did tell me where she went to church and I told her once again that if she ever needed anything to please let us know.
So now we have officially met and I intend to be a better neighbor. God’s been showing me so much in the Bible study I’m doing right now but He could have been standing right there in my driveway that morning and hit me with a 2x4 and it wouldn’t have hurt any more than it did as I was standing there hugging her and telling her how sorry I was for her loss. So yes, I’m a horrible person, a loser, and anything else you can come up with. But thankfully God still loves me and is always showing me where I need to improve and what I need to change. He’s showing me to stop having tunnel vision. It’s like praying that God will give me opportunities to be His hands and His feet and I’m so busy looking that I don’t even notice when He lays something right at my feet. Yes I know I’m rather dense but I will try to do better. What an amazing God we have and fortunately forgiving as well and a God of second chances. So I am grateful for the second chance I have to be a better neighbor.
Have a great day in the Lord.

Cathy’s Corner

I began riding my bike to work back in August and kept it up until about the first of November. That was when I discovered I had hip bursitis. Bottom line is it happens a lot to MIDDLE AGED WOMEN. I was thrilled to learn I was considered middle aged and it almost made it worth the pain. It is caused from getting older (of course) and repetitive use of that joint, i.e. riding a bike. The only way to get better is to stop the repetitive motion and stay off your hip for a while. So while I couldn’t stay off of it completely I did not ride through the winter, which works out because I don’t care for the cold. I started riding again the first of March but have slowly worked my way back up to four days a week. I really enjoy riding but it does make it challenging as far as being ready for work when I get here. I get my clothes ready on Sunday afternoon and bring them to the church and put them in the closet in my office. I have the necessary items needed to get ready for the day and I get here early so I’m ready to go by 9am.

Here is what I’ve discovered about riding a bike again. I have equipped it with a light in front and back, a side mirror to see behind me, and an odometer thing to tell me how far I’ve gone, how many calories burned etc. I have noticed that the tires need to be aired up regularly otherwise it makes it harder to ride. When I first started I had to build up to riding again because it had been probably 20 years since I had ridden. Riding my bike everyday has built up some muscles and made my legs stronger. I ‘m getting in better shape physically but now I just can’t overdo the whole hip thing. Now while I can’t go everywhere I want to go and it takes me longer to get where I am going, the scenery and weather is usually very nice. I’ve had to adjust how I do things; like run my errands on the weekend and make appointments when I do have a car. I actually have ridden by bike through the drive through at Walgreen’s (It won’t ring the bell. You have to knock), been to the bank, gone to get my haircut at Shelton’s and gone to the store. This week I went visiting on my bike and made three stops and two of those families were home.

So I started thinking one morning riding to church about how riding a bike and reading God’s Word were similar. Reading my Bible everyday makes me stronger spiritually like riding my bike makes me stronger physically. Every time I ride my bike I am building more muscle and endurance just like every time I read God’s Word I am building my faith and my spiritual endurance. Trying to ride my bike without enough air in the tires makes my ride a lot more difficult just like trying to get through my day is a lot more difficult if I haven’t filled myself up with God’s Word. Taking my ride nice and easy and not trying to rush allows me to enjoy the freshness of the morning. Taking my time reading God’s Word and not trying to rush through it allows me to see what He wants me to see and gives me a fresh new perspective for the day. Just like adjusting my schedule, reading God’s Word has caused me to have to adjust things in my life when He shows me something I need to do or change. Unlike riding my bike, God’s Word takes me places I never thought possible. I have learned a lot about myself from riding my bike and God shows me so much about Himself every time I get into His Word.
Have a great day in the Lord

Cathy’s Corner

These past few weeks Ive been a part of a Bible study with some ladies on staff at our church. Most of us don't get to attend a small group study on Sunday so we are doing one together during the week. It is called Discerning the Voice of God by Priscialla Shirer. I can't tell you how much I have enjoyed this study and how much God is showing me. I love getting up every morning and getting into God's Word to see what I'm going to learn that day. I can't say that I have always felt this way as it has come and gone over the years. That's not God's fault but mine. God never moves away from us, He's always right there waiting for us to come back to Him. He may be silent at times but He's still always right there. I love how God shows me something and then He confirms what He was saying to me through something else I read or something someone elese might say. That's one of the things in this study that God is teaching us, how to recognize when He speaks. It is up to us to listen to Him and for Him. We can't do that when we never let ourselves slow down and be still before Him. He showed me something this past week and then confirmed what He was saying to me through one of my daily readings in Oswald Chambers. I thought I'd share it with you.

The Collision of God and Sin – Oswald Chambers
“…who himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree…’ (I Peter 2:24).

The Cross of Christ is the revealed truth of God’s judgment on sin. Never associate the idea of martyrdom with the Cross of Christ. It was the supreme triumph, and it shook the very foundations of hell. There is nothing in time or eternity more absolutely certain and irrefutable than what Jesus Christ accomplished on the Cross – He made it possible for the entire human race to be brought back into a right standing relationship with God. He made a way for every person to have fellowship with God.
The Cross was not something that happened to Jesus – He came to die; the Cross was His purpose in coming. He “is the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world” (Rev.13:8). The incarnation of Christ would have no meaning without the Cross. Beware of separating “God was manifested in the flesh…” from “…He made Him … to be sin for us…” (I Timothy 3:16; II Corinthians 5:21). The purpose of the incarnation was redemption. God came in the flesh to take sin away, not to accomplish something for Himself. The Cross is the central event in time and eternity, and the answer to all the problems of both.
The Cross is not the cross of a man, but the Cross of God, and it can never be fully comprehended through human experience. The Cross is God exhibiting His nature. It is the gate through which any and every individual can enter into oneness with God. But it is not a gate we pass right through; it is one where we abide in the life that is found there.
The heart of salvation is the Cross of Christ. The reason salvation is so easy to obtain is because it cost God so much. The Cross was the place where God and sinful man merged with a tremendous collision and where the way to life was opened. But all the cost and pain of the collision was absorbed by the heart of God.

What an absolutely wonderful loving Father we have in heaven. He wants a realtionship with us and He made a way for us to have that through His Son Jesus Christ.