Ed Christian's World

When Opportunity Knocks…

When opportunity knocks do you open the door or do you turn away? I ask this question for two reasons, one is that you just may be opening the door to your true calling and two if you turn your back on am opportunity, you just may be passing up on a blessing from God. So that makes the answer to the question very important.

I started my blog with the purpose of putting my life memories and lessons down to share with my readers. Over time I hoped to open people’s eyes to a different world, mine, with the hope that they would see life as a journey full of hope and love. Now, with over 40000 readers, I have found my purpose has changed to one of following God’s will and sharing His message of love and understanding.

Life doesn’t just happen, it’s a carefully choreographed path laid out for us to follow. Oh yes we have free will and do make choices that take us off that path, but He is always there to help lead us back onto the path. His love for us is so great that He will forgive us our sins and gladly guide us in the right direction if we just ask. Yet, in today’s world, so many have trouble acknowledging this love or even considering sharing it with others.

Grandfather had a saying: Life is a gift of Love, we need to share that gift by helping others see life as an opportunity to give love to all they meet. Love just isn’t love until you give it away.

As a Christian I see this as Jesus’s command to love your neighbor as yourself and as I have loved you. This leads me to believe that when I lend a hand or help pick someone up or shine His light, I am serving Him as He commanded. Yet, so many Christians look at this as a burden and would rather turn away a possible blessing.

So I ask another question, why do you as a Christian feel it is beneath you to help someone in need when God lifted you from the depths of sin and saved your Life? Funny, I see so many who feel the under nourished and poor are there because they failed to get an education or could do better and are just leaning on others for support, so why should they help them. What they fail to see is this just may be God testing your faith and love for others.

Love happens when you realise that helping people isn’t a burden, but is an opportunity. It is your opportunity to shine His light within you so that all may see His love and blessings.

Walk daily with God at your side!

Love always,

Ed

Life Is like a highway where you make turns and stops along the way to learn about you. What is your vision and how has it changed over the years?

I remember asking Grandfather how I can determine my purpose in life. We all have a purpose, how do I go about finding my purpose?

Grandfather responded by saying: “Your vision will become clear only when you can look into your own heart. Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, awakes.”

At age 8 that stopped me in my tracks. How does one go about looking at ones heart? It took me a while to realize just what Grandfather was telling me, we all have a path to follow which helps define us as we grow. The choices we make in life follow us throughout our life and as we grow, hopefully we begin to make better choices spiritually as well as physically.

This is where our Faith in God and ourself meet. It is then when we can actually look into our heart and see what that our vision is really God’s plan for us.

Each of us are unique in that God’s plan for each one of us may be different, but as each plan unfolds we begin to see where in the universe we fit in. We find there is a lesson in each and every stumbling block we encounter and how we accept these lessons form our little niche in the puzzle. We also learn that no matter how hard that lesson is, something positive comes out of it. So live your life searching for these lessons, both good and bad. The universe is immense, but there is a place for each and everyone of us. Find where your piece fits!

Walk daily with God at your side!

Love always,

Ed

What You Are…

Grandfather once told me: Your theology is what you are when the talking stops and the action starts.

We’ve all known people who talk a lot but never follow through and maybe we have been guilty of it ourselves. It’s really nothing but being human, or is it?

Grandfather would say otherwise and he would be very pointed about how he stated it: You are only as good as you follow through with what you promise or more to the point your actions speak louder than your words.

There lies the problem, people seem to separate their everyday life from their spiritual life as if they are two separate lives. In reality they are the same and we are being watched by everyone we cross paths with. Our spiritual life and daily life are one and the same.

It doesn’t matter if you’re in business, a everyday worker, a minister or, like me, just an old retired person the life you live reflects your spiritual values along with your personal values. So face it, you can’t be one person on Sunday and another person the rest of the week. It just doesn’t fly.

We talk about Faith, Hope and Love in respect to God, but then forget these same values extend to everyone in our daily life. Grandfather used to talk a lot about the many faces of God, reminding me daily that all people are created in His image then added a simple message:

God resides in our hearts so remember when you look at yourself in a mirror and then look at everyone you pass, you are looking at the face of God. So live your life accordingly because when people look at you they are seeng God at work. Don’t make Him look bad!

Walk daily with God at your side!

Love always,

Ed

After writing about Faith several times, many comments have come in asking for a more defined meaning and explanation of what it really is and how do we utilize it.

This could present a problem since I, at first, offered Faith as something individual to all of us. It is this and so much more.

Hebrews 11:1 Now Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.

Over the years, I have found, faith to be a personal thing and that almost everyone has their own way of defining and measuring it. To have faith is to defy logic. It takes faith to think positively. It takes faith to believe that there is a loving God who cares deeply about our pain. To believe in life, the universe, or yourself after numerous failures is to have courage. Faith is an act of courage. It is choosing to get up in the morning and face our fears and believe that God will help us. Faith is choosing to believe that even though we may have failed one hundred times before that we can succeed the next time. At the same time I’ve discovered that Faith should also unite us not divide us.

Watching what is happening to our nation and some of our churches, I wonder just where our Faith is taking us. Some churches are teaching the doctrine that their way is the only way and our politicians are doing everything to keep the country divided. Needless to say this is not the message Jesus gave us.

If we follow God’s word, Faith, Hope, Love and Charity should be forefront in our daily life, with love your neighbor and yourself and as I have loved you.

I am going to answer the question as to what Faith really is this way:

Faith is Love, just as God is Love and it is intended to unite us all, regardless of who you are or what you believe!

We, as humans, tend to forget not everyone is the same, believes the same, looks the same or even acts the same.. but be assured each and everyone of us is made in the image of God, by God and He loves us all. Why can’t you?

Walk daily with God at your side!

Love always,

Ed

Heartbeat Of The Miracle…

One morning in early fall Grandfather and I took a walk in the canyon. After a while we sat down on two large rocks to rest. He then reached down and picked up a small rock and handed it to me saying “What do you feel?”

“A rock” I responded,”nothing else.” He then instructed me to put my hand on my neck and asked me if I felt anything else. “My heartbeat” I responded.

He then said “But the rock had no heartbeat.”

“Of course not” I responded.

Here is your lesson for today:

The rock exists as a rock with no heartbeat. It retains is shape, it’s size, it’s consistency with no need of a heartbeat. But you have a heartbeat. Every moment of your existence hangs on a heartbeat. The moment it stops, your existence is over. That’s the difference between a rock and your life. God ordained it! Rocks just exist. But life never just exists. Life must strive to exist, fight to exist. Your heart must keep beating every moment of your life.

Even if you do nothing, your heart beats. Even when you sleep, it keeps beating every moment so that you can remain alive. If you waste your moments on earth, it still beats that you can waste your time. When you sin, when you gossip, when you covet and hate, it still beats while you do so. When you weep, when you give up hope, still it beats so that even in your despair, it still fights for you to live and to be able to cry.

The difference between your existence and that of a rock is your life doesn’t just exist, it strives to exist. Your life is a miracle. Your every moment is a miracle. Your joy is a miracle. Even your tears are a miracle. Your life is a gift from God. Every moment is sustained by Him. Every moment is a miracle.

So one must ask how does one apply this?

You cease taking your life for granted. You stop wasting it, mistreating it, treating it as something less than the miracle it is. You cease to allow your life to be given to sin and what is less than God’s will. You treasure the existence with which you were entrusted. You stop throwing away your moments. You treat your life and time on earth as a treasure. You treat your every moment as if there was heart beating behind it, striving for that moment to exist.

In short …you live a life worthy …of every heartbeat.

Life is a miracle, live it as one and shine your light everywhere you go just to show others the miracle we have been given.

Walk daily with God at your side!

Love always,

Ed

One day Grandfather walked me to the side of the pond and we sat down and prayed. Then he said lean over and smile into the water so I did. He asked what did you see? I saw myself smiling I responded. Make an angry face he then said and tell me what you see. I see myself making an angry face I responded. Hold your hand out as if giving the water a gift. Then hold your hand out as if taking something. Now what did you see? Well I said when I offered my hand, it showed a hand offering back and when I took it showed taking back.

Very good Grandfather said and what did that teach you? I responded it showed what ever I did as a reflection. That is correct Grandfather responded and that is your lesson for today.

When you smile and are happy, He is happy. When you are unhappy, He is unhappy. He wants you happy to share His love with others. When you offered your hand, He offered His, yet when you took from Him, He took back. What does that mean? I looked a little confused and responded I’m really not sure. He then said life is meant to share with others and as you share, you also receive. When you close your hand and don’t share, He doesn’t share with you. What you give, you also receive and what you withhold is withheld from you.

Put simply if you bless others, you will be blessed. If you withhold blessings, your blessings will be withheld. If you live by taking, in the end it will be taken from you. If you live a life of giving, it will, in the end be given to you. Condemn others and you will be condemned. Forgive others and you will be forgiven. Live with a closed hand and His hand will be closed to you. What you give will be given back. What you take will be taken back. Therefore, live a life of love, of giving, of blessing, of compassion, of an open hand and heart. Whatever you do, remember what you saw here. Live your life in view of the face in the waters.

What is it that you seek from life and others? Today, make it your goal to give to others the very thing you seek.

Proverbs 27:19 ; Luke 6:37-38 ; Galatians 6:7-10

Walk daily with God at your side!

Love always,

Ed

When The Darkness Comes…

We all have times in our life when it seems there is nothing going right. It is at these dark times in our life that we begin to really understand the light that shines within us.

For even a happy life cannot be without a measure of darkness, and the word happy would lose its meaning if it were not balanced by sadness. It is far better take things as they come along with patience and equanimity.

Basically, it comes down to this, we need dark to measure light and light to measure dark. Without one we would never know the existence of the other. Darkness is the absence of light, but how many of us have ever seen total darkness? I don’t think I have ever been in total darkness for God has always been the light at the end of the tunnel. He has always been there to show me the way.

When I realized that I am never alone, I began to understand that for every instance and bump in the road, there is a lesson there for me to learn and a story for me to share. It is then that I learned people are like stained – glass windows. They sparkle and shine when the sun is out, but when the darkness sets in, their true beauty is revealed only if there is a light from within. God has blessed us with His glory and asked that we share it with others so that they also can show their light.

We have a choice about how we take what happens to us in our life and whether or not we allow it to turn us. We can become consumed by the darkness, or we can regain our humanity somehow, and come to terms with things and learn something about ourselves. Then we can take that lesson and teach it to others by showing them the light that shines brightly from within, even in the darkest of times.

Sometimes when you’re overwhelmed by a situation – when you’re in the darkest of darkness – that’s when your priorities are reordered. When I fell and busted my hip, I thought it was the end of the world for me as I knew it. The doctors were saying I would be on crutches for up to six months and I wondered what God had planned for me with this little hardship. Well, I met some of the sweetest people and was able to share the light with many of them. I was blessed to share my story with them and to show them the strength that God has given me to overcome the rocks that were placed in my path. In turn I was blessed to share their stories of His love and grace.

It is times like this when I remember that: When the darkness comes…the stars come out.

Walk daily with God at your side!

Love always,

Ed

These Old bones reminded me that I’m not 18 anymore and of the fragility of the human body as well as its uncanny ability to heal itself.

These old bones have seen a world of turmoil and stress over the years as well as many good joy filled times. This week has had my mind wandering over all that I have learned throughout my life and the lessons I have yet to learn and share. I can’t begin to count the times God reminded me that He is not through with me and there are many more eyes that need to be opened.

Throughout my life, from Shaman to healer showing others life can be fun and serious all at the same time. From the horrors of combat in Vietnam to the struggles we all face in life, God has always been there to guide my way through the pereloious paths.

I remember Grandfather telling me that one day I would look back over all my achievements and reflect on what lessons I have passed on. I believe I have led a good life, but often wonder if there is a lesson out there or a gift I have failed to see and pass on.

When I was ten my mother enrolled me in Menses because my IQ was so high she thought I was becoming bored with everyday living. Although it did offer me a challenge, it also showed me how blessed I was to be able to remember almost everything I laided my eyes on but also how this could sometimes be a curse. As you can imagine, I never had a hard time in school and did manage to pass with flying colors all my classes. I probably spent more time tutoring others than I did on the lessons.

But, life has not always been a bed of roses, as most of you learned growing up and I have had some very hard times also. Vietnam left it’s mark on me and pretty much has followed me for the past 47 or so years. But this too has been a lesson I have been able to share and grow with.

There is no doubt in my mind that God has always been there to protect and watch over me. I have had a very blessed life and as much as possible have shared that love with all that I meet.

I’m sure there are many more lessons to share from these old bones and I am looking forward to blessing others as well being blessed by sharing.

Well Grandfather how are them bones?

Walk daily with God at your side!

Love always,

Ed

What started out white that man has turned black? It is an interesting question if you take the time to dig deeper into it. The answer is Origin.

When God created us we were pure love. Over the years our training, education or whatever you want to call it started shading our perspective and our vision has turned away from love and compassion.

We’ve all got both light and dark inside of us. What matters is the part we choose to act on. That’s who we really are and that’s the real person other people see. The key word is choose! We decide if we shine our light of Love or that we push the darkness and gloom. We program ourselves to be the person we are. That also means we can reprogram our self to shine the light God has given us.

That then offers another riddle or question: What is known but cannot be named? I’ll let you ponder on that a while.

God says before you were in the womb I knew you. Which means He created you in his image to reflect His love and grace. He knows who you are and has selected you to fulfill His love to all. Somewhere along the way we seem to have lost this message. So the answer to the above riddle is Life.

The bible teaches us the lessons of Jesus through the apostles and the gosples to care for the children, widows and the less fortunate. It commands us to love each other as He has loved us and to live our life to lift His glory. It teaches us not to fear for there is no fear in love. It teaches us that faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. So through faith we should have no fear because of what we can’t see, but are assured that He will guide us through our path.

What is lost that can never be lost? Our journey. We lose our way when we fail to have faith in His promise and allow darkness to overcome us. Seeing the light in the darkness is my journey. I seek the light so I can shine my light brighter.

Let me add one more fact for you to ponder: As Christians we know Christ is all and Christ resides in our hearts. We also know that He is the light, therefore since He resides in our heart, we also become the light.

Light is Love and the more of our light we shine the more love we share. The more love we share the brighter our light shines. Seek the light!

Walk daily with God at your side!

Love always,

Ed

I’ve oftened wondered why there is so much divide and discontent in our country. We are so divided that friends are fighting each other over the littlest things.

I don’t care if you are someone who leans right or left or stays in the middle, one thing for certain is you are an individual just like everyone else in this country. Also each and everyone of us has the same God given rights and in our case they are guaranteed by our Constitution.

God given rights! God also gave us commandments to love each other as ourselves, not just love those who agree with your thinking. Our country was founded on the understanding that all are created equal, regardless of race, color, sexual orientation, left handed or right handed so where does the right come to talk down or bad about those who don’t follow your individual standards. The funny thing is you probably don’t follow theirs either. Neither makes one right or wrong.

It is time we, as a country, wake up and realize what God has been teaching us throughout our entire life… that is to love one another and use that love to build bridges not walls. In the end everyone will, sooner at or later, realize that love is stronger than all this hate.

Walk daily with God at you side!

Love always,

Ed