Roe Braddy's Blog, page 2

When The Son Touches Us

It was a bright sunny morning when I looked out my dinning room window and I saw my husband leaning back into the seat of his wheelchair with his eyes closed resting his head on the side of the garage, with his baseball cap and a pair of shades protecting his eyes.
He always has a total look of contentment on these bright sunny days, ever since I have known him, he has truly relished a sunny day. It makes me happy watching him find happiness in something so simple.

When we close our eyes and lean back in our spirits and take in the Son of Man finds that same joy, when we close our eyes and sup on this word. He stands at the dining room window of heaven watching us sink into his word just as my husband finds total contentment sitting in the doorway of the garage.  When I walk away from the dinning room window and I know that my husband will again find comfort and warmth on the next sunny day it gives me the reassurance that The Son of Man finds that same reassurance that we will continue to turn our hearts and minds to his word and seek the comfort and warmth of a living word that washes us and breathes the breathe of life into our very souls.

The Little Dead Deer on the Side of the Road

One morning I was taking my son and his friend to school and on each side of the road I saw something that caused me to think about God's ability to keep us close to Him when we stay in his word.

On the left side of the road there were two dead possums. These little possums were laying close to each other as if to symbolically say, "We have stuck together to the very end, together we have seen our last."  On the right side of the road there lay a young deer, he was alone.  There was no fellow comrades laying on the side of the road with him, his symbolic epitaph reads, "I have left the heard, here I lie alone in my last days."
The little deer had chosen to leave his heard, he pulled away from his hedge of protection.  He went his own way into the arms of danger, he had no brother to stand in the gap with him or to lead him back to the woods where he would be safe from on going traffic.  The little possums met with an unfortunate fate, but together they stuck it out together.  Isn't this what we often do when God does everything to get us to stay under His hedge of protection.  When we stray and go our own way we often endanger ourselves as well as others who might be easily led astray.  I want to stay under God's hedge of protection, there is peace in knowing that we have Jehovah-Rohi our shepherd who leads us in green pastures and makes us lie down.

I know what your thinking, that's a little deep for a bunch of road kill, but that's what's so profound about this, God uses anything and everything to keep our minds stayed on him.  By the time I reached my house I was fully praising God and thanking Him for the dead possums and the lonely  little deer, because in these mundane and a little gross things he kept my mind stayed on Him and in Him I have peace that goes beyond my understanding.

He is Already Here

I drove by a church today that had a sign that said,"God we need you, come." As I see it the sign should have read, "God is here, we need to come." In the senseless terror that continues to plague our world we has forgotten that God is the author and finisher of our fate.

He is not idly sitting by watching, he is
orchestrating the very things that frighten us when we sit at home in front of our
television sets asking, "How does God
allow this to happen?" The question should be,"How could God not allow this to happen?"

We have some how forgotten to take God at His word. He told us in 2 chronicles 7:14 what He would do if we would just humble ourselves. Our lives are not our own, our wills often make it difficult to follow this word, to humble.

Going back to the sign on the front of the church will be a scary thing for many. When God comes how many of us will find that we are in that surrendered place of saying," God, here I am, I have humbled my self, I have sought your face."Because soon the only thing that will be left for God to do is to come.

This will surely grab a hold of our attention unlike any other sign.

Behind the Salt Truck

Early this month we experienced a short, blast of a wintery mix of snow and rain. It happened on the day that I usually travel to my girl friend's house to work on our consulting business. When I left my home that morning the wintery mix had just begun, so the roads had not yet developed a coating of snow or ice.

When I arrived at my friend's house I realized that I had forgotten a folder that was imperative to our ability to compete the tasks that we had laid out for ourselves for that day. I would have to go back home to retrieve it. We usually work for about three hours, my absentmindedness and the increment weather would delay our start.

However, I knew if we were going to accomplish anything at all that day, I would need to go home to retrieve the folder. So I started to head back home. At this juncture in my life, I have come to trust and know that God will protect and keep me safe on the drive home, besides, he even gave me the opportunity to bless my friend's niece by dropping her off at work before I headed back toward my house for the folder.

By the time that I had dropped her niece off and obtained the folder the wintery mix had started to pick up and accumulate, so it took me a little longer to make my way back over to my friend's house. As I traveled to her house she called to make sure that I was ok.

I told her that it was indeed a little slippery, but it wasn't too bad and that I would soon be there. I live in a small development that is quite hilly. We are often one of the neighborhoods that is last to get plowed out during increment weather, so our roads are a little more slippery than most.

My travel back to my friend's house was slow and tedious, however I continued this journey safely behind the salt truck. It reminded me about what life is like when we are following Christ. Sometimes we see the things that God puts in our path as hinderances. We often forget that our paths of travel are intricately
orchestrated by God's hand. He often places things in our path that slows down our travels on what would other wise be a dangerous road.

The next time you are stuck in traffic, remember that God is the ultimate traffic controller.

Spiritual frumpiness

I have often thought that I am one of those individuals who suffer from sun deprivation during the dreary winter months. Now that I am home during the day I realize that there is some truth in this feeling.

I am typically a very active person, however, I truly dislike cold weather. I enjoy being inside and cuddled under my favorite blanket with my laptop close at hand during the cold weather months.

When I was working on a daily basis staying at home on a cold winter day was a luxury for me; my time at home was treasured. Now that I'm home daily I realized that I had fallen prey to another dangerous syndrome, it was a malady that slowly snuck up on me without me fully realizing what was occurring before my very eyes.

I had become a victim of physical frumpiness. I have always loved fashion and would rush to any event that would require wearing shoes, especially a stiletto. Lately my stilettos have remained in the back of the closet and my sweats and sneakers have become the new couture.

Because I have a network of girl friends who know me intimately they took notice in my change of appearance. They reminded me that I wasn't looking like the peppy Roe they came to know and love. Their concern left me thinking about the secondary symptoms of my newly acquired condition of physical frumpiness.

As I sat in my quiet spot having yet another dialogue with God about many of the issues that were consistently plaguing my family I realized that this condition of physical frumpiness had secondary symptoms that could be detrimental to my over all spiritual health.

Along with the desire to make sweatpants and sneakers a daily wardrobe staple came the ability to forget the power that God gives us when we pray and leave it at his feet. Even though I believed I was appropriately applying the the best treatment I knew, prayer, I was still bewildered over the nagging symptoms of depression that were over taking my continence and snuffing out my internal joy.

I had multiple maladies, I had developed a condition that needed immediate, emergency treatment. A good friend of mine who at this point in time was sent to me by God served as the EMT,invited me to an intercessory prayer meeting which she attended as a regular member.

By this time I realized that treatment needed to be found and the healing touch of praying women needed to be applied directly to the source of my ailing spirit.

The prescription that was written was scribed directly from the hand of God himself. Encouragement, along with the gift of discernment and prophesy began to relieve not some, but all of my nagging symptoms of spiritual frumpiness.

Ezekiel (37:1-14) speaks of how the hand of The Lord came upon him and he was brought out by the spirit of The Lord and he no longer inhibited the Valley of Dry Bones. "Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe into these slain, that they may live."

I had been cured of my malady, I no longer inhibited the "Valley of Dry Bones" God had sent a team of rescue workers who knew the prescription well and could liberally apply it to the areas of need.

A bad case of physical frumpiness has many cures, stilettos, a little makeup and forgoing a daily dose of sweat pants worked for me. However, spiritual frumpiness has only one cure: seek the presence of God, lay your burdens at his feet and know that you are healed and delivered.

Ribbons, Bobbles and Bows

Recently I was at Michael's arts and crafts store. I was there along with many other people trying to spot out the next great bargain on Christmas bobbles, bows and ribbons all in order to celebrate the birth of the most high and risen savior.

As I stood in line with my finds in front of me there was a woman and two small children. Both children looked to be under the age of ten. As they placed their items on the counter to be purchased they counted out the money that they had apparently earned for their purchases.

As each item was rung up I could see the expression on their faces. They seemed a little overwhelmed by the fact that they would have to use a great deal of their money in order to buy all the items that they desired.

As I stood watching this scene I remembered the extra coupon that I had acquired earlier that week on a previous purchase. Just as I
remembered the coupon I also remembered the scriptures that I had read many times that vividly described the crucifixion of Christ.

Beaten, and bruised for my sins Christ had given over his very life for me.
I walked up to the woman and handed her the coupon, she thanked me and told the children to thank me also.

There was a tiny sense of joy in knowing that I saved the children a few dollars. Again, my mind went back to the scriptures that depicted Christ's
crucification, I was reminded that I
was saved by His grace, mercy and sacrifice.

Our bobble, bows and ribbons can be counted as lost when we begin to think about the sacrifice of Christ; I thought about the momentary happiness of giving away the coupon and it reminded me of this.

When Jesus sees us in all our ribbons and bows of salvation he receives that same joy, except its eternal, it will never be put in a box and placed in the closet after the holiday is over, like we do our fancy wares of Christmas.

Today I celebrate in high style without the ribbons, bobbles and bows a Christ that is risen. Today I celebrate by remembering the blood, piercing pain and sacrifice of Christ, that's the fanciest part of Christmas, and I don't need a coupon it was all given to me for free.