Preston Mitchell's Blog

God is Near

    One of the basic principles of Christianity is that God is near.  He created man and woman in His image so that God could enjoy relationship with his creation.  I am thankful God was not an animal activist because He might have chosen relationship with animals.  If God were an astronomer, He would have chosen relationship with the heavens and earth.  If God were a marine biologist, his choice for friendship would have been the great seas and oceans and the creatures in them.  If God were a sinner, He would have chased after a relationship with the things He created.  But, the baby God/Human was sinless and perfect and craved relationship with the man and the woman.  God is near us.  That's been His plan from the beginning.

    This Christmas, remember that you are celebrating the birth of Jesus who is nearby and ready to have a relationship with you. That's a God worth celebrating!   Merry Christmas.

 

 

Nut Grass

    There seems to be a lot of bitterness in our culture today.  I know a lot of bitter people.  They have lost jobs, spouses, bank accounts, friends, children, houses, etc.  Disease and sickness have taken loved ones to early.  The bank forecloses on a home.  The company lays you off to save money.  Our bitterness laser beams on one or two people and all we think about is getting even.  Of course, that never works.  When you are bitter toward someone, you are bitter at God.  The Bible calls bitterness "a root that springs up" in our lives.  Have you ever tried to pull up the root of nut grass?  It's almost impossible because the root spreads parallel to the ground causing nut grass to grow rapidly.  When I see nutgrass in the yard, I think of bitterness.  

    To many people are living lives as nut grass, spreading your evil roots to anyone who is around you.  Bitter people cause bitter people.  I believe that bitterness is passed from one generation to another.  You're bitter because of something that happened hundreds of years ago.  Red Sox baseball fans are still bitter that the Sox traded Babe Ruth to the Yankees at the turn of the century.

    I've had to deal with bitterness in my own life.  Most people have.  So what do we do about it?  Pull the root of bitterness from your life.   Every time it springs up, pull the root.  Like nut grass, you have to pull it up several times before it is eradicated.  We can pull up bitterness with forgiveness, tenderness and humbleness.  It's hard to be bitter and humble at the same time.  Bitterness is usually grounded in pride.  Pride and humbleness cannot reside in the same yard.  Neither can forgiveness and tenderness.

    Let it go.  Put it behind you.  Follow after Jesus and yo u don't have time to be bitter.  Let's pull the nut grass that dominates our lives so that the Holy Spirit can work to fertilize and strengthen us through the righteousness of Christ.  Epecially during the Christmas season.  

    Merry Christmas from our family to yours!

Storms and Life

Last Wednesday night, we had a terrible storm move through the area.  We lost power and had to move our students inside the hallways of the Apex because of a reported tornado in the area. It was just crazy.  When I got home, I had tree limbs and leaves all over my back yard.  With 33 trees, I expected it to be a mess and it was.

On Friday, I hauled a garbage bag out to the back yard and began picking up all the debris from the storm.  As I was raking, it occurred to me that the stuff I was raking up was mostly dead limbs.  The storm had done me a huge favor by knocking it out of the trees so I could pick it up.  When I looked up at the trees, they looked healthy and green.

God works like that, doesn't He?  When we go through storms of life, a lot of junk is blown out of our lives through the process. That's why James tells us to be joyful for the storms in life because they are really cleansing and purifying the dead stuff out of our lives.

I thanked God for all the storms in my life.  They have made me the person I am today!

Blood Tests

This morning I had labs done.  Once a month (sometimes more), the lab tech takes a gallon of blood and runs it through a bunch of tests to see if my body is doing what it should.  I get numbers back that tell me how my body is interacting with my new kidney.  Blood tests are essential to good health because blood never lies.  It always tells the truth about what is happening with every organ in your body.  Blood is a fascinating fluid.  It gives life, it gives truth and it gives hope. 

I've had a lot of time to think about blood.  When I was in dialysis, I spent hours watching blood leave my body through a tube, route through a dialysis machine to be cleaned, and flow back into my body through another tube.  I am always amazed at all the things blood carries in its stream.  It delievers nutrients and energy to the cells and removes toxic waste from the cells. 

Blood is the cornerstone of our faith.  It gives life, it gives truth and it gives hope.  In the Old Testament, the blood of animals was sacrificed for forgiveness of sin.  In the New Testament, Jesus became the blood sacrifice for our forgiveness of sin. It took His blood to clean the toxic waste of sin in my blood so that I could have life, truth and hope.   As long as Jesus' blood is flowing through my veins, I have nothing to fear.

One of my favorite hymns growing up went like this: 

"What can wash away my sin, nothing but the blood of Jesus.  What can make me whole again, nothing but the blood of Jesus.  O precious is that flow, that makes me white as snow, no other fount I know, nothing but the blood of Jesus."

If I give you a blood test right now, what truth would your blood reveal?