The Wonder Dogs, Wandering, and Getting the Best Snacks

The Wonder Dogs are a little bored with the Hosea project. 

They were thrilled when I first moved my laptop and commentaries to the screened porch to write every day. After a few days, however, they were ready for adventure. 

Yesterday, I let them outside to run around when they got restless. "It'll be time for lunch soon, so don't go far." 

Maggie ran around for a little while then took her favorite spot in the sun. Mamie ran around for a while, then ran around some more.

I stopped for lunch and headed to the kitchen. As I did, I stuck my head out the door and yelled, "Come on, girls. Time for lunch."

Maggie raced for the door.

Mamie did not.

Maggie has a little experience with lunch time, and she likes it. She stayed at my feet while I retrieved roasted chicken from the refrigerator and sliced some to add to my spinach salad. Her big eyes and wagging tail were nearly irresistible (as she knows), so I dropped a few pieces of chicken her way. She gobbled them up and rewarded me with such happy dancing that I gave her a little bit more.

Mamie missed the chicken because she didn't come when called.

When she finally arrived, happy and smiling from her adventure pestering the cat, Mamie went straight to her food bowl. She ate, without any idea that she'd missed the best because she'd been following her own way.

I watched her eat and wondered how many times I've missed God's best because I was following my own way instead of His. How many times I've gotten what I needed instead of the extra God wanted to give because I didn't obey when He called.

Psalm 23 tells us, "The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside quiet waters."

We have those green pastures and quiet waters when we follow the Shepherd who leads us, not when we (like Mamie) go our own way.

Today, let's be the ones who follow close behind our Shepherd, who come when called. It's not just the right thing for disciples to do. It's the only way to position ourselves to receive all the sweetness of relationship with Him. 

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Here's the link to another Wonder Dog story: The Wonder Dogs Run in Circles: The Search for God (http://leannahollis.blogspot.com/2016/02/the-wonder-dogs-run-in-circles-search.html)
Here's the link to yesterday's post: A Gift God Doesn't Already Own (http://leannahollis.blogspot.com/2016/05/a-gift-god-doesnt-already-own.html)
#WonderDogs #WednesdayWisdom #disciple #follow

Telling the Good News

The Wonder Dogs nearly drove me crazy this morning. We got up before dawn because I was speaking early. When I let the dogs out, Maggie started barking like crazy and raced toward the lake. A light in the distance had somehow reflected off the water, and Maggie didn't think it should be there. She barked her heart out at the reflection for longer than I could believe.

There was no danger. There was nothing on the water. It was just a reflection.

Maggie was barking because it's her job to sound the alarm and she is 100% committed to her work.

As disciples of Christ, it is our job to sound the alarm, too.  I wish we were as committed to our job as Maggie is to hers. 

Christ has died for our sin. Christ has risen. Christ is coming again. 

No man comes to the Father except through Him. 

We live in a dark and lonely world where our sin-riddled lives are only a reflection of the adventure God intended. 

Christ came to give us new life and a personal relationship with Him. We, His followers, are charged with the task of spreading the news to the uttermost parts of the earth, beginning with those closest to us. I sometimes wonder how well I'm doing that. I give money to missionaries, which certainly helps carry the cause of Christ to "Judea, Samaria, and the uttermost ends of the earth", but what about my "Jerusalem"? 

It would be tragedy to support missions in foreign lands but fail to share Christ with those closest to us. We have the greatest news of all.  Who have you told about Jesus this week? 

"... you shall be my witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest parts of the earth." Acts 1:8 nasb

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Be sure to check the updated Prayer List 

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In case you missed one of the past week's posts, here are the links: Peace Only Comes When We Have Dealt With Our Sin, Starting a Prayer List, Priorities and the Goat Demons: Who has first priority in your life?, Death is Swallowed Up in Victory,  The Turning Point: A Grateful Heart, You are Greatly Loved, A Little Taste of Heaven: Body of Christ, and Friday Night with Friends: Food and Faith, and The Priest Job

 #evangelism #tellingthegoodnews #JesusChrist #wonderdogs #linesfromleanna #LeannaHollis 

The Wonder Dogs Run in Circles: The Search for God

Maggie The Wonder Dog and Mamie, her Wonder Puppy Apprentice, look calm and sweet in this picture. Looks can be deceiving. Last night, they had a little trouble getting settled.

It was already dark, but not yet bedtime. I was working downstairs and not ready to go up. Maggie and Mamie started running in circles around me. 

"Do you need to go out?"

They ran toward the kitchen, and I followed. Before they reached the door, they turned around and ran the other way. They didn't need to go out, after all.

"Do you want to play?"

They stopped for a moment, and I assumed that meant yes. When I sailed one of their toys through the air for a game of fetch, no one moved. They didn't want to play, either.

They ran around me again, then headed toward the stairs. Finally. They wanted to go to bed. I headed up the stairs. They waited at the foot of the stairs, looking at me as if I was crazy. They didn't want to go to bed.

On and on it went. Finally, they gave up on me and went upstairs. I followed and put them both on the foot of the bed where they usually sleep. They're tired, I thought. I was wrong.

By the time I got downstairs, both dogs were barking like crazy. Maggie can jump off the bed, but it's too high for Mamie. I went back upstairs and got them both down. 

They didn't want to go downstairs. They didn't want to be upstairs. They didn't want to play, go outside, get a treat, or snuggle in my lap. I had no idea what they wanted. 

At last, I finished what I was doing and headed to bed, two disgruntled dogs following behind. When I hoisted them onto the bed again and climbed under the covers, they snuggled next to me and went sound asleep.

They didn't want anything but me.

We humans are so much like those little dogs. We run around and around, searching for satisfaction in many ways. Possessions. Big bank accounts. Fame. Children. Success. Travel. Pleasure. No matter how long we search, nor how enthusiastically we try, none of those will give us the deep, lasting satisfaction we crave. 

We don't realize it, but all we want is God. It is in Christ alone that we will find all that we desire. Peace. Satisfaction. Joy. Hope. 

Blaise Pascal, a French mathematician and philosopher, wrote about this search.

"What else does this craving, and this helplessness, proclaim but that there was once in man a true happiness, of which all that now remains is the empty print and trace? This he tries in vain to fill with everything around him, seeking in things that are not there the help he cannot find in those that are, though none can help, since this infinite abyss can be filled only with an infinite and immutable object; in other words by God himself." (Pensees, New York, Penguin Books, 1966)

In Athens, the Apostle Paul spoke of this search for meaning.

"He made them... that they should seek God, if perhaps they might grope for Him and find Him, thought he is not far from each of us; for in Him we live and move and exist..." 

(Acts 17:26, 27 nasb)

They're both right. We were created to seek something to fill the void that is left by sin. Only God can fill that gnawing hole, and we will never be content until we fill our hearts with Him and His love.

Today, let's take our eyes off everything but Christ, our Cornerstone, in whom we are built together into a dwelling place for God. (Ephesians 2:22)

Our search for meaning begins and ends in Christ alone. Let's stop searching and look to Him.

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In case you missed one of the past week's posts, here are the links: Jumping to Conclusions: The Terrorists That Were Not, Nothing is Impossible: Ayman al-Zawahiri,  Morning Quiet Time: Who Speaks First, Changing the World: What One Man (Or Woman) Can do, When Hard Times Come: Pressing On, Friday Night with Friends: Sara Foust, and Hand Washing and Heart Cleansing.

#WonderDogs #search #Cornerstone #disciple #JesusChrist

Coming home

(I'm going to try again to write what I thought I was writing last night. If you were surprised by last night's post, just imagine how surprised I was! I thought I was writing about the Wonder Girls, but no. I was volunteering for war duty, and meant every word of what I wrote. I just didn't mean to reveal it. There is no telling what will happen when I get started writing. It's always been that way!)

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Yesterday, I pulled in to my drive way and was delighted to see Maggie the Wonder Dog and Mamie the Apprentice Wonder Puppy outside playing. When they saw my car, they started running around in circles and barking like crazy. They were insanely excited and it was hilarious. When I opened the car door, they both jumped in, landed in my lap, and refused to get out. They wanted their mama and they were not letting her go! 

When we finally made it out of the car and into the house, they could not be contained. Mamie alternated between running in circles and hopping up and down. Maggie had one thing on her mind, and she would not be deterred. Lap time! Maggie insisted I follow her to the big green chair and sit. She promptly jumped into my lap and snuggled in, intermittently reaching over to give my hand a lick or two. The dogs have followed me everywhere since I got home, and it's surprising how welcome I've felt. 

Truthfully, the dogs are excited to see me whether I've been gone seven days or seven hours. Sometimes, I go to the barn without them and, when I get back to the house, you'd think I had been gone a month. They know how to make a woman feel welcome! 

It's not like that everywhere I go, but wouldn't it be nice if it were? Just imagine people being glad to see us every time we entered a room. Imagine keeping an eye out for the new arrival and celebrating their presence. It goes both ways and it makes arrivals much more fun. 

The thing we often forget is how glad God is when we enter His presence. The psalmist said an interesting thing about being in God's presence:

In Your presence is fullness of joy; In Your right hand there are pleasures forever. (Psalms 16:11 NASB)

"Fullness of joy" means everyone present is fully joyful. I guess that means we are glad to be there and He is glad to have us. What a precious welcome our Lord would offer if we would slow down long enough to enter His presence and stay there long enough to share His joy! A Wonder Dog welcome is a fun greeting, but it does not even compare to the greeting of Almighty God. Get still and spend time today with the One who loves you most. Fullness of joy awaits! Don't miss it!