HEART THOUGHTS ... from Helen

"Catalogs"

“For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of His Son… “(Romans 8:29)

The SEARS AND ROEBUCK Catalogue occupied many hours of fantasy for me when I was a little girl. From my ‘wish book’ I planned my dream home and furnished it. I clothed myself, my ideal family, my pets and everything imaginable. Dreams, ideas, fantasies, hope all could be found in the Sears Roebuck catalogue. I still do that to some extent with the multiple catalogues that come by mail. Mostly I flip through them, fold down a few pages and set them aside. I also gather catalogues for my eight grandchildren. They are instructed to look through them, circle the things they like, write their names on them and ‘maybe’ for their birthday or Christmas they’ll get something from them.

We recently moved from McCormick to Greer. I did NOT notify the catalogue people of our change of address. The catalogues have found their way home, just like Lassie. Not all of them, but a few. I am a catalogue addict, so I’m glad, in a way. I love turning through the pages of Land’s End, Orvis, Spring Hill, Plow and Hearth, etc, etc. What I find on the slick pages of these periodicals fascinates me.

Occasionally I order from one of these catalogues. It is fun getting packages in the mail, especially when you’ve forgotten about it (Unless it doesn’t fit, that is).

In the fifth chapter of the book of Matthew, Jesus paints a beautiful picture of a life-style that believers are to follow. We read it and say: “That’s the greatest sermon ever preached”. It is! But we flip through it and lay it down or throw it somewhere in the back of our minds to discard at a later date. It probably wouldn’t fit.

The problem lies in the fact that today’s believer picks and chooses those parts of the Bible that look good, perhaps invests in them and discards the rest.

Because Jesus did not require these attributes as a prerequisite for salvation, we may feel that they are optional extras. Not so. Read it again. It doesn’t present a polished and beautiful picture of something that we may or may not choose. God’s lifestyle for his children is holiness.

Catalogs…I will probably always enjoy letting my fingers do the walking instead of shopping ‘til I drop. However, the one Book that demands my total involvement also requires that I follow the directions to obtain the desired product…conformity to the image of His Son.