Starting Right
Starting Right is a 5 minute Day Starter to help keep you motivated, encouraged, and focused throughout your day. DannyMac is a pastor, teacher, motivational speaker, husband, and father. His years of leading and training people have given him vast experience in helping individuals to accomplish change in their lives and meet their goals. He can help you set the course for your day by offering practical advice from God's Word in a positive and fun way. There is no better way to begin your day than by Starting Right with DannyMac.
Starting Right
The Feline Freestyle: Why Cats Keep Us Guessing
Join me in this episode as we uncover the intriguing dynamics between our beloved pets, particularly cats, and how they reflect on our own choices in faith. Exploring the journey of Oreo, a charming black-and-white cat, we consider how his reluctance to cross the threshold mirrors our human hesitation to fully embrace God's grace and presence. Through anecdotes and reflections, this episode encourages an honest dialogue about the distinctions in our responses to God's invitations. Let’s not merely stand at the door; let's charge forward into everything God has planned for us!
Good morning and welcome to Starting Right with Danny Mac. I'm going to be here every Monday to Friday to help you get a great five-minute start to your day. So grab your cup of coffee, sit back, relax and let me help you start your day right. Most people have a favorite of their pets. They're either cat people or they're dog people. Well, my wife, for the most part, is a cat person. She likes her cats very much, but cats are very unique. It's been said that you never have a cat for a pet. The cat simply has you for its convenience.
Speaker 1:I came across a story from Arthur Gordon as he talks about his cat. It goes like this this morning our big cat, oreo so named because he is a handsome black and white and I go through a familiar ritual at the back door. Oreo has been outside for a while and he really wants to come in. So I open the door and wait, but will he come in? No, he won't. He stops and lowers his head suspiciously as if I were some deadly enemy. Come on, oreo, I say impatiently. He sits down thoughtfully and begins to wash his face with one paw. Maddening Oreo, I say I give you food. I supply all your needs If you do anything in return. I don't know what it is. Now I'm personally inviting you into my house, so come on in. Oreo puts one foot across the threshold, then he draws it back. He looks out across the yard with some remote, unfathomable expression and he still doesn't come in. Oreo, I say I'm not going to stand here forever. If you don't come in, I'm going to close the door. This is your last chance. I start to close the door slowly. Does he come in? No, he sits there exercising his free will or something. He'll come in when it suits him. Not before he figures, I'll be patient, and so far he's right. Before he figures, I'll be patient, and so far he's right.
Speaker 1:God made cats. He also made people, and I wonder how he feels sometimes when he stands at the door and waits and waits. Somehow, I think I know Throughout the Bible people are compared to sheep. We kind of need someone to lead us and to guide us, and Jesus is our shepherd. But I think this concept of us being a lot like cats sometimes is also very true. We want to enter into God's presence and power when we want to, but we want that to be our choice and our timing so that it works best for us in our circumstances.
Speaker 1:I've heard it said many times that Christians are educated way beyond their level of obedience, and I believe it's absolutely true. We know more about what God's Word says and what Jesus asks of us than we actually put into effect in our lives. We don't fully embrace all of the things he wants us to do and be. We're reluctant to do that for whatever reason. That's why the Bible tells us that we are to be changed. We're not to be like the people of this world.
Speaker 1:Romans, chapter 12 and verse 2 in the New Living Translation says Don't copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn God's will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect. And that's actually a pretty cool concept if you think about it, that by the grace and power of God we can actually change the way that we think. All of those thought processes and all of those reactions that we hold inside that make us uptight and angry or hurt. All those things can be overcome when we allow God's Spirit to make the changes in our lives that we need to make.
Speaker 1:But it always starts with the choice. We need to choose what we are going to do. Are we going to follow God? Are we going to step into the life that he has for us? Are we just going to step our toe across the line every once in a while and just see what it's like?
Speaker 1:My wife may be a cat person, but really I'm a dog person, and dogs don't play those kinds of silly games of. I'm going to come in no, I'm not going to come in. Yes, I'm going to come in. Going to come in? Yes, I'm going to come in. No, I'm not going to come in.
Speaker 1:When you open up a door for a dog, it charges right on in and wants to be a part of everything where you are. Well, I kind of have that as my goal for my spirit as well, that when God opens up the door for me, I want to charge right in and experience everything there is that God has for me. We are all in this journey together. Every one of us has good days and bad days, and challenges and victories, but all along the way we are serving the same God and we are all growing to become more and more like Him. Have a great day, my friends, and we will talk again tomorrow. Thank you for listening today, and I invite you to join me Monday to Friday, right here on, starting Right with Danny Mac.
