The Back Seat

Perfect love will never want the preeminence in everything, it will never want to take the place of another, it will always be willing to take the back seat.  Smith Wigglesworth

In a few weeks I will be taking a trip to Louisiana with my sisters, cousin, aunt and Mom.  We did this trip last year taking my Mom back to see the places where she grew up.  I am driving my vehicle and it has seven seats.  There are two seats in the very back that fold down flat and then there is a bench seat in the middle.  I was talking to my sister and she said I should try out the back seats to see how they worked.  We were discussing that when we get to Louisiana if we were going short distances I could fit everyone in my car.  She also said I should take my cell phone with me in case I got stuck back there so I could call my husband to rescue me. 

Have you ever bought a car and driven it for a while and then found something out about it that you never knew.  That was yesterday for me.  Since I don’t often sit in the back or rear seats, (good thing, because I am usually driving it). Before you ask, no I didn’t take it on the road driving from the rear seat.  I did however, open the hatch and raise the two rear seats.  There are several levers and cords to pull to make this happen.

Then I moved to the two second row seats.  I saw a cord so I pulled it.  Nothing happened. I looked at the pictures and followed the steps. Nothing happened. I looked at the pictures again and saw that number three wasn’t happening so I went through the steps again.  Nothing happened.  I finally pulled out the manual and started reading.  This was where my husband found me when he walked out of our back yard.  I had the hatch open, three doors open and was sitting in the front seat reading. 

As you can guess he got a puzzled look on his face and then walked up to the car and asked me what I was doing.  I proceeded to explain to him that I was trying to figure out how to get into the back seats of the car without having to crawl in from the back hatch.  I got out and showed him the pictures on the side of the seat.  You are going to love this part.  He reaches up and says, “What is this for” and proceeded to pull a strap sticking out of the side of the seat.  The seat promptly popped forward and upside down so you could easily step inside.

I told him, "Is that cool or what?"  I hopped in and sat in one of the rear seats.  As I was sitting there it crossed my mind that the rear seat is where we all are in life.  We may think we are in control of everything, but that isn’t the case.  God is in the front and driver’s seat all the time.  When we think we are in control of our lives, give it a few days, months or years.  Something will happen eventually to remind us of where our seat is on the bus of life.  I am glad I’m in the rear seat because He already knows what is going to happen in my life and I don’t.  Wouldn’t you rather have someone in the driver’s seat who knows where you’re going?  

 

   

Prayer for the Day: Heavenly Father, I want you in the driver’s seat in my life.  I often make a mess of things when I try to struggle control away from You.  Remind me that You are there to guide and direct me.  You know what is best for me.  Help me to relinquish the control I think I have to You.  You will get me where I need to go.        

      

Scripture: In You, O Lord, I put my trust; let me never be ashamed; deliver me in Your righteousness. Bow down Your ear to me, deliver me speedily; be my rock of refuge, a fortress of defense to save me.

For You are my rock and my fortress; therefore, for Your name’s sake, lead me and guide me.  Pull me out of the net which they have secretly laid for me, for You are my strength.   Into Your hand I commit my spirit; You have redeemed me, O Lord God of truth.  Psalm 31:1-5

Who Do You Want To Be? 

  

What an incredible witness it is to a lost and fearful society when the Christian acts like a child of God, living under the loving sovereignty of the Heavenly Father. Henry Blackaby

Have you ever asked yourself who you want to be?  When we are young there is a great deal of focus placed on who we will become later in life.   I often think too much emphasis is placed on who we will become by worldly standards instead of by God’s standards.  If you look at it from a worldly perspective you would see more focus on careers that make more money because as the saying goes, “money makes the world go round”. Or does it? 

Who we become is one of the most important decisions we will ever make in life. So if you are making one of the most important decisions of your life, what would you choose?  Would you choose to become a doctor or lawyer, a journalist or teacher, baker or realtor, mechanic or salesman?  There are an endless number of choices for what we can do in life to make a living.  The difference is in who we are when we are making a living that matters. 

No matter what career you choose, who you are on the inside and who you project on the outside are really the most important choices in this life, not the occupation.  If your motivation in life is to become rich, your life will reflect it.  If your motivation is God, your life will reflect that too. 

What is your occupation?  Are you a janitor at a local school?  God can use you.  Are you a doctor seeing patients every day? God can use you.  Are you a stay at home mom?  God can use you.  God can and will use each one of us for His purpose if we let Him in and let Him lead.  Let go of what the world thinks you should be and become the person God wants you to be.    

Prayer for the Day: Heavenly Father, thank you for reminding me that my worldly title is not as important as what I become on the inside.  When You saved me, the title You gave me is “Child of God” and I want to be the best “Child of God” I can be.  Help me to live up to the title You gave me.    

      

Scripture: There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. This man came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all through him might believe.  He was not that Light, but was sent to bear witness of that Light.  That was the true Light which gives light to every man coming into the world.

He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him.  He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him. But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name: who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.  John 1:6-13

 

The Little Book of Instructions

Wisdom is the right use of knowledge. To know is not to be wise. Many men know a great deal, and are all the greater fools for it. There is no fool so great a fool as a knowing fool. But to know how to use knowledge is to have wisdom.  Charles Spurgeon

Not until we have become humble and teachable, standing in awe of God's holiness and sovereignty, acknowledging our own littleness, distrusting our own thoughts, and willing to have our minds turned upside down, can divine wisdom become ours.  J.I. Packer

Solomon was the wealthiest man who ever lived.  He also wrote Proverbs that provides some of the most important instructions on how to live life.  The thing I love about Proverbs is they are very straightforward and most of them or very short.  It doesn’t take much to memorize them and you don’t have to be a biblical scholar to get their meaning.  I thought I would go through some of them in a series of devotionals to show you what I mean. 

In Proverbs 1:7 (The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction), he tells us where to start to get knowledge or as I say smarts.  

  

When you get to Proverbs 2, he gives us a glimpse of the value of obtaining wisdom.  In this chapter there are a lot of action words.  He tells us to receive, treasure, incline your ear, apply your heart, cry out, lift up, seek and search.  This chapter also tells you what will happen if you do the things listed in the first half of the chapter and they are all beneficial to living a Christian life.  A few of these are it preserves, keeps and delivers.

When we get to Proverbs 3 he describes some of the things we will gain if we follow them.  We will find peace and direction.  How many times do we depend on ourselves alone to make the important decisions in life?  Two of my favorite verses Proverbs 3:5-6 (Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding.  In all your ways acknowledge Him, and he shall direct your paths.)  He goes on to tell us to honor the Lord with your possessions and to not despise God’s correction in your life.  He tells us that when we find wisdom we will be happy.  I think many times we confuse wisdom with book smarts.  We can have a photographic memory and remember every word we have ever read, but if we don’t apply it to our heart it has no value or in other words it is worthless.

How many of us go through life thinking we are happy?  If we were really happy we wouldn’t be striving so much for more of the things in this life.  The reason we keep striving for more on this earth is because we have a happy deficiency, but we haven’t figured out that the things of this earth aren’t what will get that happiness we are looking for.  For any of us to be happy we need to find wisdom.  That is the most important thing we can obtain on this earth.  Nothing else will compare to the happiness we will find when we really understand that the missing piece has nothing to do with stuff and everything to do with God.         

   

Prayer for the Day: Heavenly Father, I need to study Proverbs more. The wisest man who ever lived asked You for wisdom above riches, and you gave him more than he could ever dream of by giving him wisdom.  The riches he had in life were a by-product of wisdom.  I want Your wisdom, not the wisdom of the world.  If I ever want true happiness, I need to understand that it is not found here on earth but in You.  My happiness is found in trusting in and depending on You.  I praise You for Proverbs.   

      

Scripture: Happy is the man who finds wisdom, and the man who gains understanding; For her proceeds are better than the profits of silver, and her gain than fine gold.  She is more precious than rubies, and all the things you may desire cannot compare with her.  Length of days is in her right hand, in her left hand riches and honor.  Her ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace. She is a tree of life to those who take hold of her, and happy are all who retain her. Proverbs 3:13-18

Disappointment

God desires to show His power through your storm, but is your lack of faith keeping Him from doing so? God brings storms into your life to show His strength and to gain glory from His providence.  Paul Chappell

How do you handle disappointment?  Do you face it head on or do you run?  Do you get angry when something disappoints you? 

This weekend we did a show in Ennis, Texas called the Bluebonnet Festival.  As you can imagine there were a lot of bluebonnets and it is the state flower so why not celebrate it. 

Anyway, we were in Ennis for 2 days with our booth.  If you live in Texas you know that if you wait long enough the weather will change.  Sometimes that change is bad to worse and other times it is good to great and it can all happen in one day.  That is the beauty of our Texas climate.  It’s always a surprise.

Did I mention this is an outdoor show so you set your tent up outside?  So we set up our tent Friday evening and then went to the hotel.  We had a beautiful day on Saturday.  We put the sides on our tent Saturday evening and went to dinner and then back to the hotel.  My husband started texting me around 8:00pm telling me a storm was headed our way.  So I turned on the news and sure enough there was this big red line of thunderstorms with 70 mph winds headed our way.  As I looked out the hotel window the wind and rain were blowing sideways and there were waves in the pool below our window. 

Sunday morning we got up early and decided to go check on our tent.  We drove up to the event location and everything looked great until we got to our tent.  Our tables that had been set up Saturday with all of our products were turned over and our products were all over the ground.  We had broken diffusers, candles and body butters had lost their lids and dumped on the ground.  The top on our tent was blown off and the frame of the tent was bent and broken.  We had sachets sitting in containers filled with water, our table cloths were wet and on the ground.  Our cash register was upside down on the brick street and lavender essential oil bottles, lotions, diffusers and other products were scattered all over. 

I will never forget the feeling of disappointment when I looked at tent after tent that were perfectly fine and then getting to our tent and seeing total devastation.  It gave me a small glimpse into what people go through when a tornado goes through their town and blows down your house and everything in it. 

We had several vendors nearby who were standing looking at our tent or what was left of it.  It was really crazy because one tent on one side of us was turned over and all their tables were overturned, but the tent on the other side of us was perfectly fine with nothing out of place. 

We stood there in shock for a few minutes.  Some of the vendors came over and expressed how sorry they were that our stuff was damaged.  Mom, Dad and I stood there for a few minutes and then we started the cleanup.  We pulled a big trash container over and started tossing the broken items and stacking everything that was not damaged and setting aside things that could be salvaged. 

We started packing things on our trailer and then I looked over at Mom and Dad and I said, “Why don’t we stay.  We still have today for this event.  We can set up our tables and just sit the open plastic containers on the tables and sell out of them. We can have a storm sale for all the items that have damaged labels and everything that was not damaged that had been in plastic containers can still be sold”.  We decided to stay.

We had a choice in how we handled our disappointment.  My sister and I talked later that evening and she said, “You know Bren, sometimes God allows things to happen to us to teach us something.  Other times he allows it so that we can show others who God is by how we respond to tragedy.”  If we understand that we live in a fallen world, we will realize that bad things are going to happen to all of us at one time or another.  How we handle the tragedies and disappointments in life can give others a glimpse of who God is.

We were so blessed this weekend.  The vendor next to us who lost her tent decided to stay too when she heard we were going to stay.  Another vendor on the other side of the event came up to us and offered to loan us his extra tent and he came and helped us set it up over our tables so we wouldn’t be standing in the sun all day.  He even brought us weights and helped us tie the tent down.  We had to go back to our hotel to check out, so the vendors on both sides of us watched our products for us while we were gone. 

 

How we handle the disappointments in life can show others a God who is always there.  We sold all but 4 items in our storm sale and we made almost as much as we had the previous day.  God blesses us when we least expect it.  Don’t underestimate God when you are experiencing disappointment in life.  He may be trying to help you learn something about Him through the experience, or show someone else who He is by how we react to the disappointments in life.    

   

Prayer for the Day: Heavenly Father, You are an amazing Father who cares for us especially when we are going through the disappointments in life.  You blessed us this weekend when we experienced disappointment.  If we have the right attitude and have a close relationship with You, we can make lemonade out of lemons in any situation.  Thank You for bringing the storm into our lives, because it gave me an appreciation for how You can redeem any situation and our attitude plays a big part in showing others who You really are.      

      

Scripture: Wind and Wave Obey Jesus

Now when He got into a boat, His disciples followed Him. And suddenly a great tempest arose on the sea, so that the boat was covered with the waves. But He was asleep. Then His disciples came to Him and awoke Him, saying, “Lord, save us! We are perishing!”

But He said to them, “Why are you fearful, O you of little faith?” Then He arose and rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was a great calm. So the men marveled, saying, “Who can this be, that even the winds and the sea obey Him?”  Matthew 8:23-27

It’s Your Story, Write It, Live it

No difficulties in your case can baffle him, no dwarfing of your growth in years that are past, no apparent dryness of your inward springs of life, no crookedness or deformity in any of your past development, can in the least mar the perfect work that he will accomplish, if you will only put yourselves absolutely into his hands and let him have his own way with you.  Hannah Whitall Smith

God created each of us as a unique individual.  We are all one of a kind.  I was thinking today about what I should do with my “one of a kind-ness”.  Since God created me as the only one of me; how should I best use the gifts and talents he gave me to affect change in a fallen world?

One of the first things we need to do is to figure out what our story is.  What is our history or in other words what has made us into the person we are today?  The other thing to remember is that it is never too late to start.  Too many times I think we forget that God knows we are sinners.  It’s not a newsflash to Him.  Some of the most traumatic circumstances in our life through sin can make us the very thing God created us to be.  The second thing is some of the traumatic occurrences in our lifetime can be caused not by sin, but by our living in a fallen world.  When Adam and Eve failed; we became victims of that failure.  If I were dissecting my life and trying to figure out how to glorify God with it; what would I look at to get a good picture of where God wants me to go?

My story is mine alone.  There is not another individual on this planet who has the same one.  Someone else may have been through a similar experience but no one else experienced it exactly like you or I did.  That is what being unique means.

So you look back over your life and identify the most life changing experiences in it.  What if someone asked you to pick the top 3 most life changing experiences in your life?  What would your top three be?  My first would be cancer.  There is nothing like a traumatic event to change your perspective and get your attention.  My second would be when I was baptized again.  That was the moment I realized for the first time how much God truly loved me.  My third would be my childhood.  This one is kind of a broad statement of an experience or really multiple ones, but it is the one that shaped me into the person I am today. 

For five or so years I have been writing a devotional telling you about my life experiences and writing about how they shape my life.  You have a story to tell as well.  You have experiences just like I do that affect who you are today and they can also affect who you can become.  You are a child of God who loves you.  Take your history, whatever it is, and own it.  Then take that story and use it for God’s glory.  Treasure awaits those who use their story for His glory.  Take the broken pieces of you and turn them into good.  God is waiting to hear you tell your story to someone else.  Write it and live it.     

   

Prayer for the Day: I am a unique child of God.  You created me in Your likeness.  Every person has a story to tell.  We have all sinned and fall short of your glory, but you redeem us when we turn back to You.  I praise You for turning my sin into something good.  Thank you for giving me the words to say that may change another person’s life.  I am blessed beyond measure.  You are the King of Glory and I praise Your Holy Name.

     

      

Scripture: Glory to God for His Grace

And I thank Christ Jesus our Lord who has enabled me, because He counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry, although I was formerly a blasphemer, a persecutor, and an insolent man; but I obtained mercy because I did it ignorantly in unbelief.  And the grace of our Lord was exceedingly abundant, with faith and love which are in Christ Jesus. This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief. However, for this reason I obtained mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ might show all longsuffering, as a pattern to those who are going to believe on Him for everlasting life.  Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, to God who alone is wise, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.  1 Timothy 1:12-17

What Does Faith Mean to You?

The Bible has much more to say about faith and how important it is. In fact, it is so important that, without faith, we have no place with God, and it is impossible to please Him (Hebrews 11:6). According to the Bible, faith is belief in the one, true God without actually seeing Him.

I started thinking about faith and what it means to me.  One of the basic questions I asked myself is “How do you have faith in something you can’t see, touch or feel? God asks a lot of humans when He asks us to have faith in Him.  We aren’t such a trusting group of people so how do we trust in something we can’t really see?   If we do have faith how do we define it in human terms so that we can describe it to someone else who doesn’t know what it means?

There are an infinite number of descriptions I have for the faith I feel when I think about our Heavenly Father.  Faith is the feeling I got when I stood on the high diving board and got ready to jump for the first time.  It’s the feeling I got when I climbed up on a horse to ride by myself for the first time.  It’s that first jump into the pool when your Dad says he will catch you.  It’s riding a bike with no training wheels, driving a car for the first time and going to first grade.  It’s taking that first step into college life and saying yes I will marry you to the man or woman you love.  It’s the death of a grandparent and a cancer diagnosis. It’s getting older and realizing that you can’t recapture the days in the past but you can look forward to a future in heaven with the very One we place our faith in to get us there.  

Faith is an intangible reality. Do you trust that God will save you if You believe?  Do you place your trust in your own abilities or do you place it in the hands of the One who saves. Faith is placing trust in the unseen and believing that God has created a place with Him where we will live forever and letting go of what this life has to offer because it is worthless compared to Heaven.

This morning I was thinking about how each of us takes a chance every day when we walk out of the front door of our house.  Will we live or die?  We all have the terminal illness called mortality.  We are born to die.  I have a choice in how I live my life.  I can live it filled with faith in God or faith in my own abilities.  Personally, I don’t want to depend on my abilities because I don’t stand much of a chance if I do.  Letting go of fear is the first step.  Trusting is second and love is the third.  How do you want to live your life?  Faith is a commodity that can’t be bought but it is the most priceless treasure you will ever receive.     

   

Prayer for the Day: Heavenly Father, You have shown me your faithfulness throughout my life.  It has been hard to let go of my earthly thoughts and focus on my faith in You.  I still struggle with faith when I allow myself to become fearful of what could happen.  I want to place all my faith in You.  There is no safer place to be and I want others to find that same faith in You.

      

Scripture: By Faith We Understand

Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. For by it the elders obtained a good testimony. By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that the things which are seen were not made of things which are visible.

Faith at the Dawn of History

By faith Abel offered to God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, through which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts; and through it he being dead still speaks.

By faith Enoch was taken away so that he did not see death, “and was not found, because God had taken him”; for before he was taken he had this testimony, that he pleased God. ⁶ But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.

By faith Noah, being divinely warned of things not yet seen, moved with godly fear, prepared an ark for the saving of his household, by which he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness which is according to faith.

By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to the place which he would receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going. ⁹ By faith he dwelt in the land of promise as in a foreign country, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise;  for he waited for the city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God.

By faith Sarah herself also received strength to conceive seed, and she bore a child when she was past the age, because she judged Him faithful who had promised. Therefore from one man, and him as good as dead, were born as many as the stars of the sky in multitude—innumerable as the sand which is by the seashore.

The Heavenly Hope

These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off were assured of them, embraced them and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. For those who say such things declare plainly that they seek a homeland. And truly if they had called to mind that country from which they had come out, they would have had opportunity to return. But now they desire a better, that is, a heavenly country. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He has prepared a city for them.  Hebrews 11:1-16

Trusting God

Prayer is not appointed for the furnishing of God with the knowledge of what we need, but it is designed as a confession to Him of our sense of the need. In this, as in everything, God's thoughts are not as ours. God requires that His gifts should be sought for. He designs to be honoured by our asking, just as He is to be thanked by us after He has bestowed His blessing.  A. W. Pink

My Mom and Dad went out of town last week and asked us to keep one of their dogs.  Clyde is a Shiba Inu just like our dog and they get along well so we always keep him when they go out of town. 

Well about two days into Clyde’s stay at the “Do Drop In”, (that would be our humble abode), he decided to take a trip.  He escaped out of the gate in our back yard and was gone.  By gone I mean by the time my husband got to the end of our driveway, Clyde was already several blocks away.  Did I mention Shiba’s are fast? 

What do you do when you are keeping someone else’s dog and they escape?  We started searching or I should say my husband started searching as I was at work.  I don’t think my boss would have understood me asking for time off to go catch a Shiba.  First of all, he wouldn’t know what a Shiba was and second he wouldn’t understand me taking off to go chase a dog.  When I got home that evening I started my own search with no luck.  We talked to a policeman who said they would keep an eye out for him. 

Anyway, I finally called my Mom to let her know we lost him, or in other words Clyde took a trip without permission.  I asked Mom to pray and asked her to ask my sister to pray.  On Friday I posted a lost and found message with Clyde’s picture at the local pound.  We went four days without hearing a word.

Yesterday I received a phone call from a lady who told me they found Clyde and she told me she had been taking care of him.   She said she Googled to see if she could find his owner and she ran across my post on the city pound website.

Here’s the thing.  When I received that call I was overwhelmed.  I had given up on finding Clyde and I had given up on God answering my prayer.  Two days ago I was praying and I started thinking about how Clyde would show up.  Every day when I walked out the gate I pictured him standing outside the gate waiting to get back in.  I pictured him standing outside our fence barking to get in because he could see my dog in the back yard. 

I had a preconceived idea of how God would work out finding Clyde and bringing him home and I also gave up that God would follow through.  What I figured out is that I do that frequently when it comes to God.  It’s stupid really.  I have an idea of how God should work things out in my life when I pray, and I expect Him to follow through in my way not His.  In reality God has a whole other plan and it is much bigger than I could ever dream up.  I need to learn to pray and let Him do what He does best.  My prayers are not going to be answered in the way I think they should, so why am I surprised when God answers them in a way I never thought of. 

Prayer for the Day: Heavenly Father, I ask for Your forgiveness for not having enough faith in You to work out the details.  Thank You for reminding me that Your thoughts are not my thoughts and Your ways are not my ways.  You want what is best for me.  Strengthen my faith through this example of Your amazing faithfulness.  I praise You for showing me who You are through the everyday things in my life.    

   

Scripture: “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways,” ways the Lord.  “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts.  Isaiah 55:8-9

Back On My Feet Again

Our God has boundless resources. The only limit is in us. Our asking, our thinking, our praying are too small. Our expectations are too limited.  A. B. Simpson

I was listening to the music on my phone this morning on the way to work.  There is a song by Jonny Lang called “On My Feet Again”.  Have you ever noticed that when you need it most, something or someone will speak to you that will get you back on your feet again. 

Sometimes when you are hanging by your fingernails on the ledge of life, you hear a song or someone speaks to you or you read something and it gets you back on your feet again.  I believe God works that way.  One thing I have learned in life is that you have to keep your mind and thoughts focused on God in order to get back on your feet again when life knocks you down. 

God knows our need.  You don’t have to draw Him a picture, write Him a letter or pick up the phone to get in touch with Him.  Too many times we make communication with God more difficult than it needs to be.  Getting on our knees is the place to start.  When we get on our knees we are admitting our lowly sinful status.  We are letting God know we understand how mighty He is.  It is a form of worship to get on our knees and ask for His help in whatever need we have in life. 

One of the verses in this song goes like this:

“On my own I just can’t get it right

It doesn’t matter how hard I try

But with You I become a much stronger man

Getting on my knees puts me back on my feet again.”

Are you trying to get back on your feet again?  Are there things in your life that you don’t have the answers to.  If you are in a broken place in your life; get on your knees.  God will help get you back on your feet again.

 

   

Prayer for the Day: Heavenly Father, there are times in my life when I don’t spend enough time on my knees talking to You.  Instead I go into fix-it mode and think I can handle whatever it is on my own.  The problem is on my own I just can't get it right.  Remind me that You are an amazing God who loves me.  You are there through any trial I may face in this life.  Turning to You is the safest place I can be.

    

      

Scripture: Praise for God’s Deliverance

Then David spoke to the Lord the words of this song, on the day when the Lord had delivered him from the hand of all his enemies, and from the hand of Saul. And he said: “The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer; The God of my strength, in whom I will trust; My shield and the horn of my salvation, My stronghold and my refuge; My Savior, You save me from violence. I will call upon the Lord, who is worthy to be praised; So shall I be saved from my enemies. “When the waves of death surrounded me, the floods of ungodliness made me afraid. The sorrows of Sheol surrounded me; the snares of death confronted me.  In my distress I called upon the Lord, and cried out to my God; He heard my voice from His temple, and my cry entered His ears. 2 Samuel 22:1-7

Surprises & The Art of Giving

You can always give without loving, but you can never love without giving.  Amy Carmichael

Have you ever done something for someone that they didn’t expect?  I think one of the things that make doing for others so special is the pleasure on their face when you do a kindness for them that isn’t expected. 

I love surprises.  Let me clarify. I like certain surprises.  I don’t like surprises that scare me or embarrass me.  Snakes aren’t good surprises and neither is being humiliated in front of other people.  I think the embarrassment part comes from being an introvert as a kid.  I will say that the older I get the less I care about being embarrassed.  Maybe that comes from the knowledge that I know God loves me no matter what I do.  You may think I do stupid stuff and I admit it I do.  To see some of my stupid stuff; just read some of my previous devotionals.  My motto is if you can’t laugh at yourself it’s better not to laugh at someone else. 

Another thing I have learned over the years is that I am a sinner just like every other person on this earth.  When you figure that fundamental point out; other people’s opinions of you stop being so important.  Knowing “whose” you are makes all the difference.

As I was thinking about this I realized that there is an art to giving.  I’m not talking about giving money or things.  I am talking about the art of giving of yourself on behalf of another person.  If you ever want to see God at work, help someone else without being asked.  There is a joy in it that is indescribable.  Seeing the other person’s face light up because you did something out of kindness is to me the ultimate God rush.  It’s like joy, happiness and excitement all rolled into one package. 

The secret to the art of giving is that it will cost you something.  It may be your time, it could be money but the bottom line is it must include love.  If love is not the main ingredient then you have not experienced the art of giving.  To love another person enough to sacrifice something important to you is the ultimate act of giving. 

   

Prayer for the Day: Heavenly Father, help me to be a better giver.  I want to reflect You with my giving.  I pray that You will present opportunities to me that will allow me to practice the art of giving in a special way.  I am filled with joy when I practice it Your way.  Place people in my path that need to see Your love through my giving of myself, my time or any other resource You provide so that I can show others You.

      

Scripture: The Cheerful Giver

But this I say: He who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and he who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully.  So let each one give as he purposes in his heart, not grudgingly or of necessity; for God loves a cheerful giver. And God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that you, always having all sufficiency in all things, may have an abundance for every good work. As it is written:

“He has dispersed abroad, He has given to the poor; His righteousness endures forever.”  2 Corinthians 9:6-9

Mission Impossible

The only way the corporate Body of Christ will fulfill the mission Christ has given it is for individual Christians to have a vision for fulfilling that mission personally.  David Jeremiah

I guess I have been thinking about old sitcoms lately because today I thought about Mission Impossible.  In the series Jim Phelps, (played by Peter Graves), is the head of a super-secret government agency called “Impossible Missions” or IM for short.  The show always started out with a tape recorder giving the super secret assignment then the voice on tape would make this statement: “As always, should you or any of your IM force be caught or killed, the Secretary will disavow any knowledge of your actions.  Good luck, Jim.  This tape will self destruct in five seconds.”

I always loved that self-destruct part.  It was cheesy and since I was young it drew me into the drama.  When I started thinking about this old TV show it reminded me of our Christian life.  We are on a mission for God.  It doesn’t matter what you do for a living or how much money you do or don’t make.  It is all about the mission.  The mission should you choose to accept it, is the most important mission you will ever complete in this life.  How you handle your mission can mean eternal life for others.  Think about it.  How we live our life can influence another person’s eternal life.  When I think of eternal some of the words that come to mind are forever, never ending and infinity.  In fact I can’t even comprehend that amount of time even with the words to describe it.

So if we each have a mission, how are we doing in accomplishing that mission?  Every one of us is called to complete our mission.  I guess that would mean we are all missionaries in life.  The beauty of our God mission is that God will not disavow us.  Other people may disavow us but God won’t.  Another beautiful thing about our godly mission is that we have God’s ultimate power in it.  So if we pray to Him for guidance, depend on Him for support and follow through on our mission, we have the ultimate power of our Heavenly Father to help us complete it.  The truly amazing thing is rewards await us in heaven if we complete our mission. 

Are you using your work life, family life and every other aspect of your life to complete the mission God has set before you?  Follow through on your mission in this life and amazing rewards are within reach. God makes an impossible mission possible. 

   

Prayer for the Day: Heavenly Father, my mission in daily life should be to draw others to You.  Every Christian has a responsibility to complete the most important mission; helping others know You.  I pray that I handle my mission well and that You will guide me when the mission becomes difficult.  Remind me that this mission is more important than the everyday things that happen in my life that ultimately have no value in Your Kingdom.

 

      

Scripture: Light Bearers

Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure.

Do all things without complaining and disputing, that you may become blameless and harmless, children of God without fault in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world, holding fast the word of life, so that I may rejoice in the day of Christ that I have not run in vain or labored in

 vain.

Yes, and if I am being poured out as a drink offering on the sacrifice and service of your faith, I am glad and rejoice with you all. For the same reason you also be glad and rejoice with me.  Philippians 2:12-18

The Cone of Silence

In place of our exhaustion and spiritual fatigue, God will give us rest. All He asks is that we come to Him...that we spend a while thinking about Him, meditating on Him, talking to Him, listening in silence, occupying ourselves with Him - totally and thoroughly lost in the hiding place of His presence.  Chuck Swindoll

When I was a kid we used to watch the show Get Smart.   For those of you not as old as me; this was a sitcom based on a secret government agency.  Did you know that it was created by Mel Brooks?  That might explain the absurdity of it.  The show was a cross between James Bond and Inspector Clouseau.  Maxwell Smart was Agent 86 and his partner was Agent 99.  The nemesis in the show was an organization called KAOS.  Instead of the modern day cell phone, Smart had a rotary dial phone in his shoe.  He was really inept at being a spy and his success depended more on luck than anything else.

One of my favorite devices in the show was the Cone of Silence.  Anytime Smart wanted to talk to Chief in private he would request the Cone of Silence.   It was a big plastic cone that would descend from the ceiling over the desk so they could talk in private.  The problem with the Cone of Silence was it never really worked properly. 

Other special agent devices included an olive radio transmitter, French bread triangulation device, coffee and donut radio, bowl of fruit microphone & tape recorder, parking meter telegraph and two of my favorites, fly microphone and the Closet of Silence that was used when the Cone of Silence had been rented out to the CIA.

I think sometimes when it comes to our communication with God, we need to utilize the Cone of Silence but our Cone of Silence doesn’t work properly either. How many times do you rush through your prayers to God and then run on to the next thing?  When it comes to our time with God we often forget that He wants us to listen, not talk.  Sometimes our prayers are short circuited because we aren’t listening for God’s voice.  I am guilty of getting so caught up in what I am saying, that I don’t listen for what God wants me to learn from just being silent in His presence. 

In one episode of Get Smart Max and the Chief enter the Cone of Silence, but so does a bee and the buzzing is so loud that it drowns out the conversation.  How many times have we allowed outside distractions to interfere with our communication with God?

I think I need to start my quiet time with God in the Cone of Silence.  Find your quiet place and just be still in His presence.  God wants to talk to you but it requires uninterrupted time and attention.  You will be amazed at what God will tell you in the Cone of Silence.

  

   

Prayer for the Day: Heavenly Father, I am guilty of talking over You.  When I should be listening for Your voice, I am often already thinking of the next thing I want to ask You.  Help me to value the time I spend with You and to spend the majority of it listening for Your voice. 

      

Scripture: I will stand my watch and set myself on the rampart, and watch to see what He will say to me, and what I will answer when I am corrected.  Habakkuk 2:1

Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth!  The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge.  Psalm 46:10-11

Work Like You are Working for the Lord

If you're running a 26-mile marathon, remember that every mile is run one step at a time. If you are writing a book, do it one page at a time. If you're trying to master a new language, try it one word at a time. There are 365 days in the average year. Divide any project by 365 and you'll find that no job is all that intimidating.  Chuck Swindoll

This job has been given to me to do. Therefore, it is a gift. Therefore, it is a privilege. Therefore, it is an offering I may make to God. Therefore, it is to be done gladly, if it is done for Him. Here, not somewhere else, I may learn God's way. In this job, not in some other, God looks for faithfulness.  Elisabeth Elliot

Do you ever think about your work and how you do it?  I had a conversation with one of my sister’s and we were talking about jobs and some of the jobs we have had over the years.  I was telling her about my first job in college.  I worked for our local Credit Union part-time while going to school.

If you want a humbling experience all you have to do is think back to one of your first jobs and that will do it for most of us.  My job at the Credit Union was to shred documents and stuff statements in envelopes. 

So here is a picture of how my day went when I worked at the Credit Union.  I would arrive around noon after my classes were over and I would go to the break room at the back of the building.  There was a big industrial size shredder and stacked next to it was a 5 foot tall stack of greenbar reports.  For those of you who aren’t as old as dirt like me, a greenbar report is one long report printed on one long continuous piece of perforated paper. 

I would stand at the shredder and feed these greenbar reports into the shredder.  A trash bag was underneath to catch the shredded paper.  I would fill bags, tie them off with a bread tie and toss them out the back door.  So imagine doing this every day after school for 5 hours.  It can be tedious and boring. 

So I decided to challenge myself.  My challenge was to see how many more bags I could shred than the day before.  When I first started shredding I started out only feeding one report into the shredder at a time.  Well once I issued my challenge to myself to beat the count from the day before, I had to become innovative.  So I would line up 3 reports on the floor and feed the end sheets into the shredder and then I could sit back and watch it run since the reports were all connected together.  One day I got a little over-ambitious and fed too many into the shredder at once.  It jammed.  That was the day I learned how to repair a shredder. 

So every day I would do a few more bags than the previous day.  It became the highlight of my day to look out the back door and see the stack of bags filled with shredded documents. 

   

Do you know what this job taught me?  It taught me to do the best job I can at whatever work I do.  It doesn’t matter what the job is, it is the attitude that I use when I am doing it.  This job taught me perseverance, integrity, trustworthiness and how not to be bored out of my mind shredding documents. It taught me about work ethic and giving 100% to the person who pays you to do the job.  It taught me patience and humility.  Have you realized that when you first start your career whatever it may be; you will always start at the bottom.  You don’t go immediately to CEO if you work for someone else. 

Your job is your training ground for God’s service.  Everything we do in this life is for God’s service not ours.  Too many times we forget that we are working for the Lord in every aspect of our life.  He is our ultimate employer and part of the reward for doing your job well is “you will receive the reward of the inheritance; for you serve the Lord Christ.”   

   

Prayer for the Day: Heavenly Father, I want to serve You to the best of my ability.  Thank you for those long ago jobs that taught me integrity, perseverance, ethics, honesty and the value of hard work.  Remind me that the job I hold today is working for You in whatever capacity You see fit.  Help me to reflect Jesus Christ to others by the way I do my job today.       

Scripture: Bondservants, obey in all things your masters according to the flesh, not with eyeservice, as men-pleasers, but in sincerity of heart, fearing God. And whatever you do, do it heartily, as to the Lord and not to men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance; for you serve the Lord Christ.  But he who does wrong will be repaid for what he has done, and there is no partiality.  Colossians 3:22-25

Who Do You Depend On?

When we dare to depend entirely upon God and do not doubt, the humblest and feeblest agencies will become mighty through God, to the pulling down of strongholds. A.B. Simpson

I started thinking this morning about who I depend on.  There are family members and friends and even acquaintances that I depend on for different reasons.  Sometimes we depend on them to get work to us so that we can complete our job and other times we depend on them to be there for us when things go south; and in this life, things will go south at one point or another.  

When I started thinking about how I depend on other’s I thought of the most important One I depend on.  God.  When I think of who I depend on the most the first one who comes to mind is God.  The one constant thing in my life that I can depend on when everyone else may fail me is God.  He will never forsake me.  He doesn’t have an unknown agenda.  The Bible lays it all out for me in black and white and it points me to Whom I can depend in times of trouble. 

So when the tough times come and tragedy strikes He is where I turn because I know He is dependable.  I was talking to someone this week and it occurred to me that this person doesn’t know and understand God the way I do.  From our conversations, I can tell this person depends more on their own abilities to see them through the tough things in life instead of depending on God. 

I was that person at one time in my life.  I depended on myself to get me through hardships and the crisis’ in my life but over time I learned that my abilities and actions didn’t get me through the hardships; God did.  When we finally realize who is in control of our life and that He knows everything that will happen in it; we can then let go and let Him.  We can lean on Him and depend on Him.  When we understand that He wants the best for us we can be free to worship Him as He intended.  It won’t matter what the outcome of whatever our circumstance is; we can rest in the assurance that He will take care of it.

Depend on the One who gave you life.  There is no One more dependable than God and no one stronger and more capable of taking care of You than Him.

Prayer for the Day: Heavenly Father, over the years I have learned that You are the One I depend on.  It doesn’t matter what I am going through whether it be sadness, sorrow, fear or worry, You are the one I can depend on to see me through it.  Remind me that You are dependable and that You have proven it over and over again.

     

Scripture: God the Rock of Salvation

In You, O Lord, I put my trust; Let me never be put to shame. Deliver me in Your righteousness, and cause me to escape; incline Your ear to me, and save me. Be my strong refuge, to which I may resort continually; You have given the commandment to save me, for You are my rock and my fortress.  Psalm 71:1-3