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

New Phones

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

Faith in a prayer-hearing God will make a prayer-loving Christian.  Andrew Murray

We have new phones at work.  You’re probably saying “so what”?   Well, the phones were changed out on Friday.  When we came in on Monday we had this nice new phone on our desks that has 22 buttons on it; all for different functions.  Did I mention that this phone is so complicated that we had to have a training class to figure out how it works?  With 22 buttons and multiple user screens, I’m surprised it can’t drive me home. 

  

When I tried to login the first time it asked for a new password.  I entered a new password and a lady came on and told me unacceptable password.  So when all else fails, go to the manual.  Did I aIso mention that the manual is 322 pages long?  Anyway, back to my password.  I tried my old password, made up a new password, tried someone else’s password and I actually got stuck in a continuous loop.  When I was able to get in it kept taking me back to the same message, “invalid password, please try again”.   I finally hung up on her.

The interesting thing was everyone who came in the office stopped by to ask me how to log into their phones.  Like I had time to read 322 pages of instructions and was an expert or something.  There is even a section called the Grand Tour in the manual.  I don’t need a Grand Tour; I need a semester of college to get through the manual. Then there was the whole microphone thing.  When I went to record my name and voice message I would hear the beep and then I would speak into the phone but when I pressed replay to listen to my message there was nothing but silence.  I finally figured out by trial and error that I had to hit the microphone button in order to record my message.

Then there was the Park Orbit button.  That sounds kind of like an oxymoron to me.  How can I park and orbit at the same time?  I stay away from that button.  Another interesting button is the Page All.  This is the one that puts you on the loud speaker so that everyone in the office can hear you.  Another great feature to this multi-talented phone is that now people can call me and since I requested some special feature prior to setup, (what was I thinking), it allows my voice mails to be sent to me by email and it is translated into a wave file that will allow me to listen to my messages from my desktop.  (I read that in the manual so it must work, although I haven’t received a message yet so maybe my messages are in orbit or a black hole). 

When I was thinking about my phone it reminded me that God is always available.  The amazing thing is; I can speak to God by thinking of Him, singing praise to Him and meditating on Him and His Word.  There are no complicated processes to reach Him, no multiple buttons that require a college degree to understand and the Manual is pretty straightforward.  Follow Me. Love Me.  Believe in Me.  Accept Me.  How amazing is it that we can have eternal life and it is easy if we believe. You don’t need a special wave file to be able to communicate with our Heavenly Father.  Trust in Him, believe in Him and talk to Him.  He is there waiting to hear from you.  

  

Prayer for the Day: Heavenly Father, as I tried to figure out how to operate my telephone, it brought thoughts of You to mind. I praise You for allowing me to communicate with You directly.  Some of my best conversations are those I have with You.  You are my Savior and Redeemer.  Thank you for loving me enough to save me and I praise You for answering my prayers. 

      

Scripture: Give ear to my words, O Lord, consider my meditation.  Give heed to the voice of my cry, My King and my God, for to You I will pray.  My voice You shall hear in the morning, O Lord; in the morning I will direct it to You, and I will look up.  Psalm 5:1-3

But let all those rejoice who put their trust in You; let them ever shout for joy, because You defend them; let those also who love Your name be joyful in You.  For You, O Lord, will bless the righteous; with favor You will surround him as with a shield. Psalm 5:11-12

I will praise the Lord according to His righteousness, and will sing praise to the name of the Lord Most High. Psalm 7:17

 

Behave Like a Christian

“I pray that you will understand the words of Jesus, “Love one another as I have loved you.” Ask yourself “How has he loved me? Do I really love others in the same way?” Unless this love is among us, we can kill ourselves with work and it will only be work, not love. Work without love is slavery.” Mother Teresa

Do you have a co-worker who irritates you?  We all do.  It’s that person who always complains, doesn’t have anything good to say about anyone and gossips about everything going on in the office.  Then there is the co-worker who knows everything.  There isn’t a topic you could bring up that they don’t know everything there is to know about it and are willing to share their knowledge. 

The one thing I need to remind myself of is that sometimes I am that irritating co-worker.  If you don’t work alone and are surrounded by people every day, those are people God has placed in your path so that you can make a difference in their life.  What do you do when that person gets in your vicinity? Do you run the other way or lock the door of your office if you have an office, or maybe duck into the restroom?

There are times when I get so distracted by the responsibilities of work that I forget about the people around me who need a Savior.  God didn’t create me to go to work every day, do my job and go home again, only to start all over again the next day.  Our purpose is to show others who He is and point them in His direction.  Work is a part of life that gives us opportunities to share His love. 

I am not always good at this and I fail miserably many times.  There are going to be people in this world who get on our nerves and irritate us.   We are to be kindly and affectionate to one another with brotherly love, fervent in spirit and serve the Lord.  An important part of serving the Lord is to love one another.  We could use a lot more of that in this world we live in.     

Prayer for the Day: Heavenly Father, I don’t always do a good job of sharing who You are with others in the workplace.  I forget to look at the person and instead focus on the irritation.  There are others who need to see You through me and I can’t do that if I am letting them irritate me or if I avoid them.  Help me to show love to others as You have shown me time and time again. 

      

Scripture: Behave Like a Christian

Let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor what is evil. Cling to what is good. Be kindly affectionate to one another with brotherly love, in honor giving preference to one another; not lagging in diligence, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord; rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation, continuing steadfastly in prayer; distributing to the needs of the saints, given to hospitality.

Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse. Rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep. Be of the same mind toward one another. Do not set your mind on high things, but associate with the humble. Do not be wise in your own opinion. Romans 12:9-15

The Witness

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

God desires for you to be involved in drawing people to His Word through a dedicated life to Him and an active witness for Him.  Paul Chappell

So you are going through life and things happen.  When things happen in your life, good or bad, how do you tell others what happened?   You observe or see what happens and then you describe what you saw.

When I was in college I had a friend who worked for a small loan company.  I went to classes in the morning and got out around noon.  I decided to stop by and see her before I went to work. 

We were in her office talking when someone walked in the door.  We both thought it was a customer.  Imagine our surprise and shock when he pulled a gun and demanded money.  He made both of us lie down on the floor as he proceeded to take the money out of the cash drawer then he left.

As soon as he left my friend called the police.  The police showed up and asked some questions and then another officer called to tell the officer we were speaking with that they caught someone nearby.  They wanted us to go see if we could identify the person as the one who committed the crime. 

At the time this occurred I was scared silly, literally.  I don’t think I could have identified my dog, much less a robber.  The police took me in a separate car from the one my friend was in and asked us to look at the guy to see if he was the one who had robbed the office.  My mind was an absolute blank.  I looked at the guy and thought; I can’t say if that was the guy or not.  We then were taken down to the police station to file our statement. In this situation I wasn’t a very good witness.  When someone points a gun at you, you sort of blank out everything but the gun.  I couldn’t even identify the guy’s tennis shoes. 

How do you become a witness for God?  When you are going through struggles in life; the best way to witness to someone else is to tell others what God has done in your life.  If you aren’t paying attention, you will be a poor witness like I was during that robbery.  God wants us to grow in faith during the hard times in life.  He then wants us to tell others how we survived it.  If we hide our light under a bushel no one will ever see who God is and what He can do. 

Prayer for the Day: Heavenly Father, I want to be a better witness of who You are in my life and show others that you exist. Help me to learn from the struggles in my life so that I can show someone else who you are by witnessing what I have seen You do in my life.     

Scripture: But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”  Acts 1:8

Technology & Relationships

Four of the Ten Commandments deal with our relationship to God while the other six deal with our relationships with people. But all ten are about relationships.  Rick Warren

Last week at work I had someone in my office and my phone rang.  I glanced at the display and it said breast cancer.  Once I finished talking to the person who was in my office I listened to my messages but there was not one for the previous phone call.  Later in the day I heard my phone ring and it was the same caller so I answered the phone. 

A woman’s voice came on and started talking about supporting research for breast cancer.  Have you ever had one of those recordings call you where you can’t really tell if it is a person on the other line or a machine?  This was one of those times.  Our phone systems have become so sophisticated that you can almost set them up like a live person is on the other end of the phone.  This woman started talking and then she would ask me a question and then pause.  I asked what organization she was calling from and she immediately responded with some statement that didn’t make sense with the question I asked. I talked to this woman for several minutes before I realized it was a recording.  I am guessing she wasn’t offended when I hung up on her.

We have become a society run by automation.  Our phone can answer for us, we can turn on lights, alarms, and unlock doors in our house from our desk at work.  We can watch a webcam to see what our dog is up to in doggie day care. I even heard Uber is planning on converting their cars to run without drivers.  Children have better relationships with their phones than with live people. 

God created us to be in relationship with others and with Him. We have become so dependent on the devices we have for communication, that we have forgotten how to build relationships with people.  Many children today don’t know how to make lasting relationships. I really think we need to go back to the days of 3 channels on TV and a phone that plugs into the wall for communication.  If we aren’t building relationships with others, we aren’t showing others who God is and the amazing grace available to all who seek Him.   

Prayer for the Day: Heavenly Father, I am guilty of spending more time on my electronic devises than building lasting relationships with others.  I often forget that the purpose behind relationships is to surround ourselves with others who can lift us up when we fall, encourage us when we need it most and to share Your love for us.  I need to spend more time with the people around me than figuring out what new gadget I can find that will save me time.  You’ve given me all the time I need, help me to take advantage of it.

Scripture: Fellowship with Him and One Another

This is the message which we have heard from Him and declare to you, that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin. 1 John 1:5-7

Potholes

Every Christian will readily allow that sin is insidious, but it is one thing to recognize this in theory and quite another to be regulated by it in practice.  A.W. Pink

If Christ has died for me - ungodly as I am, without strength as I am - then I can no longer live in sin, but must arouse myself to love and serve Him who has redeemed me. I cannot trifle with the evil that killed my best Friend. I must be holy for his sake. How can I live in sin when He has died to save me from it?  Charles Spurgeon

As I was driving to work this morning I started thinking about potholes.  Why was I doing that?  Maybe because I hit the same pothole every day on my way to work.  You would think I would remember that pothole since I drive that way every day and avoid it.  Maybe I am hoping that the city will see that pothole one day and fix it.  Then there is the other pothole on my way home every evening.  The city has repaired it once already but alas that didn’t fix it.  It is back to being a pothole.   

I decided to do a little research and share my research with you.  Did you know there is a state park that has named their pothole?  It is called Archbald Pothole State Park.  This particular pothole is 38 feet deep and 42 feet wide.  It is in Lackawanna County Pennsylvania.  It was discovered by a coal miner in 1884. The park is named for Archbald Pothole which they say was formed during the Wisconsin Glacial Period.  The first potholes were formed by the force of water falling over a long period of time, and here in Texas potholes are formed by ice, water and millions of cars.  I’m not so sure I would want to be famous for the biggest pothole in the U.S., but there are some counties that are famous for the biggest ball of twine and they even have twine-a-thons and you can stay at the Almost Done Inn, so I guess being famous for a pothole isn’t so bad. 

As I was pondering the significance of potholes I started thinking about how our Christian life is often filled with potholes.  Satan is extremely good at wearing us down.  We may be on the right path following God’s Word and living the life He calls us to live and “bam”.  We hit a pothole.  The other thing is we will often return to the same pothole over and over again, repeating the same mistakes over and over again.  If you look at it from a sin perspective, potholes are a fact of life.  Just when you think you have conquered some sin that plagues you; Satan wears us down and we’re right back in the same pothole.

If we want to avoid the potholes of life, we are going to need help.  There are times we are going to need to change lanes.  Other times we are going to need to turn to others for help to get out of our pothole. God is our best resource when it comes to surviving the potholes of life. The beauty of it is that it is never too late.

   

Prayer for the Day: Heavenly Father, I am not sure why I keep hitting the same pothole every day.  I think often it is because I am not paying attention and the other is I am weak.  How many times in my life have I hit the same pothole, (sin), over and over again?  Too many times to count.  Help me to realize when I am in one and that I need Your help to get out of it. 

Scripture: I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.  Romans 12:1-2

Get Smart

God speaks in the silence of the heart.  Listening is the beginning of prayer. Mother Teresa

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 and 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 need to work on my quiet time with You.  I sometimes am so busy thinking about the next thing I need to do or say that I often miss the opportunity to hear you speak to me.  Please help me to slow down my life and concentrate on my time with you.  Speak to me about the things You want me to hear, say and do on Your behalf.  Help me to recognize Your voice and step out in faith on Your behalf.  

      

Scripture:  For there is nothing hidden that will not be disclosed, and nothing concealed that will not be known or brought out into the open. Therefore consider carefully how you listen. Whoever has will be given more; whoever does not have, even what they think they have will be taken from them.” Luke 8-17-18