MY HANDS ARE AGING

 

I glanced over my cup of coffee this morning and noticed my hand. A new age spot! Oh boy! I love getting those. Yeah right! However, they are what they are. I cannot stop them nor can I prevent myself from dropping things and spilling salsa on every white or light colored blouse that I own (which now are multicolored blouses by the way). I have more pair of glasses than the dollar tree and still can’t keep up with them. Finally, I broke down last year and bought myself one of those large 7 day pill boxes that I fill up every Saturday morning and keep on the kitchen counter in site, where I will not forget to take them, as soon as I walk into the kitchen in the mornings. Every day, I feel myself decaying a little bit more. Dying is inevitable, but until that day comes when I will cross over into eternity and one day receive my new body, one that will not ever see corruption again, I am faced with what I have and it is up to me to make the best out of it. Not only does my body feel the pains and elements of aging, my mind too suffers. Maybe though, age is kinder to me than I think. If I will not wear my glasses, I can’t see the lines that run north, south, east and west on my face. I am finding that as I am aging, I am tempted more than ever not to care what people think. While some of those can be looked upon as a positive, I know that they offer me no excuse before the Lord in my actions. Though my hands are aging, my eyes are failing, I am exhorted in the scriptures to praise and serve the Lord, all the days of my life.

 

As I was pondering upon age today I was reminded of an elderly group of women with whom I am very close to and very, dear to my heart. They are quite older than I am and I have a world of respect for them. I spend time with these women every week and am very grateful for their godly influence on my life. They are not women of wealth, nor are they famous, they are however an example to me as wise women of faith, in which I regard more than any other thing on earth in a relationship. Most of us are drawn to those in our society that are successful and find some type of value in their opinions. We watch how they live and pay close attention to what they say and do. But too often we place our respect in the wrong things and by doing so we are tempted to value a person’s power and success with a worldly perspective. However, from a Biblical perspective, those characteristics take on a whole different meaning. Instead of wealth, power and success, we are told to honor and respect wisdom and understanding and pursue it through the knowledge of the older ones.

 

Elderly people were respected and accredited more in Biblical communities because of the years of experiences that they had accrued. Their understanding of the times, the seasons, and the forces of nature were crucial to the well-being and sustenance of each generation to come. Sadly, we’ve lost some of that in our world today. Our older people are set aside as being too old-fashioned and out of touch. The younger generation is no longer grouped with the teenagers, but today they are in their 20’s and 30’s and some even into their 40’s. The reason of that is because age does not make a person wise. It is the experience and willingness to set aside pride and be willing to listen and learn through the years that they have lived. However, many today are more into what’s happening now and who’s doing what amongst their peers, instead of listening to the garnered wisdom and collective understanding of our seniors.

 

 In our frantic effort to be relevant, we’ve unwisely ditched the best of our faith for the worst of our wants. If we honestly want to be a strong force and have an impact in our churches, families and communities, then we have to take time to give credence to the collective wisdom and understanding of those who have been faithful for decades before us, instead of constantly deferring to those whose  walk is just beginning. Change just for the sake of change often times leads to chaos and division, and you can end up being influenced in the wrong way. Choices made through wisdom and understanding, give us the power to be influential and have a real impact for Christ. There are many, many of our senior adults today just sitting waiting for someone to acknowledge their worth. Many struggle with guilt because they can no longer do as they once did. They want us to listen to them, ask their opinions, encourage their activity, whatever it may be. Psalm 63:4 says, “I will praise you as long as I live, and in Your name I will lift up my hands”. Or we could read it like this, “Even though my hands are aging, I will continue to lift them up in praise to You! For the older saint in the Lord, your hands may not look as they did in your former years, but they are power packed with wisdom and understanding and someone, somewhere needs you to reach out to them and share what you have learned. Never stop praising and serving the Lord sweet friend….no matter what your age is! God has something for you!

Loving on you today,

Bren

LOVING THE LEFT BACK RIGHT

God can redeem even the most sinful life as well as restore the one who has turned away and left the Father’s house only to realize the error of their way as they return home expecting slavery; but is greeted by an elated, gracious and generous father who welcomes them home with favor and open arms. Most of us know Christ's parable in the scriptures of the Prodigal Son. Maybe this is a story that you can relate to in one way or another, for most of us can.  While you might not have given your child an inheritance to be squandered, still, you see them squandering their life in wrong choices and thoughtless behavior. In Luke 15, we find another parent facing that same dilemma. Though I wouldn't have chosen the pain of the prodigal son’s father to be a teacher to me. I can tell you that it has been at times a university of chastisement where I have majored in purging and pruning as God continues to work His character into my life as I learn the greatest of all lessons, to love unconditionally. The most valuable possession a human being can have is their own personal testimony as to what God has done for them. Hurting people are always on the lookout for folks that are willing to bear their souls and join them in their pain as they must walk through it. Sadly, there are family members who have never heard their dad's testimony, or their sister's or their brother's story of how God broke them, forgave them and how they have learned to enjoy the resurrected life they now have in Christ. Nothing moves me more than to hear what God has done for someone else.

The child of God should be testifying constantly in their homes, to their friends as they are visiting and fellowship and to the lady at the counter who needs to hear the story on a personal and intimate level as to what Christ has done for them and what He can do for others. Every Christian's home should be a testimony site. The neighbors should know that that family they live next door to loves the Lord. They should know when, where and how those neighbors were saved and they should see a light that shines continually in them and not hidden for only the Church family to know about and see. How can we parent our prodigal children, wayward neighbors, family and friends in the far country that need the Lord? Those that have left the fold and are wondering and need to be brought back and made right once again. We do it by simply loving people enough to tell them the truth and what God has done for us.

Luke 15:20 tells us this about the prodigal son and his father, "while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him." Romans 5:8 tells us that, "While we were still sinners, Christ died for us," While God most defiantly expects us to change, He did not wait for us to stop sinning to die for us. That scripture is very clear in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. You see, if we would start looking at others that are not where we, nor God wish they would be, and put ourselves in their place, I mean really, really put ourselves in their place, it would change our lives. It’s easy to blurt out to others what we see them doing wrong. But it is so very hard to love them in spite of what they are doing. I remember in Bible college, a dear professor making this statement, “don’t be so quick to judge, for you may be surprised when you enter the gates of heaven who may approach you to welcome you into eternity”. That has resonated with me for years.

God did not call us to save people, He ask his Son to do that but He does ask us to tell people about the good news of salvation that Jesus offers to those who will turn from their sin and receive the gift of eternal life that He offers. Someone may need to hear your story today about what God has done for you. They might be in an arrogant stage of their life and may not be ready just now to accept what you have to say, but they'll never forget it and when the time is right and the Holy Spirit has worked in their heart, they will recall your witness to them and the things that you said will then make sense.  They'll never forget those people that love them and care for them, even at their worst. Sometimes we can get so caught up in reaching the lost that we neglect those that are saved yet are living in a faraway country, spiritually. I heard it said once that those who have left the fold and wondered away can be brought back and made right once again and when they are made right, will have the potential to reach more folks for Christ than any number of preachers from their pulpit.  Why? Because they will exhibit a life change that people can visibly see. Unfortunately, we want to judge them instead of loving them. We want to kick our feet at them and avoid them instead of lifting them up, drawing them to us and encouraging them to come back into the fold. If there has ever been a time where we need an epidemic of Good Samaritans loving on the unlovely and hurting folk, it's now!

Would you pray today sweet friend a prayer of restoration, a prayer of forgiveness, a prayer to desire holiness in your life and ask God to do a righteous cleansing in your heart? Would you be willing to go and love on someone who needs a kind work of hope and not condemnation for where they are. Applaud the little things in their life and encourage them in those areas where they may be faltering. But never, never give up on them!
Loving on you today sweet friends,

Bren

YOU BEST SET SOME BOUNDARIES

As a young parent, we are advised even before the first child is born, “You best set some boundaries” for your children. But in doing so, we forget that we as parents, we need boundaries in our own life as much as our children do. Proverbs 8:29 tells us that God set boundaries and even the oceans and the seas dared not overstep them….and that He marked out the foundations of the earth. Again Job 38 reminds us, that God marked off the dimensions and placed boundaries when He created the earth and set bolts and doors and told the waves where they had to stop and that they were not allowed to go any further. As a matter of fact, the scriptures are full of examples of setting boundaries and the benefits of doing so.

 

Setting boundaries can be very excruciating for the most part, so until the need arises that pushes us to the edge of our tolerance and we find that we have reached our limit, we more than likely will not make the effort to set them. Limits however, are like barbed wire in our lives and boundaries are the split rail fences that will confront us to remind us that we have gone as far as we can, and we can go no further.

 

Life itself offers many pricks from the barbed wire of reaching our limits in a matter as we struggle in trying to get through them often times the wrong way. But setting boundaries for ourselves, allow us the room we need to maneuver through them as we are willing to learn the great lesson of bending between the rails on the fence that we have set for ourselves. At some point we all need to draw a line in the sand, to remind us that we are not allowed to go any further, whether it be in our wants, our anger, our conversations, our unwillingness to compromise with another and cross the line we have set for ourselves. We only render ourselves  powerless in our situations, when we choose not to set boundaries in our lives, by simply saying “no” to those old habits by the words we say and the actions that we take. By not doing so, we rob ourselves of our inner peace and those pricks from the barbed wire cause us to bleed out emotional baggage that dishonor God and causes the light in us to be hid under bushels of bad habits. Bad Habits that could be overcome if we would simply set boundaries for ourselves.

 

Never let others expectations be the plumb line for setting your personal or spiritual boundaries. Unless those expectations are what are required of you from scripture. God’s Word should always be your light in the darkness that you will be required to walk in at times. However, it is possible to walk in the dark; if you have the right light to help you according to John 3:19-21. Any light will allow you to see in the darkness. But only God’s light will lead you through the darkness to get you to the place you need to go. Using God’s measurements will help you to set the boundaries that fit your life and your walk in Christ. Those measurements are found throughout His word. They are found in the form of laws, commands and instructions.  They were never given to us to inhibit us, but rather to define the life for which we were created in His image. They define both, “what is good for us” and how we will benefit from them if we make the effort to live by them; and “what is bad for us”. They serve as warnings to help us see how easy it is to be corrupted by our wrong choices and those things that serve to prevent us from ever being what God created us to be.

 

The God who made us knows best how we can achieve our greatest potential as human beings. He who made us knows exactly what is best for us. According to I John 5:3,  those who love Him, His commands are neither a burden nor a frustration. They becomes a gracious gift from His hand by which He uses to guide us into all truth and real happiness. His will and purpose are for our good!  The boundaries He sets will give us clarity of direction and a sure purpose  according to Psalm 119. It is only when we are not living within the boundaries that we have set for ourselves as God’s plumb line and we disobey, that we are plunged into the mess that is possible for us to be in. Is there any remedy for that, you might say? Can the damage that we incur by stepping beyond God's boundaries be reversed or repaired? You better bet it can sweet friend! God is the Maser at repairing the damage we cause in our own lives. His repair kit involves two things; repentance and regeneration  according to Acts 3:19; John 3:1-7. So today friend, if you have not set boundaries in your life that protect and guide you into knowing God better, then you might want to make that a real topic of prayer and determination for yourself. The sooner we build that fence he quicker we are protected by a heavenly shield!

 

Loving on you today,

Bren

When the Lepers Encountered Jesus

Imagine what the people in the Bible who interacted with Jesus may have been feeling as they personally encountered Him. In doing so, it will really breathe new life into those familiar Scripture passages that we read and study every day. And as we put ourselves in their place, we find that we can become part of the story as we see things from their perspectives.  As a matter of fact let’s start with one of those passages right now. Let’s look at the ten men in Luke 17 who had the worst disease of their day. The physical ramifications of their disease were horrendous. They had Leprosy.  Leprosy attacks the entire body, causing sores, disabling it’s victims with the loss of fingers, missing toes, damaged limbs, disfiguring their faces as well as their entire body.  In most cases, the initial pain of leprosy gave way to something more terrible than even the agonizing disfiguring pain of their body; it was the pain from the loss of being disconnected from family and loved ones. The disease could take up to 30 years to run its course, and in that time span, a person could lose entire limbs and other body parts, if, they were able to endure the disease in its entirety. It is, assuredly, a most horrible disease. It is almost nearly an impossible task in trying to fathom what it was like 2,000 years ago and what people had to endure without the proper medical treatment as we know it today.

In her book, “Jesus, The One and Only”, Beth Moore tells the story of an occasion that she once had to be near a modern day leper colony. She noted that she had always had a desire to minister to a leper and on that trip, she had her opportunity to be near such a place. She said that as she walked by the entrance of the colony three different times, she could see inside those who were suffering. She pleaded with herself to go inside. But she could not. Her reason was that the smell overwhelmed her and she simply could not work up the stomach to go in where the leapers were. She could not bear the thought of not witnessing for the Lord, but became violently ill as she faced those human beings already acutely aware that they were different. The trip passed and she was not able to go inside.

The ten Lepers of Luke 17 were acutely aware of being different. They were outcast from their homes, their family and from their friends. The emotional pain of a leper had to be the worst part of their pain. Being removed from their family and their community, they could have no contact, whatsoever with their children or grandchildren for fear that they too would become afflicted. Even the religious leaders looked upon them with contempt. At that time, leprosy was thought to be highly contagious and only centuries later was it found that 95 percent of all human beings are immune to it. Leprosy was also thought to be incurable and those that had it were quarantined into settlements or colonies and were shunned and disgraced. I think that with knowing these things, we can gain a new appreciation of how bad this disease must have been in the days of Christ. For it wasn't just the grotesque damage to one’s sight or the loud cries from the disease attacking their hearing but, it was also the smell of rotting, decaying flesh, overwhelming even their own sense of smell and of which was no escape.

Luke 17 tells us that one day when Jesus was on his way to Jerusalem he encountered 10 Lepers. The men met him, but stayed at a distance. For it was written in Jewish law that a leper must not come near another Jew and must call out in a loud voice "Unclean!", so that all the people around them would know that they were a leper. These ten men called out to Jesus as they saw Him, "Jesus, Master, have pity on us!".  For they knew, he had healed others. They might had seen it for themselves or had heard people talking and sharing the good news about Jesus and His miracles, and believed. It did not matter how they knew, the fact was that they knew, and believed that Jesus could do the same for them as He had for others.  Jesus responded to them and told them to go and show themselves to the priests, and as they were going, a wonderful thing happened. Their skin became clean and free from their leprosy. Part of the duties of the local priest other than reading from the Torah to the people and making sacrifices was that they were also something of a health official. If a person was miraculously healed of leprosy, it was up to the priest to inspect the body and declare if it was true healing. And only then could that person reenter the community and be restored to their family. Nine of the men continued to go on to see the priest, but one man turned and came back to Jesus. He began praising God with a loud voice, and he fell at Jesus' feet and thanked him. Because of the way this Leper fell at the Lord’s feet, crying out in a loud voice,  I am reminded of the woman of Luke 7:47 that also came and fell at Jesus’ feet in gratitude, Jesus said this about her, “…her many sins have been forgiven…for she loveth much. But he who is forgiven little, loveth little.” and this is a perfect picture to me as to how someone would feel towards Jesus once they have received such “a great act” of forgiveness. This man was also a Samaritan. The Samaritans were hated by the Jews. For the other Lepers, they simply walked on, maybe they felt worthy because they were of the descendants of Abraham. Had they felt worthy, because they were Jews? Were they in such a hurry to get their blessing that they simply forgot to stop and say thanks for what they were receiving? Who knows, but the one Jesus chose worthy to mention was the one who was the most outcast of them all, the Samaritan. He came back to thank Jesus. The foreigner, the outcast, the stinking Samaritan. I am so glad that Jesus is not a respecter of people and that the foot of the cross is level, for us all.  Jesus also asked where the other nine men were. Ten were healed, but only one came back to say "Thank you", and he was a foreigner. Jesus told the man, "Rise and go. Your faith has made you well."
 

While on a short term mission trip, a young preacher from North Carolina was leading worship at a leper colony on the island if Tabango. Having time for one more song, he asked if anyone had a request. A woman who had been facing away from the pulpit turned to him to make her request. The pastor said that she had the most hideous face that he had ever seen. The woman's nose and ears were entirely gone. The disease had destroyed her lips as well. She lifted a fingerless hand in the air and asked, 'Can we sing Count Your Many Blessings?'" Overcome with emotion, the young pastor left the service. He was followed by a fellow team member who said, "… I guess you'll never be able to sing that song again." and with that statement the young preacher replied, "Yes, I will, but I will never be able to sing it that way again!”

Some of you are in horrible circumstances, right now. And what awaits you is the facing of this question. Will you be thankful despite your difficult circumstance? If you can say yes, then you will have applied and experienced faith as the Leper in this story. For the story of these ten men puts everything into perspective for us and places gratitude in its proper perspective. God is deserving of our gratitude because of the grace and mercy that He freely gives to those who do not deserve it.

Is there a more potent lesson for us to learn than this one? God tells us that the just (meaning His children), shall live by faith. You cannot wait until the problems are over to start walking in faith. You cannot put conditions on God. You cannot say, "Lord, as soon as there's enough money, I will follow your instructions." You cannot pray, "Lord, if you'll just solve this issue in my family, I'll start going to church." You cannot put conditions on God! Instead, God places a demand for faith on us, before any of our circumstances have change. We must be aggressive in our faith and put it into action. Then we can see the hand of God at work. The Leper’s received their healing as they were going in obedience to Jesus’ telling them to go the priest. They arrived just in time, to be declared healed. God’s timing is always perfect. Our attitudes will only slow His working in us and for us down.

Sweet Friend God might say to us, "Love me despite this disease. Obey me despite the lack of talent that I have given you, or the lack of resources that you have”. And He is assuredly saying,  “Follow me now, despite the depression, despite the disappointments that you have had in me in the past. Say no to the temptation, to complain and take a negative attitude about your situation even though it is very difficult on you. Praise me in the darkest of nights, and in the worst of circumstances."

For this sweet friend is the nature of God. He'll give you the opportunity to be thankful when nothing about your circumstances gives you that motivation. For that is the very definition of faith.

In a letter to his brother Saint Philomena who established a church for the Lepers of Hawaii said,...I make myself a leper with the lepers to gain all to Jesus Christ. Saint Paul said, that he counted everything loss but save Christ in His life. He also said for him to live was Christ, to die was gain. May I encourage you today, to live for Christ! Throw off the old nature by allowing God to save you and work in you to do His good will. If it would help and I could, I would gladly throw myself at your feet today, begging you to turn to Christ and be absolutely set free and sold out for Him.

May your ending be brighter than your beginning in Christ Jesus, who gave Himself for you!
Loving on you today!
Bren

TROUBLES AND HURTS

This past week has been a very difficult week and one of which I pray, may not have to be repeated for a long time. It has been a week characterized by both defeat and victory in my life. What I am continuing to learn is this: the difference in the people whose lives are characterized by victory, triumph and rejoicing as opposed to those whose lives are characterized by depression, self-pity, defeat and bitterness lies in what they did with the hurt and trouble that came their way. While what I have learned, has not been a new lesson or new truth to me, it has been a strong reminder of what sin in me can do, if I do not deal with it quickly. There are two ways that we can receive the wounds, hurts and troubles that come into our life. One is God’s way, and the other is the world’s way. Paul told the Corinthians in chapter 7 of II Corinthians that, the wounds and sorrows which are born in God’s way brings a change of heart, in which we do not regret, but the hurt which is born in the world’s way brings death. He is saying that when you bear your wound God’s way, it brings about a change of heart. That means that it brings about such a transformation of your heart, which is the control center of your life and the steering wheel which turns your heart one way or another, to see the truth and enables you to be refreshed and restored to peace and joy in those pangs. He says if you bear this hurt the world’s way, it will produce death in you. Death to your sweet spirit, to your joy, to your happiness, to your relationships and to your very life if you allow it. Paul is telling us that if we bear those things God’s way, while we may have some pain in them, we will have peace with no regret. We can learn through them and with the right heart attitude, even begin to welcome them because of the results they will produce in us.

The Corinthian church had been greatly troubled and had gone through a great deal of tribulation. Paul wrote to them concerning all their pain, wounds, hurts and troubles that they were experiencing by not only rebuking them, but encouraging them as well. He wanted them to understand the importance of having a repented heart and the difference that it would make in their lives. He wanted them to see the difference between happy people and unhappy people, between people who are rejoicing and people who are down and out. Sometimes we will have to work through our pain and it may take a while. But when we get to the other side, we realize that the effort was worth the enduring of it. Paul used the word tribulation that indicates “being pressed down”. That word indicates anything that comes our way causing pressure of any kind that bears down on our soul and brings us terrific grief. It can be any kind of pain, physical, emotional or mental, any size or color. Paul gives his personal autobiography of the tribulations that he had experienced throughout the book of 2 Corinthians. He emphasized to the Corinthians, that not only they but he and Timothy themselves had received a great deal of various kinds of pressures and troubles. So he talked to them as one who personally understood and was uniquely qualified through his own personal tribulations, to encourage them. You would be completely astounded if you knew some of the deep wounds, hurts and troubles of the people that you encounter every day. The difference between some of those people is not the absence of trouble, but the attitude towards the trouble that comes to them. If the Bible makes anything clear, it is that trouble and hurt come to everybody. The outcome from those troubles depend on how they deal with them. This is one of the reasons that we become downcast and troubled and our happiness becomes depleted. It is because the peace and contentment of our heart has been slaughtered because we have responded to our pain in the world’s way and not Gods.

I am often reminded whenever I go through rough times in my life of 1 Corinthians 1:3-5, which states, “Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort; who comforted us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God. For as the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our consolation also abounded by Christ.” I know that apart from my own tribulations I would be worthless to God in helping others walk through the same troubles that I have had to walk, unless I myself have traveled in their shoes. When pains of trouble, distress or hurts, pressure of any kind come our way, it simply means that God is up to something in our lives. Through these troubles, He is perfecting his eternal plan in us. The best way to bear it, is to realize that it is a minister sent from God to do a good work in us. Once God has helped us walk through our own pains He tells us to turn to others who are hurting and encourage them as well. God is the God of all consolation and the prerequisite to His comfort Jesus said was to mourn, thus “Blessed are they that mourn for they shall be comforted.” The word actually means one who comes to stand beside us, to champion our cause, to encourage and strengthen and comfort us. Maybe I should say it like this, someone who comes to stand beside us in our time of need, to take up our cause, making it His cause, and stays there to encourage, strengthen, and comfort us while we go through them. If God never allowed me to have a problem, then I would never know the things that He could not solve in my own life. God does not simply enable a Christian to endure a problem, but He gives us His peace to rejoice in it! Philippians 3 talks about, “that I may know the fellowship of his suffering” the word fellowship here simply means sharing alike. We are going to suffer all kinds of troubles, some for our faith and the stand that we take for Christ. Some troubles will come our way because life happens. Christ has shared our kinds of troubles and we must respond to them in a way that is pleasing to Him and is beneficial to us!

Loving on you today sweet friend!
Bren

FIT TO SERVE

 

 

 

 

Be careful, guard yourself at all times! Proverbs 4:23 tells us, “Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.” satan does not always try to get you out of your ministry, your calling or the task of serving, but he will try to remove your purpose in it. The trick of his trade is to disappoint you enough in your task of serving to the point that you either, give up or allow bitterness and frustration to replace the joy that you had when you first put your hand to begin that good work. There is no better servant, than the one who has learned to sit before the Lord, before they ever put their hand to serve Him. While I could give you a dozen examples of that in scripture, I will share only two scenarios concerning two different servants and a little bit of their own personal struggles in learning that obedience is better than sacrifice.

We are quick to forget that upon Jesus’ resurrection, he walked, talked and ate with His disciples confirming His resurrection to them. One afternoon after Peter and some of the disciples had been fishing when Jesus appeared to them on the banks of the river and invited them to come ashore to eat some bread and fish. While they were visiting with Jesus, He asked Peter 3 times, whom he loved. Peter told Jesus three times, Lord, you know I love you. Jesus responded each time to Peter that if he loved him, then he was to feed Jesus’ sheep. You see Jesus ask Peter to confirm his love for him first, then He instructed Peter to work for Him. By this time Peter would have been ready to do the work that Jesus was asking him to do. For Peter had been through his own personal spiritual schooling concerning the love and mercies of God’s forgiveness and His ways. Peter was fit at that point to feed God’s lambs because he himself had experienced the gospel message personally. But, he had made many mistakes before he learned who Christ really was and that whatever Peter would end up doing for Christ, would be learned on the shoulders of failure and forgiveness.

While in the middle of serving the Lord, Martha became frustrated in her work and allowed bitterness to fester in her heart towards her sister who was more interested in heavenly manna at that point than the manna that Martha was serving up in the kitchen. Because Martha jumped into the work and forgot to pause for power, she suffered much grief in her heart. She allowed the devil to rob her of her joy in the midst of her serving. When we choose to serve others spiritual food before we ourselves are prepared to serve it, then we can easily get sidetracked and loose our focus. That simply means that we cannot serve others until we have allowed Christ to serve us by spending time with us and allowing Him to wash our spiritual feet on a regular basis and by guarding our hearts to insure that our motives are in line with God’s will and our love for others is greater than our love for ourselves or any task that we will ever put our hands to do.

Martha’s task was not her problem, her attitude in her task is what brought her rebuke. A tale-tale sign that we are veering off the beaten path in trying to do a thing for God or others is our attitudes towards them. Martha might have had the right attitude when she invited Jesus to dinner, but she allowed satan to change her purpose in what she was doing and got side tracked in her task. If you are serving the Lord, don’t you dare get discouraged, keep it up! But, be sure to soak your attitudes and feelings in the healing waters of His Word, so that you will be fit to serve, in joy; and when you sense a wrong feeling or attitude well up in you in the midst of what you are doing, be sure to surrender that wrong attitude that very moment and when you do, your peace will continue and your work be pure!

Keep Serving the Lord! Don’t you dare give up! Folks need our love and we cannot serve them properly apart from our loving them through His purpose and power!

Loving on you today,

Bren

 

 

TIC OFF THE DEVIL THIS EASTER AND BREAK FREE

I was pondering over the upcoming Easter Sunday and of the stories and devotions that have been and could be written about this momentous occasion. As I was pondering over it, I was reminded of a story that I once read about a young man who had left the old country, to sail to the new America in order to make a new life for himself. Upon his leaving, his father placed a few coins in his hands in hope that it would somehow tide him over until he was able to get a job. His mother had made several sandwiches and placed them along with a few apples in a small basket and gently kissed his cheek as she wished him well in his new life.

The young man purchased his ticket, got on the Ship and set sail. The journey was to be a long one and the young man wanted to go sparingly on his food. The first night he went up on the deck and took one of his sandwiches. He ate silently and watched as the other passengers walked by him and entered the great room that had many dining tables and chairs. He listened to their chatter and laughter and watched through the windows as the servers brought plates of hot steaming food to the people at their tables. As he took bites from his little sandwich, he took comfort in knowing the love that his kind mother had towards him as he smelt and tasted the home aid bread from her own hands. The days went by slowly and the man’s basket of sandwiches and apples slowly diminished and he was left with nothing but a few stale crackers and moldy cheese along with his hunger pains. He had remembered the coins that his father had given him, but soon realized that the food in the dining room would certainly cost more than he had to spare so he resolved to be satisfied with a few stale cracker and a piece of molded cheese.

A few days out of New York’s port almost starving, the man decided to ask the Porter in broken English how much to eat the food in the dining room. The Porter could not understand him so the man pulled out his few meager coins pointed to them and then to the dining room, and in a weak voice once again said, “How Much?”, the Porter understanding at that point said as he closed the man’s hand, “You are free to eat, it cost nothing, the food is included in your passage!”. Many of us live our spiritual lives just as this young man did on his trip. We choose to be spiritual paupers. We feast on stale crackers and molded cheese when we could be enjoying the tasteful morsels at the Master’s table. We are waiting for the day that we feel worthy to sit and dine with the King of Kings, not realizing that the cost of such fellowship was included in the passage that Christ paid on the cross for us and when the veil was torn in the temple and we were allowed to walk straight in to the very throne room of God with the boldness of a King’s child. That dividing wall of hostility was torn down on God’s side. However, there may be some demolition work needed to be done on our part. You see the enemy of our souls is very busy building barriers around us to block the spiritual intimacy that God want us to encounter with Him.

No matter how far God goes to draw man to Himself, the enemy goes just as far in his evil plan to try and persuade or deter them from the Truth. Sadly, mankind boast of wanting to know Truth, yet most of the time they choose to be lied to and be deceived; because for many, God’s ways are hard ways and can only be accomplish through yielding to Him. satan’s ways are easy, “do nothing”, he whispers or better yet, “do it your way”, he pleads! Romans 6:23 tells us that the wages of sin is death, but the gift that God offers is eternal life. You must decide for yourself, what you will do with the work that Christ did. If you accept it, then tell God that you do, and turn from your sin by being willing to change, for God will help you do that if you are truly willing. Ask God into your life and be willing to do things His way. Find a Bible believing Church, follow Christ in Baptism which represents what Easter is all about, dying to your sin, rising to a new life in Christ. If we are ashamed of Him to men, He will be ashamed of us before His Father. Tic off the devil today, say no to him, and yes to Christ and be free! Loving you and wishing you the best of this Easter Holiday!

Loving on you today,
Bren