Fettered

Recently I was at a friend's wedding and right as the reception started I got a call from Michael's sitter telling me that he wasn't doing well.  So I promptly left the wedding and headed home...

In the car I had a major pity party and complaint session with God!  It went something like this:
"This is just not fair!!  I'm 52 years old and not even able to stay for 30 minutes at a reception.  And on top of that...I hate seeing my child hurt and the stress of trying to figure out what's wrong with him!  I've got no freedom..... THIS IS HARD!"   It wasn't pretty!

When I got quiet for a second I listened to the song that was playing on the radio and it was a new version of the old hymn 'Come Thou Fount'.  I heard the words I sang in church all of my growing up years:

"Let Thy goodness like a fetter bind my wandering heart to Thee
Prone to wander, Lord I feel it
Prone to leave the God I love
Here's my heart, O take and seal it
Seal it for Thy courts above"

And the Holy Spirit whispered to my heart, "Michael keeps you fettered to Me."

And the pity party was over.  I know that I'll not understand all of the fruit of Michael's life on this side of heaven.  But God does allow me to see glimpses.....and one fruit is that caring for him binds this momma's prone to wander heart to her Savior! 

It's His goodness that allows things into our lives that keep us from wandering away from Him.  We might forget that we need Him and wander off into self sufficiency, disconnected from Him.

"I am the Lord your God, who rescued you from your slavery in Egypt.  You have no God but me, for there is no other savior.  I took care of you in the wilderness, in that dry and thirsty land.  But when you had eaten and were satisfied, then you became proud and forgot me." Hosea 13:4-6

So my car ride ended with "Here's my heart, O take and seal it, seal it for Thy courts above... So do what you must so that this heart stays Yours, stays close and dependent on You for even my next breath!"  I want my heart to stay in that place....there is no other Savior.....no more pity parties!

Extraordinary

Have you ever wondered if what you are doing "for God" is enough? When we offer our services to God, give our whole lives to Him, we tend to envision what that is going to look like. We are told to dream big, reach high, only settle for extraordinary things that you will do in the name of Christ.

 

Jesus performed his first miracle at a wedding in Cana in Galilee. This miracle was so important and impressive that "he revealed his glory, and his disciples put their faith in him." (John 2:11b).  Wow, I want to be part of something like that. I want to join Jesus in a work that is so amazing that people actually witness it and put their faith in him. Sign me up! What do I have to do? 

 

Just before Jesus' first miracle his mother gave the best advice that I think is given the the entire Bible. She turned to servants at that wedding and simply said, "Do whatever he tells you." (v 5) 

 

 That advice holds true for us today as well. And we reply, "Great! I'm in. What do you want me to do? Speak in front of thousands of people? Go to an unreached people? Stand on the street and convert hundreds? Start an organization or church that will explode into a mega-something? Set my family or neighbors straight?"

 

These servants looked at Jesus ready for an order and he said, "Fill the jars with water". (v7) I wonder if they thought or if I would have thought, "Wait, what? That's it? That's what we do every day! That's not extraordinary! That's not special! That will never change the world!!"

 

But this time, as they did what they did every single day, Jesus got involved. They obeyed and HE did the extraordinary.

 

I was born singing. I knew Christ at an early age and gave my life to him and sincerely wanted him to use me. My prayer was, "My life is yours, Lord. I want you to use me." I didn't realize until years later that what I really meant was, "I want to sing for you. Send me wherever you want to and I'll sing." 

 

 Years later I was at home around the clock with a sick, handicapped, needy baby who didn't sleep. I sat night after sleepless night wondering if I would ever do anything significant for God again?

 

Then a thought was whispered to my heart, What if THIS is serving God... this seemingly insignificant thing I do right here in my own home with no one but one little boy watching. What if this is what pleases God? I do the ordinary and HE does the extraordinary.

 

There are times that we look at what God places before us and think, You may have asked too much. This is too big. There are other times that we serve in the ordinary moments of life and think, Surely I was born for bigger than this.

 

Then there are the times where we feel that the task is exactly right. What God asks of us is not extraordinary, but obedience and joy as we trust Him to work the miracles as we simply obey.

 

"Do whatever he tells you." no more, no less

Rest

"Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest."  Mark 6:31

Sometimes the most Christ-like thing you can do is to get away and rest. 

Jesus was teaching his disciples how to be like him and how to deal with many people who need things from you. 

He didn't say, "When you've met everyone's needs come away and rest." or "When you are at the point of emotional and physical exhaustion, come away and rest. " or "When you think you've done enough to justify resting, then come and rest." or "When no one is looking, come and rest."....

"Yet the news about him spread all the more, so that crowds of people came to hear him and to be healed of their sicknesses.
BUT JESUS OFTEN WITHDREW TO LONELY PLACES AND PRAYED."   Luke 5:20

Jesus came to live in front of us how we should live.  He didn't let need dictate his pace. 

I'm afraid we have come to see rest as weak, maybe even lazy.  We equate godly with busy or worn out.  We need to refind balance in our lives, to remember that our first call and first love is Him.  We need to get by ourselves and rest!

I pray that you will find time often to follow this invitation to withdraw with Christ to a lonely place and pray.....and rest. 

And in that rest I pray that your soul will be refreshed and you will discover a calm and intimacy that only time with Jesus can bring!

People Are Listening

"When Herod heard John, he was greatly puzzled; yet he liked to listen to him."
Mark 6:20

I've had Herods in my life before.  I'd like to have more. 

This was a man who did not know Jesus.  He was far from God.  But he obviously saw something in John that Herod felt drawn to.  He didn't yet "get it" but he loved to listen.

I hope that people, who do not yet know the hope of a Savior, see us and recognize a hope that they are missing.  Herod talked to John, a prisoner, and liked to listen to him.  What must John have been talking about: getting out of prison, how hard his life had been, what all he had lived without, how inconvient this prison time was, where he'd rather be?  We don't know.  But his speech must have been full of hope and life and joy and peace.  Herod saw something that he had never seen before and liked listening to whatever it was John talked about.

I have learned that most people who are living far from Christ hope that what we have is the real thing.  They may not say it and may even communicate the opposite, but they hope you're right.  Everything they have placed their hope in has come up short, guaranteed!  When they lay their heads on their pillows at the end of the day, they do not have the peace that is available to Christ Followers. 

That is why it is important for those of us who do place our hope in Jesus Christ to live with the peace that is available to us.  The Herods of the world are watching and listening.  We are Christ's ambassadors, representing His heart and hope to a lost and hopeless world.

What are you talking about as people listen?

I pray that this Christmas Season our speech will be full of hope and truth and peace before those who do not yet know Him, but for whom He came to seek and to save!

"Then you will experience God's peace, which exceeds anything we can understand.   His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus."
Philippians 4:7

He really is in control!

Regardless of how you voted this week or how you feel about the outcome, if you are a Believer, this applies to you:

"I urge you, first of all, to pray for all people.  Ask God to help them; intercede on their behalf, and give thanks for them.
Pray this way for kings and all who are in authority so that we can live peaceful and quiet lives marked by godliness and dignity."
1  Timothy 2:1-2

God's goals for us are often different than our goals.  God's goal is to bless us, but I don't think He ever wants comfort and prosperity for us to the point that we forget Him.  His goal is for people to come to freedom through Jesus Christ and to intimate with Him. 

"O God, I beg two favors from you; let me have them before I die.
First, help me never to tell a lie.
Second, give me neither poverty or riches!  Give me just enough to satisfy my needs.
For, if I grow rich, I may deny you and say, 'Who is the Lord?'
And if I am too poor, I may steal and thus insult God's holy name."
Proverbs 30:7-9

May we be marked by godliness and grace and dignity and may we never dishonor the name of our amazing God!

Mature Faith

Moses named the place Massah (which means "test") and Meribah (which means "arguing") because the people of Israel argued with Moses and tested the Lord by saying, "Is the Lord here with us or not?"  Exodus 17:7

Then He got into the boat and His disciples followed Him.  Without warning, a furious storm came up on the lake, so that the waters swept over the boat.  But Jesus was sleeping.  The disciples went and woke Him, saying, "Lord, save us!  We're going to drown!" 
Matthew 8:23-25

"If God's goodness and faithfulness come into question every time life gets hard, we are not going to get where we want to be in our faith."  Rob Mehner

When life gets hard, is that where we go?  Do circumstances and heartache make us ask:
Is God even here at all?  Is God good?  Is God really able?  Does God care?  Has God abandoned us?  Did I miss a step somewhere and now He's left me? 
IS JESUS SLEEPING AND NOT SEEING WHAT'S HAPPENING HERE????

The disciples "followed Him" onto that boat and "without warning" a storm hit them and they didn't think they would live through it.

Mature faith will take us to: I know God is good in spite of what I can see and understand, God's got a plan that is working in ways that I cannot see,  He is with me and promised that He would never leave me......

I want mature faith, crazy trust in who He is, but I have to move past questioning His goodness and faithfulness.  Otherwise I am like a rat running on a wheel, around and around but never really getting anywhere.

"Once I settled the issue of God's goodness and faithfulness after my 14 month old daughter's sudden and unexpected death, I was good for life!  I never went back to that question again." 
Pastor Thomas

God is good, always with us, navigating in ways we cannot see or could imagine.  We can bank on that and move forward in faith and trust.

Measure

"The measure of a life, after all, is not its duration, but its donation."
Corrie Ten Boom

How do I measure my life?  What is my standard of a life well lived?  What do I hope to lay at the feet of my Savior and hear Him say, "Well done, good and faithful servant." ? 

I hope that whenever this life is lived and I take my final breath, that the measure will be love, generosity, having done for the least of these, having faithfully obeyed all that He asked of me.

I've got a long way to go.  I've got to lay aside so many other things that compete to be the measure; things that keep me awake at night and in the end won't matter.

May the measure and focus of our lives be on donation, not duration or accumulation.