Time for spring cleaning!

It’s almost Spring!  And there is just something about this time of year that makes us want to clean out stuff and freshen up our homes.  But, for now, let’s put aside thoughts of cleaning our house and think more about cleaning out our heart.  We tend to keep lots of things inside our heart that have no business being in there.  Didn’t we forgive that transgression years ago?  Then what is it still doing lurking in the corner?  What about that bitterness?  It looks like it is starting to grow roots!  I see some negative thoughts floating around like dust in the air.  What about that prideful attitude stuffed inside and bursting at the seams?  And how about that spot of anger that needs to be cleansed?  Time to clean up!

Galatians 6:22-23 has just what we need:  “But the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.  Against such there is no law.”  Let’s grab some joy and splash it on that hard and crusty attitude and spray a little kindness around for a sweet-smelling aroma.  A little longsuffering here and a little goodness over there mixed in with some faithfulness and self-control creates an atmosphere of pure love.  Ahhhh, feel the warm gentleness breeze as it blows through our heart giving us that wonderful peace.  How refreshing God’s Word is when we apply it to our lives and allow the Holy Spirit to cleanse our hearts.

Another good verse to get us in the right mood is Philippians 4:8 “Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy – meditate on these things.”  If we spend our time doing what this verse says, there won’t any room to store those “things” we don’t need .   Cleaning is so much easier when we don’t have a bunch of “stuff” in the way.  So, pack it up and give it to God.  Then we can fill our hearts with lovely things.

Spring cleaning is good but Spiritual cleaning is the best! 

 Needle Little Love

Needle little love.  Catchy name.  One of my friends came up with it.  As you probably have figured out, it’s a play on words - need a little love.  Who doesn’t need love?  I need love and I know that you all do too.  Everyone needs love.  People who say they don’t need love are lying. So, everyone needs love.  Well, isn’t it just a lucky coincidence that God is love?    So, when we say we need love, what we are really needing is God. 

We hear things that we already know.  Jesus loves you.  Yes, we know that.  And I am not going to tell you anything that you don’t already know.  Hopefully you will walk away with a greater sense of how much Jesus loves you.  We all know the “love” chapter - 1 Corinthians 13:4-8

“Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.  Love never fails.”  Then verse 13 “And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love.”

I may say that I love someone but when I put my love up against verses 4-8, I can’t honestly say that I have kept all of it.  Sometimes I don’t suffer very long - I’m impatient.  Sometimes I do get envious, sometimes I want recognition, sometimes I provoke an argument, sometimes my ego gets in the way.  Sometimes my love fails.  But I know that God never fails.

I John 4:7-8 tells us specifically that God is love: “Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God.  He who does not love does not know God, for God is love”.  And again in 1 John 4:16: “And we have known and believed the love that God has for us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him.”

Twice in the same chapter John says that God is love.  Not just that God loves us.  Not just that God has love.  But that God is love.   There is a song “Your Love is Extravagant” by Casting Crowns – it has these words: “Your love is extravagant, Your friendship it is intimate.  I find I’m moving to the rhythms of your grace, your fragrance is intoxicating in our secret place. Your love is extravagant.  Spread wide in the arms of Christ is the love that covers sin.  No greater love have I ever known, You considered me a friend.  Capture my heart again.”

That should be our prayer - that God would capture our heart again and again and again - like falling in love for the first time.  God’s love is extravagant.  He spared no expense in showing us His love.  My prayer is that we can also have an extravagant love.  Love is the most precious of all the gifts we have and yet it does not have a monetary value.  We can afford to be extravagant.  Amen to love? Amen!

 Sacrifice

Sacrifice - not my favorite word.  But it is an important part of my life.  When we become Christians, we become living sacrifices.  It used to be just a saying.  Of course my life is a living sacrifice.  Until I am put to the test and actually become the living sacrifice.  Everything is easy in theory or in word only.  But then that day comes when we are tested.  My day came on Tuesday, July 10^th, 2007, as I said goodbye to my new husband at the airport.  Yes, I knew that he was going on a mission trip before we got married.  Yes, I knew it would be a long trip - 5 months.  Knowing this ahead of time didn’t prepare me for the actual event.  I cried so much that I am surprised my tears didn’t end the drought that was in the area at the time!  But God is faithful, and He began to minister to me right away.  He spoke to me in my devotion time in Genesis 22:1-14

Now it came to pass after these things that God tested Abraham, and said to him, “Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.”  Then He said, “Take now your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you.”  So Abraham rose early in the morning and saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him, and Isaac his son; and he split the wood for the burnt offering, and arose and went to the place of which God had told him.  Then on the third day Abraham lifted his eyes and saw the place afar off.  And Abraham said to his young men, “Stay here with the donkey; the lad and I will go yonder and worship, and we will come back to you.”  So Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it on Isaac his son; and he took the fire in his hand, and a knife, and the two of them went together.  But Isaac spoke to Abraham his father and said, “My father!” And he said, “Here I am, my son.” Then he said, “Look, the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?”  And Abraham said, “My son, God will provide for Himself the lamb for a burnt offering.” So the two of them went together.  Then they came to the place of which God had told him. And Abraham built an altar there and placed the wood in order; and he bound Isaac his son and laid him on the altar, upon the wood.  And Abraham stretched out his hand and took the knife to slay his son.  But the Angel of the LORD called to him from heaven and said, “Abraham, Abraham!” So he said, “Here I am.”  And He said, “Do not lay your hand on the lad, or do anything to him; for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from Me.”  Then Abraham lifted his eyes and looked, and there behind him was a ram caught in a thicket by its horns. So Abraham went and took the ram, and offered it up for a burnt offering instead of his son.  And Abraham called the name of the place, The-LORD-Will-Provide; as it is said to this day, “In the Mount of the LORD it shall be provided.”

Next to verse 2, I wrote in my Bible that this is the 1^st time love is mentioned in the Bible.  This really spoke to me because the Lord had asked me to surrender my husband, whom I love.  Just as Abraham trusted God to return Isaac to him, I could trust God to return my husband to me.  I wish I could say that I surrendered him and that was it and then I just waited for him to come home.  But I can’t.  I have to confess that I needed to surrender him every day, over and over.  My flesh wanted to take him back.  So, every day I had to place myself back on the altar and give myself as a living sacrifice.  It was hard to stay there and not try to wiggle off.

Abraham isn’t the only one who surrendered to God.  In 1 Samuel chapter 1, we read about Hannah and how she promised God that if He would give her a son, she would give him back to God.  I can remember God speaking to my heart and asking me about Charles.  I wanted to marry Charles and I was willing to be his support system so that he could serve the Lord in the mission field.  Hannah kept her word to the Lord and I had to keep my word. 

Sacrifice is doing something that your flesh doesn’t want to do but you know that it is part of God’s will so you do it anyway.  Our flesh will fight it every step of the way.  I know my flesh does.  There is no way we could do it on our own.  Thank goodness we don’t have to.  God will not call us to do something that He hasn’t already equipped us to do.  We can’t out give God.  No matter what we sacrifice for His kingdom, God will reward beyond anything we could possibly imagine.  Each one of you is a living sacrifice.  Every day you have choices to make and most likely there will be a sacrifice involved.  I want to encourage each of you to be that living sacrifice - allowing God to do His will for His glory.  You will never be sorry you did.

I will leave you with this.  Psalm 73:26 “My flesh and my heart fail; But God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.”  In my notes written in the margin it says: God is enough!  Amen!

 What is your food?

Food is mentioned everywhere in the Bible.  You will find it in Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, Judges, 1 Samuel, 1 & 2 Kings, Job, the Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Isaiah, Lamentations, Hosea, Joel, Zechariah, Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Acts, Romans, 1 Corinthians, Philippians and Revelation.  I am not going to go thru all the Scriptures - but I do want to touch on two that are in the New Testament where Jesus was specifically involved.

One of those verses is in John 6:12.  This is the story of how Jesus fed the 5,000.  Verse 12 says: “So when they were filled, He said to His disciples, ‘Gather up the fragments that remain, so that nothing is lost.’” Jesus used leftovers.  The next time your family complains about eating leftovers, read them this verse!  Even though Jesus could make more out of nothing, He said to gather up the fragments so that nothing is lost.  That spoke to me.  We may be blessed with enough money to buy what we need when we need it.  But are we being good stewards of what we have already purchased?  Buying food and then throwing it out because it wasn’t used in time is a big waste of money. When Jesus fed the 5,000, He could have made just enough to feed them with nothing leftover, but He didn’t.  We can learn from this.  There will be days when we will have just enough - nothing left over.  But what are we doing with the “leftovers” when we have it?  Leftovers don’t have to just pertain to food.  We can have money, time, and resources leftover.  Are we using them or wasting them?

The other verse is in John 4:32.  This is where Jesus has just had an encounter with the woman at the well and His disciples have just returned with food and telling Jesus to eat.  Verse 32 says “But He said to them, ‘I have food to eat of which you do not know.’” Jesus isn’t talking about physical food but spiritual food.  He goes on to say in verse 34 “My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me, and to finish His work”.  What are we doing with our spiritual food?  Are we taking the Word that we have fed on and nourishing others?  Jesus went without physical food for 40 days.  I would probably have a problem going without food for 40 minutes.  How did He do that?  He was nourished by God the Father.  Are we getting enough nourishment from the Word?  Or are we on a diet?  We need spiritual food as much or even more than, physical food.  Are you in the Word everyday?  Do you skip a day, a week, a month?  Think how that would affect you if you skipped meals for that long.  I want to encourage you to feed on God’s Word everyday.  Doesn’t matter what time of day you do it or how long you spend on it.  Just do it.  Chances are you won’t skip a day without eating (unless you are fasting), so decide to not skip a day without feeding on God’s Word. 

 Resolutions Anyone?

It’s a new year  . . . did you make any resolutions?  We have just completed the first week of January - have you broken any of your resolutions?  Did you give up?  The beginning of a new year is not the only time we can make a new start.  We have the ability to start over every day.  Actually, we can start over at any time, whether it is every morning or every minute.  Just because we "failed" does not mean we are done.  Think of it this way:  F.A.I.L. = First Attempt In Learning

Lamentations 3:22-23:  Through the Lord’s mercies we are not consumed, Because His compassions fail not.  They are new every morning; Great is Your faithfulness.

Discouragement is a great tool of the enemy, and he would want us to quit as soon as we fail.  But we have a gracious God that willingly gives us grace and mercy every day – He never runs out.  We are a “work in progress” and God knows that.  God is also the one who will complete the work He has started.

Philippians 1:6:  being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in your will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ;

So, consider this your opportunity to make a new resolution.  Resolve to run to the Lord for your help.  That is one resolution that will never fail!

Redeeming the Time

I was thinking about things a while back and these words came to mind: Organizing, details, unexpected and redeeming the time.  At the time I got those words I wasn’t really sure what I was supposed to do with them.  A few days after that, I heard a teaching at church on Ephesians 5:15-21 and those same words were mentioned.  Ephesians 5:15-16: “See then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil.”  I have written in my Bible that circumspectly means “attending to detail”.  That takes care of the words “details” and “redeeming the time.”  But what about “organizing” and “unexpected”?

Have you read the book of Numbers?  Not a very exciting book.  But I noticed right away that God is very organized.  It starts out with a census - naming all the tribes, and the leaders of the tribes and the number of men in the tribes, right down to the very last one.  Now that’s detail!  By nature, I am a very organized and detail-oriented person.  I have always been this way - even as a child.  I enjoy the kind of paperwork that most people find boring.  Reading Numbers can be boring.  But God put it in there for a reason.  It could have been because God wanted the Israelites to see how He had been blessing them - increasing their numbers and providing for all their needs.  We can easily miss God’s blessings if we aren’t paying attention.  God had Moses write it down so that it would not be forgotten.  If I want to remember something, for me it is best if I write it down.  However, that only works if I remember to read what I have written.  That is also true for reading God’s word.  It only works when we read it.  There is no way to remember everything that is written in the Bible, but reading it consistently will help. There are lots of organized Bible reading charts available.  I don’t use a chart - mainly because it is hard for me to keep up with the chart - I get behind and I get discouraged and I give up.  Instead, I read the Bible, starting with Genesis, and work my way through to Revelation.  I don’t give myself a quota for how many chapters to read.  I simply read until I stop reading.  No, I won’t finish the whole Bible in one year, but I don’t really have too either!  Things happen in life and sometimes I can’t read as much as I would like to. 

That’s where the word “unexpected” comes in.  Life happens.  We can plan all we want but we don’t really have any control over what happens.  We can plan for hurricane season and never have a hurricane.  It doesn’t hurt to make preparations - that is part of being organized.  But we must never put our faith in our preparations.  Accidents can happen, or we get sick at the most inopportune time - or is it an inopportune time?  According to God’s plan, it is exactly what is supposed to happen.  So then, God is in control - do we just give up and not do anything?  Of course not - we all know that.  We still need to live life and make decisions and prepare for our future.  For me, I try to have extra groceries and batteries during the hurricane season.  Many years ago, I went out and bought a generator.  That same year we had Hurricane Dennis and a tree fell in the yard where the generator was and I never got a chance to use it. So much for being prepared!  I had to borrow one from a friend for 2 days.  I was prepared but God had another plan.  I will still get prepared but I will also allow God to have a different plan.

No matter what happens in our lives, we should always be conscious of redeeming the time.  What do I do with my time?  I try to keep my activities under control.  I don’t like to be so booked up that I can’t even find time to breathe.  If I am stressed out, I am probably not going to be very good at redeeming the time.  I know that I have missed out on a lot of opportunities this way.  But when I slow down my pace and God puts an opportunity in front of me, that makes it so much easier to respond with a “yes” to God.  When I am too busy for God, that’s a red flag that something is out of whack in my life.  We never know when we are going to get “that” phone call - that something is wrong with a family member.  We never know when that “something” will happen to us - making it impossible to do the things that we have always done.  We can’t even predict what will happen one minute from now.  Thankfully God knows. 

We can organize our day so that our responsibilities and priorities are taken care of.  We can keep our schedule flexible so that God can use us to minister to a friend or family member when the unexpected happens.  We can pay attention to detail and remember the ways that God has provided for us.  And we can redeem the time for His glory. 

Mary, did you know? 

I think we all know the song “Mary did you know”.  But did she know?  Let’s look at the Christmas story in Luke 1:26-38. 

Now in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. The virgin’s name was Mary.  And having come in, the angel said to her, “Rejoice, highly favored one, the Lord is with you; blessed are you among women!  But when she saw him, she was troubled at his saying, and considered what manner of greeting this was.  Then the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God.  “And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bring forth a Son, and shall call His name JESUS.  “He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Highest; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David.  “And He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of His kingdom there will be no end.”  Then Mary said to the angel, “How can this be, since I do not know a man?”  And the angel answered and said to her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Highest will overshadow you; therefore, also, that Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God.  “Now indeed, Elizabeth your relative has also conceived a son in her old age; and this is now the sixth month for her who was called barren.  “For with God nothing will be impossible.”  Then Mary said, “Behold the maidservant of the Lord! Let it be to me according to your word.” And the angel departed from her.

So, Mary did you know?  When the angel told Mary she would have a baby that would be the Son of God, did the angel tell her everything that would eventually happen?  Nope.  All he told her was that she would give birth to a Son and call Him Jesus and that He would be the Son of the Highest.  The only question she had was “How is this going to happen since I haven’t been with a man?”  If that had been me, I would have had a whole slew of questions.  Like, “What will Joseph think?  Will he think I was unfaithful?  What will my parents think?  Will they think I was a bad girl and disobeyed them?  What about my friends?  Are they gonna talk trash behind my back?  What about my reputation?”  I don’t know about this Angel . . . But Mary didn’t do that.  Her question was answered, she submitted to God, and she conceived and gave birth to Jesus. 

I don’t think she had any idea of what that would entail.  Remember when Jesus was lost for 2 days.  If Mary knew that she would “lose” Jesus when He was 12 years old, would she have done something different?  Maybe she would have insisted that He stay by her side.  If she did that, He would not have been in the temple listening to the teachers and asking questions.  That time in the temple may have been very important in God’s plan.  Could be why the angel didn’t mention it to her.

I am sure that Mary knew the scriptures and how they foretold of the Messiah.  Maybe she put 2 and 2 together.  But did she really understand that she would be watching her baby get crucified?  If the angel told that to her at the beginning, do you think she would have hesitated?  Would she have worried about it for the next 33 years until it happened?  If so, then her focus would not have been where it needed to be.  Obviously, we have no way of knowing that.  God doesn’t give us all the details up front, and I can certainly understand why.  He has a plan, and it always works out. 

Which reminds me of Romans 8:28  And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.  Mary loved God and she was called for His purpose.  God worked out the plan for Mary and it was good.

Back to Mary - Do you think that Mary had any idea that 2000 years later, people would still be celebrating the birth of her baby?  Over time, the holiday has gotten off track.  It has become commercialized, and a lot of people leave Jesus out of it.  Can you imagine celebrating your child’s birthday without having the child included?  My aunt started a tradition many years ago – probably 50+ years.  After we eat Christmas dinner, my aunt would bring out a birthday cake and we would all sing Happy Birthday to Jesus.  This was something new to my family – we had never done that before.  It began after my aunt got married and started her family.  She wanted her kids to know what the day was really about.  It was her way of putting Christ back into Christmas. And it was a reminder to the rest of us as well.   I don’t think that everyone around that table was really into singing the birthday song – but they did it anyway.  Maybe it planted a seed.  Maybe it planted a seed in me . . . it took about 20 years for that seed to grow but it did grow.  So don’t lose hope if your “seeds” aren’t sprouting right away.

So, Mary did you know?  No, she probably didn’t.  Just like we don’t know.  But we do know the One who does know!  And the best gift we can give to someone is Jesus.  This time of year, people are more open to hearing the Christmas story.   Take advantage of the season – tell the story (you never know who is listening) and spread joy – as much as you can to everyone you can.  Sing happy birthday to Jesus.  You just might plant some seeds . . .