Thanksgiving Journal 2: In My Weakness I Thank You, Lord

 Today, I am thankful for the fact that no matter how weak I am and how many times I fail to do what I'm supposed to do, Jesus is still here...with me...

He is not surprised by my weaknesses.  And He does not withdraw His love from me just because I failed to perform.  He knows me.  And even so...He still loves me.

I am thankful for the truth I read in my devotional this morning:

Your weakness does not repel Me.  On the contrary, it attracts My Power, which is always available to flow into a yielded heart.  Do not condemn yourself for your constant need of help.  Instead, come to Me with your gaping neediness; let the Light of My Love fill you.  A yielded heart does not whine or rebel when the going gets rough.  it musters the courage to thank Me even during hard times.  Yielding yourself to My will is ultimately an act of trust. (Jesus Calling by Sarah Young)

Thank you, Lord Jesus for the peace that comes to my soul when I consider that even while I was still a sinner, you loved me enough to die for me.  In the Precious Name of Christ.  Amen.

"Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful." Colossians 3:15

Thanksgiving Journal: Thankful for the Youth Mission Trip

 Can you believe it?  November is here! For some reason, this month always catches me by surprise. I'm not sure why.  I think it's because I get so busy with the back-to-school rush, that, all of the sudden, it's Halloween and November sneaks up on me and yells BOO! 

And once November starts...forget it...it's over already.  Thanksgiving, perhaps my favorite holiday, comes to me and finds me unprepared and unaware. I don't want that to happen to me this year.  I want to be intentional about being grateful for the blessings God has so generously decided to share with me.  So, I want to make sure I don't take them for granted.  I want to make November, Thanksgiving Month in this blog.  It is my goal to post something every day of this month about gratitude, starting today!

So, here we go.

I am grateful today for Dylan's experience during the Mission Trip he just came back from.  He went to West Virginia in July with the Youth Group and when they came back, Youth Director, Lee Harris announced that perhaps they would be going back down again in October for another round.  That meant, the kids would have to miss about 3 days of school.  Dan is never happy about having the kids miss school, but we thought this was important, and if Dylan's grades were good, we were going to let him go.

Of course, we blinked and it was time to drop him off at the church on a cold October morning.  I couldn't stay because I had to rush back to the office for appointments.  I felt bad just leaving him there, but I couldn't help it.  He was not very interested in the fact that the trip had just gotten extended until Sunday (originally they were going to come back on Saturday), but I told him that he would enjoy it and to just go with it.  I also told him to look for Jesus moments...moments of awareness of His presence in the fellowship of the mission work. That morning, I said good bye to my little boy and prayed the trip would be transformative.

Yesterday, when we picked him up, he was glowing.  I usually ask him to tell me the about his favorite things and his least favorite things every time he goes somewhere or does something special, and he filled up the 45 minutes of the trip back home with stories of the last few days.  The stories were filled with funny details, surprising events, sparks and joy. And when I asked him about anything he did not like, he couldn't think of anything!  There had been no room for anything he didn't savored in the trip. Friendships became stronger, and new ones emerged.  The reality of extreme poverty went from abstract to concrete.  Hard work redeemed the times. And the awareness of Jesus moments was evident in my young son's heart. What else is there in life?  

I am grateful for the opportunity to invest in Dylan's soul.  I am grateful for the Church who is willing to sponsor these trips so our youth can grow up stronger in their faith.  I am grateful for Lee and Dawn who are willing to take on the enormous task to love these young people so much that they say yes to undertaking these trips. I am grateful to Our Lord and Savior for giving these young men and women a chance to hear His voice as He calls them His own.

Dylan said to me after he came back from school this afternoon that he felt a little lost at school today because he didn't have his mission team around.  He missed them so, that he reached out and decided it was a good idea to have a group chat so they could keep in touch. How about that?

"Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his love endures forever." 1 Chronicles 16:34

The Reality of Faith

 I have been so preoccupied with lately, that I have neglected important things, like writing my meditations on the Word.  That is shameful and I pray the Holy Spirit will put me back on my path to rectify my detours.  This morning, He led me to these electronic pages first before starting my hectic day, and He prompted me to type my musings on what I read about faith in today´s post of My Utmost for His Highest by Oswald Chambers.  Here's the part that spoke to me most in today's entry:

For every detail of common sense in life, there is a truth God has revealed by which we can prove in our practical experience what we believe God to be. Faith is a tremendously active principle that always puts Jesus Christ first. The life of faith says, “Lord, You have said it, it appears to be irrational, but I’m going to step out boldly, trusting in Your Word” (for example, see Matthew 6:33). Turning intellectual faith into our personal possession is always a fight, not just sometimes. God brings us into particular circumstances to educate our faith, because the nature of faith is to make the object of our faith very real to us. Until we know Jesus, God is merely a concept, and we can’t have faith in Him. But once we hear Jesus say, “He who has seen Me has seen the Father” (John 14:9) we immediately have something that is real, and our faith is limitless. Faith is the entire person in the right relationship with God through the power of the Spirit of Jesus Christ.

"The nature of faith is to make the object of our faith very real to us." I love this statement.  It articulates our situation perfectly!  That is exactly what Hebrews 11:1 is all about: Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. (Hebrews 11:1)

We hope to see the reality of the Almighty.  We want to be convinced and convince others of the truth even when it is not seen.  And faith is what allows us to do that.  And Jesus is at the center of this process.  "Until we know Jesus, God is merely a concept..." God is too abstract...not tangible.  He becomes "real" in the person of Jesus, and it is not until we know Him...until He calls us and we hear His voice that our faith explodes.  

Very recently I tried to share this ideas with someone who is looking for answers in all the wrong places, but I don't think I did a good job.  I think I fell short.  I was trying to "make it real" for her by explaining some of my life experiences and how the only way I have been able to get through them is because of my faith...but I didn't get all the way to Jesus.  I stopped at God...

It's funny how we think that "God" is not as offensive as Jesus.  Often, at least it happens to me often, I tend to believe that people won't reject what I'm saying if I leave it at the generic "God" level without going deeper and bringing Jesus in.  And it is because Jesus makes it too real and people can't handle it.  Jesus is a person who walked on this earth, ate, drank, slept, spoke, touched...He is way too on our face.  He is too much inside our realm.  God is up there...distant...caught up between fantasy land and a dream-like state.  Jesus can slap you on your face and you'd feel it.  Jesus overturned tables, and cried and yelled.  God is more like this ethereal, shapeless being that is easier to dismiss.  Jesus' words and actions are all too "real" and can't be easily dismissed.

I feel bad I did not take the one step further to say that the reason for my faith is Jesus.  But I also trust His wisdom and His guidance.  I have faith that He directs my path and that He is My Lord and as such, He leads me to where He wants me.  

I pray that I can be bolder when the time comes to share the object of my faith, and that I communicate how My God is Father, Son and Holy Ghost.  In the precious name of Jesus.  Amen!

King Solomon the Fool

 In my journey through God's Word, I've landed on the Book of Ecclesiastes.  I have to admit, I never read it in its entirety before. I am very familiar with chapter 3.  I've used it often and quoted it many, many times...but that's the extent of my knowledge of this book...and I have to say, now that I'm almost finished reading it...I find it extremely intriguing.

It is not at all what I expected it to be.  I am not sure what I expected it to be, frankly, but whatever my imagination did not know how to imagine, is not that.

Bible scholar, Jon Courson says in his commentary, "the Book of Ecclesiastes is actually a journal of Solomon's journey into carnality."  I would like to add, it records Solomon's journey from wisdom to foolishness as well.

I think Ecclesiastes was the place where we see, through King Solomon's experiences and misguided contemplations, how meaningless it is to place our focus, our efforts, our aim on the things under the sun.  Everything under the sun evaporates...we, ourselves are nothing more than a thin vapor that dissipates in an instant.  This is what King Solomon keeps reflecting upon.  And these thoughts make him sound really depressed...and such estate of being can easily transfer to the reader.  The key is, however, to remember, that it is all about perspective.

For example, let's look at a verse that perplexed me when I first read it:

A feast is made for laughter, wine makes life merry, and money is the answer for everything. (10:19)

Is Solomon saying that we are to party, drink wine and find the answer for everything in money? When taken out of context, well...yes.  But the thing is, Solomon is giving us the perspective of what life is like when our emphasis and focus is completely worldly-oriented.  When our eyes are fixed on the things under the sun...well...there isn't much else than to try to please your carnal instincts and mortal desires.  That's all that life has to offer when our sight is on this world.  There's nothing else. (For more illustrations, look at what's happening to our society today, right?)

As children of God, however, our eyes must be fixed on eternity.  Our sight must be on the One who opened up the gateway to Heaven:  Jesus.  Life without Him is a vapor.  Life without Jesus is meaningless.  Life without Jesus only leaves the material...the perishable...the things that decay.  And after all that has evaporated like the foam of the sea...there's nothing but total and complete emptiness.

Life focused on the things of this world is the life of a fool.

I believe that's the perspective Solomon is offering in Ecclesiastes: the carnal point of view, like Courson suggests.

For all his wisdom, Solomon made tons of mistakes in life.  He ended up being a pretty big fool.  But, perhaps, Ecclesiastes in a way, is the book that contains his reflections on those mistakes, as a warning to us not to do the same.  So, today, I pray the Holy Spirit gives us the wisdom to recognize when we are being fools and gently, but promptly brings us back to the path that takes us to the One who makes all things new.  In Jesus Precious Name.  Amen!

My Hope is on the Lord!

 The Butterfly Messages is a ministry from our Church that sends scripture passages along with quotes from believers who have said something that is in line with a particular Bible verse.  Today's messages included a quote from Pastor Rick Warren and a verse from Isaiah 40:2 as printed below:

“What gives me the most hope every day is God’s grace; knowing that His grace is going to give me the strength for whatever I face, knowing that nothing is a surprise to God.” (Rick Warren)

“When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, the will not sweep over you.  When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze.” (Isaiah 40:2)  NIV

I wanted to print them here because I want to make sure I remember these truths always.  I feel like this year, the year I designated as the year of Hoping while I Wait, back on New Year's Day, has been, indeed, a year in which I have been searching for hope...desperately.  

So often lately, I have been falling in the trap of feeling hopeless.  And I'm tired of it.  Work responsibilities have been bringing me down...tragedy and insecurity...the never-ending-pandemic...canceled plans and loss have all contributed to a state of disappointed hope...but...when I read Pastor Rick Warren's words, I'm reminded of the truth:  My Hope is in the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth! (Psalm 121: 1) My Hope is in Jesus. PERIOD! He is the One who is with me when I pass through the waters.  He is the One who holds on to me so the current doesn't sweep over me.  He is the One who walks with me through the fire so I don't get burned...because He is the One who absorbers the flames so I'm not set ablaze.  My strength is in His grace...not on my own flesh or intellect.  I am free because He is the One who fights my battles.  

I just need to be still and remember all these.

That's why we cannot tire of sharing His Word...because we never know who is going to be touched by it.  His Word never returns empty.  (Isaiah 55: 11)  So, let's not forget to always send it out...daily.

Today, as I'm again feeling the weight of exhaustion and conflict laying on my shoulders, I lift up my head and say:  I trust You, Lord.  You are my Hope and my Deliverer.  Who can be against me? My strength is in You.  You will overcome for me.  Nothing is a surprise to You.  I will rest in the shadow of Your wings.

In the precious name of Our Lord and Savior, Jesus the Christ.  Amen!

Wise Words

 Reading through the Book of Proverbs is always...interesting...I forget how many of them deal with one of the biggest problem areas of most bodies, mine for sure: the mouth.

Some are very profound and deep...others are rather funny.  Chapter 18 has a nice selection of them.  Take Proverbs 18: 6, for instance:

The lips of fools bring them strife,
and their mouths invite a beating.

I chuckle when I read it because I don't know how many times I've told Dylan versions of this. I keep telling him, "one of these days...you are going to get punched on the face, boy!" He doesn't believe me. Actually, people outside our house can't fathom Dylan being a "smart mouthed" kid. He is very careful when he is in public. But at home...ugh! He sure invites a beating on a daily basis!

Dylan is not the only one with a "mouth-malfunction" in this household, though...actually, I'm the reigning queen of that country. Rather, I'm the fool so often mentioned in Proverbs...I'm the fool with "mouth-problems."

The mouths of fools are their undoing,
and their lips are a snare to their very lives. (Proverbs 18: 7)

Totally me.

This one is me too...though, I'm not sure I know what it means?

The words of a gossip are like choice morsels;
they go down to the inmost parts. (Proverbs 18: 8)

I keep re-reading it, and the one thing that keeps coming to mind is...LOL..."gossip makes me fat!!" It goes to my thighs! Ha, ha! However, I think it might have something to do with that, after all. See, gossip could be addictive, like M&Ms or Doritos (both "choice morsels" in my pantry). Once I start eating these things, I can't stop! And yes, they go straight to my thighs and other inner parts. Indulging in gossip is like indulging in these items that don't really contribute to anything good in our bodies, except a short delight of the senses. In the end, gossip, like M&Ms turn me into something I don't want to be.

And, of course, there's this one:

To answer before listening—
that is folly and shame. (Proverbs 18: 13)

Anyone in my house: "You don't let me talk. Let me finish!"

Me: "I know what you're going to say...so..."

I'm always ready with the whip of my tongue to slash others even before they have had a chance to say what they wanted to say. I don't listen. I react...then...maybe...I might, perhaps, let them talk...if I feel like it. The folly of a fool.

Proverbs 18: 21 is very convicting,

The tongue has the power of life and death,
and those who love it will eat its fruit.

Once again, the weird association of words with food. It's no wonder one of those popular sayings warns: "watch out! You'll have to eat your words." What are we eating, according to Proverbs? The fruit of the tongue is either life or death. A few choice words, and we can build up, bring life with our words...or.... we can destroy, crush, defeat, kill all the same.

King Solomon, the writer of Proverbs, was known for his riches and for his wisdom. He said that words are deep waters, but wisdom is a rushing stream (Proverbs 18: 4). Deep waters are scary and dangerous. They can engulf a soul and drown a life in seconds. The rushing stream of wisdom, on the contrary, refreshes and brings life, removing death with its constant movement. Only wisdom can turn words into life. Careless words have the power to bring death.

The Holy Spirit is the One Who can turn our deep, scary and dangerous waters into rushing streams of life. May He transform our tongue so only wise words may escape. In the Precious Name of Jesus, The Word in Whom we trust. Amen!

Praying for Consciousness of Our Call

 I'm continuing my journey through the very challenging devotional, My Utmost for His Highest by Oswald Chambers, and I have to tell you, today's post was very interesting.  It is called, "The Awareness of the Call."  It is based on 1 Corinthians 9:16,

 For when I preach the gospel, I cannot boast, since I am compelled to preach. Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel!

Chambers' meditations revolve specifically around the last part of the verse: "Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel!"  This is Paul's statement on his own position as a preacher.  The Apostle explains how he has a drive to proclaim the gospel that doesn't come from himself.  He is "compelled to preach."  In other words, he is forcibly driven to do this by something else or rather, Someone else who is the One applying that force.  That's why he cannot boast.  And that driving force is so powerful and Paul is so dependent on the sustenance from that Force that he calls in damnation upon himself if he does not deliver.

Chambers' perspective is that what Paul is talking about here refers to God's supernatural call to the believer.  He says it is not just an inclination we feel or a desire that may come up out of the gifts we have been endowed with or out of the skills we may possess.  According to Chambers, this call that is causing Paul to say aloud: Woe to me! goes way beyond all that.  It comes from God's deeply spiritual and supernatural touch.  And that's why it is so compelling that we can't say no.

He says it is so supernatural and divine that, "If you are able to tell exactly where you were when you received the call of God and can explain all about it, I question whether you have truly been called."

He says, the type of call Paul is talking about here, is "inexpressible," "incalculable" and "surprising."  It contains God's personal choosing of a specific person, so, of course it is supernatural and unexplainable.  That's why Paul says it is a compulsion that was put upon him by the One to whom nothing can be denied.

Chambers continues saying how Paul "had become aware of the call of God, and his compulsion to “preach the gospel” was so strong that nothing else was any longer even a competitor for his strength."

I think about my own journey with Jesus.  I feel so convicted and guilty for not being obedient and neglecting the great commission to go and make disciples, that often I feel like Woe is coming to me.  I worry I've missed the call entirely because I'm so worldly focused and so concerned about my circumstances.  But, reading and re-reading what Chamber is saying has made me pause and contemplate: am I really conscious or fully aware of God's call to me?  Obviously, Paul had a realization of what his role was supposed to be in the Kingdom of God.  Do I have that realization?  I don't think I do.  I don't know if God has given me that revelation which will activate His driving force in me yet.  I believe He is giving me nudges. Like Chambers says, sometimes , "the realization of the call in a person’s life may come like a clap of thunder or it may dawn gradually. But however quickly or slowly this awareness comes, it is always accompanied with an undercurrent of the supernatural."  I think I might still be on the installment plan...that makes the realization dawn gradually.

Whatever it is, though, I'm feeling encouraged that I might have not totally messed up my chance to fulfill God's call for my life.  After all, I'm still here, right?  And as long as I still have breath in my longs and a beat in my heart, I have hope.  Like Chambers concludes:

"If a man or woman is called of God, it doesn’t matter how difficult the circumstances may be. God orchestrates every force at work for His purpose in the end. If you will agree with God’s purpose, He will bring not only your conscious level but also all the deeper levels of your life, which you yourself cannot reach, into perfect harmony."

So, today, in this beautiful autumn afternoon, I pray the Holy Spirit will give me and you the awareness, the conscious level that we need to reach the perfect harmony that we cannot reach by ourselves, which will allow us to agree with God's purpose for our lives in that supernatural way that will compel us to do His will...no matter what...so there's no Woe to us.  In Jesus' Precious Name.  Amen!