What Has Been My Excuse?

I have spent quite a bit of time in the book of Psalms this month, as I started a reading plan to complete the Bible in one year's time. I was struck anew by David's constant praise of the Lord through his words, his song and his dance. David surely knew how to make praising and glorifying the Lord a daily lifestyle. I must confess, as of late, I have found it difficult to bring glory and honor to God in my daily walk. I should know better too, not to let my daily circumstances interfere with my praise and worship. A pattern of neglected prayer and neglected time in God's word has certainly affected my daily walk with the Lord and my relationships with others. How and just when was it that I let the "business" of ministry work, family life and community service compete with my personal time spent with God? David had wars to fight, women to impress, men to lead, an army to feed and yet he still found time to worship and praise God! What has been my excuse?

David was also good at turning his sorrows and his sins over to God. Lately, I do not think I have been taking my sorrows and sins to the cross with the right spirit. Psalm 25 is a careful reminder of this. In verse 1, David simply says "Look at my affliction and my pain." and then he petitions the Lord, "Forgive all my sins". Through some recent trials and sufferings, I find myself asking the Lord to just remove my pain, my affliction without seeing the sin that is connected to that pain. David cries out to the Lord to see his pain, his sin and he leaves them there with the Lord, seeking forgiveness and freedom from sin's curse. What has been my excuse?

I think I have proven to myself that without constant restoration, I am not ready for the perpetual assaults of hell or for the strife within myself. David has helped me see that despite the wars that rage on and the daily struggles we face, we need restoration. Christ must be the daily Master of my heart and the source of my renewal. Time with God in prayer, praise and repentance no longer should be an afterthought to my excuses.

Better Late Than Never

It has been almost exactly a year since I posted on my blog sight. I used to look forward to the quiet evenings when I could sit down, collect my thoughts for the week and express them in the written word. I'm really not sure why I stopped posting my thoughts and family pictures last year. I either became lazy, bored or just disenchanted because no one read it any way. Until recently, I started reading the Bible using a one year plan and found myself taking notes along the way and decided it was time to organize those thoughts and put them in a journal. So, here I am again. I will either prove myself disciplined or just simply following another exercise of futility.

So, here I go...keyboard at the ready, procrastination set aside and thoroughly convinced that is is better late than never.

"Give Us This Day Our Daily Bread" Matthew 6:11

As a New Year has encroached upon us, many are making New Year’s resolutions. Some of which are promises to themselves to live better, healthier, wiser, richer,...etc...etc.... We could all do ourselves a huge favor if we were more willing to live on God's promises and less on our own devices. We would probably all be much happier men and women. Why are we always so eager to achieve or gain more than the daily portion of what man really needs? More money, a bigger house, more friends, more charisma, a better job. The list can go on and on. Let’s be honest, we really cannot eat, drink or indulge in more than the daily supply of food, clothing or entertainment. We most certainly can only work a maximum number of hours in one day before adverse physical effects take their toll. The surplus of all these things we crave then gives us the added responsibility and anxiety of storing it, securing it from thieves, not to mention its ongoing maintenance. (Hebrews 10:23).

Are we not to be content with the daily allowance our heavenly Father gives us? This includes the body we possess as well as the material possessions. Yes, our body is a temple and we should treat it with the reverence God expects(1 Corinthians 6:19-20). I for one want to be more diligent with my exercise routine and to eat more healthy this year. Having experienced 4 miscarriages and a hysterectomy last year, I am quite motivated to work harder at a healthier lifestyle, if it will mean more energy to give to my family and ministries. I have long outgrown the desire to gain approval from others for my appearance. I am content and blessed by the body the Lord has provided me (bumps and sags included). It is just a blessing to greet each new day.

Don't get me wrong, I think it is normal to desire a healthy mind and physique and we should always be diligent to protect ourselves from the damaging temptations of the flesh the world offers. This is sound, Godly advice. We must however be content with what God provides us each day. It is all too easy to be tempted to want and accumulate much more than God's provisions. I speculate this is why plastic surgeries, fad diets and self help groups are so popular these days.

As a Christian, we must believe that all things are stored up for us through Jesus. We should be grateful for our daily allowance. This includes our material, physical and spiritual needs. We will never go hungry while the daily bread of grace is on the table of mercy. Amen and God bless everyone this year of 2008.

Fasting...Feeding....and Freezing...

Recently, our church body was challenged to a 3-day fast. It was our effort made to do without and appreciate the provisions the Lord blesses us with. It was also a time to reflect upon our dependency on the Lord in all areas of our life. I have never managed to successfully fast past 24 hours and I did make it 30 hours until the spirit was broken. Fasting with a huge bag of trick-0-treat candy sitting around the house followed by a trip to the grocery store was especially difficult on a hungry, empty stomach. I managed to stick to my essentials list and spent the rest of the time collecting food items for the KCM Food Drive. That helped to keep my mind off of the chips, cookies and other tempting sweets beckoning me. For isn't it just like the sweetness of sin that is dangerous? Like the desert, though it is a “scorched place” it does have some beautiful, flowering cacti in its barren environment, but it is also home to the most venomous snakes on earth. For isn’t it just like Satan to tempt us by offering us our greatest joys and vices? [James 1:14, "Each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed."]

This Thanksgiving holiday, our family had the opportunity to experience a different kind of physical deprivation-SHELTER. We spent 2 days and nights camping outside in a screened in enclosure while the temperatures dropped to the low 30's F. The wind howled through the so-called enclosure as we attempted to make do with what provisions we had for warmth at night. During the day, we hiked to keep warm in-between the organized activities and would occasionally find ourselves dropping by the dining hall to warm ourselves by the fire. Some meals, due to the crowd, we found ourselves dining outside, only to return to a cold, unprotected shelter. BUT, were we ever truly unprotected? This time of fasting and freezing has demonstrated for me how easy it is to indulge the desires of our flesh rather than resting solely upon the power of the Lord and the strength only the Holy Spirit can provide. Just as the body is dependent upon organic food for physical health and strength, so are we dependent upon spiritual food for spiritual strength. This has been a good lesson in spiritual vigilance and a warning of the dangers that are lurking when I become complacent in my spiritual walk.

In Christ, everything we need is stored up for those who have accepted His grace. This is all we need and all we should expect. We need to value everything the Lord has provided us. We should not crave a bigger house, a better paying job or better behaved children :) We should be grateful for that which the Lord has provided us. Charles Spurgeon so eloquently wrote a century ago.." We cannot eat, drink, or wear more than the day's supply of food and clothing; the surplus gives us the care of storing it and the anxiety of watching against a thief. One staff aids a traveler, but a bundle of staffs is a heavy burden. Enough is not only as good as a feast, but is all that the greatest glutton can truly enjoy. This is all that we should expect; a craving for more than this is ungrateful. When our Father does not give us more, we should be content with His daily allowance. "

During this post-Thanksgiving season, lest us enjoy our daily allowance. We can never truly go hungry while the daily bread of grace is on the table of mercy.

Love and blessings on the journey together!
Kathy

Share Your Story and... Share Christ

Acts 16:25-31 But at midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them. 26 Suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken; and immediately all the doors were opened and everyone’s chains were loosed. 27 And the keeper of the prison, awaking from sleep and seeing the prison doors open, supposing the prisoners had fled, drew his sword and was about to kill himself. 28 But Paul called with a loud voice, saying, “Do yourself no harm, for we are all here.”29 Then he called for a light, ran in, and fell down trembling before Paul and Silas. 30 And he brought them out and said, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?”31 So they said, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved, you and your household.”

Upon reading God's word this afternoon, I was reminded of a conversation I had earlier this morning at a baby shower for a woman who also recently adopted a year-old child. I was asked to share my adoption story with several ladies from my new church family and how the Lord had orchestrated the deliverance of our children from a Russian orphanage. During the past 2 ½ years, my adoption story has often been a catalyst by which I can share the Lord with non-believers.

As I read through Acts 16, I thought...WOW! What an incredible and powerful testimonial this Roman guard now has to share with others when he has the opportunity to share the Gospel. In these verses we see Paul and Silas who accompanied the Roman guard to his home and "33At that hour of the night the jailer took them and washed their wounds; then immediately he and all his family were baptized. 34The jailer brought them into his house and set a meal before them; he was filled with joy because he had come to believe in God—he and his whole family."

I am reminded that our faith and conversion in Christ is not only based upon the great things we have heard or read in God’s word or other Christian publications, but what wonderful things the Lord has done for us, on our behalf. We must also not base our faith solely upon the miracles or other great things we have observed in the lives of our Christian brothers and sisters. Our faith should be reinforced by what the Lord had accomplished on the cross and with His resurrection, as well as what He has accomplished in our individual life through His divine intervention.

I think the Lord gives each of us a unique story to share with others about how God has been a powerful influence in our lives. All Christians, (a.k.a. Christ followers, Believers) have an individual testimony and God will provide opportunities for us to share it and the Gospel with others. I wonder just how many people had the privilege of hearing this Roman soldier’s powerful, unique and distinctive story. Just as our Lord once said, "Go home to your friends, and tell them what great things the Lord has done for you, and how He has had compassion on you" (Mark 5:19)

I pray the Lord will continue to give my friends the Howards and their mission team in Slovenia, the opportunities to share their personal stories with those who yet need to hear the greatest story ever told.

Where will you find the next opportunity to share your story of faith in Jesus Christ?

Amazed by His unending love, grace and mercy,
Kathy

Come on...ring those bells!

Acts 3:1 (Peter Heals the Crippled Beggar) One day Peter and John were going up to the temple at the time of prayer-at three in the afternoon.

Jim pointed out in his blog entry today a small, but important point in this first verse of Chapter 3. One I must have skipped over time and time again, to get to the story of the lame man’s healing miracle. The point being, John and Peter went to the temple to pray at a specific time, the 9th hour. There were other designated times for prayer back then, but the point being…prayer as a spiritual discipline was not only done in private or when prompted by the Spirit, but it was also organized and planned, with a designated time and place. Many churches today have abandoned this organized spiritual discipline, leaving prayer to our own individual devices & responsibility. Gone are the days when churches were built with a prominent steeple and bell tower, which often was used to call the community to their scheduled prayer meetings. I came across an old quote the other day: “Prayer is the rope in the belfry; we pull it, and it rings the bell up in heaven.”(author unknown). What a beautiful, descriptive analogy for prayer. Regardless of the obvious absence of the belfry in today’s church architecture, we should be mindful to keep the bell ringing…pulling the rope well and raising our prayers boldly before the throne of God! God bless the ministry of Jim and Olya and may their prayers be boldly raised and answered! On the journey together…Kathy

Fellowship of Believers

Today I was reading from Acts 2: 42-47 as part of a 30 day prayer journey with our missionary friends in Slovenia. Our friend Jim had some very insightful comments in his blog (please be sure and check them out @ http://www.pray4slovenia.blogspot.com/). In Acts chapter 2, the apostles had just received the Holy Spirit and are in the early stages of their ministry to seek believers for God's kingdom. I have personally been touched by God's word, to see the value the early apostles placed on their fellowship and discipleship of eachother. We recently left a church that became more preoccupied with activities designed to build their numbers and church size, rather than focusing on discipleship and grounding God’s people in the faith (2 Tim. 3:16-17). Christians should be equipped to invite the lost to know Christ by explaining the Bible, communicating to the unsaved our fallen nature and the necessity of the cross (2 Cor: 10:4-5). In these verses from Acts, we see the apostles actively engaged in sharing the gospel and building the church body among the communities, but not at the expense of sacrificing the joy they shared with each other as believers. They also did not rest on their own merits, but on God’s provisions. I think it is all too easy for us to give credit to ourselves for the work we do in God’s kingdom. The reality is, it is God doing the work through us as noted in Acts 2:46, when… “ the Lord added to their number daily". Let us pray as believers, to reject pride...to reflect upon our own unworthiness and to constantly be in debt to God for who we might be if not for God's divine grace. Let us also not abandon the need for fellowship and discipleship with other believers, at the expense of seeking the lost.