Devotional 113-The Ministry of Presence

“Ah. I smiled. I'm not really here to keep you from freaking out. I'm here to be with you while you freak out, or grieve or laugh or suffer or sing. It is a ministry of presence. It is showing up with a loving heart.” 
― Kate Braestrup, Here If You Need Me: A True Story

Matthew 27:55 "There were also many women there, looking on from a distance, who had followed Jesus from Galilee, ministering to Him."

Luke 8:1-3 "Soon afterward Jesus went through cities and villages, proclaiming and bringing the good news...And the twelve were with Him, and also some women who...provided for them out of their means."

I love that women are mentioned as being followers of Jesus and going with Him from village to village. They did not teach and preach, but they gave a ministry of presence.

Some had been healed of demons. Some had been healed from illness. All had been offered love, and this love compelled them to follow and serve.

Notice the scripture says they ministered to Jesus, they provided for Him and His disciples out of their own means. They loved Him as they served Him. And this is why we serve.

So even when you give a little one a cup of cold water, you serve our Savior (Matthew 10:42) Or when you wash the dirty feet of your children, you serve our Savior. Or when you go without sleep, or toss and turn on an uncomfortable bed to be present with women at a retreat, you serve our Savior. When you clean the house or cook a meal, you serve the Savior. When you give honest, hard work to your boss, you serve the Savior.

May Christ give you eyes to see all of life as an opportunity to be present with our Lord in whatever task you are about today. I pray you will sense His loving presence with you at all times.

How privileged we are to serve each other and to pray for one another. May God grant you peace and make His face to shine upon you.

Devotional 112 - I Am His And He Is Mine

"Hush, Dorothy," whispered the Tiger; "you'll ruin my reputation if you are not more discreet. It isn't what we are, but what folks think we are, that counts in this world."             
  L. Frank Baum  The Road To Oz 

Colossians 1:27 ...Christ in you , the hope of glory.  NKJV

Colossians 1:27  For it has pleased God to tell His people that the riches and glory of Christ are for you Gentiles, too. For this is the secret: Christ lives in you, and this is your assurance that you will share in His glory.  NLT

Good morning, dear ladies, beloved in the Lord, who are willing to serve the Savior, in spite of our glaring weaknesses.

We are all weak when it comes to living the Christ-centered life. We are all afraid to let our guard down, because, after all, as Tiger said, it's what folks think of us that counts in this world. But what does the Bible say about you?

Christ lives in you! That is who you are! You are a Christ carrier! And that is the most important thing about you. That is what we want to bring to others whom we serve. We want to give them Jesus. We want to live freely in Christ so others can also live freely in Christ.

It's not what folks think you are that counts, but what you are for eternity. You are His....free to live in His forgiveness.  Christ in you, the hope of glory.

Thank God that you no longer have to be a people-pleasing driven person.

Devotional 111 - Serve

 Someone said, “The most important four words in a marriage are, ‘I’ll do the dishes.'"    Mark fox, author and pastor

Mark 10: 45 For even I, the Son of Man, came here not to be served but to serve others, and to give my life as a ransom for many.

Mark 8:34 If any of you wants to be my follower, you must put aside your selfish ambition, shoulder your cross, and follow me.

I was asked by a friend what I loved about my husband. Besides his love for Christ, one thing that came to mind was a little broken Christmas ornament. I found it last Christmas in the bottom of the box broken in three places. It was inexpensive, but our daughter had made it as a child. I hate to fix things. I would rather buy new, but how do you buy "new" a child's work.

I laid it on a plate in the kitchen and there it sat for weeks even after the holidays were over. Then one morning I woke up and found it on the counter all glued back together. My husband had taken the time to tediously glue the small parts back together. He had served me and I felt loved. And, yes, he offers to do the dishes on occasion.

Doesn't our Lord demonstrate a serving, giving heart towards us over and over. So He asks us to do likewise for one another. Let us put aside our selfish ambition and think of others needs. Let us serve the Lord with joy and gladness of heart. 

What can you do today that demonstrates a love for your husband or child or neighbor? Let us thank God every day for saving us by giving His life as a ransom for ours.

Devotional 110-My Heart, An Idol

"A good thing that becomes the primary thing immediately becomes an immoral thing."      Pulling Back the Shades      by Gresh and Slattery

Ezekiel 14: 6-8 "...Thus says the Lord God: Repent, turn away from your idols...Anyone who separates himself from Me and sets up his idols in his heart...I will set My face against that man...Then you shall know that I am the Lord."

How many times a day I break the first commandment: "You shall have no other gods before Me." Exodus 20:3. In many ways we all break this commandment.

 My heart serves me, loves me, prefers me before all others. I try to cover it up from you by serving you, loving you, preferring you; but God sees that it is still about me. I have an idol and it is me!

I am the statue of gold that I want everyone to praise and look at fondly, and say nice things about me. When I make a noticeable blunder that can not be hidden from you like speaking out of turn in a group gathering, or feeding a baby food that she is allergic to, I mope around for days.

When I mope or worry, or refuse to forgive, I am saying I am more important than God...my needs, my wishes, my will. I am separating myself from God, and God won't have it. 

He is in the business of revealing our hearts to us, our little "idol-making factory" hearts. He will do what He must to turn our hearts back to Him, because only in Him will we find our joy and safety and peace. Even if He must set His face against us, it is only that we might know Him as Lord of our hearts.

Once we recognize our "me idol" worship we must immediately repent, turn away from self and come running to Christ. His grace never fails and is freshly available moment by moment.

Timothy Keller, author and pastor, said an idol is anything that absorbs your heart and imagination more than God. What absorbs your heart these days? May God help us all to have no other gods before Him.

Devotional 109 "No Good Feel" Day

"David, writer of the Psalms, did not tiptoe around God out of fear that God would...hold his thoughts against him. David whined, fussed, and praised, depending on how he felt and what his circumstances were."  Tell Me Everything by Marilyn Meberg

"Unless the Lord had helped me, I would soon have settled in the silence of the grave. I cried out, 'I am slipping!' But Your unfailing love, O Lord,supported me."  Psalm 94: 17, 18.

The month of April was busy for me, as I am sure it was for many of you. But after a few nights of restless sleep, I woke up one morning feeling drained and depressed. I am prone to higher bouts of introspection and I tend to worry more when I am tired.

Do you suppose Jesus had days like that? He was tired, John 4:6. He was hungry, Matthew 4:2. He wept, John 11:35. How did He stay focused? How did He fight fear or depression? Jesus, both fully God and fully man went to the Father often. Early in the morning while it was still dark He went alone to pray, Mark 1:35. He prayed all night, Luke 6:12. In Luke 18:1 Jesus said.."men always ought to pray and not lose heart." Hours before  His death He knelt down and prayed. Being in agony, He prayed more earnestly. What does the scripture tell us? "Then an angel appeared to Him from heaven, strengthening Him." Luke 22:43

So on my "no good feel" day I pushed my legs out of bed, sat up, moaned, and said to myself: "I do not feel like it, I am achy, and mentally miserable, but I will spend time in Your Word, I will speak to you. I will be honest about the weights chained around my heart. With the help of Your Holy Spirit, I will, I will.  Because what you and I need on those blue days is to be strengthened and renewed by God.

We could go shopping, or watch a good movie, or have lunch with our girlfriends, or any number of things to make ourselves feel better. But what we really need is time with our Savior, Jesus, who understands our humanity and comforts as only God can do.

And comfort me He did that dreary morning in April. He has to do it for us over and over again. Yet He never grows tired or weary of giving us new perspectives, lavishing His love on us, and enabling us to accomplish His will. His mercies are new every morning.

Are you having a "no good feel" day? Go to God!

Devotional 108 God Overrules

"A person wills an action, an event is triggered by natural causes, or Satan shows his hand ---yet God overrules."     New King James Commentary regarding Proverbs 16:33.

Proverbs 16:33  "We may throw the dice, but the Lord determines how they will fall."

Last week  Emil de Leon won $45,000 on Wheel of Fortune. His win was so unusual that he was on the national news. Pat Sajak, the host of the show, said it was the most amazing solve in his 30 years on the show.

Emil had to solve this puzzle with only this much information:  NE_    _ _ _ _    _ _ _ _ _ . The first thing that came out of his mouth was NEW BABY BUGGY. That was it! The crowd went wild and Pat Sajak had a moment of stunned silence.

Now if you google this you will find a bunch of conversation trying to explain how he could guess this with so little information. I remember immediately thinking "God gave him the answer." And this verse came to mind in Proverbs that even the throw of the dice is controlled by God.

"Can anything happen without the Lord's permission? Is it not the Most High who helps one and harms another?" Lamentations 3: 37, 38

No one can cause an event to happen if the Lord has not already  designed to use it for good and ordained the outcome to glorify His name. Failure,  success,  marriage,  divorce, unplanned children, planned children who never come, death, disability, war, peace, presidents and dictators, on and on...in it all God still rules!

Hard to grasp! But nothing comes to pass apart from God's decree. So Emil won not so much because he was a brain with letters or pure luck, but because there is a God in heaven who rules and does His pleasure in the world.

In your life He has ordained this day for your good and His glory.

Devotional 107 Wonderful Sovereignty

"All things that come to pass in this world ultimately come about through the sovereign agency of God Himself."  R. C. Sproul  

Colossians 1:16 (Msg)"For everything, absolutely everything, above and below, visible and invisible,...everything got started in Him and finds its purpose in Him." 

In spite of illness and death in our congregation, inspite of the economy and family troubles, inspite of stress on the job or worries in the home, we are still in God's hands. His sovereign rule covers us even now.

My husband"s parents died one day apart at the age of 94. They died in their own bed with family at their side. They died God's way in His timing. But this summer a relative of mine buried their still born son. He, also, died God's way in God's timing. God is in charge. Nothing escapes Him. Nothing surprises Him. All by His hand, all with a purpose.

The wind is His. It blows where He tells it to. The clouds float by in the exact numbers He directs. The sun gives its light on cloudy days as well as cloudless, by His decree.

When Romans 11:36  states that "of Him and through Him and to Him are all things" it is confirming that there is not one subatomic particle barreling through space but by the design and purpose of God. God created it, caused it, and sustains it. That tiny particle has a purpose. And so do you! This day for you has been planned by the God of love.

 As R.C. Sproul put it in his commentary on Romans. "We need to embrace this because the great joy of the Christian is to know that all things are in God's hands and are being used by Him for His purposes, regardless of the causal means He uses to bring about whatsoever He pleases."

"Oh, what a wonderful God we have! How great are His riches and wisdom and knowledge! How impossible it is for us to understand His decisions and His methods!"  Romans 11: 33 NLT