A Time for New Life

Acts 17: 28 'For in him we live and move and have our being.'

Grass is peeking up, trees budding, flowers blooming, and baby animals being born.  Our barest human senses are reminding us that we are born desirous of birth and new life.  It is an innate part of us to be inspired by these things.

 However, birth and spiritual rebirth are only made possible by the Creator Himself, and are gifts to us from His Son, Jesus Christ.  They were purchased by Him on the Cross, and gift wrapped for us individually at His resurrection.  He gift wrapped our ability to be reborn and truly understand new life when He rose again on that third day.

 

What we fail to acknowledge, is that He knew the price all along.  He did not just endure the agony of the cross for a few hours.  He counted the cost for every healing, every act of mercy, every Word spoken in love, and every act of forgiveness.  All of these gifts would be paid for on the cross to come.  He loved us and counted us worthy of the price of the gift …and the awe inspiring gift wrap.  His work, completed, in power and majesty for the love of you and I.  And the gift continues today.

In the scripture above, read verses 27-29 as well.  Bunnies, eggs, baskets and bonnets are cheap substitutions for the gifts we truly need to celebrate.  Go to Him, not to buy a new dress, but to receive new life.  Spend time worshipping the One who died for you, not something you dyed.  Let’s celebrate The Resurrection, and hunt for Christ to deliver His gift of eternal life wrapped in the bow of His risen glory.  Let Christ Resurrect your life.

No other has the power.  No other has paid the price.  No other has defeated the grave.

Acts 2:21: And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved.

He loves you.  Will you seek Him or cheap substitutions?

Predator

Today, as I sat outside a friends house, I was surprised to see a coyote approaching from a field behind her house.  Surprised because it was in this neighborhood where even though it is in the country, it is a development of homes on 1-2 acre lots.  Surprised at how confidently it approached so closely to her back fence.  It did not approach in attack mode, or in cowering manner.  It simply came sauntering up like it belonged there, and was a part of the neighborhood. 

My mind went to her dogs, and chickens, and goats.  Would there be a fight with the dogs trying to protect the home.  Would the chickens be easy prey for this predator to attack?  Would the goats run around blindly and aimlessly in fear wondering where to run for safety?

What I failed to see, and what the coyote didn't see until he got right up to the fence railing is that the main fence, posts and rails, that he could have easily fit through or under, was accompanied on the bottom half by wire.  This reinforcement has probably been seen by neighbors and onlookers as a way to keep the animals inside the property, but the owners knew it was also to keep them within a safe boundary to protect them from just this type of prey. 

Now, what my eyes saw, God translated into a spiritual picture of our lives, and even possibly our churches.  The enemy is close.  He is in our neighborhoods.  He is friendly in first appearance.  He is among us often enough that he knows how to approach in a manner that even almost looks like he belongs.  He does not just attack when we are isolated and alone. 

Our minds go, like mine did, to those around us.  The spiritual watchdogs, the babes in Christ who are easy prey, as well as those in our midst who have age old religion, but do not know for sure Who to run to when danger approaches.  So what about them?  Well, in this picture, the fence with its slats and rails represents our communities in salvation.  We are inside the protective arms and boundaries of our Salvation in Christ with others in our family, church, or Kingdom partners.  A body of believers whatever form that takes.  We have come into that property and inheritance by trusting Jesus as our Savior.  But that does not prevent the enemy from approaching, or even attacking.  What we must begin to see is that our God loved us enough to also provide us with the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.  The additional hedge of protection to keep the enemy from fully entering into our lives.  The impenetrable power of the Holy Spirit to lead, protect, advise, and stand guard around our lives. 

Where in our bodies have we neglected to invite the presence of the Holy Spirit?  Where have we let down our guard?  In our individual lives, families, and church bodies, where are we relying on "being in the fold" to be enough to keep us safe while we are here on earth?  Do not confuse what I am saying, trust in Christ resulting in Salvation is the ultimate gift, and is all that is required for God's eternal presence and involvement in our lives, but after that we can not just sit on the porch.  We must invite the Holy Spirit to guard us, we must continually pray over and check our boundaries and make sure we have not left holes in it or allowed them to wear down making us prey to enemy encroachment, and that we have not ventured past where the boundaries of our calling and presence of the Holy Spirit can accompany us.  We must realize that within our bodies there are believers at different stages of maturity in their walks and only the Holy Spirit can protect us all, guard us all, and keep us all within God's boundaries for our lives as Christ-followers. 

The picture was a sharp reminder that we must be on guard.  We must be diligent.  We must see the Lord's guidelines and boundaries as outlines for our own protection and the Holy Spirit active in our midst as a necessity in protecting us from the coyotes who think they might sneak in and wreak havoc.  God has given us this protection, and through His Word, the direction to safely manage inside the boundaries and provision of the Holy Spirit.   Let's not leave ourselves or those in our circles of influence vulnerable by ignoring the essentiality of the Holy Spirit. 

The Baking of Communion Bread

Our church has a tradition that each month someone takes a turn baking the unleavened bread for our Lord’s Supper that day.  Today it is my turn.  I will admit I thought it was pretty cool, but that is about all the thought I gave it.  I love communion services, and get the significance, but I just saw this as doing what I had signed up to do, and doing my part.  Had to make a run to the store the night before and set my alarm to get up a little extra early to do it, but that was ok…not a big deal.  Not a big deal…or so I thought last night.

This morning I awoke and it was a whole different story.  I found myself going back through recipes making sure to pick the one I thought would turn out the best, the one that wouldn’t taste like cardboard, the one I might not burn, the one that wouldn’t fall apart.  Even as I started mixing the ingredients, it began dawning on me that this was no mundane task. 

I do not want to “over spiritualize” this, nor do I pretend to know all the significance, but we can BE religious and doctrinal, or we can EXPERIENCE the spirit of the religion.  I have this morning truly experienced the doctrine and ordinance of the Lord’s Supper and had communion with my Savior standing in my kitchen all alone at 6am this morning. 

My mind went to the thousands of years that this supper of unleavened bread has been going on, and the millions of hands that have, now like mine, prepared it.  OK, so they did not have a Walmart or a Kitchenaid, which serves to remind me that this for them could have gone two ways.  It could have  been a mundane task, much more so that for me, or it could have been a joy to prepare a “meal” that served to honor what the Lord had delivered them from, and to this day, to celebrate His deliverance.  The kneading of the bread, the rolling it out, firing up the ovens, hoping it turned out well for their celebrations. 

Then my recipe called for “scoring” the loaf before you bake it, so it is easier to cut into small pieces when completed.  Scoring.  As I was doing it, God brought to mind all the times throughout all the years backs were turned on God, on His perfect love for His people, ignored, disobeyed, His heart broken, His people worshiping gods of their own making, scoring the heart of the Father.   Yet He was still willing to continue with His plan to redeem His people.  With everything He ever did pointing to this moment, this Last Supper in the upper room, where Jesus would visually show and explain His body broken for His people.  Tears flowed.  Still they didn’t get it.  Still we don’t get it.  It’s mundane.  We have heard it before. 

But as the bread came out of the oven, just as Jesus came out of the tomb, the aroma was sweet and inviting, and wholesome, and overtook everyone in the house.  This time, as I cut the loaf into smaller pieces, I wept.  Tears of joy, of disbelief, of love, and of embarrassment that I was in the kitchen bawling over a flat piece of bread.  But in a whole new way, and a brand new perspective, it was so real to me.  His love.  His provision.  His pain that I had a hand in causing.  His resurrection and eternal standing as King of Kings, Lord of Lords, Our Salvation…our Bread of Life.   

Milk, Meat and Beef Jerky

As I have had care of my aging Mother after a recent fall, she has taught me a lot. With healing from two broken arms, balance issues, and other medical issues she has a lot to deal with.  I am not sharing this out of any other heart than the one the Lord clearly spoke to me today.  I am not putting her down, or talking badly about her.  I am pointing out human tendencies which I see in her, and God sees in me.

There is a desire to be independent that permeates all she does.  There is also a desire to be pampered and cared for and have her needs met by others, thus her nickname Petunia.  Seems like sometimes the two get reversed.  She is so anxious and desirous to prove her independence she tries to undertake activities she has no business doing alone.  Taking chances she should not take.  Refusing help she should not refuse.  Then there are times that on seemingly easier tasks she wants it done for her.  Things she should be able to do for herself.  Things that even in her state of healing should be simple and mundane.   

Today, as those characteristics crossed, and began to make me cross, God revealed my need to criss-cross my focus.  One question put me in line…”How unlike you is that really?”

Spiritually, how often do we try to go it alone in areas He never intended us to go?  Carry loads and burdens we were never intended to carry?  Take on situations that just are not safe for us on our own?  And yet in simple and seemingly mundane activities of our Christian walk and life we want to have God swoop down and take care of it for us.  Quiet time? No need, Gods got us.  Bible study each day? What for?  He’ll take care of us.  We are the milk drinkers who should be on meat who on occasion decide we are able enough and independent enough to bite off a big ole piece of beef jerky.

1 Corinthians 3:2-3a states, “I gave you milk to drink, not solid food; for you were not yet able to receive it.  Indeed, even now you are not yet able, for you are still living fleshly.”

Hebrews 5:12-14 goes further to reveal to us that “though by this time you ought to be teachers, you have need again for someone to teach you the elementary principles of the oracles of God, and you have come to need milk and not solid food.  For everyone who partakes only of milk is not accustomed to the word of righteousness, for he is an infant.  But solid food is for the mature, who because of practice have their senses trained to discern good and evil.” 

So, as I daily ask my Mother to do what she can, and rely on me for what she can’t or shouldn’t, I do so with the fresh awareness that my Lord asks the same of me.

 

Freedom in Truth

Connie McCrary Psalms 51 Ministries A couple of months ago I was asked to write a devotional for a 40 day prayer guide leading up to the election. I was give 1 Corinthians 13 and Galatians 5 as the passages to use. Did not know day of order it would fall in (15) nor that it would fall on this day of Vice-Presidential debates.  As Christians we are given an authority to stand firm on truth while clothed in humility.

The Love Chapter and the Chapter on Freedom and the Fruit of the Spirit.  We know both of them.  We have read them in part or in whole a hundred times over.  We can apply them in many different ways, but what on earth do they have to do with praying for an election and our country? Everything. These two chapters in scripture show us just exactly how Your presence is to be made real and lived out here on earth.   How can we spout religion and not show love, patience, kindness and truth in our relationships with others, even those we don’t agree with?  How can we claim to have all the answers for the times when we don’t walk in the truth of God’s Spirit in other areas? Do we really think the louder and more dogmatic we declare our opinions the more others will accept them?  Lord, please let us speak in truth and love. Burden our hearts to cry out to You for these characteristics in ourselves, our brothers and sisters, and our candidates. Show us that walking in the freedom of Your love makes us able to disagree and still be kind and non-boasting. Show us how to stand for truth in ways that are gentle, self-controlled, and patient. Remind us that we are standing in a place of freedom, a hope and a liberty so many around us do not have and cannot understand. Give our leaders the desire and anointing to walk in the spirit in truth, integrity, and unity.  Remind us that only through You and Your working love, freedom and truth in our lives will our nation ever truly be changed and will our people ever be motivated by grace to live in Your amazing purpose. Grant us these things Lord so that we lead others to Your freedom.

One Touch of the Master's Hand

I have been being treated for the last 10 months for what was believed to be a broken tailbone and a hip out of whack from a fall I took down our staircase last October.  On a side note, halfway up the staircase is not the best location for a lovely empty blue plastic Walmart sack.  Just saying.  Anyway, after that fall I could only describe the pain as what I felt was like a broken tailbone which I had had as a teenager which was also causing pain in my hip and all the way up my back into my neck.  I went to a chiropractor and was treated for several months without much relief.

This last week a friend talked me into going to her chiropractor.  He began with x-rays, which the other didn't do, and determined the cause of my pain.  There was no broken tailbone or a hip out of whack.  I had 2 vertebra out of place in my neck and the very bottom one as well looking as if it was pinching a nerve and possibly a disc.  TOTALLY different course of treatment.  Treated me one time, and I felt all the muscles in my back release like they have not done in months.

I am not writing this as a slam on any chiropractor, or as a sales ad for any other one.  I am not going to say one man is better than another or that this new chiropractor is the end-all, cure-all. What I am going to say is that it just was a very real and very personal reminder of how the Lord desires I live my life.

Here's the bottom line.  We all have lots of people in our lives.  Some of them are great people, people who know their stuff.  People who know the Word and live by it.  People who desire the best for us, and who give their input towards that end.  All of this is fine, and Godly counsel is wise, but our lives lived in the palm of the Hand of the Creator is the best plan.  One touch of the Masters hand and our lives line out just like my neck did.  I know to run to Him.  I know how much he cares.  I still get mired down occasionally by the voices of others and their desired influence on my life.  Take Job.  I do not think at all his 3 friends meant harm or hurt to him.  They simply didn't know what God knew.  Job had to wait on the hand of the Master, and that hand provided all he ever needed.  Sometimes, the Holy Spirit touches our lives and directs our steps in ways that make no sense to us, we just know its right.  The problem is that the Holy Spirit does not always make the rounds to all of our "peeps" and let them in on what He has told us.  The challenge is to lay ourselves in the hands of the Master, and follow after Him, with or without the direction of others.

One touch of the Master's hand heals.  It brings provision.  It brings clarity of purpose.  One touch can change the course of a life gone astray.  One touch can anoint.  One touch can bring life to dead marriages.  One touch can set churches on fire.  One touch can and will change your life forever.

Will you go to the Master today and ask and allow Him to touch your life?  I hope so.  You'll never go back.

Getting our mojo back...