Love in Action

If you came here today from (in)courage, WELCOME! So glad you came. I pray the Lord speaks to you as loudly as He spoke these words to me. God Bless!

Zechariah 7:9-10 (New International Version)

9 "This is what the LORD Almighty says: 'Administer true justice; show mercy and compassion to one another. 10 Do not oppress the widow or the fatherless, the alien or the poor. In your hearts do not think evil of each other.'

This passage from Zechariah follows the Lord’s questioning of the Israelites feasting and fasting days. It seems that they were only living to themselves, not to God. They had hardened their hearts and stopped up their ears so that they didn‘t hear the Lord‘s pleas for them to return to Him. I find that we are not so much different than they are. How often do I choose to look out at the widow or the orphan? What have I done to ensure that there is justice (correct order) in my society? When have I shown love, mercy and compassion in action to anyone (1Jn 3:16-24, James 1:27)?

Instead I have chosen to turn off the news because the degradation of society disturbs me and I don’t want to see it. I choose not to hear the cries of those who have no one to care for them. I declare that there is nothing that just one person can accomplish so I sit on my hands and wait on another to move. I am too lazy to step out of my comfortable sheltered life to actually love on anyone. At times even my own family must feel neglected by my lack of action on their behalf. Forgive me Lord!


I hope that you don’t find yourself as guilty as I did upon reading these verses. But if you have, there is forgiveness in Christ. I pray that mine is a true repentance. A 180 degree turn that will point me to Love in Action. How will anyone ever know that Jesus will work for them if they never see Him working in us? It is said that we are the hands and feet of Jesus. When I read my bible, Jesus is always moving with love and compassion to help others or teaching with passion and conviction so that sinners might repent. May you and I truly have the hands and feet of Jesus in this world TODAY!

More on Encouragement...

Guess what! I just won $500!! I get the privilege of giving half of it to a deserving charity. I am praying hard about who to choose. I won the money from a giveaway sponsored by (in)courage and Dayspring card company. (see yesterday's post) I often enter giveaways but am rarely the winner. To be honest, I never even considered winning this time. I was just excited about sharing encouraging words. I guess God knew I needed a little encouragement today. Thanks so much to all involved at (in)courage and Dayspring. Head on over to (in)courage to check out the great and encouraging words over there.

Encouragement

Happy Encouragement Day to everyone! I hope that you were able to attend a church service today and receive some encouragement from Our Heavenly Father. I was surely encouraged as I attended our homecoming service today. God is so awesome!!

The reason I know that today is Encouragement Day is an offer I responded to from the (in)courage website for 10 Dayspring cards in return for the promise of sending them out to encourage someone. The agreement was to send just one, but as I got to thinking about who I was going to send one to, the Lord kept revealing more and more people that need encouragement in my circle of influence. Many of them are people that I just never feel like I know what to say to because I have never walked in their shoes, but I know from experience that a card that says I love you and I am thinking about you is a real day lifter. I know I will probably never hear about or get to see the look on their face as they receive their gift of encouragement from me, but I know that each person will be able to smile and hold their head a little higher because of an encouraging word form me and the Lord.  He is "the lifter of our heads" but who's to say He doesn't want to use my hand to do it every now and then!

Dirty Feet

Psalm 119:105- For thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path.

In the summer, we slip on our flip-flops and head out on whatever task is before us. We flop to the mailbox, around Wal-Mart, to pick a tomato in the garden, etc.. Very seldom, if ever, do we think to stop and see how dirty our feet have gotten throughout the day. Often it is when I step into the shower and notice the footprint left behind that I realize how dirty my feet actually were. All that built up dirt and grime begins to melt away by the persuasion of soap and hot water.

This scenario reminds me of a time when Jesus washed His disciples feet (John 13). Peter wanted no part of it until Jesus told him that he couldn't be His without the washing. Peter then changed his tune, not only was he willing to have his feet washed but his WHOLE body. Jesus answered him by saying, " A person who has had a bath needs only to wash his feet; his whole body is clean."

See Jesus knew that walking in this world would get His followers dirty from time to time. We would get off the paved path into some stinky situations. Our pride would trip us or jealousy, or gossip. The list of foul-smelling dirt goes on and on, but that doesn't mean that our original washing of salvation needs to be redone. We only need out feet washed by Jesus!

How exactly does He wash our feet? By His word- His word is a "lamp unto our feet." He shines His light on the "dirt" or sin we have stepped into so that we may see how dirty we have gotten, repent and be washed clean again. His word will then be that "light unto my path." We will see, by His word, the way to the paved path again, and how, by His light, to avoid getting off the path and back in the dirt. So, let's get into the word of God so that we can see the dirt on out feet, get them cleaned up, and get back on the clean path of righteousness!

Lessons from My Cat

Genesis 1:27- So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.

This morning as I sat on the back porch enjoying the morning and a hot cup of coffee, I noticed something. My very ordinary house cat sat looking off in the distance. As I glanced at him, he looked to me just like a majestic lion or a mighty tiger surveying the terrain for prey. Then he moved and was "Bobby, the ordinary again", but for a moment he was "Bobby, made in the image of a greater cat". I heard God speak in that simple moment that we are that way. Just as the house cat has been made in the image or likeness of the greater cats, I or we have been made in His image. Most of the time I look nothing like my Creator God, but from time to time when I am completely unaware I just know others can see the likeness. I know it must be true of me because I have seen it in other people. When they say a fitting word or give a much needed hug, I see God in them. Then in a flash we are ordinary again. My prayer today is that I will spend more time bearing the image of my Creator so that others my know Him and His Resurrection Power.

Lot’s Sin and Mine

Gen 13:1 So Abram went up from Egypt to the Negev, with his wife and everything he had, and Lot went with him. 2 Abram had become very wealthy in livestock and in silver and gold.
3 From the Negev he went from place to place until he came to Bethel, to the place between Bethel and Ai where his tent had been earlier 4 and where he had first built an altar. There Abram called on the name of the LORD.
5 Now Lot, who was moving about with Abram, also had flocks and herds and tents. 6 But the land could not support them while they stayed together, for their possessions were so great that they were not able to stay together. 7 And quarreling arose between Abram's herdsmen and the herdsmen of Lot. The Canaanites and Perizzites were also living in the land at that time.
8 So Abram said to Lot, "Let's not have any quarreling between you and me, or between your herdsmen and mine, for we are brothers. 9 Is not the whole land before you? Let's part company. If you go to the left, I'll go to the right; if you go to the right, I'll go to the left."
10 Lot looked up and saw that the whole plain of the Jordan was well watered, like the garden of the LORD, like the land of Egypt, toward Zoar. (This was before the LORD destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah.) 11 So Lot chose for himself the whole plain of the Jordan and set out toward the east. The two men parted company: 12 Abram lived in the land of Canaan, while Lot lived among the cities of the plain and pitched his tents near Sodom. 13 Now the men of Sodom were wicked and were sinning greatly against the LORD.
14 The LORD said to Abram after Lot had parted from him, "Lift up your eyes from where you are and look north and south, east and west. 15 All the land that you see I will give to you and your offspring [a] forever. 16 I will make your offspring like the dust of the earth, so that if anyone could count the dust, then your offspring could be counted. 17 Go, walk through the length and breadth of the land, for I am giving it to you."
18 So Abram moved his tents and went to live near the great trees of Mamre at Hebron, where he built an altar to the LORD. (New International Version)

For a long time I have wondered what about Lot’s choice to go toward the plains of Jordan was so bad. Had Abram not let him choose? Then he chose and ever since has been labeled a bad decision maker. On Sunday morning the Lord gave me a great revelation. (Ok, maybe not great to everyone but great to me.) I finally saw the sin in Lot’s choosing. Do you see it? Lot looked with his eyes toward the plain of Jordan and saw (with his eyes) that it was well watered so that is the way he went. Of course he looked with his eyes you say. What else did he have to see with? Contrast Abrams response a few verses earlier. He and Lot were having troubles with their herdsmen fighting., so Abram built an alter and called on the name of the Lord. We don’t know for sure that Abram prayed about this situation, but I have a strong hunch he did since he suddenly had this great idea to split up. Abram used his eyes to solve his dilemma but not his natural eyes as Lot did and so often I do. He used his spiritual eyes. If Lot had sought God about the choice laid before him, he would not have fallen into sin as he did.

This isn’t the only incidence of seeing naturally and falling headlong into sin we see in the bible. You don’t have to get past the first few pages to see Eve looking with her eyes. Gen 2:6 says: “When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye,” She was only using her natural eyes to see the fruit. She had left off using the eye of God to see the fruit.

The lesson for me is this: whether there is a command of God concerning my decision about something or not, there are always choices set before me to make. What eye will I use to look at my choices? Will I use my human reasoning and my natural eye which is often led to see beauty where none exists? Or will I go to an alter of prayer so that I may see with an eye of faith, the eye of God? I desire to make choices that will bring me closer to God not closer to destruction, as Lot did.

Beautiful Things Happen When a Woman Trusts God by Sheila Walsh

Do the twists and turns of life often leave you doubting that God’s hand is still on you or His presence is still near?
If so, this somewhat autobiographical book might reassure you that God is always there, even when He seems very distant. Sheila Walsh tells about her life going forward from her stay in a psychiatric hospital., and how God used the lives of ten people to help her along in her journey to trust Him more with the circumstances that she found herself in. Mary and Martha, Paul, Joseph, Abraham and others became her traveling companions. Through her rich story telling ability, they also become yours. Sheila has the wonderful gift of inviting you into the story as if you are present with her through the twist and turns of her life and the lives of these biblical heroes.

This book moved me to look at my level of trusting God with the circumstances of my own life. The chapter entitled “Trusting God with Your Fear” was one of the most moving. I could really relate to Sheila’s retelling of the story of Gideon and her take on how it reflects our struggle with doing what God has laid before us. All of Sheila’s retellings were very Biblically accurate with a few of her own ideas about the details not spelled out in scripture. I would highly recommend this book to anyone wanting to deepen their trust and walk with God.