Reflections ~ Then and Now

I love Spring. It is absolutely my favorite time of year. I love the renewal, the "waking up" of the world around me, and how God has given us this wonderful illustration in nature of the new life that is available through Jesus. Since this is a weekend for remembering His ultimate sacrifice, I thought I would share the images that I have been cosidering over the last couple of days.

My Deck Exactly 52 Days Ago:



My Deck Today:



My Front Yard 52 Days Ago:



My Front Yard Today:



The differences are startling, aren't they? The change that takes place in the life of an individual who turns to Jesus is even more vast...and more beautiful. Grace is a glorious thing.

Happy Easter, My Friends!

Prayer of Saint Patrick

"Christ shield me today. Against wounding,
Christ with me, Christ before me,
Christ behind me, Christ in me,
Christ beneath me, Christ above me,
Christ on my right, Christ on my left,
Christ when I lie down, Christ when I sit down,
Christ in the heart of everyone who thinks of me,
Christ in the mouth of everyone who speaks of me,
Christ in the eye that sees me,
Christ in the ear that hears me."

~St. Patrick

*image courtesy of bing

His Ways are Certainly Not My Ways

In my preceeding post I mentioned that I had a few extra minutes on a Sunday morning, which is rare. So, I took the time to put up a quick devotional. Hmmm...if I had only known.

You are probably as sick of hearing about the snow as I am of looking at it. ;) Unfortunately it plays a pretty pivotal role in this little story I'm going to share.

I was having a pretty good morning...the boys were fed and dressed early. I was wearing a fabulous new top that I found on clearance for nearly nothing. I was prepared to pinch-hit for a Sunday School Class, if needed. And, I was looking forward to participating in something called a Cardboard Testimony during our worship service this morning. If you've never seen one of these, you should. Check out the YouTube video at the end of this post.

Everything was going smoothly, then I had the nerve to try to drive up my driveway. You see, when we had 4 feet of snow on the ground, it was impossible to tell exactly WHERE the driveway was. When our neighbor dug us out, we had to guess at where the curves were. Now that 3 feet of that snow has melted, we've discovered that we missed the curves in two spots, which has resulted in this...

Now, let's talk about my mode of transportation. I have a Jeep. It is a soccer-mom Jeep, but a Jeep nonetheless. It is beyond my comprehension why, but my Jeep has only one drive wheel. This means that only one wheel is actually doing the work of propelling the vehicle forward or backward. It also means that if this one wheel gets in a bad spot, you are stuck. A patch of ice the size of a dinner plate can cause me problems. It hasn't happened often, because I'm careful about where I put that wheel...but it does happen.


Back to the story...while trying to navigate past the mud slicks in my driveway, I got over into the snow/ice pile that borders it...about 4 inches too far over...with my ONE drive wheel...can you see where this is headed?

I thought...I'm from the country...no big deal...I've got this. Well, after 10 minutes of digging out and trying various methods of escape, I decided to unload the boys, get them in the house, and change out of my very cool clearance top and heeled boots.

I finally got out. I did not have the presence of mind to take a picture while I was stuck. (I was too mad that I had gotten stuck in the first place.) It took about an hour of shoveling, maneuvering, and filling my mop bucket with gravel from the driveway to put under and behind the wheel that was stuck. And, I came out of it a filthy mess. But, I got out...all by myself. (Did I mention that my hubby is on a business trip?...and that dozens of people drove by and saw me working but not one offered to help?)

Of course, by the time I finished, it was too late to make it to church. For that matter, I was too much of a mess to go anywhere. And, because this is what I always do AFTER any kind of crisis or stressful situation, I had a good cry. (I don't know why I do this, you'd think I would cry during the problem instead of after it is solved.)

Because I believe that God is in control of all things, I know that my getting stuck and missing church today was within His control as well. Maybe my heart wasn't in the right place about the cardboard testimony, I don't know. He and I are gonna have to talk about that. I know this, He has some purpose in it. His ways are certainly not my ways.

I thought I would share my cardboard testimony with you. The first pic is the front side of the cardboard. It is supposed to reveal something from my life that I tried to control. The second pic is the back side. It reveals what happened when I let God have control. Watch the video, it will bless you.

Haiti's Orphans

I have not yet spoken to the crisis in Haiti. Partly, this has been because I haven't known what to say that hasn't already been said. Maybe it is all just too big to comprehend. It is certainly overwhelming. I have spent my time praying for the suffering and loss among the Haitian people. I have also been praying for the physical and mental safety of those first responders among the various international relief organizations. I cannot fathom the tragedy that they are witnessing.

Before the earthquake Haiti had an orphan crisis on their hands. There were literally thousands of little ones, just like my boys, living on the street or as slaves. One doctor interviewed on CNN has said that the orphan population has tripled this week. There are hundreds of thousands of children who are alone...there is no one to make sure they even have the basic necessities. There were a handful of orphanages. Now I understand that there are none. What can be our response to this? How can we help?

Together for Adoption is working on a plan, and preparing to mobilize churches to act. I don't know what the plan will be. I don't know how we can help, yet. But, I do know this, we are responsible to help. James 1:27 says, "Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world." If ever orphans have been in affliction, it is happening now in Haiti.

How am I preparing to respond? In whatever way the Lord allows. If it is money... fine. If it is time spent in Haiti... I can do that. If it is to bring one of these little ones into my home as a part of my family... I am ready do that too. One thing is for sure, my heart will not let me sit idly by and do nothing.

Please pray for these precious children. And, pray that a means can be established between our State Department and the Haitian government through which these children can be adopted quickly.

A Christmas With Leftovers

About 12 years ago my husband and I were serving a small church in a tiny community in rural Kentucky. We were early in our ministry there when someone mentioned that a women's auxiliary in town had recently disbanded and that there was no one who would be helping the less fortunate families in town for Christmas.

This small town is land-locked by a military base. Some of the kids living there had never been more than a few miles from its borders. Many of the families in our community were in need. I knew that the gap left by the auxiliary would be a large one.

I gathered the ladies in our church and we began raising funds to try to help. We published a cookbook, took donations from local businesses, and placed miniature Christmas trees in local service stations and restaurants with handmade ornaments on them. Anyone who made a donation was invited to take an ornament for their tree. One restaurant took it upon themselves to hold a toy drive to help us out.

We contacted the elementary school for the names of families that might need our help. We quickly collected a list of names, ages and sizes. When shopping day came we had 18 children from five families who needed our help. Our bank account boasted $1400 (I had double-checked with the bank to make sure), and I felt confident that we could provide food and gifts for each family without difficulty. I had already visited all of the families on our list to find out about their need, except one. They were a last-minute suggestion by the principal of the school, newly arrived in town and obviously struggling.

A friend and I stopped by the home on our way out of town to go shopping. I knocked on the door and it was opened a bit apprehensively. I introduced myself and explained my mission. The mom was kind, but almost suspicious of me, keeping the door open just enough for us to talk through it. I asked if there was anything specific that she needed. Her response was one word, "beds". "I'm sorry," I replied. She said, "We need beds. We are sleeping on the floor."

As I walked away from her door, I was overwhelmed. My $1400 seemed a paltry amount to provide food and gifts for 18 along with beds for a family of seven. We started praying and headed for the store. We did all of the other shopping first, purchasing clothes and a toy for each child on the list and food items to round out what we had already collected in our food drive through the church family. We did manage to find bed frames for $20 each, so we picked those up, too. When we were finished that day, my mind was heavy with a concern that I would have to go to that family and tell them that we were not going to be able to provide the beds that they needed.

The next morning I started gathering receipts and totalling our expenditures from the day before. So that I would know exactly how much we had. We stopped by a local business on the way out of town and the manager asked us how the shopping was going. (This is a very small town.) We told him our dilemma and he immediately wrote a check for $200. We knew that would help, but I still did not believe that it was enough. We stopped by the bank to deposit the check and the teller wrote our new balance on the receipt. I turned to leave, and then turned back to her. "Are you sure," I asked. The total was more than my records indicated. I shrugged it off as a miscalculation on my part from the receipts the day before and we hurried off, thrilled to have $800 instead of $600.

We visited several furniture stores, but could find no way to buy more than two or three twin mattress sets. Finally, we were down to the final store available to us. We found that they had an incredibly poor quality mattress set that we might be able to swing, if they would give us a benevolence discount. (It was essentially foam-rubber wrapped in cotton). So I approached the salesman and told him about our mission, asking if he would be able to help. He said that he could, but admitted the poor quality of the product and pointed out that it would not last that long. I told him that I understood that, but our money was extremely limited and it would be better than sleeping on the floor. He paused at that statement and said, "You know, the next level of our product line is actually pretty good. Our regional manager happens to be in town. Let me call him and see if I can get approval for a deeper discount."

As he walked away, my friend and I discussed the need for sheets, pillows and blankets. We started praying, sitting right there on the mattress, and decided that $600 was our limit (regular price for the second-tier mattresses would have been more than double this). If it was more, we would go with the cheaper set. A few minutes later he returned. "My manager says that we can do three full and one twin set for $618, will that work for you?" In unison, we said, "Yes!"

The rest of the day was full of similar blessings. We delivered the beds, bedding, toys, and food to the family the next day, December 23. The kids were precious. They paid little attention to the wrapped gifts that we brought in that day. They all wanted to try out their new beds.

Believe it or not, we had a little left over. You know, that happened once a very long time ago as well. Jesus was teaching a huge crowd of people and meal-time was approaching. He told his disciples to feed the people and their response to him was, "How?" A little boy was there with a little bread and a little fish. Jesus took that food, blessed it, and told his friends to start passing it out. When everyone had eaten their fill, all 5,000 of them, the disciples collected 12 baskets of leftovers so that, "nothing [would] be wasted". Undoubtedly, the excess was shared with those who needed it. You can find the whole story in the Bible, in the book of John, chapter six.

I cannot explain what happened that Christmas. Those receipts that I thought I had miscalculated? I didn't, I checked and re-checked. There was simply more money left than there should have been. We had a little, Jesus presented us with needs far beyond our means. We started passing it out, and it grew to meet those needs with leftovers. Oh, and the leftovers...want to know what we did with them? On Christmas Eve, a home burned down just outside our community. They lost everything. We had enough to provide many things for that family of three as well.

The numbers for that year:

Money Collected: $1800
Families in Need: 6
Children in Those Families: 21
Clothes, toys, and food provided for all, as well as beds and bedding for 7.

You will never convince me that God no longer preforms miracles.

Giving Thru Christmas Challenge-Day 2

Our opportunity to give today was birthed from a family tradition. I took my four year old shopping for items to fill a shoe box for Operation Christmas Child. I have been filling shoe boxes for 13 years now. OCC is a ministry of Samaritan's Purse, which was founded by Franklin Graham as a Christian relief organization. They respond in the face of natural disaster and war with practical ministry while at the same time sharing the love of Christ.

These shoe boxes are distributed to hundreds of thousands of children around the world who face disease, war, poverty and loneliness every day. Each child who receives a shoe box also receives a book printed in their own language that tells about the Greatest Gift of All, Jesus. Countless people have come to faith through this simple act of love.

For instructions on how to pack a shoe box, click here.

At four, my son doesn't completely get the concept. But, I want his earliest memories to include his family being involved in ministry (benevolence) and mission (sharing the Gospel). Both of these acts are represented in this simple ministry to children.

If you haven't been following along on the Giving Challenge, read "A Season of Giving". How have you chosen to give today?

A Season of Giving

Have you ever seen "The Toy That Saved Christmas"? "Christmas is when you get stuff" is one toy's mantra until friends teach him differently.

I know better than that, don't I? A recent conversation with a neighbor made me start thinking about how I live what I believe. She is struggling with celebrating any part of Christmas because of all of the things that it has become. So much of the holiday is commercial and self-centered. Oh, but I do love Christmas! I love the tree,the music, the movies, the smells and picking the perfect gifts for loved ones. I just want to make sure that all of these things are God-honoring in our home.

But, we do make sure that our family keeps the right focus don't we? Sure, we read the Christmas Story (the real one) on Christmas Eve. On particularly efficient years I've even remembered to start recognizing Advent on time. The first thing you see when you walk in the door is our Nativity, not the tree. We always pack shoe boxes for Operation Christmas Child. But, is this enough? I'm not so sure. One definition of "focus" is "a center of activity, attraction or attention." It still seems to me that the center of our attention might still be in the wrong place.

I've just started following a great blog, Keeping the Kindgom First. The author is inviting individuals to join in a "30 Days of Giving Challenge". As I read her post this morning I thought about all the little ways that I could give but do not. So I am accepting the challenge. I hope you will too! Giving doesn't have to be expensive, time consuming, or difficult. I've decided to try to find one new way to give every day between now and Christmas. It is my "Giving Thru Christmas Challenge" to you and to my own family. I realize that this is longer than 30 days. I hope that it will become a habit! I will keep you posted on my progress, and I hope you will let me know how you have fleshed out the spirit of giving in your own life.

One caveat though, let's try to make the focus on Christ, shall we? Use the opportunity to point someone to Jesus. Maybe they are a believer and you just want to remind them of the real meaning of Christmas. Maybe they do not believe and you can be a witness in the name of Christ. Maybe you won't even know. But, if someone asks why you have given to them in some way, take the opportunity to tell them that it is the love of Jesus that compels you.

A fb friend posted a status this week that caught my attention. She said that she had been having a terrible day and while in line at a coffee shop another person had paid for her order as well as their own. She couldn't figure out why, but thought it was a nice gesture. I don't know if the mystery giver is following Jesus, but I do know that they got my friend's attention with their kindness.

My act for today? Well, I've been under the weather for a few days, and I had to find something to do from home. So, today I spent some time going to sites to Click for Charity. Here are a couple of links that I gleaned from Keeping the Kingdom First:



What's on tap for tomorrow? I'm not sure yet. I'll let you know how it goes though. How about you? How's your focus this year?

Luther

Last night we watched the movie "Luther" in honor of Reformation Day. Many are not aware that October 31st has significance beyond Halloween. It is a Christian holiday which marks the anniversary of Martin Luther's nailing of his 95 Theses on the door of the church in Wittenburg, Germany in 1517. This one act of tremendous courage was the catalyst for reform within the church which released the faithful from the shackles of legalism and corruption that pervaded it. Only clergy at the highest levels were allowed the privilege of learning Greek so that they could personally read scripture. The Bible was not made available in the common languages because the common man, including lower level clergy, were considered too simple-minded to understand it. Translation was prohibited. People were made to believe that their money was the answer to securing their own salvation and that of their loved ones, even those already dead.

Martin Luther, as a young monk, was sent by his mentor to Wittenburg to study theology. In his study, and through a visit to Rome where he witnessed the corruption first-hand, he came to the conviction that Christ alone was necessary for salvation. He very nearly paid for these convictions with his life. At the Augsburg Diet of Worms (pronounced Vorms, rhyming with forms) in 1521 Luther was ordered to recant his teachings and his writings or be condemned to death. His response was, "Unless I am convinced by proofs from Scriptures or by plain and clear reasons and arguments, I can and will not retract, for it is neither safe nor wise to do anything against conscience. Here I stand. I can do no other. God help me. Amen."

Many Christians gave their lives for the sake of the Gospel during the Reformation. Martin Luther did not. By God's grace, and the quick thinking of supporters in positions of influence, including Prince Frederick, he survived until 1546 when he died of natural causes. There is no doubt that he fully believed the closing words of one of his most famous hymns, "The body they may kill: God's truth abideth still, His kingdom is forever." A good, albeit brief, synopsis of Luther's life can be found here.

I am so very thankful for the courage with which these men faced inestimable odds. They believed, as I do, that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, came to earth as a man. He is the only person who will ever walk the earth and live a sinless life. He willingly gave Himself as a sacrifice, dying on a cross, to pay the penalty for my sin and yours. Sin, the the act of rejecting God and His law, separates us from God because He is Holy and can only be in relationship with those who are holy. Jesus conquered death on the third day after his burial and came back to life. He now stands as mediator between us and His Father, the holiness of His sinless life covering our imperfections. Christ's work is complete. Salvation is a free gift to all who seek it. Our only task is to ask God's forgiveness for our sin and entrust our lives to Christ and His finished work. Luther shared this opportunity for forgiveness with the people and taught them that no amount of money or good deeds could ever be enough to reconcile a sinner to God.

For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God, not by works, so that no one can boast. Ephesians 2:8-9

Salvation is a gift of God's grace to all who will repent and believe. Martin Luther realized this and set the church on a trajectory toward freedom in Christ alone. Because, after all, that is what salvation is...FREEDOM.