Monday Morning Memo: Now is the Time

There were three ministers who went to a convention and were all sharing one room. The first pastor said, "Let's confess our secret sins one to another. 
I'll start. My secret sin is I don’t take time to pray for my church
members, but my members think I am a prayer warrior.”





The second pastor said, "My secret sin is that I just hate working and
preparing the sermons. I copy all my sermons from those given by other
pastors." 



 

The third pastor said, "My secret sin is gossiping and, oh boy, I just
can't wait to get out of this room!"

 

We laugh at that, but if we are honest, we probably all have had secret sins in our life.  Sins that may haunt us…sins that may still control us…even sins for which we have asked for forgiveness, but still have an impact on our daily lives. 

 

If you have time, read John 4:1-42, which tells the story of the Samaritan woman.  This is a fascinating encounter to me.  Here was a woman with a very sordid past and her sins weren’t secret.  Everyone in her community knew her to be promiscuous and I’m sure the tongues of the townspeople were kept busy talking about this sinner.  She wouldn’t have been one of the “in” crowd with the other women because more than likely, she may have slept with some of their husbands.  She would have been an outcast.  

 

So why in the world would Jesus choose to speak to this despised woman at the well?  If you read this text, you will see that He planned this encounter. Jesus chose this time, this place, and this woman to be a part of a setting where He would, for the first time ever, formally and explicitly unveil his true identity as the Messiah.  I would have thought He would have done that for the first time before a large crowd, like a Billy Graham crusade, to have a much greater impact.  Instead, He selected this sinful, promiscuous woman to be the first to hear it.  To me, that is amazing.

 

He told her…because He knew of her past.  He told her…because He knew she needed a Messiah.  He told her…because He knew she would tell others.  Because of her willingness to tell others about the Messiah, because of her willingness to be vulnerable and confess to others about her sinful past, many came to know Him as their Lord and Savior.  Jesus knew this area was on the verge of accepting this Living Water that He was offering.  That’s why He told his disciples that the field was ready for harvest there in Samaria.  And because of one woman’s willingness to spread the word, many were saved.  Notice these people told the woman they no longer were just taking her word for it that Jesus was the Messiah.  They had heard it for themselves and now believed.  You see, too often we think we need to do the saving.  We don’t!  We just need to be willing to tell those we see about our Jesus, about what He has done for us, and the Holy Spirit will make sure they see it for themselves.

 

You know, this woman could have wallowed in her sin, feeling like she was not worthy of accepting the Living Water.  Obviously, she wasn’t proud of what she had done and the sins she had committed.  She could have continued in this sinful life, feeling like she could never be forgiven for all she had done.  I think it is easy for some of us to do that too.  We’ve done things in our past which we aren’t proud of, and even though we know that Jesus says He will forgive us of those sins, we continue to hold on to them, feeling shame and embarrassment.  That is Satan making sure we don’t live a victorious life in Christ.  He wants to keep us down and discouraged.  

 

What an impact this despised, sinful, outcast woman ended up having on eternity!  If she could be used to make a difference, don’t you think you and I can be too?  Jesus can take us, with all our failures, with all our sins – secret and not so secret – cleanse us and allow us to be a living vessel for Him.  What an honor and what a privilege.  Now is the time to quit wallowing in our past and feeling that there isn’t any hope.  There IS hope in our Messiah!

 

Then they said to the woman, 

“Now we believe, not just because of what you told us, 

but because we have heard him ourselves. 

Now we know that he is indeed the Savior of the world.”

John 4:42

Monday Morning Memo: Until Then

I’ve been thinking about heaven a lot lately.  With my aunt passing away last month…it was another reminder that more and more of the generation before us are being called “home”.  While we grieve over the loss of each family member…it is such a comfort to know they are now in the presence of Jesus…worshipping and praising Him for all of eternity.

These days remind me of the song, “When We All Get to Heaven”. I don’t know about you, but that song gives me chills every time I sing it. It’s almost like having a mini mountaintop experience as I think about how wonderful it will be when I join those who have gone before me and see my Jesus face to face. The problem is that just like all other mountaintop experiences, sooner or later, I have to come down off that “high” and go back to living in the day-to-day trenches. Yes, it is going to be magnificent when we all get to heaven; but how in the world am I supposed to get through each day until my time to enter heaven is here? 

I think verse 3 in this song answers that question.  It says: 

Let us then be true and faithful, 

Trusting, serving every day; 

Just one glimpse of Him in glory 

Will the toils of life repay.

In the meantime...while we wait...we are to trust and serve. It sounds so simple, but is sometimes so hard. For some reason, our “self” often gets in the way and we struggle with just simply trusting Him. 

It never ceases to amaze me that I allowed a man, whom I had never met before the first appointment, to open up my back and work on my spinal column. Not just once...but five different times! I trusted him to do this because he had a framed piece of paper on the wall saying he was qualified. But I serve a God who created the entire universe, formed me in my mother’s womb, who knows my yesterday, my today and my tomorrow and I struggle to trust Him and take Him at His Word. His qualifications far outweigh a framed piece of paper, but trusting and serving Him doesn’t always come easy. 

I love how The Message translates Proverbs 3:5-7, “Trust God from the bottom of your heart; don’t try to figure out everything on your own. Listen for God’s voice in everything you do, everywhere you go; he’s the one who will keep you on track. Don’t assume that you know it all. Run to God! Run from evil!”   We all need to take these verses to heart. Where we usually get in trouble is when we put our focus on trying to figure everything out on our own, instead of just trusting Him from the bottom of our heart. I think instead of listening...we are often talking; telling Him what we think we should do and as a result our spirit becomes unsettled and the trenches seem to collapse in around us. 

Maybe that is how you are feeling today. Maybe your circumstances feel overwhelming, and you have yourself worked up into a lather because you aren’t in control. Possibly you think you know it all and that if God would just do what you think He should do...everything would work out. Let me ask you a question; how’s that working for you? If I had a guess, I would say it probably isn’t going well. Why? Because you are not allowing Him to have complete control; letting Him keep you on the right track. 

Oh, what a day it will be when we all get to heaven. But until then...we are to trust. Until then...we are to serve. Until then...our focus needs to be upward for that first glimpse of our Jesus which will erase all memories of the trenches. That my friend will be a mountaintop experience which will never end! 

Monday Morning Memo: Ta Da!

I’m sure you are all familiar with the song we sung as we were growing up:

Jesus loves the little children

All the children in the world

Red and yellow black and white

They are precious in His sight

Jesus loves the little children of the world.

 

It’s hard for me, as an adult, to think of myself as being “precious” to God.  That word was for when I was young and much more innocent.   But in studying the Bible, I came across two verses which jumped off the page at me.   Psalm 72:14 (NLT) reads, “He will redeem them from oppression and violence, for their lives are precious to him.”  Isaiah 43:4 (NLT) says “Others were given in exchange for you.  I traded their lives for yours because you are precious to me.  You are honored, and I love you.”

 

Me?  Precious?  With all my faults and failures?  Yep, His book doesn’t lie.  And yes, YOU are precious to Him too.  It doesn’t matter what your past has been like, how many times you have made the wrong decision, or how inept you may feel at living your life for Him.  God loves you more than you can even fathom and YOU are precious in His sight.

 

Do you know what else I found out?  Not only are you and I precious to God, we are His masterpiece!  Isn’t that amazing?  I don’t know about you, but most of the time I don’t feel worthy of being called “precious” and I sure don’t feel like a masterpiece.  But I am and so are you.  Ephesians 2:10 (NLT) tells us, “For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.”

 

If you are like me, you are your own worst critic.  Often wishing you had done something just a little better, wondering why you can’t do things as well as that person you work with, or questioning why in the world your parenting skills often look like a comedy routine.  I’m going to share advice with you that I felt God sharing with me: Ease up on yourself.  Quit knocking yourself down as if you have no worth.  Trust me.  When God made you…He said Ta-Da!  Why?  Because you are His precious masterpiece and He doesn’t make no junk!

Monday Morning Memo: Yielded and Still

Yes, I’m one of those people.  I love the newer choruses and songs we sing on Sunday morning.  I love how they speak to me and lead me into the worship of my Savior.

But, I also love the old hymns.  I love the words and the harmonizing sounds as we lift our voices in praise.   I love how words that were written many, many years ago can still speak to me.  I also love to read the stories behind the words because many of them have a powerful effect on me. 

One of the hymns that speaks to me is “Have Thine Own Way, Lord”.  The words are:

Have Thine own way, Lord 

Have Thine own way. 

Thou art the Potter
I am the clay.
Mold me and make me 

After thy will 

While I am waiting 

Yielded and still. 

If you google the title of this hymn…you will find the story of why it was written in 1902: 

“In 1902, Adelaide A. Pollard, a hymn writer, was hoping to go to Africa as a missionary but found herself unable to raise the needed funds to make the journey. Greatly discouraged, she attended a prayer service one evening and as she sat there, she overheard an elderly woman say, "It really doesn't matter what you do with us, Lord, just have your own way with our lives." The elderly woman inspired Pollard and she contemplated the story of the potter from Jeremiah 18:3 and, upon her return home that evening, wrote all four stanzas before retiring for the night.” 

What powerful words the elderly woman shared that night. But, if I’m honest, reading those words is much easier than living them…because it is sometimes hard for me to allow God to have complete control of my life. I often think I know best and so I find myself trying to change using my own power and my own strength and I fall flat on my face. But in reading the words to this song recently, I had what you might call an AH-HA moment. Because, even though I have sung this hymn many times, I realized it doesn’t say that the Lord should mold me and make me while I’m running around trying to change on my own. He is to mold me and make me...while I wait, yield and am still. OUCH. MY responsibility is to yield; HIS responsibility is to do the work in me. MY responsibility is to get to the place where I can honestly say it really doesn’t matter what He does with my life; He can have complete control to change me anyway He sees fit...while I wait, yield and am still. 

Are you feeling tired, frustrated and burned out because you are trying to change on your own? Maybe today you just need to wait, yield and be still and let HIM do the work. I think you just might be amazed as to what HE can accomplish when HE has complete control! 

“I wait for the Lord, my whole being waits,

and in His word I put my hope.”

Psalm 130:5

Monday Morning Memo: The Bookends of Life

I had the privilege of speaking at my 94-year-old aunt’s funeral this past weekend.  On January 14th, she took her last breath on earth and her first breath in heaven.  While we weren’t ready to let her go…she was so ready to meet her Jesus.

Aunt Gerry had planned some of the details for her funeral…so we had some information with which to begin.  I was not at all surprised she wanted Psalm 8 included in the service.  It is the only praise chapter which is addressed entirely to the Lord.  

The first verse brings us straight into the presence of the LORD: “O LORD our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth!” That presence is maintained throughout the chapter, right down to the repetition of the same line in the final verse. “O LORD our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth!”  This phrase puts “bookends” around this chapter as it reminds us to whom we are addressing.  This… is how Aunt Gerry lived her life…with the majesty of our God as the bookends of her life.  She knew that her Lord was the Almighty God.  She knew the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob was the same God she so faithfully served.  She knew there was no one greater than her Jesus and she served Him with everything she had within her.

Gerry served as a missionary nurse in Africa for 37 years and in everything she did, she always wanted God to be glorified, not her.  She knew how important each person was to her Jesus and she wanted to make sure everyone knew about His great love for them.

Gerry is in heaven today, not because she was a good woman, even though she was an amazing woman. Even Gerry wasn’t good enough to earn a place in Heaven.

-Nobody is that good.

-Nobody has ever lived a perfect life but Jesus Christ.

The Bible tells us that all of us have sinned and come short of the glory of God.

But you see, Gerry was forgiven. And she is in Heaven today because she opened her heart to receive Jesus as her Savior and Lord.

She is in Heaven because she trusted in the cross and in the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Likewise, you and I will go to Heaven too if we put our trust in Him.  Aunt Gerry didn’t just talk the talk…she walked the talk…and each of us can have that same vital relationship and have the majesty of our God as the bookends of our life.

I once heard the story of a young girl who walked through a cemetery every night because it was the shortest route to her house. When asked why she had no fear of passing through the graveyard she responded, “The reason I’m not afraid?  My home is just on the other side.”

Saturday, we gathered to celebrate the life of a woman who had made her way home over to the other side and is now walking the streets of gold.  I so want to make her proud as I learn from her example and serve the Lord…our Lord…whose name is majestic in all the earth.

Monday Morning Memo: Let's Get Running!

At any given time in my home…I usually have technology within my reach.  Whether it be my laptop, my iPhone or my watch…I am able to connect with the world wide web fairly easily.  They are all amazing products when you consider how much information can be accessed from such small devices.

 

I remember the computer that was used in the company I worked for after I graduated from high school (yes, this was back in the dark ages!).  The computer almost filled an entire room because it was so big; and it couldn’t do near what my small devices can do now.  It just blows my mind to think of how far technology has come because there were people who had the vision; people who didn’t dwell on their failures – but learned from them and kept “keeping on” until each hurdle was jumped and they had success.

 

What if they would have just been happy with that huge computer they first introduced?  What if the designers would have given up when they hit their first “speed bump”, thinking it would be so much easier and take less effort to just be happy with what they had?  Think of all the wonderful devices we wouldn’t have today if that would have been their attitude.

 

This can also apply to our lives.  God has such amazing, incredible experiences He wants us to encounter, but unfortunately, we are often satisfied to just stay where we are. We hit a speed bump and we immediately back off, mope about our failure, and decide it just takes too much effort to move forward.  I often wonder how many times there is something amazing waiting for us, but we never experience it because we’ve planted ourselves in our recliner watching the world go by...because that is where we feel “safe”.

 

There is a saying I have shared many times in my speaking.  It reads: “Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well-preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming – Wow, what a ride!” I don’t know about you, but I can feel my heart beating and my blood pumping just reading these words!  

 

This is how I want to live my life.  I want to experience everything God has for me, because when I stand before Him, I so desperately want Him to say, “Welcome my good and faithful servant.  Wow, what a ride you had!”  

 

So why don’t you join me?  Put your helmet on, strap on your boots, and let’s continue moving forward on the journey God has planned for us.  We will probably make mistakes and yes, we will more than likely hit a few speed bumps, but that won’t stop us. Remember, our “Tour Guide” knows the way, He never gets lost, and our final destination has streets of gold!!  Now THAT ought to get your blood pumping!!!

 

And if you still aren’t convinced…..read what it says in Hebrews 12:1-3 in The Message: 

“Do you see what this means—all these pioneers who blazed the way, all these veterans cheering us on? It means we'd better get on with it. Strip down, start running—and never quit! No extra spiritual fat, no parasitic sins. Keep your eyes on Jesus, who both began and finished this race we're in. Study how he did it. Because he never lost sight of where he was headed—that exhilarating finish in and with God—he could put up with anything along the way: Cross, shame, whatever. And now he's there, in the place of honor, right alongside God. When you find yourselves flagging in your faith, go over that story again, item by item, that long litany of hostility he plowed through. That will shoot adrenaline into your souls!”

 

Let’s get running!!!

Monday Morning Memo: The Child In Us

I had an interesting conversation recently with my five-year-old grandson.  He found a ball in our toys and on it were the words “stress ball”.  He brought it to me and asked what it was for.  This is how the dialogue went:

Zeke:  Grandma, why does this say it is a stress ball?

Me:  Well, when people are stressed, they can take that ball and squeeze it in their hand and it’s supposed to help relieve their stress

Zeke:  What is stress?

Me:  It’s when you have things going on in your life that are causing you to feel anxious

Zeke:  What does anxious mean?

Yes, I realized this conversation wasn’t going to go much farther.  Researchers have found that curious children ask a staggering 73 questions every day ... half of which parents (and grandparents) struggle to answer.  I soon realized that at five years old…Zeke doesn’t have a clue what these words mean, because he hasn’t really experienced much stress or anxiety in his short life.  Oh, wouldn’t it be nice to be able to say that about ourselves?

As I’ve reflected on this exchange with my precious grandson, I’ve thought about his eagerness to learn and his willingness to keep asking questions.  He’s not embarrassed if he doesn’t know something…he simply asks.  He wants to know who, what, why, when and where concerning just about everything and while it can become exasperating to those who he’s asking…he doesn’t usually give up.  Trust me…he is a very persistent young child 

What would happen if you and I were more like Zeke?  What if we were persistent in wanting to know the who, what, why, when and where about everything in God’s Word?   What if we wouldn’t stop until we understood everything He wants us to learn so we can look more and more like Him?  I can’t help but believe that if this was how we lived our lives…maybe we wouldn’t know so much about stress and anxiety either.  If we could learn to maintain the wonderful and beautiful characteristics and qualities of children…that life in this sinful, chaotic world tends to beat out of us…we might be able to keep the child in us alive.  Then maybe, just maybe, we would come to realize and trust in the fact that the One who knows it all…is able to handle far more of our lives than we can even imagine.

And the best part?  Our Jesus never tires of hearing our questions.  He wants us to share everything with Him and He will never struggle to know the answers.  Thankfully, He has much more patience than this grandma does 

"And he said: “Truly I tell you, unless you change 

and become like little children, 

you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.”

Matthew 18:3