Fortunately Fortunate

Jesus said that some people were very fortunate or happily blessed by God.

Now we, in today’s world, either consider ourselves fortunate or not fortunate. I know I fall prey to any kind of enter to win contest. So far I have not won the “Dream Home,” the “Smart Home,” the “Blog Cabin,” the “Paris Escape,” the “Publisher’s Clearing House Prize,” or even the door prize at the women’s events at church. I consider myself as not what the world calls lucky.

But Jesus’ definition of fortune and those gifted with it is quite different from the world’s explanation. He said:  

Blessed, happy, and fortunate are those who are utterly destitute and helplessly worthless before Him, because they are considered part of His royal kingdom. They have a covering from heaven of happiness, riches, power, and eternity. Matthew 5:3

Wow! I can come into His presence a looser and come away a winner.

1.      I don’t need to pay an entrance fee because He requires that I am helplessly poor.

2.      I don’t have to give my personal information because He already knows me.

3.      I don’t need to be at a certain location at the time the prize is given because He brings it to me.

4.      I don’t have to worry that I have a one in a million chance to win because He guarantees that I have already won.

 I am the winner of the grand prize. I am one of the ones who are fortunate and happily blessed by God.

Before you get all, “That’s not fair. I never win either,” let me assure you that you've won this prize too. You can be blessed and part of His kingdom of riches, power, and eternal treasure. You just have to come to Him with nothing. Don’t bring your credentials, or your self-confidence. Don’t bring what the world calls your success. Don’t come with all of the wonderful things you have done that you think will influence Him.  Just come to Him realizing you have nothing with which to impress a holy God.

God saved you by His own grace to you when you believed in Him. You can’t take any credit for this; it is a gift to you from God.  Ephesians 2:8

So you see, you are the winner of the grand prize too if you have met the requirements. Come with nothing. Believe in Him. Leave with everything.

Some people are just fortunate.

That would be you and me, fortunately.

When You’re Down, You’re Up

Do you remember the kiddie song that was invented I’m sure to keep me not bored at church:

When you’re up, you’re up

And when you’re down you’re down

And when you’re only halfway up…

Yes, that one. I've been thinking about that song this week. I've come to realize that when you’re down you can really be up. The seemingly impossible is due to Jesus and His salvation.

A dear sister/friend Pam referred me to this verse while I was down. And, low and behold, I wasn't down anymore. Had circumstances changed? No. My attitude toward the circumstances had changed. I saw the circumstances through the eyes of heaven. I saw God’s attitude toward me. Oh, here’s the verse she referred to me:

The Lord your God in in your midst;

He is the mighty one who saves.

He will rejoice over you with gladness;

He will quiet you with His love.

He will rejoice over you with loud singing.

Zephaniah 3:17

God through the Holy Spirit is in the very middle of each one that is saved through Jesus. He is in the middle of me and my circumstances and in the middle of you and your circumstances. Right there in the very middle. That is what “in your midst” means.

He is the victorious mighty one in the middle of us who delivers and saves.

He will “yasis” over us. That’s the Hebrew word for rejoice and the word looks like a party: 

יָשִׂ֨ישׂ. 

See the balloons and confetti? Well, I do but then I've done a lot of kid’s parties. Anyway, He throws a great festival of rejoicing over little old you and little old me.

His love is so great for us that we don’t even have to question it. We can quietly be secure in this knowledge. But while we may be quiet, God is not. He is “yasis”ing and when He rejoices over us He even sings loudly.

Now this is a party to which I want to be invited. How about you? Good news! We are invited.

How can I be stressed and depressed when there’s a party going on?

How can I pout when He loves me that much?

How can I be down?

And All the People Said, “Amen!”

David’s Song of Thanks from I Chronicles 16         

8 Oh give thanks to the LORD; call upon His name; make known His deeds among the peoples!
9  Sing to Him, sing praises to Him; tell of all His wondrous works!
10  Glory in His holy name; let the hearts of those who seek the LORD rejoice!
11  Seek the LORD and His strength; seek His presence continually!
12 Remember the wondrous works that He has done, His miracles and the judgments He uttered,
14  He is the LORD our God; His judgments are in all the earth.
15  Remember His covenant forever, the word that He commanded, for a thousand generations,
23  Sing to the LORD, all the earth! Tell of His salvation from day to day.
24  Declare His glory among the nations, and His marvelous works among all the peoples!
25  For great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised, and He is to be feared above all gods.
28  Choose the LORD, O families of the peoples, give the LORD glory and strength!
29  Give the LORD the glory due His name. Worship the LORD in the splendor of holiness;
34  Oh give thanks to the LORD, for He is good; for His steadfast love endures forever!                                                                          

36  Blessed be the LORD, the God of Israel, from everlasting to everlasting!”

       Then all the people said, “Amen!” and praised the LORD.

Let us remember the covenant God has promised us through His Son Jesus Christ. Let us praise Him for the mighty works He has done in our lives. Let us seek Him daily and continually rejoice. Let us always live in thankfulness. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God forever!

And all the people said…

We Are Your Church

Last week was VBS week and I saw a wonderful thing. I saw the body of Christ in action. I saw all ages of the church come together to present the gospel and practice kingdom building.

Everyone was effectively using their gift to make the church united in this effort. The older children were examples to the youngers. The students led the kids to the correct location with love and kindness. The ladies in the kitchen worked tirelessly to provide smiles and food for the children. The teachers taught God’s word with enthusiasm and joy. The men made sure the kids had fun outside and taught them inside as well. There were workers behind the scene to make sure the atmosphere was conducive to optimal learning. The teacher’s lounge people ministered to the teachers so that they had a little time of refreshment. The olders in Christ, pastors, and deacons of our church made their presence known and felt lending their experience. And money was given with joy to help our inner city ministry reach past the walls of our church. We all had a great time in ministry. The church was alive and well.

It made me think of the song our choir and congregation just learned. Here are the words that kept going through my mind:

Unleash Your kingdom’s power
Reaching the near and far
No force of hell can stop
Your beauty changing hearts
You made us for much more than this
Awake the kingdom seed in us
Fill us with the strength and love of Christ
We are Your church
We are the hope on earth

I kept singing, “We are Your church. We are the hope on earth” to myself (and not to myself sometimes.) To me our VBS was a micro example of what the church of Christ is doing around the world. It gave me a visible illustration of what God sees as He watches His church continue on until He comes to take us to be with Him.

We all have a job to do.
We all have a God given gift.
When we work together, we are an unstoppable force.

We are Your church!

Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for her, that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that He might present the church to Himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish Ephesians 5:25-27

Pineapple Boat Prayers

Wow! I’m having a busy week. Along with everything that usually happens in the week there’s; VBS each night, a new fence being put in, planning a vacation, my neighbor is moving, yard work that I have neglected, I stepped in a fire ant bed, and my great friend asked me to make two pineapple boats. 

Yes, the last thing, two pineapple boats. Since I've never even made one, I was quite mystified at being asked to make two. But she asked as if making pineapple boats comes natural to me. I’m thankful for Pinterest is all I can say.

In all the chaos of everyday life I realized I’m praying less. Shouldn't I be praying more the busier I get? Don’t I have more to pray about? Is my life pushing my relationship to my Father away? I had to answer honestly, “Yes” to all of the above questions.

James 1:5

If you need wisdom, ask our generous God, and He will give it to you. He will not rebuke you for asking.

The Greek word need (as in “need wisdom”) means not just lacking but leaving it behind or abandoning it. That’s what all my spinning has caused. I've abandoned wisdom. I've tried to live in harried industriousness without God’s guidance.

But our God will give us wisdom to cope with busyness if we simply go to Him in prayer. He gives it sincerely, graciously and bountifully. He will not mock our clumsy requests or take our simplicity as an insult. He wants to be part of our busyness. And He wants to be all up in our business.

That’s when I realized that as crazy as it sounds, He doesn't mind if I ask Him to be with me as I make pineapple boats.  He doesn't mind if I pray that the cost of new fence gate will be a good use of the money He has given me. He is concerned that my vacation doesn't take place without regard to what is happening in His plan for the world. He wants me to keep VBS in perspective of what He wants to do in children’s heart. He wants me to leave a last testimony of what He can do in my neighbor’s heart before she leaves.  And, yes, He can help me remember the sting of sin by me having the sting of fire ant bites.

So in the future I want to remember to pray for all these little things that can clutter my life.

In fact, I want to pray more the busier I get.

I think I’ll call them

pineapple boat prayers.

Any Color Except Blue…Oh Really?

I’m a bit of a gemstone geek. You know me and shiny things. Well, I heard that there are blue garnets. To those of you who are not in the geeky gem world that may not mean a whole lot but to those of us that are, this information is quite profound. You see, gemologists have always said, “When identifying gemstones, if it’s blue rule out garnet. Because garnet can come in any color except blue.”

That is until the late 1990’s when in the country of Madagascar a find of blue color changing stones were determined to be chemically garnet. Wow, all those learned doctor type of gemologist had to concede that they were wrong. This little gemstone had been lying under the dirt since its formation just waiting to be discovered. Just waiting to prove that the wise people of this world were not as wise as they thought they were.

  

We, Christians, are like blue garnets. The world may consider us uninformed, radically ignorant, absurd, and you know what we've been called.  But, yet, we have since the resurrection of Christ proclaimed that He is the God of creation that lives in us. We have doggedly held the faith that belief in the Messiah Lord Jesus Christ and His forgiveness will lead us through this life and the next to eternity. We rely wholly on the Bible as the very words of our God to us. We have lived in ridicule, exile, and given our lives for this devotion. We are blue garnets.

1 Corinthians 1:18   For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.

Verses 20-21   Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom. It pleased God through what they consider foolishness to preach and to save those who believe.

Verse 25   For the foolishness of God is wiser than men

Verse 27   But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise.

(That’s us, little blue garnets.)

Geologist and gemologists went on their merry way through the centuries proclaiming that there was no such thing as a blue garnet. I imagine God in heaven laughing to Himself saying, “Just you wait until I choose to let you see you are wrong. Any color except blue….oh really?”

So when the world pulls out all of its worldly wisdom to debate our belief in God, Stand proudly little blue garnet. They don’t know the wisdom of God. They don’t know we have the wisdom of God given to us.

And God in heaven laughs and says,

“Any color except blue? Oh really?”

Another Beach Story

I just bought a necklace. Those who know me are not surprised. I love sparkly jewelry. At this year’s beach trip my sister gave me a koozie for my Diet Cokes that says, “Easily distracted by shiny objects.” And I am. I got this necklace, however, to remind me of a little bird family that lived under the top deck of our beach house. It doesn't hurt that the necklace is sparkly though.

Shortly after we arrived at the beach and began enjoying the first floor deck we noticed a squeaky racket that came from the corner of the deck above us. It was a little bird family and the mother and father kept going in and out with food for the baby squeakers. The mother stayed until the father came back with food. Then she left and the father stayed until she came back with food. The nest was well hidden. We tried to see it but couldn't. And well protected. The dogs, though interested at first, finally gave up chasing the parent birds. The babies were safe and sheltered.

Anyway, this led me to Psalm 91:4.

He will cover you with His feathers 

and under His wings you will find refuge;
His faithfulness is a shield of protection for you 

and a wall of defense.

(This whole part is related the bird family.) I am sheltered and hidden in the care of my God. I can trust in His care for me. He will give me what I need and protect me from anything that will bring me harm. He will surround and cover me with His feathers to keep me safe. If I stay under His wings I will be sheltered and have a secure sanctuary.

At the beach I was feeling a little vulnerable and alone. (Ever feel like that even among family?) I was approaching what would be a wedding anniversary but without my husband. Of course this is bittersweet. I was a little sensitive about some things and I’m afraid I took it out on my family. I was close to tears many times. Alone, alone. But God used the little birds to remind me that I’m not alone. I’m not vulnerable to the elements of this world. I’m covered by the wings of the almighty God. Covered, covered.

My necklace has a pendant of two wings that come together at the bottom tips to form a heart. This is a symbol and a reminder that I’m well protected, loved, and never alone. He will cover me with His feathers and under His wings I have refuge. His faithfulness to me is a shield of protection and a wall of defense around me.

                          Just another beach story 

                But it has given me a new outlook on life.

               And the wonderful news is that there is room 

                         under His wings for you too!