A Mary Heart ... Joanna Weaver Wk 7: Kitchen Service Blog 7: When I'm Truly Stinky Pages: 81 - 983/30/2017 "The fruit of our lips: ''Let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise--the fruit of lips that confess his name"' "The fruit of our deeds: 'That you may live a life worthy of the Lord and may please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God'" "The fruit of our attitudes: 'But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control"' [pg 85] You might remember in December of last year I broke my ankle. It was an ugly mess. Two bones broken at the ankle, dislocation, and surgery leaving me spending the next 13 weeks in a wheel-chair. Ugh! Now I am weaned onto one, YES, ONE, crutch. YAY ~ I have to tell you that even though my attitude is better now, it was, during some of that process, truly stinky! Here's how some days went. I cried. I yelled. I wallowed. And blamed. I missed the ability to do almost any activity, and I wasn't shy about saying so. If you had been around me during one of those unfortunate displays you would certainly not have seen the following: 1. ... me confessing his name ... 2. ... or pleasing him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God ... 3. ... [or that I seemed filled with] 'love, joy, peace patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control' So, I know, you're saying anyone could have bad days in this situation. Right? And I agree. But I can't allow that to stand because as a Daughter of the King I am responsible for my actions. If someone behaves stinky to me, I am also responsible for how I respond. It's supposed to be part of our faith that we actually try to live a better life to honor our Lord. Why is Joanna's passage important? Because she also writes that we 'may be the only Jesus some people see.' Think about that. During those occasions when I was quite NON-Jesus-like what did that example say about faith in general? What did it say about our God? And how is someone supposed to desire to know our Savior when a believer behaves like that? Big questions, but bigger answers ... and it's up to each one of us to try harder on those 'stinky' days. ~ Andi
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This print hangs near my desk. It's the place where I read the Word ~ where I study ~ and dream. Weeks ago a friend asked me about doing a personal study. I suggested studying ‘Who she was in Christ.’ Funny, because the next day the Lord suggested that study would be good for me too. That’s when I found this print. It hangs where I will routinely see it so I REMEMBER WHO I AM! Priscilla starts this chapter with the customary look at the tactics of the enemy in his attempts to destroy your identity. "If I were your enemy, I'd devalue your strength and magnify your insecurities until they dominate how you see yourself, disabling and disarming you from fighting back, from being free, from being who God has created you to be. I'd work hard to ensure that you never realize what God has given you so you'll doubt the power of God within you." Some of the points I took to heart from Priscilla's thoughts in this chapter are:
Don't believe the lies the enemy tells you! Lies intended to make you doubt the fact that you are ROYALTY ~ and are endowed by POWER from your HOLY FATHER! Call the enemy on all the stupid, cruel, child-like lies he is telling you! Write your prayers! Pray them often! Believe the power of God will respond to your prayers, and watch the enemy run for cover like the coward he is!!! We are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them. Ephesians 2.10 ~ Andi “Because I hadn’t developed the habit of a quiet time as a child, when the busyness of adulthood came, I found it difficult to find time alone with the Lord. Some of you may be aghast at such a thought. Your devotional life runs like clockwork. You find it impossible to make it through the day without time alone with God.” [Pg. 71] I wonder when someone invites you to spend time with them, do you think about the schedule for that day? Are you counting the time-cost of all you have to do? Is there no time left? Many years ago I entered a unique relationship with the Lord. It came at a time when days were hectic beyond belief. They were spent in specific ways from sun up to sun down and it had been that way for years. Many times I cried myself to sleep asking the Lord how I would ever find time for Him. I would soon find out. At a few minutes before 4:00 AM on a morning shortly after ~ I woke up. I was wide awake. It was weird I would be so awake at this oh-my-gosh time of morning, but there I was. It only took a second for me to realize Someone was calling me. I was receiving an invitation. I’m ashamed to admit that I stopped to think about it ~ really? 4:00 AM? Still, I got up. That began a regimen of 4 AM devotions that were so amazing. Those morning meetings held my world together through the days that were coming. They lasted for months. Sounds crazy right? But every morning when I woke up and saw that clock, right on 4:00 AM, I knew it was God because there’s no way it was me. My point is that He invites you to come meet Him. You’re busy? Sure. Maybe you don’t know Him all that well, and maybe it’s even uncomfortable to think about beginning that true spiritual relationship with your Heavenly Father at an oh-my-gosh time of day. Maybe you’d rather not go? But you know what? You can walk away ~ but you'll never know what you've missed? Next time He invites you to meet Him: GO. It just might be what you need to hold your world together in the days that come. ~ Andi A Mary Heart ... Joanna Weaver Wk 4: The Cure Blog 4: All They Needed Was 10 Pages: 48 - 633/2/2017 , “… intimacy can be threatening. Getting close to Jesus means we can no longer hide our inadequacies. His light illuminates everything that is wrong and ugly about our lives. Unconsciously, therefore, we may flee God’s presence rather than pursue it.” [pg. 60] In this reading Joanna talked about the Mishnah, that book of some 600-plus extra rules and regulations that the religious leaders thought they needed to add to the mere 10 Commandments the Lord gave them. (I guess they figured that just 10 laws couldn't possibly be enough to be holy?) When we read in Matthew 15 we find this: “Hypocrites! Well did Isaiah prophesy about you, saying:‘These people draw near to Me with their mouth, and honor Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me and in vain they worship Me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’” (Vs. 7-9) Christ was pointing out the fact that their manufactured laws, which only satisfied man's idea of holiness, did nothing to make them MORE holy. In fact, those additional laws did nothing to make them more aware of God's heart! If those additional 600-plus laws had made a difference, they would have recognized instantly that it was their Lord who stood before them. For all their efforts to be holy and set apart for God, all they added gave them no clue into who God was. Why? Because God is all about RELATIONSHIP, and they had NO Divine relationship. When we spend time being busy, doing our good stuff for God or others, yet ignoring our time for our own spiritual health, our Divine relationship, whether it is intentional or just a result of misplaced priorities, it’s a loss of that spiritual power and spiritual stamina that is poured into our heart. There's a reason there was only 10 Commandments. If your heart is NEAR God's heart then you instinctively know what is wrong or right, and those other 600+ laws, well, they become irrelevant! Just like us using up time doing all the stuff that God never asked us to do while missing the one thing that's essential. ~ Andi |
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