“For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.”

Happy New Year!

January 1, 2013

The title of this blog is taken from Luke 6:38 – “Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.”

May God Bless you all in this coming year! May he bless you with good health and prosperity, but I ask him to more importantly bless you with a burning desire to come closer to Him. May the fire of the Holy Spirit ignite in you and truly give you a new life this year!

You see, we always wish each other good health and prosperity for the new year which is good, but so much more important is for us to have a new year filled with a personal relationship with our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ!

Your relationship with Christ will define you and the year you have! If you put all your trust and faith in Jesus, He will be with you, He will build you up, He will bless you all throughout the year!

We often ask for things we need and then get mad or disappointed when we don’t get them. But the Lord knows what is best for us, we need to trust in Him. He grants in His time and His way. Many times when we haven’t gotten what we wanted, it was for our own benefit. Many times He denied our request because He knew that what we wanted either wasn’t good for us, was unnecessary or could actually hurt us or someone we love. We may never know or understand why it didn’t go the way we wanted, but we can rest assured that God had a plan, God knew what was best. Friends, trust in Him, He will never let you down.

“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Jeremiah 26:11

Now I have a challenge for you, this morning’s Turning Point from Dr. David Jeremiah was about tithing was titled “Because it’s His” and begins with this verse:

And all the tithe of the land, whether of the seed of the land or of the fruit of the tree, is the LORD’s. It is holy to the LORD. – Leviticus 27:30

Let me start this with my journey regarding tithing – You see, all my life when I gave to the church, I would always struggle thru the budget and then see what was left and my Sunday offering was what I felt I could based on what was left. With this method the budget was always a struggle and my offering back to the Lord was always the little that was left.

After my study and reading, I’ve learned that this is backwards, truly backwards! You see everything I have is given to me from God! Every dollar, our house, our cars, our possessions are given to us from God! So why am I so stingy giving back to Him what truly is His to begin with?

Back on a personal note, about 4 years ago, I made the decision to truly tithe, truly give 10% back to the Lord as He asks. This was not easy, this is a total mind set change. I was going to give to God first, He was going to get the first 10% of anything I made. Now my weekly giving was going from the little bit that was left each week to the first large cut out of my earnings! How am I going to make the budget work now? Am I going to struggle more? This could really “really cramp my style”. I was truly fearful and apprehensive on how this was going to work.

Well I can tell you now after 4 years, I’m still tithing. I haven’t gone bankrupt. I haven’t even felt like I was struggling with finances. The Lord blessed me for my faith. I “tested” Him, I “called him out” on this tithing thing. I was a doubter, I said “Lord, you tell us to trust you on this, you tell us that you will reward us, well here goes, I’m all in, now show me”. Sounds like something you’d expect from Thomas doesn’t it?

“Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it.” — Malachi 3:10

The Lord is telling us, to bring Him our tithes and He will pour out blessings that we can not contain! What a promise!

Guess what? It’s true! Once I started tithing, the Lord has provided, the Lord has opened opportunities and relieve the stresses of finance. He’s enabled me to have enough to help others in need, He has enabled me to offer more to missional work. The Lord once again continues His promise and continues to amaze me!

My challenge to you all, it to try tithing. Try giving back to the Lord your first fruits, give back to Him first. After all, it’s his to begin with! Challenge Him on this one, and more importantly have faith and trust in Him, you’ll be surprised with the result!

I’ll leave you with this quote from today’s turning point:

“God demands the tithe, deserves the offerings, defends the savings and directs the expenses.”
Stephen Olford

Until next time, God Bless you!

The 4 a.m. wake up call …

I have to admit, that I’ve come to the conclusion and have accepted the fact that the Lord likes the hour of 4 a.m.! Once again He decided to wake me up at what I always thought was an un-Godly hour because he had plans for me, plans much different than mine. Mine would have involved at least another 2 hours of sleep, but apparently he had work he wanted me to do.

First he wanted me to finish what I started last night, and that was to complete and submit my application for admission to the Licensed Local Pastor program. I am praying that it will be accepted and that I can move forward on my calling to ministry. I ask for your prayers as I begin this step in my life.

Then he had me make contact with someone that’s been heavy on my heart for several years now. I pray that I used the words that He wanted and that it does open the doors to reconciliation.

And lastly, He said………..WRITE! So here I am writing and rambling a bit.

This week in church I had the privilege to lead service and bring the message, so today I thought I’d share the message I gave with all of you. Some of you have heard it already, so forgive me for repeating, but some of you haven’t.

The title of my message was Biblical 3’s.

As a born and raised Catholic, one of the things that we did not do was spend a lot of time reading the Bible or studying the Bible. When I first started reading the Bible, it began to occur to me there were a lot of 3’s appearing.

• In the Old Testament:

God is omniscient, omnipotent, & omnipresent:
omniscient – is the capacity to know everything infinitely, In Latin, omnis means “all” and sciens means “knowing”.
omnipotent – is unlimited power.
omnipresent – the ability to be “present everywhere at the same time”

Noah had three sons (Gen 6:10) and Job had three daughters (Job 1:2; cf. 42:13);

Israelite men were required to appear before the Lord three times in a year: “Three times a year all your men must appear before the LORD your God at the place he will choose: at the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the Feast of Weeks and the Feast of Tabernacles” (Deut 16:16)

In the instructions for making a burnt offering there are three types of animals that could be used: the bullock from the herd, the lamb or goat from the flock, and the turtle-dove or pigeon from among the fowl.

For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the whale’s belly;

• There are also some interesting occurances of 3’s in our every day life – coincidence? I don’t believe so…

The basis of all things, the atom, has 3 basic parts, proton, neutron & electron

The basic elements – earth, wind & fire 3 again

To survive we need 3 things – food, water, & air

Properties of matter – liquid, solid, gaseous i.e. steam, water & ice

Primary colors – red, blue & yellow

• In the New Testament:

The Trinity – Father, Son & Holy Spirit
It is the number of the Godhead, it stands for the triune God. It is formed by 1+1+1, but if the 1’s are multiplied, the result is still 1. So God is three in one and one in three.

When Jesus parents left Him behind, how many days did they have to search before they found Him? Three days.

When Jesus was driven into the wildness to be tempted of Satan, how many times did Satan tempt Him? Three times was Jesus temped by the devil.

Jesus answered Satan’s threefold temptation by citing three scriptural passages Matt 4:1-11).
Jesus raised three people from the dead. The only son of a widow from Nain [Luke:11-4]. The daughter of the religious leader Jairus [5:22-43]. Lazarus [John 11:1-44].

When Jesus went to the Garden of Gethsemane He prayed three times to His Father to remove this cup if at all possible, after the third time Jesus collected Himself and said not My will, but Thou will be done.

Jesus fell three times on his way to be crucified

Jesus was crucified the third hour [Mark 15:25].

When Jesus was crucified how many do we see being executed? Jesus and one on each side of him, bringing the total to three.

Three nails

At Jesus’ trial, how many times did Peter deny his Lord? He deny Him three times. Each denial was for one in the Trinity.

After His resurrection, how many times was Peter asked to confirm his love? Three times one for his denial of the Father, one for the Son and one for the Holy Spirit.

Paul experienced three shipwrecks (2 Cor 11:28)

How long did Jesus ministry last? Three years.

Ecclesiastes 4:12 speaks of how “A threefold cord cannot quickly be torn in two.”

If you read Ecclesiastes 4:8-12, it discusses the struggles of a singular person, and the benefits of two people working/being together, but it ends with the single line above – “A threefold cord cannot quickly be torn in two” I believe this was telling us, that if any two of us keep the Lord, keep Christ, woven into the cord of our lives, we will be stronger and we will be closer and we will never be separated from each other or from him. It was showing us that we need to keep Christ in our lives or the things of the world will pull us apart. I used two young people in our church to illustrate this principal.

I also used another example. I had two items, side by side on the table with a cord between them. The items were touching. The cord represented God/Christ in the relationship. This represented, a relationship between two people, could be a husband and wife, mother/daughter, father/son, you and your job, whatever kind of relationship.
As with most new relationships, they start out really close, happy, fun, but as time goes on, the world starts to impose, we get busy, we get distracted, we get tired, and we may even forget that God/Christ is still present. This was represented by the items starting to get further and further apart. All this while stretching out the cord that binds them. If this goes on for too long, and the relationship drift too far apart and Christ is forgotten, the cord can become frayed or even snap, leaving the relationship broken. But there is good news here! The cord is Christ! If we keep Christ in our lives, if we keep Him as the center of the cord and if we start to elevate Him, what naturally happens? As the center of the cord (Christ) gets higher in our lives, the space between the items or the relationships, gets closer together! Christ brings our relationships back, He brings and keeps us close, He binds our lives with his love! We need to keep Him the center of our lives!

The relationship of 3, has also been illustrated with a triangle with Christ at the top and the husband/wife or boyfriend/girlfriend at the bottom points. If the husband and wife remain at the bottom without Christ, all they have is a straight line, and they usually are going in opposite directions. But, if the relationship has Christ as it’s focal point and they actively keep their relationship focused on Christ, the closer they move up the triangle toward Christ, the shorter the space between them and the closer they get to each other.

I know this may be harder to visualize without the actual demonstrations, but my main focus of the “3’s” was this. No matter what the relationship, be it husband/wife, boyfriend/girlfriend, mother/daughter, father/son, you/work, etc. There is and should be a third party involved and that is Christ! If you keep Christ as the focus of your group of 3, you can never go wrong and you relationship will remain strong.

As in Romans 8:38 – For I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to be, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Friends, may you welcome the third person into your relationships. May the joy and the love of our Lord Jesus Christ, strengthen the bond in your relationships and may His presence be a visible sign to those you touch that He is present and He is in control.

God bless you all!

Psst: it’s me, that little voice, you know temptation….

Hi everyone, I’m back again!  First I must ask forgiveness again.  Forgiveness from the Lord and forgiveness from all of you who follow my blog.  My humanness set in again and I’ve been lax on my weekly blog posts.  I let the daily activities of life wear me down and I let them “talk” me out of writing.  That little voice in my head would say, it’s ok to put it off today, you can write tomorrow.  then tomorrow came and the day was full and again, he’d say it’s ok, you can do it tomorrow, it’s alright.

That leads me to this weeks blog.  How often does Satan use this method to divert us from what we know is right?  How often does he use that little voice to tell us, it’s ok you don’t need to go to church this week, it’s only one Sunday you can go next week, God will understand.  OR it’s ok if you take those pens from work, they can get more, no one will miss them.  Or its ok to take a sneak peak of those “websites” that you know you shouldn’t be on, no one’s watching. He’s always looking for those little cracks to gain a foothold!  He’s always looking for the little things he can use to get us to compromise our values and principals.

Look at Matthew 4:1-11 (also in Luke 4: 1-13) – 1 Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil. 2 After fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. 3 The tempter came to him and said, “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.” 4 Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’ “ 5 Then the devil took him to the holy city and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. 6 “If you are the Son of God,”he said, “throw yourself down. For it is written: ” ‘He will command his angels concerning you, and they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.’ ” 7 Jesus answered him, “It is also written: ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’ “ 8 Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor.9 “All this I will give you,” he said, “if you will bow down and worship me.” 10 Jesus said to him,“Away from me, Satan! For it is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.’ “11Then the devil left him, and angels came and attended him.

In the verse 2 we see the Lord was hungry, he had just finished fasting for 40 days, Satan saw this as a possible weakness and immediately struck!  Turn the stones to bread… but because of Jesus faith he rebuked him.  Then in verse 6 the devil tries again, he thought that because Jesus used scripture to rebuke him in verse 4 that he’d try and trick him with a twisting of scripture meaning. “for it is written: “He will command….” But again Jesus rebukes him with a different scripture more powerful verse.. “it is also written “Do not put he Lord your God to the test”.  And lastly Satan trys to “buy” Christ – “All this I will give you” and Christ has had enough and dismisses Satan with one last rebuke – “Away from me Satan! For it is written “Worship the Lord your God, and serve Him only.”

Oh to be that strong in the faith!  We continue to strive to have that faith, at times it is shaken, at times we fall, at times we fail, but isn’t it great to know that He is always there to pick us up if we reach out to Him?  Isn’t it great to know that His love for us never fails!  He wants us to be with Him, He wants us to know the joy and peace that He has available to us through Him and with the Father!

Everyday I try to give Him glory and praise first! He is an awesome God, a forgiving God and a loving God.  It is such a joy to give Him thanks and praise for everything He has done for me.  He’s seen the good in me, even when I’ve been pretty ugly and bad to look at.  He still loves me even when I fail.  Knowing that, just makes me want to get to know Him more, makes me want to be more like Him, makes me want to do His work with the time I have left on this earth.

Kind of sounds like a child/parent relationship doesn’t it?  Do you remember as a little child following your mom or dad and wanting to do things or be just like them? This is exactly how I see a healthy relationship with the Lord.  We are all His children and the more we know Him the more we want to be like Him!

My prayer for you today, is that you come to the Lords presence as a child.  May the childlike wonder and desire to emulate Him overwhelm you and enable you to grow into the person that God truly wants you to be!

God bless you all!  See you next week!

The Lion of Judah!

Why do we feel that we need to conform our beliefs to “modern” society?  Aren’t we taught that the Bible is the authoritative word of God?  Did Jesus conform to society of his day?

Let’s ponder that thought for a minute.  Did our Lord and Savior, travel around Galilee, Judea and Jerusalem and make friends with the Pharisees the Sadducee’s and the Romans to become popular, just to gather followers? I don’t think so, he did just the opposite!  He befriended those who had no voice, those who were the brunt of the corruption and oppression of those in power.  He went about teaching His message and using the Old Testiment scripture to get their attention.

18 “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, 19 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” 20 Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him, 21 and he began by saying to them,“Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.” 22 All spoke well of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his lips. “Isn’t this Joseph’s son?” they asked. 23 Jesus said to them, “Surely you will quote this proverb to me: ‘Physician, heal yourself ! Do here in your hometown what we have heard that you did in Capernaum.’ ” 24 “I tell you the truth,” he continued, “no prophet is accepted in his hometown.” — Luke 4:18-24

It’s time that we as Christians, follow this example.  Everyday in the news we see, hear and read about all these groups pushing for their “rights” to be heard and respected.  What about our rights and the rights of those with no voice?  What about the Christian doctrines that our country was founded on? Don’t they mean anything? Are not our views important?  If we continue to sit back and do nothing, continue to keep our mouths shut, or don’t vote, how can we expect to turn this tide that is rising against Christianity?

13 “You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled by men. 14 “You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. 15 Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. 16 In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.” — Matthew 5:13-16

We need to stop being afraid of speaking out. Too often we are afraid of offending someone, hurting someones feelings.  For parents, was that ever a concern when we were teaching our children the difference between right and wrong?  Did you let your children do something that was going to cause them harm if they continued to do it or did you intervene and prevent that harm?  Isn’t that what we need to do now?  What harm can be worse than an eternity in the fires of Hell with Satan and eternity separated from Jesus?  We are called as Christians to proclaim the good news that is Jesus Christ and the eternal life with Him in heaven!  We need to be more like the early church and be willing to do whatever it takes to bring this news to the unbelievers!  We have become soft, comfortable and afraid to move as Christ tells us to in the Bible!

Our inaction has brought us to a brink.  I’m afraid if we continue on this path we will soon see our rights disappear and the wrath of God once again upon us.

A few weeks ago I gave you a survey as to your opinion of Jesus – Lion or Lamb.  Thank you to those who responded, as most had a good point that they felt He was both, depending on the situation.

Let me leave you with this – If he truly is both, depending on the situation, and we are not vocal in our beliefs, are you willing to be on the wrong side of the Lion?

Friends, don’t be silent, don’t sit back on this issue.  Let the Holy Spirit give you the courage and the strength to be a Christian advocate!  It is a duty of all of us that claim to be a follower of Christ.

May the power of the Lion in Christ be with you this week and always as we proclaim to our communities, our nation and the world that we are Christians!

God Bless you all!

Merry Christmas!!!

But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.” Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests.”   Luke 2:10-14

Today is the day the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad in it!

How true that verse is today!  This is the day the Lord has chosen to send his beloved son to earth to redeem us!  What a glorious day!  A day of great mercy and compassion by our heavenly father!

We gather with our families over this joyous season, we enjoy the company of friends. We celebrate this festive time, but let us not forget what happened that blessed morning over 2000 years ago.  Our Lord and Savior was born, he came to earth for us!  That’s the true reason for all the celebration.

As Christians we need to be visible and vocal to the fact that it is CHRISTMAS that we are celebrating! Not “Happy Holidays”, not some generic spin that is put on our special season to make it more “politically correct”.  The Savior, the Light of the World, the Hope of the Ages was born this blessed day, that’s why we celebrate “CHRISTMAS”

We also have to remember that for some, it may be a time of difficulty.  For those who are morning and are alone, it’s not an easy time of year.  For those who are out of work, or are working for low wages trying to support their family, it may be hard to celebrate when you’re only concern is survival.  And there are also those who really don’t know Jesus. They have never been told about the new life that he brings, so they don’t understand the celebration.

I’m challenging all my friends and anyone who reads this blog.  Be a light shining in the darkness!  Tell others this Christmas, about the love, hope and peace that comes from Jesus Christ.  Tell them the real reason you are celebrating Christmas!

And, one last thing… go to someone who may be hurting, alone, or depressed this season, talk to them, let them know that you really do care and that they are not alone.  Let the Holy Spirit work thru you to bring them some peace this Christmas. Remember Christ came to the lonely, the sick, the outcast, the children, the poor.  These were his flock.  It is our responsibility to now in the words of Christ to Peter – “Simon son of John, do you love me?” Peter was hurt because Jesus asked him the third time, “Do you love me?” He said, “Lord, you know all things; you know that I love you.” Jesus said, “Feed my sheep. John 21:17

May the Lord bless you and your family this Christmas!  May the New Year bring in you a renewed hope and passion to spread the good news of the Lord Jesus Christ to all those you touch, and most of all I wish that you personally experience the deep love, compassion and peace of Jesus within you.

God bless you all and Merry Christmas!

Forgiveness

This is a tough subject, and it’s tough because it is a bi-directional subject that is not any easier in either direction!

The Lord expects us to be forgiving people, and we ourselves need to be forgiven!

Our human nature really fights us on this one.  Isn’t your first gut reaction to a hurtful action, to get mad, to want to get even, and then don’t we often hold a grudge against whoever did this to us? Not exactly what the Lord is expecting of us is it?

But I tell you, do not resist an evil person. If someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also.  Matthew 5:39

 “Do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven. Luke 6:37

The odd thing about forgiving is that it really frees the forgivor as much as the one they are forgiving.  By not forgiving someone we generally hold all that anger and bad feelings within us.  It then continues to grow and fester and eat at our happiness, while having little to no effect on the person it is directed at!

For years, I was very good at not being forgiving.  I could harbor a grudge for years, let alone a day or week!  Now I can look back at that and see how destructive that was!  It would take away from my happiness, I would be miserable to be around when I was reminded of the grudge I was holding.  And to make it worse, the person who it was directed against many times moved past it and was fine.  This would just make me worse!

Now, I find I’m much more willing to forgive someone.  I’ve seen the release that true forgiveness brings.  I can say I understand the message Jesus was bringing us.  Not being forgiving really puts chains on us and our ability to live the life Christ wants for us.

I’ve had many situations in my life where there were hard feelings, disappointments, anger, hurt, you name it between myself and someone else.  I’ve found that when I take the road of forgiveness and make the first move to forgive, many times the Lord will then work the rest!  I always, always try and start the forgiving process by asking for forgiveness myself.  I’ve found that many times the hurt goes both ways.  I may not have realized it at the time, but no matter what it was I owned equally in the blame.  I believe that in asking for forgiveness, that I was showing that I was also truly sorry for the situation and wanted to make things right again.

I also believe this is some of what Jesus was meaning when he said “Forgive and you will be forgiven”

For if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.  Matthew 6:14-15

Let me give you an example of forgiveness that really changed my heart and showed me what it truly meant to forgive.

The setting:  October 2,2006; in a small Amish Community in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania.  A man entered a small one room Amish school and when all the events transpired, 5 young girls were dead, 5 seriously injured and the shooter was dead.  The entire world watched, both saddened and angry.  The events that transpired over the next days not only made an everlasting impact on my being but also that of much of the world.  This small extremely close Amish community truly lived out their belief and the teachings of the Lord.  They banded together, they mourned and we mourned with them.  Many of us got angry, and showed and voiced our anger at the man that did this and his family, we placed blame.  What was truly amazing was what this community did.  They immediately forgave this man, and they went to his family and told them that they forgave for what happened.  They then mourned together, they mourned with the family of this man that just killed their children and even attended his funeral!

Now, not many of us have had to survive a tragedy such as this, but I put this out there for you to ponder.  This is what came to my mind when I saw this… If these people, who just had someone come in and kill their children, could come out and openly forgive this man in front of the entire world, how can I not forgive?  The things that I wasn’t willing to forgive someone for were so trite, so small, how could I not forgive?  These people truly believed what the Lord was telling us about forgiveness!  They were not going to sell out their beliefs, they had such a strong faith that they knew in their heart, mind and soul that what was needed was true forgiveness.

I’m sure all of you know someone or some situation in which two parties are not talking to each other because of some very old wrong.  The situation is so bad that one or the other or both parties no longer even talk. Everyone knows the situation and feels bad, but no one takes the step to try and make this situation better.

Let’s take this upcoming Christmas season to make the effort to bring each other to the peace and joy that is found in forgiving and being forgiven.  Let us help each other to the peace that He has waiting for us if we follow his plan.

I want to take this time to wish all of you a blessed Thanksgiving.  Thank you all for allowing me to share my thoughts with you, you all are in my thoughts and prayers.  May you all enjoy the blessings the Lord has bestowed on each and every one of us and may we never forget to thank Him each and every day for all he has given us.

Got a minute?

This is the day the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad in it! Psalm 118:24

What a wonderful verse to start each day with!  Good morning everyone, I wanted to start you off with a very uplifting verse from the Psalms.

Isn’t this how we should greet each and every day?  Think of it, every day is a gift from the Lord.  We don’t earn the right to our next day or for that matter even our next breath.  These are all gifts from God that we all tend to take for granted.  These are all things that we should be thanking the Lord for any chance we get!

I think it is also something we need to remember whenever we are with friends and loved ones.  There are no guarantees that we will be with them tomorrow or next week or next year.  We need to cherish time spent together for we don’t know when the Lord will call us or them home to be with him.

How often do we rush a phone call? Or half listen when they are talking to us?  Rush the kids off to “go play”?  What if it’s the last conversation we have together?  Our society is always in a hurry, but at what cost.  We are losing relationships, friendships and family to the pace.

We often do the same thing with our time spent with the Lord!

Let’s look at Luke 10:38 – 42: (I’m talking from the New Living Translation)

38 As Jesus and the disciples continued on their way to Jerusalem, they came to a certain village where a woman named Martha welcomed him into her home.39 Her sister, Mary, sat at the Lord’s feet, listening to what he taught.

40 But Martha was distracted by the big dinner she was preparing. She came to Jesus and said, “Lord, doesn’t it seem unfair to you that my sister just sits here while I do all the work? Tell her to come and help me.”

41 But the Lord said to her, “My dear Martha, you are worried and upset over all these details! 42 There is only one thing worth being concerned about. Mary has discovered it, and it will not be taken away from her.”

Aren’t we many times like Martha?  We get caught up in getting everything ready or making sure everything is right, that we miss the important thing.  The time spent with Him.

We tend to say, I’ll spend time with God before I go to bed, but then we’re too tired and fall asleep.  Or, this is usually me, “I’ll read the Word over my lunch and spend time with him then” and then I get busy and work thru lunch or only have a 5 minute break to gobble some food.  I end up short changing the one who is really the most important!

I’m afraid many times I’ve become like Martha!  The Lord is always there, He’s with me all the time, but He will never force imself on me.  He just waits there patiently, waiting to see what and where my priorities lie.

I’ll ask you, are you like a Martha?  Are you also missing the big picture that Mary saw in the verse from Luke?  Is the Lord telling you and I – Stop sweating the little things! I’m the only thing you should be concerned about!  If you put your faith and attention on me, I will always be with you!

I’m afraid I can be a Martha sometimes.  I want to make sure everything’s right and everything is prepared just right.   Takes me back to my Catholic training, I have to go to mass every week, I have to go to mass on Holy Days, say the Rosary, pray to Saints for intercession, one rule after another to “work” myself right with God.  Through all of this preparation, really missing the entire point.  “. Mary has discovered it, and it will not be taken away from her.”

The important thing is – Jesus!  We must find our path to Him.  We must spend time with Him.  All the preparation we could ever do will not make a bit of difference if we don’t put our faith in Jesus Christ and the grace we receive from the Father for the sacrifice Jesus made once and for all by shedding his blood on the cross for all of our sins, past, present and all future to come!  We have been redeemed by the shedding of His blood for us, why is it so hard for us to then find a small amount of quality time to spend with him daily?  My human nature so gets in the way … I am as guilty of this as anyone, but the saving grace for me is knowing that He’s always there…… waiting, all I have to do is open the door and talk to him.

Thank you Lord, for being such an understanding God.  So often I fail to spend time with you, so often I let this world get me so busy that I miss our time together! Lord, help me stay focused on you, help me realize that my time with you is to be first, then time with my family and friends and then everything else.  When I keep you first, everything else falls into place.  It is when I keep you first that I see your plan clearly and I find it easy to walk the path you wish for me.  When I let the world take over, the road becomes foggy and the path is no longer straight and then I fall.  Thank you God for always being the shepherd to bring this wayward sheep always back to you. I say this prayer in your son Jesus name, Amen.

I wish you all a blessed week! May we all learn to be more like Mary and less like Martha!  May we learn to put the Lord first, then everything else will turn out just fine! God bless you all! Talk to you all next week!