The Imperfect Thing

This blog may not seem to make sense or seem relevant but stay with me and let's see where we end up.

I had a ring that came from my sister. Nothing fancy, silver with a cross.  I placed it on my middle finger left hand shortly after she passed, and that is where it has stayed.  I didn't have it cleaned when I had the other jewelry cleaned and inspected...it was just an ordinary piece of inexpensive jewelry. BUT it was my sister's, it was special to me. 

Wel, somewhere along the way, it got misshapen on my finger. I would try and "squeeze" it back into the circle it once was and should be. But..nope.

So just a couple weeks ago, we went to get rings inspected and cleaned, and I mentioned to my daughter while we waited; "I should see if they can straighten my ring"

I had almost forgotten, but my daughter reminded me as we reached the door. So I turned around...and sure enough the gentleman was able to make it round again!

That was on Monday, Thursday I showed it in it's perfect round form to my other daughter while we were working. Friday while driving, I noticed it was missing! WHAT!?!?

So what came to my mind? That it's imperfection is what helped it stay close, stay on my finger.  

Our imperfections can be a reason we stay close to God.   

“My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” 

God uses our imperfections for His purpose, His glory!

📖 But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him. 1 Corinthians 1:27-29

God chose a man slow of speech to become His spokesperson person to His people. Moses

God chose a young boy to defeat a massive giant. 

David 

He used an old  man to be the father of all generations. 

Abraham. 

Those things, when we look in the mirror, that we don't like. Those things we say, "if only this was different about me."   These imperfections, they can remind us our need for God and His strength.

📖  I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want.  I can do all this through him who gives me strength. Philippians 4:12-13

Paul aslo knew what it meant to live with imperfection and flaws.

📖 Therefore, in order to keep me from becoming conceited, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong. 2 Corinthians 12:7-10

They help keep us humble and closer to our God.

📖 That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong. 2 Corinthians 12:10

I know all this might be a stretch,  but a reminder to me that God can use my imperfections to keep me humble and closer to Him.  So, I should be grateful for those imperfections. 

📖 If I must boast, I will boast of the things that show my weakness.  The God and Father of the Lord Jesus, who is to be praised forever,  knows that I am not lying.  

2 Corinthians 11:30-31

🙏🏼Our Great God, use me, every part of me, imperfections and all, to bring You honor and glory! Amen!❤️

The Name

I was given a name at birth, Tracey Jean.

I began wondering if I had been named something else like, Sunday perhaps, would I still be who I am today?  By the way Sunday is not randomly chosen, my father apparently wanted that name, inspired by a song by the Monkeys or Connie Francis?

Names were very meaningful, important and representational in biblical times. Naomi said

 📖“Don’t call me Naomi,” she told them. “Call me Mara, because the Almighty has made my life very bitter. I went away full, but the Lord has brought me back empty. Why call me Naomi? The Lord has afflicted me; the Almighty has brought misfortune upon me.” Ruth 1:20-21

Jesus means; God saves  The Lord is salvation

📖 She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.” Matthew 1:21

But God knew me in my mother's womb, He knit me together....before my parents named me.

📖For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. Psalm 139:13

We had different names chosen for our oldest and youngest up until right before they were born. Our middle ...we took a long time to come to her name.

Would they be different people if they were Carrisa Jean or Bartholemew John?  (Someone might not like us very much!)

Our names are our identifiers as we go through life. but we sometimes get called by the wrong name, or a nickname.

There has been horrible times in history when humans have been reduced to just a number, their names stripped away, but God knew every single one of them. 

I began thinking on Sunday, it doesn't really matter what my name is, or even what I am called. One of my favorites right now is GiGi!

The Bible does say names will be written in the Book of Life.....

📖  I did not see a temple in the city, because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple.  The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and the Lamb is its lamp.  The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their splendor into it.  On no day will its gates ever be shut, for there will be no night there.  The glory and honor of the nations will be brought into it.  Nothing impure will ever enter it, nor will anyone who does what is shameful or deceitful, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of life. Revelation 21:22-27

 📖 I plead with Euodia and I plead with Syntyche to be of the same mind in the Lord. Yes, and I ask you, my true companion, help these women since they have contended at my side in the cause of the gospel, along with Clement and the rest of my co-workers, whose names are in the book of life. Philippians 4:2-3

And God said we are written in the palm of His hand

📖 and we are written in the palm of His hand.

See, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands; your walls are ever before me.  Isaiah 49:16

BUT what name? The name we were born with? The name we acquired when we married? The name we legally changed it to? The name our mother calls us when we are in trouble, or our siblings call us?

What does the Word say our name is???

Chosen

You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last—and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you. John 15:16

Redeemed

📖 But now thus says the LORD, he who created you, O Jacob, he who formed you, O Israel: 

• Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine".  Isaiah 43:1
• 📖 In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace.  Ephesians 1:7

Child of God

 📖 Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God— John1:12

Heirs with Christ

📖 Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory. Romans 8:17

Ambassador

📖  We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. 2 Corinthians 5:20

Servant

  📖 In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant being made in human likeness.  Philippians 2:5-7

 📖 You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh; rather, serve one another humbly in love. Galatians 5:13

Friend

 📖 I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. John 15:15

📖 Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. John 15:13

I don't believe we can even comprehend the "name" etched on God's palm for us. It is a special, unique moniker that is known to Him. It encompasses all that we are to Him, and when we hear it will know our Shepherd's voice. 

📖 My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me.  I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hand. John 10:27-28

When He was hung on the cross for the sins of the world I believe that me, my sins, my individual person crossed His mind. After all He was/is God, so it IS possible, He knew all of us BEFORE we were formed....He knew us, knew our sins and chose to die for them. 

📖But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Romans 5:8

The song Hello My Name Is by Matthew West got me thinking all this.

🎵 Hello My Name Is Matthew West

🙏🏼 Lord, I pray that I understand and believe that the most important name I am called is who YOU say I am.❤️

🎵 Who You Say I Am

Anticipation

 The other day I kept looking up the road waiting for a certain vehicle to pull up the drive, fully expecting it would. At that moment I thought about how it might please God when we anticipate His answer to a prayer.

We are expecting it to be done. 

📖 Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see. Hebrews 11:1

I believe it brings God pleasure and joy when we anticipate, in full confidence, that car will pull in, that phone call will come, that envelope will arrive, that message will come through....

Anticipation is the expectant, eager waiting for something you know is going to happen. 

KNOW is going to happen. Confident our God has heard and will answer.

📖 I remain confident of this:

    I will see the goodness of the Lord
    in the land of the living.
14 Wait for the Lord;
    be strong and take heart
    and wait for the Lord. Psalm 27:13-14

I keep thinking about the Heinz ketchup commercial when I was a kid. The bottle tipped, the song playing ..."anticipation, anticip-a-ation is making me wait. It's keeping me w-a-a-aiting."

📖 But as for me, I watch in hope for the Lord,

    I wait for God my Savior;
    my God will hear me.  Micah 7:7

The Lord says we call out to Him and He will hear us and answer. 

📖 “This is what the Lord says, he who made the earth, the Lord who formed it and established it—the Lord is his name: ‘Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know.’  Jeremiah 33:2-3

📖 if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land. Now my eyes will be open and my ears attentive to the prayers offered in this place. 2 Chronicles 7:14-15

The vehicle didn't pull up the drive, the prayer wasn't answered in that moment. What then? Do I lose heart and become discouraged.  NO!

It does not mean God did not hear and it does not mean He isn't going to answer. His answer did not come for that moment, but I still eagerly anticipate His answer. It may look different than I expect. Come at a different time than I think it should be, but we still wait with anticipation.

📖 And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God. And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. Romans 8:27-28

📖 Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours. Mark 11:24

🙏🏼Lord, may I trust with all confidence that You have heard my prayers.  I anticipate the coming answers. Knowing all things will be answered in Your time. ❤️

🎵Just Haven't Seen It Yet. Danny Gokey

Hitch Your Wagon To A Star

Hitch your wagon to a star...

The phrase to hitch one’s wagon to a star was coined, in reference to idealistic aspirations, by the U.S. poet, essayist and philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) in American Civilization, an essay published in The Atlantic Monthly. A Magazine of Literature, Art, and Politics (Boston (Massachusetts): Ticknor and Fields) of April 1862 [Vol. 9, No. 54, page 505, columns 1 & 2]:

People use it to mean; follow or connect to someone who is rising, headed for goodness or fame, to have high ambition, ideals or purpose. 

But in our Christian walk we are to yoked ourselves to Christ himself.

📖 Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. Matthew 11:29

We are "hitching" ourselves, not to a star but Light Himself.

Paul, in speaking to the church of Corinth, addressed the issue of who they wanted to follow. Apparently there was discord over those who felt they should follow Apollos and others to follow Paul. 

📖 You are still worldly. For since there is jealousy and quarreling among you, are you not worldly? Are you not acting like mere humans? For when one says, “I follow Paul,” and another, “I follow Apollos,” are you not mere human beings? What, after all, is Apollos? And what is Paul? Only servants, through whom you came to believe—as the Lord has assigned to each his task. I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God has been making it grow. So neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow.  The one who plants and the one who waters have one purpose, and they will each be rewarded according to their own labor.  For we are co-workers in God’s service; you are God’s field, God’s building.  1 Corinthians 3:3-9

Paul said that they had not matured in their faith. They were "hitching their wagons" to the wrong place! 

Apollos, Paul, any of us who are followers of Christ, are servants; planting, watering the seeds of salvation.  We, none of us, make it grow.  None of us can save anyone. We can just spread the word and leave the rest to our Great God!

We need to follow, connect, graft ourselves to the true source of goodness, power and love. 

📖   Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.  John 15:4-5

🙏🏼Lord, I am nothing apart from you. Remind me daily where to keep my focus, where I need to "hitch my wagon" so that i can accomplish much for You and Your Kingdom. ❤️

Ear Plugs

 

If you notice the ears...the inspiration for this blog. 

Ear plugs, sound protection, the kind you squish up and place in your ear, are necessary to keep out damaging levels of noise.

However...as we have them in, it becomes harder to hear crucial or critical information.

Please, stay with me...and understand I am not talking about ear protection. I am speaking in figurative terms. ALWAYS protect your hearing!

I believe Satan helps insert "ear plugs". They are made up of hurt, anger, jealousy, stubbornness, pride....and once in they just continue to inflate as we add more to the list, as we hang on to those things. 

But if we allow God to take them from us,

📖  Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. Ephesians 4:31

And we are repentant, we seek restoration 

God will remove those plugs.

 

Instead He covers us..our whole being

📖 He shall cover you with His feathers,

And under His wings you shall take refuge;

His truth shall be your shield and buckler.  Psalm 91:4 (NKJV)

📖 So it shall be, while My glory passes by, that I will put you in the cleft of the rock, and will cover you with My hand while I pass by. Exodus 33:22 (NKJV)

With HIS cover the dangerous sounds are muted. 

But our ears are still open to hear Him. 

We need to remain under His protective hand so that we can hear His voice over any other. 

📖  So then faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. Romans 10:17 (NKJV)

📖 This day I call the heavens and the earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live and that you may love the Lord your God, listen to his voice, and hold fast to him. For the Lord is your life, and he will give you many years in the land he swore to give to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Deuteronomy 30:19-20

Another analogy; there are a form of ear protection that have radio and Bluetooth connection. They may protect us from the harmful noises around us, but we must make sure what we listen to isn't drawing us away from His voice.

📖 The one who enters by the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep listen to his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice. But they will never follow a stranger; in fact, they will run away from him because they do not recognize a stranger’s voice.” John 10:2-5

 

📖  My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. John 10:27

🙏🏼

I have called upon You, for You will hear me, O God; Incline Your ear to me, and hear my speech.

Show Your marvelous lovingkindness by Your right hand, 

O You who save those who trust in You

From those who rise up against them.

Keep me as the apple of Your eye;
Hide me under the shadow of Your wings

From the wicked who oppress me,

From my deadly enemies who surround me.❤️

Psalm 17:6-9 (NKJV)

And remember ALWAYS protect your hearing!👂

Today's Idol

For the past couple of weeks, at church, idols have been discussed. 

Some idols in scripture:

Moses and the golden calf

📖 When the people saw that Moses was so long in coming down from the mountain, they gathered around Aaron and said, “Come, make us gods who will go before us. As for this fellow Moses who brought us up out of Egypt, we don’t know what has happened to him.”  Aaron answered them, “Take off the gold earrings that your wives, your sons and your daughters are wearing, and bring them to me.” So all the people took off their earrings and brought them to Aaron. He took what they handed him and made it into an idol cast in the shape of a calf, fashioning it with a tool. Then they said, “These are your gods, Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt.” Exodus 32:1-4

Elijah and Baal

📖 Then they called on the name of Baal from morning till noon. “Baal, answer us!” they shouted. But there was no response; no one answered. And they danced around the altar they had made. At noon Elijah began to taunt them. “Shout louder!” he said. “Surely he is a god! Perhaps he is deep in thought, or busy, or traveling. Maybe he is sleeping and must be awakened.” So they shouted louder and slashed themselves with swords and spears, as was their custom, until their blood flowed. Midday passed, and they continued their frantic prophesying until the time for the evening sacrifice. But there was no response, no one answered, no one paid attention. Then Elijah said to all the people, “Come here to me.” They came to him, and he repaired the altar of the Lord, which had been torn down.  Elijah took twelve stones, one for each of the tribes descended from Jacob, to whom the word of the Lord had come, saying, “Your name shall be Israel.”  With the stones he built an altar in the name of the Lord, and he dug a trench around it large enough to hold two seahs of seed.  He arranged the wood, cut the bull into pieces and laid it on the wood. Then he said to them, “Fill four large jars with water and pour it on the offering and on the wood.” “Do it again,” he said, and they did it again. “Do it a third time,” he ordered, and they did it the third time. The water ran down around the altar and even filled the trench. At the time of sacrifice, the prophet Elijah stepped forward and prayed: “Lord, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Israel, let it be known today that you are God in Israel and that I am your servant and have done all these things at your command. Answer me, Lord, answer me, so these people will know that you, Lord, are God, and that you are turning their hearts back again.” Then the fire of the Lord fell and burned up the sacrifice, the wood, the stones and the soil, and also licked up the water in the trench. When all the people saw this, they fell prostrate and cried, “The Lord—he is God! The Lord—he is God!” 1 Kings 18:26-39

What are our idols? Well that is easy...I don't have any! I don't have a golden statue in my yard or house!

Hmmmm, but what might be a bit shiny or glittery that catches our attention more than that Bible sitting there... or distracts us before we take the time to spend with Jesus?

What have we allowed to take space in our day or even our heart while we have waited on the Lord?

Many speak of technology and how we begin our days with the phone, or tablet, or television. But in today's world those may be our access to spending time with the Lord. That can be good, but is that the page, the app, the channel, we go to FIRST?

I would dare say the worst idol many may have today...and it basically was the same in Moses time...is/was "self". 

We want gratification now, we are obsessed with how our outward bodies look. We want to feel comfortable and happy all the time. We don't want things to be difficult or messy. So many walk away from relationships because it is difficult, it doesn't make ME happy, why should it be so hard?

Everything becomes about ME and how I feel, how I look, how things affect ME.

Even in churches; 'That message didn't make me feel.good". "I don't like the music." "The people that sit over there annoy me."

We want to be soothed, coddled and our egos stroked. 

Jesus said love your neighbor as yourself, because He knows that we place ourselves in high regard."

📖  Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” Matthew 22:37-40

Paul reminded us to have the attitude of Jesus; not to look to our own needs but the needs of others

📖 Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves,  not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others. In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death—even death on a cross! Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. Philippians 2:3-11

📖  if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land. Now my eyes will be open and my ears attentive to the prayers offered in this place. 2 Chronicles 7:14-15

🙏🏼Dear Lord, if we, who call ourselves followers of Christ, can humble our hearts before You, can fall to our knees in prayer and seek You and Your will and purpose and in repentance, ask for Your forgiveness we trust You will show us any "idols" that stand in the way of fully worshipping You. 

We want our attitude and heart to be like Christ, so we see others as You do; with love, mercy, grace, and compassion.  We will see Your might and strength and say, “The Lord—he is God! The Lord—he is God!”

❤️