A Win-Win

📖 Yes, and I will continue to rejoice, 19 for I know that through your prayers and God’s provision of the Spirit of Jesus Christ what has happened to me will turn out for my deliverance. 20 I eagerly expect and hope that I will in no way be ashamed, but will have sufficient courage so that now as always Christ will be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death. 21 For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain. 22 If I am to go on living in the body, this will mean fruitful labor for me. Yet what shall I choose? I do not know! 23 I am torn between the two: I desire to depart and be with Christ, which is better by far; 24 but it is more necessary for you that I remain in the body. 25 Convinced of this, I know that I will remain, and I will continue with all of you for your progress and joy in the faith, 26 so that through my being with you again your boasting in Christ Jesus will abound on account of me. Philippians 1:18-26

This was part of the scripture passage used in yesterday's message.

I read it over several times...it seemed, to me, to speak volumes. Especially after last week's post, Beauty in the Dying II.

First of all let me say that in verses 22-23, I believe Paul's "choice" isn't in whether he lives or dies, but in which he would prefer, which would be more desirable. 

See, at that moment he was in prison, and as I have said before, not our prison. Dark, dank holes, no sanitation, little or no light. He was in chains, had been beaten. For all he knew he was going to be executed or there until he died. He did not know his fate.  

BUT what he was saying is....it didn't matter; because whether alive or dead it was all for God's purpose and glory!  

He concluded that he was going to survive that particular time because his work with the people of Philippi was not finished, it would be for their "progress and joy in the faith".

I have seen several people at the end of their life...in pain, severe pain, knowing there wasn't much available to make it go away. We wonder "why?" But in their suffering God was able to use them for our "progress and joy in the faith". I pray I didn't let it go wasted, that I saw Christ, I saw what God intended for me in it.

That their suffering was not in vain.

📖 Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us. Romans 5:3-5

We may feel or actually be at the end of our life. We may feel beat down, chained and imprisoned in our circumstances. Can we see them like Paul? Opportunity? To shine for Christ, to share the gospel! That living gives us more opportunities to serve Him! But in dying we are with Him!   Couldn't that be called a win win?!

Paul believed that in suffering it drew him closer to Christ because he was sharing in the suffering Jesus endured while on this earth.

📖 Now I rejoice in what I am suffering for you, and I fill up in my flesh what is still lacking in regard to Christ’s afflictions, for the sake of his body, which is the church. Colossians 1:24

But knew he could never match the depth of what Christ suffered on his behalf, on our behalf!

I pray that any "suffering" I endure I choose to see it as Paul did;

📖 Remember Jesus Christ, raised from the dead, descended from David. This is my gospel, for which I am suffering even to the point of being chained like a criminal. But God’s word is not chained. Therefore I endure everything for the sake of the elect, that they too may obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus, with eternal glory. Here is a trustworthy saying; 

If we died with him, we will also live with him. 

if we endure, we will also reign with him. 

If we disown him, he will also disown us; 

if we are faithless, he remains faithful, for he cannot disown himself. 2 Timothy 2:8-13

🙏My prayer is that no matter how dire your circumstances are right now, you can find Christ and His hope and peace knowing you are in it for His glory!❤

📖 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God. For just as we share abundantly in the sufferings of Christ, so also our comfort abounds through Christ. If we are distressed, it is for your comfort and salvation; if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which produces in you patient endurance of the same sufferings we suffer. And our hope for you is firm, because we know that just as you share in our sufferings, so also you share in our comfort. 2 Corinthians 1:3-7

Beauty in the Dying II

 

Where to start...even though this is a repeat of a blog I wrote back on October 23, 2019 (funny, exactly 3 years ago). Since then, when I am surrounded by all the gorgeous autumn color, I always think about that "beauty in the dying" concept....but especially this fall, this year....my colorful, bright, beautiful Aunt Linda's life was coming to an end. 

How perfectly appropriate she die in October when the foliage all around was so absolutely stunning and filled with the vibrant orange she loved so much!

Though she knew her time here was quickly fading, she lived, loved and laughed to the fullest. 

She made sure each one around her felt loved, just as she had always done. She proclaimed her assurance in her God and her faith....Beauty in the dying as she was living....a Hallelujah!

The following is the 2019 blog, unedited, just as I posted it:

Working on last week's blog...getting the song Better Than A Hallelujah video correct...I wondered if the pictures were the right ones for the song?...appropriate to convey what I was feeling when I listened?

And then it struck me....the absolutely gorgeous fall colors that we have been experiencing, the beautiful scenery....is actually the result of the foliage on the trees dying!  And then I thought ...those pictures are perfect for that song!
"Beautiful the mess were are..."
Because in our brokenness and mess...God can be and is glorified!
We are all dying....we were not meant to live on this earth forever.
📖  As it is written: “There is no one righteous, not even one; Romans 3:10
📖 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 6:23

He brings life even in the dying....because the life He brings isn't a life lived in our earthly bodies forever, it is an eternal life for our souls in His presence.
So no matter what physical age we are or what circumstances we find ourselves ...we are all dying....but in that...shouldn't we live it out beautifully!?

📖But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us.  We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair;  persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. For we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that his life may also be revealed in our mortal body.  So then, death is at work in us, but life is at work in you.  It is written: “I believed; therefore I have spoken.” we have that same spirit of faith, we also believe and therefore speak, because we know that the one who raised the Lord Jesus from the dead will also raise us with Jesus and present us with you to himself.  All this is for your benefit, so that the grace that is reaching more and more people may cause thanksgiving to overflow to the glory of God.  2 Corinthians 4:7-15

"Even in our misery....God just hears a melody"

📖 Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal. 2 Corinthians 4:16-18

Shouldn't our lives be a "hallelujah" to our Creator?!
📖 Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. Romans 12:1

We need to let "the honest cries of our broken hearts" become Hallelujahs in our Lord's ears....and let our limitless and boundless God give us joy in our limitations!
God gave us today!  For His purpose!  I pray you find that purpose today!  Even if it is just to lift a thank you; for the scenery around you, for the day before you, for the people around you, for the breath you are taking....
come on!  You have MORE Hallelujahs, I am sure of it!

Better Than a Hallelujah Amy Grant

Water into Wine

 Ok, so I seem to be having a thread ..dealing with water.

But something new struck me, when I was blogging about water, and the importance of it.

 I have blogged this topic before...but it was a take off someone's message about turning the water into wine bringing joy.

Much of the time we don't think about water,

It is there when we turn on the faucet, when we flush or want a bath. Lakes, rivers, puddles are all around us.

It is low on our list of things to be concerned about. And yet it was chosen to turn into something better

Saving the best for last, that is what the man said about the wine.

📖 and said, “Everyone brings out the choice wine first and then the cheaper wine after the guests have had too much to drink; but you have saved the best till now.”   John 2:10

That is how we may feel; one, insignificant being in a sea of others. 

But we all have a purpose and God can use each of us, no matter how insignificant we feel.

Jesus took the basic water, and used it for something that was the best of the evening!

📖  Jesus said to the servants, “Fill the jars with water”; so they filled them to the brim. Then he told them, “Now draw some out and take it to the master of the banquet.”They did so, and the master of the banquet tasted the water that had been turned into wine. He did not realize where it had come from, though the servants who had drawn the water knew. Then he called the bridegroom aside 10 and said, “Everyone brings out the choice wine first and then the cheaper wine after the guests have had too much to drink; but you have saved the best till now." John 2:7-10

Jesus used a harlot

📖 Then Joshua son of Nun secretly sent two spies from Shittim. “Go, look over the land,” he said, “especially Jericho.” So they went and entered the house of a prostitute named Rahab and stayed there....4 But the woman had taken the two men and hidden them....15 So she let them down by a rope through the window, for the house she lived in was part of the city wall.  She said to them, “Go to the hills so the pursuers will not find you. Hide yourselves there three days until they return, and then go on your way.” Joshua 2:1,4,15-16

A murderer

📖 One day, after Moses had grown up, he went out to where his own people were and watched them at their hard labor. He saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his own people. Looking this way and that and seeing no one, he killed the Egyptian and hid him in the sand.  Exodus 2:11-12

A persecutor of Christians 

📖 Meanwhile, Saul was still breathing out murderous threats against the Lord’s disciples. He went to the high priest and asked him for letters to the synagogues in Damascus, so that if he found any there who belonged to the Way, whether men or women, he might take them as prisoners to Jerusalem. As he neared Damascus on his journey, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him. He fell to the ground and heard a voice say to him, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?” Acts 9:1-4

📖 Then Ananias went to the house and entered it. Placing his hands on Saul, he said, “Brother Saul, the Lord—Jesus, who appeared to you on the road as you were coming here—has sent me so that you may see again and be filled with the Holy Spirit.”  Immediately, something like scales fell from Saul’s  (Paul) eyes, and he could see again. He got up and was baptized, and after taking some food, he regained his strength. Acts 9:17-19

He also used tax collectors, basic fishermen, and He can use you too!!

📖 Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. Romans 12:1

🙏My Prayer for you is you allow yourself to be used by God this week. No matter how insignificant you feel, you are an amazing vessel to God!❤

A Boat Load Of Faith

Have you ever stopped to think about the faith of Noah? 

📖  By faith Noah, when warned about things not yet seen, in holy fear built an ark to save his family. By his faith he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness that is in keeping with faith. Hebrews 11:7

📖 This is the account of Noah and his family. Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time, and he walked faithfully with God.  Genesis 6:1

A song on the radio made me do just that.

It was last week when we were leaving camp...where we had been soaking up the sun and enjoying the peacefulness of the water, and I had blogged The Significance Of Water.

🎶 Build A Boat🎶 by Colton Dixon (link to listen at the end of the blog) came on.

As I was listening to the words it just struck me; the faith that Noah had to have had to build a boat, not just a boat but a MANSION with a HUGE barn attached kind of a boat! 

📖 So God said to Noah, “I am going to put an end to all people, for the earth is filled with violence because of them. I am surely going to destroy both them and the earth. So make  yourself an ark of cypress wood; make rooms in it and coat it with pitch inside and out. This is how you are to build it: The ark is to be three hundred cubits long, fifty cubits wide and thirty cubits high. Make a roof for it, leaving below the roof an opening one cubit high all around. Put a door in the side of the ark and make lower, middle and upper decks.  I am going to bring floodwaters on the earth to destroy all life under the heavens, every creature that has the breath of life in it. Everything on earth will perish. But I will establish my covenant with you, and you will enter the ark—you and your sons and your wife and your sons’ wives with you. You are to bring into the ark two of all living creatures, male and female, to keep them alive with you. Two of every kind of bird, of every kind of animal and of every kind of creature that moves along the ground will come to you to be kept alive. You are to take every kind of food that is to be eaten and store it away as food for you and for them.” Noah did everything just as God commanded him. Genesis 6:9-22

He was asked to do something so out of his realm for an event that he had not ever considered or experienced, a flooding rain. Rain was not something that had happened before, it is believed that up until that point, no water had fallen from the sky.. and even if it had who could fathom the amount and sheer magnitude of an earth covering flood!

📖 In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, on the seventeenth day of the second month—on that day all the springs of the great deep burst forth, and the floodgates of the heavens were opened. And rain fell on the earth forty days and forty nights. On that very day Noah and his sons, Shem, Ham and Japheth, together with his wife and the wives of his three sons, entered the ark. They had with them every wild animal according to its kind, all livestock according to their kinds, every creature that moves along the ground according to its kind and every bird according to its kind, everything with wings.  Pairs of all creatures that have the breath of life in them came to Noah and entered the ark.  The animals going in were male and female of every living thing, as God had commanded Noah. Then the Lord shut him in. For forty days the flood kept coming on the earth, and as the waters increased they lifted the ark high above the earth.  The waters rose and increased greatly on the earth, and the ark floated on the surface of the water. They rose greatly on the earth, and all the high mountains under the entire heavens were covered.  The waters rose and covered the mountains to a depth of more than fifteen cubits. Genesis 7:11-20

Can we say that?

We follow God's instructions even when we can't see the point,  can't comprehend the outcome?

Or do we argue with God; explaining why our plan is probably best, why taking the steps we think we should will take us where He wants us to go, why we have everything under control regardless of what may be coming on the horizon?

 I know we have had circumstances in our lives that we never imagined we would be in, and couldn't fathom if we had.

He may be asking us to do something that makes no sense right now, but God knows what storms are ahead....and though we would love for Him to allow us to circumvent the storm,  He is preparing us to ride through the storm, even sail on through! And come out stronger, wiser and closer to Him.

BUT we have to be listening, willing to follow what He tells us, and brave enough to stay the course.

With faith, each step we take in Christ, He builds us and shapes us to be able to handle the storm. 

📖 Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God. Romans 5:1-2

📖 Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see. This is what the ancients were commended for. By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God’s command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible. Hebrews 11:1-3

🎵  Build A Boat Colton Dixon

The Significance of Water

 

Sitting lake side with the beautiful fall colors exploding along the shore line....seeing the reflection of the water bouncing off the neighboring deck wall....

I began to think about how peaceful many people find water, the necessity of water, and how water held importance in scripture.

Without water we would parish.

Without water, life simply cannot be sustained. It is the fluid that lubricates the workings of the cell, transporting the materials and molecular machinery from one place to another and facilitating the chemical reactions that keep us going. (https://www.nasa.gov/vision/universe/solarsystem/Water:_Molecule_of_Life.html)

💧God flooded the earth with water, not a comfort, it ended almost every life....but in it God provided a way for mankind and animals to continue, a lesson for future generations and a promise! (Next week's blog might be about that!)

📖 I am going to bring floodwaters on the earth to destroy all life under the heavens, every creature that has the breath of life in it. Everything on earth will perish. But I will establish my covenant with you, and you will enter the ark—you and your sons and your wife and your sons’ wives with you. Genesis 6:17-18

💧Jesus went down into the river and allowed His cousin John to submerge Him under water and baptize Him...not something Jesus HAD to do, but did out of obedience to His Father and to show us by example what we should do as an outward expression of our internal faith. 

📖  Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to be baptized by John. But John tried to deter him, saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?” Jesus replied, “Let it be so now; it is proper for us to do this to fulfill all righteousness.” Then John consented. As soon as Jesus was baptized, he went up out of the water. At that moment heaven was opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him. And a voice from heaven said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.” Matthew 3:13-17

💧Jesus first miracle was to turn everyday water into wine. It brought honor to the host, showed those around Him they needed to trust Him, that the insignificant can be significant.

📖  Jesus said to the servants, “Fill the jars with water”; so they filled them to the brim. Then he told them, “Now draw some out and take it to the master of the banquet.” They did so,  and the master of the banquet tasted the water that had been turned into wine. He did not realize where it had come from, though the servants who had drawn the water knew. Then he called the bridegroom aside  and said, “Everyone brings out the choice wine first and then the cheaper wine after the guests have had too much to drink; but you have saved the best till now. John 2:7-10

💧Jesus called Himself the Living Water drawing on the understanding that we all need water to live.

📖  Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.”  “Sir,” the woman said, “you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his livestock?”  John 4:10-12

But water, though it sustains us here, can not save us from our eventual death, cannot save our souls. Only faith in the Living Water can do that.

📖  Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” John 4:13-14

We take water for granted, as we turn on our faucets and hoses. We bath and wash and drink.

As we use it for recreation....

But as we take a moment to just breathe in the water...and the significance it has, we should be thanking God for it, in all it's forms.

Just as we shouldn't take our Savior or our relationship with Him for granted and thanking Him for being our Living Water!

🙏I pray today that you have put your faith and trust in the Living Water. I pray you have taken a big long, soul quenching drink❤