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faith

FOR THE SAKE OF THE CALL: DON’T BE A SCARDY CAT

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Jesus is calling us…issuing a special invitation. Will you accept?

 

DON’T BE A SCARDY CAT

“Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you. And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” 
Matthew 28:19-20, NLT 

Has God called you on a mission, and you’ve been afraid to move forward?

No? In Matthew 28:19-20 (NLT), Jesus spoke these words from His very own lips to our ears:

“Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you. And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” 

Sister, that call is to all who accept Jesus as Savior. All of us are called to pass on His grace and forgiveness to others. We are to multiply. We are called to accept His mission as our mission.

I remember distinctly the morning God clarified His call on my life and on the mission He was giving me. Ten months before that day, I was sitting in one of the gathering areas at The Cove, the Billy Graham conference center in the mountains of North Carolina. That’s when I heard the infamous words, “It’s time,” deep in my heart. God called me to write and teach the lessons from Titus 2:3-5, as found in Living in a Zoo. But a mere ten months later, He clarified the call by telling me what I was to do with it.

Our home church was holding its annual Missions Conference where missionaries from around the world shared their ministries. Sunday morning, before Pastor Jake even began his message, I started to cry and had no idea why. Watching the Flags of the Nation’s ceremony, I blubbered and sniffed like a mad woman.

Then the pastor opened his Bible and began reading chapter one from I Thessalonians. Melting into a puddle of heartfelt submission, I heard verse four, “We know dear brothers and sisters, that God loves you and has chosen you…” Then I heard Him speak specifically to my heart: “I am calling you to full-time ministry to women and their families.” I wept, questioned, and doubted Him. He pulled me along, albeit kicking and screaming. Then He confirmed that call in too many ways to share in this short space.

His call to go and teach was the same call He has given to us all, not just us “full timers.” I became a Christian on May 5, 1972. From that day until the November 18, 2001, mission conference, my service was specifically in the local church. Going “full time” for me simply meant adding other locations and countries as He led the way. Not everyone receives the same call. His plan for our lives is specific; it may not look like anybody else’s. But it is His call nonetheless.

He is calling you, too. It may be the call to accept His forgiveness and invite Him into your life. If so, here is how: http://www.zookeepersministries.com/getting-to-know-christ/

Or His call may be to join Him on His mission to reach others with His hope. Click the link below, and let’s all join Michael W. Smith in a decision to give Him our hearts, our insecurities, and our fears, and let Him move us forward in the plan He has for our lives.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JsAKeRyK-xw

Until tomorrow,

Your Traveling Companion,

Brenda

The Desires of Our Heart: Befriend Faithfulness

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“Trust in the Lord and do good; dwell in the land and befriend faithfulness. Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart.”

Psalm 37:3-4 seems a little short and simple to study for a full week, but the longer I sit with these two verses, the more I’m finding new troves of treasure in each of them. Truthfully, I find myself focusing on that last part – the Lord giving me the desires of my heart – with much more excitement and passion than I feel in the instructions before those words. I spend so much time chasing a calling or a desire of my heart, that I forget the instructions he has so beautifully laid out before me: Trust in Me. Do good. Dwell in the land. Befriend faithfulness. Delight yourself in Me. 

I’d love to spend this week together turning our attention to those things and seeing how the Lord transforms and grants us the desires of our hearts when we put things in their right order.

 

Befriend Faithfulness

“Trust in the Lord and do good; dwell in the land and befriend faithfulness. 

Psalm 37:3

ThursdayWhat beautiful words: “befriend faithfulness.” It creates a picture in my mind of walking hand in hand with faithfulness, of being known and being loved – a picture of me leaning upon faithfulness in the good and bad.

I’m learning that befriending faithfulness is as simple as befriending Jesus. He defines faithfulness, and it is because of Him that I know faithfulness. But what does it look like to truly befriend faithfulness?

It surely is not easy, and it’s not something that happens overnight. Befriending faithfulness is walking by faith and not by sight. It’s a sum of daily decisions that begin with trusting the Lord, trusting the journey, and praising God for His faithfulness to us.

Much like we have to spend time with people to build friendships, we must spend time being faithful in the smallest things to become more faithful.

To be a friend means to stick it out come hell or high water. One of my dearest friends is one who walked with me through four years of college—every high and low—and who has stood faithfully and joyfully beside me as I’ve been oceans away. Her faithfulness to our friendship has inspired me to grow in my faithfulness to her but to so many others. In the same way, looking to Jesus and His faithfulness to us should encourage us to grow more and more faithful.

To be a friend of faithfulness means to stand by and hold on, even when circumstances aren’t ideal. Befriending faithfulness means looking to Jesus first, even when life has robbed you of a job, a community, a home, or something you so deeply desired.

The deeper we learn the faithfulness of the Father, the deeper our faithfulness grows. It’s not easy because it requires daily commitment to the smallest things, but befriending faithfulness gives us the strength and the courage to trust, to do good, and to dwell in the lands that we have been given.

Let’s make faithfulness to God, His Word, our neighbors, families, and coworkers – let’s make that way of faithfulness our friend.

Chelsey

Glorious Gumption: Gentile Woman

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You don’t hear the word gumption used very often. I like the sound of it. It makes me think of courage. It involves wisdom, discernment, spirit, ability, and judgment, among other things. It also requires good old-fashioned get-up-and go! When gumption is utilized in a godly way, I call it glorious. Join me this week as we look as some women who displayed glorious gumption in their lives and understand how we can do something similar!

 

Gentile Woman

Right away a woman who had heard about him came and fell at his feet…. and she begged him to cast out the demon from her daughter. Jesus told her, “First I should feed…my own family, the Jews. It isn’t right to take food from the children and throw it to the dogs.” She replied, “That’s true, Lord, but even the dogs under the table are allowed to eat the scraps from the children’s plates.” 

Mark 7: 25-28, NLT

Friday_Day_Five_Pic-Humility_SignWhen I was young, we’d go visit one of my uncles, who lived out in the country. I’d see dogs roaming around his place. These strays didn’t belong to anyone in the family and subsequently had to fend for themselves. But the family dogs got to hang out inside and eat some of the same good food that had been prepared, eaten, and left over by the family. Why? After all, they were all dogs, just the same. The reason was that they were part of the family.

Read today’s Dose verse. It tells the conversation between Jesus and a woman who’d asked Him to help her daughter. She’d humbly thrown herself at Jesus’ feet. The woman was a Gentile and Jesus told her that He should first take care of helping the Jewish people, His own family, before helping her, a Gentile. But, the woman acknowledged that even though she was a Gentile, she was indeed part of Jesus’s family because she knew He’d come to offer His hope of salvation for everyone who’d believe in Him, and she did. As such, she’d have to be considered part of the family, entitled to even the scraps under the table, so to speak.

Many Jewish people and most of the Jewish leaders had rejected Jesus and His offer of hope for their lives. But because Jesus offered His salvation to everyone, there were other members of the family, the Gentiles. Jesus helped her.  

“Good answer!” he said. “Now go home, for the demon has left your daughter.” And when she arrived home, she found her little girl lying quietly in bed, and the demon was gone

(Mark 7: 29-30, NLT).

We are the Gentiles today, offered His amazing gift of hope and salvation.

Through helping this Gentile woman, Jesus made it obvious that His hope wasn’t just for Jews but for everyone who would humbly trust and believe in Him. Those believers were part of the family. It took great faith, persistence and humility for the Gentile woman to understand what Jesus was saying and know how to respond to Him in pursuit of her plea. This was her glorious gumption! In turn, Jesus responded to her honest self-portrayal, humility, and perseverance.

True humility displays Jesus at work in our lives but a lack of faith and persistence displays the opposite.

Are you part of the family of God today? You can be, His hope is for everyone.

Glorious gumption through humility,

Rita

[Read Mark 7: 24-30 for the whole of this story]