You're Left With More Than You've Lost!

How eager are we to pine over the things in life that we lose! It seems almost second nature to spiral into a world of disorientation just over the thought of being without things we esteem important. In Mark 10 Bartimaeus is blind and certainly disadvantaged over the loss of his vision. Somehow he manages to negotiate his way to be positioned by the highway where he spends his time begging. Position is key! He is begging but he is by the highway where the probability of connecting with a miracle is increased. The stages of his miracle are quite amazing. Bartimaeus hears, with the ears that he does have, that Jesus was coming by. He cries out, with the voice that he does have and when commanded rises to walk on the feet that he does have! What have you lost that blocks the release of your other abilities and talents. Bartimaeus teaches us that the loss of sight does not mean the loss of vision as it was his vision that mobilized his other abilities to receive his faith miracle. God is His awesome wisdom leaves you with more than you will ever lose. Until then!

The Last Struggle

At the beginning of Holy Week we reflect on the road to Calvary and the road to Victory. The experience in Gethsemane appears to be a significant step in the process. I wondered as I read the account in Isaiah how Jesus was quite calm on the final path to Calvary. Isaiah wrote "He was led as a lamb to the slaughter and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, He opened not His mouth". So no struggle! But in Gethsemane the exchange with His father is a little more difficult as His humanity rises above His divinity but still resulted in "If it be thy will let this cup pass from me". Gethsemane is where Jesus worked out the final plan and received the resolve to handle Calvary. You would have thought there would been more of a struggle being nailed to the Cross..but once He gained the conviction and the renewing of strength to walk in the will of God..the actual event became less of an ordeal. Calvary is the closing credits of the final scene but the action really happened in the garden. The struggle is not going through the challenge but making up your mind to go through the challenge..so Gethsemane is always our last struggle!
Until then!

One Life

Don't follow soap operas at all but glimpsed something recently that caught my attention. Sorry not General Hospital, nor Guiding Light, nor All My Children nor As The World Turns to name a few. What caused me to pause and think a little was "One Life To Live". Let's face it folks this challenges us each day. There is no "do over" when it comes to this life. It really makes me passionate about making every day that I live count. Life is not like a dry erase board that allows you to erase mistakes and start over but life does allow you to learn from our mistakes and start a new path over. So to all the people that I care about and perhaps care about me..know this day that I value the place you have in my life and care about your future. Make the best of every moment of every day in God's universe and try not to live in regret..but remember you only have "One Life To Live"..Until then!

Kill A Demon and Leave!

Isn't it funny that we can wrongfully assess when things are over? There are situations that we walk away from believing that we are truly delivered from, only to have the same thing catch up to us in the next city, next job, the next! The children of Israel learned the lesson a little late but not too late. They still walked into their future home in Canaan. God used Moses, a man who knew the streets of Egypt because he was raised there, to be the object of deliverance. Could it be what you were raised in, you will eventually serve in? Stop running! After 10 plagues Pharoah still would not let Israel go, with a little help from God! No plague touched the Israelites. Sickness all around them, pain visible to them, devastation in reach of them and yet it did not affect them. When something is not meant for you, it's just not going to affect you.
Israel left Egypt physically, but did not realize that Pharoah was still emotionally (anger) tied to them. If you do not want to face the thing that God has delivered you from..make sure it is dealt with, taken care of before you begin celebrating freedom. Sure enough, Pharoah shows up again where the Israelites least expected him to, at the Red Sea. When you have everything in front of you, make sure you have nothing coming up behind you. Kill that demon and then you can leave!
Blessings
PJ