Martha, Martha...

This world is so loud. How can we hear God among the constant flow of voices and constant bustle of activity? Is it any wonder stress and anxiety govern so many lives?

God wants our attention and sometimes if he has to knock us flat on our backs or allow us to fall to get it, He'll do just that.

[How sweet it is to hear his voice and how sweet it is to be in his presence. No other voice or fellowship can compare. Draw me Lord, keep me near.]

The Martha Syndrome: "As Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him. She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord's feet listening to what he said. But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to him and asked, 'Lord, don't you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!'

'Martha, Martha,' the Lord answered, 'you are worried and upset about many things, but only one thing is needed. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken from her.'"

Sometimes you have to cut the music, hire a babysitter, cut the TV off, stop the texting, turn off the cell phone and get away by yourself...de-bug yourself if you will, so you can hear clearly from God. Scared? Some people are because they don't know what to do with silence. However, you can often hear God better in the quiet. Jesus often left the crowd and his disciples to get off by himself so that he could talk with his Father. If he did, how much more do we need to?

I've often said, one of the primary ploys of the devil is to keep us so busy, so occupied with activity that we don't have time to hear from God or spend time with our Heavenly Father. Everybody, everything else captures our prime time and when we get around to it, we give him our leftovers or our hasty snatches of the morn. We give him so little, but expect so much. We miss our way.

[How sweet it is to hear his voice. How sweet it is to be in his presence. No other voice or fellowship can compare. Draw me Lord, keep me near.]


"Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus." (Phil. 4:6)

In Some or All Of Our Ways...?

"Trust in the Lord
with all your heart

and lean not on your own understanding.

In ALL your ways
acknowledge Him

and He will direct your paths."

- Proverbs 3:5,6

Whether we've been following the Lord for 3 days, 3 months or 30 years, most of us still fall short of "acknowledging" the Lord in ALL our ways and sometimes it's in some of the simplest ways too. It's a process to be sure. We're told to "work out our salvation with fear and trembling." (Phil. 2:12) That is, the journey just began once you gave your life to Christ. That was just the starting point of your new life, now life truly begins. So it's going to be a process of learning how to acknowledge the Lord in ALL our ways.

As true as it is, I don't know that it gets any easier sometimes. I think it's sometimes easier for the babe in Christ to do than for the veteran in Christ who can become so used to ministering to others and so caught up in being "mature," going through the routine of life in Christ or church politics that we miss the simplicity of acknowledging God in ALL our ways.

One day when I was about 20 years old I tested God's Word and His Spirit in this area. I'd heard someone talk about giving up your whole paycheck and watch how the Lord would provide. I decided to try it. I put my entire pay check in the offering and watched to see how God would take care of my needs and monetary commitments at the time. I wanted for nothing that week. I no longer remember how it all came about, I just remember marveling that week how everything just came together and was taken care of. So another day during that same time period in my life, I awoke and felt the Holy Spirit very strongly guiding me. You know how we pray, "guide us each step of the way"? Well, this particular day he did - literally. He guided me each step of the day, even to do some of the strangest things that if someone was looking on they would have thought I was very weird indeed.

I remember at one point during the day he told me to bend down and pick up something off the ground as I walked along. (I no longer remember what it was- it wasn't money or memorable. :-) That's when I started feeling like a robot or a puppet. I remember thinking, wow, "I see why you gave us a free will and a mind to develop and use". However, he still says, in ALL our ways to acknowledge him and he will direct our paths.

I believe him. But do we believe only up to a point? Do we only acknowledge him for the big things, the difficult things? The less we have of material things, the more we tend to acknowledge and depend on God because we can't do for ourselves. The more we have, the less we think we need him until trials and trouble hit, like illness, trouble in our relationships, divorce, loss of income or even death of a loved one. Is it any wonder why Jesus said, "It's easier for a camel to fit through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God"? His next words however were, "with man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible" (Matt. 19:23-26).

He is still the same God who said he came to give us life more abundantly and that nothing we have given up for him we wouldn't receive back a hundred fold in this life. (Mark 10:29-30) However, we must acknowledge him in ALL our ways. "Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness" and all these other things will be given to us, down to the clothes on our backs and food for our stomachs.

Most days when I wake up, I quietly ask the Lord what I should wear today? Because I don't know what or whom I may encounter, but he already does. Yet many times I fail to ask him what to eat, instead I just give thanks and ask him to bless it. But isn't asking him for direction there important too? Or is thanking him and asking for his blessing acknowledgement enough? Am I being too technical, straining at every jot and tittle? Somehow, I think he'd rather have a little more of that desire to have him direct us even in the little things, than just when we're perplexed or find ourselves having to make difficult decisions.

I met two people in the last two years who've impressed me more than any tele-evangelist, professor, prophet or highly accomplished Christian. They were very simple Christians who had some incredible testimonies and ministries and whose names may never become renown. One was a Muslim, born and raised, but she was curious about the God of the Christians back home in her country. She didn't get saved in a church or because someone had been witnessing to her. She told me God spoke to her one day in her kitchen here in the US and told her who he was. She obeyed the voice and gave God her life. She said for the next 7 years, every day that she woke up she simply asked God what He wanted her to do. She said she never knew what she was going to be doing that day or where she would be going. She had a husband and 3 children and a demanding profession. She told me how frustrating at times it was not knowing what was coming next. But she never lacked. God did some incredible things in her life and birthed a church in the basement of their home.

Next was a man I met in Walmart just 2 months ago. He was another one that just kind of follows God where ever God tells him to go. I remember meeting him not just because it was the most recent experience but because it was very impactful in my life. He ministered more to me than any "prophet" I've ever met in a church. God had recently directed me to make a major move in my life that meant the upheaval of everything comfortable and familiar! I stepped out there by faith and got very little support except from those to whom God was sending me. I met with my pastor this particular evening to speak with him about my relocation, but I wasn't received, was even told in so many words that God wasn't the one directing me to relocate.

When I left there late that evening I had a massive headache. My head was pounding as though there was a gigantic pliers squeezing my temples. I could hardly think. It was about 10:30pm. I needed to stop by Walmart to get some tape and boxes to pack, but I couldn't think and everyone I thought of calling was asleep. So I said to the Lord, "Lord send me someone who knows you and knows me to speak to me." (Sometimes people know the Lord, but they don't know the particular work God is doing in you. Sometimes they know you, but don't know the Lord at work in you. At that time, I needed one who knew both the Lord and me.) So God sent a stranger at 11pm in Walmart to speak through, to comfort, encourage and prophesy to me of what He was doing and about to do. It was fantastic! God is so awesome! Within 5 minutes of listening to this person, the headache disappeared. (No Tylenol was needed. :-) I marveled at how God in his loving care, in effect said, "I had to come myself, because no one does know you like I do." I was dumbstruck at the whole experience. From 11pm to 1am, this man spoke over my life like no one ever has. He spoke things that only God knew. The man of God shared with me during this time that God had just led him to Walmart that night and that he never knew where God would lead him from one day to the next. People like this kind of remind me of modern day John the Baptists.

In ALL our ways acknowledge him and God will direct our paths. My prayer is that we would learn to have such child-like faith, no matter how old we get in Christ, that we would acknowledge or depend on God, as a child with their parent. Father, direct our paths.

Blah, Blah, Blah

"If anyone considers himself religious
and yet does not keep a tight rein on his tongue,
he deceives himself and his religion is worthless.
Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this:
to look after orphans and widows in their distress
and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world."
- James 1:26-27

Sometimes we just talk too much. We shout from the roof tops or rather, from our soap boxes, when sometimes, it's time to just shut up and DO or BE. People read our lives much more than our lips.

Solomon said, There's a time for everything, including, "A time to be silent and a time to speak..." Ecc. 3:7. Wisdom is knowing when to do both. Proverbs 10:19 says, "When words are many, sin is not absent, but he who holds his tongue is wise."

In all our communication, including the chat rooms, Face Book and all the other mediums through which we can now share our inner most thoughts to the world, Believers, take heed. Jesus said that we will have to "give an account on the day of judgement for every careless word (we) have spoken." (Matt. 12:36) I don't know about you, but I get tired of disappointing the Lord.

I recently had such a powerful experience of the deadly power of the tongue and got down right angry at both Satan and the Christian through whom Satan used to discourage my new sister in the Lord. THE TONGUE CAN BE A ROD OF EVIL OR A LADLE OF PEACE. Proverbs 18:21 says it best, however, "The tongue has the power of life and death, and those who love it will eat its fruit."

I have a friend that's a new Believer in Christ that the Lord has paired up with me as my younger sister. Like a newborn baby that you watch with delight as they show so much excitement over the little things, romp, play and gurgle, I delight to see her discover new things in the Lord and share her wonder at it all. However, her biological sister, who's been a Believer for over 30 years and knows her sister's life before Christ, has done more to discourage this baby in the Lord by constantly reminding her of her past, picking at her and complaining about her own situations and illnesses to her, than any non-believer could have done through mockery. It just made me angry. But the Lord quickly reminded me, "We wrestle not against flesh and blood..." I have to be careful and prayerful in how I speak to her sister. I have to recognize the ploy of the enemy to destroy them both and pray and speak appropriately.

"The tongue...is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole person, sets the whole course of his life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell." (James 3:6) Pretty powerful, huh?

I just want to encourage us to be careful so that we're not used in the ploys of the enemy to discourage, turn off or destroy others unecessarily because of careless, thoughtless use of our tongues.

You're awesome and carry a powerful weapon within. Through prayer and the power of the Holy Spirit, use it for good today.

Aundre Niles, "Our Loving Giant"

My nephew, Aundre (spelled with an accent over the "e"), just died two weeks ago. He survived Iraq only to come home to the US and be brutally killed in the inner city. He was just 22 years old but he touched so many lives. He always had a smile and a big hug for family and friends. Dre, as we called him, was also deep. He had deep waters running beneath the surface of his smile. It's interesting the different facets of one's life isn't it? Everyone sees a different facet. His mom saw different facets than his dad. His sister saw different facets than his best friend. Each aunt, each uncle, each cousin, each friend, his ex-wife, his infant son, his military commander, his neighbor, his co-workers, his classmates and yes, even his enemies, each saw different parts of what made Aundre - Aundre.

It's the first time I've lost someone so close to me. It's hard to believe he's gone. That I'll never get to have him engulf me in one of his bear hugs or bend his
6ft 2inch frame and put his head in my lap like a little kid or just listen to him call me "Auntie Bev." At least not in this life. However, I'm happy for Aundre because he's gone on to be with the Lord. In the final moments of his life, based on a series of events that occurred just prior and the amazing prayer we found tattooed on his back just 2 months ago, I believe, he found eternal peace and joy.

Aundre's estimated time of death was 3am on Sunday, July 25th, 2010. On Friday, July 23rd, his "grammy" Joan, while praying early that morning was encouraged by the Lord to pray for Aundre and she did so. On Saturday, July 24th I was awakened an hour earlier than normal to pray. When I asked the Lord who to pray for, he said Aundre and CJ, my other nephew. So I prayed for them. On Sunday morning between 3-4am, Aundre's mother was awakened to pray for Aundre. Though his death was violent, it wasn't instant. He had time to pray as well. His mom made a copy of the prayer that he had tattooed on his back and which I believe, revealed his heart:

Aundre's Prayer
"Please hear me. I need guidance to live life.
Sometimes the pressure is too hard to bear.
I often wonder if you care.
Please keep me as I face a new day,
knowing I must love my life.
This is crazy.

Forgive all my sins. Give me the strength to resist.
Help me escape temptations and the fire.
Please help my family whose eyes silently plead
for me not to do wrong and who pray for me.
Bless my mother.

Please answer my prayers
and let me know you're listening.
When will it all end? What is it all for?
I wonder how I will die,
by a bullet or by knife in my side?

Father, please hear me tonight.
Give my heart peace. Thank you for your forgiveness.
Most of all, thank You for hearing me." - Aundre

God heard his heart and answered his prayer.
You know something, death can bring forth life. My prayer is that Aundre's death brings life to many.

John 3:16, "For God so loved the world (you), that he sent his only begotten son (Jesus), that whosoever believes in him would not perish (die) but have everlasting life." Jesus died, so that you can live.

His Ways Are Not Our Ways

This morning I read about the Watchman in Ezekiel 33. Some of you may know it well, some not at all. As thoughts formulated for this blog I was torn with what to title it because shortly after reading the passage in Ezekiel, the Holy Spirit led me on showing me how the "First will be last and the last will be first."

At the end of my study this morning all I could say in my heart was, "His ways are not our ways." I'm sure that by the end of this blog you will agree with me, that even though we'll look a lot at God's principle that the many who are first will be last and many who are last will be first, that the title heading I chose best describes this morning's venture. "My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts" (Is.55:8-9)

Let me begin with what God says to Ezekiel in chapter 33, if you will. He says, "Son of man, say to the house of Israel, 'This is what you are saying: "Our offenses and sins weigh us down and we are wasting away because of them. How then can we live?"' "Say to them, 'As surely as I live, declares the Sovereign Lord, I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that they turn from their ways and live. Turn! Turn from your evil ways!'"

Now this is what really stood out to me, "Therefore, son of man, say to your countrymen, 'The righteousness of the righteous man will not save him when he disobeys, and the wickedness of the wicked man will not cause him to fall when he turns from it. The righteous man, if he sins, will not be allowed to live because of his FORMER righteousness. If I tell the righteous man that he will surely live, but then he trusts in his righteousness and does evil, none of the righteous things he has done will be remembered. He will die for the evil he has done. And if I say to the wicked man, 'You will surely die,' but he then turns away from his sin and does what is just and right - if he gives back what he took in pledge for a loan, returns what he has stolen, follows the decrees that gives life, and does no evil, he will surely live; he will not die. None of the sins that he has committed will be remembered against him. He has done what is just and right; he will surely live."

He continues, "Yet your countrymen say, 'The way of the Lord is not just.' But it is their way that is not just. If a righteous man turns from his righteousness and does evil, he will die for it. And if a wicked man turns away from his wickedness and does what is just and right, he will live by doing so. Yet, O house of Israel, you say, 'The way of the Lord is not just.' But I will judge each of you according to his own ways." (Forgive the punctuation errors.)

Powerful isn't it? So what came to mind next were a few NT (New Testament) passages that I've always wondered about such as Matthew 19:30 which says, "But many who are first will be last, and many who are last will be first." Then in Matthew chapter 20, Jesus told a parable about workers in a vineyard following this statement. The parable talks about how "...the Kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire men to work in his vineyard. He agreed to pay them a denarius for the day and sent them into his vineyard..." As Jesus continues in the parable he tells how the landowner went out again at the 6th hour and again at the 9th hour of the day and did the same thing. Finally, he went out at the 11th hour and there were still men standing around who had not found work that day. So the landowner hired them as well and promised them the same pay.

At the end of the work day, the landowner called his foreman and told him to pay the workers beginning with the last ones hired and going on to the first. The foreman paid the workers who started at the 11th hour a denarius each and so on right down to those who started early. However, when he got to those who had started working first, they expected to receive more. "But each of them also received a denarius. When they received it, they began to grumble against the landowner..."

But the landowner said, "Friend, I am not being unfair to you. Didn't you agree to work for a denarius? Take your pay and go. I want to give the man who was hired last the same as I gave you. Don't I have the right to do what I want with my own money? Or are you envious because I am generous?" He closes the parable out by saying, "So the last will be first, and the first will be last."

Stay with me here okay, I know this is a bit lengthy, but I think this is a very important principle. If the above parable wasn't enough, two further passages came to mind: The parable of the Prodigal or Lost Son and Jonah! At the end of the parable of the prodigal son, the elder brother who had remained with his father and had been the faithful, good son was angry and refused to celebrate with his family that the younger son that was lost had finally come home. In fact he says, "Look! All these years I've been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders. Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends. But when this son of yours who has squandered your property with prostitutes comes home, you kill the fattened calf for him!" He was furious, maybe even jealous?

But his dad saw it differently. He said, "My son..., you are always with me, and everything I have is yours. But we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found." Hear the heart of the Father?

Then again, back well over four hundreds years prior in the story of Jonah, hear the heart of the Father again. The wickedness of the "great city of Nineveh" was so much so that God's judgement was coming against it. However he wanted to warn them and give them a chance to turn around and escape judgement. So he sent Jonah to go and preach to them about what was about to happen to them. However, Jonah, according to his justice system, felt that they deserved to be destroyed and ran the opposite direction. (Seeing that Jonah was so righteous after all.) But Jonah now himself is in disobedience as he runs away and in so doing not only could have caused the entire city of Nineveh to perish, but the lives of the sailors on the ship he got on and all their cargo was about to perish with Jonah for his disobedience as well. Thankfully, God in his mercy, spared their lives. He saved Jonah and gave him a second chance to go and preach to Nineveh. (What irony.)

As the story continues, Jonah obeys this time and the entire city of Nineveh, from the king on down, goes into fasting, prayer and repents hoping God would have mercy on them! "When God saw what they did and how they turned from their evil ways, he had compassion and did not bring up0on them the destruction he had threatened." Isn't that wonderful? However, Jonah felt otherwise. He gets angry, like the elder brother in the story of the prodigal son and grumbles against his Father-God and God had to break it down to him that it's because of His mercy to Jonah as well that he was in a position of blessing.

Many who are first are going to be last, and many who are last are going to be first. Rejoice with God. Make a conscious decision to agree with God even when you don't understand His ways - His system. As the heavens are higher than our ways and our thoughts, so are his ways and thoughts leap years higher and not to be compared with ours.

I hope this was as helpful to you as it was to me. I'd love to hear your comments.

What Matters Most to You? (Part II)

"His divine power has given us EVERYTHING
we NEED for LIFE and GODLINESS
THROUGH our knowledge of him who called
us by his own glory and goodness."
- 2 Peter 1:2-4

The first question that came to my mind was, "What do we need for life and godliness?" We need food and water, clothing and a roof over our heads to meet our physical needs. Then we need the Holy Spirit and fellowship for our spiritual sustenance. Those are the basic NEEDS for survival both physically and spiritually.

Then I remembered Jesus said in Matthew 6:25-34, "...Do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is life not more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they...? And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lillies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin...if this is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?"

Bear with me here as I complete the passage, "So do not worry, saying 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' For the pagans run after these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness and all these things will be given to you as well."

We put so much importance, so much money, so much time and energy into obtaining things of little value or things that God already knows we need and have provided for. He said His divine power has given us EVERYTHING we NEED for life and godliness..., but the kicker or condition is that it's THROUGH our knowledge of Him who called us...!

So, How is your knowledge of Him?
What do you know about Him?
Do you even know Him?
Do you believe in HIm?
What do you believe about Him?
Do you believe in His divine power?
Do you believe that He is your Father?
Do you believe that He is good?

I have to go back to Jesus' words. He said in Matt. 7:7-11:
"Which of you if his son asks for bread will give him a stone?
Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? If you, then, though you
are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much
more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to them who ask him!"

What matters most to you, getting the things of this world or getting to know the Father who can give you the things in this world? He said to seek Him first, seek first His kingdom and His righteousness and all these things will be given to you as well.

What Matters Most to You?

"Do not love the world or anything in the world.
If anyone loves the world,
the love of the Father is not in him..
For everything in the world-
the cravings of sinful man,
the lust of his eyes and
the boasting of what he has and does-
comes not from the Father but from the world."
- 1 John 2:15,16 (NIV)

The Christian walk is pretty radical. If we were to honestly exam ourselves in light of the above passage, what would our children, our friends, our God say matters most to us? What are our conversations filled with? What do we have our heart set on? What do we crave?

What do you hold onto so tightly? How would you feel or what would you do if God said, "Give it up" or "Let it go"? Think of Abraham. As crazy as it sounded, God told Abraham to give up - sacrifice to God, the son that God himself gave him and Sarah in their old age. It simply didn't make any earthly sense! It didn't make sense from any perspective I supposed except from God's. It didn't even sound like God himself who opposed human sacrifices! But Abraham obeyed the incongruous command of God. We who know the end of the story accept the outcome. However, it was credited as righteousness to Abraham because he believed and obeyed. He "saw" the outcome in his heart and mind - though he didn't have any evidence that it would turn out the way it did. He was being tested. His belief and faith in God was being tested. What mattered most to Abraham was his son, Isaac, and he was willing to give him up, sacrifice him for God.


Jesus said it this way, "Anyone who loves his father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves his son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it." Matt. 10:37-39 (NIV)

Please don't misunderstand. We are expected to love and honor our parents and family or in 1 Tim. 5:8, Paul wouldn't have said, "If anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for his immediate family, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever." Or tell children in Eph. 6:1,2 to Honor your mother and father." We just aren't to love or honor them above God or in place of God.

The references to Abraham and Jesus' instruction were on the extreme or more radical end of the pole. The passage and thought at the beginning of the blog, however, connotes something slightly different, I believe. "Do not love the world or anything in the world..." correlates with Paul's instruction in Romans 12, "Don't be conformed to the pattern of this world..."

Our passions, should not be for the things this world is passionate about. Our expectations, our vision, our mindset, our energy shouldn't be consumed by a lust for the things this world or those who don't know Christ, pursue and value above God. I think the key word is "Love," not that we can't enjoy all of the good things of this world, since God has given us senses, taste buds, desires to be able to enjoy the things of this world. (He even gave us dominion over the things of the world, to conquer, master, rule over it.) However, we must put the things of the world in their proper place and that's in subjection to Christ. Nothing should have such a hold on us more than our passion for Christ and to wins souls for Christ -Nothing.

Our pursuit of degrees, our pursuit of a career, our pursuit of a mate, our pursuit of recreation, our hobbies, whatever gives us pleasure and a sense of fulfillment or accomplishment should pale in comparison to our being in Christ. As Paul said, he counted everything before Christ as dung, rubbish (Phil. 3:8). Church, it's time to get radical. It's time to get real. It's time we looked more like Christ and less like the world. It won't be popular either, but then, we're not called to be popular, we're called to be holy - set apart.

Exercise:
Write down what matters most to you and compare it to your love for Christ. Which matters more?