In a shack on a rocky plot of land, there was a poor man living a meager existence. One day there was a knock on his door and as he cracked it open and peered out, a deliveryman said “Good news!” and handed him an envelope. The poor man sat on his wobbly three-legged stool and opened it.  His brother had died and left him his house on a huge plot of land.

The man hadn’t known his brother since they were children but had heard about his successful farm and generous nature. By no efforts of his own, the poor man had become the beneficiary of his brother’s hard work and kindness.  Overwhelmed and curious to see this gift he’d been given, he immediately packed his horse and rode off.

When he came to his brother’s sprawling valley, he was overcome with awe and relief. He couldn’t believe it was all his own. It was clear the house was well-kept and the land was fertile and tilled for seed. The man closed his eyes, took a deep breath of his new life and with great love and gratitude, remembered his brother.

After walking the property and taking stock of the abundant provisions, the man found himself at the pile of the things he had carried from his shack. His pot and utensils, his raggedy old coat, his rusted hoe, a bag of moldy seeds and the wobbly old stool he had fashioned out of fire wood. These feeble things had no place in the beautiful new life his brother had given him. He left them in the dirt and walked away mightily in his brother’s kind favor.

Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. Philippians 3:13-14

 

I once heard a powerful acronym for the word shame: Should HAve Mastered Everything. It resounded in me. I know this kind of shame, a kind of deep embarrassment over a failure or misstep. It is paralyzing and harsh.  Shame, in its proper role, can be appropriate and helpful in redirecting me to godly choices, but not as a severe reaction to a simple correction.  In this case, I appreciate the witty acronym, reminding me to ease up, no one is perfect.

God gave His perfect Son to accomplish what I cannot. My part is to do my very best and remain open to His discipline and correction, so that He may give me good direction. God corrects me because He loves me, as a father with his child. He knows I haven’t, nor will I ever, master everything.  This gives me an opportunity to depend on Him!

Discipline and love. God provides these to guide and keep me. I must practice discipline, according to His word and the promptings of the Holy Spirit. I must also treat myself with love, taking care to see myself as He sees me–not as a master in the making, but fearfully and wonderfully made by my Master.

Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest and repent.         Revelation 3:19

Before Jesus was arrested, He went to the Mount of Olives to pray in the garden. He knew the events to follow and warned the disciples to stay alert and pray that they not be led into temptation. They would see their Lord, their Master and Teacher, led away, tried and crucified. It was imperative that they stay strong and not abandon their work.

They fell asleep. While Jesus prayed to His Father in obedience and great anguish, the disciples succumbed to their own angst and slept. They could neither foresee nor understand the impending doom or the coming glory, but God called for their loyalty. Instead, Judas would betray Jesus to the soldiers of the high priest, Peter would deny knowing Jesus three times to accusers, and the disciples would scatter as Jesus was brought to the cross and crucified.

Jesus had warned them to stay alert and true to Him and His teachings, but danger and fear drew them off course. I can’t imagine the terror of that day and the immense pressure on those who loved Jesus. They failed Him, yes, but I have failed Him for far less–danger, fear, but also simple desires, laziness, boredom, selfishness and pride.

What might the risen Christ tell me today if I met Him in the garden? Stay alert. Pray that you may not be led into temptation. I too have a purpose in the course of this world. I need not know how it will unfold, just to stay alert and follow Jesus all the way.

Jesus went out as usual to the Mount of Olives, and his disciples followed him. On reaching the place, he said to them, “Pray that you will not fall into temptation.” Luke 22:39-40

I was not made to carry burdens. I was created to live in harmony with my Creator. There was a garden and rivers, trees bearing fruit, a man and a woman and God in the midst of them. There was no blemish on them. God wanted these things for me.

Confronted with the ungodly in their midst, man and woman strayed from God, then hid and covered themselves in shame. God pursued them. He has pursued mankind ever since. It is crucial for me to remember this. I do sin and cover myself and hide from Him. It is the way of humans who have not yet recognized themselves in the garden story and seen God seek them in every book in the Bible that follows.

Christ is The Way back to harmony with my Creator. On the cross He cried, It is finished. He completed my impossible work and says to me, Release your burdens, I have taken each one. Let them fall away and go to your God. I kneel at the foot of the cross to receive this miracle and hear Him proclaiming my freedom.

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 1:3

He removed my burdens and shame and has given me everything I need to live in Him and grow in His goodness.

For this very reason do your best to add goodness to your faith; to your goodness add knowledge; to your knowledge add self-control; to your self-control add endurance; to your endurance add godliness; to your godliness add Christian affection; and to your Christian affection add love. 2 Peter 1:5-7

When I am angry or bitter, my tendency is to withdraw to a safe place and observe my wound.  There, in dark analysis, I hold the thing and turn it over before my eyes, nursing and cursing the components. I nurse the personal ones, my part in the thing, and curse the other parts, the damaging ones that came from them. In other words, in solitude, I take what has hurt me and resume the harm.

The park gave me a place to air my grievances in the light. Of course, as a beloved child of God, I have this opportunity in every precious moment. God is always waiting to receive my confessions, concerns and contemplations.   It is always best to take full advantage of that miraculous gift.

Forgiveness doesn’t come easy in the dark, secluded place. When I carry pain into that closet, there is only one reason—to avoid God’s way and have my own.  At the park every day, in effect showing myself to God, I came face to face with an opportunity to do the right thing, over and over, with each step.  Walking with God, carrying a weight of pain, who could I turn to?  Him.

Lord, You know, I have been wrestling with this thing in the dark. Yes. It is causing me such agony. I know. Would you like Me to hold it? I think so, yes. See? It is in My hands. I feel better, thank you, Lord. When You hold it, I can see it more clearly. I see my part too. Forgive me, Lord. You are forgiven. And the harm they caused, it comforts me to see it’s in Your hands now. Yes, it is all in My hands. One more thing. I think I would like to pray for them, that You will heal them as You have healed me. Thank you. They are my child too. Thank You Lord for forgiving me and helping me forgive.  Amen.

Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you. Ephesians 4:31-32

Abide with Christ.
Him always,
in the warm glow of bliss in
the grip of affliction in
the lull of subtle days,
Abide in Christ.
“Miracle” is defined as an extraordinary event manifesting divine intervention in human affairs. Everything about Christ is a miracle—He was conceived a miracle, He performed miracles, His resurrection was a miracle. He is the miracle of my life.

All good things manifest from Christ. He has divinely intervened and completed God’s wondrous work, unattainable by anyone else in eternity. In those who love Him, Christ continues to accomplish the heavenly on earth through the Holy Spirit.

Christ has lifted me up to dwell and work with Him in the divine. I am not bound by the ordinary.   No, my bond is with Him, my increase is through Him and continuous and miraculous.  Apart from Him, I can do nothing. He is the vine and I am a branch. Remaining in Him, I will bear fruit.  (John 15:5) 

If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. John 15:6

 

This vase of love holds hope for blossoms. The cold denies, the sky sleeps a dormant gray, the trees cease to buffer, but the rains anticipate and fill.

Sometimes emptiness feels like death, like possibility–this moment’s breath and joy–has died. When I have clung so deeply to this single bud of hope, I see nothing else. When I can see nothing else, I wither when that single bud eludes me.

Have I chosen this flower, this dear thing, wrongly? Am I never to have a bloom? Should I never choose a thing? Am I to lack joy and survive on the blank sky, asking nothing, hoping for nothing?  Am I nothing?

No, God wants me to see my joy come to flower, the joy He put in my heart.  There are hundreds of flowers begging to be plucked, but those aren’t for me.  God is nurturing a bud for me now.  That bud of joy and desire is beyond that hill and God will lead me there. Yes, He wants my hope, my life’s beauty and joy, to come from Him. No number of wreaths and garlands from the world can fulfill me. It is the quiet walk with God that leads me to the one perfect blossom, far more excellent for me than all the others.

I am the LORD your God, who brought you up out of Egypt. Open wide your mouth and I will fill it. Psalm 81:10

Jesus was invited to the home of Simon, a Pharisee, in Luke 7:36-50. The Pharisees were self-righteous and fixated on the law with no understanding or regard for the grace Jesus came to give. Their interactions with Him were often attempts to mock or trap Him with religious doctrine.

The men were at the table, when a disgraced woman entered the house and sat below Jesus. She wept in His presence and washed His feet with her hair and tears. Simon watched with disgust as the woman poured out onto Jesus’ feet her sacrifice of devotion with kisses and expensive perfume. How could Jesus, this so-called prophet, allow the wretched to approach and touch Him?

This woman boldly demonstrated and sincerely confessed what her heart knew, that Jesus was her Savior and without Him she was hopeless and lost. Jesus knew Simon did not understand her humility and devotion.  Simon hadn’t washed His dusty feet nor did he treat Jesus with honor.  Why would a Pharisee, believing he was spotless, honor the One who came to wash him clean?

Jesus spoke to Simon with a parable about two debtors, one who owed much and one who owed little. Then He asked him which man, being forgiven of his debt, would love the one who forgave it more? The one with much debt or the one with little? “The one who is forgiven much,” said Simon, while the grateful, kneeling woman, forgiven of much, anointed the Savior’s feet before him.

“Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.” Matthew 5:16