Her Legacy

In Matthew 26, Mark 14 and John 12 there's an amazing story recounted about a woman named Mary. As Jesus was eating dinner Mary came in with a bottle of expensive perfume. We're told that it was worth a year's wages. When Mary came in she poured the bottle of perfume on Jesus' head.

The disciples grumbled that she was selfish. They thought she should've sold it and given the money to the poor. Jesus rebuked them though. He said that Mary had done a beautiful thing.

See she took what she had and she made a sacrifice in order to give Jesus a gift.

What the disciples didn't understand was that her gift was a prophesy of sorts of Jesus being crucified in just a couple of days.

But here's the part that I really like. In Matthew 26:13 Jesus said "Truly I tell you, wherever the gospel is preached throughout the world, what she has done will also be told, in memory of her."

Can you imagine that? Every country where the government has tried to stop the Bible from being taught this story has been taught. Every culture where women are considered second calls citizens this story, that demonstrates Christ's love for women, has been taught. Every language, every nation and every people group has had this story taught in memory of Mary.

This woman, who made such a sacrifice, was just doing what she believed was the right thing to do. She was showing her love for her Savior. In return He made sure she left a legacy that will never be forgotten.

Sacrifice for the kingdom of God is never a waste. The Lord promises us that He will repay us 100 fold in heaven. Just something to think about this week.

60 Years of Ministry

This weekend I had the pleasure of attending a retirement party for my grandparents. I think it’s the fourth retirement party I’ve attended for them now—but that’s another story. The point is that my grandparents have faithfully been serving in ministry for over 60 years now. Grandpa has served as a pastor, chaplain and missionary over the last 60 years. As his granddaughter I’ve had the pleasure of him passing me on many of the lessons he learned from his experiences. Although it would take me a lifetime to tell them all, today I want to share a few with you.

Grandpa taught me to meet people where they’re at. Grandpa served for many years as a pastor in rural communities. The churches he was pastoring at weren’t full of seminary students or Bible college graduates. They were full of farmers, log truck drivers, and people from all walks of life. They were everyday people trying to make ends meet, often these were people that were used to relying on themselves not God. Grandpa had to teach them that it wasn’t about fitting God into your life but about building your life around God. He learned though that you can’t teach people this by just coming in and preaching at them Sunday morning- “You’re doing it all wrong! You have to repent!” Those messages may have a place but Grandpa learned how to go about things a bit differently. He discovered that preaching at people wasn’t effective but following Jesus’ example of loving people got him a lot further.

Grandpa learned to become friends with people, to become invested in their lives. He truly loved the people he was serving and it showed. He would pray for them, talk to them, and find practical ways to help them when they were struggling. He became a part of their everyday world and because he met them where they were, they invited him further and further into their lives where he could finally begin to teach them what God has to say and how they needed to respond.

One of the biggest things Grandpa taught me about is unity. Particularly unity in the church. Grandpa explained that one of Satan’s most used tactics is to tear people apart but God brings unity.

So many times over the years Grandpa saw people who had a certain opinion about one point of theology. These people would share that opinion with others and if someone disagreed with them they would lash out. Instead of saying ‘okay, I disagree with you but we’re still brothers and sisters in Christ’ these people would throw accusations and insults around. They hurt their fellow believers because they weren’t willing to accept that someone else slightly disagreed.

Now please understand what I’m talking about here—these weren’t issues of theology that centered around what it takes to be saved or the deity of Christ (although those certainly happened too but should be handled in a slightly different matter) these were issues that arose from obscure verses or some silly little thing like what instruments to use at Sunday morning service.

People would split the church over issues like this when the fact is that it doesn’t matter. Jesus called us to be one body. He taught us that we should be more concerned with living a righteous life before God then arguing amongst ourselves. Grandpa didn’t disagree with every person who was so dogmatic about a piece of theology but he did disagree with how they presented their point. There are constructive ways to explain what you believe. Arguing, shouting insults or shunning people who disagree are not constructive methods. It hurts the church and it presents a terrible image to nonbelievers. Why would someone who doesn’t know Christ have any interest in coming to church if the people of the congregation act worse towards each other than nonbelievers do? This is not what Jesus meant when He commanded us to love our neighbor.

A third thing Grandpa taught me was to never underestimate God. We serve an amazing God. Over the years Grandma and Grandpa saw God provide for them and their five daughters in completely unexpected ways. More than once there were times when there wasn’t enough food to put on the table of the small parsonage they were living in and someone would “just stop by” because they  had too many potatoes or a little bit too much milk or their chickens had laid more eggs then they needed. So they would give the food to their pastor and his family—probably never knowing what a blessing they were.

God provided cars so Grandpa could visit people in the community. He even provided a washing machine through the generosity of a Christian Women’s Club meeting when my mom was young so Grandma would no longer have to hand wash and wring out laundry for their family of six. (Their youngest daughter had not been born at the time.)

The Lord took care of them and sustained them in hard times and He didn’t stop blessing them in the good times. In return my grandparents passed on those blessings to others and they taught their children to do the same. Those children, five girls, are my mother and aunts. And each of them, along with their husbands, has taught their children, my siblings and cousins and myself, these same lessons and so many others.

So after more than 60 years of ministry Grandma and Grandpa—now in their late 80’s—are stepping down from the church where they have been serving. But they won’t stop ministry. They will continue to be a blessing to those they’re around because they’ve learned the discipline of serving God every day of their lives, no matter where they are, what circumstances they’re in. They will take the lessons He has taught them and faithfully continue sharing those lessons with others like me.

Sailors

"Red at night, sailors delight. Red in the morning sailors take warning."

I like to joke that I should've been born at sea. For as long as I can remember the idea of sailing has fascinated me. Maybe it's because my dad was in the Navy. From the time I was young Dad would give me directions using 'port' and 'starboard' instead of 'left' and 'right' because the nautical terms made way more sense to me. Left and right tended to confuse me. Yeah, I was a weird kid.

Anyways at some point I learned the adage above and I was so excited when I found this same sign talked about in the Bible. It's in Matthew 16:1-4.
"The Pharisees and Sadducees came to Jesus and tested him by asking him to show them a sign from heaven.
He replied, 'When evening comes, you say, "It will be fair weather, for the sky is red" and in the morning, "Today it will be stormy, for the sky is red and overcast." You know how to interpret the appearance of the sky, but you cannot interpret the signs of the times. A wicked and adulterous generation looks for a sign, but none will be given it except the sign of Jonah.' Jesus then left them and went away."

Now the sign of Jonah that Jesus was talking about was a prophesy of His death and resurrection. But it got me thinking about the signs that we look for.

I already told you that left and right used to confuse me horribly. Fact is I'm so directonally (I think I made that word up) challenged it's ridiculous. I kid you not, I can get lost in parking lots. So I'm constantly using a GPS or looking for street signs to help me find where I'm going. Signs can be very helpful whether it's to tell the weather, help you find your way around or other signs we look for like people's body language or tone of voice to tell us what mood they're in.

But what kind of spiritual signs do we miss? I'd say that most of the time we aren't asking God for a miraculous sign like the Pharisees and Sadducees were (and hopefully we're not doing it to test God out of spite or because we doubt that He's the Messiah like they were) but we ask for other kinds of signs. Maybe we look at our bills and can't see why God isn't providing a sudden influx of cash to pay them, but we forget about the fact that there's been food on our table every night, even if it sometimes comes through the kindness of others. Isn't that a sign of His provision? Or maybe you've skipped meals but you're still eating enough to be alive to read this. That's a sign too.

We ask for intervention in the life of a loved one but when that person begins to turn a corner we simply sigh and wonder how long it will last before they turn back to the addiction. Maybe what we should do is thank God for the work He is doing in that person's life, and thank Him for this sign of change. If it lasts, praise God! If it doesn't, praise God for the hope it gives us of what could happen again, of who that person can become.

Perhaps it's a prayer for a spouse or a child because of the loneliness that haunts our heart. Loneliness is a hard enemy to fight against. But instead of focusing on the loneliness perhaps we should be grateful for the people He has put in our lives already- friends, family, nieces and nephews to spoil or children at church we can work with through ministries like nursery or Sunday School. And we can
focus on learning to be complete in Christ. Friends, I urge you to remember that no human, not the spouse of your dreams or the child you've longed for, will ever be capable of filling all the holes in your heart. They are human and as much as you may love them, part of being human means they'll disappoint you at times. They will not make you complete or whole- only God can do that.

I don't know what you're praying for today. I don't know what sign you're looking for but today I encourage you to focus less on the signs that you're used to seeing and more on the miracles God puts in front of you every day.

Still There

A seventeen year old girl sitting on the back stairs of a conference center where a Christian youth conference was being held. She was about to graduate high school, had been accepted into Bible school and had her whole life ahead of her. She was in tears and a youth leader from a different group came and sat down next to her. After a brief conversation the leader asked the girl, "Are you a believer?" For the first time in her life the girl gave a heartbreaking answer, "I don't know."

As they talked more the girl confided that she didn’t understand how God could love her, or forgive her after the decisions she’d made. They weren’t just mistakes. The teenage girl knew that what she had been doing was wrong but she’d chosen to walk away from God anyways. She’d been living her life away from the Lord and didn’t know the way back. The leader pointed to her young child and explained that no matter what he did in his life she would always love him. She challenged the teenager with these words. “If I as an imperfect human can love my son that much then how much more can God, who is perfect, love you, His child.”

From there she was able to counsel the teenage girl until the teenager got to the point of rededicating her life to Christ. That was nine years ago and today I’m still so grateful for that woman who God sent to intervene in my life because I was that teenage girl.

The details of my story may be unique but the theme, sadly, isn’t. So many people struggle with feeling like God doesn’t love them or can’t forgive them. They get lost and they don’t know how to find their way back to Him. Today I want to remind you of some of God’s words on this very subject.

You’re right, people screw up and you’re no exception.

Romans 3:23 “…for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God…”

Romans 3:10 “As it is written: ‘There is no one righteous, not even one…”

There are consequences of that sin.

Romans 5:12 “Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all people, because all sinned-“

Romans 6:23 “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

There’s more to the story though, you need to understand the bigger picture.

Romans 1:20 “For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities-his eternal power and divine nature-have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.”

So here’s the solution-

Romans 5:8 “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

And here’s the response, this part’s your decision and no one can make it for you.

Romans 10:9-10 “If you declare with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved.”

But here’s the assurance that God promises.

Romans 10:13 “…Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.’”

And this is the result.

Romans 5:1 “Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ…”

Romans 8:1 “Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus…”

Romans 8:38-39 “For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

My friends if you feel today that God has forgotten you or abandoned you the verses above, straight from the NIV translation of God’s word make in abundantly clear that He has not. He loves you. It doesn’t matter what sin you’ve committed or how long you’ve been away. God, your loving Father, has been waiting for you to come back to Him. He’s still waiting. He loves you that much. Just turn around and you’ll find Him, reach out your hand and grasp His, it’s there, He’s reaching out to you and He has been all this time. 

I also want to leave you with the words of the chorus from Matthew West's song "More". 
"I love you more then the sun 
And the stars that I taught how to shine
You are mine and you shine for me too
I love you
Yesterday 
And today
And tomorrow 
I'll say it again and again
I love you more"

God loves you friends, more then you will ever know.