Gross Servant

 God don't let me be a gross servant. This has been my prayer the past few weeks. You see on the outside it would appear I have this servant thing down. I truly do love people and I sincerely love to serve God's children BUT what if you could lift up my sea of servant hood. What would you see there? What trash would you find? If you pull back my servant heart is it completely the servant heart of God?

I wish I could tell you it was but I would be lying to both of us hence my prayer not to be a gross servant.

There is this constant battle that goes on inside of me.

I wish I could blame the devil like this picture portrays but that would be another lie. It's my own selfish desires that I battle. My need to feel important or needed. My desire for recognition or my own sense of pride. I know, I warned you this was going to be gross.

A few weeks ago I listened to a sermon about being asleep.  
Revelation 3:1“To the angel of the church in Sardis write:these are the words of him who holds the seven spirits of God and the seven stars. I know your deeds; you have a reputation of being alive, but you are dead. 2 Wake up! Strengthen what remains and is about to die, for I have found your deeds unfinished in the sight of my God.3 Remember, therefore, what you have received and heard; hold it fast, and repent. But if you do not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what time I will come to you.

 I started asking God where I was asleep. Gems as I have told you before if you ask He will tell you.....

 Gross Servant.

My prayer is God will strip me of these motives, that he will take away all my self-contentedness til there's nothing left of me.

He gave me a wonderful example this weekend of how He doesn't need me but in spite of my  junk will still use me with all my grossness.

 

My daughter and I went to the Leesburg Bike festival last weekend to minister to bikers or anyone God would lead to us. I ordered these cool tracks to hand out.

I did get to hand some out but God wanted to remind me He doesn't need me. This was part of my awakening. 

He told me to put the tracks on the table across from me. I called it my Jesus table. I also had a small box for prayer request.

I thought I was going to hand out all the tracks personally but God wanted me to see that He would draw those He prepared for that day. One by one I watched as random people sat in the “Jesus chair” and read His word with no help from me.

Do you see this mans face? He is contemplating the word of God in the middle of a busy street filled with the noise of motorcycles, loud motorcycles, yet he could still hear the Holy Spirit.

I was in awe of the reminder of just how powerful the word of God is and the love that those words represent.

I continue to pray that my servants heart will be transformed. I continue to plead that I will not be a gross servant. I ask God to strip me of my human needs and to open the eyes of my heart and fill me with His Spirit so I may experience the power of the Holy Spirit with a pure heart.

Ephesians 1:18-21 I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people, and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is the same as the mighty strength he exerted when he raised Christ from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every name that is invoked, not only in the present age but also in the one to come.

Help me Jesus to serve like you.

Commitment of a Dove

Well Gems I had a traumatic encounter today I want to tell you about.
It was such a beautiful day I had all my windows open enjoying the day when all of a sudden I hear this ruckus outside the kitchen window. 
I look out and my landlord's dog is running around the screened in lanai with a dove in his mouth.

Now I want you to have a visual here. I was coloring my hair so I was wearing this old t-shirt that is covered in hair dye. I'm pretty sure I had a brown ring around my forehead. 
OK so I start yelling out the window “Tonka, NO NO put the bird down.” I run out my door, around the back yard into the lanai and yell TONKA! 
He drops the bird but still has a mouth full of feathers and there are feathers blowing all over the place. I'm like ahhhhh! 
I'm trying to get the crazy dog into his house when the doves partner flies down to be near his mate and Tonka makes a run for him. 
Now he's got that bird in his mouth and the other dog is coming outside. (you know what a great pet lover I am) So now I'm trying to grab two black labs and save the doves single handed. 
I finally get Tonka to let go of the second dove and dove one is laying on the ground in a puddle of blood.

 I get the dogs in the house and I'm trying not to cry. I look through the sliding glass door and Tonka is now inside with a mouth full of feathers.
I call my landlord and leave a message on his voice mail that I'll explain the feathers later... REALLY I'm just trying to relax here.
I go over to dove two and he won't move. He just stands there next to his dead mate looking devastated.

It was truly heartbreaking. I'm now apologizing to this bird. He's just staring at me, probably wondering what's going on with my hair.
In the mean time my landlord's room mate comes home and walks outside, no doubt wondering why Tonka is growing a beard, he looks at me with the same scared face of dove 2. Again probably wondering whats going on with my head. After a quick explanation I leave. A little while later dove 2 died. It was either a broken heart over his mate or heart failure from the scary human.

I went back in my house and thought that is true love. 

That dove swooped down trying to help it's' mate get away from an animal 50x bigger than it.
As always this got me thinking about Jesus, true love does that.
No wonder He used the dove out of all the animals to appear after He was baptized.

Matthew 3:16 And Jesus, when he was baptized, went up straightway out of the water: and, lo, the heavens were opened unto him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and lighting upon him

I made some comparisons of Jesus and the dove.

Doves: perch on telephone wires

Jesus: is always calling us

Mourning Doves are the most frequently hunted species in North America Jesus is either being hunted for by people who need him or shot at by those who continue to reject Him.

When taking off and landing, Mourning Doves’ wings make a loud whistling that may help startle predators or warn flock mates.

Jesus always has our back using the Bible to warn us and the Holy Spirit to fight spiritual battles.

Mourning Doves feed on the ground and in the open.
Jesus left Heaven and lived among us, right out in the open.

But the thing I loved the most is that Doves find a mate and stay together for  life.

Jesus also stays with us for a lifetime, even in the face of danger 50x bigger than us He will come to our rescue. 
 
And we will spend eternity with perfect love and the commitment of a dove.

Growing Faith

 

Luke 13:18-19 Then Jesus asked, “What is the kingdom of God like? What shall I compare it to? It is like a mustard seed, which a man took and planted in his garden.

Have you ever wondered why if faith as small as a mustard seed could move a mountain you're not moving any mountains? 

Matthew 17:20 “Because you have so little faith. Truly I tell you, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.”

I've been wondering just that. I would think by now my faith was at least as big as a mustard seed right?

But maybe we are looking for great big miracles like mountain moving or raising the dead as benchmarks of our faith growing and maybe we should be looking a the smaller ones that effect our lives daily. I think it starts small and like most plants can continue to grow into something large.

I was at Bible study this week and there is a sweet lady in my group named Alice. Normally I change names but not today. This is Alice.

Alice is one of the sweetest women I know but what I really love about her is her prayers. She shares the most humble sweet prayers to our King.

She taught me about small moments of growing faith in her prayer this week.

Along with her usual prayers for the homeless, the military and our country she thanked God for the long lines of traffic she hit at 3 different churches on Easter Sunday.

She told the Lord how much it blessed her to see so many of God's children worshiping Him on such a special day.

Wow, would that have been my prayer? Would I have been thanking God for being stuck in traffic 3 different times? I wish I could say yes but the truth is I would have probably been complaining about the traffic and wishing I had taken a different route.

I realized at that moment Alice's faith had grown to where she could praise God for her inconvenience because she didn't see it as one. My faith grew as I listened to her. I realized I should be more attentive to what pleases God.

Our faith grows when we grow. Maybe something this elementary could be the start of your mustard seed growing.

Jesus is all about faith, we don't talk about it a lot because we don't want to make people feel bad or make it look like we are bragging about ourselves.

2 Corinthians 10:15-16 Our hope is that, as your faith continues to grow, our sphere of activity among you will greatly expand, so that we can preach the gospel in the regions beyond you.

Paul is saying he's not there to boast about his relationship but to help grow the faith of those he was speaking to so eventually they could share to other regions.  You have to have your own personal faith before you can share with someone else.

When was the last time you gave a testimony of faith to someone?

Romans 12:3 For through the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think more highly of himself than he ought to think; but to think so as to have sound judgment, as God has allotted each a measure of faith. 

God gave everyone a measure of faith, however, you have to use it to make it grow.

Hebrews 10:38 “But my righteous one will live by faith. And I take no pleasure in the one who shrinks back.”

God's word says He takes no pleasure in the ones who shrink back.

What does shrink back mean? "To pull away from a source of disgust or fear."

Now I know we don't shrink back from God out of disgust so it must be we shrink back out of fear.

The only way to conquer fear is to do what your afraid of. Put your faith in action!

Do you remember the rich guy in the Bible that tells Jesus he has obeyed all his commandments and Jesus says atta boy now give up your dough and come follow me.

(Gena translation to read the story go to Luke 18 )

The guy ends up bailing because he doesn't have faith that Jesus can take care of Him in a manner that he's accustomed to. Luxuries with the world trumped relationship with his Lord.

2 Corinthians 5:7 For we live by faith, not by sight.

For example:

The other day I was at my friends house and I was heating a cup of coffee in the microwave. I apparently was daydreaming and nuked it way too long. When the bell dinged I opened the door and without thought sat it down to add my sugar. I heard the Holy Spirit say “stand back your going to get burned.” It wasn't an audible voice but a strong thought in my head. I didn't process the thought I just stepped back as I added my sugar and

BAM the coffee exploded!

If I wouldn't have moved back like He said my whole hand would have been burned.

You see I have had those faith moments before so now I know to just listen and ask questions later.

No angel appeared with the message, there was no voice from Heaven that caused the earth to shake it was just me having faith that I hear God.

Hebrews 11:1 Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.

Gems I want to encourage you to start living by faith. I'm not saying you have to walk on water (not yet anyway :) but I am saying you have to start somewhere if you call yourself a righteous one, a believer in Jesus Christ.

Romans 1:17 For in the gospel the righteousness of God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: “The righteous will live by faith.” 

I challenge you to plant a seed in your own garden and become a faith grower then start harvesting the things unseen with confidence.