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Grace Nugget for 10.5.21
October 5, 2021 in Uncategorized | Tags: embarrassment, God, grace, Grace Nuggets, hatred, Holy Spirit, Jesus Christ, Matthew 5:11 | Leave a comment
April 26, 2019 in Uncategorized | Tags: broken relationships, Christianity, embarrassment, forgiveness, God's love, grace, Jesus Christ, John 4:7, Restoration, second chances, strength | Leave a comment
He HAD to go through Samaria (John 4:4). Well, geographically he didn’t HAVE to go through Samaria. In fact, the more politically correct route for any self-respecting Jew would be to go on the east side of the Jordan River. It was a longer route but avoided Samaria all together. If you did choose to go through Samaria you certainly wouldn’t stop for lunch, or talk to a woman.
But Jesus did.
He had to go through Samaria because someone was ready to hear his message. That someone was a woman that had gone through five divorces. Five. One is devastating enough. Two raises eyebrows. Five? There are words for women like this but none of them are appropriate for this space.
Take a moment to put yourself in the woman’s place. Hopefully you will have a hard time with this, but imagine how rejected you would feel. Remember the first time you broke up? The first time you were dumped for better pasture? Multiply by five! And now, the guy she was ‘with’ didn’t even respect her enough to marry her.
That’s why she went to the well during the hottest part of the day. She no doubt suffered in silence and this was her coping mechanism.
But Jesus went out of his way to meet her in her comfort zone, on her terms to share the one thing she needed above all else…acceptance and true life.
He does the same today. You don’t need to suffer in silence. He wants to hear from you. He wants us to see those who may be suffering and offer the fresh water of his grace. Silent sufferers never escape the notice of Jesus.
The Other Son
October 9, 2010 in Uncategorized | Tags: attacks, disgrace, embarrassment, failure, family name, forgiveness, freedom, God, guilt, Holy Spirit, Isaiah 61:7, Jesus, power, prodigal son, Restoration, salvation, Satan, second chances, shame, sin, victory | 2 comments
Instead of their shame my people will receive a double portion, and instead of disgrace they will rejoice in their inheritance; and so they will inherit a double portion in their land, and everlasting joy will be theirs. Isaiah 61:7
He didn’t have it all wrong. He’s gone down in history as being selfish, greedy and unforgiving, but the brother of the Prodigal Son had a point….sort of. He just took it a little too far. While his motives may not have been quite right and his heart was set on his own profit, the ‘other son’ had a few things going for him.
He was a model son, at least until his rebellious, stubborn brother showed back up on the scene. He’d worked hard for his father. So much so that dad had time to spend his days scouring the hillside for a sign that his ‘little boy’ may be coming home.
He was certainly faithful. While his younger brother, the brat, was off carousing with women, bringing shame and embarrassment to the family and squandering away his fortune, the ‘other son’ was home protecting the dignity and status of the family name. No doubt everyone in the community knew about the goings on of little brother. They no doubt looked at ‘the other son’ with pride. “What a fine, outstanding young man, especially in light of…you know who.”
For all the good and understanding he had, the ‘other son’ lost sight of one thing, the promise. In Jewish society the inheritance was normally split up into thirds. The oldest son would get 2/3 of the inheritance and the other son would get the other 1/3.
The prodigal son took his inheritance and wasted it. When he returned home he was greeted with open arms by the father. He was treated to a celebration and given a place of honor. Scripture implies he spent the rest of his life as a son. What he didn’t get was an inheritance. That was the consequence of his spend-thrift lifestyle.
Isaiah tells us that God’s people will receive a double portion of the inheritance. Because of Jesus we are not ashamed. Because of Jesus we are not disgraced. We are promised a place of honor and celebration. As we travel this journey called life we may encounter much pain. Some of that pain may be the result of our own poor choices. We may bear the scars and consequences of bad decisions. But that won’t affect our inheritance because that inheritance is secure because of what Jesus did for us on the cross. Our ‘sonship’ was sealed when the seal on Jesus’ tomb was shattered by His resurrection.
The ‘other son’ should have realized what each of us should realize as well. Our inheritance is secure. Sometimes we have to wait a long time to receive an inheritance. But once we do, it’s well worth the wait.
The obstacles that hinder you on this journey called life may seem insurmountable, but remember this, as Christ-followers we will not be ashamed. Because of Jesus we will not be disgraced. The enemy will constantly try to remind you of your failings. Don’t let that liar put you down! We are children of the King and in Him our inheritance is secure. No one can take it from us.
PRAYER: Holy Father. I thank you for the promise I have that because of Jesus my inheritance with you is secure. I’ve made many mistakes. I struggle to do the things that I know I should do. I earnestly desire to be free from the pain of my own consequences. Help me to be patient in life. Empower me to live for you so I won’t squander away my life on temporary things that only bring happiness for a short time. In Jesus Name I pray, Amen.
Seeing the Unseen
October 5, 2010 in Uncategorized | Tags: 2 Corinthians 4:18, abuse, addictions, agony, anger, divine, doubt, embarrassment, eternal, eternity, failure, hatred, Holy Spirit, Jesus Christ, love, noble, relationship, salvation, shame, sin, success, trouble | 1 comment
So we don’t look at the troubles we can see now; rather, we fix our gaze on things that cannot be seen. For the things we see now will soon be gone, but the things we cannot see will last forever. 2 Corinthians 4:18 (NLT)
If we are honest with ourselves, we have to admit that one of the hardest parts of living a life of faith is that so much of our belief system is built on the reality of things that we don’t see and the assurance that things in our lives are not coincidental but part of an overall plan by an all-knowing, all-powerful, all-loving eternal being.
It’s far easier to put our trust in things we can see, touch, hear and smell. Our entire lives are made up of the five senses that make us aware of life in the good times as well as in the bad times. We evaluate everything on the basis of sight, touch, feel, smell and hearing.
The Bible challenges us to implement a sixth sense into our thought processes. It’s the sense that we call faith. Just as our five senses can be trained to evaluate our environment, our ‘faith-sense’ can be trained to evaluate the things we can’t see.
When we focus our minds on the trials we are in the midst of then everything we think, say and do is affected by our perception of things. Even those things that are ‘insignificant’ can appear exceedingly difficult to endure.
If we are able to look at things through our ‘faith-sense’ then the things that trouble us can be looked at as temporary glitches in a life bound for eternal happiness such as our physical senses are incapable of comprehending.
Using our ‘faith-sense’ doesn’t remove the stress and pressure of our physical existence, but we will find it easier to bear the pain and agony of life and all that we have to endure until we get to glory.
When troubles seem to overwhelm you, train yourself to look at things through the ‘eyes’ of your ‘faith-sense’. Everything you see around you will someday end. Relationships, the earth’s beauty, money, toys, even life itself. But some things will never end. For Example:
- God will never end. He is the same today, yesterday and forever. Nothing on this earth, neither, the things you see with your physical senses or the things you can’t see (spirit world, future, etc.) will ever be able to change the God we worship as Creator/sustainer of the universe. He’s simply NOT going away!
- God’s Love will never end. To love someone who loves you is normal. To love someone who only ‘likes you’ is noble. To love someone who openly hates you is Divine. God’s love for you is the same regardless of how you treat Him, the mistakes or your past or the habits you wrestle with on a daily basis.
- Salvation through Jesus Christ is always available. Jesus doesn’t require you to ‘clean up’ our act to qualify for forgiveness. It’s free for the asking to all who desire it. Simply admit you have failed and ask Him to forgive you. It’s that easy.
- Heaven. I don’t know what heaven will be like. Looking at the good part of life now, I don’t think it will be all angel wings and choirs. Heaven is a real place for us to enjoy each other and God. It’s not changing. It’s a place where all the things we are troubled by now will simply be non-existent.
The beauty of this world will pass away. The struggles of this world will end. Relationships, the good ones and the bad ones will fade away. Financial stability, health and all the troubles of this life will end. Focus on the things that will endure the heat of the fire and the test of time
PRAYER: Lord Jesus. I look around me at all the things that affect my life. Some of them are so very good, like the fall colors, the smell of spring rain, the awesome storms of summer and the purity of the new fallen snow. Yet in the midst of all this beauty pain and agony seem to follow me. Empower me by Your Spirit to focus my heart and mind on the things that won’t pass away. Forgive me for my past and my doubt and help me see Jesus. Amen.
Doing Good When Others Make it Impossible
October 1, 2010 in Uncategorized | Tags: abused, accused, betrayed, embarrassment, failure, fear, freedom, Galatians 6:9, God, Holy Spirit, hurt, Jesus, judgmental, shame, taken advantage of, trust, unappreciated, used | Leave a comment
Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. Galatians 6:9
A friend of mine I’ll call John tells the story of how he had befriended a person who was really struggling with life. John spent hours listening to his new friend tell of her pain, encouraged her when she was feeling down, called her when she was sick and rejoiced with her when things were going well. In the process of building this friendship John told her of the weaknesses he had in order to help her see that she wasn’t the only one that struggled.
One day John found out that the young lady he was helping was telling everyone she knew about his ‘weaknesses’. John was hurt, embarrassed and frustrated by the betrayal and told me he was ‘done helping people.’
As John was sharing his hurt with me I thought of the verse in Galatians where Paul tells us to ‘never grow weary in doing good.’ Each of us takes a risk when we reach out to those around us who are in need. We put ourselves in risk of being hurt ourselves. We put ourselves in danger of falling into sin.
Another risk we take in reaching out to other people is that our motives can be misunderstood. Try as we might to be honest and reach out to others, they may reject our attempts to help or even accuse us of meddling. It seems that those of us in ministry (not JUST pastors) are the most vulnerable to growing weary from helping others.
There always seems to be opposition to the best plans for helping others. It takes time away from our own lives, people are often ungrateful or demanding, some just want to take advantage of our generosity for their own selfish means. It’s no wonder we become disheartened. But Paul exhorts us not to give up doing good but to persevere in spite of how we are treated.
Sometimes there are people we come across who are never satisfied with what we do. We wear our hair wrong, wear the wrong clothes, go to the wrong church, like the wrong music…and the list goes on and on. There is much truth to the saying you can please some people some of the time but you can’t please all the people all the time. We can add to that the reality that there are some people we will never please ANY of the time.
The lesson we as Christ followers must realize is that our reward for doing good won’t necessarily come while we are on earth. It’s a hard lesson to learn but we may be totally unappreciated for what we do until we get to heaven. But don’t get tired. Don’t give up. God sees your efforts. He knows your heart. Even if people don’t understand, your Heavenly Father does understand.
When you feel unappreciated or taken advantage of, or when you can’t seem to please some people, do your deeds as though you were doing them for Jesus. He not only will appreciate you, He and the angels applaud your efforts!
PRAYER: Father, I’m tired of the people around me who never seem satisfied with my efforts. I’m tired of being taken advantage of and betrayed by those who say they are my friends. I’m appalled at the fact that many of the people who have hurt me the worst claim to be followers of you. I ask that you would heal me of the wounds others have placed on me when I’ve only tried to help them. Empower me to continue to work for the good of those around me for Your sake. I ask this in your Holy name, Amen.
Built with Grace 