The Garden of God's Word

I haven't really had a chance to sit down and write about it, but I've been processing Sunday's message from James 1:21-27 these past few days. I've heard sermons on the topic before. Be "doers" of the Word, and not merely hearers. It's certainly not a lesson you hear once, and then move on to the next thing.

This time the words of verse 21 echoed in my heart as I listened to the Pastor's message.

Therefore, putting aside all filthiness and all that remains of wickedness, in humility receive the word implanted, which is able to save your souls. (NASB, italics mine)

When I heard the word "implanted," I immediately thought of a garden. Not the kind of garden that you walk through in the Spring and it's in full bloom and picture perfect. No, I am talking about a garden that has just been planted. I found myself thinking back to the Fall when my mother and I planted daffodil bulbs in the front and back of my house. Together we watered the soil to loosen it. Then we dug deep down to make the perfect nesting spot for the bulbs to rest safely during the winter. Dig too deep, and the bulbs would not be able to make it to the surface in the Spring, but too shallow and they would freeze during the cold of winter and not grow at all. It would be months before I would see the results from that labor of love, but the preparation in advance would be worth the beautiful blooms that would come with the fresh, Spring, sunshine.

This is how I look at God's Word, implanted in me. God takes care to plant the seed of His Word in my heart. He takes care to prepare my heart to accept it, storing it for just the right time. He waters it and cultivates it in the garden of my heart. As I am reading it, I may not even be aware of the roots that are growing, deeper and deeper in my heart. It may be a season before I see any growth from it. Then, just when I need it, the warmth and grace of God's Son shines on me and there is the Word in all of its beauty.

The Message puts it this way: So throw all spoiled virtue and cancerous evil in the garbage. In simple humility, let our gardener, God, landscape you with the Word, making a salvation-garden of your life.

God is the great "Landscaper" of our hearts. But we must read His Word. We must receive it in humility and allow it to saturate our hearts. Then, we will have the roots that allow us to be effectual doers of the Word also. And we will be blessed in what we do. (James 1:25)

Heavenly Father, give me the humility to receive your Word with joy and the wisdom to carry it out in love. In your Son's name, Amen

Emmanuel, God With Us

For the past 5 weeks our church as been doing a series called "Moments with the Master." It has been all about moments in scripture where different people had life changing encounters with Jesus. We started with the scene of Jesus on the cross, and worked backward to today, the Birth of Jesus. Each week everyone was handed a circle as we walked into the sanctuary, and each week we wrote on them our own moments with the Master and posted them up on the wall.

Today, we were shown how God can take all of our hardships, our prayers, and our brokenness, and turn them into something beautiful. During the message, all of our post-its were transformed into something marvelous. The giant murals were finished and we sang the worship song "God With Us" by Mercy Me. I took a picture, but it hardly captures the moment. Look closely. Can you see the picture of Jesus on one wall, and the star on the other?

Matthew 1:22-23 "Now all this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying,

'Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us.'"

God be with you and bless you this Christmas and in the upcoming year.
~Melissa

Strength to Face the Day

By the time I left my house this morning for church, I was very discouraged. Since my DH is on staff at our church, his position requires him to be there early to set up and get ready for service. That leaves it up to me to get the kids ready, pile them into the van, and drive them to church every week. It seems like every Sunday something comes up that makes life rather difficult for me. I have been battling a cold lately so I didn't sleep very well last night. I spent 15 minutes looking for my 2 year old's 2nd shoe. (You'd think I'd get him another pair for such an occasion!) Then BC decided to whine when LR took "his spot" in the van. Finally though, I took a deep breath, crawled into the driver's seat, and backed out of the driveway.

On the way there, I found myself questioning if my heart was right. Was I prepared to go and meet with God in church with my mindset? Why do I always end up with the same grumpy attitude on Sunday mornings? I know that once we are there, it is worth every ounce of effort that it takes to make it. I am always glad that we went.

Today's message was titled "What's it Worth to You?" The real question that the Pastor was getting at was "What is HE worth to you?" We all find time to fit into our lives what we value. One of his points was that each congregation member that showed up today valued God and this church enough to attend this morning. We all carved out time in our day to make it to church. I'm pretty sure that his sermon and its timing were NOT coincidence this morning. It was exactly what I needed to hear.

At the end of service we always sing one more song but this week we sang two. The second song was a familiar one and it started like this:

When we see you, we find strength to face the day.
And in your presence all our fears are washed away.

We sang that over and over again and I began to laugh as I was singing (if that's possible to picture). I get it Lord. I understand what You are trying to tell me. It doesn't matter that I'm going home to the breakfast dishes and unwashed laundry and grocery lists that need to be made. I am in Your presence NOW. That's where I find the strength to face my day ahead. And all of my tomorrows. HE is my strength.

And I left church the opposite of how I left home this morning. I was quite encouraged. Thank goodness the Lord knows just what I need.

Isaiah 12:1-3
In that day you will say:
"I will praise you, O LORD.
Although you were angry with me,
your anger has turned away
and you have comforted me.

Surely God is my salvation;
I will trust and not be afraid.
The LORD, the LORD is my strength and song;
he has become my salvation."

With joy you will draw water
from the wells of salvation.

No Worries

If you are looking for Company Girl Coffee, you can just scroll down to the next post. After posting that nothing of great significance happened in my life this week, I had some pretty major stuff happen yesterday...thus the reason for this post! : )

Two quotes from last week's sermon on money:
"It's only money!" "It's all God's anyway!"

It seems like every time I hear a good message in church these days, there's always a life lesson that follows. Last week our Associate Pastor spoke on Luke 12. He focused on 2 Money LandMINES and how to defuse them.

LandMINE number 1: GREED. The Bible says to guard ourselves against greed. Greed is not just something rich people experience. In today's economy, it is easy for any of us to experience greed when we think only of ourselves. Two ways we can defuse greed are to think beyond ourselves, and to see beyond eternity. Sure I struggle to meet my budget, but there are other ways to give. I can serve at the local food pantry. I can donate clothes that my children have grown out of that are in good condition. I can even offer to babysit for a friend or neighbor for free once in a while so that she can get out with her husband, or just spend some time in peace and quiet. All of those things not only see beyond my own life, but can have eternal value.

LandMINE number 2: WORRY.
Luke 12:22-26 Then turning to his disciples Jesus said "That is why I tell you not to worry about everyday life-whether you will have enough food to eat or enough clothes to wear. For life is more than food and your body more than clothing. Look at the ravens. They don't plant or harvest or store food in barns, for God feeds them. And you are far more valuable to Him than any birds! Can all of your worries add a single moment to your life? And if worry can't accomplish a little thing like that, what's the use of worrying over the bigger things?"

The cure for worry? Remember who your Provider is. Here's the part I was really tested on this week! It is easy to trust God when everything is running smoothly, and bills are getting paid, and there is food on the table. Worrying about the bigger things is a different matter!

Yesterday we took two very big blows to our finances. Part of it was planned as a part of our budget. The other part was NOT. First, my DH went to the dentist to find out what was causing his jaw pain. He's been to our doctor, who thinks he has TMJ. The dentist confirmed that, and he was fitted for a night guard. That, we were prepared for. What we weren't prepared for was a chipped tooth, 3 missing caps, and 4 new cavities! Wow! Now I would normally worry about how we're going to pay for all that, but thankfully the dentist we chose was referred through a friend and gave us a "Pastor's rate." Plus he split the work into phases that will be a little less straining on our budget. No worries here! Thank you Lord for your provision!

The other major thing had to do with our furnace. Back in the fall we had someone come out to look at our AC and he thought he noticed a crack in our furnace when he was in our basement. We didn't have it in our budget to have a furnace tech come out at the time so we just tabled it since we weren't using the furnace at the time anyway. More recently we thought we smelled gas coming from the furnace. That was enough reason to call a repair man and get him out here as soon as possible. Yesterday he came out only to "condemn" our furnace and say that it needed to be replaced as soon as possible. OUCH! He even suggested that we might shut it down and go find other means of lodging until we could replace it.

Now I'm not an expert on this, but CO2 poisoning is a pretty serious thing, right? I immediately began to panic about the safety of my family. Luckily, upon further investigation, the tech. determined that we were ok to stay here as long as we bought a CO2 alarm. So out we go to get the alarm. He still condemned our furnace and we got a quote right away of $2500 for a new one. We get a partial rebate from our local power company and have family willing to let us borrow the money to get the job done. Within an hour of the first bad news and my initial worries, my mind was set at ease, and my family will be taken care of.

I have to ask myself and anyone who reads this that same question that Jesus asked His disciples. "Can worries add a single moment to your life?" Nope. If anything, they take away from precious time that we could spend doing something else. What a hard lesson to learn. Maybe next time, I won't be so quick to worry.

"Don't worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank Him for all He has done." -Phillipians 4:6 (NLT)