Posted in Bible Journaling, Leadership, Life Inspiration, Prayer

It’s not that He will, It’s that He can!

There it was. Sandwiched in among those stories of multiple miracles, and it just leapt off the page, capturing my attention. Just a few words, but so much wisdom to be found,

Matthew 9:23-26 KJVS

[23] And when Jesus came into the ruler’s house, and saw the minstrels and the people making a noise, [24] He said unto them, Give place: for the maid is not dead, but sleepeth. And they laughed him to scorn. [25] But when the people were put forth, he went in, and took her by the hand, and the maid arose. [26] And the fame hereof went abroad into all that land.

The Music Makers

That’s what captivated my mind. Why were they playing music in the ruler’s house when they’d just announced that his daughter had died? So, my first thought was, “Oh, well that makes sense. Music brings comfort.” But no, that wasn’t it at all! Upon studying it out, I find that the music makers were there to create atmosphere of mourning. What? I doubt they needed help in that respect. They’d just lost a child! 

As it turns out there were people paid to mourn and create a somber, sad ambiance among the people in the home. The minstrels were thought to have used pipes, such as the pan flute that omits a low, mournful tone. Although I downloaded some not so mournful sounds in my research on iTunes. There was to be no less than two musicians, but the richer, or more prominent the person was, the more they had. 

It reminded me of the story of an old friend, whose wife’s family owned a funeral home. The wife of the funeral home director would run in to any funeral, whether she knew them or not and wail and weep over the deceased to makes sure the family got their money’s worth. Merrill used to laugh and tell that story again and again. I enjoyed it every time! But there was nothing amusing about these mourners, they were serious and they wanted to create a serious mood. They for certain didn’t appreciate Happy Jesus coming in and disrupting their depression with sounds of jubilation. 

As I read the phrase “Give place: for the maid is not dead,” I wanted to lift my hands and choo choo around the room. Jesus turned every funeral He attended into a party.  But what about those music makers? Where do they fit in? The same place they do today…

They’re Misery Makers

I know I’m a cockeyed optimist. I always see the glass half full. I want to be like the woman with the issue of blood whose story was also in the miracle sandwich. She believed in the ridiculous. Just a few verses before, it said that she had had that issue of blood for 12 years. Nobody could fix it. But Jesus fixed it with a second of faith!  I’m believing that for the Coronavirus. It inundates my thoughts day and night. I’m concerned for the souls that don’t know my Lord. But I’ll not be a misery maker. I’m not going to tout that this world is doomed. I’m going to speak a message of positivity until the Lord tells me otherwise. Because if Jesus can heal that issue; if Jesus can raise a child from the dead, He can turn this virus around on a dime. The world would have you believe otherwise. Satan loves to encourage hopelessness. He thrives on it. The minstrels job was literally to incite sadness, and I fully believe that’s what the media believes it’s role now is.

They’ll get out their pan flutes and play songs of melancholy to drag us into the pits of despair. If anyone had a reason to join the in the music it was the ruler who had just lost his child. But he did not! He followed Jesus in faith and watched as mourners became scorners. And then glory to God he watched as his little girl awoke and the fame spread throughout the land. She’s alive!!! 

Those misery makers are alive and well today. I hear them on the news, in the grocery store, over the telephone. It doesn’t have to be a funeral. They’ll use any reason discourage the children of God from having hope! I wont’ do it. I believe!

The Miracle Maker

Will Jesus squelch this virus? I don’t know, I’m not God. But I believe when the woman got down on her knees and pressed through the crowd that day, risking being ostracized, risking her very life, she didn’t think He could heal her, she knew He could. She didn’t know that He would, but she knew that He could. 

That’s how I believe when it concerns this virus. I’m not gong to fall victim to the “gloom, despair, and agony on me” song as the HeeHaw gang used to sing. I’m going to wait for Jesus to say as He did to the woman with the issue of blood, “your faith has made you whole.” As He did the rulers daughter, “Arise!” It’s not time to lie down, it’s time to kneel down. 

We don’t know God’s plan. But for certain, we know God ability! Believe church! And pray in faith believing.

Posted in Christian Service, Evangelism, Life Inspiration

Life’s Laundry: What to do when the color’s run

CHICK LIFE 2

Funny thing about life… sometimes it’s not funny at all. There are days when I’m trying to sort the laundry of life and make sure that my thoughts are segregated like the laundry piles (lights, darks, heavily soiled, and the “good clothes). Perhaps that’s a little too metaphorical. So let’s do some laundry together and perhaps you and I both will get some things about life figured out.

The Lights and Darks

I have two sides… do you? There’s the church side of Shari. The light side. I love that side! It’s the side that gets to talk to Jesus, study His word, help His people, and do my Father’s business… it’s the side I honestly long for. And then there’s the dark side. It’s the side of me that fights with the light side for domination. I would love to bury it in a hole in the backyard. It’s distracting at best, it’s often times judgmental and desires only the best in life, no matter the cost.  I try to keep them separated, but they occasionally collide and the colors run. I’m trying to do my Father’s business and something shiny pops into to my head or onto the side of a web page…I’m trying to help someone and then that judgmental notion wonders if I should even bother, they won’t appreciate it…I sit down to study God’s word and then something more entertaining comes to mind… I start talking to Jesus, and it ends up being a “Dear God I’m stupid” conversation when I know God has something to tell me but He can’t get a word in edge wise for my rantings and “please forgive me’s.”

The Good clothes vs. the Heavily soiled

I don’t even let them touch! My husband David works at a job where he may sit in a truck all day on a computer, or he may step out of the truck and get doused with oil and various chemicals that make for some interesting stain removal, usually impossible stain removal. There is no way that I would allow those grimy duds to lie next to my Sunday Go To Meetin’ clothes. Sometimes…I do people the same way. Grimy beer drinkin’, cussin’ swarpin’ people that blaspheme God. What about the tribe of liberals that scream for everyone’s rights but believe that I have none as a child of God? They make me nauseous. How on earth can I witness to them, they shut me down before I walk in the door.

Did they? Or did my divisive thinking separate me from them before God could work His magic through the Holy Spirit?

I spend a lot of wasted time going over my laundry lists. The light and the dark sides, God knows both. Good vs. Evil, God loves both. All four require treatment.

The light side is in need of exhortation. Hebrews 3:13 reminds us to exhort one another daily, while it is called To day; lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.” We need the fellowship of other saints to encourage us to keep the dark side at bay because we’re still sinners saved by grace. I love that the writer said “while it is called To day;” meaning… don’t  put it off until tomorrow, because by that time somebody might have already fallen back into sin. We all can you know. The problem with the lights and darks is not that they’re there, but that they go untreated. We don’t encourage each other enough and we don’t confess to one another enough. James 5:16 says “Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.”  The proper way to treat the dark side is to bring it into the light. Not that the two should mingle, but that the dark is made known and then it loses its hold. But we’re afraid to tell our friends about our struggles with the dark side, so it bleeds into the light side until that side is dull and dingy. We need a good friend that is not judgmental, but righteous through the blood of Christ, another sinner saved by grace that know they too have a dark side. Do you have that friend? Are you that friend?

The good clothes vs. the heavily soiled require basically the same treatment. Non-judgmental Christians encouraging non-Christians. The difference would be in the stain removal. While a Christian’s stains are already removed by the blood of Christ, they simply need some freshening up; the unsaved person has sins that are in desperate need of removal but require pre-treatment. Before I can help an unsaved person become clean, I need to spend some time preparing my heart in prayer and preparing they’re heart for the Holy Spirit to do some work before I arrive.

My attitude can only reflect Christ if my heart does. They’ll only see Jesus if I act like Him.

I hope my laundry metaphor helped you today, it helped me to remember that I’m still a sinner, lest I look down my nose at a sinner.

Posted in Christian Service, Leadership, Life Inspiration, Uncategorized

Why I Made a Covenant with God Last Saturday

chick covenant

The issues of life. They are so many and they change day to day if not minute by minute. We can be clipping along at a steady pace and the bottom will drop out of our world or someone close to us. It’s a continual struggle to find the good in a world full of bad. I loved a post I on social media a few days ago that read “It matters not if the glass is half full, or half empty. It’s re-fillable.”

How true!

There are half empty and half full days, but every day the Lord waits for His children to stop in for a refill. Romans 15:13 says ~ Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound in hope, through the power of the Holy Ghost.

I will be the first to confess, and my friends will Amen! it when I say I have issues. Every day. Just this morning I woke up overwhelmed by the days before me and the things that I need to get accomplished. The goals that I set for myself are a lot for a 52 year old gal. I sometimes feel like Moses must have felt at the age of 80 when God stopped by and told Him to pack light and be ready. He has things for us to do.

On Saturday of last week God began to do a work in my half empty heart… again. It’s an ongoing project of His. He knows my desires, He also knows my weaknesses. He has seen me at my best and at my worst.  Don’t start throwing rocks, He sees you too! God reminds us through Jeremiah 23:24 ~ Can any hide himself in secret places that I shall not see him? saith the Lord. Do not I fill heaven and earth? saith the Lord. There’s nothing secret with Him. So why is it that we try to pretend life’s okay. We all have issues.

I for one am tired of saying I’ll do something, anything the Lord asks, and just as quickly pretend I didn’t hear what He said. I’m a very private person when it comes to heartaches and sorrows. I don’t share those well… if at all. It is an area of my life that I do not walk the talk.  I want everyone to feel as though they can share their burdens with me without the possibility of judgement, condemnation or any other concern, but I won’t tell another soul that my glass has days of being empty of hope. Saturday was not a day of hopelessness but more haplessness. I just couldn’t see anything positive at work in my ministry.  And so God and I talked, and talked… and I tried to listen.

I have a heart of a distraction. I’m so unfaithful to the things of God. At the drop of a hat my attention can go astray. I have a dozen projects going at once, I have obligations to people, my creativity is on overflow… song lyrics run through my head and out my ears, there are unfinished projects that lie in wait in the shadows of my day causing me to feel undone and a failure. That is the confession of the Jesus Chick in all it’s reality. So back to Saturday… I needed to do something. I needed to commit to God in a way that way that binding and that filled me with hope. I wanted a visual reminder that I had a made a Covenant with God that I was ready to abound in hope through the power of the Holy Spirit. And so with fingertips to key board I penned a written covenant. Click here —> COVENANT WITH GOD if you’d like to read it. I had no intentions of sharing it, but today God spoke to my heart to publish it on this site as another way of keeping it not only before my eyes, but before the eyes of witnesses who read it.

I entered into a Covenant with God the day I accepted Christ as my Savior and said that I would follow where ever He led, but I’ve failed. Praise God that His Covenants are never failing. This Covenant that I entered into Saturday was more of renewal of dedication to the responsibilities that Christ has placed in me. I share it with you today in hopes that you’ll commit yourself to greater service, and that you will pray for me. I need it. Please pray for:

  • My strength (physically and spiritually) to do the work of God.
  • Opportunities to serve.
  • Discernment of requests made on my time.
  • Humility to step out of the paths of others.
  • That I be an example of the Leadership of Christ.

Please send me your prayer request and if you are led to make a commitment to God through a written or verbal covenant. I’d count it a privilege to lift you to the Lord.

[contact-form-7 404 "Not Found"]