Tag: life circumstance

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Unraveled at the Feet of Jesus

Written by talk2shari Published Discussion Leave a Comment on Unraveled at the Feet of Jesus

Trying to find a biblical family in the scripture to model your family after is next to impossible. Dysfunction doesn’t even begin to describe it. From the beginning it was filled with disobedience, betrayal and murder. So it should not come as a surprise that our own families are so messed up today, and yet when it happens we’re shocked. And when you couple the fact that those stories of dysfunction were within God’s chosen leaders of the day, who weren’t perfect, but their relationship with the Lord was to be desired; what does that say about us? Few of us have a relationship with the Lord that’s as tightly knit. So we unravel… and our family isn’t what we envisioned, and neither are we.

I can write from the heart of dysfunction. If God were still adding text to the Bible (and He’s not by the way), but if He were, there could likely be the book of Shari. Perhaps many sermons would be preached from my text with a title like “The Diva of Dysfunction.” There likely would not be the intrigue as many books of the Bible entail, but there would be comedy and chaos, heartache and hindrances to the will of God, fractured moments and failed missions. Several trips to the wood shed for certain. But… in the midst of it all you’d find Mercy. And me at His feet… unraveled.

From Heaven I have a feeling my life looks like a tangled mess of God’s intentions. Maybe yours does too. We have to remember that regardless of what we do, God does see the other side.

  • Poor decisions can take us down a wrong path. And though the distance is rougher and longer, God can still bring us to His intended spot.
  • Broken relations were not His plan, but the healing that He provides can make you stronger and more appreciative of the unbroken.
  • Finances may not be your forte, (it’s not mine) but by giving back to Him what we were entrusted with, perhaps that seed will take root and grow in ways we can’t even imagine. Or He may just give us contentment… and that’s okay too.
  • Sometimes family is the tie that binds, and sometimes it’s the tie that gags, but it’s the foundation of the gospel. We are the family of God. And if He can put up with our shenanigans do we not owe our family the same. A man who sought God’s wisdom ask his counselor “When can I stop caring.” The counselor’s reply was “When God does.”

If I wrote an exhaustive list of dysfunctions you wouldn’t take the time to read my blog. So let’s put it like this. You fill in the blank. “Dear God, ________________ is unraveling in my life. And I need you to knit it back together.”

Scripture says in Colossians 2:2 ~ That their hearts might be comforted, being knit together in love, and unto all riches of the full assurance of understanding, to the acknowledgement of the mystery of God, and of the Father, and of Christ;

We don’t know the end of our story. But we can be comforted in the knowledge that we are loved and that God’s plan is still on track. That tangled mess that we see, will one day be a viewed as a beautiful tapestry …or perhaps a cable knit sweater.

I hope today finds your life at peace, and wrapped up in the love of God

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Can you Hear Me Now?

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can you hear me now

Matthew 13:15a – For this people’s heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing,

There He was; the Lord Himself preaching His heart out and some would hear, and some would not. How daunting it must be for the preachers when they preach the Word realizing that if they ignored Christ, how will their message ever get through? It s for certain that the world has partial hearing loss when it comes to Spiritual things. The Word of God convicts the soul, you’ll either change or turn it off; because if you continue to listen you will not continue to stay in your sin.

I think there are at least three reasons we lose our Spiritual hearing.

Noised Induced –

I detest talking to someone when the television is on. I’m either listening to them or the show or bits of both and only half catching either. It ends up being a mass of confusion. Listening to the Holy Spirit can be much the same if we refuse to turn off the world around us. You can hear one or the other clearly, but bits of both leads to confusion. Listen to something loud enough and long enough can cause at least temporary hearing loss, and so it goes spiritually. If you constantly listen to worldly music and entertainment, if you read magazines instead of the Bible, if you stay at home and watch the race instead of going to church, the noise drowns out the Holy Spirit. God will take second place to nothing, and why should He?

Selective hearing –

When the world speaks contrary to the scripture regarding lifestyle choices and behaviors you cannot partially hear and entirely obey. We cannot pick and choose from the scripture what is right for us and omit what doesn’t fit into our lives. Amen? God is 100% correct. The longer you read the scripture, the more prophesy you see coming to life right before our very eyes, the more you realize the end of the book is nearing. Just because you don’t like, doesn’t make it null. And believe me when I say there is always effect for failing to obey the Word of God.  ~ I’ve gotten that tee shirt.

Natural causes – The gradual loss of sensitivity to hearing. It almost goes unnoticed; until one day you realize you’ve missed half of what someone says. It’s often embarrassing for the listener, so rather than confessing it they just go on, pretending all is well. The world has desensitized themselves to hearing God. When the Holy Spirit moves on them to testify or do something out of character they refuse to leave their comfort zone. And eventually their closed off the Spirit completely. He could be sitting right beside them in a literal form and they wouldn’t notice.

Another reason for Spiritual hearing loss is Trauma – life circumstances

It’s true when they say that a painful circumstance will either make you bitter or better. I have no idea why horrific things happen to good people, and why horrific people receive good things. But scripture tells us that it rains on the just and the unjust. And one of the greatest of all truths is Romans 8:28 ~ “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.”

There is a true story of twin girls who were molested by their father and one chooses to forgive and the other chooses to forgo forgiveness. Guess which one lived the happier life? Not to make light of the situation, because no one should ever violate a person in that way. But the twin who refused to forgive relived the circumstance every day, and the twin who forgave moved on to the newness of life that the forgiveness of Christ affords. Traumatic circumstances like this can cause a person to turn God off. And it’s a wonderful tool of Satan to help them with the volume button. If you’ve been hurt, get your Bible and turn the volume up as loud as you can to drown out what Satan is telling you. Because in those pages are healing. God to a good Bible preaching church, because in the Pastor’s anointed words are healing.

Hearing brings healing. There’s a reason you may walk by car and hear a loud mouthed preacher shoutin’ to the top of his lungs. I’m drowning out the world. You may see me at a the restaurant table reading my bible rather than having lunch with someone, I’m drowning out the world. And its not that my life has been perfect, its just that I’ve chose to listen to God because I’ve experienced the peace He offers. And so can you.