DAY 14: Entitled to What?!

Recently, I've been thinking a lot about the issue of feeling ENTITLED. As a person who works with many people from all over the world who approach people in different ways, I find that one way that truly rubs me wrong is that sense of entitlement that I can often see seep into conversations between someone from the "Western" world talking to someone raised in the developing world. As missionaries and aid workers, it is easy to get caught up into a self-righteous cycle where you hear people express (in direct and passive ways) that the people they've come to serve 'should be happy with whatever they are given'. The haughtiness of us "do-gooders" can sometimes be astounding. It's sad but the truth. People will excuse their lack of excellence or moments of slippage by saying that "it's okay because they should just be happy I'm here to start with." Definitely not the most Christian approach to being our brother's keeper. 

So this thought has been floating through my mind in my own self-righteous stupor and I realized that I do the same thing with God. How many times do I feel like I am entitled to something or envious because someone got something I thought I should have? How many times have I felt "deserving" of a particular blessing or allowance because I could point to how "good" I'd been trying to be in other areas. However, the truth of the matter is I (we) deserve nothing. It's a hard pill to swallow when you've been raised your whole life to be self-sufficient and been taught that the value of hard work is pay-off. But what are you to do when the pay-off for hard work is sacrifice and the pay-off for sacrifice is more hard work? 

There is an answer to that question that comes in two words: GRACE and MERCY. We forget that there's nothing that another of our brothers/sisters on this earth has or does that couldn't have been us if the circumstances of our birth were different. And Psalm 103:10-12 reminds us that God is so faithful in that he doesn't reward us according to what we deserve. "He has not dealt with us according to our sins, nor punished us according to our iniquities. For as the heavens are high above the earth, so great is His mercy toward those who fear Him; as far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us." How dare I (or anyone for that matter) even deign to feel entitled. I am entitled to death. I am entitled to misery. But, by God's grace and his mercy, I have abundant life, never-ending joy and incomprehensible peace. Selah...pause and think on that.

The next time you begin to get annoyed with someone because you feel like their response to you should have been different, remember how our Lord wants your response to be different. The next time you begin to feel like you should have more than what you have because others do, remember how our Lord has given you so much more than you deserve and wants to give you exceedingly above even what you desire. When we shift the focus back to GRATITUDE then we open up our hearts to truly receive all that God has in store for us. 

Be encouraged today to give thanks.

Blessings,

Pastor Andrea

from disconnected to reconnected

Someone asked me today if I'd be willing to share any verse from my last week's bible readings that jumped out at me and was memorable. And, though I read, I was at a loss. As you all know, I don't like to make stuff up, so I just told the truth..."I haven't really had anything this week. I've felt a little disconnected." I know that statement goes against what many people tend to think about ministers and pastors. I think people assume that we must get something whenever we read the Word of God. And, I think that would probably be true some of the time--I often go in looking for that thing...that one word that will heal my hurt or encourage my soul or just make me smile--sometimes disconnect rears its ugly head. 

I know I'm not alone. There are times when, try though we may, we simply cannot seem to feel connected. I wasn't ill at ease. I still had my peace. I just didn't feel any extra "umph" in my relationship with God. It's like having a charger that has a short in the cord. No matter how much you plug it in, you fail to ever truly get your device charged up until you wiggle it around enough to reconnect the short. This works temporarily to get you charged up until you can get somewhere to replace the cord. I decided after that conversation this morning that that's what I've got to do...wiggle it around enough to reconnect my short until God's Word could come in and permanently replace the disconnect with reconnection. 

So I pulled out my Bible and said, "Lord help me see you in these words. Let me here from you today." My "wiggling" was to just keep reading to the next verse and the next passage and the book after that until the Word massaged my soul open. Sometimes you have to press past the disconnect and keep reading until you get to what is yours. Though you may be reading one devotional or reading plan, just keep reading. With that prayer and my wiggle, this is what the Lord gave me in the end:

You keep him in perfect peace

    whose mind is stayed on you,

    because he trusts in you.

4 

Trust in the Lord forever,

    for the Lord God is an everlasting rock.

(Isaiah 26:3-4)

And I sat with perfect peace knowing that no matter how disconnected I feel, when I keep my eyes stayed on him, he is that "everlasting" presence in my life...that Rock from whom living water flows. 

Happy connecting/reconnecting, folks!

Blessings,

Pastor Andrea

Moving Past "Didn't"

"Therefore do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward. 

For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God 

you may receive what is promised....But we are not of those 

who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those 

who have faith and preserve their souls." 

Hebrews 10:36-37, 39

New Year's is one of my favorite times of the year (besides my birthday and Christmas, of course). I'm one of those people who thoroughly enjoys the pomp and circumstance of bringing in a new year (fireworks, dressing up, etc.); and I suppose that it's mostly because I like the idea of fresh starts. However, even with the promise of a fresh start around the corner, there is often a time at the end of the year when my heart starts to wane. I find myself doing self-assessments and pondering all of the things that happened throughout the year and all of the things that didn't. And it's the "didn't" things that tend to get top billing in my heart. I consider all of the things I wanted to accomplish or all of the hopes that I had for various promises of God to be fulfilled/made manifest in this year and my confidence begins to falter. "Didn't" seems to win out.

But without fail, God does what He did this week. He points me to His Word in reminder of how I can nip the downward spiral in the bud. I think we (including me) sometimes forget that God is the ultimate Father who wants to give good gifts...He's God who is actively "doing" and hasn't forgotten what's on his task list. He's not like our image of Santa Claus--He doesn't put us on a "naughty" or "nice" list and attach his promises to our works (though sometimes consequences to our actions feel that way). Keep in mind what he already DID despite whether we deserve it or not. I mean...He already gave the ultimate gift in His Son, but that wasn't the end. We (me too) need to remember that God isn't done. It's like if a parent gives a child what they asked for for one birthday...they don't resolve to never give their child another gift ever again in life. Such is how God does me (His favorite daughter). Such is how God does you.

And so, this end of year time as you begin to self-assess and wonder/worry/ponder on the things that you didn't get or do, take heart that there is still a "great reward" that awaits. God is in the did business! Do not shrink, but instead be one to have faith and endure because what God promised is still on the horizon.

Be encouraged and encourage someone else...
Pastor Andrea

This Is Not A Drill

Brethren, if a man is overtaken in any trespass, 

you who are spiritual restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness, 

considering yourself lest you also be tempted.  

Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.

Galatians: 6:1, 2

If you've never been on a hospital ship before then let me tell you there are some very interesting things that make the whole thing work efficiently. Just like in any other mainland office building, regular fire drills must be conducted to ensure that all crew are ready and able to handle it should a blaze ignite on board. Every crew member must evacuate the ship and congregate at a designated "muster station" where their names are checked against the master list of people on board. 

As you exit and head towards your muster station (arranged by last name alphabetical groupings), you pass a group of people holding a sign and soliciting for STRETCHER BEARERS. You check in at your muster station and then, if you're feeling so inclined, you head back to said sign and exchange your ID badge for one that marks you as a stretcher bearer on a particular team. In the event of a true emergency, teams of people bearing stretchers will re-enter the ship and head to the hospital where they will be directed in helping to get hospital patients out to safety. Needless to say, like so many other roles on the front line, the role of the stretcher bearer is important and cannot be neglected.

Similarly in life, the Lord has directed us to be Stretcher Bearers to one another. It is a role in this life that is important and cannot be neglected. In today's society it is easy to get into a rhythm and focus on what pertains only to self, but God challenges us in His Word to do different, better and more. Galatians 6 tells us to "restore" and "bear burdens" for others. We are indeed directed to be our brother's/sister's keepers. You may have been asking yourself recently if you should even bother to invest in this person or that. Or perhaps you've felt a bit annoyed by a coworker or friend's constant "dumping" of their problems at your doorstep. The thing is that they see something you forgot you had--your new ID badge. The Lord sent this note your way today to remind you that when you decided to follow him, you turned in your own ID and you now bear HIS identification--making you a key player in His team of Divine Stretcher Bearers.

This is not a drill. There are people all around you that need your light to shine and need your shoulder to lean on or that simply need a lift. This week, your challenge is to take your eyes off of your problems and see where you can be that touch of a gentle spirit that someone else needs. And, though you don't do it for this reason, just know that as you pour out that gentleness of spirit on others, the Lord is faithful and just to return that same spirit unto you. Other Stretcher Bearers will be sent your way and have a mission of helping to bear your burdens and put salve on your wounds. So be encouraged...help is on the way...

Blessings,
PastorA

P.S. If this spoke to you...don't forget to "pay it forward" and pass it along to another friend in need of a "lift"...

Build To Order

"So make yourself an ark of cypress wood; make rooms in it and coat it with pitch inside and out. This is how you are to build it:...And Noah did all that the Lord commanded him...But God remembered Noah and all the wild animals and the livestock that were with him in the ark, and he sent a wind over the earth, and the waters receded."

Genesis 6:14-15a, 7:5, 8:1

The other day, I was assisting with the process of organizing chairs in a conference room. The conference room was average size and the chairs enough to sit approximately 350-400 people. As the process began, one of the ladies in charge began to explain to me their way of doing this. It would not be enough to simply "eyeball" the chairs and line the backs up in lines. The precision that the process demanded literally boggled my mind. She explained that we had to have at least 3 people to make the process work--two to hold ropes at either end of the room and the third to arrange the actual chairs in line. I stood there with my brow a bit furrowed as she and the others explained the process, on the edge of protest to say that it didn't have to be this complicated. Until the Lord began to deal with me. 

As He pierced my spirit, I tempered my tongue and simply fixed my face and followed instructions. While I couldn't truly grasp what the point was for the complicated process, I knew that it was an order that had been handed down from the leader of the organization. This was the way it was to be done. And as we completed our task and stood back, it became increasingly clear that the level of excellence that they demanded was well worth it. It was almost breathtaking to seek the whole room in such a state of order. While I would have been satisfied with approximations of lines, they were striving for consistency, excellence and obedience. I thought of all the times in the Bible where we read instances where God spoke and people obeyed--Solomon with the temple, Nehemiah with the wall...but Noah was at the top of my mind. When God said "this is how you do it", Noah did not respond "well why?" Instead, he moved forward in obedience down to the very cubit. And God remembered him in the end and "the waters receded."

Do you ever wonder what if things in the Bible had gone another way? What if Noah had not been as righteous? What if he had questioned God? Or what if he had proceeded but changed the measurements of the wood or only brought one horse instead of two? How many times do we have the opportunity to submit our will to that of others and/or God and we either do it reluctantly with questions of "why" along the way or we simply don't do it? How many times has God unctioned our spirits to proceed in one direction and we have turned to the other? How many times have we had supervisors who have given us instruction that we have grudgingly walked out when we could have simply submitted our spirits to authority with a smile? If you're anything like me, I'm sure you can point to a number of opportunities that you missed. So I'm here today to encourage you not to miss your next chance. Something or someone will come your way in in the coming week (or just came at you recently) and I want to challenge you to proceed in pure, uncontested obedience. Perhaps you are waiting for the waters (things that are overwhelming you) to recede but haven't built the boat to order. Imagine the "floods" of life that God will keep you from and bring you through if you simply obey. Selah...pause and think on this.

Blessings,
PastorA

Journey To Praise

"Enter into His gates with thanksgiving,
And into His courts with praise.
Be thankful to Him, and bless His name."

Psalm 100:4

The other day I woke up and felt a little disconnected...okay maybe more like a lot disconnected. I began the day as I often do--reading my devotional. But even as I read I still couldn't shake that feeling. There are times when, even in the midst of going to church or reading our bibles, we simply aren't "feelin it" and definitely can't put our finger on what's missing. Sometimes we simply need a little nudge from the Lord to help us get back on track. I was searching for my nudge.

As I read I Chronicles 6, something jumped off the page in verses 55-57. It wasn't a phrase that anyone would really take note of beyond me. It wasn't one of our many super-quoted verses that stuck out. Instead in the midst of talk about lineage and 'who begot who' and the division of property was a part that said "They gave them Hebron in the land of Judah, with its surrounding common-lands...one of the cities of refuge". A smile grew on my face as I felt the nudging of God. You see, in my current journey away from what had been my home for 13 years, God told me to come to Hebron. I hadn't heard of such a place until my brother and his family moved to a neighboring city of Hebron, KY. The significance of this may mean nothing to anyone else. However upon closer look at the verses showed that Hebron (the biblical one) was a city in Judah and "Judah" means praise. I smiled even greater as I left my room to hear that my family made plans for us to go visit with another family member who lives in Hebron proper that day. And so...in the midst of my disconnect, the Lord reached through the pages of His Word and nudged me into a space of refuge and a place of praise.

I can't tell you where your "nudge" will come from. It probably won't look like mine. But what I do know is that when we commit to the process of devoting time to Him in prayer and reading his Word, He will meet us right where we are. He wants to take us to places of refuge in Him. He doesn't have to shout from the rooftops. He doesn't have to beat us over the head with it. At the end of the day, the thing that reconnects us all from that place of disconnect is plain and simple...PRAISE.

Be encouraged on your journey to praise.

Blessings,
PastorA