For Thirsty Souls: January 2017

Sunday, January 29, 2017

Friday, January 27, 2017

Friday, January 20, 2017

Wednesday, January 18, 2017

Recently, my daughters brainstormed into being a ladies' luncheon for the mothers and daughters at our little church. They asked me to share a some tea cup-related inspiration with everyone so I pondered a few weeks, and after asking the Lord, and some friends, I came up with the following:

Tea cups come in varied sizes, shapes, and with different marking or none at all. Some are exquisitely beautiful, while others are simply elegant. They come from different parts of the world and make their abode in our cabinets sometimes from far away. But they all are created with a common purpose in mind: to hold something, whether it is tea, coffee, hot cocoa, little flower bouquets, floating candles, or potpourri.

So it is with people. We are all created by God. Some are tall, some are short. There are thick ones and thin ones. There are different skin tones and nationalities. There are different personalities. And we come from the four corners of the earth. But in all our differences, the Master Potter has created us all with one specific purpose in mind: To known Him and make Him known/ to love Him and others. No matter where we go in life, or where we've come from, always this is the single most important purpose, the Purpose of all purposes that He has in mind for us.

As we go through our lives, may we always remember the words of Paul in 1 Corinthians 10:31:

Whether you eat or drink or whatever you do; do everything for God's glory. Teacups in journaling Bible.:

One of my friends sent me the following story when she heard that

I was giving a talk on tea cups at a ladies' luncheon. I was so blessed by it:

The Tea Cup

There was a couple who used to go England to shop in the beautiful store. This was their 25th wedding anniversary. They both liked antiques and pottery and especially tea-cups. They said,”May we see that? We’ve never seen one quite so beautiful.”

As the lady handed it to them,suddenly the tea-cup spoke, “You don’t understand.” It said, “I have not always been a tea-cup.There was a time when I was red clay. My master took me and rolled me and patted me over and over and I yelled out, “Let me alone,” but he only smiled, “Not yet!!”
“Then I was placed on a spinning wheel and suddenly I was spun around and around and around. ‘Stop it !! I’m getting dizzy!’ I screamed. But the master only nodded and said, ‘Not yet.’
Then he put me in the oven. I never felt such heat. I yelled and knocked at the door. I could see him through the opening and I could read his lips as he shook hid head, ‘Not yet’.
“Finally, the door opened, he put me on the shelf, and I began to cool. And he brushed and painted me all over. The fumes were horrible. I thought I would gag. ‘Stop it, Stop it!!’ I cried. He only nodded, ‘Not yet!’.
Then suddenly he put me back in to the oven, not like the first one. This was twice as hot and I knew I would suffocate. I begged. I pleaded. I screamed. I cried. I would never make it. I was ready to give up. But the door opened and he took me out and placed me on the shelf.
An hour later he handed me a mirror and said ‘Look at yourself.’ And I did. I said, ‘That’s not me; that couldn’t be me. It’s beautiful. I’m beautiful.’

“I want you to remember, then,’ he said, ‘I know it hurts to be rolled and patted, but if I just had left you alone, you’d have dried up. I know it made you dizzy to spin around on the wheel, but if I had stopped, you would have crumbled. I know it hurts and it was hot and disagreeable in the oven, but if I hadn’t put you there, you would have cracked. I know the fumes were bad when I brushed and painted you all over, but if I hadn’t done that, you never would have hardened. You would not have had any colour in your life, and if I hadn’t put you back in that second oven, you wouldn’t survive for long because the hardness would not have held. Now you are a finished product. You are what I had in mind when I first began with you.” God knows what He’s doing [ for all of us ]. He is the potter, and we are His clay. He will mould us and make us, so that we may be made into a flawless piece of work to fulfill His good, pleasing and perfect will.
– Submitted by Cathy Pinto

What a beautiful picture of the Potter and the clay.

And what reality it is many times as we go thru

the moulding and firing process...

we kick and scream until we figure out that

He knows what He's doing and we yield to

letting Him produce in us the peaceable fruits of righteousness.

We enjoyed our day with the ladies.

There was pink. There were tea cups. There were white skirts.

And sheer lacey cloths. Candles. Tulips and icicle lights.

It was lovely.

(happy sigh)

I'm glad my daughters thot of this and

helped to get it accomplished.

Sunday, January 15, 2017

Wonderful Words of Life...

Ephesians 2:8 (NAS) For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God;:

Friday, January 13, 2017

The Root of Fruit...

Fruits of the spirit paper craft - Fruits of the spirit puzzle. See my template on this board.:

So I've been thinking....I hear about New Year's resolutions and I applaud everyone who has goals at the beginning of the year for areas in their life that are lacking. I've done the same thing myself sort of as a commitment to God that I am willing to let him work in me the peaceable fruit of righteousness. God honors that and makes sure we have opportunities to grow in those areas as only He can.

The other evening we were discussing in Bible study with our church family the need to have the fruit of the Spirit as our 'goals' for a new year. I had a 'revelation' that evening, but it really was an old understanding coming at me in a new and amazing way.

Paul lists the fruit of the flesh in Galatians 5, and then he lists the fruit of the Spirit. How beautiful the Spirit fruit is! But then he tells us HOW to produce that fruit after he lists it. It is simply by walking in the Spirit and living by the Spirit. How simply refreshing that thot was to me. If I am walking and living that way, then God will produce that fruit (HIS fruit) in me.

Often times we are walking through life and we don't really know what God is up to at the immediate time of his working. That's far beyond our comprehension. What all our obedience is giving him aid to do in our lives is too great for us to even see at the time of it's 'doing'. But in a few years, we can look back and see with greater understanding just what God was doing and how he was increasing the Life and Fruit in our lives.

We are well aware of the lack in our lives if we are honest. The truth of the matter is, we might as well admit that outside of Christ, we are nothing. Scripture says that. Outside of Christ, our righteousness is filthy rags and of no value to God. Only the life of Christ in us makes us acceptable and clean before the God of all the ages. If there is a weak area in our lives where we feel some of that Spirit fruit should be greater, all we need to do is ask our selves what roots we have left 'unaxed'.

Chastening yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it. Heb. 12:11:

We strive so hard sometimes to be right, to do the right things, and to produce that fruit that we surely as Christians MUST have. Thse are noble aspirations, but the work we really need to do is as Jesus said, to "lay the ax to the root of the tree", meaning to surrender all and to get ourselves out of the way. Paul calls it 'being crucified with Christ". Seriously, my friends, whenever we get to that place of complete brokenness in our lives, where we have laid down it all...the dreams, the hopes, the plans, the lofty aspirations to make a difference in the world in specific terms we have laid out, the family, the friends, the reputation, houses, lands...EVERYTHING...then the ax has sufficiently killed that root of selfishness and pride to the point that JESUS CHRIST is the theme of our lives.

While it is true that we can always choose to serve the flesh, we can get to a place in our lives where we truly are broken and we truly embrace the cross bearing life that Jesus called us to embrace. The Cross is an instrument of death. Everyone who heard Jesus' repeatedly say that to follow Him, we need to deny ourselves and take up our cross, understood the reality of the word picture he used because it was a common instrument used to administer the death penalty to criminals. If we 'fall on the Rock and are broken', fully surrendered to Christ in everything, then our biggest struggle will not be ourselves. Sure, we'll still be given the same opportunities to live for me or to live for Him, but the decision will be made and we will swiftly choose Him on a consistent basis.

”Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. . . . For my yoke is easy, and my burden light” (Matthew 11:28, 30).:

If you do not know this kind of life and are a Christ follower, I am hear to shout out an encouragement that you truly can know that rest that He talks about in Matthew where he calls us to come unto him, all who labor and are heavy laden. BUT notice how he says our rest will come..."take my yoke upon you and learn of me and you will find rest for your souls'. So learning of Christ, thru carrying our cross that kills our flesh, is where true rest comes from. And this endless striving to have the right fruit and bigger fruit and more fruit will cease. No longer will we have to worry if we are producing it or not, because we WILL.

Is there no work to be done then? Absolutely yes...but the work is at the root level, in surrender and obedience to God. When that is our life choice consistently and daily, then the fruit will grow... God assures us of that. "Whatever you sow, that you will also reap".

I share this, at the beginning of 2017, to encourage us all to embrace the life of cross bearing that Jesus calls us to embrace. It is totally worth it. In it, there is LIFE and there is REST...

Love and blessings,
Marcia

PS
I feel incredibly blessed to have been trained by a preacher who speaks it simply but straight to the heart...Zac Poonen's sermons on this subject have stirred much hope in my heart thru the years and helped me to know how to lay that ax to the root of the tree. One sermon comes to mind where he tells the story of a certain insane asylum that had a test they gave patients to see if they were ready to leave the facility or not. They gave them a mop and a bucket, and then turned on a faucet in their cell and told them to clean up the mess. Only the ones who turned off the faucet were given a clean bill of health to leave the place. So it is in our Christian walk...we can use a mop and a bucket all the rest of our days on earth. Or we can turn off the faucet (lay the ax to the root of the tree). From the moment I heard this the first time, I knew which one I would choose! It has been the second most important decision of my life, the first one being that I turned from my sins and received salvation by faith in Jesus' Christ. The faucet sometimes gets bumped back on again, but God gives us the power to turn it off and live consistently in the realm of freedom that comes when we wear Jesus' yoke, which is easy and when we take on his burden, which is light. This is the hope of his resurrection!!! I am delighted that I get to live in it daily, by the power of my Savior!