Office Use Only, God’s Office

Yeah, my brain and my time has relaxed after my marathon sprint last week – my son’s wisdom teeth surgery and my daughter’s move back to college. “WHEW” cannot describe this feeling – and to catch up on sleep, oh Blessed.

Oh, so Blessed that EVERY MORNING the Lord wakes us up and prepares us for a new day. Today I can work from home – sitting outside – I knew that I had the opportunity to enjoy the last bits of summer – so today I knew that I was blessed to even be alive. After my morning 7am walk, I started the ping-pong session of the thousand things I wanted to accomplish around the house and then to sit down and work at work-work. I did get a lot done – and I then got the call – a call to help someone in need – yes time to switch gears, to help, to work on God’s time. Was it cutting into my non work-work free time? Well, NO because ALL time is all GOD’S time. I knew that I was to go, how could I not toe the line, in wait for His instructions, because we are ALWAYS working on God’s Dime and in His Time.

And it all worked out, all is OK. While I was later standing in the dollar store, passing the time waiting for my friend, sure enough there was a sign – always a sign – a God sign. Today’s sign said “Office Use Only”. Say What? God’s Office, our ultimate Home Office, is in charge of our time. This was a true sign, physical paper too, taped to a misplaced bucket of office supply stuff, left on a random shelf probably when the cashier was in a rush, this was a sign that reminded me that my time is not my time. I cannot rush my time, halt my time, be stingy with my time. My time is God’s time, ALL THE TIME. If I have misplaced myself in God’s Time, He will find me. Hunted down like Psalm 139 for sure.

If we plan something, well we need to work that out with prayer. How often does God work that out with us, knowing all will be fine? All the time. Remember James 4 for sure: Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, “If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.”

The Lord’s Will.

Let that sink in. We are blessed with time. Why? 

Sometimes we don’t seem to have enough time. Why?

We cannot make time. Why?

People need to spend time thru God’s blessing’s time. Why?

Because God Makes Time.

Why and how can we work for God? We already do, don’t even ask why.

Why and how can we ask God what He wants? We often don’t see that He has put the task to us before we even have to ask.

God’s Office requires us to leave space in our time for “Office use only” – to be in a movable place – a flexible space – allowing enough personal grace to be forgiving and realize His giving grace. We are best to set aside time for, and be willing to give back time to, the One Who Makes Time. 

It is ALL His Time. Give it to God and we will be fine.

Amen

Oh the scars we carry… scary scars, brutal scars, tiny bits of us disrupted and faded but not gone. Scars are reminders. But scars DON’T have to be open. No. The scars in your life, on your heart are now CLOSED. If it’s healed enough to be a scar, then it’s all healed from within,  it’s not open anymore. If it is a visible scar, you have a story to tell to anyone who is thirsting for knowledge of how the Lord heals

Heaven knows, Jesus understands your scars. Jesus has them too.

Yes, the One (whom Thomas doubted) showed His Scars to all, but not because He was still bleeding, or to cause alarm, but because the scars showed history, identity, and realness. Not because they were relevant anymore. Scars and all, JESUS WALKED ALIVE. Scars of past pain left behind, now present was PRESENCE. Jesus did NOT let His Scars keep Him from moving forward, neither should we. Jesus did NOT continue to bleed from His Scars, did NOT stay crumbled. Jesus Overcame. So can we. 

What scars represent is ACTUALLY precious healing, whether precise or haphazard these are repaired wounds, sometimes processing is long but truly these become closed cases. Scars remind you where you came from, identify what you HAD gone through, and are not corrupted with now. You should be able to look at a scar and remember that you HAVE healed. You ARE still you, a better you, a wiser you. You are a survivor, a Spirit-fed and Jesus-filled survivor. 

Jesus, He gained His scars to take away the pain and bleeding from ours. Jesus, He heals by deliverance, He is the Deliverer, your Deliverer, mine too. What scars I have, I remember but they no longer reverberate, Jesus silenced them from His Healing from deep within my soul.

Let your scars be. Walk Whole. 

Amen 

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A powerful song, My Deliverer, speaks of Jesus heard the whole  world cry, and He was knowing the healing that would flow from His Own Scars. He will never break His promise. 

Song by Richard Mullins, just before he passed, sung by Ragamuffins

Perfect time to watch Jonah online from the Sight and Sound theater, a free showing, amazing production. It is Sunday, I have finished a MARATHON of mom-life this week, between packing and moving my daughter to college and wisdom teeth surgery for my son, fully working too. It was raining this afternoon and so God gave me this as a good opportunity to just be. The story lines of Jonah resonated with me. Four short chapters, forever the bible has a lifetime of lessons. 

Jonah loved the Lord but did not want to do what God commanded. He did not want to go to Ninevah, a terrible place, so AFRAID to go, plus he really did not like the people either. Jonah ran away but God found a way to pull him back. Hurled into the sea off a boat, God scooped Jonah up inside a whale, then spit him to where he was supposed to be. Whale or no whale, God can be very persuasive. Have you ever been saved to be placed where God wanted you to be? Our best plan, like reluctant Jonah, is obedience to God. He’s got a mission for you, starting with accepting His LOVE. 

My kindle battery then ran out, mid-song. Apparently God also reminding me that I am NOT supposed to sit and watch movies all day, I recharged my kindle and my activities. The song the show stopped on was: “Everyone has a Ninevah, God gives you strength to go.” Yes. God’s plan is for us to act. This does not mean we are going to be a full-blown prophet like Jonah, nor that it will be easy to decipher God, or even make sense of the plans, but it is to His profit that we seek to serve Him for the people whom He puts in front of us. Enemies and friends alike. It always takes forgiveness for the full fruition of LOVE to flourish… Jonah learned that too.

God has made you very special AND very ordinary, BOTH, so that He shines thru your regular acts of kindness, hopeful smiles, and simple words… it might not be a whole country you need to help but a small country lane of folk. Not a donkey to ride, but anything driving you to a purpose. Perhaps a group of people whom you don’t know. Perhaps those whom only would hear the truth from your testimony, because they trust you. They may know it was God who reached them in a whale of a scoop and He had saved you too. Whomever, wherever, you just be ready to be you. Prepare for Journeys. Read the signs. Be willing to walk into His opportunities. 

It stopped raining but I didn’t run outside to see a rainbow, His glory is everywhere. I know to share that Jesus came as our guide, the promise, the Greater sign. As Jesus mentioned Himself, His message is greater than Jonah’s, Jesus IS the Prophecy fulfilled.

Then some of the Pharisees and teachers of the law said to him, “Teacher, we want to see a sign from you.” Jesus answered, “A wicked and adulterous generation asks for a sign! But none will be given it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of a huge fish, so the Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. The men of Nineveh will stand up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it; for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and now something greater than Jonah is here. Matthew 12:38-42.

Jesus was the sign that some just didn’t read, some still don’t… blinded, stubborn, lost, unable to let their faith be their guide… OR like some on Ninevah, and today, they simply have not heard…. Jonah,  Moses and many prophets knew of the tough sell, we surely do too. Jonah was happy to obey God by delivering His message (Ninevah to be destroyed in 40 days) but then he got upset that they actually got rescued!

Jonah 3: And God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God repented of the evil, that he had said that he would do unto them; and he did it not.

The best song in the play is “For now I’m free” – yes like for Ninevah,  it is our FAITH that sets us free.

Jonah was directed to speak prophecy, but it was FAITH that made the difference in the lives of the Nineveh folk. This was a surprise to Jonah (as portrayed in the play). Jonah was upset enough to die to see people so freed who had been so wicked.  But it wasn’t Jonah’s mercy to withhold, was it? God declares the plan. God gives mercy and only God. Mercy is not a given, it is a GIFT.

Jonah saw this LOVE firsthand. God, Almighty Powerful God finds a way to give mercy, just like when even sin’s ransom took giving His only Son for exchange to regain ALL His children. Only Jesus makes us worthy of this level of LOVE.

For us, we must remember and speak of this Mercy, our Jesus as the gift of forgiveness, the difference for saving all lives. We simply are saying the truth: I need Jesus and you need Him too. We find it not so simple to forgive enemies, rotting souls, ignorant ones, but we must. Like Jonah, we can be SURPRISED at the level of God’s Mercy, Love, Forgiveness. That IS the Truth. 

Then said the Lord, Doest thou well to be angry?

God, our God of Love delivered the people and us: “Why wouldn’t I save, redeem, love?”

This is the Good News.

This Good News is ours to share. How can we not dare.

Amen

“Ranked #1 for student upward economic mobility” – that’s the banner on the main bell-tower quad at my daughter’s college. Upward Mobility is achievable, desirable and smart. In order to get this education for her, I’m not letting my own debt increase worry me – I have Upward Mentality (not upward mobility) – a mentality that is an overcoming sense of faith which rises over being overwhelmed by unknowns in the future. I’ve structured knowns best I can, the rest we trust in God. He has taken us “safe thus far”.

Upward Mentality

Credit counts also when we look at our forever, as our Lord has all the credit to take us farther, based on how He has brought us so far. Yes, our Upward Mentality is for our salvation. Yes we can salivate “forever life” because we are living on Jesus’s Credit. With Jesus,  our debts of sins are erased, our mobility is restored, our “only way to look is up”. Our faith is our ultimate Upward Mentality. 

I have faith and I have earthly reasoning and both tell me to keep moving,  keep planning, keep keeping on. When I am gone, I expect and count blessings that my children will keep moving up too.

I stepped into the college quad yesterday because I heard the bell tower. After successfully depositing my BEST investment into school, my daughter and her dreams, I was driving thru campus soaking in the moment. I parked my car and listened to the chiming. This is not my college bell tower, but hers. This is not my dream, but hers. My bell tower and campus were in totally different times, but these chimes and this adventure of opportunities feel the same. Upward Mobility and Upward Mentality.

Bells chime so that we know that time is moving on – not slipping away. Bells chime as simply a signal that we made it to today. We are still here. We are to chime too, ring out our hopes and dreams and find opportunities. JUST like the clock and the time, we can move forward. Just like the clock face, we reset not just once but twice a day, each new day has new beginnings.  

(We sometimes find ourselves doing the sad bell tolling too, having to acknowledge gloomy things around us. But we don’t have to dwell on the lows. We don’t have to stay stuck in time. Don’t dwell and don’t try to hold the arm of time from advancing.) 

We don’t know what tomorrow brings, but we CAN and SHOULD bring our best to tomorrow. Don’t dilly dally, tomorrow will be here before you know it. Be upwardly mental mobile movable. 

The best mountain for God to move is YOU! The best way to look is UP. The best sight to see is HOPE. 

Thank You Lord, for our lives – today and forever – we can strive to make the best as you ALREADY made the best possible. The best mentality is giving credit where credit is due.

Amen 

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Colossians 3:23-24 ESV
Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ.

Colossians 3:17 ESV 
And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

Matthew 11:5-6 NIV

Jesus said “the blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is proclaimed to the poor.  Blessed is anyone who does not stumble on account of me.”

28-30: “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

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PS – a song I heard AFTER writing this is so fitting “Make a Way” by I AM THEY – about “You brought me this far, You will make a way!” SO TRUE!  https://youtu.be/yiTMPWG3C4M

I’m so proud of my daughter, today she goes back to college. 

What a GIFT it has been to watch her grow.

What a GIFT it has been to listen to her planning things where I would wing it.

What a GIFT it is that she’s such a smart cookie. 

What a GIFT that she was born 6 weeks early and opened up an early entry into kindergarten. 

What a GIFT it is that she with her roommates will navigate this new adventure together. 

What a GIFT that she is only an hour and a half away.

What a GIFT that her school is even opening and has a great plan. 

What a GIFT that she is not only a student, but also a work co-manager, a peer mentor, and on a professional society organization. 

What a GIFT that she’s making her own choices and living her own dreams and being able to venture out into the real world. 

What a GIFT that she’s prepared for cautious living in these times. 

What a GIFT that God has blessed her with a brain to think, a heart to love, a direction to follow. 

What a GIFT that I have to step back and let her navigate herself. 

What a GIFT that she will facetime me so I can peek into her future. 

What a GIFT that keeps on giving…

Go change the world my daughter. Actually You Already Have…

Love you!

Mom

2020

Maybe THIS is THAT Year

Maybe THIS is THAT year someone was supposed to have more time.

Maybe THIS is THAT year someone did NOT miss their child’s special birthday because of their work conference, the fair, the big game, the college reunion, or the VBS prep that DIDN’T happen. 

Maybe THIS is THAT year someone had more time at the lake, the cabin, their parents, their grandchildren’s house, their garden, their home.

Maybe THIS is THAT year someone learned new things, taught a youngster, wrote a book, tried to cook, cleaned out the garage, found a new job, wrote a song, made new adventures. 

Maybe THIS is THAT year someone smiled more, heard the birds, went outside, listened to the rain, fell in love, held a hand, touched a heart, took a moment to cry, sat quietly, learned to be OK with being alone. 

Maybe THIS is THAT year someone heard the Lord calling, reconciled their past, felt healed, forgave someone, was forgiven, met Jesus. 

Maybe God says: I have been waiting for you. This year was My Year to find you too.

Maybe THIS is THAT year for all these things, all those things, no one ever usually got around to do.

Maybe THIS is THAT year set aside for someone special, like you.

Maybe THIS is THAT year special things got arranged, just for you.

Enjoy this year. Life is a gift. 

2020 should give hindsight of how many ways God has blessed you.

Amen 

My Favorite Favorites, 20AUG

Scripture tells us we are not to show favoritism,  but that’s quite the human trait huh? It’s not exactly what James 2 means about favoritism but I just have to say that I am asking prayers for my favorite favorites who are my favorite iffy believers.  Honestly we are to love all. James writes that MERCY triumphs over judgment. We should be merciful. Pray loving forgiveness for those who need it and act appropriately humble because we need forgiveness too. I have been the one others prayed for. Let me appreciate that. I am also the one needing forgiveness and Jesus came. Thank God for Jesus. 

Our gracious Lord Jesus loves to show us love, so that we may know how to share it. Our Father will not weigh our wrongs, nor our original sin because of Jesus’s act in securing forgiveness thru salvation to all who affirm their need for Him. I need Jesus, how about you?

My favorite iffys – oh…. oh, they are in my prayers today – and I pray that they are not even iffy – I pray that what I have heard of their vows of God not existing, that they themselves doubt their doubtfulness, that they are leaving the opening to their ears and hearts cracked just enough to let Jesus in someday… a last minute save is still a save…. ah, I have my favorite favorites and I don’t want them to be left behind. I also want them to believe now, so they help open up the cracks in others hearts.

See everyone does have a level of faith,  deep down faith that bubbles out sometimes, they’ve buried it with too many burdens, sticks in the mud who have seen so many storms bury more mud on them that seemingly no one can find the stick anymore (but Jesus can). If you can wash away enough mud, be part of the solution, then try to get that stick exposed just enough to get a grip on it. Thru higher water pressure, Living Water presence, and angel forces surely the Heavens are working on the Way to move them from “stick in the mud” to “productive branch of the Father”, ready to bear fruit. Love is the only way. 

Perhaps your favorite favorites who are stick in the mud people can be unburied and NOT left out high and dry BUT protected, continually hydrated by the Spirit splashing off you so they won’t get cast as dry fruitless branches into the fire. (John 15) Let’s pray productive mud. Let’s keep mud moving. Today Lord, I ask Your love to be at work in freeing my favorite sticks in the mud. I will mentally name them, but you already know: ………….

Lord, let us look for cracks in the mud, let us keep digging for these favorites whom I know. You water, we will dig.

Lord, let me show Your love to all, for you know the ones whom I don’t know.

Lord, let me grow and flow because of Your flowing love and reach. Let me work for You and against all evil. Lord, protect us and protect our hearts as we fight for all to know You. 

Maybe as Your mud-bee I can help. I’ll be busy for Thee.

We are the hands and feet of the Lord. We send prayers for leveraging LOVE.

Amen

Social Creatures, 19AUG

If nothing else, I am the classic social creature – sanguine – I enjoy people. I am social.

With the craving of spiritual milk that overtook me 5 years ago, I am the same person and also a totally new person – with understanding that my socialization is not just for fun – it is for real, it is FOR serving the Lord, it is with purposeful intent. And I am a new person in contentment to sit or walk or be alone, for I am OK with just being with the Lord – socializing with the Spirit, mentally healing without speaking, yet still conversing. We tend to process life by talking. Well, who better to process life than with the One who created it!

Yesterday I spent the whole day for people at work – it is not something I can chart on a bar graph – nothing I can measure in widgets made – nothing but helping others – well I guess it was a GREAT day then. I helped in places, learned about projects, was even in charge of the ice cream truck and social distancing folks and tallying the bill, money well spent. I went to the other building and socialized with so many there too – it was good for me and it was good for them. Today is different, today I will be quiet at home for a while – work this morning on the laptop until my daughter wants to start the day – I promised her to take the afternoon off for her – the last day that she is free until computer-based and in person based college. With live college move-in day on Saturday she expects to stay in her bubble on campus for quite a while… so today I will take the time with her – that is not a social thing but as much it is a serious thing, a special thing, a sacred thing, a super thing, and a smart thing to do…  

I need to balance both… I had opportunity all week, a hectic good week. On Sunday, even God rested.

I know this sounds long winded without a scripture, so here it is:

“Neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Romans 8:39 

The LOVE of God is what keeps us going – the busy times the slow times – the everything times we are to listen to God – nothing in creation or anywhere will separate us from HIS LOVE that comes in reading faces, in listening to chatter that enforces our connectedness, in being present to being hospitable, to being nice. His Love comes in sorting thru thousands of places to be, people to see, but acknowledging One directing the situation. It seems many options to take are good ones – many roads weave thru our days – sometimes it is a minute by minute decision to follow the right one.

Hope everyone lives in the moment today. 

#910, 17AUG

All Things Work Together

A friend told me about this devotion series, and both yesterday’s and today’s are very good…  that God works things to the good and for us not to store of our treasures on Earth…

https://us3.campaign-archive.com/?u=5a7bbf443189708255b21f430&id=38ae291fb2

I like the points made in this devotion that we are being pruned we are being made to be like Jesus… And I believe that in the 5 months of this shutdown we should be more lean and more focused and more Christ like than 5 months prior…

So it’s a good time to take stock and say going forward 5 months from today: can I be leaner, more faith focused, and more Christ like??? Am I better than 5 months ago and can I be even better yet?

God prunes the branches like a Vinedresser, and the Vinedresser prunes his vines in winter when they are dormant… I was pruned in winter,  in my faith, then my flesh… it would be good to work with God today to get ready for the next few months and for the Kingdom to come…

It’s always good to be God-focused.

It’s God who is working all… to get all together…

God is working because God is. Amen

#909, 16AUG

Then I Called and Jesus Came

These were a start of song lyrics in my head when I woke up, so I wrote more…

#908, 14AUG

Daughter of THE King

I had an opportunity yesterday to shine – to be an encourager – to speak to 170 Human Resources and Communications leaders at my company – about a small slice of our science and about me, but most importantly I took the opportunity to thank them for doing their work. I knew it would make their day. I KNOW that the Lord gave me that opportunity – I tried to make the most of it for Him. and yes I had fun too, at the end I even put up my photo of when Elvis gave me a stolen kiss on my birthday at a work volunteer event at a nursing home, the king! But I know who THE REAL KING IS.  Someone called me a star for giving the presentation but it is He, our God, who aligns the stars. I believe that those people needed encouragement, so He found a way and made room in my day. Gave me the peace and the place. I even was forced to finish the presentation slides last week before the power went out only a few hours later, and stayed out for 4 days. He, our God, is the director, who knows, who goes ahead… if only we would listen more. He is the ultimate in making things work for His best interests… Even though the folks heaped their praises after the presentation, it is me who should be praising Him – He needed this – even the rocks will cry out if we do not praise Him. Give credit where credit is due. He deserves it all, and only Him.

Daughter of THE King, 14AUG

Why was I made the daughter of THE King? NOT because I need to show people my crown but instead to tell the world that I have been healed because of our brother and Lord, His Son, who traded His Heavenly crown for a thorny earthly one so that we all could be saved.

Why was I made the daughter of THE King?  NOT because I should glamorize myself, even when treated like royalty. Remember, even Cinderella had to get her own dishes done before heading out to the ball.

Why was I made the daughter of THE King? NOT because I should be treated like a rock star but learn to acknowledge the star which rocked our world, a bright one over a baby in Bethlehem.

Why was I made the daughter of THE King? Because He is the one who makes me sing.

Why was I made the daughter of THE King? Because I need to tell folks that my shine is His, not mine.

Why was I made the daughter of THE King? Because I am branched from His Vine. Fruit, gifted to us, is intended to point back to Him.

Why was I made the daughter of THE King? So that I would crave the pure spiritual milk that He feeds, so that I may grow up in my salvation.

Who makes us His Daughters? His Sons? Our King does. He is our Holiest of Holies, our Father above all others, our God.

Why? So that we would be His.

We are given freedom to serve.

I am thankful to live for Him.

Amen

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1st Peter 2

Therefore, rid yourselves of all malice and all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander of every kind. Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation, now that you have tasted that the Lord is good.

The Living Stone and a Chosen People
4 As you come to him, the living Stone—rejected by humans but chosen by God and precious to him—  you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. For in Scripture it says: “See, I lay a stone in Zion, a chosen and precious cornerstone, and the one who trusts in him will never be put to shame.”

7 Now to you who believe, this stone is precious. But to those who do not believe,  “The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone,” and, “A stone that causes people to stumble and a rock that makes them fall.”

They stumble because they disobey the message—which is also what they were destined for. But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. 10 Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.

Living Godly Lives in a Pagan Society
11 Dear friends, I urge you, as foreigners and exiles, to abstain from sinful desires, which wage war against your soul. Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us.

13 Submit yourselves for the Lord’s sake to every human authority: whether to the emperor, as the supreme authority, or to governors, who are sent by him to punish those who do wrong and to commend those who do right. For it is God’s will that by doing good you should silence the ignorant talk of foolish people. Live as free people, but do not use your freedom as a cover-up for evil; live as God’s slaves. Show proper respect to everyone, love the family of believers, fear God, honor the emperor.

18 Slaves, in reverent fear of God submit yourselves to your masters, not only to those who are good and considerate, but also to those who are harsh. For it is commendable if someone bears up under the pain of unjust suffering because they are conscious of God. But how is it to your credit if you receive a beating for doing wrong and endure it? But if you suffer for doing good and you endure it, this is commendable before God. To this you were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps.

22 “He committed no sin, and no deceit was found in his mouth.”

23 When they hurled their insults at him, he did not retaliate; when he suffered, he made no threats. Instead, he entrusted himself to him who judges justly.  “He himself bore our sins” in his body on the cross, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; “by his wounds you have been healed.”  For “you were like sheep going astray,” but now you have returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.