Last Saturday was a whole day of selling and purging stuff at the church’s yard sale, but also snapping up good deals. I got good stuff – but I still have lots of stuff that I still need to shed… (as in shed away not shed storage)…

We tend to teach about not being attached to material possessions but then again: we like our stuff !!! God says store up treasures in Heaven, not your house but His House. We will NOT be able to bring it with us!. Does God really need our plates and silverware anyway? Probably not in Heaven, we will be eating at HIS Table. But He does appreciate when we think of Him in giving others what they need…  and plates and silverware lead to hospitality and welcoming others to eat with us.

Later that weekend I went to see a dear friend who is moving. He was boxing it all up in an orderly fashion but had an OOPS of placement of a particular ceramic plate with a scripture on it that he wanted to give to me. A weekend prior, it accidentally went into the donation pile. I said no worries! I am grateful he thought of me, whom am I to complain!  I have no deed to the plate, no sense of rights… especially since it went as oops to a good cause, a donation at a good place. It is OK, it is the “thought that counts”…

This plate and this scripture says A LOT, he told me it was green and said: “As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” Joshua 24:15

Truth in desire, hope, happiness and peace: I do want to Serve the Lord. I do want to have my family serve and understand. I actually already have this scripture on my bedroom wall as a dollar-store sticker. I have the essence of this scripture in my “to do” list…  I pray to keep this scripture in my heart.

So, where is that ceramic plate with the scripture now? Well, after visiting that afternoon, I had just a few minutes to get over to that thrift shop to check. Who knows, maybe it would be a miracle waiting for me on a shelf… Well, sort of… Instead of the regular shelf, I found out that the plate and scripture is taking a couple weeks in PUBLIC display, yes PUBLIC DISPLAY!   It actually got placed into the glass cabinet silent auction section of the thrift store, displayed beautifully and requiring a minimum of 2 weeks before the silent auction is decided… I could see it and understand it – but was not my plate. I took a photo – I can always put that on my wall, LOL… So I got myself a number registered and placed a silent auction bid inside the book, no one else had bid on it yet. I can call in or stop in for about a week or so to watch the bid. 

As for my friend and his plate, they will serve the Lord. (and he does!)

Later this might become: “As for me and my plate, we will serve the Lord”, but for now, by appreciating that “mishap oops” has put scripture in a PUBLIC PLACE, this IS the Lord’s Word and His Word never returns to Him void. “… so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.” Isaiah 55:11

As for me and my bid, we will serve the Lord.  This is a good thrift shop where the money goes to rebuilding healthy homes and healthy lives. If my friend wanted to give it to me, I WOULD treasure it – but if it doesn’t come to my house, I will understand. Whatever the price paid is minimal compared to the price paid by our Savior for us.

I will wait for the plate. I will wait for the Lord.

I was happy to see the scripture was hand written on the pledge sheet. The scripture written into our hearts… I am grateful that I did see the plate – and I am grateful that I and others know this scripture. I am hoping hundreds if not thousands of people to see it too… And I hope it helps them realize what a blessing it will be when we sit down at the Lord’s dinner table one day – and use HIS PLATES…

Amen

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Isaiah 55

“Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost. Why spend money on what is not bread, and your labor on what does not satisfy?  Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good, and you will delight in the richest of fare.

Give ear and come to me; listen, that you may live. I will make an everlasting covenant with you, my faithful love promised to David. See, I have made him a witness to the peoples, a ruler and commander of the peoples. Surely you will summon nations you know not, and nations you do not know will come running to you, because of the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, for he has endowed you with splendor.”

Seek the Lord while he may be found; call on him while he is near. Let the wicked forsake their ways and the unrighteous their thoughts. Let them turn to the Lord, and he will have mercy on them, and to our God, for he will freely pardon.  “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord. “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.

As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, so is my word that goes out from my mouth:  It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it. You will go out in joy and be led forth in peace; the mountains and hills will burst into song before you, and all the trees of the field will clap their hands. Instead of the thornbush will grow the juniper, and instead of briers the myrtle will grow. This will be for the Lord’s renown, for an everlasting sign, that will endure forever.”

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Joshua 24:14-18

“Now fear the Lord and serve him with all faithfulness. Throw away the gods your ancestors worshiped beyond the Euphrates River and in Egypt, and serve the Lord. But if serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.”

Then the people answered, “Far be it from us to forsake the Lord to serve other gods! It was the Lord our God himself who brought us and our parents up out of Egypt, from that land of slavery, and performed those great signs before our eyes. He protected us on our entire journey and among all the nations through which we traveled. And the Lord drove out before us all the nations, including the Amorites, who lived in the land. We too will serve the Lord, because he is our God.”