He Makes All Things New

 In a country where the average annual income is less than $1,000, nothing gets wasted.  Where we so often toss something if it breaks, a broken item usually has many more lives left in it with some creative tinkering.  For $2 a pair of shoes can have new soles.  Stove knobs broken?  No worries, a metal welder can make a new set for $1 each.  Items are quickly, easily and inexpensively glued, stapled and taped back together squeezing yet another six months to a year of life out of them. And if that doesn't work, just take two or three broken items and tie them together. 


Broken things; stack them, staple them. glue them, tie them together. Oh, for one last chance to make it work.  Is this what we do with the broken pieces of our lives?  In our own strength we gather them together and try to fix them in a way that makes sense to us but is just really a band-aide on a gaping wound.

Jesus says, bring me your broken pieces and watch what I can do with them.  I can heal, I can restore, I can renew, I can take crushed glass and make gemstones out of them, I can take what the world rejects and form world changers out of them, I can do things way beyond your imagination.  But first, you need to stop trying to fix it yourself. Put down the staple gun, recap the super glue and turn to me.  Entrust your brokenness to me and allow me, the master potter, to mold and reshape and make it into something new.

"The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me, 

because the Lord has anointed me 

to preach good news to the poor. 

He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,

to proclaim freedom for the captives and 

release from darkness for the prisoners..." 

Isaiah 61:1

  He who was seated on the throne said, “I am making everything new!” 

Then he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.”

Rev 21:5 

"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation;

 the old has gone, the new has come!"

2 Corinthians 5:17 
 

No Greater Joy

Everywhere I turn these days my American friends are quoting Ann Voskamp's timely book One Thousand Gifts 1000Gifts.  List of things people are grateful for are appearning on FaceBook.  Gratitude journals are filling book store shelves and I won't even comment on all the tweeting. 

Let me start by saying I am grateful for this shift.  Too often of late our posts, status', tweets and conversations have been filled with discontented speech, complaints and well meaning yet not helpful venting.  Paul tells us in Phil. 4:8 that we should set our mind on 'whatever is good and lovely and just and .....'.  If I am honest my mind sets much more easily on negativity and my circumstances on not on things above. 

The apostle John says "I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth." 3John 1:4  So I join him and share my gratitude journal here with you in hopes that it will encourage you as you face both the challenges and the joys of life this side of heaven.
  

• I have no greater joy than... seeing the woman I disciple discover a new truth in God's word for herself.
• I have no greater joy than... getting to open God's word to a group of Muslim women in the village every Thursday.
• I have no greater joy than... seeing a rainbow after flooding rains and being reminded of God's promises to us in His word.
• I have no greater joy than... knowing when I have finished the race on this earth,  my heavenly Father awaits with open arms to receive me into Paradise.
• I have no greater joy than....that I will not be going alone but many will be there with me.
• I have no greater joy than... celebrating with those who rejoice and grieving with those who mourn.
• I have no greater joy than... having the privilege and honor of interceding before the Father on behalf of His children.
• I have no greater joy than... celebrating the changing seasons even if it means saying goodbye to mangoes for a while because the watermelons have come.      

Now before someone tries to correct me and asks how can so many things be lsited as "no greater joy" let me say "I don't know".  I just know that when I think on these things I have GREAT joy.

What will you think on today?

*Sorry no pictures, camera battery is dead BUT a new charger is on it's way and THAT brings me great joy.
 
 

Pray For Rain

Jeremiah 14:4 "The ground is cracked because there is no rain in the land; the farmers are dismayed and cover their heads."

Every year, at this time of the year, we find ourselves praying for rain.  The farmers have prepared their soils and planted seed.  Without timely rains all that time and investment will be wasted.  Droughts produce famine and famine produces wide spread hunger.  It's that simple.  And so we pray for rain.


The rains this year have been incredible.  Often, several days in a row and through the nights pounding down on the ground satisfying the thirsty farmlands yet flooding streets, homes and sometimes damaging almost everything in which they come in contact. The problem is that the homes and streets have not been adequately prepared to receive this amount of rain.  The gutters are clogged with debris.  The roofs have holes that have not been repaired.  And so damage ensues.  We want the rains knowing that without them there is no harvest, but we don't take the time to prepare for them and we end up with the damage they bring.  

As I drove through the flooded streets I was reminded of how this is often like our spiritual lives.  We pray for the reign of God to fall upon us knowing that it will produce the spiritual growth that we so very much desire and need in order to live victorious lives.  However if we are not ready for Him, if we have not removed the junk that clogs our spiritual lives and made the necessary repairs, we will miss out on the fruit His reign can produce. 

  

Leviticus 26:4 

" I will send you rain in its season, and the ground will yield its crops and the trees their fruit." 
 
  Today,  let's commit ourselves to not just pray for the Lord's reign but also to check those gutters and drains.  Let us ask the Holy Spirit to show us what might be causing clogs in our spiritual lives.  Let's deal with those repairs; confession of sin, un-forgiveness, apathy, etc....  Let us continue to pray for His Reign, His growth in us and His fruit for the advancement of His kingdom.  Amen.