When I Pointed my Finger

Have you ever had one of those moments where you were judging someone or a group of people, then suddenly the tables turned and you realised you were the one with the problem?

I had one such moment last week.

My sister and I are currently reading through the book of 2 Timothy together, and last week we were reading chapter 3. In the very beginning of this chapter I read these words:

² For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, ³ unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, ⁴ traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God...

My immediate thought was, "That is so true - there are definitely a lot of people like this in the world."

My very next thought hit me in the face.

I am one of these people.

I can be proud and selfish and disobedient and ungrateful and I can lack control and abound in hate.

This verse can describe me.

At various points in my life, I have been guilty of most of the things listed here... And this list isn't even comprehensive!!

Oh, the shame. That I pointed my finger at "people like this in the world"... Before realising that I am imperfect and unholy.

I praise Jesus because the Holy Spirit used these verses in my life to show me my sinful nature. I praise Him because He loves me more than I can describe, and I have the opportunity to become more than this.

Have you ever accused (even an unspoken accusation!) others of wrong-doing, and then realised that you, yourself, are guilty?

~Rachel

Establish Your Hearts

Yesterday my husband and I read James 5 together. One phrase, in verse 8, really stood out to me, and I haven't been able to stop thinking about it:

Establish your hearts.

Establish = set up on a firm or permanent basis (Oxford Dictionary).

The context around this phrase is to be patient and wait for the Lord; He is returning one day. In the meantime, we are told to be established. The question is: to be established in what?

Verses 1 to 6 of the same chapter speaks of the things in this life which end up being worthless - things like money, clothes and pleasure. When we come to verses 7 and 8, we are reminded to look ahead to what is important and to what will last. Things that are ahead are things to look forward to - and while we wait, why fill our time with meaningless frivolity?

For me, the only worthwhile thing to establish my heart and my life in is Jesus Christ. He is the One that will never change; will never leave me; will never let me down. I can be firmly established in Him now and know that I can remain established in Him until the end of time. What a wonderful thing to be sure of!

Will you choose to establish your heart in Jesus, and look to Him for your everlasting satisfaction? It will definitely be worth it!

~Rachel

"Spare Room" Baggage

On Sunday my husband shared a challenging, encouraging message to our church family from the pulpit. He preached from John 4, which is the story of the Samaritan woman at the well. Jesus and His disciples travelled from Judea and stopped in the town of Samaria for a rest. While the disciples went to buy food, Jesus sits at the well, where a Samaritan woman happens to be drawing water.

The time of this meeting was midday. The women in that day would usually go to draw water in the morning or evening, when it was still cool. This woman happens to have gone in the middle of the day when the sun is at its hottest. In verses 18 to 19, we read that this woman had had five husbands and was currently with a man who was not her husband (very shameful in that day). This woman was very likely trying to keep her baggage hidden by avoiding meeting others at the well.

We can see that the woman tried to avoid the conversation with Jesus multiple times. In that day and culture, it was unheard of for a Samaritan to talk to a Jew, let alone a woman talking to a man. Yet Jesus pushes through and gently shares Himself with her. In verse 10, the word "knew" is in an experiential sense - not just head knowledge. Jesus wants the woman to experience Him fully. He wants to heal her wounds. He desires her to be 100% satisfied by Him. He wants to complete her need.

He offers the same thing to us.

What baggage do we hold?

Is there something that we have thrown into the "spare room" of our lives and quickly shut the door so that no one will see?

This is not what Jesus desires for us.

Jesus touches the places in this woman's life where it hurt the most. We see that He pursues her; seeks to bring her completely alive. Through that pursuit, He offers healing from her wounds and baggage.

He is doing the same thing with you and me.

When we see that Jesus is real; that He desires relationship with us and that His Spirit can live with us each day, we can be filled with Him and overflow Him into the lives of those around us. We have the opportunity to have God living through us!

Even with all of our baggage and secrets and struggles, Jesus still seeks us.

That blows me away.

I pray that you will realize that Jesus is gently showing Himself to you and offering you a life that is free from baggage and wounds and half-living. And I pray that you will accept His love and grace and empty the "spare room" of your life to Him and let Him fill you completely.

~Rachel

Why Unmet Expectations can be Good

Expectations.

For many of us, it seems that our expectations are rarely met by the people in our lives or even by God.

Expectations.

This word seems to have generally negative connotations.

Yet, what if there was one expectation that appeared to not be met… yet was met in a much deeper, more powerful, more intimate way?

What if the expectation of one group of people was not met, yet the end result (what they weren't expecting) was so much more life-changing?

Yesterday my husband shared with our church a completely new [for me] perspective on Matthew 21:1-11. This passage is a fairly popular one, as it records the time when Jesus enters Jerusalem shortly before His death. He enters sitting on a young donkey, and the crowds surrounding Him praise His name and create a carpet of branches for Him to ride through on.

Yet somehow… this is not what they expected.

For hundreds of years, the Jews expected their Messiah - their Saviour - to come riding on a white horse, ready to lead them to victory against their enemies.

Jesus appears riding a small, young, inexperienced, probably dirty, donkey.

He appears as a servant. He appears as a friend. He appears as one of us.

This is the last way that the people in that time and culture would have expected Him to appear - yet through that appearance He showed that He came in peace. He showed that He came in love.

While some people may have been shocked to see Him, the King of Kings, appear riding a donkey, this was His great plan all the time! In the Old Testament it was prophesied that the King - the Messiah - would come riding on a donkey (Zechariah 9:9). He did not do things according to His people's plans - He did things according to His plans. Jesus is the King that doesn't do everything the way we expect.

This blows me away. While earthly kings do not generally reach out for deep friendships with their subjects and servants, my Heavenly King Jesus defied all expectations so that He could be my (and your!) Friend.

My challenge from this?

To remember that God simply knows better: this is why He is in control - not me! If I did have control of everything in my life, what would I do, anyway?! My limited, human, lame expectations that I (whether consciously or subconsciously) place on God are nothing in comparison to what He actually has planned.

I pray that my perspective would change; that I would remember that my unmet expectations are probably going to be overshadowed by something so much greater than I could ever imagine - something planned for my life by Jesus, the King of Kings.

~Rachel

Devotional: The Mystery

"And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness:

God[c] was manifested in the flesh,

Justified in the Spirit,

Seen by angels,

Preached among the Gentiles,

Believed on in the world,

Received up in glory."

1 Timothy 3:16

I love how these few short sentences describe Jesus; how they describe Who He was and what He did on earth. This seems like a simple review of His life, in a nutshell!!

And... this is the mystery of godliness. Jesus. No questions asked. No games are being played here. We don't even need to search it out; look for hidden clues in the puzzle.

JESUS is the mystery of godliness. God manifested in the flesh.

HE is the answer, always the answer.

~Rachel

G.R.A.C.E.

Today's word for me is grace.

Grace.

Christians hear and use this word a lot. In fact, I might say that we even hear it and use it so often, that we rarely stop to think about it.

Grace.

What is grace to you?

I have a few thoughts today about grace that I am pondering upon, and I hope that it will lead you to consider this deep, meaningful word.


G.odly
R.evolutionary
A.ccepting
C.aring
E.verlasting


Godly, because God was the first Giver of grace, and because when we display grace, we are showing God's character.

Revolutionary, because this is something that would have been unheard of, if it weren't for God. Grace changed the world, through the way Jesus came and took the weight of our sins on His shoulders. No one else could have POSSIBLY thought of this!!

Accepting, because grace leads us to accept others just as they are. Often, in our own selfish little words, we look down on others, as if we are in some way higher and greater than they are. Yet when I look at Jesus, He did the exact opposite: He made Himself (His perfect self, no less!) lower than the low. He never made a big deal of who he spent time with - fishermen, tax collectors, children, prostitutes, Samaritans... They were all the same to Him!

Caring, simply because a heart of grace will lead to a heart of compassion. Love and care for others is one of the greatest things we were created to do, and Jesus displayed this so clearly during His time on earth.

Everlasting, because God's grace will never end. When we commit our lives to Him, we commit for life. We accept that His grace is everlasting, and we join Him in His work on this earth to display grace (among many other attributes) to others every day of our lives.


As you can see in every single one of these points, we have a wonderful example in Jesus, who showed us exactly how we can display grace in our own lives. He showed us the meaning of grace, which I by no means have covered here. It's amazing to me how five small letters can be such an endless topic!

I encourage you to thank the Lord for His grace, and ask Him to show you how to disply this in your own life today!


~Rachel