Faithful Moments

Thought for the Week-What a Friend...

Good Morning Girlfriends!

Can I just begin by telling you it's been one of the those weeks that I'm not quite sure what day this is?!  I thought by retiring from full-time church work that would provide me with the time I needed to finish my new book.  WRONG!  Last week I filled y'all in on the slight remodel job we've got working here at home.  That seems to be working fairly close to schedule...I mean, I'm not spitting fire just yet.  This week, I truly thought I'd have time to write.  Not so fast.... I teach a ladies Bible study on Tuesday mornings, and this week was our last class before we break for the summer.  I love our last day of class: we have food, some fellowship, a really long prayer (to send us off for the summer), but truth be told, I'm really going to miss my girls.  Well, we were mid-way through class when my phone began to buzz on the table in front of me.  I don't typically keep my phone handy during class, turns out, it was a good thing I had it.  My kids' school was calling to inform me that my youngest son, Elliott, had vaulted off the (highest) slide on the playground and BROKEN HIS ARM.  Needless to say, I bolted from class and headed straight to the other side of the campus. 

I ran into the nurse's office and found Elliott being cradled by the school secretary with Nurse Jan hovering close by.  My heart broke for him.  He looked so sad.  But he was being so brave, he walked to the truck, climbed in, and asked me, "Mom? Can you please put on What a Friend We Have in Jesus from your phone?  I would really like to listen that song right now." Oh.  Sitting there, I did the fastest search my iPhone had ever done, plugged it in, and pushed play.  I looked in my rearview mirror, Elliott had closed his eyes, tears streaming down his face, and was mouthing the words that Alan Jackson was so soothingly singing.  My mind began to circle...

What a Friend we have in Jesus.  Have you ever had a one-sided friendship?  Think back to high school.  We all had those superficial friendships, where one person was more attached than the other.  Well, our friendship with Jesus is not like that.  In high school, a less popular kid might try and hitch their wagon to a more popular kid in order to gain a better social standing or have more friends...but think about Jesus.  He IS the popular kid.  Yet, He chose to hitch His wagon to ours, and He did that at great personal cost.  Read with me Matthew 11:19, "The Son of Man... [is] a friend of tax collectors and 'sinners'..."  Jesus was a teacher...He was THE Teacher, yet He chose to associate on very personal levels with the bane of society: tax collectors, fishermen, {gasp} women and children.  The other religious leaders of the day would have never dirtied their hands to stoop to our level.  In fact, people went out of their way to make sure their kids could see Jesus or touch Him.  Jesus welcomed them, each and every one.  "[Jesus] said to them, 'Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these.  I tell you the truth, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.'  And he took the children in his arms, put his hands on them and blessed them." Mark 10:14-16

When I put Elliott into my truck Tuesday morning, he knew there wasn't really anything that I could do for him.  He did know that there was One who could help him.  One who could offer hope and a peace.  Someone he calls a Friend.  I have been amazed at Elliott's faith over the course of the last few days.  He had to be brave for the x-rays, brave for the doctors, brave when they put on his cast.  But during some of those times, when fear was getting the better of him, he turned to the One who would never let him down.  With my earbuds in his ears, and Alan Jackson singing good old fashioned Gospel music, Elliott placed his trust--his faith in the only One who could actually do anything...his Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.  Granted, his arm is still broken.  Broken so badly, that if he's not exceptionally still and careful over the next several weeks, we are looking at surgery and enough pins to set off the airport security sensors from fifty paces, but he's at peace.  What about you?  What's broken in your world today?  Have you met my Friend, Jesus?  I promise there's no one like Him in this world or the next.  Take His hand, and lay your brokenness in it, He will take it from you, and give you the strength and the peace to get you through.  Have a blessed weekend.

What A Friend We Have In Jesus
by: Joseph M. Scriven

What a friend we have in Jesus,
all our sins and griefs to bear!
What a privilege to carry
everything to God in prayer!
O what peace we often forfeit,
O what needless pain we bear,
all because we do not carry
everything to God in prayer.

Have we trials and temptations?
Is there trouble anywhere?
We should never be discouraged;
take it to the Lord in prayer.
Can we find a friend so faithful
who will all our sorrows share?
Jesus knows our every weakness;
take it to the Lord in prayer.

Are we weak and heavy laden,
cumbered with a load of care?
Precious Savior, still our refuge;
take it to the Lord in prayer.
Do thy friends despise, forsake thee?
Take it to the Lord in prayer!
In his arms he'll take and shield thee;
thou wilt find a solace there.

 

Thought for the Week-Battle Wounds

Good Afternoon Girlfriends!

So, we've been doing a little home improvement project over the last couple of weeks.  In fact, as I'm typing this to y'all, I'm sitting in my newly renovated home office, which used to be the "formal dining room".  I'm surrounded by boxes that have yet to be unpacked both from the transition of working at the church, and some that moved from my upstairs old office on the second floor of my house, down to the bottom floor.  Over the course of the past couple of weeks, the second story of my house could've easily been mistaken for the next audition tape of the hit series "Hoarders" as Jeff and I moved everything out of every bedroom upstairs and shoved each and every piece of furniture into the centrally located game room.  You see, our kids are growing up.  That's really the bottom line.  Walls needed to be painted, decorations that were too reminiscent of the toddler years had to be covered with fresh coats of paint and brothers that once shared the set of bunk beds needed to be moved into separate bed rooms--not just separate beds.  Jeff and I did most of this ourselves, and I have the battle wounds to prove it.  Two weeks later I still have paint primer on my leg--it will not come off.  I have a sweet bruise on the back of my calve from falling off the ladder and trying unsuccessfully to catch myself before hitting the ground.  Don't even get me started on the war wounds that cover the inside of my hands from the hours I spent holding a paint roller and/or paint brush.  It is around Someone else's battle wounds that I would like to focus on today.

We are still in the season of Easter.  Did you know that?  We still get to celebrate the Risen Christ these weeks later.  In fact, we will be in Easter until Pentecost, some fifty days after Easter.  On the third day after Jesus was crucified, He rose from the dead.  See any one of the Gospels for that account.  First, He appeared to Mary Magdalene, and instructed her to tell His disciples that He had returned, "'Go...to my brothers and tell them, 'I am returning to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.'" John 20:17  That's exactly what Mary did.  However, the disciples were a bit nervous for fear of the Jews.  You see, it was their own officials who had put Jesus to death.  So as the disciples sat in a room together, with the doors locked, Who should come and stand in the midst of them?!  Jesus!  He appears right before their eyes, and offers them His peace.  A peace that no one, but He can offer.  I can imagine they were overwhelmed and overjoyed.  There was a slight wrinkle in this appearance...no, not a flaw with Jesus, but rather with one of the duh-ciples.  Thomas wasn't with the others.  He was having a hard time believing what he could not see, he says: "'Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe.'" John 20:25  Jesus knew this.  So, a week later, the disciples were together again--this time with Thomas, when Who appears?  Jesus.  Don't you just know that Thomas' first thought was gulp?!  Read with me from John 20:26-27, "Thought the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, 'Peace be with you!' Then he said to Thomas, 'Put your finger here; see my hands.  Reach out your hand and put it into my side.  Stop doubting and believe.'"  

Battle Wounds.  Jesus had some substantial battle wounds.  His hands and side were badly scarred by the sins of the world--including your sins and mine.  BUT, it is by those wounds that we are healed (Isaiah 53:5).  Jesus did battle with devil for your soul and my soul.  The cross was the instrument of salvation for us to spend eternity with Him in paradise.  I know that sometimes we, too feel like we've been through a war.  We are wounded and beaten up, but the ultimate battle wounds belong to Jesus.  He's already remodeled the house for us to spend eternity.  Let me ask you, will you let Him renovate your heart today?  Reach out your hand, stop doubting and believe!  Have a blessed weekend!