Soak or Scrub

There is only one type of dishwasher in our house. Yes, is a very hands-on one! To get our dishes clean either myself or my husband have to fill the sink with water and start scrubbing. Someone recently tried to tell me how to do this job. They insisted that I didn’t soak my dishes long enough before I started to clean up. Now, I don’t mind soaking my dishes sometimes. You need to be careful not to soak them too long, otherwise, you have to empty the sink and replace the water because it has gone cold. I listened to the advice but thought that sometimes soaking can just be an excuse to put off getting our hands into the sink and start working.

As I reflected on this, I wondered if this isn’t a problem for us as Christians sometimes. Isn’t it easier to let things soak for a while? We might defend our lack of action by saying that we need to pray about an issue for longer. Yet, sometimes, like soaking the dishes, it would be of a greater profit for us to get in and do some hard scrubbing.

Psalm 14:23 says “In all labour there is profit: but the talk of the lips tendeth only to penury.” This not only relates to our earthly work. Poverty is the result of not getting in and doing the things that need to be done. 

I believe that spiritual poverty is also a result of waiting too long to get our hands dirty working for the Lord.

“And whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men;” Colossians 3:23.

So, please when it comes to working for the Lord, let’s all put on our gloves, put our hands in the sink and start scrubbing.

Green – The Colour of Hope

Isaiah 43: 16-19

Green is the colour of hope! This passage speaks of hope. As we welcome in a New Year many of us are looking for hope. Many have experienced grief, often during the closing weeks of the year that is closing. These and many other people are entering a wilderness that has to be undoubtedly navigated

.

As I thought about wildernesses, I found myself realising that there are at least two types that I know of. One is dry, barren and looks as if it goes on forever. Even in this type of wilderness we need a path to follow or else we will find ourselves going around and around in circles and getting nowhere. The other wilderness is overgrown with undergrowth that has to be hacked down in order to make progress with many hidden dangers lurking just out of sight.

We are reminded in verse 16 to forget what is old and behind us. So as we move into the new year let us look forward in hope as God makes a path for us to move forward.

Mary’s Faith

Luke 1:26-38

When we talk about Mary’s faith when Gabriel announced that she was going to be the Mother of God’s Saviour we so often focus on the virgin birth. Yet, there is something that I missed until recently. Gabriel visited her while she was living in Nazareth. She would have known enough Scripture to realise that God’s Messiah was to be born in Bethlehem. 

Was this part of her question “How shall this be, seeing I know not a man?”. 

Did she wonder if Joseph would be willing to travel to Bethlehem? After all, he already had his own trade and family there.  Did she even want to go to Bethlehem herself? Maybe it was one of those places that she had often been grateful she did not live in.  

To Gabriel’s words, “with God nothing shall be impossible” she responds with immense faith and commitment; “Behold the handmaid of the Lord, be it unto me according to thy word.” Somehow, God was going to have to move her and the baby to Bethlehem. I wonder if she thought that she might even have to go alone? She knew that regardless of how they got there the journey was going to be dangerous.

No matter what the future held for her, she was still willing to do what God required of her.

When God calls us to the mission field that He has for us, regardless of whether it is overseas, at home or writing and speaking, we have different hurdles to overcome than the ones Mary could see. Possibly because they are often unseen they are less daunting. 

Yet, I find it so hard to step out and remember that with God all things are possible even, keeping me safe in dangerous circumstances.

Helping Lazarus

I was thinking about Lazarus one night and what a powerful picture is drawn here for us. Here we have two people living two completely different cultures. The rich man who has all that he wants and needs. I picture him coming out of his safe secure home each morning, nodding to Lazarus. Some mornings greeting him with "good morning Lazarus, how are you today", he might even throw him a coin or two if he was feeling particularly good that day, before walking to the city gate. 

Lazarus not only wanted help, he needed help. Here is a man in great need and from a completely different culture. 

The rich man had all those resources at his disposal and God wanted him to help Lazarus but the question is, how. I think that we just expect the rich man to take Lazarus into his home and share all his wealth with him. 

What sort of help did Lazarus want or need?

Lazarus didn’t want to live with the rich man, his life and existence was meant to be outside the rich man’s compound and that was where he wanted to stay. His home and family were already established and they relied on him for their survival.

So, how was the rich man supposed to help Lazarus? 

The rich man should have come out and sat down with him, listened to him to find out how he had got into such a position. It is too easy to assume that the Lazarus’ of this world have made poor decisions or made silly mistakes that leave them facing really bad consequences.

This is not always the case. 

Often they find themselves in such positions due to the greed, business decisions or power plays by other people around them. The other causes could be droughts, that kill stock, floods which wash away the infrastructures, fires or winds that burn or blow away feed and grass. So it was important for the rich man to come out and sit with Lazarus and listen to his story in order to understand the issues that he faced. It was not something that he could do in a few minutes or even a few hours. It’s imperative that the rich man give Lazarus a lot of time, even to the point of taking his mat outside and lying beside Lazarus and letting him talk long into the night. It was only by engaging with him over the long term that the rich man or men in this world can get to understand the differences in the cultures that exist.

I know that the Bible tells us that the dogs came to Lazarus and licked his sores, but I have to wonder if the rich man was even aware of how much pain Lazarus was in. Now you are going to say how could the rich man miss it. It is very easy to hide the pain that we feel often because we imagine that the world doesn’t care. I think that many of the Lazarus’ out there also try to follow the Bible’s instructions “And when you fast, do not look gloomy like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces that their fasting may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward.” Matthew 6:16.

So in order to discover the extent of Lazarus' pain, the rich man has to be compassionate and bring out a bowl of warm water, slowly and gently wash off the different layers of dirt, mud, blood and dust that have collected on his feet. Only then will he be aware of just how hurt and damaged Lazarus is. It is only then that the rich man can know and understand what treatment is truly needed and what will be most effective.

There are many people in our country who are Lazarus but we know them as Bill, Jack, Ian, Tom, Robert, Mary, Jane, Sue, Lisa or Jenny.  

Eyes

They say that eyes are the windows to the soul, which means that when you look at a person’s eyes you can see more about how they are feeling. That look will tell you if a person are joking around, serious, sick, sad, angry or in a world of their own. When I was little, we had a couple of sayings, for those who were in a world of their own. One is no longer politically correct but the other was “the lights are on but no one is home”. For some reason or other these people have decided to switch off from the world around them and take a break. When we really look at people and see the message in their eyes we are only seeing a snapshot of them. We can only see what they are feeling at that precise moment.

It is the same with everyone, when we see them we can only see how they are today, this minute or this hour that we spend with them. When we walk away from their company we cannot see the pain, drama or joy that they experience while we are not in the presence.

This applies for authors as well. Our followers read what we write and they see into our hearts but it is only what is there at the time of writing. They do not see the dirty dishes on the sink, the laundry full of washing, the kids’ bedroom mess. For farmer’s wives that write, they do not see the hours working alongside the husband, regardless of if it is in the office or the paddock. They do not see the drama of animals having to be cared for and saved from predators.

Psalm 139:1-8 says:

O LORD, thou hast searched me, and known me.

2Thou knowest my downsitting and mine uprising, thou understandest my thought afar off.

3Thou compassest my path and my lying down, and art acquainted with all my ways.

4For there is not a word in my tongue, but, lo, O LORD, thou knowest it altogether.

5Thou hast beset me behind and before, and laid thine hand upon me.

6Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high, I cannot attain unto it.

7Whither shall I go from thy spirit? or whither shall I flee from thy presence?

8If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there: if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there.

What a wonderful thing that He sees all this and more!

Time

Time has a very different dimension for me now. Since losing my mum as a result of an accident, I am far more aware of the need to get things done and just how necessary it is for me to not let time hang heavy. If I do, then I know that I am going to slip down into that dark pit that many of us dread, the pit of depression.

I am reminded of the verses in scripture that tells us: “To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven; A time to be born, and a time to die; ……..  A time to break down and a time to build up; A time to weep and a time to laugh; a time to mourn and a time to dance; (Ecclesiastes 3:1-4) All of these selected things seem to me to be very relevant to the process of grief. There just doesn’t seem to be enough time to do this particularly in our current society’s climate. We are under pressure all the time to pull ourselves up by our boot straps and get back into the swim of life. Life is so busy for many of us that there simply isn’t enough time to take time out and really connect with those around us. Is it any wonder that when people bow to this pressure and sometimes they don’t have a choice financially, that they start to sink into that dark pit?

I was headed in that downwards direction. Since making the commitment to write a story every day, using the Photo-a-day prompts, I have felt so much better. I now have an external motivational tool to help me move forward. My mother lives outside of time now but I must still live within it confides – I pray that I will use it wisely.

 

Wall

What is that saying? “The writing is on the wall”. As mothers we often groan when we see writing on a wall. As it usually means that “Little Johnny” or “Missy” have found some pencils, crayons or textas and managed to create some artwork in the wrong place, meaning extra work to remove it and bring the wall back to its pristine condition. Then there is the graffiti that often sends a message, not always polite mind you, to the public as they walk the streets or ride the train. This artwork can often just say that people were bored, frustrated or destructive. Occasionally though there is what can only be described as street art and shows great talent.

Messages being written on the wall date back to ancient times when King Belshazzar sees a hand write a message on the wall of his palace. (Daniel 5:5-9) It frightened him and he had to ask Daniel to interpret it. Daniel tells King Belshazzar that “God hath numbered thy kingdom, and finished it…Thou art weighed in the balances and art found wanting…Thy kingdom is divided and given to the Medes and Persians” (Daniel 5:26-28) This is why when we say that the writing is on the wall we usually mean that we are predicting the demise of something.

It would be easy as we look at our society today to imagine that the “Writing is on the wall”. There is so much crime, broken promises by those in power, greed and all sorts of “sick” behaviour that one could despair of ever seeing the return of what we could consider a civilised society.

There is hope! Jesus came to earth, this we celebrate at Christmas time, grew up amongst us and showed us not only how to live but provided us with a way to be able to be better people through Him.