What's In Your Ziplock Bag?

In my last post I wrote about overcoming tiredness. I spoke about the busyness that has taken over our modern lifestyle, leaving us tired and irritable. If you did not read this post, you can read it here. Someone may argue that this cannot be helped, that our family, our work, our leisure pursuits all have to be taken care of, and that may be true, but when they begin to encroach on your relationship with God, then there is a problem.

When I first thought of writing this post, I visualized a ziplock bag full of little balls, representing the way we spend our time, each ball with a label, none of them having anything to do with God. There may even be a few ungodly balls.  Such is the life of a person who has allowed himself to be taken over by the things of the world. If you are a follower of Christ, your ziplock bag should contain more godly balls than secular ones.  

As a Christian, your first and utmost responsibility should be nurturing and strengthening your relationship with God. Everything else should take second place.

Jesus said, "He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me" (Matthew 10: 37).

On one occasion when He called a man to come and follow Him and the man asked to be allowed to first go and bury his father, Jesus replied, "Follow me; and let the dead bury their dead"( Matthew 8: 22).

Was Jesus being callous or uncaring? No. He was only trying to teach us how to prioritize our lives. He said, "Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat , or what ye shall drink ; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on . Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment?" (Matthew 6 : 25).    

"But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you" (v 33).

In other words, put God first and everything else will fall into place.

 The danger in allowing ourselves to put other things first is that we don't realize when they begin to replace God in our lives. Like weeds in a garden, they can easily overgrow and choke out our godly lifestyle if we are not vigilant. Our family, our work, our interests are all important in themselves, but they should not be allowed to erode God's place in our lives. 

If you find yourself being too busy or too tired to pray, study the word or even go to church, then you are in trouble. Step back and take a critical look inside your ziplock bag today. If it's chock full of things that don't pertain to a godly lifestyle, toss them into the garbage and fill it with the things of God. 

IT IS FINISHED

In every role I perform I am well aware how difficult it is to get anything finished. As a housewife, I know my housework is never done. Do I hear an Amen, ladies? As a mother, I continue to mother my children even though they are all adults. As an employee, I leave work every evening knowing that I'm coming back to more of the same the next day, and as a writer, I can re-write until I no longer recognize my own words, but I know the work is never really finished.

However, Jesus' last words on the cross were "IT IS FINISHED!" (John 19: 30). What did He mean by those words? And what was finished? Jesus had been on this earth for thirty three years, but only the last three of those years were spent in actual ministry. During that time, He performed many miracles, cultivated many followers, as well as enemies, and taught multitudes of people about the kingdom of God. But the purpose for which He came to earth – the redemption of Adam's fallen race – was not accomplished until He hung on that cross.

And the reason it was accomplished was because God "so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life" (John 3:16). When Jesus cried "It is finished", He had completed all the work the Father had sent Him to do. He said, "My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work" (John 4: 34). So let's look at His record: He fulfilled every prophecy, gave us access into the Holiest of Holies so we could come directly into God's presence, secured our redemption, laid the foundation for the establishment of the New Testament church, set us free from the sting of death, hell and the grave and paved the way for the Holy Spirit to come into the world. He left nothing undone.

But work is always difficult, and Jesus' work, ending with death on the cross, may have been the most difficult of all. But the Bible says, "he became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross" (Phil. 2:8). The excruciating pain of crucifixion was bad enough, but before that, Jesus had to suffer the agony of Gethsemane – the place where the burden of what He was going through became so unbearable, the Bible says his sweat became "as drops of blood" (Luke 22:44).

You may be going through your own Gethsemane right now, and, like Jesus your friends may have deserted you. Your burden seems too great for you to bear. The enemy keeps bringing up your past sins, past mistakes, past failures. He taunts you and makes you think you will never come out of your situation, but he is a liar and the father of lies. However, because of what Jesus did on the cross, you can shout "IT IS FINISHED!" Your hurts, disappointments, failures are nailed to the cross with Christ, your Redeemer. Gethsemane is behind you; Good Friday is over, Easter has come. The dawn of a new day awaits you. Shout for joy and give Him praise. Halleluiah!

Happy Easter

Help!

Last week my colleagues learned that I would be taking family leave in order to help my daughter who will be having a baby by C section. They reacted immediately by offering to cover for me while I was gone. Their kindness really blew me away. They knew that in these harsh economic times the board was not going to hire anyone to fill my place, and that I would have to make up for lost time when I returned. I thanked them and thanked God for placing me with such a kind and helpful bunch of people.

In his letters to the churches, the apostle Paul praised the efforts of those who helped him in mininstry. Romans 16 is a testament of the help he received from men and women. Beginning with Phebe and moving on to Priscilla and Aquila, a husband-and-wife team, and many others, Paul expressed his deepest gratitude to them.

Jesus also preached many sermons about the place of service and helpfulness in the life of the believer. On the mount of Olives He said, "... Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as you have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, you have done it unto me" (Matthew 25: 40). So when we help others, we are not only helping them, but we are helping God Himself.

Let us seek out opportunities to help others the way my coworkers did. Not only will they thank you, but your Heavenly Father will take note and reward you for your good deed. God bless.