Getting Our Hands Dirty

"Mama! I'm all messy!" My daughter had a dot of oatmeal on her hand and nearly panicked. Is this normal? She's only 2. What she has deemed dirty, messy and uncomfortable, since she was able to express herself, are trademarks of toddlerhood to me.

On her first birthday, I plopped my lopsided attempt at a cake in front of her and scooped up my camera. Surely I would have classic pictures of her face smothered in vanilla foundation, her hair streaked with Elmo icing highlights, and both hands wrapped with gloves from Duncan Hines!

But no. She meticulously picked apart her piece of cake, using only a few fingers on one hand and thereby leaving a mere splotch or two of white icing around her lips. I'll have no pictures to embarrass her with when she's being courted by some handsome young man in her 30's. Did 30's slip out?

But I thought about this in lieu of a conversation I had not long ago. A woman had been homeschooling her children for years and volunteering at church whenever she could but she had to return to the workplace. She said "I hate the filth of the world. I hate hearing the language and working in an office full of gossip and back-biting. I always go home feeling so dirty and depressed."

I don't wanna minimize what she goes through each day at all. MANY of us as Christians, do now or have in the past, worked in the world surrounded by people who don't know Jesus. Their lifestyles, habits, conversations, motives, and actions can sometimes be worse than most network TV shows. BUT...where would each of us be without the grace of God?!

I don't necessarily want to change my daughter's disgust for dirt, but I am constantly trying to change her perspective. What if we saw each person as a possibility rather than a problem? Potential for eternity rather than a pitfall for us? The Word does tell us "Greater is He that is within you, than he that is within the world" (1 Jn.4:4). Every person we encounter is an individual opportunity to BE JESUS to them. Does that high of a calling grip you? We often pray for the Lord to send forth laborers into the field, but we don't want to be the laborer. Or we'd like a different field.

But the field was cursed in Genesis due to sin. So when you work in the world, it may be embedded with weeds of wickedness, roots of bitterness, entangled tares and various diseases of the heart. It may be intense spiritual labor on your part (in cooperation with His Spirit) for the Lord to receive a harvest. But what are your tools?

There are too many to list...but here are a few. You have prayer that begins to fertilize the soil and fasting that breaks the enemies hardened ground. You have the Word which will plant seeds and you have the Son which will cause those seeds to grow. "A soft answer" can be a gracious gift with a daily watering of mercy in one form or another. And the greatest gift of all is love. It was the goodness of God that led you to repentance (Rom. 2:4). It may sound trite or oversimplified to you, but when we remember the cross, it should become more clear. I wallowed in more mire, guck, and filth than I would ever want to write about. 

And yet, here was God's heart when I was deepest in my sin - Ezek.16:8-10 "Then I passed by you and saw you, and behold, you were at the time for love; so I spread My skirt over you and covered your nakedness. I also swore to you and entered into a covenant with you so that you became Mine," declares the Lord GOD. "Then I bathed you with water, washed off your blood from you and anointed you with oil. I also clothed you with embroidered cloth and put sandals of porpoise skin on your feet; and I wrapped you with fine linen and covered you with silk." Please read that chapter for yourself. What a love God has for us. Our filth for His forgiveness. Our failure begot His favor. What an exchange.

"Prodigals and Their Moms"

When I was a child, there were certain words that had very little meaning to me: divorce, infertility, cancer, miscarriage, death, and prodigals. But as time passed, each of those words came to life as uninvited guests and now hold a very significant place in my heart.

Though none of those circumstances are ever desired, the Lord has many "treasures in darkness and riches in secret places" to share with us during those times (Isa. 45:3). I just watched an episode of the "Today's Faith" program, hosted by Cheryl Brodersen on HisChannel.com, and the topic centered on "Prodigals." My personal prayer list has prodigals from coast-to-coast, as do many of yours. But this was such a wonderful and rich interview that I had to post it for others to glean from. If you have a prodigal child, know someone who does, or just want to gain a deeper insight into this particular area, please take a moment to watch. As Cheryl states in the interview, the fact that Jesus even tells the story about a prodigal son in Luke 15:11-32, should bring great comfort and hope to any parents heart. He knew this would be a very real circumstance in many people's lives.

Click here for "PRODIGALS" on Today's Faith program

Miracles and Motivators

John 6:2 "Then a great multitude followed Him, because they saw His signs which He performed on those who were diseased."

Signs. I remember as a little girl, my Dad used to take me to "healing" meetings. There was one night in particular, a young teenage girl with long, wispy hair, was pulled up to the platform and all of the lights in the audience were dimmed. She hobbled over to the so-called "faith healer" who sat her down in a chair, carefully pulled her right leg up and then slid another chair underneath it. I promptly got out of my seat, pardoned and excused myself as I pushed past, crawled over and scooted through the legs of every individual between that platform and I. Something BIG was about to happen...especially since the music intensified.

Though I learned later the guy was a con, I wanted to go back the next night, and the next, and so on. To see a miracle happen for others meant that there might be a miracle for me. I had a great desire to see a miracle in my childhood.

So it's easy to understand why "multitudes" began to follow Jesus. He was touching lepers with lethal disease. He healed bad eyesight, paralysis, anemia, the deaf, those with crippled limbs, and even raised the dead. There was no limit to His power and not enough books to contain all that He did. I would have followed.

John 6:25-27 "And when they found Him on the other side of the sea, they said to Him, “Rabbi, when did You come here?” Jesus answered them and said, “Most assuredly, I say to you, you seek Me, not because you saw the signs, but because you ate of the loaves and were filled."

 Now there's a difference. Initially, they followed Him for the signs, but once the Lord performed a miracle that "filled their stomachs," their motivation changed. For every one that says they follow Christ, "motives" will be periodically checked by the Holy Spirit. Circumstances in our lives can surface the real reason we say we are Christians. Is it because we want to see Him do a miracle for us? Is it because we believe following Him will give us good health, decent wealth, protection from injury, deliverance from hard times? Is it because we have goals and ambitions and want His blessings on them so they do not fail? Why do we follow Jesus?

Hear Job's wise reflection, "Shall we indeed accept good from God and not accept adversity?" (Job 2:10)

May our motivation to follow Jesus be solely for WHO He is. "I Am the Good Shepherd." Jn.10:11