Loving everyone, as Jesus does

 

"The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance." - 2nd Peter 3:9


I'm not sure what the hold up was but there was a lot of waiting at the little Costa Rican church. We were all sitting around watching the church custodian sweep the floor. A little later restlessness showed up and some of us began to walk down the road, Spanish gospel tracks in hand, looking for someone to hand them too. I think I encountered two people. The traffic was speeding by on the dirty, uneven road. Pedestrians had no rights on the road, so we stayed a safe distance from the danger. Which as a Christian is what we tend to do. We sit safely in our churches, which are clean, off the beaten road and wait for the lost to come in. I was guilty for years of playing church until the Lord showed me on that hot and humid day in Costa Rica that I needed to do more than just go on a week long mission trip and then return to my comfortable home. He wanted me to step out and make myself or more so the Lord's presence known.

What struck me that day is what I witnessed. Everyone needs to hear this, as a Christian this should pierce us right through the heart. I watched one of the pastors walk right into a bar. When he came out the Costa Rican pastor asked him "What did you go in there for?" His comment was pretty much "They need Jesus too." This bar was filthy looking, a tiny building with an open door. Sitting in the slums of San Jose. But he was right, they did need Jesus. A white man casually walking into the bar sharing the gospel of Jesus, was a little dangerous. But God protected him. God has no boundaries.

Later that week one of the other missionaries who had a gift working with handicapped children asked the Costa Rican pastor if he could stop and set up a time so that we could talk to the special needs school right across the street from our hotel. He kept driving past.  She tried to explain that no matter their mental state, they still needed Jesus. Later our group walked down and talked to the school principal. He was very receptive and asked us to come back in the morning. The experience was amazing, many of those children, their teachers and parents received the gift of salvation.

"But Jesus said, Suffer little children, and forbid them not, to come unto me: for of such is the kingdom of heaven." - Matthew 19:14

Why was the pastor so hesitant, I don't know. But I've been just as guilty to be so reserved when it came to who I talked about or showed Jesus' love with. We have to open our eyes and see that salvation is for everyone, not just for who we see as a lesser threat to our self esteem. Jesus teaches us a very valuable lesson found in the 22nd Chapter of Matthew.

³⁶ Master, which is the great commandment in the law? ³⁷ Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. ³⁸ This is the first and great commandment. ³⁹ And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.

Sometimes we love ourselves a little too much, we downright spoil ourselves. If we stopped and looked around and gave a moment in time to helping someone else, listening to their problems, sharing your bounty, it is then we are loving our neighbors.

Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others." - Philippians 2:4

 

Holding onto God's lifeboat

 

 

 

It's amazing cleaning out a house or in my case a townhouse from top to bottom. I actually like looking at an almost empty house. It's only empty in material possessions, but this home is still filled with love and laughter. It's still filled with a family. Will & I began sending out our support letters and the response back has been such a blessing. It's very humbling knowing that people trust you and see the potential in you that sometimes we forget ourselves. We've even gotten an invite to be on the radio to spread the word farther. Amazing!

I keep getting asked about how we are transitioning or is it hard to clean out? If I wasn't truly into this mission maybe it would be overwhelming. I'm no super woman, with no feelings or attachments, but what good will it do for me to dwell on the things of the world that do not matter. The devil wants to plant seeds of doubt in all of us. Too many times he wins, you have the capability to achieve so much, but the devil's tactics of fear, anxiety and doubt stop you flat. It's a firm decision a person needs to make to say, "I'm going to follow Jesus, no matter what others think or say." Even now we have family who tries to discourage Will & I. These are Bible believing Christians. What is it that makes them say the things they do? Doubt! Once, I found myself starting to feed into their hesitation. We have to stay on our toes and be alert to these defenses the devil throws up from the most trusted sources.

 

My favorite Bible story is based upon trust & belief.......

 

22And straightway Jesus constrained his disciples to get into a ship, and to go before him unto the other side, while he sent the multitudes away
23And when he had sent the multitudes away, he went up into a mountain apart to pray: and when the evening was come, he was there alone.
24But the ship was now in the midst of the sea, tossed with waves: for the wind was contrary.
25And in the fourth watch of the night Jesus went unto them, walking on the sea.
26And when the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were troubled, saying, It is a spirit; and they cried out for fear.
27But straightway Jesus spake unto them, saying, Be of good cheer; it is I; be not afraid. 28And Peter answered him and said, Lord, if it be thou, bid me come unto thee on the water.
29And he said, Come. And when Peter was come down out of the ship, he walked on the water, to go to Jesus.

30But when he saw the wind boisterous, he was afraid; and beginning to sink, he cried, saying, Lord, save me.
31And immediately Jesus stretched forth his hand, and caught him, and said unto him, O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt?
32And when they were come into the ship, the wind ceased.
33Then they that were in the ship came and worshipped him, saying, Of a truth thou art the Son of God.

Matthew Ch. 14: 22-33

 

 

Remember he will catch you once you believe!



The Lord asks us to trust him......don't we owe it? I believe even if there aren't enough funds visibly to support the way, he will give us all we need.


You see......Jesus is the lifeboat God said was coming.




 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Decluttering and Detoxing!

I know I'm slow about keeping up with this blog. But I have great excuses for it. Since we are moving to Japan next summer I've had to clean out the house and sell most of our furniture off and give away alot. I've never been one to store alot of unneeded stuff and could never be accused of being a hoarder so the challenge has been more with giving away things I was using. I'm still okay with all of this however. I like seeing the stuff go, I eventually want to live simply with only what I need or what my hobbies consist of. We are currently sleeping on air mattresses, ours kept losing air until my husband fixed it. Trust me, waking up every night half sunk into the mattress isn't a treat!

The only things left to sell are our recliners, table, washer and dryer. I have some trusted family and friends who have offered up to store the things I can't part with, heirlooms and photo albums and the like. But soon it will be what we can carry in our suitcases and on our backs. Wow, how we truly must trust the Lord!

This week I went on a detox that was long overdue. No this isn't a silly fad diet, it's extremely realistic. It changes from a temporary thing to a permanent lifestyle if you let it be and that is my goal.  For months I've been slowly weaning my family off processed foods, gmos, chemical perservatives and the such. My goal is to switch from eating a majority of processed foods to a majority of raw fruits and vegetables, fish and chicken. Minimizing the intake of fake food, because I know there will be times or situations when that may be all I have. I'm no expert but I think I could write my own book about how awful today's food is, including the pesticides sprayed on our food. I firmly believe what is in our food is the reasons for many many many cancers and obesity....but I will jump off that bandwagon for now. Now, I'm no skinny minnie, I've got a curve here or there but I'd rather be healthy than a ridiculously pencil thin woman subjecting herself to every diet known possible. If loose some weight that's just an added bonus.

Day 1 started out fine, the cooking required alot of prepping and I like a few recipes here and there. This 7-day tune up by no means deprives you of food, it even offers healthier dessert alternatives. I haven't been able to eat all the recipes the book offers. By the end of Day 1 I felt weak, sore and sick to my stomach. I didn't realize the releasing of unhealthy toxins would take effect so quickly. So I went to sleep and woke up feeling fine, but not long on Day 2 I started to feel sluggish but I trucked on through and kept up with the meal schedule. As I was preparing lunch I felt like a snail. This is not typical of myself so I decided to look up why I was feeling this way. Sure enough my idea of body ridding of toxins was supposed to be happening. Now the book recommended supplements, but I hate taking pills and I was firm about not adding them into this diet, but by the end of day 2 I caved and picked up the recommendation for Spiralina, which supports the immune system and a varied supply of health benefits. So now we are at Day 3, I woke up again with my stomach hurting a little, but very tired. Even though the dosage is 2 pills, I took one and watched some television (Rare Indeed!) thinking this isn't going to work. After about 30 minutes I started feeling a little better, my body seemed to wake up fully and here I am blogging like I would normally do. I read something last night that struck me, the statement was this. "During detox, after ridding the toxins and sugars your body is going to show you how tired it really is, since processing the fake ingredients take alot of extra work." Hmmmm. It makes alot of sense.

So I will continue this detox and turn it into a lifestyle. We had some delicious cod with veggies last night so there is hope........