Sunflower Faith

The beginning of the holidays.

What joy!

With it though, for many or for some, comes with it, the reality of dealing with family and/or friends, that we are struggling with having a good relationships with; A time of tension for some or just plain stress.

It’s with prayers and hopes, that you remember first and foremost, that our Heavenly Father does love you always, and like many, as we go into the holiday season, remember that our words and actions can lift as well as be a burden if we are not careful.

But avoid foolish and ignorant disputes, knowing that they generate strife. 24 And a servant of the Lord must not quarrel but be gentle to all, able to teach, patient-2 Tim 2:23-24 NKJV

The next time you are tempted to say something hurtful to someone just because you’re angry, you might want to stop and remember this story: it’s a keeper. Read it here.

There once was a little boy who had a bad temper. His father gave him a bag of nails and told him that every time he lost his temper, he must hammer a nail into the back of the fence.

The first day the boy had driven 37 nails into the fence. Over the next few weeks, as he learned to control his anger, the number of nails hammered daily gradually dwindled down. He discovered it was easier to hold his temper than to drive those nails into the fence.

Finally the day came when the boy didn’t lose his temper at all. He told his father about it and the father suggested that the boy now pull out one nail for each day that he was able to hold his temper. The days passed and the young boy was finally able to tell his father that all the nails were gone.

The father took his son by the hand and led him to the fence. He said, “You have done well, my son, but look at the holes in the fence. The fence will never be the same. When you say things in anger, they leave a scar just like this one. You can put a knife in a man and draw it out. It won’t matter how many times you say I’m sorry, the wound is still there.”

The little boy then understood how powerful his words were. He looked up at his father and said “I hope you can forgive me father for the holes I put in you.”

“Of course I can,” said the father

The next time you are tempted to say something hurtful to someone just because you’re angry, you might want to stop and remember this story: it’s a keeper. Read it here.

There once was a little boy who had a bad temper. His father gave him a bag of nails and told him that every time he lost his temper, he must hammer a nail into the back of the fence.

The first day the boy had driven 37 nails into the fence. Over the next few weeks, as he learned to control his anger, the number of nails hammered daily gradually dwindled down. He discovered it was easier to hold his temper than to drive those nails into the fence.

Finally the day came when the boy didn’t lose his temper at all. He told his father about it and the father suggested that the boy now pull out one nail for each day that he was able to hold his temper. The days passed and the young boy was finally able to tell his father that all the nails were gone.

The father took his son by the hand and led him to the fence. He said, “You have done well, my son, but look at the holes in the fence. The fence will never be the same. When you say things in anger, they leave a scar just like this one. You can put a knife in a man and draw it out. It won’t matter how many times you say I’m sorry, the wound is still there.”

The little boy then understood how powerful his words were. He looked up at his father and said “I hope you can forgive me father for the holes I put in you.”

“Of course I can,” said the father.

From “A Place of Worship“:

I think Paul put’s it best when he said people were still worldly based on how they argued. Whether it is about religion or issues at home or at work, patience is the aspect of Love that we should be striving for. It is not an easy aspect to obtain. But the less arguing and more patience, the less worldly and more Holy to God you are.

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I love to read…

If you don’t know me by now…I have a confession…I love books. I love to read.

 I adore books and not the Kindle type, but the books, you can still hold in your hands and stuff in a bag and write notes on the side and highlight and have hubby wonder why the luggage bag feels like it was packed with bricks, and you don’t have the heart to tell him, that half it’s weight is due to books to be read on the plane, at the hotel, on the way home…….

Yes…I love books that much.

Every so often (which is often), I check a book out of the library or maybe from a friend/or family referral, buy a book, or just come across a title somewhere that sounds good and take a chance and order the book to read, to love and to add on an already strained library.

It’s worth it.

A book doesn’t need to be recharged.

The power can go out; The candle can be lit and the book can be read.

If there are bugs, it can be use to whack the bug, clean the cover, and continue reading, but no matter what, it serves so many purposes.

There is something about holding a book in your hand and just opening the pages and feeling that instant connection or desire to just throw the book away.

It’s timeless…and it’s always been around.

I pray and hope I can encourage my kids to love books as much as I do and the excitement they get when we go to the library or a book arrives in the mail is worth it.

I told hubby, the hard part is that, as frugal as we try to be, books is something I can’t give up.

I seriously search and research and wait with baited breath to try and get the cheapest, most inexpensive books I possible can order, so I can still have them to read over and over and over and to keep treasuring.

There’s always a stack of books by my bed.

That’s my signature.

So…………….there you go….I love books…a lot.

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When you ask a medical student why they want to become a doctor, what do they say?

Is it because they want to make money (okay, maybe for some), or because they want to heal the sick?

More than likely, it’s because they want to heal the sick.

When we become Christians, it’s because, as sinners, we were once “lost” and now through Jesus Christ, we are now saved, but there gets to a point that we have to realize that it’s not about us.

Never was.

It’s all about Him.

And He is about all of us.

When we become Christians, there comes a point, when we need to challenge ourselves and like a great quote I saw on a blog said,“We can’t choose whom we love if we call ourselves Christians”.

He came not to save one person in specifics, or favoritism, but because of a lost and broken world that is always in need of healing and through us, He seeks to use us to share the message that there is hope and salvation.

During our bible study, we were talking about Matthew 9:11-13. You know the story, but just in case, here’s a quick recap:

¹¹ And when the Pharisees saw it, they said to His disciples, “Why does your Teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?”

Now imagine how the scene must have been.

His disciples have been following Jesus Christ all day and are probrably pretty tired but feeling good about the work they had done.

They see Matthew and think, oh no, give this man WIDE BERTH.

Back in the day, tax collectors were thought of much lower than sinners and wow, that must be pretty low.

It could be easy to fill in the blank, the type of people today that we wouldn’t want to be around.

Not with Jesus.

See.

He came for them.

Really.

¹² When Jesus heard that, He said to them, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. -Matthew 9:12 (NKJV)

Remember the song from “Amazing Grace”, I once was lost but now I’m found.

There are a lot of lost people out there and many of them are usually not found by themselves; It takes a brave soul who is willing to go out of their comfort zone, who are willing to say, I can forgo comfort for one day, a few weeks, a month or even years, to see those who don’t have what I have, learn what I have and be taught what I have, so they too can have what I have.

A doctor and a nurse are among many who willingly go to the forefront of danger.

The rest of us run away, but like our brave soldiers who put themselves in the line of fire, so do our medical personnal.

It’s not an easy job.

They are the ones who take care of the sickest of the sick, if a new virus or sickness comes up, they are the ones who will meet it head on, but they do this, knowing that they will, because, they desire to heal those who have succumbed to illness to have a better life.

As Christians, that is one of the things that we are burden with.

It’s okay to have fellowship with those who are like-minded beliefs, who live in the same demographics, but there are those who are not bless as we are, who need God the most.

Sometimes, it takes, getting out of our comfort zone and as ambassadors for Christ, make sure that we don’t just associate with someone just because it’s in our comfort zone.

This doesn’t mean, get in your car and drive to the baddest neighborhood (or woods if your out in the country), but there are those who are homeless, who are addicted, who have given up hope, who are sick in a place that takes more than a physcian to heal them, they are sick in their hearts and soul and NEED to know that GOD loves them and wants to heal them.

God’s word isn’t just for those who knows Him, but also for those who don’t know Him.

He came here seeking to save all of us and give us a chance at true freedom.

¹³ But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy and not sacrifice.’ For I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance.” (Matthew 9:11-13, New King James Version)

I’m part of the Pocket Testament League and when I can (hey I forget the very dayplanner that is meant to keep me on track), I try to grab a couple of the gospels before heading out.

It’s really neat.

It’s basically JUST the book of John; Easiest book to read and has the plan of salvation in the back in case it touches someone’s heart enough to call upon Christ and when I’m out and about, if I see someone whose homeless or maybe on the side roads with a sign, I hand it out to them.

Yes, there’s a chance they may throw the book. but it’s not about that.

It’s not about driving off thinking that “Oh they are just going to toss it”.

It’s about praying over it and giving it to God and putting it in His hands and praying that for every ten I may pass out, one will be saved.

It’s not about the numbers, it’s about seeking and sharing.

Think that Jesus saved every single person He spoke to?

If we read our bible and look around us, we see that we still have a lot of work to do.

I’m sure there were plenty that were saved, there were plenty who actually stopped and listen, but there were also plenty who just went on their way, dismissing Him.

We are blessed by God, with Free Will, to make our choices, but with that blessing comes the responsiblity and the accountability.

As I tell my kids, “….every choice has a result; there is no such thing as no results”.

I’m sure Jesus disciples were aghast that Jesus was not only going to have dinner, but look what Matthew did!

He threw a party and invited everyone he knew and how much you want to bet that the people he invited, were people that some (notice I said some) wouldn’t normally associated with and wouldn’t associated with.

We want to surround ourselves constantly with people of good standing and fellowship, but as Christ tells us, ¹³ But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy and not sacrifice.’ For I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance.” (Matthew 9:11-13, New King James Version)

For those of us who work, I bet there are people around you who don’t know, care or want to know Christ. It wasn’t any better in His time either and look at what people COULD do then.

But that didn’t stop Him or his followers.

Getting His word out was more important then what people thought of them.

Who cares about today when we’re talking about eternity.

Could you imagine the uproar if a doctor refuse to treat someone on the basis of not wanting to associate with them?

But but..they are a human being and they are sick and they deserve to be treated…..

Subsitute treated with saved.

The drug addict.

The liar.

The gossiper.

The prostitute.

The thief.

Look who Jesus surrounded himself with.

The murderer.

Oh. What about Saul? You mean, that murderious, traitor who sold Christians and put them to death, and then became…oh…..Paul.

Yes.

Paul.

God uses the unlikely.

And sometimes, by ministering to them….we sometimes realize, they end up ministering to us.

Maybe we still are judgemental.

Maybe we still don’t really have the empathy like we thought we did and discover it while serving lunch at a kitchen for the homeless.

At one time, we were all lost and then we were found.

Maybe it was someone by someone in your life, who experience the power and ever-changing grace of God in their life and in turn as service and worship to Him, they reach out to others because they know what it is like to be in pain, to be alone, to be…..rejected.

Next time you go to the doctor’s office, or at the ER; Look around.

It’s not just the healthy whose being served, but the sick as well.

Then go outside and see we live in a world filled with both the healthy and the sick.

You have the prescription in your hand.

Whom do we truly need to serve first?

Who do you hand the prescription to salvation to?

The man or woman who knows Christ and slowly working on their relationship with Jesus Christ or the man or woman beside them who doesn’t know Jesus Christ and who is sick with sin, with pain or rejection?

Each day that we are out, we are already ambassadors for our Heavenly Father; Be it the supermarket, the doctor’s office, our children’s schools, or just next door, we have the opportunity to share His word, by just merely being us, representing Him and speaking His words, and it doesn’t have to always be, by quoting scripture, but just a simple gesture of kindness, a simple reaching out to those who just aren’t having a good day and in it all, letting them know…that it’s not us who shares this care and love for them, but our Heavenly Father.

He has sent us out into the world, not to heal those who are healed, but to help bring comfort and healing to those who are sick and in need of a stronger and more reliable cure.

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