FROM THE WORLD'S VIEW

Matthew 5:16

 

Let your light so shine before men,

that they may see your good works,

and glorify your Father which is in heaven.

As children, we can remember singing, “This little light of mine, I’m gonna let it shine.” In this song, it refers to our Christian light as a candle that can light up a room. Lately I’ve been thinking about our light in a whole new way – as a much larger light, one that can illuminate the entire world. In this comparison, we are going to be looking at things this way.

• The Sun: Jesus Christ

• The Moon: Christian

• The Earth: People of the World (Unbelievers)

• Darkness: Sin

• Light: Our Christian Witness

Did you know that the moon does not actually carry its own light? The reason it appears to be illuminated is because reflects the light from the sun. How cool that something just reflecting the light of the Sun can light up the entire night sky. This is the way that we as Christians should be reflecting the light of Christ. We cannot light the world on our own, but if we reflect the light of the Son, we can spread God’s light in a glorious display for the whole world to see.

There are times when we see a full moon, a gibbous moon, a half moon, or a crescent moon. It all depends on the position of the Moon and the Earth in perspective to the Sun. So it is that the light we reflect upon the world is in dependent solely on the position of Christ in our lives.

When the Moon is directly lined up with the Sun, we can see it in all of its brilliance – the Full Moon. So it is that when we as Christians are lined up with our Savior, the world can see us in all of God’s brilliance.

When the Moon turns its face slightly away from the Sun, it becomes covered by the shadow of the earth, making it gibbous. As it moves further, it becomes a half moon and then a crescent moon. So it is that when we turn away from the light of the Lord Jesus Christ, we move further into the shadow of the world, allowing sin to creep into our walk. That is when our light fades and eventually falters.

As the Moon moves back around the Earth and is once again the Sun, it begins to reflect more and more of the light from the Sun. It becomes a half moon, then a crescent moon, and finally a full moon once again. So it is with our Christian walk. As we begin to face our Savior again, we are able to light up the world with the love of Christ.

These celestial bodies have no control over the lunar cycle. They cannot decide to just stop their movement. The Lord made them the way they are for a reason. If they ceased their cycle, the world would be overtaken by a plethora of natural disasters. But unlike these bodies, we can determine our cycle. We can decide to keep our faces toward the face of God, or we can allow the world to come between us, making us just as dark as the rest of the world.

It is your choice. What does the world see when they see you? The world – or rather people in the world – can only identify us as Christians by the way we live our lives. As Christians, it is our job to tell everyone we encounter the word of salvation – reflecting the light of Christ for the whole world to see.

YOU ARE THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD!

WANT TO BE SURROUNDED BY ANGELS - WORSHIP

Why is it, that when we are in trouble, 

we cry out to the Lord, "Lord, send 

your angels to come and watch over 

us and keep us from harm?" 

"Lord, we pray that your angels 

minister to our needs."  Why would 

we pray for one or two of his angels 

to watch over us when we could 

have a whole multitude of angels 

surrounding us?

God's throne is surrounded by angels 

crying "Holy, holy, holy, Lord 

God Almighty …

" (Revelation 4.8). 

Let us therefore come boldly 

unto the throne of grace, 

that we may obtain mercy, 

and find grace to help in time of need.

Hebrews 4:16

All we need to do is enter into his presence 

through worship. Just begin singing praises 

to God and enter into His throne of grace

and you will be surrounded by all 

the angels that are around his throne. 

Why pray for a few angels when you 

can be protected by so great a 

throng of angels and by the
Lord God Almighty?

WHO'S FEET WOULD YOU CHOOSE?

If you were going to start a ministry who would you choose to be the feet of your ministry.  God has shown me not to rely on what I feel but on what he wants.  I have a lady that challenged me in the ministry.  She has Cerebal Palsy and is in a wheel chair.  She told me at the beginning of the "Digging A Well" ministry, that she wanted to be my feet.  Many people would have laughed by this statement.  I really felt lead that God wanted Jonean to be the "Feet Of The Ministry".   Jonean has truly been the feet of the mninistry.  She has been a blessing in my life in so many ways.  If Jonean wasn't a part of this ministry, I am positive that this ministry would not exist.  When I feel like giving up she urges me on.  She believes with all her heart that this is a ministry that is going to help many women become diggers Of faith. 

If you were going to choose someone to be the feet of you ministry, would you choose the feet that has been to the beauty salon, perfectly painted, no bunyons, wearing the most expensive cute flip flops or would you choose someone in a wheel chair.  Too many times our choices are made by the outward appearance instead of looking on the heart.  Maybe this is why so many times we fail in the ministry. 

God has shown me he can use people who are disabled to use their disability for him.  A blind person will be able to see things that we can't because they use their spiritual insite.  A person that is confined to a bed, can minister deeper than those of us who come and go daily as we please.  May God continue to show those of you with disabilities that you can be used in a powerful way for his glory.  If you have CP, MS, Cancer, Heart Desease, or any other thing you feel has stopped your well from flowing.  Pray and ask God how he can use your disability for His glory.  I am positive he will do this if you are willing to give that disablilty to him.

GOD PAINTED A POEM

I painted a poem just for you,

One you could read each day.

I painted the stars, moon and the sun,

And I set them in the perfect place.

The stars to twinkle and make you smile.

The moon to highlight your face.

The sun to shine when you are cold,

To remind you, I will keep you safe.

I even added the clouds, to soften the heat.

The rain to renew and restore .

And if looking close, you will see

I painted in, Love and Joy

I painted the wind to drive your troubles away

Sometimes it blows so hard and strong

The trials you have, will take a strong wind

This to shall pass, he will right all the wrong.

I painted in butterflies, flowers and trees.

Rivers, oceans, lakes and seas.

I painted the birds to fly in the breeze.

I painted the rainbows for all to see.

I painted this poem, just for you

So you could plainly see,

You are loved and cared for by Him

He's come to set you free.

CLOUDING MY VIEW

A trip to the McDonald Observatory, an astronomoy observation center close to Fort Davis, made me do some thinking. We drove three and a half hours to attend a “Star Party”. Before the Star Party began the clouds began to move in across the sky. It was time to begin star gazing but there were no stars. The moon was shining through the clouds so the star guide discussed some specifics about the moon. As we looked, a star began to peek through the clouds. Slowly, two or three more stars began to follow the example of the first. Knowing there were billions of stars in the sky, I began to ponder the situation. Even though there are times when the moon may not be visible to us, we all know that it is there every single night. Likewise, each of those stars faithfully shine through our every night sky. Saturn, Jupiter, Venus, Neptune, Mercury, and the other planets are there every night. However, here we sit under the vast expansion of stars and planets without being able to visualize them.


This is exactly what happens to us when we are inside of the “Well of Despair.” We look around and blame God for not being there. We blame our friends and family for not being there. And, there are times when our friends and our family may abandon us. Most of the time those friends and family members who truly love us will be there for us, and the kicker is that God IS ALWAYS THERE. Yet, through our emotional clouds, we often become unaware of His presence and even convince ourselves that he has gone away. As humans none of us are immune. Our problems overwhelm us. Our problems cause the clouds to roll in and put a covering between us and God. If we think of the parallel between the human race and the universe, we can see that God is our “Sun.” He is our constant. He is the reason that we shine. Our friends and family are a lot like those other stars and planets. They are typically there, but throughout time, even a star will burn out. We can hope and pray that our family and friends will stick with us to the end, but sometimes they aren’t that reliable because they are human. Pretty often they are there, but we just can’t see them through the clouds. However we know that our God will never burn out. HE IS ALWAYS THERE!

                                                     SOMETHING TO REMEMBER
We also need to remember that as christian ladies we are like the moon. The moon reflects the sun and if you are not letting your life reflect that of the Lord Jesus Christ, there may be other people in the "Well of Despair" and looking for a ray of light or a ray of hope. They will not be able to see the light if you are not lining yourself up with the Word of God and reflecting that light to them.

EXHAUSTED BUT BLESSED

Our ladies meeting in Andrews, TX was great today! God blessed in a mighty way, but not without a battle. As we set up equipment and was getting ready for the meeting, we had battles from every direction. An hour before the meeting, it looked as if the whole thing was falling apart. We couldn't get any of our equipment to coordinate with the equipment at the church, and without the equipment, basically the whole program couldn't move forward.

The night before, we had worked on getting everything set up. When it came to the sound equipment it was way over my head. So an hour before the meeting today I called in reinforcements. When they arrived and looked over the project, it just seemed impossible. Without the equipment working properly we would have to change the whole schedule. We then decided we needed a stronger reinforcement. We stopped and asked God to show up. There were 4 of us that went into a back room and prayed. We walked out of the room and the whole project came together in an unbelievable way.

When Lisa got ready to sing, the DVD player froze up, and we couldn't get it to operate. We stopped and prayed. During our prayer, the DVD started working, and she could select her song. There were about 4 or 5 times that things like this happened during the process of getting set up and during the service. Each time we would have to just stop, pray, and tell God we needed him to take control, because we are nothing and can do nothing. He is everything, owns everything, and controls everything. He is has control over Satan, our enemy, and when he tells him to step aside and let the "KING OF KINGS" have it, then Satan has to step aside.

Many of the ladies were blessed today. I, myself, was also blessed. Every time Lisa sings, I am blessed. God is Good and doing some mighty things in and through "Digging A Well" and  "Indignus." If you haven't had a chance to visit the Indignus blog, here is the link, http://www.indignusyouth.blogspot.com

If you haven't had a chance to hear Indignus, come to Northside Baptist Church, Kermit TX on Thursdays at 7 and see what God is doing in and through two young people who are just as the name says, "Indignus," which means, "unworthy." They were willing to lay their lives before God and be used by him, and he is truly using them to show the youth in Kermit that, we are unworthy, but we are saved by God's grace. He can take the most unworthy person and touch their lives and make them:

 WORTHY TO STAND BEFORE THE THRONE OF GOD.

DIGGING DEEPER

Vicki awakens to the sound of the birds singing, coffee brewing and the smell of spring flowers blooming outside her bay window. She throws back the covers and decides to go for a stroll in her newly planted flower garden. Breathing in the brisk morning air and thinking how blessed she must be. As the morning passes she receives a phone call from an old friend who lives nearby.
“Vicki, this is JoAnn. I need to stop by and visit with you, is this a good time?”
Vicki replies that it couldn’t be a better time..

When JoAnn arrives she looks deep into Vicki’s excited blue eyes. Vicki realizes after just a moment that JoAnn has a very heavy heart. JoAnn expresses that she is concerned about something that she had seen yesterday while making a floral delivery at a nearby hotel.

“Vicki,” she says, “as I was about to round the corner at the hotel I saw John come out of one of the rooms with a young lady about 25 years old. I slipped back so that John couldn’t see me. As John walked by the doorway where I was standing I overheard his conversation. Vicki I don’t mean to hurt you this way, but John is very involved with this lady.”

A thousand thoughts raced through Vicki’s mind. Shock, fear, hurt, and sorrow began to overtake Vicki. She didn’t know where to run. “Why me! Why, Why Me! My life was so full, so abundant, so great. No, this can’t be true. I’ll wake up tomorrow and realize this was just a dream. We just built our new dream house. No John wouldn’t do this.”

Vicki confronts her husband. She finds out that JoAnn had been correct. She can’t believe this is really happening. Her shock, fear and hurt now turns to anger.

Growing up in a minister’s home and now being a pastor’s wife for 28 years, this is a story we hear often. Listed below are four different wells that we can dig. I hope after reading this, you will see the importance of choosing the fourth well.

WELL #1

“I’m going to hurt him as badly as he has hurt me. I’m going to find a guy strip bar and start going just to show him.”

WELL #2

“Jose Cuervo, you’re a friend of mine,” thinks Vicki, as she leaves the bar. Vicki drives home, stammers in the door to find her children fighting with each other. She throws her purse across the room and starts screaming at the children. She then suddenly decides she doesn’t want to be a mom any longer. She tells her children that she is going to give them up. They beg and plead with their mom. She screams at them, “you might as well grow up and realize that this stuff happens. Just get used to it. “

WELL #3

Vicki remembers when she was young how that she use to take drugs. Maybe if she could find Frank and get a fix it would help her cope with this, forgetting that it took thousands of dollars and months in a rehab to overcome her addiction. She calls Frank and asks him to meet her.

WELL #4 

“I just want to kill him. OH YES, I DO! As she begins to reflect on things, she decides to call her pastor.  Bro John, this is Vicki. "I know you have heard what has happened. I am really angry. I just want to kill John. I want to destroy his life, as he has destroyed mine.   He made a vow to me.  We loved each other.  He acted like he was happy.  I don't understand.  I feel like I could knock a house down, I'm so angry”

Pastor John sits and thinks. “Vicki, can you meet me at the church in 30 minutes."  Vicki drives to the church.  Pastor John gets out of his truck picks up a toolbox. As they walk into the building, Pastor John explains, you know being angry isn’t a sin. You have the right to be angry. It’s what you do with your anger that can become sin. You know we have needed to remodel this area of the building for a long time. He places the sledge hammer into Vicki’s hand and shows her a wall that needs knocked down. You can stay here as long as you need to. Vicki spends the day beating, pounding, slamming the hammer into the wall. She falls to the floor in exhaustion and begins to cry and pray. She ask the Lord to help her cope with this trauma. As time passes Vicki learns to have a closer walk with Jesus Christ.

When I came into Vicki’s life, my heart was filled with fear, hurt, and anger, Vicki showed me the place the wall use to be and showed me the newly built area.   She encouraged me rather than becoming “bitter,” I need to become “better.” Instead of destroying myself in Well number one, two, or three, she challenged me to dig deep and do something constructive instead of destructive during this time in my life.