During a recent “pay it forward” chain of cars at work, an incredible thing happened.  At the 5th car, I told the woman the usual about the car in front of her paying for her food, and her face lit up, and she said, “Finally!  It’s my turn!” I asked what she meant and she explained that she “pays ut forward” frequently, and believes God gets all the credit and loves that He uses her.  But she was delighted that it was HER turn to receive, and she did it joyfully!  It was such a blessing to watch her drive off, knowing that God had honored her.

So what’s the big deal?  It’s this principle that too many of us struggle with..being gracious receivers!  We all know and frequently quote “it’s more blessed to give than receive” (acts 20:35) but we very seldom will put away our pride TO receive.  Even in times of need we incorrectly interpret having to receive as a sign of weakness..a failure on our part.  We mistakenly believe that we ALWAYS have to be the giver!

Robert and I had to deal with this early in our marriage.  We were constantly barely making ends meet, but we followed God’s lead and enrolled in seminary anyway, trusting Him to provide.  And He did, and Robert accepted until..God laid it on the heart of a single Mom who was struggling more than us, to take her savings and pay for a semester of our school.  Robert was adamant that she would NOT do that, until he finally realized this major point:  if one is not willing to receive a gift that God directly told someone else to give them, then they are ROBBING the other person of the blessing of giving!!

In other words, if we all want to be blessed as givers, then we’re in trouble!  Someone HAS to receive, or the giving is blocked!  How sad! And GOD is robbed of the glory He receives when He asks someone to give in His name!

So, next time someone is trying to bless you, stop your automatic “no, I can make it” and look at the situation with fresh perspective..you might just find out the only response you need to give is to rejoice and drive off blessed yourself!

You may not know this, but ChickFilA is one of the cleanest restaurants ever.  Period.  No straying from that, just spotless.  And that is one thing I love about it..I can always assure our customers they are getting the freshest food cooked on the cleanest equipment and put in the most sterile bags and packages…no matter the cost to ChickFilA.  It’s amazing.

So it was no surprise to me today when a tiny speck appeared to be found in the drive through bin, that the entire drive through ice bin was subsequently emptied out, cleaned, and reloaded..as already stated, we don’t take any chances! The amazing thing about this was that it was in the MIDDLE of our morning rush!!  We had a bumper to bumper line wrapped around the building, and yet no one hesitated to clean it out!  Ice was brought out in other containers, drinks were filled, and there was no slow down, all while cleaning was going on..because it was THAT important!  One customer at the window was very impressed when she asked what was going on, and I told her!

As I was working around this, God just kept hammering a point home with me, and it was this:  If it’s that important to serve the purest PHYSICAL food, and it brings me so much joy to represent that, and it honors the name of ChickFilA when it is like that….then what about the spiritual food that I share with the world???

In other words, does my representation of living out God’s Word in this world look pure and clean?  Does it make it attractive and appealing?  Can I assure people that although I will always be flawed, I am living the best life of holiness and cleanliness that I can?  And when GOD points out a speck of impurity, sin, unrighteousness, do I stop immediately and allow Him to thoroughly clean while I continue to serve??  Or do I brush it off and say ” a little dirty ice (sin) is no big deal, and it can be cleaned later”? After all, perfection is not possible until we reach heaven, and everyone should know and accept that in me…is that our attitude?

If you get a drink with dirty ice in it anywhere, I am sure it leads to questions..where did it come from?  Do they know?  Is there more?  What else is dirty??  And those are valid questions.  The same is true about our spiritual lives.  Again…we will never be perfect..there will be some “dirty ice”.  But our response to that and our renewed efforts to keep it out will be a vital witness to the world that we CARE about our spiritual image, and that we love Jesus enough to allow Him to lean us, so that we can represent HIM with honor! Next time you order a drink anywhere, let that remind you!

Yep, twenty thousand seventy five days, to be exact! Or put another way, 481,800 hours, or really mind blowing, 28,908,000 minutes!

What am I talking about? I am talking about the fact that 2 days from today, I will be 55 years old..which is another way of saying the facts above! In other words, I have already occupied this world for a big chunk of time! And as I have contemplated these numbers, the Lord has given me a new perspective of time altogether..not just for me, but for all of us! In fact, the day any of us were born (in the US) in any year, there were 859,178 OTHER people also born! If you put that in the perspective of God’s amazing work in forming each one of us uniquely and intimately in our mother’s bodies, it paints an astounding picture of God’s creative ability, and His sovereignty in deciding when and how we come into this world.

What a challenging thought! I wondered when I read that statistic how many of those 850,000+ people are still alive…and how many of them spent or are spending their lives in love with the Lord and serving Him. I also wondered what kind of impact my “group” has had on the world. Are we mostly ordinary people living life and influencing a small-medium group of people? Is there a large group who have been particularly smart that have changed history? How many of “us” are in jail? Or drug addicts? Or missionaries?? It’s a staggering trail that could cause you to wander off into great research and effort if you really had to know those answers!

But, of course, God quickly took those thoughts right down to where they needed to be, and quietly kept prodding me to answer that purpose question for just ONE of those people…me. Spiritual growth is NOT easy, and if we are continually seeking it, God is ALWAYS willing to guide us to the truth about our own lives. And here’s what He showed me..that it’s not really about the quantity, or an accounting of what I’ve done for every hour or minute that He’s given me…it’s about paying attention and being aware! It’s about realizing that I HAVE been blessed with all these years, and hopefully I have spent my time mostly wisely and have been faithful to His call for me to work for Him as often as He needed me to. But it’s ALSO about realizing that if He grants me even one day more, there is still that need, in this dark and lost world of ours, for me to be even MORE aware and more faithful! His work on earth is not done, because He has not sent His son to take us home. And because of that, we ALL need to be watching those minutes, those hours, and those days, and making sure that His Kingdom is not lacking for workers, that it is increasing in number, and that our “group” of birthday people has at least ONE faithful representative!

Here’s to my 481,801st day, and to God be the glory!

Throughout my years of church life, many slogans and catchy phrases about Jesus, the church, and ministry have come and gone. Some had an impact, some not so much…and most of them have faded into the background. But as I watched the news the other day, an old one came to my mind: “Jesus is THE answer”. The stories that morning were full of sad stories, lives taken, drugs used..and it seemed there was an air of resignation even on the part of the reporters that, yep, this is our world and there’s no hope. And I thought to myself, is anybody even asking for an answer anymore? Does it matter that we, as born again believers and followers of Jesus Christ, have the answer? Or has everyone given up?

I literally see hundreds of people a week at the drive through, and I see people with just about every emotion and every circumstance. And in talking with them, it’s about 50-50 any given day as to how many of them are defeated, or depressed, or just lost in this world. They have accepted their lives, their jobs, and their world as never able to change, and they plod through as best they can.

AND YET!! This is NOT the way God planned it. His goal for every person is for them to come to know Him, love Him, and live their lives for His purpose and His glory! For those who do know Him, it’s for them to live lives of joy, peace, and fulfillment as they minister in His name throughout their days. So what’s the problem?

I believe it’s this…that there is another group of people not asking questions anymore..and that’s us..the true family of God who are supposed to be representing Jesus to the world!! Not only have so many unbelievers given up, but I am thinking that a lot of BELIEVERS have too. Sometimes we go through OUR days with that same spirit of resignation that the world does. We seem to have lost our belief in the power of God to change lives, and we may have even begun to believe that a lot of people have already “blown it” and are beyond redemption already!

So where do we begin to correct this? I think we need to seek the Lord and ask Him to renew our own faith and purpose, and when He does we need to get to work!! There are still a LOT of work to be done, people to reach, and others to encourage! We DO have the answer, and we need to start asking people if THEY do!

Although I love my job and especially my customers, there are times that it literally stinks.  As in, NOT the aroma of fresh wonderfully cooked chicken, but ODOR.  What kind?  Well if you don’t know, money stinks..mot having it, mind you, but handling it!  It is always dirty, and a lot if times if you sniffed it you would be horrified.  And I will spare you details but where some women keep their money….!!  And them there’s also those lovely exhaust fumes because we are agriculture country and have NO emissions testing…I could barely serve a customer the other day through his truck’s exhaust clouds!  And of course in the 1,000 degree summers we have here, anyone who works hard just..sorry…usually smells midday!

So as one of our pastors was preaching last Sunday about the healing of the ten lepers, and the stench of rotting flesh that lepers give off, I could slightly relate.  And he shared the story of one missionary in Africa who desperately wanted to evangelize in a leper colony, but it took her three different tries before she could overcome the odor!  

And then our pastor transitioned into this thought..when Jesus left the splendor of Heaven..where all was pure and lovely in the very presence of God Himself, what kind of odor did our world give off??  This dirty, nasty, ugly world..compared to what He left.  As I have meditated on that thought this week, God has led me to another aspect all together.

As I work, I ger paid for what I do..and that is a great motivation to go in every day!  AND, I “get paid” in the rich relationships I have formed with so many of my regulars.  AND I am performing a service that most of them want, so it’s all good most days. Now contrast that with what Jesus encountered here!  Not only did this world stink, but no one paid Him, the world hated Him, and even His own disciples didn’t understand Him!  

But the worst smell of all?  The odor of SIN.  In all His life to that point, Jesus had never been face to face, elbow to elbow with SIN..and it had to have been a shock to experience that.  The sights, the sounds, and the attitudes of unredeemed mankind surrounded Him….

AND YET! The beauty of Christmas is that He came…volunteered..was willing to endure the stench..not so He could give us a warm fuzzy holiday in December each year, but so He could live and DIE for us to save us!  That is worthy of praise!  Because after all, the most I ever have to do is wash my hands or grab the hand sanitizer or sniff a lemon..and the odors I encounter are gone.  And I go home and don’t have to deal with them till the next day.  Jesus didn’t have that option…it just got smellier and smellier for Him as He ministered..and He had to die and resurrect to permanently remove that odor from those of us who believe in Him!

So now when I encounter “smells” at work, it’s just another reminder of all that Jesus has done for me..and how there are still those He wants to wash clean!

My only trip out of the house today was to get a newspaper, which involved me passing by our Walmart on the way.  Which is always SO WEIRD on Christmas Day, because it’s absolutely empty!  I slowed down and just took in the sight of that completely calm, peaceful parking lot and was immediately struck by this thought..in less than 12 hours, that very same lot will be a frantic, loud, stress building place as people rush to buy all those Christmas leftovers and return half of those gifts they politely “oohed and aahed” over today!

Such a contrast!  And it proves something every born-again, evangelical, Jesus loving and Jesus sharing believer already knows..there is no earthly gift that can ever satisfy the eternal longing in the hearts of those who don’t believe!

A lot of people, especially those in the secular world, believe that all the warm fuzzies and good wishes, and in many cases truly good works for others, are what Christmas is all about and what the world really needs…and that somehow those things and the exchanging of gifts will be enough to finally increase peace and goodwill in the days after.  A lot of Christians, too, may think that the easiest time to evangelize is when the whole world is heading toward a time of giving and generosity and will be naturally more inclined to listen to us.

AND YET!  As I thought about tomorrow and the gift exchanging, I realized we may be very wrong.  God challenged me right there to think about the spirit of dissatisfaction invading the lives of thousands of people even now, on Christmas night, just hours after all that peace and joy was supposed to happen!  All those who had different presents or different places to go this year for “celebration” but who still walked away feeling empty in spite of the glitz.  All those who will go to bed tonight thinking about how much they SPENT and how little satisfaction they got from it!  All those who fell for the hype and exhausted themselves, their families and their budgets and tomorrow will still wake up the same people they always have been.  All those who will still not be happy, or prettier, or better off because of one day and its supposed promises.

So what BETTER time than tomorrow, instead of being tempted to “relax” our spiritual senses, than to ask God to energize them!  What if we made it a point to seek out the dissatisfied, and offer them the BEST gift exchange of all..their sick, sorry and sad lives, without Jesus, in exchange for HIS eternal gift of salvation!!  That exchange requires no waiting in line, no receipts..it can happen anywhere, anytime.  And for ALL people tomorrow and every day after, THAT exchange will be the only one that will affect the rest of their lives as they submit to the Author of peace, the Giver of joy, and the One who died to give them eternal life!  

One of the most popular, newer Christmas songs is the one in this title, and it’s not Christmas in most churches until someone sings it.  And in spite of an FB post the other day that said yes, she DID know (and referenced the angel’s appearance to her) it still is a song that captures the wonder and beauty of Christ coming to the Earth as a baby at Christmas.

This song theoretically asks questions of Mary about the power that Jesus would have in His ministry, including the ultimate power to give up His life and rise again to save all mankind from sin and hell.  It also asks if Mary knew that Jesus was God and He would “one day rule the nations”.   In other words, did Mary really understand…not just intellectually know..AND believe that all prophecy about the Messiah was being fulfilled through her son? And did she accept that she too would need the salvation that He offered?

Listening to this song again the other day, the Lord spoke to my heart and showed me another way to interpret this song, and I could not believe that I had missed it before.  What if, instead of “Mary”, we inserted other names in that song?  And changed the lyrics just slightly?  After all, we are carrying the same Jesus she did – just in our hearts, and not physically!  So what if it said, “Christian, did you know, that Christmas was about Jesus, and not Santa?” Or “Christian, did you know, that Christmas means one day I WILL rule the nations, so why do you fret over evil?”  Or, “Christian, did you know, that I am the way to salvation, so why aren’t you using Christmas to tell others about me?”  After all, the heart of our Gospel BEGINS at Christmas!  Without Jesus coming as a baby, His life, death, and resurrection would NOT have happened…and where would we be?

I believe that sometimes we spend Easter focusing on salvation, and how it cost SO much to save us.  And because of that, we tend to “fluff over” the deeper meaning of Christmas….that Jesus was born specifically to DIE for us, and that Christmas was the way He chose to begin that process.

So, maybe we need to ask ourselves…do we really KNOW?  And if we do, then what are we doing about it?  Are we spending another Christmas season immersed in culture, with a nod to our heritage…or are we truly celebrating what we KNOW and sharing it with others?  May God help us to understand that and work for His glory!

“Said the night wind to the little lamb, do you see what I see?”  It’s that time of year again, and this is one of my top Christmas songs ever.  I have loved it sunce I was old enough to sing it, but this year it is even more beautiful to me, as God has been using it to teach me new things about His will for my daily life.

I love my job, drive thru window at ChickFilA, and I love my customers.  I also love the opportunities it gives me to see people from all walks of life, and in all kinds of circumstances..the rich, the poor, the friendly, the rude, and the hurried and the retired!

So as I was humming my song the other day, God spoke to my heart about the way I see those customers, and I was so challenged by what He said!  What would happen, for instance, if I were to “see what I see?”, with the “I” being Him?  Instead of seeing the rundown car with the slightly dirty people, what if I saw the future missionaries He was creating from those difficult times?  Or what if instead of being blinded by the BMW and the bling loaded driver, I saw the person that might be miserable in their lives who needs to discover money doesn’t buy it all?  Or what if I saw the hurried, food snatching person who appears too important to talk with me for the insecure ladder climber who might be one mistake from being fired?

I have the feeling that if I truly saw what God sees, it would revolutionize my world!  I would be kinder, more observant, more effective for His work, and have a greatly increased prayer life.  And now is the perfect time of year..because Christmas is all about God seeing His people as they really are, and sending His Son to save them from their sin…so let’s take the song to heart, and start looking around!!

Like many people, our Christmas TV always includes movies that we practically know by heart, but still love to watch!  We were watching The Santa Clause the other night, and a girl elf tells the young boy in the movie, “seeing is not believing, believing is seeing!”  In other words, the ability to believe in Santa was not there because he had seen Santa…he could SEE Santa because he believed first.  So a whole beautiful world of joy and magic opened up for him, and the happy ending to this movie was that eventually even the hardest skeptics became believers, because Santa is real and he gave them the ability.  Millions of people saw this movie and left thinking that it only takes a little bit of “belief” and EVERYONE is win over in the end, to live happily ever after.

Now, if this sounds very familiar, it should!  The whole of our Gospel message is almost the same…almost..and that “almost” is a big obstacle this time of year.  The Gospel of Jesus Christ is simple..by faith, which is a gift of God, we believe (even though we don’t physically see) in His life, death, burial, and resurrection, and He leads us to salvation by believing in Him.

And yet!  Hollywood’s ending is not the reality of this present world!  There is no “magic” that can take an unhappy sinner with an unfulfilled life and give him a new life with a new view and joy.  There is ONLY Jesus, and unlike the movie, NOT everyone will come around and believe!

So what’s the point?  It’s simply this, and I need to remember it probably more than most:  the best gift we can give the world AND the Lord is our lives this season, dedicated to sharing the real Jesus who came for a real reason and who died for others to recieve the GIFT of eternal life!  I am a Christmas fanatic, and love ALL of it..but it is very easy to join the world’s temporary “peace on earth” and “joy to the world” and forget to take it deeper with all those we can!  Let’s make sure and “unwrap” the Gospel and share that gift with everyone we can!

I have worked the last few Saturdays, and have been amazed at one thing…everyone is SO busy!!  I am used to parents and kids running through Monday-Friday as part of workweek activities.  And I have spent a lot of Sundays wondering where people are instead of at church, and why it seems so hard for people to come…and I have a much better understanding now.  And why Sunday is being used as a day of rest…just not a day of worship…because Saturday is a day that is sometimes busier and more exhausting than a weekday!

And it’s not just all about the kids and hauling them all over for sports, etc.  There are a lot of adults who work and/or are way too overscheduled also, with the same results..exhaustion by Sunday!

Now this is not an “anti” blog in any way.  I know the benefits of sports and other activities as well as anyone and believe them to be true.

AND YET!!  We live now in a country and world so filled with challenges and risks for true born again Christians who trust in the blood of Jesus for salvation and believe that they are called to live for Jesus.  We now know that persecution can and will happen here in our own country.  And yet!  The question I keep hearing from God about our lives is this..what are we, in all our busyness, doing to prepare facing that reality?

Is there any batting average or football skill that is preparing the next generation to face someone with a gun asking “Are YOU a Christian??” after just seeing someone shot for saying yes?  And will any technical skill, office time or golf score prepare an adult for a midnight raid in their neighborhood to “flush out” Christians by some radical group?

Deuteronomy 6:6-7 clearly states, “these words which I am commanding you today shall be on your heart, and you shall teach them diligently to your sons and shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise up.”  Wow…I was SO convicted when I studied that this week!  And from what I have seen there are many families that are doing this and doing it beautifully, in spite of their schedules!  AND they make worship and Bible study a priority…to the glory of God.

But I am also convinced of this..for most of us, there is a lot of room for improvement.  And there is NOT a lot of time to do it!  So my goal this week is to begin reshaping my priorities to be better equipped..and I pray yours will be too!