Legacy… Webster says ‘something left’.
The term came to mind as I stood at my grandmother’s grave. She lived a few days over 98 years. We were not close, and sadly, I know very little about her life, but she had to have seen a LOT of change in her lifetime. She outlived three children, one died as an infant, one as young adult, one in her 80s.
Only my father is left.
It makes me wonder just what kind of legacy I will leave. What footprint will I make? Who will wonder about the details of my life? Who will know them?
We all have our own story, our own issues, our own baggage….secrets, regrets, mistakes..
None of us live perfect lives. No one gets thru life without all that ‘ick’. “….we are utterly incapable of living the glorious lives God wills for us…” (Romans 3:23 The Message)
My grandmother made mistakes. Some of them I witnessed as a child and misunderstood…even judged her harshly for.
“You will be judged in the same way you judge others. You will be measured in the same way you measure others.” (Matthew 7:2) Those words are written in red. Words of my Lord Jesus.
I hear him whisper to me to be careful how I judge harshly the mistakes of others, for I too have a mountain of my own mistakes.
I want mercy. I want understanding and forgiveness.
I must extend the same to others who are no more deserving of those graces than I am.
Perhaps the things that I am so critical of are the very things that He needs to address in me.
Tuesday, June 28, 2011
Thursday, June 23, 2011
Mentor...
Mentor… Ever have one? Ever BE one?
I was recently asked to share how God has worked in my business life through mentoring. My mind has been flooded with the mentors I have had in my own life. Some very good ones. Some however, taught me a lot from negative examples.
I must turn the focus inward. In mentoring others, have I shared and encouraged thru Godly examples fleshed out in my own life, or have others learned from me thru negative examples?
The negatives in my own past experience have made me very adament about some things. There are memories of how I was made to feel, and I want never to make someone else feel anything similar. So, I am not prone to making those mistakes. (I just make other ones. )
Mentoring is making disciples.
Jesus said, “Go…..make disciples….” (Matt. 28:19)
I have a charge to keep. “…teach them to obey…” (vs. 20)
I can do that in the ordinary moments of my day. If no other way than by my own actions.
Ouch. I don’t always.
I was recently asked to share how God has worked in my business life through mentoring. My mind has been flooded with the mentors I have had in my own life. Some very good ones. Some however, taught me a lot from negative examples.
I must turn the focus inward. In mentoring others, have I shared and encouraged thru Godly examples fleshed out in my own life, or have others learned from me thru negative examples?
The negatives in my own past experience have made me very adament about some things. There are memories of how I was made to feel, and I want never to make someone else feel anything similar. So, I am not prone to making those mistakes. (I just make other ones. )
Mentoring is making disciples.
Jesus said, “Go…..make disciples….” (Matt. 28:19)
I have a charge to keep. “…teach them to obey…” (vs. 20)
I can do that in the ordinary moments of my day. If no other way than by my own actions.
Ouch. I don’t always.
Tuesday, June 21, 2011
Priest...
Priest… I am a priest. Seems strange to even type those words. Stranger to think of myself that way. But….
“…. God chose you to be his people. You are royal priests. You are a holy nation. You are a people who belong to God. All of this is so that you can sing his praises. He brought you out of darkness into his wonderful light. “(1 Peter 2:9)
In ages past, before Christ, there were rigid requirements about who was permitted to carry out the office of priest. The priest was the intermediary between sinful man and a holy God. Priests were Jews but only Jews from the family line of Levi, with other requirements to be met as well. Much ceremony and ritual was to be done before the intercession could occur.
The rituals of that time were teaching tools that reveal to us exactly what it meant for Jesus to bleed, suffer, and die. Payment is made. The wages of sin being death, His death… is MY substitute. I am permitted to live.
Now I can enter the holy of holies. Now I can enter the Throne Room of The Creator of the universe. With confidence. Boldly ! (So let us boldly approach the throne of grace. Hebrews 4:16)
The Body of Christ has a charge to keep. “…. he has given us the task of bringing others back to him through Christ.” (2Cor.5:18)
“God has trusted us with the message, that people may be brought back to Him.
So we are Christ's official messengers. It is as if God were making His appeal through us.”(2Cor. 5:19-20)
I come before Him reverently because He is God and He is King. (Hebrews 12:28-29)
I come boldly because Jesus is my Friend, and through His Holy Spirit, I have access to The Father. (John 15:15, Eph. 2:14-19)
I come believing because Jesus said “..you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer.” (Matt. 21:22).
Not a blank check for my every whim, but submitting my will to an all-knowing and Almighty God, just as Jesus did when He prayed “…your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. (Matt. 6:10)
And it is not just about me. “He wants everyone to be saved. He wants them to come to know the truth.”(1Tim.2:4)
Who will I meet on my path today that Jesus misses? Who will I see that may need Him so badly?
Lord, open my eyes and ears to be sensitive to others and to You as I carry out the business of my day.
“…. God chose you to be his people. You are royal priests. You are a holy nation. You are a people who belong to God. All of this is so that you can sing his praises. He brought you out of darkness into his wonderful light. “(1 Peter 2:9)
In ages past, before Christ, there were rigid requirements about who was permitted to carry out the office of priest. The priest was the intermediary between sinful man and a holy God. Priests were Jews but only Jews from the family line of Levi, with other requirements to be met as well. Much ceremony and ritual was to be done before the intercession could occur.
The rituals of that time were teaching tools that reveal to us exactly what it meant for Jesus to bleed, suffer, and die. Payment is made. The wages of sin being death, His death… is MY substitute. I am permitted to live.
Now I can enter the holy of holies. Now I can enter the Throne Room of The Creator of the universe. With confidence. Boldly ! (So let us boldly approach the throne of grace. Hebrews 4:16)
The Body of Christ has a charge to keep. “…. he has given us the task of bringing others back to him through Christ.” (2Cor.5:18)
“God has trusted us with the message, that people may be brought back to Him.
So we are Christ's official messengers. It is as if God were making His appeal through us.”(2Cor. 5:19-20)
I come before Him reverently because He is God and He is King. (Hebrews 12:28-29)
I come boldly because Jesus is my Friend, and through His Holy Spirit, I have access to The Father. (John 15:15, Eph. 2:14-19)
I come believing because Jesus said “..you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer.” (Matt. 21:22).
Not a blank check for my every whim, but submitting my will to an all-knowing and Almighty God, just as Jesus did when He prayed “…your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. (Matt. 6:10)
And it is not just about me. “He wants everyone to be saved. He wants them to come to know the truth.”(1Tim.2:4)
Who will I meet on my path today that Jesus misses? Who will I see that may need Him so badly?
Lord, open my eyes and ears to be sensitive to others and to You as I carry out the business of my day.
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