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.

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.

Gettin' Ready....

Gettin' ready... I spend much less time gettin' ready these days. Once, it took hours. Now, I don't fret over it so much.

We get ready for lots of things. Some of it is exciting. Some, we dread. Sometimes we are equipped, sometimes we have to scour around to find the right stuff.

Getting ready for a trip.
Getting ready for the day.
Getting ready for an event.
Getting ready for something fun....or something not so much.

Children need help getting ready. At least if they are indeed really ready!

I helped a bride get ready today. She will wake up a wife for the first time in the morning. She has been getting ready for months.

I am being readied to be a bride myself. I'm gettin' ready. I have quit scouring around to find the right stuff to fix myself up. He has taken care of all that. He even sent me a Helper. (...this Helper doesn't do hair, but His help is way better!)

Jesus is coming soon. Better be gettin' ready folks!

Holy....

Holy…. X 3 = YAHWEH. An incredible equation.

“Holy, holy, holy….is The Lord Almighty. The whole earth is full of His glory.” (Isaiah 8:3)

The Self-Existant, Eternal One.
Jehovah, The Lord Almighty.
The Holy One of Israel.

This morning finished the study of Isaiah for the Bible Study Fellowship year.

It has been a year !

I’ve been stretched. Challenged. Disciplined. Reprimanded. And I’ve been loved and ministered to by the Holy One of heaven, thru the recorded oracle of the prophet Isaiah.

Ole’ Isaiah was a regular guy. Human to the core, just like me…. and you.

He could not know, as he wrote the words that are now divided into 66 chapters, that this blonde hairdresser would be reading them thousands of years later. He could not know how God’s call on his life, and his obedience to that call, would impact me…and so many others.

How thankful I am for servants like Isaiah.

I purpose to listen for God’s call on my life. I purpose to hear and answer.

“Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, "Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?"

…..and I said, "Here am I. Send me!" He said, "Go and tell this people…….” (Isaiah 6:8-9a)

What might He do with my meager life? What might He want to do thru yours?

"Come now, let us reason together," says the LORD. "Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool. “(Isaiah 1:18)

He invites. Even though He is holy and I am NOT…He invites…

“If you are willing and obedient, you will eat the best from the land; but if you resist and rebel, you will be devoured by the sword." For the mouth of the LORD has spoken. “(Isaiah 1:19-20)

He invites, and He offers the best to His willing and obedient ones. We won’t be giving ANYthing up that will matter !!

Not short-changed, or missing out.

But….it’s our choice.

“This is what the Sovereign LORD, the Holy One of Israel, says: "In repentance and rest is your salvation, in quietness and trust is your strength, but you would have none of it. (Isaiah 30:15)

Turning back to Him…completely, without reserve, is where the sweet spot is.

But will you have none of it? It’s your choice…

“…..as for me ……I will serve the LORD." (Joshua 20:14 personalized by me)

Shelter....

Shelter…. The weather experts say today is a day to have a planned place to take shelter in what is supposedly a huge threat of tornadic activity.

I have a couple closets that come to mind. I’ve actually been in one of them before, when our youngest son was home.

I herded everyone into the bathroom of the salon once during a tornado warning. The kids thought it was fun. The mothers …not so much.

My husband has experienced a tornado….actually saw the roof leave the house. Me..? I’ve just seen pictures and heard stories.

I know in my head that preparing shelter is a good idea, and I have the knowledge about where the best suited places of the house or some public place might be. When the threat becomes real, I act on that knowledge and preparation.

All of it makes me think again about the Garden scene. God said don’t choose that fruit of knowledge…the knowledge of good AND evil.

Adam and Eve already knew good. They had daily fellowship with God. Up close and personal. But choosing to know evil, well…that messed the whole perfect scene up.

I don’t have the knowledge of tornados. But I believe they exist. I believe they can be dangerous. So…I choose to act on the information I have. I don’t need to wait for the experience of it. I take steps to be protected, and know that I am eternally secure even if one of them blows my life away.

So it is with sin.

When God says ‘….ah, Child of mine, don’t do that’….I accept that He says it for a reason. I don’t need the knowledge/experience of it. I take steps of obedience, steps that go away from it, never toward it.

And I know His promised protection from it and from it’s consequences.

“Who shall separate me from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword….or flood or tornado?

No, in all these things I am more than conqueror through him who loved me. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate me from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus my Lord.
(Rom. 38:35-39 personalized by me)

I am eternally secure even if a tornado blows my life away.

Friend...

Friend… A companion. An associate. Someone you keep company with, have affection for. Simply someone we are not hostile to?

Have you counted them? Do you categorize them? Rate them?

Friends for different activities? Friends for fun, friends for sadness, friends when you need help?

What kind of friend are you?

Our ‘Friend Day’ recently at our congregation challenged me on this issue…the message delivered during the morning service, the whole concept of ‘friendship‘.

Jesus called the disciples His friends. “I'm no longer calling you servants because servants don't understand what their master is thinking and planning. No, I've named you friends because I've let you in on everything I've heard from the Father…”(John 15:15 The Message)



“I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit—fruit that will last.”(John 15:16)

I am one of Jesus’ friends.

He has shared everything He knows from The Father with me. “I/we have the mind of Christ.” (1Cor.2:16)

What kind of friend will I be to Him? Will I bear fruit that will last?

And what kind of friend will I be to all those people I call ‘friend’? Will I share with THEM all The Father has made known to ME? Will I let THEM in on everything I’VE heard from Him?

What kind of friend am I if I don’t share Him?

He is enough. Sharing Him does not diminish Him for me. It is only multiplied.

“…..I will receive many times as much in THIS age, and in the age to come… eternal life."(Luke 18:30TNIV, personalized by me)

Purpose to be a true friend. A friend to Jesus, and to all those that He misses when He looks at His flock. A true friend to all those we so casually refer to as ‘friend’.

Sinful....

Sinful… An offender. Criminal. Guilty of an offense.

Scripture says that there is no one who is not guilty. “Everyone has sinned. No one measures up to God's glory. “(Rom. 3:23 NIrV)

I don’t measure up to God. He is perfect. I am not.

I no longer try to hide that fact. No more do I try to fake it, pretend…put the mask on. Neither do I wallow in the guilt and shame.

Yet I don’t wear my sinfulness as a badge.

I have learned my enemy’s method of operation. He is an accuser. He is a liar.

And I have learned my Savior’s love and grace. His very coming to this world was a sacrifice, leaving the perfection of His place in that unknown realm we refer to as ‘heaven’ was surely a sacrifice. Stepping into the womb of a young girl, birthed, potty training, puberty, adolescence, rejection, cruel execution.

What sacrifice!

I will never attain right-ness. Never will I be able to perfect my life, my attitudes, my thoughts, or my actions.

I wear HIS right-ness. “…..I see that the job is too big for me, … it's something only God can do, and I trust him to do it--I could never do it for myself no matter how hard and long i worked--well, that trusting-him-to-do-it is what gets me set right with God, by God. Sheer gift. (Rom. 4:5 The Message, personalized by me)

You may see me put on a cross. I may wear a Jesus-Girl shirt. But I will not make light of my sinfulness and insult my Savior who suffered so much to save me from the penalty of it.

Sinful? Yes. But I don’t want it tattooed on my body or stamped on my clothing.


Saved? Indeed so ! “When I received Christ, I….. put away my sinful nature…Not by my own human hands … Christ did it…”(Col. 2:11 personalized by me)

Saved. And at such great cost to Jesus.

Let us never make light of that cost, and let us never insult His effort on our behalf.

Let us wear His Name. Not our sinfulness.