MY ALLERGY REALITY

My lungs had orchestrated yet another mutiny.  Once again I was having my yearly bronchitis challenge.   I knew the routine: doctor's office, pharmacy, medicine, rest and feel all better in a few days.  I was in my thirties and I was still under the egotistical delusion that the world could not run without me.  Because of that I thought the Universe at large was picking on me when it required me to slow down and get better. One year, things were not routine.  Two days after beginning my penicillin regimen I broke out in a rash.  My doctor suspected I may have developed an allergy to penicillin.  (This proved true a year later when I was prescribed a penicillin based medicine... and six hours later was in the emergency room with a fat tongue and closing throat.) 

This new and sudden allergy reality fascinates me to this day.  How could a medicine that had always HEALED me become a medicine that would KILL me?
I don't know about the cause.  I just know about the effect.  Penicillin worked in the past.
That was then. This was now.

It got me thinking about my actions as a Christian.  I want to be used as an instrument of peace and healing in God's hands.  I truly do. I always have.

But sometimes, I have been bull headed about just forging ahead with the medicine I had always used... not being willing to let God tell me that He wanted me to use a different and new approach for this particular person at this time.
 To offer a new prescription that would heal someone rather harm.

What's the purpose of medicine if it doesn't heal the patient?

So I'd just ram some Bible verses in to someone's brain...because I'd seen other people do that.. because that's what I thought they needed..because Scripture is what God often used to heal me...  when in truth, the medicine that would have truly healed some people would have been for me to be quiet and let them speak about their pain.  An honest hug would have healed more than a holy homily. 

I'm NOT advocating we should change the message. HEAVEN FORBID.
I'm just saying we should change the medicine to meet the patient's need.
Millions of people are healed every day by taking penicillin. But not me.
 
If you are someone who wonders WHY you just cannot get with the program, get up and get healed and get going, maybe you aren't getting the right medicine. 

• I pray for you that the Holy Spirit will send someone in to your life who is willing to be LIFE to you and not mere words.

• I pray that God Himself will speak to your heart to remind you that if you have put your trust in His Only Son, Jesus.. that YOU HAVE BECOME the VERY RIGHTEOUSNESS of Christ.  

• I pray that you will believe that God is CLOSE to the BROKENHEARTED and to those who are crushed in spirit.

• I pray you will search the Scripture for yourself - AND - that God will use to reveal His heart to you.

• I pray that you will understand that it isn't by chance that you are reading this, but that God has ordained it so that you will know that He sees you. He sees you. He sees you.  And He is going to heal you.  He is going to send the prescription you need to be healed.

Maybe we need to acknowledge the allergy reality.. that some people have grown allergic to the Church's tried and true methods.. and for those people we need to be the balm that heals them. Maybe meeting someone for a cup of coffee at Starbucks is the medicine they need instead of insisting they come to Weds night Bible study.  Does Weds Bible study help millions of people? Of course.  But it may not be the prescription for THAT person God has sent in to YOUR life.  Are we allowed to BE the church outside the Church building?  Can we help someone who is in pain and also miss a scheduled church service?  Remember how the Pharisees were more concerned about the day of the week that Jesus healed someone (The Sabbath) than they were about the fact that JESUS HEALED SOMEONE.

BE HEALING to someone who needs JESUS.
Jesus is the only way to be healed.
It takes time.
It takes prayer.
It takes love.

For the kingdom of God is not a matter of talk but of power. 

1 Corinthians 4:20

IT'S NOT EASY BEING RIGHT ALL THE TIME.

Disagreements happen. 
To every person alive.  It's the moment when you and another person decide to  "diss" agreement. (Sorry. Couldn't resist)

The road to disagreement begins because the other person is wrong and you are right.  
Don't be shocked that I wrote that.  Isn't that at the core of disagreement? Of course it is.  You believe you are right and if someone has an opposing and opposite opinion they are wrong.  Having a strong opinion about something isn't wrong and neither is refusing to let another person talk you out of it. Disagreement isn't wrong.  

It's our reaction to disagreement that can destroy. 

Us. Destroy you. Destroy me.

Some of us have the unrelenting need to never be wrong.  Or.  We have the unrelenting need to always be right.  If you think of it, every war, every divorce, every broken friendship, every divided family, every church split, every act of violence we see all over the news on a regular basis is because someone would not accept that someone else did not share - or accept - their opinion.  And they decided to do something about it.  They decided that holding on to their offended heart was the right thing to do.  Someone was convinced their side of the story was SO RIGHT that it was worth doing whatever damage to the person who was SO WRONG.  And the truth is.....there are always two sides to every disagreement.  Always.

But what about the one time when I am right? What about when I am sharing the Gospel? How should I react when someone disagrees with my belief that Jesus is the Only Son of Only God and the ONLY way to be reconciled to God.   There are people who disagree with me.  They don't agree.  They tell me it's my opinion, not Truth Itself.

What is my reaction to this disagreement? 
I let them disagree. That's my reaction.   
My call is to speak Truth. I am not called to ENFORCE it. 

When someone rejects the Gospel, they aren't rejecting me but The One Who sent it.  

Some people choose to disagree with God. That's their right.  In their insistence on being right - and God being wrong - they don't know the joy of living without the heaviness of guilt.  Their anger at God weighs them down. They have never taken a carefree step in their lives - and don't realize what a carefree step feels like. If I explain the peace that passes understanding and how God gives grace and mercy and wisdom to His children, they smile and disagree.  
I am wrong. They are right.  They live sad lives.. because..

...It's not easy being right all the time.

 

“How he wanted to lure you away from danger into a wide and pleasant valley and to prosper you there.  But you are too preoccupied with your imagined grievances against others. Watch out! Don’t let your anger at others lead you into scoffing at God! Don’t let your suffering embitter you at the only one who can deliver you. Do you really think that if you shout loudly enough against God, he will be ashamed and repent? Will this put an end to your chastisement?"  Job 36:16-19 (Living Bible)

 

JUST CLAY...

An Unretouched Photo of Me

I am not going crazy to publicize this blog.  The only readers who will even know it exists are those of you who have been directed here from a link on my webpage.  And most of you have been directed to my webpage through my monthly magazine column.  So...Welcome.  It will be our little secret meeting place.  I hope to get to know you better.  I welcome your emails CLICK TO SEND ME AN EMAIL  or  you may leave your comments right here. I have enabled it so that you can leave "anonymous" comments... so... go for it.

(And of course, to those of you who regularly "check me out" because we have been friends in the past..... and now...sadly... because of geographical and/or emotional distance...we are not.... WELCOME TO YOU also.)

There isn't much I can say about myself here that I haven't already written on my webpage.

So I will just say this.  I wish I had understood earlier in life that all I am called to be is what I am - just clay.  A simple lump of clay. 

Because the system God has set up is that when people around us - who see us in our every day mortal lives -  see and feel and acknowledge that something we have done, something we have said, something about the way we live is so way above our natural abilities.. so way above the pay grade of mere clay.....THEN... and ONLY THEN...do people lift their eyes to their Creator and acknowledge that He is a God close by and not far away.  
 
Being clay means being human. 


I am just clay and at the same time -  I am the royal priesthood.
I am weak but He is strong.
When I seem strong.. it is simply Jesus being seen.

If you are someone who thinks followers of Jesus think we are better than... or above.. others.. then you have probably never met a true follower of Jesus. 

"We have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us." 

 2 Corinthians 4:7

MY FIRST BLOG

Welcome to this, my first entry on my blog.  I hope you will be a frequent visitor.  
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