Tag: discernment

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Christian Blog Christian Living

Testing, Testing, 1..2..3!

Today, I’m excited to share a guest post from Jo, at Quietly Roaring. She describes herself as “an Aussie Jesus-follower, wife, momma and nanna who loves camping, hanging out with family, playing with my dogs, and reading.” Jo is simply one of the most authentic Christian bloggers I’ve encountered. Her writing has a certain “realness” that is such an encouragement in the Lord. So, without further delay, here’s Jo!

At a visit to my husband’s work a while back he sat me in the recording studio, put headphones on my head, and said he wanted my opinion on something and could I have a listen? Sure I could! Testing, testing, 1..2..3! But the trouble was, a completely different thing was coming through my headphones compared to what he was hearing in his headphones!

It was comical, but it’s a picture that reminds me that we’ve each been given a set of “spiritual headphones” and we’ll each hear different things as God speaks to our individual circumstances.

Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God (Rom 10:17).

We can be inspired by other people’s faith. We can have role models or mentors. But faith comes by hearing God’s word to our own spiritual ears!

Last year I battled cancer. I needed healing, so I devoured sermons and books on the topic but quickly realised that I wasn’t going to be able to rely on someone else’s faith formula or read a set of faith instructions to get me through it. I could glean certain principles, but ultimately I needed to know (and fast) where my own faith was at…what was God saying to me? Faith comes by hearing…so I needed to listen!

Throughout the gospels we read of how Jesus continually met people right where they were at with their faith.

To one blind man He spat on his eyes in order to heal him (Mark 8:22-25), and to another blind man He anointed his eyes with clay (John 9:6). In another instance Jesus merely spoke the word to heal a blind beggar (Mark 10: 46-52) and in another instance he healed two blind men by placing His hand over their eyes (Matt 9:27-30). All blind. Each one a unique individual with unique needs that Jesus spoke to. They heard His word to them, they trusted with the faith they had, and they obeyed.

I had to listen to what God was saying to me in my unique situation, and it’s the same for each of us whenever we face an obstacle, problem, or challenge.

Listen.

Trust.

Obey.

Isn’t it great how Jesus keeps it simple?

Sermons, books, and the wonderful devotionals and blogs here on Word Press are tools which God can use to encourage, inform, inspire, and challenge us. He speaks to us through them. But let’s ensure we are also in prayer and reading the Word for ourselves. By doing so, we’ll ensure our spiritual headphones are in good working order!

Testing, testing, 1..2..3!

Photo by cottonbro on Pexels.com

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Christian Blog Christian Living

Majoring on the Minors

It was Wednesday night at the little community church—business meeting time. (A monthly meeting, open to all members, where church financial matters are discussed).

And people came from miles around, because they knew Mildred had an “axe to grind.” The meeting started with a holy hush; but it didn’t take much time. Until, you know who, stood up from her favorite pew and said, “There’s something on my mind!”

We don’t need a neon sign out in front of our church. It reminds me of a night club–where people dance and flirt. Let’s tear it down and build a brand new sign, with letters big and bold. And if the preacher minds his “p’s” and “q’s” we’ll put his name in gold.

Mildred

The sign she wanted gone said “First Baptist Church” (gasp)😳. And it had stood in front of the building for over 50 years. After much debate, Mildred’s motion was tabled for further discussion.

But before the next monthly meeting came along, Mildred died. Arriving in heaven, she waited for her turn to see The Boss. And when she made it to the head of the line, God Almighty looked her right in the face and said, “Mildred, it’s about time!”

I don’t mind a neon sign out in front of my church. It reminds folks to come to the light, so I can heal their hurts. Mildred, I don’t care if the pulpit’s pink and the carpet’s lime green. I just wanted you to do what I said and love me more than anything.

God

Do you ever find yourself majoring on the minors? As I’ve mentioned before, I have a “That’s not fair!” button and it’s way too easy to press. And, once the push is made, a lengthy bout of self-pity inevitably ensues.

Please don’t be like Mildred, or me. Don’t let those little minor-monkeys out of the barrel!

The very fact that you have legal disputes among yourselves shows that you have failed completely. Would it not be better for you to be wronged? Would it not be better for you to be robbed? Instead, you yourselves wrong one another and rob one another, even your own brothers!

1 Corinthians 6:7-8 (GNT)
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Christian Living devotional

Stopping The Train

Photo by Chris Munnik on Pexels.com

There we were, my colleague and I, with five classes of kindergartners in the gym. For those of you who like to do the math, that’s an approximate student/teacher ratio of 67.5 to 1.

Frankly, teaching young children is like herding cats. You have about 30 seconds to engage their curiosity, before they find something more interesting than you. And for the average six-year-old, this can be LOTS of things. Why listen to a big person when you can lick Play-Doh with a friend?

Back to the five classes. Things were going pretty well. We did some Kidzbop dances from YouTube and then sat down to watch an educational episode of “Ask the Story Bots” on Netflix.

But then it happened: a child jumped up and said, “I need to go potty!” Suddenly, three others stood to their feet and began dancing around, wiggling like bobble heads in perfect unison. Teachers call this exasperating phenom “starting the potty train.”

And the best way to stop this type of train is to make one concession and then hold the line. The first child is the only one who REALLY needs to use the bathroom. The others are most likely pretending.

Sometimes it can be equally exasperating to stop the train called life. One thing REALLY happens and then three imposters jump up, dancing around in perfect unison. It can be hard to tell the real problem from the wannabes.

Perhaps this is why Jesus encourages us to take our difficulties (and days) one at a time.

Therefore, do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

Matthew 6:34 (NIV)

🙏❤️ prayers and love.