“But I have prayed …” (Luke 22:31-32 Pt2)

My sister Venieca got her CXC results today. For the uninformed, in the Carbbean, this is something akin to the American High School Diploma. Passing five subjects is considered a ‘full certificate’. She wrote seven subjects and passed all, gaining distinctions in some subjects. We are so proud of her. She was so happy and excited that she couldn’t wait to get to church to testify of God’s goodness to her. One subject in particular, ‘Principles of Accounts’, she was quite sure she had failed.

What does this have to do with the scripture quoted above? I was impressed by my sister’s eagerness to attribute her success to God. Do we always do that? Acknowledge God for his participation in our triumphs, be they in life, business or our spiritual walk?

In Luke 22:31-32 Jesus tells the disciples that the devil has desired to sift them as wheat. His next words were “But I have prayed that thy faith fail not…” When our lives are surrendered to Christ He is always acting on our behalf (Romans 8:26, 27, 34). As I read them, these words are a great comfort to me because they tell me that Christ is interceding on my behalf. You see, to me what the Lord is saying goes something like this, “Listen Simon, your enemy the devil wants to test/tempt you. He will get his chance but don’t worry. I have already prayed and dealt with the situation.” (KNV – Kell-Ann’s New Version).

Hallelujah! God has dealt with our situations. I was talking here about things happening in the spiritual that we don’t always know about but we see their effects in the natural. God is always working for us, fighting our battles and so forth. So when we receive blessings and we are victorious in different areas of our lives, we should do as my sister did and thank God because sometime in the past He has prayed…

Tick Tock ...

"I thought about the whole notion of "reproduction," and what it really means to replicate yourself. Is it merely about the passing on of eyes and chins and hair color? Or is it, rather, the replication of the heart? Do we leave a bigger mark by passing on our genes, or our thoughts?"~ Shannon Woodward, author ofInconceivable: Finding Peacein the Midst of Infertility ~

Tick tock, tick tock. If I listen carefully I’m sure I’ll hear the unmistakable sound of my biological clock ticking away. Not foghorn loud of course but loud enough to remind me that Ill never see twenty-five again (except as some sort of anniversary maybe). I know I’m far from over the hill but I had always envisioned having a family at a young age. However, my mothering instincts are not wasted since I am the oldest of six daughters (yep lots of estrogen in my household :D).

My youngest sister, Arielle is eight years old. When she was born I was just out of high school and I remember taking care of her for the first few months of her life while I was looking for a job. Not exclusively, of course but I was her unofficial nanny. I fed her, bathed her, took her for walks and defended her still bald head. I read books and agonized over when she should begin eating solid foods; planned her daily menus and so on. It’s not that my mother was neglectful or unloving but my heart clave to the child and instead of being hers she was ours.

Recently Arielle raised her hands in church when our Pastor asked for those wanting to be baptized. I was so happy. No just for the obvious reasons but I remembered something that the Lord had spoken to me the year before. In our yearly thanksgiving service someone had remarked that seeing us together they could easily believe that I’m her mother or some such thing. Laughing she had thrown her arms around me and cried “Mama”. I laughed myself but in the wake of the moment the Lord spoke to me saying that, in fact, that is what I was to her. Not biologically, but spiritually He had entrusted the care and development of this child to me. I was impressed with the seriousness of this responsibility and resolved to do my best. That little upraised hand was a signal to me that inspite of my own failings He was still able to move in the life of this child. She has a lot of life left to live but I’m assured that right now she is on the right path

I may never have kids of my own but the influence that I have in my sister’s lives (both my parents are unsaved) and the difference I have made in them by just making sure they go to church and listen God’s word has been rewarding. I may never look into a young pair of eyes and see my own but I think the best part of being a parent is the molding of a young heart to be just like Christ’s. What’s more important than that?

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU!!

Today is my sister Venieca's birthday. She's seventeen. Seems like just yesterday she was a little scrap of a thing running around and getting on my nerves :D.

Now she's all grown up (almost) and spending hours on the phone talking to the enemy - cough- um- I mean, boys.

Happy Birthday sweetheart. I hope the day was great for you. Stay as sweet as you are always. I'm off to polish my shotgun. Have a goodnight.

I Taste Like Him!

Salt, when dissolved in water, may disappear, but it does not cease to exist.We can be sure of its presence by tasting the water. Likewise, the indwelling Christ, though unseen,will be made evident to others from the love which He imparts to us.”~ Sadhu Sundar Singh ~

I’ve always been really shy. I’ve come a long way (with age) but still if given half a chance I will try to stay in the background (the proverbial wallflower) and hope that under no circumstances will I become the center of attention. That’s my biggest problem with public speaking; the idea of all those eyes focused on me always made me want to dive under the nearest table and hide. One wouldn’t expect that God would call someone like me to preach the gospel but such is my mission in life. I like to think of that verse of scripture that says that he uses the foolish things of the world to confound the wise because it seems foolish that God would call mousy ole me to spread His Word. I like also that He gets the glory. When people taste of me they know it’s not me but God in me that they taste. Personally, I like to be like that salt that has dissolved water and seemed to have disappeared.

I saw a message by Bishop T.D. Jakes on Sunday and his message was that there are people that are normally in the corner (I can relate) but now God is calling those people out of their corners and into the spotlight. He does that to us. His presence in our lives can hardly be hid. We are the salt and He brings people to us so that through us they can taste of Him. The Bible says that a person wouldn’t put a light under a bushel but on a mountaintop for all to see. For all my shyness I feel that way too. Having Christ in me I want the entire world to know about Him and know that I have Him. All that He has taught me I want to share with the world. The love He has shown me I want to share with the world in whatever way I can. This provides a balance to my shyness I think and is allowing me to put myself out there when my natural self just wants to dissolve in the background. To God be the glory!

More Than The Eye Can See (Luke 22:31-32 Pt 1)

I am studying Luke 22:31-32 at the moment and one of the first things that hit me was the fact that there really is a natural world and a spiritual world. Jesus is saying to Peter in Luke 22:31 that Satan has desired him to sift him as wheat. This didn’t happen in the natural but in the spiritual. The fact of the matter is that things are happening in the spiritual all the time. Usually, we don’t know about them but we experience their effects. If Job were here he could testify to this. A big mistake we make is to take things that happen to us at face value without questioning their true origins or rather without understanding that a lot of things that occur in the natural are the outcomes of battles fought in the spiritual.

I’m reminded right now of the story where I think it was Daniel had prayed and God had sent his angel with the answer but he (the angel) was delayed when he had to battle the devil that had come up against him. Daniel would not have known of this had not the angel told him upon his arrival. Most times the battles that are fought in the spirit realm for our blessings and deliverance, etc., we are not privy to. This is another reason why we must ALWAYS keep our faith and trust in the Lord because we know that no matter what happens he is on our side.

We must also understand that we too fight battles in the spirit realm. And whether we win or lose there determines our actions in the natural. For example when we are tempted our spirit man resists the devil in the spirit but if he (our spirit man) is not strong enough to withstand the attack of the devil then we lose the battle and see the effects in the natural. Sin is a good example of this happening. So we must keep up our spiritual strength by staying in prayer and in the word.

In "Other" Words

“In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity .”~ Albert Einstein~

The week before my baptism in September of 1998 I decided that there were two people that I needed to ask forgiveness of before my big day. One was an uncle who was a staunch Catholic as was most of my family. I called and apologized to him. One might expect that this call would have ended on a happy note as he readily forgave me but it didn’t. By the time I hung up the tears streaming down my face were not those of joy.

My uncle’s comment to me on my baptism was that he understood my situation at home was not perfect but that was no reason to be jumping from church to church. You see I grew up and made First Communion in the Catholic faith but later attended a Seventh Day Adventist Church for about a year as my mother had gotten baptized into this faith. We stopped attending when I was about 9 or 10. I did not attend any church for the next couple of years when I was coerced by my aunt (she was the adult after all) to a full gospel deliverance meeting. I got saved and was never the same again.

My childhood was not a model of stability. My father had three gods in his life: alcohol, gambling and women. Not exactly the starting point of happy family memories. But when I accepted Christ it was because I had found someone to love me inspite of myself. I do not consider that I was hopping from church to church searching for the happiness that was not always present at home. His words hurt because I felt like he was saying that I didn’t love God but was only using him conveniently somehow. There was also the shame because even though my father’s weaknesses affected us in many ways I felt we had a lot of love amongst ourselves. My mother always made sure we knew that we were loved and my father always told us he loved us. My uncle’s words somehow made me feel like trash.

So I cried. I can’t remember if I responded in any way but I remember sitting at my desk and crying feeling very much misunderstood. It was only in hindsight I realized something. He had no right to make me feel ashamed. My circumstances were not of my doing and if God had used my difficulty as an opportunity to draw me unto Him then praise the Lord! The truth of the matter is that the personal relationship with Christ that I needed to complete my life I did not find anywhere else but in a simple cell group meeting at somebody’s house and the choice of place to worship was something I considered carefully and prayerfully.

Over the years I’ve learned the value of Einstein’s statement. Every difficulty I face is an opportunity to grow closer to God. As the songwriter said, “If I never had a problem I wouldn’t know my God could solve them”

VBS 2006: Jesus is Coming Soon!

It has been a busy couple of days/weeks for me with our church concert and fashion show, my sister's wedding and the start of VBS being the 05, 06 and 07 August 2006. I guess you won't be surprised then when i tell you that even though the VBS was supposed to start at 10.00 am, at 10.45 am i was being roused from sound sleep by my sister who could not believe that i had overslept. Thank goodness I was not solely responsible for carrying on the VBS so by the time i had whipped my sleepy butt into shape it was in full swing.

Our theme this year is Jesus is Coming Soon! I had wondered if this might be too heavy for the kids but i think if it's important that they understand that our Lord and Saviour will return again for us. Today's lesson dealt with who Jesus is and we showed a movie (animated) that depicted his death and resurrection.

One Down, Four More To Go

My sister got married today. (Hip hip hip hooray!)

The day ended up being very lovely although it had a very rocky start since my sister went up to this morning by the tailor and he still had not finished her VERY SIMPLE DRESS. Needless to say many tears were shed before she receieved her dress. Also she was an early bride but this was necessary since the church had three weddings planned for that day.

Another glitch in the plans was that the keys to the Benz that was supposed to take her to the church could not be found so to avoid being late she was chauffered in a van. Hey at least it was clean and she arrived on time. Doesn't she look beautiful! Will try to put up more pictures soon!

P.S. To clarify the title my mother has five girls so one down, four more to go.