No Arms, No Legs, No Worries Mate!

Nick Vujicic was born without arms and legs. He tried to take his life when he was eight years old, but found that he couldn't do it. He realized that God had a plan for his life, and allows the Lord to use him to inspire others. :)

Food

This blog is mostly for Biblical/inspirational posts....but food can be inspiring, and Jesus often used food as symbols for His spiritual messages, because He is about growing us healthy and mature and strong in our spirit in ways that nourish our spirit just as food nourishes our bodies. If you look to your right side of the screen you will find lots of my links, and toward the bottom there are links to sites that have to do with mostly cooking, and some that have to do with organizing and creative stuff for the home. One of the links is for the Big Red Kitchen. Hope you'll check some of these places out :) Recently (today) I see that Big Red Kitchen now has a Youtube channel! Yay! Here it is:

http://www.youtube.com/bigredkitchen

Ok, maybe Bananas Foster isn't what you would eat for nourishment, but I am inspired to try this recipe...hopefully I won't catch my place on fire! :)

Seeds

Link to photo

1 Corinthians 15:35-50 (NIV)

There is someone that is near and dear to me that is approaching her final days in her mortality. When I visited with her recently, I was reading 1 Corinthians and when I got to the above passage, the words it spoke rang out to me so clearly.

This body is only a dying shell, the hull for something the Lord is doing inside of us while we are yet here. It is the outer chrysalis that the caterpillar is being transformed into something different, away from fleshy eyes, that can only be viewed with “the eyes of the spirit” (those who have eyes to see). I often forget that, and place so much importance on the things that are dust and vanishing away.

Verse 37: When you sow (a seed) you do not plant the body that will be, but just a seed, perhaps of wheat or of something else. 38 But God gives it a body as He has determined, and to each kind of seed He gives its own body.

Just like a butterfly looks nothing like the caterpillar that was before that miraculous transformation, so we too will be nothing like our former selves, which will have died literally and completely. The resurrection body will be a complete redo, not just a makeover. The whole thing will be torn down, and something new will be made with all new materials. The Spirit seed that was planted inside this dying hull will be what causes the transformation.

Verse 58: Therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.

I remember being very young, looking at a Dutch magazine. There were 9 pictures (very nicely done artworks) of a little girl planting a seed into a terracotta pot filled with rich black earth in the first picture. The next 7 pictures show the child intently gazing at the pot for any sign of growth, and with each succeeding picture she seems to grow more frustrated and impatient, until in the final picture she has dug up the seed, dirt is all over the counter, and the young lady is holding the seed between her dirty thumb and forefinger, examining it for any sign of growth.

That's me.

I am so impatient in regards to my own and other people's spiritual condition, and have an unnecessary impulse to look for any sign of growth or change. God is doing something, He promised He would. It is something that defies our earthly understanding and impulses. It is miraculous and wonderful. It is something I want to see right now, but “digging up the seed” only retards the process. I have to trust, and rest, and rely on Jesus, and know that He will keep all of His promises IN HIS TIME, and all my trying to see how and why and when only causes me to take my gaze off of the WHO.

 Jesus.

He is sufficient, and the rest He has promised to already have taken care of, and will be revealed in His time.

(The verses in this post have all been from the NIV version. It isn't my favorite version, but it is the version of my study Bible that I got when I worked at a Bible bookstore.... and I'll emphasize again that although it isn't my favorite version, this passage seems to come alive for me much more in the NIV than the KJV does.)

Perfection Part 3

Mat 5:43  Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy.
Mat 5:44  But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you;
Mat 5:45  That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.
Mat 5:46  For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? do not even the publicans the same?
Mat 5:47  And if ye salute your brethren only, what do ye more than others? do not even the publicans so?
Mat 5:48  Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.

Those words sound nice as the pastor reads them in front of the congregation, and everyone nods their head and smiles at the person in the next pew. And then everyone goes home, and looks with scorn on the young woman with a child out of wedlock, or the homosexual and his "partner". Easier said than done....

What does it mean, to "love your enemy"? Does it mean you agree with everything he or she says and does? Does Jesus agree with everything I say and do? I should freely exclaim that is not the case at all. Then how can I quote those verses above and say we are to be perfect as our Father in heaven is perfect?

I was watching a talk show while I was working out yesterday, and there was a woman and her daughter who had lost another daughter because the daughter's ex-boyfriend and his new fiance murdered her viciously. The mother and brother of the fiance was on the set of this program, sitting quite a distance apart from the mother and daughter. They also connected by video to the fiance daughter/sister at her prison where they say she will be for the next 18 years. The fiance said she was sorry. Honestly, she didn't truly seem sorry to me, and her words still sounded like she didn't feel like it was her fault. On this show they described how she participated in the murder. They described how she joined the all day vigils while they were searching for her, and helped in the searches. The mother and daughter told of their heartfelt anger and their doubt in the truth of the sorrow and asking for forgiveness because the fiance's mom never apologized until the time of this broadcast, and that the boy's mom and dad immediately came to her to say how terribly sorry they were. The mom, brother, and fiance had ugly looks on their faces, and were not attractive to begin with. It was easy to dislike them, and think "They aren't sorry! They are guilty as sin and are not a bit sorry...but somehow just want to get sympathy for their terrible daughter/sister" ...and then I remember the parable:


Mat 18:21  Then came Peter to him, and said, Lord, how oft shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? till seven times?
Mat 18:22  Jesus saith unto him, I say not unto thee, Until seven times: but, Until seventy times seven.

Mat 18:23  Therefore is the kingdom of heaven likened unto a certain king, which would take account of his servants.
Mat 18:24  And when he had begun to reckon, one was brought unto him, which owed him ten thousand talents.
Mat 18:25  But forasmuch as he had not to pay, his lord commanded him to be sold, and his wife, and children, and all that he had, and payment to be made.
Mat 18:26  The servant therefore fell down, and worshipped him, saying, Lord, have patience with me, and I will pay thee all.
Mat 18:27  Then the lord of that servant was moved with compassion, and loosed him, and forgave him the debt.
Mat 18:28  But the same servant went out, and found one of his fellowservants, which owed him an hundred pence: and he laid hands on him, and took him by the throat, saying, Pay me that thou owest.
Mat 18:29  And his fellowservant fell down at his feet, and besought him, saying, Have patience with me, and I will pay thee all.
Mat 18:30  And he would not: but went and cast him into prison, till he should pay the debt.
Mat 18:31  So when his fellowservants saw what was done, they were very sorry, and came and told unto their lord all that was done.
Mat 18:32  Then his lord, after that he had called him, said unto him, O thou wicked servant, I forgave thee all that debt, because thou desiredst me:
Mat 18:33  Shouldest not thou also have had compassion on thy fellowservant, even as I had pity on thee?
Mat 18:34  And his lord was wroth, and delivered him to the tormentors, till he should pay all that was due unto him.
Mat 18:35  So likewise shall my heavenly Father do also unto you, if ye from your hearts forgive not every one his brother their trespasses.

I might be able to fake it....but if I were that mom or that sister, I confess that I would have a really hard time forgiving that girl and her family. It came out (and she denies it) that she was the primary instigator in the murder. She did not want the girl alive because she thought her fiance might still have feelings for her and wanted the ultimate proof that he no longer loved her. But she is asking for forgiveness, regardless of how terrible the circumstances and how much we may dislike her, she is looking for forgiveness....and so thinking on the words of Jesus, and the impossibility of my own fleshy reaction to this situation, I would ask, as His disciples asked Him in another situation:

Mat 19:25  When his disciples heard it, they were exceedingly amazed, saying, Who then can be saved? 

and the answer from Jesus:

Mat 19:26  But Jesus beheld them, and said unto them, With men this is impossible; but with God all things are possible.

I have my people that I am struggling with to forgive. They have not asked for my forgiveness, but should that stop me from having a forgiving heart?  Does that mean what they did wasn't wrong? Does it mean that I agree with what they did and accept the wrongs as right? No. It just simply means that I know what they did was wrong, and I let it go to God, and say with Jesus: "Forgive them Father for they know not what they do"