Take Nothing for your Journey

Thistlebend Quiet eMoment

by Laurie Aker

Focus Scripture: Luke 9:1-5 ESV

1 And he called the twelve together and gave them power and authority
over all demons and to cure diseases,
2 and he sent them out to proclaim the kingdom of God and to heal.
3 And he said to them, “Take nothing for your journey,
no staff, nor bag, nor bread, nor money; and do not have two tunics.
4 And whatever house you enter, stay there, and from there depart.
5 And wherever they do not receive you,
when you leave that town shake off the dust from your feet
as a testimony against them.”
______________________________

Jesus sent the twelve out to proclaim the Kingdom of God.

He told them,
“Take nothing for your journey.”

They were to depend solely upon Him.
His love.
His kindness.
His guidance.
And His provision,
whether directly or through others.

They were to proceed forward trusting Him
in everything and for everything.
Believing that God had gone before them,
that God would go behind them, above them, and beside them.
That God would go with them and
be their defense and their shield.

They were to depend upon Providence.
Merriam Webster’s definition of Providence is:
(1) “divine guidance or care,”
(2) “God conceived as the power sustaining
and guiding human destiny.”

TAKING THE TRUTH TO HEART

How often do we seek to provide for
and to protect ourselves?
How often do we worry?

Each morning when we awaken,
we are called to follow our Lord and Shepherd,
trusting in His leading and providing.

How often do we doubt?
We probably don’t doubt His love and His care
as much as we doubt our ability to hear His voice or
follow His guidance.
But without realizing it, we are saying virtually the same thing.
We are saying that as God He isn’t able to watch over,
care and provide for, and guide.
The sheep are utterly and completely dependent upon
the shepherd to redirect them if they get off course.
It is not up to the sheep to know the way.
It is up to the shepherd.

We are to be His sheep.
We are to follow Him and not our own ways.

Psalm 95:6-7
6 Oh come, let us worship and bow down;
let us kneel before the Lord, our Maker! 
7 For he is our God,
and we are the people of his pasture,
and the sheep of his hand.  

Psalm 100:3
Know that the Lord, he is God!
It is he who made us, and we are his;
we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.

AND BRINGING IT TO LIFE

Chose one truth from today and apply it to your heart.
Take it with you throughout the day.

PRAYER

Lord, please help us remember that you are our Shepherd
and that you will guide us as we seek to follow you.

We are your sheep.
We belong to you and no one else.
We are yours.

Help us take nothing upon ourselves.
Help us to depend solely upon you for everything.

In His hands for His glory,

Laurie
_____________________________

/by

Defining the Relationship

by Angie Thomas

Jesus lovingly revealed to me today during a recent Who Am I in Christ lecture that I need to have a DTR with him.1 Yep, we need to have a “Defining the Relationship” talk.  It is sort of ironic because if you were to ask me, I would say that I have been in a very “deep” relationship with Him now for 15 years or more. What more would need to be defined in our relationship?  I love him, He loves me, signed, sealed, delivered, I’m yours, Lord.

But as Laurie was sharing about what would it look like if we were really to believe His love for us, I had an “aha” moment. I often push Christ’s love away and minimize it because I am not willing to respond to it.  His love is so deep, so passionate, so lavish if I were to truly believe it and receive it, it demands a response and perhaps not the response I would like to offer.  A radical love demands a radical response, and honestly, at times I am not sure I am ready for this type of relationship with Him.  Lavish love seems so, umm… extreme.  I am not sure I am ready to “extremely” love Jesus.  I mean my mouth might say that I am, but what do my actions show?

What if he asked me to let go of the Nursing Certification I worked so hard for? What if he asked me to work with Him in helping to heal people spiritually and never allowed me to go back into nursing and physically healing people? These are questions I have been wrestling with lately.  It would be pretty extreme, especially since I am still paying on school loans from my Nursing Certification. But is Jesus worth it?  What if he asked me to share the gospel with my neighbor who I have known now for 10 years and every conversation I have had with her about Jesus and God has been vague and unclear.  What if?

What would be the extreme love response He might be asking of you? Perhaps He is asking you to leave a relationship with a guy who is not a believer.  Perhaps He is asking you to sacrifice sleep for time with Him, even though you know you are a person who needs 7-8 hours of sleep?  What if he wanted you to sacrificially extend grace and forgive a family member who is difficult to love? What if He was asking you to take a step of faith in your job situation?

All of this talk of radical love sort of reminded me of an awkward talk I once had with a guy who I was dating (before I was married:) who really liked me and I really didn’t reciprocate the feelings.  We had a DTR and he went on and on about how much he loved me and thought I was amazing, blah, blah, blah.  As I sat listening to it, I honestly felt repulsed.  I didn’t have mutual feelings for him, so I sort of felt like barfing instead of reveling in his words.  It made me squirm.

I think in a way I have had a similar response to Jesus.  The “He loves me passionately, sacrificially, completely” rhetoric sort of makes me squirm, because if I am honest I don’t know if I reciprocate that radical love towards Him. Sometimes, I think I would rather have a business contract with God rather than a covenant signed in blood.  That way I could agree to all the terms and conditions up front. The “sign your life away” deal Jesus says defines His disciples is a little unnerving. But, this teaching is repeated in all the Gospels: “Then Jesus told his disciples, ‘If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it‘” (Matt 16:23-25; cf. Mark 8:34-38; Luke 14:25-35; John 12:20-26).

This might seem discouraging, but really it is a reason to celebrate.  Without the grace and love Jesus pours out to us, we could never love Him in this radical way. But John tells us, “We love Him because He first loved us” (1 John 4:19). He is the initiator and perfecter of our love and faith! This is reason to do the Happy Dance, girls!  It’s not about us or our performance.  We are completely incapable of loving him in this radical, sacrificial way. But as we confess and cry out to Him in our weaknesses, He is able to transform us.

I am so thankful for my recent DTR with Jesus.  It has helped me to again cry out for a completely surrendered life and love for Him.  What about you?  Don’t be afraid.  His perfect love casts out fear (cf. 1 John 4:18). Be honest with Him and He will do an amazing work in your heart, enabling you by His grace and Spirit to love Him in the same radical way He has loved you.

Footnote:
1In the lecture, Laurie asked the ladies to have a DTR with the Lord.

/by

Do You Believe?

by Susan Sampson

Does your Facebook page say you are single?  I don’t have a Facebook page and I am married, but if I examine my life and my actions, I would have to say it sometimes looks like I am single, independent from God, and autonomous.  I had to look that word up again but it means, “self-governing; not subject to control from outside; independent; self-ruling; uncontrolled.”

At Bible study on Thursday mornings, it’s fairly easy to believe God’s Word.  At 4pm the same day, once I’ve picked up my 3 children from the bus, not so much!  At 10pm when all I want to do is fall into bed and go to sleep and I still haven’t done my physical therapy exercises, not so easy to believe.  These are the times my flesh tends to reign.  These are the times I am so easily tempted to allow my feelings to be my shepherd.

Hearing in the recent Who Am I in Christ lecture that it takes work to believe really has helped me see more of how we work out our salvation with fear and trembling.  The example of going to the gym is such a valuable visual image.  The more you go to the gym, the more weight you lift, the more your muscles grow.  It takes repetition.  The more I do my physical therapy, the less my shoulder is stiff.

But really, what is it going to take for me to choose painful physical therapy exercises over falling into a nice cozy bed which still has flannel sheets on it?  It’s going to take an act of God.  Praise God, He acted!  “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Cor. 5:21).

“And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience – among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.  But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ – by grace you have been saved…” (Eph. 2:1-5) 

The quote Laurie used in the lecture from Horatius Bonar points us directly to the cross – the life giving power of the cross.  “Terror accomplishes no real obedience.  Suspense brings forth no fruit unto holiness.  No gloomy uncertainty as to God’s favor can subdue one lust, or correct our crookedness of will.  But the free pardon of the cross uproots sin, and withers all it’s branches.  Only the certainty of love, forgiving love, can do this.”

When is your time when your are weakest and most vulnerable to sin?  What will we choose to believe in the next moment of temptation?  Our feelings are shifting shadows.  The truth of God’s Word is absolute, unchanging and eternal.  It says we are-

  • a saint blessed by God with every spiritual blessing
  • chosen by God
  • holy and blameless in His sight
  • adopted
  • redeemed and forgiven
  • lavished with grace
  • united in Christ
  • sealed with the Holy Spirit
  • recipient of an eternal inheritance and great power1

Here is our instruction for the next “moment” –

  • work to believe and receive the grace of God – choose by faith to believe God’s Word is true and not our feelings and look to Jesus and say, “I know you suffered for me the wrath I deserved, so in view of this great mercy and love I will now choose to put myself to death and believe your words and walk forward by faith!”

May our Facebook status always say “In Christ”!  May we by God’s grace this day put our sinful flesh to death and work to believe the truth of His Word and walk in the truth and light of His grace.

Footnote:
1This list has been slightly adapted from Laurie Aker, lecture, Who Am I in Christ, March 20, 2014. The title of this post is also the title of that lecture.

/by