Ticket Please

                                                                               

      I watched an usher come down the stairs to a row of people and ask to see their tickets. He looked and told them the tickets were for the last performance.

     They asked to stay since no one was in their seats. He nodded toward the top of the stairs where others waited. "You have to leave to make room for those who came for the present performance."

     I began to apply this story to our thought life. The fame, and shame of our past like to sneak into our minds. We remember the good old days and glorify them. But we also glorify the ”bad old days” by dwelling on them. Both occupy space.

     We are ushers. It is time to firmly unseat the past thoughts. We control who sits in the space reserved for today’s performance. Tickets please.

Scripture Isaiah 43:18, 19 

Prayer: Father, We rejoice in this day that you have made.

The Voice

       The church we visited was small and the nursery where I put my baby boy was not sound proof.

We could hear children faintly as we sat in the sanctuary. It didn't seem to bother anyone.

Halfway through the service we were standing and reading scripture out loud and my head jerked up.

I could hear my son's cry. it was faint and no one else seemed to hear it. Even my husband looked at me with a question as I slipped out to check on him. I knew Ronnie's voice.

       When I walked into the nursery he was in a worker's arms, but sobbing quietly. I called his name and he looked up and smiled. (He had bumped his head.)

       Jesus said sheep know the voice of the shepherd. Flocks of sheep were put together in a common holding place...similar to a church nursery. But when the gate was opened each shepherd would call his sheep. and they knew his voice and came out and followed him.

       

       Ronnie belonged to me and I knew his voice, and he knew mine. We belong to Jesus and even when He speaks in a still small voice, or when we utter a faint cry that sound is heard loudly.

Scripture: "I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me..." John 10:14 (NIV)

Prayer: Father, we thank you that your voice leads us into a secret place where green pastures, and calm waters sooth our troubled souls.

Live Bait

My Pastor was preaching about Jonah being tossed into the sea. An older gentleman in a front pew "whispered" into his wife's ears. "That's what I call live bait."

The gentleman had on a plaid shirt and suspenders, and looked like he knew how to catch a fish. Trying not to chuckle out loud I began to think about Jonah and his refusal to deliver the message to Nineveh. Jonah should have been delighted to tell this enemy of Israel, "You're going to be destroyed in forty days."

Why didn't he want to tell them? My body was sitting in the pew, but my mind was reliving Jonah's story. Jonah knew some thing about God that made him not want to deliver that message. So he fled from the presence of the LORD.

Only after timeout in a whale's belly with sea weed wrapped around his head did delivering that message seem like a good idea. Thrashing around in darkness and in stomach acid he remembered the Lord. He called out for mercy.

The whale burped Jonah up on dry land and he headed for Nineveh and deliver God's message. The people and even the king repented in fasting and ashes with sack cloth and ashes. The king declared that perhaps God will turn and repent of the evil he said he would do unto us. (Jonah 3:9-10).

Jonah goes up on a hill to see Nineveh destroyed. When destruction doesn't happen on day 40 Jonah is irate and pouts. It is then that we find out what Jonah knew about the Lord that caused him to be disobedient to the God. "...I fled before unto Tarshish: for I knew that thou art a gracious God, and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repentest thee of the evil." (Jonah 4:2).

Jonah was glad for mercy when he needed it, but he didn't want God to extend mercy to his enemies. That thought began to convict me.

People in my pew began to move, and I realized that my Pastor had finished his sermon, and I had finished mine.

Scripture: "...I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion." Romans 9:15

Prayer: Father help me to be kind, tenderhearted, and forgiving to all like you are.

Renew your Youth

He pushed off with one foot and jumped on the back of the grocery cart. As he came zipping through the parking lot he realized I was there and watching. He broke into a slow smile. Then we both began to laugh outloud. His gray hair didn't match his actions, but I understood.

Don't you wish you could take a pill to make you feel young again? Or perhaps go to the library, and renew yourself instead of your book? You can't take a youth pill, but you can be renewed.

God has a wonderful renewal plan. Even though the youth get tired and quit you don't have to do that. You can actually begin to ascend like an eagle, run like an athlete and walk through your everyday commitments, and not collapse under the weight. Isaiah 40:31.

All He asks of you is that you show up for this invigorating infusion. He asks you to wait on him. “They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength.” So what does wait mean? Should we sit until he shows up? Or wait on him like a waitress waits on a customer? Perhaps we should rest and let him do it all? What does it mean to “wait on the Lord?”

“Wait” in the original language comes from a root word that means to bind together by twisting. Our English word “wait” suggests we sit still and do nothing. That is not what the Lord is talking about here. We need to interact with him in order to renew our strength. Thus the example of a waitress waiting on a customer is closer to the meaning. A waitress comes to serve you. So we, too, need to ask what the LORD would like and then humbly serve it to him.

Scripture: “But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk and not faint.” KJV

Prayer: Lord, I humbly bind myself to you and ask you to renew my strength.