NAKED TRUST

Genesis 22:5 He said to his servants, ‘Stay here with the donkey while I and the boy go over there. We will worship and then WE WILL COME BACK TO YOU.”

Of late, I have this strange yet not frightening feeling that someone is watching my every move. Its almost as if…my privacy is being violated at every step I make but at the same time…I don’t feel exposed to danger. This morning, the Lord finally put these words into my heart. NAKED TRUST!

Let’s begin by defining these two words separately;

NAKED means…having the body unclothed; undressed; having no covering; EXPOSED; unsupported by authority etc.

TRUST means…reliance on and confidence in the truth, worth, reliability, etc., of a person of thing; faith; custody, charge or care of; to allow someone to do something with the confidence in his/her good sense of honesty etc.

What is NAKED TRUST then? Naked trust can be defined therefore as a show of PUBLIC CONFIDENCE in a person or thing.

We all get excited when we read the story of Abraham as he waits for God to fulfill his promise to give him a son. It takes trust to believe God will do as He promised…in spite of the many obstacles along the way. Abraham believed God…and in time….Isaac, the son of promise was borne to him in his old age. After sometime, we see the very same God who gave Abraham his son come back with a strange request. A request which has no promise attached to it. I WANT YOUR SON! Take him to the altar…and I will meet you there.

THE LORD IS MY SHEPHERD!

Psalm 23:1 The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not be in want.

Last week was a trying one for my family…because our daughter was down with a bad cough…and ear infection. She is still here with me today…missing another week of preschool. And because of that…I feel she needs my attention more at the moment. For this whole week, I am therefore going on a sabbatical and hopefully will resume my normal post on 31st May, 2010. Meanwhile I leave you with a vision of where I will be as I HANG OUT with MY SHEPHERD!

SOW YOUR SEED WELL

Ecclesiastes 11:6 SOW YOUR SEED in the morning, and at evening let not your hands be idle, for you do not know which will succeed, whether this or that, or whether both will do equally well.

For those who read my blog regularly, you might be aware that I have complied a manuscript…which someday I hope to find a publisher and yes…my memoir will finally hit the bookshelves. But meanwhile as I wait and trust God for the opportunity to get published…I want to share and rejoice with one of my blogger friends, Elaine Olsen.

Although I don’t know Elaine personally, I met her through the blogging world sometime in December 2009 and my heart was hooked to her writing ever since. May I say, she has a passion for the Lord, her family…and yes, the written word. Every time, I visit her blog….PEACE FOR THE JOURNEY, my heart is always stirred by the passion in her words…words which cut through and bring at times relieve, at times a radical change of heart but at most, I feel her heart…and my own lost in the things and purpose of God for her life. She is a LISTENER...and God is speaking into her heart…and she in turn, writes it out for you and me, to help us along our journey towards our heavenly dwellings.

She has SOWN HER SEED WELL….and the Lord has made a way for her. A few weeks ago, she got her first book published and I truly recommend it for reading! The book title is;

PEACE FOR THE JOURNEY:in the pleasure of his company
~f elaine olsen~

For the details on how to purchase your copy, please click on the link above! SOW YOUR SEED WELL…God is faithful.

2 Corinthians 9:10 Now he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will also supply and increase your store of seed and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness.

God bless you!

YOUR LAST ENEMY

1 Corinthians 15:25-26 For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. THE LAST ENEMY to be destroyed is death.

I have heard this declaration by Christians more often than not. ‘I HAVE NO ENEMIES.’ But the truth be told. Yes…you have enemies. In fact, from the very moment you openly declared your allegiance to follow the Lord Jesus, your first and greatest enemy became the devil. The devil uses other agents to oppose the purpose of God from being accomplished in your life. And while his agents maybe physical, emotional or spiritual…the most effective of them all is when he uses people.

This morning….the Lord whispered these words into my heart. ‘I WILL USE YOUR LAST ENEMY TO THRUST YOU INTO YOUR DESTINY.’ Suddenly, I understood what that meant. Throughout the bible history, we see people who rose up to oppose God’s chosen servants. And while facing their enemy, in human weakness, God always entered into their situation to show Himself strong on their behalf.

A TIME TO REMEMBER AND CELEBRATE!

Tomorrow is my husband’s birthday. It will be the 8th birthday we will be CELEBRATING together…as a couple and now, as a family. His birthday is made up of many fine and treasured memories of our times together. The Lord has been gracious…oh, yes…too gracious. Like David, I REMEMBER and in prayer I ask;

‘WHO AM I, LORD GOD, AND WHAT IS MY FAMILY, that You have brought me this far? And as if this were not enough in Your sight, O GOD, You have spoken about the future of the house of Your servant. You have looked on me as though I was the most exalted of me, O God. 1 Chronicles 17:16-17

Our past….has been MEMORABLE
Our present...is PALATABLE
Our future…will be INCREDIBLE

I met my husband almost 8 years ago while he was a missionary brother in the Catholic congregation of the CONVENTUAL FRANCISCANS FRIARS...whose founder was ST. FRANCIS OF ASSISI in the 12th Century. On that first birthday together, I gave him a little book with beautiful proverbs and sayings unaware that 8 years down the road…some of the words in that little book who come to pass…in ways unimaginable.

GOD IS THEIR ADVOCATE

Zechariah 7:8-10 And the word of the Lord came again to Zechariah: “This is what the Lord Almighty says: ‘Administer true justice; show mercy and compassion to one another. Do not oppress the WIDOW or the FATHERLESS, the ALIEN or the POOR. In your hearts do not think evil of each other.’

An ADVOCATE according to my Collins dictionary is defined as: to support or recommend publicly; a person who upholds or defends a cause; a person WHO INTERCEDES ON BEHALF OF ANOTHER; a person who pleads his client’s cause in the court of law etc.

Is God your advocate? Do you believe God is well able to intercede or intervene on your behalf against the injustice you are facing? You might not know this….but GOD IS A PROFESSIONAL ADVOCATE! He longs for justice more than you can ever imagine. Long before the professional advocate become a prestigious job…God had made it clear to the children of Israel that He would intercede anytime, and every time when injustice was shown to the four kinds of people in their midst: THE WIDOW, THE FATHERLESS, THE ALIEN AND THE POOR.

In the book of Deuteronomy, we see God commanding the children of Israel on how to deal with these four kinds of people. And in most cases, it was evident that how they dealt with them influenced the outcome of the future events in their lives.

THE HEALING OF NATIONS

Ezekiel 47:12 Fruit trees of all kinds will grow on both banks of the river. Their leaves will not wither, nor will their fruit fail. Every month they will bear, because the water from the sanctuary flows to them. Their fruit will serve for food and their leaves FOR HEALING.

Last week, my husband and I watched a documentary on BBC television about human trafficking…and child labour. The focus was on the cocoa plantations in West African countries. A boy from Burkina Faso was sold off by his uncle ended up in Ghana. Some undercover journalist brought him out of captivity and helped re-unite him with his mother. During the week, I also watched a movie based on the 1994 genocide in Rwanda…where nearly 1 millions lives were lost. Yet again, my heart was reminded how wicked the heart of man is. At the end of the week, I saw another documentary about the drug cartels in South America and how children and young people are abducted and are forced to join the rebel army against their wish. Their families are heartbroken and most have no ransom money to pay for their release.

Where is justice? Where is THE HEALING OF THE NATIONS?

THE DEBT OF LOVE

Romans 13:8 Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing DEBT TO LOVE one another, for he who loves his fellow-man has fulfilled the law.

By nature right from birth, the human baby has the desire to love and to be loved! The family home, i.e mother and father…and in other cases, siblings are the first contact where the baby begins to understand and function in love. In receiving and giving love, the child develops an emotional bond with the family which gives the child a sense of security and being needed!

Well, as a child, I never had that complete sense of security…because my parents divorced when I was hardly 3 years old. My mother remarried soon after that…and my stepfather substituted the place of my biological father. Over the years, even though I didn’t know it…I held back my love. THE LOVE THAT WAS DUE TO MY NATURAL FATHER. My relationship with my stepfather was more of a formal kind with no particular emotional bond, while I was too much emotionally attached to my mother. But something else was also missing. As a teenage and in my early adulthood, I didn’t care much about men. And even when I got into a relationship…I never came close to surrendering my heart to any man. There was always a safe emotional distance between us.

DO YOU HAVE PEACE?

John 16:32-33 “But a time is coming, and has come, when you will be scattered, each to his own home. You will leave me all alone. Yet I am not alone, for my Father is with me. I have told you these things, SO THAT IN ME YOU MAY HAVE PEACE. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.

Do you have peace? You may say that is a broad question…and I admit it is. What does peace have to do with you? Most definitions of the word peace…are derived from the state from the outside which defines what happens on the inside. For example, when someone is mean and unfriendly to you, you may feel uncomfortable or restless in their presence. Or when there are chaos around, you tend also to lose focus and a sense of harmony.

In the above scripture verses is hidden wisdom in the words of Jesus to his disciples. Yes…Jesus was about to go to the cross. It was going to be the climax of events that had unfolded 3 years earlier. But…it wasn’t going to be the climax the disciples were anticipating. It was about to be very ugly….in fact, very CHAOTIC and VIOLENT. Oh yes…their world was about to be turned upside down. And Jesus was preparing them for it. So…when He was talking to them about HAVING PEACE, they had no slighted clue what was ahead.

SHATTERED DREAMS: DEALING WITH DISAPPOINTMENT

2 Samuel 12:19-20 David noticed that his servants were whispering among themselves and he realised that the child was dead. “Is the child dead?” he asked. “Yes,” they replied, ‘HE IS DEAD.” Then David got up from the ground. After he has washed, put on lotions and changed his clothes, he went into the house of the Lord and WORSHIPPED. Then he went to his own house, and at his request they served him food, and he ate.

SHATTERED DREAMS: How do you deal with the disappointment? Truth be told. There is no easy way to deal with the disappointment of broken dreams? But there is always a way…THE WAY! Every time I go back to read about David’s encounter in 2 Samuel 12, my heart is deeply stirred. Why? Because I see an attitude which is so rare today…yet is badly needed especially when all hope seems lost! Let me give you a little background on King David’s encounter. We all know about David’s extramarital affair with Bathsheba, Uriah’s wife. A baby is conceived…and a husband who has no idea about it…gets killed on the front-line to cover up for the King’s sin. But God cannot be mocked. He sends Nathan the Prophet to David…and uncovers his sin…and with it, the consequences which includes the death of that child conceived in an act of adultery. Of course, it would have been worse. But God spared King David’s life in exchange for his baby’s.

For seven full days and nights…David touched no food as He PLEADS with God to spare his son’s life to no avail. His whole household is also deeply affected by the unfolding events in the King’s house. On the seventh day, his child dies.