Outgrowing Your Container

For this post, the picture is more than just a stock photo that goes with the theme of my writing. It's a true-life example of a spiritual truth.  Do you see the tallest plant in the picture that is in the green pot in the center?  It's a sedum plant - a perennial plant that is easy to grow and hard to kill.  I should know because I normally have a black thumb instead of a green one!

My Aunt Glenda gave me that plant at least ten years ago.  When she first brought it to me I planted it in that little white enamel container just in front of the watering can in the picture.  For years, I carried that old cookpot with the sedum from house to house as we moved 5 times during those ten years.  I never transplanted it into the ground because I never knew exactly how long we would stay at each new house. For those ten years, it dutifully turned green in the spring, sent out little flowers in the summer, died back to sticks in the fall and winter and continued the cycle every year.  It didn't grow any bigger but it stayed healthy and functioned as it should.

When I created this little garden patch around an old tree stump this summer, I finally moved it to the brown pot just to the left of where it is now.  To my surprise, it quickly grew and filled that pot.  I had been looking for a tall plant to be the centerpiece of the entire arrangement and it became apparent that I didn't need to look at the nursery for a focal point for the space.  The sedum had grown into that role and I moved it once again.  Again, it grew several inches and is exactly what I needed to anchor this spot in the yard.

This plant always had the potential to grow and flourish, but I'd kept it almost root-bound in its original container.  Once it was given the opportunity to expand and grow, it exceeded all my expectations - not once, but twice.

I think some Christians get root-bound.  They come to know Christ and for a while, they learn and grow and mature.  They find a role in service within the church where God has placed them. However, as the years go by, they may find themselves stagnant.  They are still productive but they have limited themselves to one role - one container - when there are so many more possibilities for their lives that they have never allowed themselves to explore.  Often when they step into a larger role, they will find that their growth accelerates and they find themselves doing things they never imagine. Being transplanted may sometimes even mean a move to a new church home, but at the least, it means a move of faith as they expand their sphere of influence.

You can be useful and valuable in your current area of service, but when you are faithful in the things God entrusts to you, there is always an opportunity for promotion and change as He gives you more responsibility and the possibility of unimaginable things in your future.  Are you root-bound?  As my pastor asked our church family this morning to go after God with a desperate desire, I urge you to seek God for where He is leading you.  It's time to grow!

Psalm 92:12-14

The righteous will flourish like a palm tree, they will grow like a cedar of Lebanon; planted in the house of the Lord, they will flourish in the courts of our God.  They will still bear fruit in old age, they will stay fresh and green.

It Worked!

A couple of months ago, it was time for a big change in our granddaughter's life.  She had finally reached the required weight to allow us to turn her car seat around so she could look out the windshield instead of the back of a seat.  What a milestone!  It totally changed her view of everything around her as we travel.

On one of the first days that she was allowed this new perspective, she was in her seat as my husband was driving to pick me up from the beauty shop.  As they drove along, there was a car driving rather slowly in front of them.  Anxious to get on down the road, Bella shouted, "Move, car - we have to drive!"  Just then, the car moved into the left turning lane, leaving the road free for Paul to continue.  He heard a tiny gasp from the backseat, glanced back in the rearview mirror and caught a glimpse of the shock on her face when she exclaimed, "It worked!" Bella was astounded by the apparent power of her words.

I think I'm that way with prayer sometimes.  I know the words to say.  I know what change I want to see, but do I always expect it to work? Have there been times when answers came almost immediately and I was surprised?

Luke 10 tells the story of the seventy that Jesus sent out to minister in the cities where He was about to go.  When they returned, they were joyful and said to Jesus in verse 17, "Lord, even the demons are subject to us in Your name!" I can hear a note of surprise in their report.  Even they were surprised by their authority. As Christians, our words carry power.

When Jesus cursed the fig tree and He passed by it the next day, Peter exclaimed, "Rabbi, look! The fig tree which You cursed has withered away."  (Mark 11:23)  Can you hear the surprise in that exclamation?

Jesus often used the phrase, "Oh, ye of little faith!"  Faith expects something to happen. After all, Jesus spoke of a faith that would move mountains.

When my prayers seem to be unfruitful, I need to examine my expectations.  Am I praying polite, little, rote prayers just to be nice or dutiful or am I boldly coming to the throne of grace? (Hebrews 4:16)

I want to be like Bella.  I want to see things from a new perspective, declare what I want to happen, and see results, but when things change, I want to celebrate what God has done and not be surprised that prayer has worked in just the way Jesus told us it would.

Driving with My Eyes Closed

I don't often take an afternoon nap because it makes it difficult for me to go to sleep when I need to at bedtime, but today the couch was beckoning and I took a daytime snooze.  Just before I woke up, I had a dream where I found myself suddenly in the driver's seat of a car on a busy highway.  I could hear the voice of that annoying GPS lady telling me to move to the left turning lane.  The problem was that I could see absolutely nothing.  My eyes were closed in the dream just as they were in real life as I slept. In the dream, I knew that I was asleep and I was desperately trying to wake up and open my eyes so I could see where I was going, but I was so sleepy that there was no way my eyes would open, despite my panic.  I wanted nothing more than for someone else to take control of the car because I had no information to guide me to keep me from causing an accident.

This dream shook me a little.  On a natural level, it would be a terrifying experience, but when I thought about the spiritual applications, it was equally as scary.  I know there is an area of my life where I have been asleep.  I've chosen to hit the figurative snooze button and ignore the information that I need to make a course correction.  I've closed my eyes spiritually instead of taking control of the journey with the Holy Spirit giving me step-by-step directions.  The difference is that in the dream, no matter how hard I tried, my eyes would not open.  In real life, I've chosen to close them.

All blindness is not physical. In the gospels, we read about Jesus giving sight to the blind. The Bible also talks about bribes blinding the wise and blind teachers leading others into error.  Jesus called the Pharisees blind guides.  The epistles talk about minds being blinded.  In Revelation 3:15 -20 Jesus says to the lukewarm church:

"I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot.  I could wish you were cold or hot.  So then, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of My mouth. Because you say, 'I am rich, have become wealthy, and have need of nothing' - and do not know that you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked - I counsel you to buy from Me gold refined in the fire, that you may be rich; and white garments, that you may be clothed that the shame of your nakedness may not be revealed; and anoint your eyes with eye salve, that you may see.  As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten. Therefore be zealous and repent.  Behold, I stand at the door and knock.  If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me."

That "knocking at the door" scripture is not directed at the unsaved.  Jesus is talking to His church. To us - to you -to me. If there is an area of blindness in your life, now is the time to confront it, to deal with it, to be healed from it.  Jesus never healed anyone who didn't desire to be changed. I've heard people say that the Holy Spirit is a gentleman and He won't force anything in our lives. We have to be willing.  Today, I am willing to open my eyes and quit driving blind.  How about you?

In This Place

Last Sunday at our church there were several songs that we joined in together that invited the Holy Spirit to be "in this place".  Of course, we know that the Holy Spirit is present everywhere, but as a congregation, we desire His tangible presence among us and to see Him work to change lives.

Every time I hear a song like this though, I always place my hand over my heart and think to myself that I am not just inviting the Holy Spirit into the place of the physical sanctuary where we are worshipping, but into my own heart in a new and fresh way.

On the day of Pentecost, the second chapter of the book of Acts says that a sound as of a rushing mighty wind filled the house where they were sitting but it also says that tongues of fire came to rest on each one of them.  There was not only a corporate experience of the Holy Spirit in the physical place but an individual experience in each person present.

While God is omnipresent, He chooses to make his habitation in us, not in our buildings.  So when we come together in praise and in worship and invite the Holy Spirit to be in our midst, we are asking HIm to work in and through us to touch the lives of those in that physical place.

So the next time you sing a song like that, remember to make it personal.  Invite the Holy Spirit once again into your heart, your life, your mind, your circumstances, your family, your job, your future.  He will come if He is welcomed.

Catch Fire!

A few weeks ago, my husband and I were driving through a small town in Tennessee when he saw a large tent that had been assembled by the side of the road.

"They having a revival?" he asked.

"Nope - fireworks", I replied, having seen the signs posted along the road.

Then the thought struck me that revival is a lot like fireworks.  I don't mean that it should be loud and flashy and short-lived.  Far from it!  There are some more positive parallels between the two.

A firework is made up of several kinds of materials.  Gunpowder propels it into the air and causes the explosion.  Different kinds of metals and chemicals such as aluminum, copper, iron, magnesium, and phosphorus create all the sparkle and the color that we see in the night sky. Those things are tightly packed into a cylinder with a fuse.  All the potential for the light, the sparkles, the color, and the sound is in that missile, but until the fuse is lit there is only silence and darkness. 

We're a lot like that.  We are packed full of the potential that God has placed within us.  We have our gifts and talents.  We have dreams of what kind of people we want to be.  If we're wise, we've packed our lives with biblical knowledge and training, but unless that spark of the Holy Spirit has been applied to our lives, we often stay dormant, complacent, and silent. A firework isn't fulfilling its potential until that fuse is lit and we aren't fulfilling ours when we get tired, jaded, cynical, or spiritually dry.

We all have seasons of our lives when this can happen.  Sometimes it's because of a struggle with circumstances, but other times we can get that way even in the middle of good times in our lives.  The important thing is to recognize when it comes and to deal with it.  You don't have to attend a revival meeting - you just need to reconnect with the one who revives.

Just like fireworks, each of us has a different expression in the kingdom when we are living up to our spiritual potential.  You might be a sparkler while your neighbor is a Roman candle, so make sure that you don't expect their journey and ministry to be just like yours. Real fireworks have a dazzling array of colors and pattern. We are all uniquely designed for a purpose.  Make it your mission to catch fire!

Perception or Deception?

Last week my family rented a little house on the Chesapeake Bay as a base of operations for our vacation. The house was next to a nature preserve and the beach was undeveloped - no hotels, no stores, no restaurants. One morning we headed to the beach early because thunderstorms were predicted for later in the day. 

As I approached the water's edge that morning and the first little waves washed over my feet I jumped back from the first shock of the cold.  At that point, if it had been up to me, I would have retreated to the warm safety of the beach blanket, but a certain little girl wanted to play in the ocean so I had to keep venturing out.

After a few minutes of wading just ankle-deep, the temperature didn't seem quite so bone-chilling.  Little by little, I walked further out into the water until the water no longer seemed that cold, but rather refreshing and pleasant.

I've noticed that in our culture there are things that at one time were shocking to hear which are now quite commonplace.  The first introductions of those subjects were like a figurative slap in the face to the mainstream of our culture but as the media continued bombarding us with the same messages over a period of time, the average person began to become accustomed to the new normal that was being presented, just like I got used to the temperature of the ocean water.  In some cases, not only the culture but the church herself began to retreat from what the word of God teaches and began to conform to the world. 

I fell into this very trap myself in my late teens and early twenties.  I remember being in the middle of my sinful lifestyle and being so angry with people who wanted me to act in a more conventionally moral way.  I used to consider those people to be close-minded.  Now I know that it's possible to be so open-minded that your brains fall out! 

The temperature of the water in the Chesapeake Bay that morning didn't change one degree in the short time I was wading.  Only my perception of the cold changed.  God's Word does not change.  It's up to us to place ourselves in agreement with what He says instead of expecting Him to "get with the times".

Focus on the Cross

Last week at my annual eye exam, I was seated at a series of different machines over the course of the appointment. As I got my head into position at one such machine, the eye doctor's assistant explained that during the test all I had to do was to "focus on the cross".  Of course, that phrase immediately screamed "this week's blog post", so I paid close attention to the mechanics of that particular exam.

As she changed settings on the machine, I followed her directions by focusing my eyes on a small cross glowing with a green light on the screen.  As I maintained that focus, I could see a series of red lines moving in chaotic, agitated patterns in my peripheral vision.  The screens changed from time to time and the cross moved to various positions.  Sometimes all the lights went off at once. When that happened, there was always an after-image of the cross bathed in royal purple light, but no sign of the former red lines.

Since I was already primed to hear the spiritual lesson in this ordinary part of my yearly exam, understanding came quickly.  No matter how frightening and angry the chaos in our lives may look at any time, we must keep our eyes on Jesus.  He is the constant in an ever-shifting world that can bring confusion.  Even though He is constant, we may need to shift our focus to see Him working in different ways in our lives. Though His character never changes, sometimes His methods can be unpredictable to us, so we need to adjust our concentration to make sure we are tuned in to Him and not just to a solution for the current problem we are facing. When all is said and done in this life, there will be no remembrance of the problems and the turmoil and the fear and the pain.  We will see only Jesus - in his royal glory.

Where's your focus today?