He doesn’t give up

by Sharon O | Apr 8, 2010 | Uncategorized

Luke 22:32-62
“Simon, Simon, Satan asked to sift each of you like wheat. But I have pleaded in prayer for you, Simon, that your faith should not fail. So when you have repented and turned to me again, strengthen your brothers.” Peter said, “Lord, I am ready to go to prison with you, even to die with you.” But Jesus said, “Peter, let me tell you something. Before the rooster crows tomorrow morning, you will deny three times that you even know me.”

Then Jesus moves on into more instructions and teachings to the crowds.
I wondered what Simon felt like after he was told that.
Did he just stand there shocked after hearing that?
Did he question Jesus?
Did get mad… what was his reaction?
It doesn’t look like his thoughts are recorded.
We can only guess.
What would I think?

If Jesus said to me… You think you are faithful and you love me
with everything inside you…but I know your heart
and I know you will fail a powerful test very soon.
What would I feel? What would I say to him?

Then to hear Jesus say “I have pleaded for your faith to be strong.”It’s a concept that cannot be fully grasped. Jesus pleading for Simon’s faith and our faith so we can be strong enough to withstand the attacks of the enemy.
Intercessory prayer for us from Jesus to the Father.

Satan wanted to take them down and Jesus said he pleaded… that is more than just prayer… it is an earnest prayer an intense powerful presentation of hope.
It also seems to be a prophecy of what was to come for Simon after the denial.

As we read further into the chapter it gives us the full report of how he did indeed deny Jesus.
vs 61. At that moment the Lord turned and looked at Peter.
vs 62. And Peter left the courtyard weeping bitterly.

He realized that Jesus knew or heard or saw the denial.
Can you even imagine looking across the courtyard after saying, “NO I don’t know him” and then there is Jesus. Looking at you.
Simon was caught.
In the moment of denial when the pressure was on him. He rejected the one whom he passionately said he loved.
Your heart would hurt just as his did.

Simon wept bitterly because of a grief deep within him.
Lord, how could I do what I said I would not do?
I am sorry Lord. Forgive me… I don’t know my own heart.
I can’t believe I did what you said.

This was the repentance Jesus spoke of in the beginning.
Repenting and turning back to him so that Simon could be strength for the brothers later on.

When I read this it shows me how unstable we all are in our walk with God.
We may say…Lord I would die for you. But in reality would we?
One would hope so. But if the one who walked with him, talked with him, shared with him, ate with him, had a real friendship with him, could deny him not once but three times.
How can we be so confident in our own hearts?

I pray this to be a lesson for each of us.
That although we can fail the Lord miserably just as Simon did. He gives us a second chance. Later on he is given a powerful new name Peter and Jesus reinstates him into a position of leadership.

John 21:15-20
When they had finished eating, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon son of John, do you love me more than these?”
“Yes, Lord,” he said, “you know that I love you.”
Jesus said, “Feed my lambs.”
Again Jesus said, “Simon son of John, do you truly love me?”
He answered, “Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.”
Jesus said, “Take care of my sheep.”
The third time he said to him, “Simon son of John, do you love me?”
Peter was hurt because Jesus asked him the third time, “Do you love me?” He said, “Lord, you know all things; you know that I love you.”
Jesus said, “Feed my sheep. I tell you the truth, when you were younger you dressed yourself and went where you wanted; but when you are old you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will dress you and lead you where you do not want to go.” Jesus said this to indicate the kind of death by which Peter would glorify God. Then he said to him,”Follow me!”

I pray that this brings encouragement.
Jesus does not give up on us even when we commit the most evil sin.
For Simon to deny him and then for Jesus to return to him and say… “Please take care of those left behind. I am entrusting you with a responsibility. Take care of the ones whom I love.”
It shows me, Love, Acceptance and forgiveness.
How thankful are we as people to serve a God who doesn’t give up on us.

Life’s moments

by Sharon O | Apr 8, 2010 | Uncategorized

Sometimes life’s moments come in and interrupts our day.

We get out the calendar and focus on our ‘to do’ lists for the week.
Planning menus and shopping trips, work days and play days, what we need to prepare to get it all done.

Then a child will get sick. Or we get sick. Or the dog gets sick.
Or the car won’t start.
Or …. you fill in the blank.
We all have had those times of frustrations and disrupting moments.

Interruptions can rearrange our agenda and goals.
My question for us is how flexible are we?

If I have a plan … and another need ‘is more pressing’.
Do I grasp it with enthusiasm and an earnest desire to do what needs to be done?
Or do I grumble and complain and gripe
and have a bad attitude?
I have to admit I am sure I have done both.

Jesus was interrupted.
Throughout the New Testament he always had others rearrange his day. People with needs would come to him for healing and for teaching.
He accepted the interruptions as a time for ministry.
He healed others when it was not convenient or acceptable in the laws of the people.
He performed miracles when others could not provide.
It was all for a purpose.
When he took the fish and bread and made so much that there were buckets of left overs. He was glorifying the Father.
Everything He did… gave glory to the Father.

So for us… how does that move into our lives?
Can we examine our hearts and ask how well we receive interruptions.
It is not about me. It is about who I serve.
It is not about my selfish need to get MY things done first.
It is about my friend who is hurting and needs time to talk.
It is not about my selfish need to have quiet time alone.
It is about the child who wants to come see grandma and have quality time together.

I pray this writing challenges us all to be more ready for interruptions.
For it might be ‘that’ phone call…that is life giving to a soul,
or that smile, or that note in the mail, or that email.
It is taking time for others.
It is taking time for God.
It is Praying without ceasing for the endless needs around us.
Lord may we be people who are willing to be rearranged for your purpose
so that we might be able to serve others with a cheerful heart.

Why are you crying?

by Sharon O | Apr 5, 2010 | Uncategorized

Luke 20:11
Mary was standing outside the tomb crying, as she wept, she stooped to look in. She saw two white-robed angels, one sitting at the head and the other at the foot of the place where the body of Jesus had been lying. “Dear woman, why are you crying?” The angels asked her.
“Because they have taken away my Lord.” she replied. “And I don’t know where they have put him.” She turned to leave and saw someone standing there. It was Jesus but she didn’t recognize him. “Dear woman, why are you crying?” Jesus asked her. “Who are you looking for?”
She thought he was the gardener,”Sir,” she said,”If you have taken him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will go get him.”

“MARY!” JESUS SAID.
She turned to him and cried out. “Rabboni!” (which is Hebrew for “Teacher”.)

“Don’t cling to me,” Jesus said. “For I haven’t yet ascended to the Father. But go find my brothers and tell them. I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.”
—————————–
WOW… can you even imagine?
Jesus. Saying your name.
He knew her, but she only recognized him after he said her name.
It is relationship.
It is a deep knowing.
Mary… I know you…and you know me.

She was grieving. She experienced his death. A terrible death on the cross.
Her tears wet, dripping down her face from a heart that was broken.
She was hopeless when she looked inside. For he was gone.

Then she saw them.
The two angels who spoke her language and she understood them.
Then she saw Jesus.
What a moment.
What a wonderful experience.
What a glorious reunion.

Go tell… my brothers so they will know too. Jesus said.
I am going to my Father.
He didn’t leave me or forsake me.
I am going to My God and Your God.

Easter is here.

To encourage you

by Sharon O | Mar 31, 2010 | Uncategorized

A follow up on my last writing.
If you want a reflective writing that stirs your heart and mind with many emotions this Easter week. Click onto the Holy Experience button on my recommended blogs to read. Awesome reading and I noticed she was the writer I borrowed a line from. (sure hope it was ok) Have your sound on. She has beautiful music too.

I pray we can encourage each other as we grow and mature in spiritual wisdom. Help us to have a heart for the Lord and a desire to be deeply committed to His love and His teachings.

A new Chapel

by Sharon O | Mar 31, 2010 | Uncategorized

“Only when the interior of a life becomes a chapel can the outward life echo with the clear word of the Lord.”
I read this on another writer’s blog and really wanted to share it.
(hoping it is ok).

Thinking about that concept I move into memories of when I have walked into a chapel type setting. I can see the stained glass windows. The wooden pews carved in ancient wood attached to the floor with black iron bolts. I visualize how many others have sat on those rugged wood seats or knelt down on knees ready to release the burdens they carried. I can see the variety of ages of singers in robes accompanied by the pumped organ.
The choir director standing with arms outstretched moving to the count of every note.
Old and young with voices mingled sitting together. Rich history accompanies every word in multitudes of notes sung from hardback hymnals donated by someone.

It is all visual… I can see it. I can hear it. I value the experience. I love the old fashioned worship. The hymns of long ago.

On a hill faraway stood an old Rugged Cross.
There is power power wonder working power.
Onward Christian soldiers.
Blest be the tie that binds our hearts in Christian love.
Can you go there with me in memory? Is the picture clear?

Just to say the word CHAPEL…. brings forward a reverence. A holy thought. A place of comfort and a place of welcoming.

If our interior condition is to be like a chapel. It means we would have a place carved out for the Lord, the word and the Spirit deep within our hearts. If we are not centered on the word, we cannot echo the Love of God to anyone.
It would not be possible.

Thinking about an echo… it is a sound that repeats whatever is heard. So if we hear and read and study the word then we will be able share … the sound with others.

I hope this brings you encouragement and moves you into a thinking process.

This writing is not to say I dislike the new way of worship.
I value it. The singers and muscians who bring it to us are gifted and talented.

As we worship by ourselves or with others. I am praying that our thoughts will bring us to a new kind of chapel. For that is when the Lord can use us.

Confession

by Sharon O | Mar 27, 2010 | Uncategorized

I love to iron.
Yes I know it is a strange confession.
But for me it is refreshing, and rewarding.
To look at a wrinkled piece of fabric and press onto it the hot warmth of the hand held iron.
Ah……. I breathe in the steam and it opens up my head.
I love for my husband to look pressed and ready for work. It makes me feel like I have done a good thing for him.

OK for those who do not like to iron, I might sound like someone who needs a therapy session. But in reality it reminds me of what the Lord does to me daily.
The hot iron of his word presses me as I allow the wrinkled crumpled emotions to breathe in the steam. The warmth and the heat have forced me to say on occasion “ouch that hurt”… as God gently presses me more. I don’t mind for I know just as I press the fabric to create a fine piece of clothing. The Lord does the same to my heart to create a better person.
Sometimes the heat is intense and the blast of steam brings me pain.
But the reward is worth it if I allow Him to do his work in me.

When my daughter was in junior high she would often come out of her room wearing something she drug out of her hamper or the bottom of her closet. I remember saying to her more than once, “You look like an unmade bed” and her quick reply would always be “Well I am comfortable.”
Yes an unmade bed is comfortable. It is inviting. A nap is always welcome.
But to walk around looking like an unfinished chore is not good.
Our hearts can look like that also.

So as I iron I pray.
Lord help me to allow the warmth of your love to press in and show me the wrinkled broken areas in my heart that needs changed. Help me to receive your correction as the fabric receives the hot iron. Just as I control what I press I pray for the willingness
to let you have full control of the journey of my heart.

Don’t be Afraid

by Sharon O | Mar 26, 2010 | Uncategorized

In 2 Kings 6:16-17 we read:
“Don’t be afraid,” the prophet answered. “Those who are with us are more than those who are with them.” And Elisha prayed, “Oh Lord, open his eyes so he may see.” Then the Lord opened the servant’s eyes, and he looked and saw the hills full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha.

Isn’t that just an awesome passage for us to experience? Can you see it?
They are on the side of a mountain looking over a valley warriors are heading towards them.
The battle looked overwhelming and grim. They were going to go down defeated very fast. The servant with him said, “Oh NO we are going to die.”
[I didn’t read that I am just guessing]
Then….Elisha said, “Be still and do not be afraid.”
“I know we have a huge fight ahead of us. We are not alone. I want to show you to not fear and lose heart.”
His faith was so powerful. He reached out and claimed it so that those with him could SEE the power and majesty of what he knew to be true.
What an encouragement that had to have been.
In that MOMENT when the overwhelming feelings and fear was present, Elisha said, “Don’t be afraid.”

Reminding me of the passage in 2 Corinthians 4:18:
“So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.”
Wow… in verse 17 the verse before he says: “For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.”
It is a perspective that the writer is trying to reveal to us.
In this world we will have problems.
We will have issues and conflicts.

We will have relationships that will hurt us and battles to fight.
But if we know the spiritual side of it all…we are not alone.
The war we fight is not our own to try to win.
We have a great host of warriors surrounding us.
If only we could see them and pray Elisha’s prayer.

Shall we be bold enough to believe it to be true? As we pray for the Lord to open our eyes.

Courage

by Sharon O | Mar 25, 2010 | Uncategorized

I read a quote recently.. and wrote it down.

“Courage is… almost a contradiction in terms. It means a strong desire to live taking the form of readiness to die.”

Tonight I went with my sister in law, to sign her mom up for hospice services.
It was hard for her since it is her mom and she is the only daughter.

I am familiar with the hospice procedures and I was asked to be with her, hopefully it was helpful for me to be there.
The two hours it took to sign her up wasn’t as horrible as I thought.
Mostly signing papers and forms as the nurse explained the hospice process.
They become mom’s doctor.
They take care of her.
They are her voice.
The goal is to keep her comfortable.
They come weekly and later daily as she becomes worse.
She says she has no pain. That is good for now.
She said that many years ago after having a radical mastectomy surgery.
She said,”God protected me and I have no pain.”
Is that possible? With her, YES.

She is Mom O. She is the legacy of mom’s to all her children and grand children.
She is a prayer warrior.
Every day at 9 am she has her coffee, Bible, notepad and prayer list.
Dad O has to go down for coffee with the ‘old guys’.
She must be alone.
She will be deeply missed. Dad O is not doing well.
He is 87 and losing his first love.
July will be their 61st wedding anniversary.
It is a love story in the fullest form.
They met and three weeks later were married many years ago.
Six children and 60 years later they are still a family.
The oldest son passed on years ago.
Their heart broke in many pieces when he died.
Yet she had hope and continued to show hope
to others through the process of letting go.
She might not be here for the first great grand child in September.
One would wish she would be here, but logic says she will be home with the Lord.
This is a story of a mom who loved.
Who loved unconditionally.
Who loved always.
Who never judged.

I am writing this with tears as they fall down my cheeks…… for a family who loved.
Who continues to love each other deeply. They are parents deeply committed to their family.
He is a father who was close to his children, she is a mother who prayed intensely for all 6 of their children daily.
Her heart broke when her son died, yet she knew of a hope beyond what we can see……..
we dare to see and hope for… she knew it to be true.
God in his mercy… will give her rest.
God in his mercy ….will give her peace.
She knows the God of mercy and deeply loves Him.
I am writing this as the tears fall down my cheeks.
I remember…she loved with a love like Jesus.
She is the grandma who never chastised the sinner, who had a child out of marriage, she just smiled and said,”They all come in their own time.”
She is the grandma who loved…unconditionally the child who… made bad decisions…reminding them … “Next time you will think about it more.”
She is the mom who loved.
After everything else is said…: “She loved and she had compassion”.
More than anything else she is a …….A legacy to us all.

A simple prayer

by Sharon O | Mar 21, 2010 | Uncategorized

Before I became a Christian.
My view of God was full of skepticism and unbelief.
He was like a Santa who gave things to people when they asked.
He was very far away and not an all knowing, GOD.
Jesus was a man in a story book.
I was not raised in a Christian home. Yet I do remember walking to a small church as a little girl to Sunday school. As I listened to the stories of the bible on flannel graph boards,
God and Jesus were unreachable to me.
They were characters in a hard backed book. I couldn’t touch them or feel them. They were songs sung to the music of an un-tuned piano. Jesus loves the little children… only I was not one of them.
The way God reached out to me is a wonderful and powerful reminder,
that HE does indeed listen to the prayers, of those who do not know Him.
He listens to the heart cries and He is moved with compassion.
In my freshman year of High School, I began to search the meaning of life. We had moved again to a new rental home and another new school. It was at the bus stop while waiting for the bus I would engage in conversation with a girl there. She was an honor student who lived with her parents in a normal stable family. I was very different. I would wear the Diana Ross ratted hair style, fake eye lashes (yes I did say that) and white eye shadow. Every day this girl would ask me questions. Pursuing me. Forcing me to ‘think’ about God and church and life.
Every day I argued with her.
My life experience had been much different than hers. My concept of ‘love’ was not something she could understand. We were two friends speaking different languages.
She talked often and gave me lots of questions.
As our friendship grew I began to listen to her.
I decided to test her ‘GOD’.
My sister Mary had been gone for many months on the street, living life as a drug addict and runaway. I missed her greatly and wanted desperately to see her. We didn’t know if she dead or alive and it was a heart ache I couldn’t take care of on my own.
I remembered this girl told me ‘GOD hears all prayers’.
I didn’t believe it but what could I lose by not trying?
One night as I was going to bed. Not knowing how to pray or what to pray or how it all all works for Him to hear you.
I prayed a simple prayer. A bold one.
A searching from the heart prayer.
I said, “God I would believe, I think I can believe you, if you can find my sister. The girl tells me you know everything, you see everything. So you should know how to find her. I want her home. IF you are God. IF you know everything then YOU can bring her home tonight. When I wake up in the morning I want her sleeping in her own bed. IF you can do that, then I will believe.”
I went to bed and fell into a deep sleep. Unusual for me at that stage of life.
You can imagine my surprise when I woke up the next morning, and saw her across the room sleeping in her own bed. The police had found her in the middle of the night and contacted our mother. She had been beaten badly but she was home, sleeping in her bed, in our room.
It was a miraculous reunion of sisters.
A cry from a young persons heart to a God who hears.
We were always hopeful she was alive, but never knowing.
Mary didn’t stay at home very long. She left soon after the first night, but my prayer was answered.
Now I had to deal with ‘the girl at the bus stop’.
I made the phone call telling her what happened. She told me about God, church and her youth group.
I believe God knew the only way I would trust, was for Him to show me an answer to a simple prayer. From a simple heart.
HE can do the unimaginable.
I trust Him.
The journey continues.
The girl at the bus stop is now my sister in law. We married brothers.
The years after God came into my life were not easy. But because of the strength HE gave I was able to trust Him through the process. He was hope when I felt hopeless. He was my peace when it wasn’t peaceful.
He was love on a Cross saying to me, “I care deeply for you”.
His ways are mysterious and wonderful and I am always in awe of His love.
I have never regretted that first life changing prayer.
I hope this finds you encouraged.
Our God is a God who hears the simple prayers of faith.
It doesn’t have to be fancy or elaborate it just has to be from the heart.