Nursing Home Ministry...Try it!

I LOVE visiting nursing homes and ministering to folks who reside there! For me, it is very rewarding to interact with those whose lives are dependant on the mercy of others and whose physical, emotional and spiritual life is challenged daily.

During my recent visit to PA, my first stop was to visit the nursing home in Lewisburg where I was formerly employed. I returned to the same nursing home to spend a few hours on Easter morning. The small group that gathered enjoyed singing hymns and sharing thoughts on "Resurection Sunday". What a blessing it always is for me to minister God's love to others.

This photo is of a gentleman (and myself) who has resided at this particular nursing home for over 9 years! He is somewhat of an 'ambassador' of the facility! In the years I worked at this facility, I don't think I ever observed this man to be angry, disagreeable or even down in the dumps'. I also know this man has a vital relationship with Christ and has surrendered his life to Him. This lovely man asked me to snap a photo since it was Easter Sunday he was wearing a new shirt! It was sure a blessing to pose with him for this picture! I will be mailing the photos to him tomorrow!

Perhaps visiting a nursing home is a ministry that you might try. Simply contact the Driector of Recreation (or Activity Department) or speak the coordinator of volunteers at a local facility and they will enthusiastically receive your offer of help! Many facilities have volunteer opportunities from assisting with BINGO or other games to reading stories, or assiting staff with pushing wheel chair bound residents to and from programs! Don't forget the valuable ministry of visiting "one on one" with these often times lonely residents. Don't worry....with many, you won't have to talk much as they are VERY anxious to share life stories and thoughts! If you need any furthur assistance, please contact me and I would be happy to give you suggestions or help in this valuable service. (I am certified as an Activity Professional as well as an Associate Chaplain and have worked in nursing home ministry for over 6 years)

Be blest in whatever you do and do everything "as unto the Lord".

"Fruit of the Vine"

“Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.”
John 15:4-5

I love chapter 15 of the Gospel of John. These passages have always had a great impact on my walk with God. As a Christian, our walk with God is FUTILE if we are disconnected or unattached to Christ. There simply will not be healthy ‘fruit’ or positive results in our own life or in the lives of others if there is not a ‘flowing’ of His power between us (the branch) and Christ (the Vine).

Examine your life, as I did today, and determine the quality and quantity of spiritual ‘fruit’ that is evident (or not) in your life. Measure your spiritual fruit using the standard of Jesus and God’s Word, not of a sub-standard such as “the world’s” definition. We all fall short, I’m sure.

I encourage you to make whatever change is necessary to enable you to have a clear, clean and vital connection with Christ. Talk to Him often, read the Bible, meditate on the Truth and most of all, make sure that you have put your faith in Jesus, who is the only Way to a right relationship with God. May your connection with Christ produce fruit that is perfect and unblemished and fit for God’s use in His Kingdom!

"We Walk by FAITH" (sorry....lengthy but good!)

"For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways," declares the LORD.
"As the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.

Isaiah 55:8-9

The Bible teaches over and over about “walking God’s way”. It clearly teaches that if we are faithful to follow His commands and place our trust in Christ, HE is faithful to embrace us as a dear child and care for all our needs, in a way even BETTER than the best earthly father cares for his precious child! I have often read the MANY scripture passages that refer to “walking God’s way” and each time I read one of these passages, I pause to ponder just WHAT that way “looks like”. (sigh)

As I ponder today, after a week of reflection on God’s command to ’walk in the Spirit’ and ‘follow His ways’, I realize that His way isn’t anything that is plainly visible, nor do we have a detailed ‘plan’ of that pathway. Of course, we have the life and character of Jesus and the Word of God to be our example, and we have general instruction of the purpose and goals of a Christian life, but we truly only have a very limited view when it comes to ‘specifics’ of how to live, choices to make and direction to travel. I tend to want to see the ‘big picture’, the entire plan and the end result before I take the next step. I ask many questions when I’m given directions or instructions and I always want to know WHY I am being asked to do a certain thing. For me, understanding the outcome helps considerably in obeying or following the instruction. However, our Christian walk is a walk of FAITH. I’m reminded of a familiar analogy of ‘viewing life’ to that of viewing a passing parade. We view life as the person who is peeking through a knot hole in a fence, catching only a small glimpse of a parade passing on the other side. God sees our life as if watching a parade from the perspective of the Goodyear blimp…He sees the entire picture, He knows all! We see only what’s in front of us and we must wait and watch for what’s yet to come.

This week, as I was deeply troubled and pondering the next ‘step’ that God is urging me onto in my Christian walk, a friend simply asked me, “why don’t you just say OK (to God) and walk by faith”? I was silently amazed! I had spent hours praying and pondering all that God was requiring of me, what life would look like, what was involved this next step, how it would effect my life and on and on….and this friend so simply supplied the answer to my dilemma!

I still haven’t figured it all out…I am still pondering, as I always do and still seeking God’s Word and confirmation, but it sure seems that my friend’s answer is Godly wisdom and for now….walking IN FAITH is all I can do. I KNOW God, I BELIEVE His Word and I trust Him for every area of my life. With that…I am entering a new phase of my Christian walk as I “peek through the knot hole” of life. I am seeking to walk ‘in the Spirit’ instead of living, too often, from my carnal nature. With much prayer and determination, I will strive to please God with all I do. I don’t know what future days will look like, but I know who holds each day!
“For we walk by faith, not by sight” 2 Corinthians 5:7

A Spiritual Workout!

The journey I am walking with God has not been so thrilling today. I hope that in the future, I WILL be able to look back on today with a sense of thrill and joy. God is always urging us to go deeper with Him and to draw nearer and nearer to Him, so that we can become ever more like Jesus, all for God’s glory and honor.

My world was again rocked violently today as I realized the critical need to STOP and MAKE CHANGES in my own self centered and carnally minded life. In evaluating a situation that occurred today, I was forced to see some traits in me that are most undesirable to God. Pride never is about God, but always about SELF. I’m not sure that I can wholeheartedly say I am ready to make the changes that God asks of me, yet, I will press on and continue to search my own heart and talk with God, search the scriptures and be open to the work of the Holy Spirit within me.

It is not easy to ‘lose’ yourself and give up your own life…but that’s what Jesus told His disciples to do and that’s what He told me to do today. In Matthew, chapter 16, Jesus said, “If any of you wants to be my follower, you must turn from your selfish ways, take up your cross, and follow me. If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake, you will save it.” NLT

Far too long, I have been clinging to my own life, desperately trying to maintain my own sense of ‘who I am’ while at the same time, trying to follow Christ and serve Him as Lord. In my heart, Jesus is my Lord, yet in my actions…my words, my expressions, my body language and more, Jesus does not appear to be Master of my life. The old carnal man (in my case, woman) in me has been too often in control. I have known this for some time, but had not really come face to face or ‘to terms’ with the serious problem that arises from this double-ruled life.

Allowing carnality to rule is exactly what Jesus reprimanded Peter for, as recorded In the Gospel of Matthew 16:23. “But he turned, and said unto Peter, Get thee behind me, Satan: thou art an offence unto me: for thou savourest not the things that be of God, but those that be of men.” KJV

Submitting to Christ’s teachings on self-control, self-denial and Spirit-led living is not easy. It is totally contrary to what ‘the world’ teaches and even contrary to what some churches teach! Few followers of Christ are willing to embrace this Truth. Today I learned a lot and am still processing and praying.

Streams of Living Water!

“On the last and greatest day of the Feast, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, "If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him." By this, he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive. Up to that time the Spirit had not been given, since Jesus had not yet been glorified.” John 7:37-39

Is the Holy Spirit evident in your life? Are the “streams of living water” that Jesus spoke of flowing from within you into the lives of others around you?

Having grown up near the mountains of central PA, I am quite familiar with the beauty of a clear, fresh flowing mountain stream. Imagine an crystal clear, pristine stream of water flowing untouched and unencumbered over rocks and moss, through mountains and small villages, eventually making it’s way into a larger stream and on to rivers and eventually to the ocean! Jesus used this analogy to represent the work and power of the Holy Spirit in our lives.

Every Believer receives the Holy Spirit at the time of salvation; the moment we place our faith in Christ and chose to live UNDER His Lordship. It is at this point that we acknowledge Jesus not only as our Savior, but also as our Master, Ruler and Sovereign King over all things. From that day of salvation onward, the Holy Spirit flows from within us. If the “Fruit of the Holy Spirit”…love, joy, peace. patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness and self-control are not abundant and flowing freely from within us, there is a problem…a signal that something is spiritually amiss in our lives. The “fruit of the Spirit” is not a WORK that we do; it is a natural outgrowth of our life in Christ. (as a perfectly formed apple is a natural outgrowth of a healthy apple tree).

To ascertain the quality of our ‘fruit’, we look to Jesus and the Word of God as the only, true standard. Of course, human beings will never match the perfect character and life of Christ until we meet Him in heaven, but until that time, we MUST seek that excellence through the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the third person of the Triune God and thus He is PERFECT. If our lives are truly yielded to Jesus, then indeed, the Holy Spirit is at work in us and the outgrowth or ‘fruit of the Spirit’ will be perfect as He is perfect. Those are the words of Jesus!

I pray that each of us ask Christ to shine His light into our lives and illuminate those areas that are not as He wants them to be. There are times, I confess, when 'bitter water' flows from within me. It is then that I must repent, make restitution and move on in Christ. (as the Holy Spirit made clear to me last night!) May we meditate on the power of the Holy Spirit and may our hearts overflow with streams of living water today!

Possibilities in Christ!

This morning I read the account of Jesus feeding the multitude of 5,000 in the Gospel of John and I found interesting the response of Andrew, one of Jesus’ disciples, when Jesus asked, “where shall we buy bread for these people to eat?”. Faced with a situation of need, (hungry people), Jesus knew that he would provide for the physical hunger of the lingering multitude, but at the same time, Jesus used the situation to prompt His disciples to consider the situation and to experience His power to meet needs.

While other disciples saw ‘impossibility’ in this bewildering situation, Andrew saw possibility and potential. Though the portions of a young boy’s food, five loaves of bread and two fish, were grossly inadequate to feed even 100 people, Andrew looked to this meager supply of food, the only option that was available, and suggested it to Jesus! Yes, Andrew DID question, (my paraphrased version) ”what can we do with this small amount of food for so many people?”, yet he nonetheless, offered those small morsels of food to Jesus and trusted Him to meet the need!

As I read this account, I couldn’t help think about the many, many opportunities that are all around us. Situations through which Jesus is waiting to work, if we only turn the need over to Him. We may also question, “Lord, how can you possibly work things for your glory in this situation?”, but still, we must KNOW and TRUST that God is able and willing to help. God is able to use ANYTHING to bring about His purpose and plan, we must be alert and willing to see His purpose and potential in all things!

“And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose”. (KJV, Rom. 8:28)

BEST Devotional Material EVER!

Nearly 20 years ago I was introduced to "My Utmost for His Highest", a daily devotional by Oswald Chambers. When I began reading these daily teachings, I found my heart and spirit resonating with the words on the pages. I knew there was something very significant and powerful in this teaching and found out later that it was, indeed, the Holy Spirit connecting with my spirit; teaching me and expounding on the wonderful Truth of God. It was fascinating to read and pour over the words that seemed to be written directly to me and to have come straight from the mouth of God!

After many years of reading, my little blue devotional book is now well worn; the page margins are filled with years of notes and comments and the pages are have become tattered on the edges. No matter, I continue reading and learning every day from this cherished devotional book.

If you are truly seeking to develop and deepen your understanding of God, I encourage each of you to secure a copy of this devotional book and read it daily. This devotional may well be the greatest devotional material ever written and it will definitely challenge you as you "Walk God's Way"! You can also find an updated version of the original publication (though I prefer the original text) online at the following web address, which is a link from the rbc.org website. Included at this web site is information about Oswald Chambers, his biography and other valuable information. http://www.rbc.org/utmost/index.php