I'm home and healthy! PTL!!! Thanks for all your prayers! Hope to see you soon as I ease back in. And please note I will be easing back and following Jesus to work His best, as I am and as best as I can, according to His plans for me and for you. Thanks for giving me some time to reset and get more right this time!
Praise God for Sarah, the Board and teams that have covered for me! Pray they refresh too! And pray for Larry Paul who is bringing the Word tomorrow.
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Good Morning Imitators of God! We strive for that and like to think we do pretty well. We want to do the things Jesus did and is doing in healthy ways like Jesus chose. Life in Christ lived well and life as residents of the Kingdom on earth lived well is always a balancing act. We have so much nose and pressure from the world to live in the flesh or up to their standards and expectations and even work requirements that take priority. And then we have our own pressures and many pressures of some "church people" pushing us to really live for Christ and forget all the other stuff that "doesn't really matter." Christ alone! OHH RAH! If we don't meet either expectation we feel guilt and shame and like a failure. We have freedom in Christ to choose and often those choices lead to angst and stress. What is the most excellent way? Choosing healthy balance. We are in this world with responsibilities and not of this world with often clashing responsibilities. HELP!!!! Jesus, while He walked the earth, chose to live in a healthy rhythm that honored God and allowed Him to live well and healthy in this world and to complete His mission. We are created for His mission, activated to do so and placed here to be able to do so. For that to happen, healthy choices are paramount! And quite often we need the nudge of an accountability partner to help us to refocus and choose well and healthy as we seek to live and love like Jesus in this world. And sometimes God has to take matters into His hands to get our attention and cooperation. Please help us choose well Lord! Amen!
As always for me, I evaluate why and how God sets me down and in the hospital. It has happened enough times to think I would learn and choose well. HA! Choosing the healthiest life in Christ and rhythms in this world is hard work and truly a balancing act that has life long health, mental, spiritual and even financial implications. Who do you have to help you process, choose well, pray for and with you, walk with you and encourage you? We all need at least one and more are helpful for us to stay on the Jesus track and plans healthily.
So recently I have found myself so driven to push and grow the Kingdom and Church and at pushing you all to more as well and even myself that I lost my focus on Jesus and what His plans are. BUT GOD! He set me down and spoke to my heart through several of you and has led me out of captivity (from the hospital and my foolish ways) to be moving more focused on Him and what He is doing as we move toward the Promised Land. Now the trick is to find and choose the balance to be living right in both worlds and doing what I am created to do. For that, I give you permission to speak correction and/or encouragement when needed. Jesus' easy yoke is not a burden and we should be able to love God and people while we enjoy life. (And not make life a burden or unenjoyable for others) That's the choice I need to work on as I learn to keep focused Jesus and on His pace. may we all choose that and continue to grow as His healthy church--together and with Him! Amen!
I have some devos below. The first one is from someone who is driven as well and I question what he is saying about needing to be more driven and focused on God. Yes, we need earnest focus and walking with Him but never at the sacrifice of health, family and sanity. God knows us. He made us and calls us beloved and His masterpiece and He has activated us to become our best selves while representing Him on earth. Choose well by choosing to be who you are in Christ and walking closely beside Him. He will lead you as you go do your purposes. The UR reminds us to be imitators of God. We are not God and should not strive to do all He does. As we learn to become more like Him and incarnate Him and His love to the world, the healthy choice is to allow Him to use us as we are and for us to use what we have been given for His glory. That is an easy yoke of just being you and working at living and loving like Jesus, as you go. ODB reminds us of the Boy Scout motto: "Be Prepared!" We always need to be prepared to join God at what He has for us and is doing and we need to be ready to face Him without guilt and shame on that Great Day of the Lord. And we can! IF! If we hold more loosely, choose well and healthy and just hang out and walk with Jesus and like-minded friends. That s the good life, my friends, and we get to choose to live it! PTL and choose well. Amen! And shalom shalom--know His perfect peace!
As you move toward the devotionals to ponder and meditate upon, check out this partial list of things to try to learn to become more like Jesus and to act in ways like Him. This part of the list is all about slowing down, savoring Christ and choosing to work from rest and abiding, refreshed! Try some!
Maybe we should stop with that!
The next devo is one I question as one of those "Christian influencers" that push us to more. It's part of what made me more driven! Remember Garbage In--Garbage Out! What's God leading you to, as you are? Choose that!!!
I to WE
UR: Imitators of God
Be imitators of God, as beloved children, and walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. - Ephesians 5:1-2 (NRSVUE)
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Socks behaves like a dog,” I was told about the resident red fox named Socks at the nature and science museum where I was a wildlife volunteer. The first day I entered his outdoor fenced-in habitat, he came running toward me wagging his fluffy orange tail. The wildlife staff explained that Socks was found and raised by a family who thought he was a puppy. By the time they realized he was a wild animal, Socks had spent too much time around humans and dogs to survive in the wild, so he was brought to the museum. Having been raised around dogs, Socks imitated the behavior he had observed.
Christians are called to be “imitators of God.” We are to live our lives in a way that distinguishes us from the world and not to “imitate what is evil” (3 Jn. 1:11). As a new believer in 1996, I learned that imitating God requires spending time with God in prayer, studying scripture, and spending time with other believers who model Christian living.
Socks didn’t suddenly imitate a dog, nor did I suddenly imitate God. Imitating God is an ongoing process assisted by scripture and the community of Christians.
Today's Prayer
Heavenly Father, thank you for your word and for other Christians who show us how to be more like you. In the name of Christ. Amen.
ODB
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My grandmother had a routine on Saturday nights. Before she went to bed, she laid out all her clothing, including the shoes she planned to wear to church the next morning. She always attended the early service and wanted to be ready to get up and go the next morning without any delay. One Saturday night, she was suddenly hospitalized. Later, Jesus called her name, and she died. When my grandfather returned home from the hospital, he found her clothes laid out. She’d been prepared to go to church as well as to meet her God.
My grandmother’s ritual reminds me of the wisdom of the bridesmaids in the parable in Matthew 25. In the story, Christ tells His disciples to be ready for His coming: “Keep watch,” He said. No one knows “the day or the hour” He’ll return (v. 13), so it’s wise for us to be prepared. If we wait until the last minute to prepare, we could be like “the foolish ones” (v. 3). They ran out of oil because they hadn’t prepared well, and just after they left their posts to refill their lamps with oil, the bridegroom came.
We may not need to lay out our clothes like my grandmother, but her ritual demonstrated her desire to be ready for church as well as for her Savior. May we use her wisdom to be ready for the most important things in life, serving Jesus as He leads us and being ready for His return.
By Katara Patton
REFLECT & PRAY
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How can you prepare for Christ’s coming? What wise choices can you make in serving Him today?
Dear Jesus, please show me how to be wise as I serve You and prepare for Your return.
Discover what the book of Revelation tells us about Jesus’ coming.
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SCRIPTURE INSIGHT
The scene in Matthew 25:1-13 is of a bridal wedding party. Traditionally, the bride with her bridesmaids would wait at her parents’ home for the groom, who’d typically arrive after dark to begin a celebratory procession to the wedding at his parents’ home. Because the timing could vary significantly, the bridal party needed to be prepared for an indefinite amount of time. In Jesus’ parable, the groom arrives even later than usual, and some bridesmaids didn’t bring enough oil for their lamps. The wise, prepared bridesmaids couldn’t share their oil reserves without risking also running out and ruining the wedding procession. This scene offered an ideal example of the need for believers in Christ to have a posture of constant faithfulness and readiness both to meet Jesus and to serve Him, even in unpredictable times.
Monica La Rose |
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