Hold Me Jesus

A Devotional by Margot Cioccio

That me in the middle taking notes during Navigate

This is our Pacific North West Navigate team of 3 churches

James 3:17 - 18  

“ But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, 
then peaceable, gentle, easy to be entreated, 
full of mercy and good fruits, with out variance, 
without hypocrisy. 18 And the fruit of righteousness 
is sown in peace for them that make peace.







I am running way behind today in getting something posted.  Last night tired caught up with me and I just had to say I'm done and go to bed. So for those of you who look forward to this early in the morning I apologize. I have a couple of things that I have been working on that are in the process of being ready to post. This is one I wrote while in route to Minnesota for the Navigate conference. Finding Gods peace in the midst of a busy day seems to be something I need today as well.


I am on the plane in route to Denver where we will have a quick layover on the way to Minnesota. I’m currently listening to Rich Mullins song Hold Me Jesus which seems a good spring board from which to write. So Hold me Jesus - cause I’m shaking like a leaf  - you have been King of my glory, won’t you be my prince of peace.



Seems the Lord is speaking to me a lot about peace lately. I was struck the other day by how many salutations and greeting in the New Testament letters are about peace. The writers seem to think is an important thing with which to open a letter and to pray over their readers. So I will follow that example and pray that God would bless you with a greater understanding of Him as your Prince of Peace.

James 3:17 - 18  Says “ But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits, with out variance, without hypocrisy. 18 And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace for them that make peace.

Peace often requires standing up for what is right. It is often walking into a difficult situation and rather than escalating the situation helping to diffuse the anger of those present. We have ample opportunities to practice this in our work in the inner city with the homeless and poor. There are days when people come in very agitated. On those days our job as believers in the room is to help settle and calm the the tension in the room.

You may have opportunities to bring God’s peace into the situations that you find yourself in today. There may be very traumatized people that you encounter today that need not only your prayers but for you to bring peace, to remind them that they will be ok, that they need to breathe and trust and accept the help that is being afforded to them by your very presence.

I think we often wrongly think that peace is all about floating in our own personal peace bubble. Quite often it is more the ability to walk into a stress filled situation and bring peace to others. It is the mercy of God working through you to bring grace and peace into a situation in which little or none existed until you came on the scene to bring the fruit of peace that you have gained from the wisdom of spending time in the presence of the Lord. 

Prayer:
So Hold Me Jesus  - walk near me in difficult situations as I am dealing with troubled and difficult people. Help us to be a living bible - the only one they may read today. Help us to demonstrate the your peace in the midst of the storms we are personally facing and those of others whose lives we touch.  Lord I think of the line in Rich Mullin's sings that says “I’d rather fight you for what I don’t really want than take what you give that I need”. Help me to accept those things I need and to stop fighting you for those things that I don't need. Help me to have the wisdom to know the difference.
Help me to accept it when you say no, or not now, to maintain trust and hope that you are working and you know better than I what I truly need.

The Journey Beyond My Comfort Zone

A Devotional by Margot Cioccio

Photo by Margot Cioccio

James 1:2-4

Consider it pure joy, my brothers, 
whenever you face trials of many kinds, ³ because you know that the testing 
of your faith develops perseverance. ⁴ Perseverance must finish its work 
so that you may be mature and complete, 
not lacking anything.

My stomach feels queezy, I feel over whelmed and afraid. I'm sure I will be ok but I've realized that I have begun a journey beyond my comfort zone. The first step of that journey was to talk to the manager of the farmers market about a space. Which I did. The next step was to decide to be there this past Thursday thru Saturday. For the record I made my booth fee and a tiny little bit beyond. Pretty much a wash. However I made some good contacts. There is a shop owner who want to either buy some of my product to re-sell or have it in his shop on commission. I believe I am to not give up but to keep being there and trust the Lord even though my sales were not remarkable. Its a step of faith. In addition to that my "stupid" phone died and I needed to up grade to a new "smart" phone. So now I have a really cool I-phone which allows me to be able to swipe credit cards from my customers. I know you techy folks are saying whoo hoo for you Margot. For me it is a little on the stressful side. It reminds me of the first couple weeks with my new computer - which I love now. I was terribly stressed out by it at first and I feel much this same with this new phone. I'm sure I will love it in time. Right now I am dealing with the learning curve. Uggh. In addition to those changes the Lord told me earlier this year that he would open up opportunities for me to travel. This week I am going to a conference and representing my church. It is a big confrence that one had to be invited to be part of - it will be all about church revitilization. I'm sure it will mean lots and lots of great info to process and figure out how to make useful. I have a bunch of homework I need to do before I leave on Friday at 5 am. I'm multi tasking and watching some of that now. 

Can I tell you that in my comfort zone I am very brave and may appear that I have it pretty together. The journey beyond it is terribly frightening and I am making myself write this now - while I am feeling freaked out so you know that I am just like you. I remind myself that courage is not the absence of fear but rather pressing through to do the things that God has called you to do. I will remind myself to trust the Lord. I will remind myself of the "whys" for going through coaching training, and for taking these other steps of faith. I will remind myself of the journaling exercise I gave my coaching allies this past week.

In it there is this dog on a leash and he is all mouthy to the big scarry cat. He pretty much says if I was off this leash I would chew you up and spit you out. Oh ...but then the leash snaps and he can suddenly do the things he has been barking about. He doesn't, he is terrified and he turns around and ties himself back to the leash and starts barking bravely again. Ok... so that is kicking my butt, because I don't want to be like that dog back on the leash. I can say I want to do ministry, mosaics and coaching and my leash has snapped and I am terrified just like that dog. I am however choosing to press through my fear into the unknown land beyond my comfort zone.  I know faith becomes real when you actually have to use it and trust God to lead you through the uncertain and the unknown.  I know without faith we can't please God. I want to please Him. I want to become the person He is calling me to be. I want to become someone who inspires others, who is invited to speak and minister. I want to be able to lead my coaching client through to reach their big dreams. I know you can't lead others where you have not gone yourself. I know that these things I am facing are God's challenges for me. They may not seem like much to you. The things that have me freaked out are probably no big deal to you. You have your own things beyond your comfort zone and I hope that God will use post to challenge you to begin that journey beyond your comfort zone into the new adventure that God has for you. I know as I keep going these things that seem so frightening and overwhelming to me will become my new comfort zone and I will in time have to press on beyond those boundaries.

Even writing this is helping me - because I had to identify the fear and face it. Now I just need to breathe and be thankful that God has allowed me to feel and experience this so I can write about it. I have told the Lord in the past that I want my walk to be like the one described in the book of acts. They were seeing the wonder of God at every turn. It was a big adventure, and they got to see God heal, save and set free people. I can bark about wanting such a life until the leash snaps and I have to trust God or tie myself back up and keep barking. I know in my heart the only real choice is to trust God because He will give me the adventure of faith that indeed stirs my heart.

I have come to the end of writing this and the feelings of overwhelm and panic have subsided. I know I will be able to sleep. I am thankful that the Lord has allowed me to be transparant before you, I hope I have left some footsteps of faith that you may follow as you encounter your own fears at the edge of your comfort zone.


Prayer:
Dear Lord,
Thank you for helping me to identify and face the overwhelm and fear I was feeling. Thank you for helping me to remember that your adventures are full of excitement and challenges. I choose to live a life of faith with you step by step day by day. Thank you for the adventure. Thank you for helping me to trust you inspite of the fear I was feeling. Thank you for being on the other side of it to hold me in your arms. Lord I choose to trust you.

Selfish Ambition

A Devotional by Margot Cioccio

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  Philippians 2:3-4 

“Do nothing out of selfish ambition 

or vain conceit, 

but in humility consider others 

better than yourselves. 

Each of you should look not only 

to your own interests, 

but also to the interests of others.” 

So where do we begin with selfish ambition?
There is a story in the book of Numbers about a guy named Korah. He is one of the Levites during the time of Moses who is a good example of selfish ambition.

The people of Israel had just come out of a life of slavery in Egypt and were on their way to the Promised Land. The tabernacle was kind of like portable church and Korah and his family had the special job of moving it. When it was time to move to a new place they had the job of taking down the tabernacle and carrying all the parts and pieces to the new place and setting it up. It was a special job and only members of that particular family line were even allowed to do. In those days there were jobs that the Levites could do and there were other jobs that only priests could do. Korah has the job of moving the portable church but he thought he was just as capable as Aaron and the priests and could certainly burn insense as good as they could.  Korah and some of his buddies got a notion that Aaron and his family had set them self up as the high and mighty ones. So Korah and 120 other leaders rise up against them in Numbers 16:3 ³ They came as a group to oppose Moses and Aaron and said to them, “You have gone too far! The whole community is holy, every one of them, and the LORD is with them. Why then do you set yourselves above the LORD’s assembly?”

Well the story goes on and Moses stands up for Aaron and lets the mutionious group know that its not Aaron they have turned against but God. 

Numbers 16: ⁸ Moses also said to Korah, “Now listen, you Levites! ⁹ Isn’t it enough for you that the God of Israel has separated you from the rest of the Israelite community and brought you near himself to do the work at the LORD’s tabernacle and to stand before the community and minister to them? ¹⁰ He has brought you and all your fellow Levites near himself, but now you are trying to get the priesthood too. ¹¹ It is against the LORD that you and all your followers have banded together. Who is Aaron that you should grumble against him?”

Things don't go so well for Korah and his rebellious bunch. Sometimes we can set our selves up against God by not being satisfied with the things he has given us to do an wishing we could have someone elses calling or annointing. Jealousy begins to grow and we look for ways we can take matters into our own hands. We refuse to heed wise council or Gods word or instruction to us and we insist on having things our way. A selfishly ambitious person will try to achieve at any cost the things they feel they should have that God denies.

James 3:¹³ Who is wise and understanding among you? Let him show it by his good life, by deeds done in the humility that comes from wisdom. ¹⁴ But if you harbor bitter envy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast about it or deny the truth. ¹⁵ Such “wisdom” does not come down from heaven but is earthly, unspiritual, of the devil. ¹⁶ For where you have envy and selfish ambition, there you find disorder and every evil practice.

I'm not saying that there is no place for ambtion or dreams but when our ambition becomes all about me, me, me and we have no concern for how it will effect others we find ourselves walking in a dangerous place.  It is hard to feel we have been passed over, particularly when we have been doing the job with out much recognition. It is in those time we must resist the desire to be selfishly ambitious and ask God to help us trust his plan.

So on with the story of Korah and the gang.  In verse ²⁸ Then Moses said, “This is how you will know that the LORD has sent me to do all these things and that it was not my idea: ²⁹ If these men die a natural death and experience only what usually happens to men, then the LORD has not sent me. ³⁰ But if the LORD brings about something totally new, and the earth opens its mouth and swallows them, with everything that belongs to them, and they go down alive into the grave,^[c] then you will know that these men have treated the LORD with contempt.”

Well, if you read on you will find out that the ground did indeed open up and have Korah and the rest of the selfishly ambitous for lunch. It was pretty clear that they did not die of natural causes in the usual way.

It is important to remember that you are not your own; you were bought at a price. (1 Corinthians 6:20). Sometimes we can be doing a job serving the Lord and someone else around us can be promoted to a more important job and we can feel slighted by God. Its important to remember in those times that God lifts some up and bring others down. He shifts people around to accomplish his greater pourposes. We often are looking at things from our own perspective and while we might be quite capable of doing the job we might not be the one God is calling to do it. We need to be careful to not become like Korah, by learning to trust that Gods plans for us are good. Even the hardships we are facing are often grooming us for his future plans for our lives. 

Prayer:
Dear Lord,
Help me to see where I am selfishy ambitous. Help me see where I am pushing for things that perhaps are not mine to have at this time or maybe ever. Help me Lord to be humble before you and to accept your plan. Help me to not be jealous when others get opportunites that I think I am better able to do.  Help me to not only look to my own interests but to the interests of others. Help me to seek your Kingdom first and to trust that you will take care of the rest. 

Hands and Feet

A Devotional by Margot Cioccio

James 1:5 (NIV1984)

If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, 
who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him. 

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Through the years I've spent a lot of time asking God for wisdom. Some how in my perceptions of this verse I imagine God answering my prayer kind of like in the movie the Matrix. If they need to know how to fly a helicopter they were hooked up to a port and the information was downloaded into them.

So I have looked at receiving wisdom form God in a similar way. 

Looking back I realize that it really did not happen like the Matrix.  God has given me a wealth of opportunities to gain wisdom, to choose wisdom, to make wise decisions. I would not describe the process as painless. Somethings he has allowed me to practice over and over till I finally really get it.

One of the wisest people I know feels like a total failure some days. I can look at my own life and it is full of failures and set backs and stuff I can't explain. I have other friends who look back on their lives with guilt and shame. I have at times wondered why I don't feel that way, what makes us different. Why is it all a big learning and growing experience for me.

I think that maybe the only difference is the vantage point from which I view my life. I look at it from my position at the feet of Jesus. It is the only place that it begins to make sense. People often joke about asking God for patience. We all know that asking for patience leads to trials that cause us to grow in patience. No one jokes like that about wisdom and perhaps they should.

There is a "gift" called "Word of Wisdom" for me it happens when I am praying for people and I suddenly know how to pray. Then suddenly they are crying and God is healing something.

That kind of wisdom is a bit more Matrix like in that God just kind of drops it into your thoughts un-expectedly. The wisdom I am talking about today is not so much the gift but more of quality that must develop in our lives. Its like patience, we ask for it and we get the stuff that causes us to grow to have wisdom. I like James 3:17 But the wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure, then peace loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere. I can tell you in my experince that God did not just "poof" give me those things. He has given me many opportunities to practice and grow in each of the things listed in Jame 3:17.

We have a choice to make each day, will we wallow in self pity because our life is hard. Because it often has not gone as we had hoped or planned. Or will we embrace the idea that everyday is an opportunity to gain wisdom and every day we have the blessing of being His hands and Feet.

Prayer:

Dear Lord, 

Help me to find a way to be your hands and feet. Help me to be bogged down by the stuff that did not go as planned and to get on with trusting you. The story is not over yet and who knows how it will turn out. What appears a failure now - may just be a training ground for the future.

My Gift For You

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A Gift For You
A Devotional by Margot Cioccio

Romans 1:11 Romans 1:11-12 (NIV1984)
 11 I long to see you so that I may impart to you some spiritual gift
 to make you strong— 12 that is, that you and I may be mutually
encouraged by each other’s faith.


I read this verse this morning and I wondered what spiritual gift I might impart if I were to see you or if you were to see this post. It was pretty simple as I thought about what I would impart. It would be the gift of joy and the gift of peace.  Joy and Peace are funny gifts you might think them unnecessary, but I have noticed that they have nothing to do with the circumstances you are facing and they have seen me through many difficult seasons. They don’t have to be worked up.  Why joy? - it seems so frivilous. If I were to impart a gift that would make you strong it would be the gift of joy. Nehemiah 8:10b Nehemiah said, "for the joy of the LORD is your strength.”  Also Psalm 28:7 The LORD is my strength and my shield; my heart trusts in him, and I am helped. My heart leaps for joy and I will give thanks to him in song.  I love the line my heart trust him and I am helped. Joy is a gift of grace, may it flow over you even as you read like oil poured over your head that drips all the way down to your feet. Oh and speaking of feet - don’t forget to put on your spiritual shoes today. What? you may ask, you go from joy to shoes?  Don’t forget your Ephesians 6 armor and be sure to put oun your shoes. Ephesians 6:15 and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace.  You stand there thinking but how? - Look at this mess or trial I’m dealing with.  It is pretty simple and you want to make it hard. Peace and joy walk hand in hand look at Romans 5:1-3 Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 2 through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. 3 Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance;. I’ll end with James 1 Your desire is to be mature in Christ it is joy and peace that help get you there.  2 Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, 3 because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. 4 Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. Joy and peace are gift of God’s grace and they will help you to walk through the difficult things you face. Lift up your hands before the Lord and recieve them now in Jesus name.
 Prayer: 
Dear Lord,
 By faith I come to you on behalf of those who are reading this and I pray that in this instant you would annoint them with your joy and that you would dress them in your robes of righteousness and put fresh armor for the battle they are facing. Let their feet be fitted with the shoes of peace that comes from believing the good news of what Jesus has done on thier behalf. Since they have been justified through faith let them now recieve your peace and your joy. While you are at it Lord send your Holy Spirit to so saturate them that where ever they go they would splash others with your joy and peace as they grow strong in you.

Pure Joy

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Pure Joy     
A Devotional by Margot Cioccio

James 1:2-4
Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, 3 because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. 4 Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.

Joy is generally not the first thing one thinks about when thinking about or experiencing trials. I suppose if we look at things in light of asking why me and while serving cake at our pitty party there may not seem to be any reason for joy. The problem is we are asking the wrong question. The question is not why me? The question needs to be Lord, what are you doing through this?
The verse above tells us that trials test our faith. Do we really believe God will help us?  If so we will keep our focus on him in expectancy that what he is doing is for our growth and for our good. Quite often we get to a trial and we find out that we are busy trying to fan the flames of faith but find we have not put more than twigs on the fire. We can’t just look to God when things are hard. We have to be building that relationship on a daily basis. Everyday, I need to be in His presence, every day I need to develop an on going conversation with him as I go through the day. Every day I need to be in his Word, every day I need to be believing and trusting and watching in wonder at the works of His hand. If I am when I get to times of trials there will be logs in my fire and I will burn brightly for Jesus.

Those trials that we face produce perseverance or patience. Thats the stick to it resolve, the I know, that I know, that I know that Jesus loves me and has a plan that is good. It moves me from a shallow faith of lip service to one of maturity and depth in which my life speaks and confirms that no matter what God is with me, No matter what is way is good, no matter what I know He loves me. No matter what I will stand for Him.

Things to Ponder:
If you are currently going through a trial - what is it showing you about your level of faith?

Prayer:
Dear Lord, I ask you to help me in this trial I presently face. I can see that I have not built up much of a reserve. Help me to use this expereince and remeber how you have helped me to be a log for a future fire of faith when I walk through other trials. In my life. Help me remember in this one your word, your ways, your love and how you have helped me in the past. Help me to ask with joy, what you are doing rather than the whiny why me? of my pitty party. Help me to seek you all the time not just when things are rough.