Do You Know Your Bible

A Devotional By  Margot Cioccio

Click Here to Order this Key Chain

Philippians 2:12-13 NIV84

  

¹² Therefore, my dear friends, 

as you have always obeyed—

not only in my presence, 

but now much more in my absence—

continue to work out your salvation 

with fear and trembling, 

¹³ for it is God who works in you 

to will and to act according to his good purpose. 

I had an interesting day Sunday. I had fun singing old 80's folk songs with a guy who came to our feeding, who called himself Shadow. Told me his dad was Cat Stevens. Said he was never raised by Cat Stevens because he'd gone off to become a monk. He sure sang and played guitar like Cat Stevens. Vocally he had the same unique Cat Stevens sound. I don't really try to sort out the stories I hear. I generally take them at face value and leave it at that. What I can say for sure is that he was a delightful person and I had the honor of sharing a few songs. I must have prayed with 8 or more people during our service usually its one or two most weeks. I had several people ask me theology 101 questions after the service and during the feeding and I was able to answer them.

One was a guy had been asked by someone when it was that he had gotten saved. In his mind he equated that with when did God make you perfect. I got to explain that they were asking "was there a day that you decided to begin your journey of salvation with Jesus". That is the day that God begins the process not the day of perfection. He was having trouble reconciling the idea of obedience is better than sacrifice from 2nd Samuel with another in James salvation not being by works. It is not ever our good works that make us some how more or less acceptable. Certainly, the Lord has prepared good works for us to do, but those good works are not what save us. They are more a response to an inward change and out of thankfulness we find ourselves wanting to do things more like Jesus. What saves us is not our obedience or good works but Jesus who obeyed and went to the cross and became a sacrifice for our sins. Our righteousness is filthy rags - you just won't be able on your own to make yourself clean enough for a Holy God. We are to be holy like He is holy, but it is not the measure of our cleanness that somehow tips the scales. It is the decision to believe and follow Jesus. Salvation is an on going thing. We must work it out and walk it out day by day as we are lead by the Holy Spirit.  Its a process and a journey.


Taked to another guy about love and hate and realized that he was drunk and his reasoning was circular and I finally told him I agreed to disagree with him. That we were not getting anywhere with our discussion because neither was going to budge from the positions we held. He seemed to be ok with agreeing to disagree. I'll talk to him again.

I have been often asked during our feeding the question "Do you know your bible?" Generally what follows is an attempt to prove you don't with some little known Old Testament story. They are always surprised that I do know my bible and am able to talk to them about it.  The real question is are you really a believer? Or you just another person dishing out a salvation message and not knowing much beyond that message.  The folks on the street don't see that much difference between people who say they are believers and those who are not. I think also they have had to hear a salvation message to get a meal or a coat so many times that they are pretty jaded to it all. After all how many times does one need to get saved to get a coat or a pair of socks. They will tell you anything you want to hear. Most of them can quote all the verses having to do with getting saved. Which is why we find it frustrating when churches from the suburbs sweep in on high to do their yearly good deed. If you want to do something for the inner city poor and homeless, don't just come do your Lone Ranger good deed. Make the effort to work with the ministries that are already down in the inner city. We could all use some help. The majority of Lone Ranger groups never contact us they are not really down here to minister to the poor but to some how ease their own conscious and to some how get the boy scout badge in heaven for serving the poor. There was one group that came down so their folks could practice sharing the gospel. They really didn't care about the homeless it was a training experience for their congregation. Most do their good deed and go home to their cushy churches and we never see them again. Generally these folks bring a meal and some stuff to give away as bait for those who will listen to a salvation message. They make notches in their belt for all the people who got "saved" and go home patting themselves on the back for bringing people into the kingdom. Which makes our work down here that much harder. Down here you have to earn the right to be heard. It can take months of being kind getting to know some of these folks before they will open up and have a real discussion. Even then they have so much pain, brokenness that it is a long long journey to freedom. That life transformation is really helped if there are people who will commit to walk beside them and encourage them. It is most often two steps forward and one step back. They will do really great for a while and then sabotage themselves because they just don't feel they deserve a better life. This is a harvest field that is ripe but takes some real work to bring into the kingdom. I'll stop there on that subject - we need harvesters but don't come unless you can really want to come to know and love these folks because they will see right through you other wise.

All total we fed 154 people yesterday with a very small team. It is God who works in you 

to will and to act according to his good purpose. I know that God is transforming me - as I step by step, day by day work out my salvation. It is a journey of following and walking with Jesus to know Him more. We've had people ask if we've had any special training to work with the poor and homeless. The answer is no - anyone who has been a Christian for more than a year and is spending time in the Word has the training manuel - its called your Bible.
You may not be called to work with the inner city homeless and poor. We are all called to Go and make disciples but that is more than preaching a salvation message.
Matthew 28:19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. If you have not yet read the book Radical by David Platt I would highly recommend it. Heres a brief summary of the book that I found on Amazon "What is Jesus worth to you?

It's easy for American Christians to forget how Jesus said his followers would actually live, what their new lifestyle would actually look like. They would, he said, leave behind security, money, convenience, even family for him. They would abandon everything for the gospel. They would take up their crosses daily...

But who do you know who lives like that? Do you?

In Radical, David Platt challenges you to consider with an open heart how we have manipulated the gospel to fit our cultural preferences. He shows what Jesus actually said about being his disciple--then invites you to believe and obey what you have heard. And he tells the dramatic story of what is happening as a "successful" suburban church decides to get serious about the gospel according to Jesus."

Prayer:

Dear Lord,
Help us to work out our salvation, to realize it is a process of picking up our cross daily and following you. That cross is not the cool little emblem around our necks. It is putting our flesh, our carnal nature to death every day and deciding to do things your way. Work in us to will and to act according to your good purpose. Lord thank you for sending your Holy Spirit to lead and guide us on this journey. Thank you for this day and help us be a living Bible to the people who cross our path.  
 

Note to Self

Devotional by Margot Cioccio

Click Here to Order this Journal

Matthew 6:33
But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness,
and all these things 
will be given to you as well.

I am realizing at 12:03 Monday morning that I should have written this earlier. I actually did start on one, but was not sold on the direction I took with it. The easy thing would be to let myself off the hook and say I'll just write something inspiring in the morning. But I'm a little peeved at the moment because of something my husband said about me not finishing things. I always finish them just not on his time table.  I tend to view life as a journey and I happen to have a number of creative interests. I will work on music for a while and then set it aside for a while and focus on writing or art. None of them ever stop in my mind. The rests in a piece of music are just as important as the notes that are played. There are times when I don't feel very well understood - this is one of them.
It already forgiven but I feel some what compelled to explain how I see things. Perhaps I may at some point need to see them in a new way but here's where I'm at today. 

When I was in college the teachers all said I needed to focus on one area of art. I just could not pick one area only to work on. I'm sure they were right. I just am not able to give up my sense of wonder of the creative process as it is worked out in a variety of mediums. There was a long time that I beat myself up for being so scattered and not being able to focus on just one thing. I did try to narrow my focus and fit myself into the box of others expectations. Something in me kind of died when I had to do art or music because that's how we payed the bills. It stopped being art and became manufacturing. Music and Worship became the dog and pony show. The Bible says in Proverbs 4:23 Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life.

I know it may appear that I am just blissfully led along by the Holy Spirit with no thought of tomorrow. I do try to live today and be led by the Holy Spirit today. Even in that I always have goals that I am working towards. I have systems in place to deal with the scattered way my mind tends to work. I am purposeful about creating structures and frameworks with in to be creative. I know when I begin a project what it will be in the end. I hold both the present state of the project and the vision of the final end in my mind. When I can't see ahead clearly I stop and try to find more clarity. I have been thinking about the script of my life and what it might look like if I was given a new script.  I liked this quote " What would that script look like? If you can fill in the blanks on that one, you have imagination. If you can see the blanks being filled in you have faith. And if you have faith, you have your new reality. Jesus defined reality." Laurie Beth Jones

For the longest time I kept the creative process as something that I only employed for art projects. I have found that it works for life too. If I can see the thing in my head I know I can get there. I don't know the details on the how, or when. If I can see it. I have faith to believe that God will get me there or he would not have shown it to me. Sometimes I have to search for the missing pieces of the puzzle. Sometimes I have to stop and wait till the picture in my head gets a bit clearer. It may seem I've set something aside for a time. The circumstances may look like there is no way to get from here to there. I have learned you may not be able to see around the next bend in the road till you get there. You get there by taking the steps of faith before you today, and the next. You keep going. Its not a double minded kind of thing where I have faith one day and doubt the next. The stuff the Lord shows me I hide in my heart, I don't always understand it all but I have learned to trust that he will give me more clues as I continue to believe and trust Him to lead me into His plans and purposes. So my kind of scattered approach to life.... I've come to believe its just how God has wired me. So rather than try and turn myself inside out to be something that I am not. I have learned to go with it. While I might have been able to become amazing in one area I have chosen to be better than average in a variety of things that I love to do.

In my life coaching studies there are some interesting project forward five years kind of exercises. I think they are great. They push things out far enough in the future that you can begin to see what is important to you. Once you can see what is important you can begin to take action to move towards doing more of what is important and less on the distractions.  I have always approached my life from the perspective of I don't want to wait till I retire to do the things love to do. I want to do them all the time. I probably could have been more responsible and made more money. I have told people that have challenged me and tried to judge my life by their standards of success, that you need to measure with the right yardstick. I love this quote “Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.” ― Albert Einstein
I would rather do the things that make me happy today, to make time for the people and the things that are important to me today.  Why - because none of us really knows how many todays we will have. I have never wanted to look back on my life and regret that I did not spend it doing the things I love.

There is another thing that mixes in with all that. It is the verse Seek first the Kingdom of God and all these things will be added to you. Call me crazy but I believe that verse is true so I have made it a kind of compass for my life. As a result I have put much of my time and energy into my relationship with the Lord, and that has spilled out into a lot of things.  I heard an illustration once that people are more attracted to dolphins than sharks. Dolphins love what they are doing, they are fun and playful. Sharks are out for the kill. So I try to take the dolphin approach to influencing people. I endeavor to live my life and love what I am doing and I trust that somehow God makes me flavorful and salty. You take a bite and it makes you thirsty for living water.

Well its 1 am and if I'm going to function tomorrow I need to go to bed. Please forgive the typos its late and I'm sure it will be months before my editor gets to this one.

Prayer:
Dear Lord, Help us to seek first your Kingdom purposes. Help us trust that you are able to get us from where we are today to where you want us to be in the future. You understand how you wired us. You know our strengths and our weakness and you have created on purpose and you know when to step in and do a sudden transforming work and when to walk us through a day by day, little by little, character growing change.

Click Here To Buy This Card

Self-sufficiency 

A Devotional by Margot Cioccio

Matthew 7:7-8”
Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find;
knock and the door will be opened to you. 
For everyone who asks receives;
he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, 
the door will be opened.

How often do I forget to ask, or I am to busy to seek, or I am perhaps to proud to knock.
It is easy to think I can just handle things on my own. I may even be doing a decent job of managing the circumstances of life at this time. How often do I miss the ways God desires to help me. My self sufficiency can stand in the way of God’s help and blessing in my life.

Sometimes we get the idea that God is to busy and we don’t want to bother him with the little stuff. As if we have some limit or quota on prayer that must be saved for the really important things. Our God desires a relationship and that relationship includes the little and the big stuff.
There are days when I say – Lord I am not doing well today. I really need your help –I’m in way over my head. Maybe that’s you today. Just talk to your heavenly Father. He stands waiting to help you through. My self sufficiency is not the only issue, sometimes God wants me to seek him. Often He speaks to me in dreams that are like a puzzle of symbols that I have to work out. What are the treasures in his Word that I miss by being too busy. Sometimes it is pride or perhaps shame that keeps us from knocking at His door.

He calls us but he does not chase us. We do need to ask, seek and knock.  Here is the really good part “For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds and to him who knocks the door will be opened.”  When we search to find him in His word or spend time in prayer it is not a waste of time. He is good to fulfill his promises.

Things to Ponder:
Do you need a clearer invitation? What are you waiting for? ____________
Am I being self sufficient when I should lean on the Lord? ____________
Does pride or shame keep me from knocking at the Lords door? _________________________
What things could you use Gods help with today? ____________________________________
Prayer:
Dear Lord, You say to ask and you will give to me. Hear the prayer of my heart and meet this need or desire in my life. If it is somehow not your will change my heart and help me to let go of this thing I am asking for.  I am seeking you Lord and I know you promise I will find you.
Help me to not let shame, guilt or pride keep me from knocking at your door.
Open to me the door into your presence I long to sit at your feet and to be near you today.
Have I told you how much I love you - Thank you for loving me.