The Great Banquet

A Devotinal by Margot Cioccio

Luke 14:16-24 (NIV1984)

 Jesus replied: “A certain man was preparing a great banquet 
and invited many guests. 
At the time of the banquet he sent his servant 
to tell those who had been invited,
‘Come, for everything is now ready.’ 
“But they all alike began to make excuses. 
The first said, ‘I have just bought a field, 
and I must go and see it. Please excuse me.’ 
“Another said, ‘I have just bought five yoke of oxen, 
and I’m on my way to try them out. 
Please excuse me.’ “Still another said, ‘I just got married, so I can’t come.’
 “The servant came back and reported this to his master. 
Then the owner of the house became angry and ordered his servant, 
‘Go out quickly into the streets and alleys of the town and bring in the poor,
the crippled, the blind and the lame.’ ‘Sir,’ the servant said, ‘
what you ordered has been done, 
but there is still room.’  “Then the master told his servant, 
‘Go out to the roads and country lanes and make them come in, 
so that my house will be full.  
I tell you, not one of those men who were invited 
will get a taste of my banquet.’”

Jesus is calling to come to feast at his table. In Psalm 23: He has prepared a table before me
   in the presence of my enemies.

I almost missed this, just before the story of the Great Banquet in verses 12-14 you find these instrucitons. Then Jesus said to his host, “When you give a luncheon or dinner, 

do not invite your friends, your brothers or relatives, or your rich neighbors; 

if you do, they may invite you back and so you will be repaid.  

¹³ But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind,  

¹⁴ and you will be blessed. Although they cannot repay you, 

you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.”

I have been sitting here tonight trying to figure out what to write. This is my third try and I'm tired at this point. I probably should have gotten this done earlier in the day. I was thinking I had at least three written that only needed to be typed. When I read them this evening they did not connect for me.
I started with the sheep and the goats and then tried something from Psalms about being satisfied with the portion and cup that God has given you. I tried to write about the thieves on the cross. I will get back to those eventually. For what ever the reason they just are not working for me tonight.

So what is God wanting me say in this devotional?  He invites us all to come and spend time with him. He has prepared a wonderful feast, a great banquet. He tells his servant that everything is ready, invite them to come. The servant goes out and invites them to come. He calls us to come to be with him, to spend time with him. But they all alike began to make excuses.

I wonder what excuses you might be using to not find time to spend at the feet of Jesus. 
Life is so busy and it is easy for us to make similar excuses for not spending  time with Jesus. Your relationship with the Lord should be growing. You should be knowing him more and more with each passing day. We should have long ago moved beyond the basics of the faith. I picture gigantic adult sized babies in diapers needing to be bottle fed who refuse to grow up and learn to feed them selves. 
I look at the number of believers who depend on going to church each Sunday to be feed. What would happen to you if you only feed your body one meal a week?  I was reading about starvation on Wikipedia and found the following. "The energy deficiency inherent in starvation causes fatigue and renders the victim more apathetic over time. As the starving person becomes too weak to move or even eat, their interaction with the surrounding world diminishes." You would never think of only feeding your family just one meal a week.  Somehow we think that going to church once a week or sending you kids to youth group or kids church once in a while is going to be enough for us to be strong and healthy.  You need to learn to feed yourself, you should soon grow beyond needing to be fed by others and be going directly to Jesus. He's prepared the banquet and invited us to come and we have a thousand excuses.  I don't like this line in today's verse, I tell you, not one of those men who were invited will get a taste of my banquet. Opportunites and invitations pass away. We had a homeless guy die in an ally near our church recently. Did we as a church do all we could to show him the love of Jesus. Was he like the thief on the cross who accepted Jesus just prior to dying. I don't know. I do know you can't go back and regain the time that has been lost. I like to think as long as someone is still breathing it is not too late for them to meet Jesus. The thief on the cross makes it into paradices and the only thing that changed is he believed. That gives me hope for many of the folks in our neighborhood. Some are walking very near the gates of hell. I know Jesus wants us his people to not be so apethetic, he wants us to care. The thief on the cross was never baptized, never took communion, never said a sinners prayer - he makes it in - in is better left out.  I do think Jesus keeps calling sinners all the way to the very gates of hell.  Yet he has saved us and he has a destiny for us, there are things he has set aside for us to do during our life. If we don't spend time with him we will never hear him calling like Isaiah did. You will never expereice his heart for the least of these - in your starved state you will likely be apethetic to the needs around you. If you don't abide in Him and allow him to abide in you there will not be fruit in your life.  Your relationship needs to be more than a fire insurance plan tucked away for a disaster.

 I like verse 13-14 "But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind,  ¹⁴ and you will be blessed. Although they cannot repay you, you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous." Most of the year we serve a meal to our homeless and poor neighbors. We see between 100 and 200 people depending on the time of the month. We have taken off the month of August to give our leaders and volunteers a break. This week will be our first week back.

The folks who come to the meal we serve can't pay for it. The finances to for the meals come mostly from people in other states that have heard our story and want to help. We are a very poor church in the heart of Spokane. It has been quite a journey from Suburbia for some of us and it is kind of like a mission field down here. After years of doing church in other contexts this one is really strange and we are having to trust God to figure it out. I can tell you that it is a blessing to serve these folks. 

Here's are a couple of videos of the work we do with the homeless and poor. 

Most Recent Video 

Our First Video 

Go out quickly into the streets and alleys of the town 

and bring in the poor,

the crippled, the blind and the lame.

Go out to the roads and country lanes and make them come in, 

so that my house will be full

Step By Step

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A Devotional by
Margot Cioccio

Psalm 139     
O Lord you have searched me and know me...

I am sitting here this morning in my favorite chair, where I like to meet with God. I have been talking to God about how my life seems to be spinning at a rate that makes me feel like I am trying to balance on a rubber ball, while trying to keep plates spinning on poles and I am trying to herd cats.  The stress of the busier fall season is making me wonder if I've taken on too much. Do I need to thin some things down or is it just that things are compounded in their demands because everything is in start up mode. I think it is the later, but I realized I have been struggling to find a new balance in it all.

As I am sitting here thinking about this season and what I am doing during it. The words to Psalm 139 come drifting through my thoughts. I will have to go and find what Psalm it is using my concordance. These words have been at some point hidden in my heart and God is bringing them up for me to remember in this moment. "Oh Lord you have searched me and you know me… You know when I sit and when I rise…You perceive my thoughts from afar."  Then I will go and find the rest of it and allow the Lord to speak to me through it. It is one of the ways God speaks to me in the quiet of the morning as I sit here in my favorite chair with my cup of coffee and a faithful dog by my side. 

God is saying to me through this that He knows my thoughts and my ways. I love verse four that says "Before a word is on my tongue you know it completely, Oh Lord." During my day He is stirring my thoughts as I drive here and there shuttling kids or running errands. I am thinking about devotional posts that I want to write. He knows my thoughts completely. He knows how He wired me and He knows all the stuff I think I have to do.  It is now later in the day and I am typing what I wrote in my note book earlier today while waiting for kids during piano lessons.  Thank you Lord for my new lap top - help me find the time to get it fully functional.

Verse five is a comfort to me in this busy season.  "You hem me in - behind and before; you have laid your hand upon me."  The Lord has set the boundaries for me. So in that moment as I read that verse. I think " Lord help me know what things to say yes to and what things to say no. Just because something comes my way does not necessarily mean that it is mine to take on. Help me to do the things that are mine to do and not do things that others are needing to step up and do.
My conversations with God run like this through out my day. I know today will be busy, Lord. Help me to not take on the added burden of worrying  about how I will manage it all. Lead me through it by your Holy Spirit. Help me not be so preoccupied by the busyness that I miss the people around me and in my day that you want me to touch.

I am hoping in this post to help you by opening up what some of my walk with the Lord looks like as I struggle with the busyness of my life currently. I hope it helps you and perhaps stirs your thoughts to how you may practice the presence of Jesus through out your day.

My prayer and conversation with God goes on: Lord I  know I am still on the leading edge of what you want me to do with this devotional. Its a massive step of faith for me to keep up with writing it daily. To believe that what you have put in me will build up your bride. My sense is that this project is far bigger than I even begin to understand. Who am I to know who it will touch and how it may effect some life. I hope it is like a stone tossed in a pond and the ripples go out far beyond anything I can begin to imagine. For me it is an act of faith and obedience, what God does with it is really not my job in this. So Lord, I leave the outcomes in peoples lives in your hands.

Then there are some things I see to be needs on the horizon and I talk to God about those. Lord, I could use people who would partner with me in this and be praying for me to write things that will help, inspire, challenge believers to grow deeper in their relationship with you.  People who would be praying for the people who are reading that their lives would be touched and changed.
Lord I could use people who would help spread the word about this devotional by using the buttons bellow the posts to pass it along to their friends.  I know this thing you are doing is far bigger than me, there are others who are supposed to help in ways at this point I can hardly imagine.

I allow myself to dream a little - Lord it would be so cool if there was a on-line prayer and encouragement area attached to the devotional site. With moderators and prayer warriors and encourager who would be there when people need some support. 
Lord there are resources and materials that I know I am supposed to create and make available here and on my coaching site. I know at some point the next big step of faith is to be ready to go out and speak. I think there is a new album of my songs that needs recorded. Lord I don't know how to get from where I am today to this bigger thing that I see glimpses of. I know you do and I will trust that you will lead me and order my steps according to your plan. That you will cause the others who you are calling to this to somehow find me and let me know they want to help.

Then I look at it all and I feel small and overwhelmed. Then the following verses come flooding into my mind and I am humbled, and grateful.

"He who began a good work in you is faithful to complete it."

"For I know the plans I have for you says the Lord, plans for good and not for evil. Plans to give you a hope and a future".

"For it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose." 

I know the Holy Spirit is with me. Step by step, moment by moment. I trust that God knows my strengths and my weakness. That He is able - and He will give me everything I need to do what He is calling me to do.

I hope my transparency helps you today.
Where do I go when life seems to be spinning out of control - to the feet of Jesus.
Where do I go when I feel discouraged - to the arms of Jesus.
Where do I go when I feel inadequate and small  - to Jesus
Jesus is my center. It is in his abiding presence that I find peace. It is in Him that I find the next step, that I find strength to carry on.
I hope if you get nothing else from my writing, that it will lead you to grab a hold of the hem of Jesus garment. That you will take the things you are facing to the feet of Jesus.  That you will be inspired to meet him there. It is from His abiding presence and that relationship that lasting fruit grows in our lives.   I hope you will make time in your day to meet with the lover of your soul.

Its now late at night and I need to set this to post. My day today was much better than the last few have been. I did not feel so stressed by the pace. God ordered my steps and helped me to get things done. I did not carry the weight of worry or the stress of the business. Step by step God was with me, loving and leading. The big difference was that I acknowleged that I needed His help.

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. 

E-mail folks - you need to click the blue title to go hear Hands and Feet

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.

Send Me Out

A Devotional by Margot Cioccio

Psalm 2:8 (NIV1984)  

Ask of me, and I will make the nations your inheritance, the ends of the earth your possession. 

If you are getting this in your e-mail you will need to click on the blue title to go to the site to see the video.

A year ago I was asked to do music for Vacation Bible School. Only they were not using a pre packaged, just add volunteers, VBS kit. My friend Mary Lou, who has a great heart for missions, had put together a mission focused week for the kids. So I was not handed a music book and cd to use with the kids. I had to pray and go search for songs that would work with a missions theme. There was no master list of great songs to use - so I had to dig a bit. I found some great rock songs by Audio Adrenaline, Fee and Hillsongs. I had to find a way to make them work for me and a guitar with no band and a bunch of kids.  The songs I chose were a big hit with both the leaders and the kids. They came up with motions to go with them, and they played rythem instruments along with me. Kind of scarry, but big fun if you are in the five to seven year old croud.  I am writing about it today because the process of finding and singing those songs over and over for a week changed me. 

God did not send me to Africa or the Middle East or to Mexico but he did send me out of my comfort zone of my nice safe suburban church into the inner city. There I have found the out casts of our society, the homeless, the broken, the invisible, the addicts. People who have lost hope and who often numb their pain and disapointment with drugs and alchol. 

The other day while I was quietly praying and journaling my husband comes in and tells me one of his wierd dreams. He tells me that in his dream I am the keeper of the creatures near the gates of hell. In the dream I am encouraging him to come and pet them. "See they are nice" I said. He responded "no way, they will sting me".  Needless to say I found the dream perplexing. In the midst of my quiet time while seeking the Lord my husband drops this on me. I asked him are you mad at me for something? He assured me that he was not and laughed it off as one of his crazy dreams.  I know from past experience that God speaks to him in dreams and so I have wrestled with what it might mean and why God allowed him to remember it to share with me. 

Today it started to make sense to me. The people from the streets that I befriend are a messy and at times scarry bunch. Change comes layer upon layer after they grow to trust you. We don't make them listen to a gospel presentation to get a meal. I've heard them say "How many time do you have to get saved to get a coat" They have heard the gospel but they have not often seen it lived before them. 

You have to be able to look beyond scruffy beards and smelly, ragged clothes and surley angry attitudes to discover the hurting lonely person beneath the layers of pain. They live thier lives cloaked in a type of horrible inviablilty - people pass them and turn away or quicken there steps in fear.  I don't know how it is that I have gained a heart for them. Its something that God has done in me. I have changed so much in the past year and I look at people now with eyes of hope. I have been trying to encourage other Christians to come and love these people. Jesus said "what ever you do for the least of these my brothers, you have done it unto me". I am learning to see Him in them. 

This past week one of the guys who has lived in our bushes died of natural causes in a near by alley. I will miss his stories of Sandpoint where he grew up. I will miss the gravely voiced songs he would sing to me. I can't remember a time that he sober, but I had some deep talks with him on various occasion. Did he ever turn to Jesus? I can say for sure. He felt safe on our property and some of us knew his name. I hope our kindess eased some of his pain and suffering. 

I know earlier this summer I struggled with compassion fatigue. My heart was growing calloused because change happens so slowly down here. There is so much need and so little help. The harvest is ripe but the workers are few. We resume our feeding ministry this coming Sunday. We had to take a month off - we were all exausted. I look at who Jesus reached out to and it was the lowly, the outcasts, the unwanted and the broken. I know he would be down here loving these people, but sadly few of his people hear him calling to come help. 

So my point today is that sometimes God speaks and confirms things for us through other people. My husbands dream helped me to see how very close to the gates of hell the Lord has called me to go. The result of my sitting at His feet was to hear Him say will you go into the darkness and reach out one last time to those who are tormented and chained in sin. Part of what He has called me to do is to try and help His people see that He is there at the very gates of hell reaching out to the perishing. Some of them respond others do not. In a room of 200 people we might have five sigifinant conversations. We have some wonderful stories to tell of lives touched and changed by the power of kindness, a hot meal, a listening ear, a caring heart. None of these things require one to be a spiritual giant. If I get hit with quesitons that are over my theological head I pass them on to my pastor. Its not that I am so great, I have just spent time at the feet of Jesus and His heart has rubbed off on me. 

There is an old Keith Green song called Jesus Commands Us To Go. I will print the lyrics for you. The first place Jesus is calling you to go - is to meet Him at his feet. To surrender your life to Him, to get to know Him and his heart.  At some point you will feel Him calling you to be His hands and feet. He will probably call you long before you feel ready - you will be a work in process but He will want you to touch others with his amazing love.  He says to ask him and he will give us the nations as an inheritance. I pray He will begin to give us hearts to care not only for the nations but for the hurting people all around us. He might be calling you to go across the street to share His love with your neighbor.  Its time to take that step of faith.

Jesus commands us to go, but we go the other way.
So He carries the burden alone,
While His children are busy at play, Feeling so called to stay.

Oh, how God grieves and believes that the world can't be saved,
Unless the ones He's appointed obeys,
His command and His stand for the world,
That He loved more than life.
Oh He died, and he cries out tonight.
Jesus commands us to go,
It should be the exception if we stay.
It's no wonder we're moving so slow,
When His church refuses to obey,
Feeling so called to stay.
Oh how God comes, as He starts the great judgment of fire,
So He can gain, His Greatest desire.
Cause He knows that the souls of the lost,
They can only be reached, through us,
We're His hands and His feet.
Jesus commands us to go,
It should be the exception if we stay.
It's no wonder we're moving so slow,
When God's children refuse to obey,
Feeling so called to stay.

The Beauty of Grace

A Devotional by Margot Cioccio

 

Philippians 1:18b -19 (NIV1984)

 Yes, and I will continue to rejoice,  

¹⁹ for I know that through your prayers 

and the help given by the Spirit of Jesus Christ, 

what has happened to me will turn out for my deliverance.

If you are getting this in your e-mail you will need to click the title link 

to go to my site and see the video of Be My Escape

^{I talk to so many people that seem to be struggling to make sense of the dificulties and hardships they have faced. "Where was God when that horrible thing happened?" They want to know God but they feel compelled to shake their fist and demand to know "why?"   I love the line from the song by Reliant K that say "And this life sentence that I'm serving, I admit that I'm every bit deserving, but the beauty of grace is that it makes life not fair." I've recorded the song because maybe you don't have teenagers who listen to the band Reliant K. My version is pretty tame - and my drummer husband will laugh because to quote another song "I wanna be a rock star but I don't got what it takes"  Actually I don't want to be a rock star but I do love to sing and share the songs that touch my heart.}  

^{I was mad at God for a while because my ex husband Ron (who is now a great friend) and I tried really hard to make it in the Christian music scene. We were writing songs, and traveling doing concerts, and leading worship all over the country. We would get so close and end up number two. Number two and runner up seemed to happen over and over again. We had so many people praying when our song Rise Up was being considered by Hosanna for an album title cut.}

^{I started to doubt that prayer worked for a while. How could so many people pray and we end up number two. The number two song did not get on the album. Perhaps we should have moved to Mobile Albama and kept pushing. We got to a point where it was pretty clear that God was blocking our advancement for some reason. I don't know why - it was not for lack of trying or for lack of people praying.} 

^{I got to a place later after many years of us leading worship every Sunday that I realized I had joined the "Dog and Pony Show" I could pull off a service that that might have fooled the people in the seats but God was not fooled. I had lost something, my heart had become broken and calloused and I was just going through the motions.  I had seen too many folks in ministry crash and burn and realized that I no longer wanted to be on the ministry platform unless my private devotional life before the Lord was like a gigantic iceberg and my public ministry was just the tip. I had no idea how to get there but that was my prayer to God at that time. I was done until I could find what I had lost.} 

^{Today was the first time I have sung on the platform in nearly two years and even then it was only briefly for special music before the sound man quit and I found myself running sound or power point. In reality it has been closer to four years that I have ministered before the Lord publicly from the platform in church.}

^{I realized today that God did answer my prayer.  In the past four years my personal relationship with the Lord has grown very deep and there is now an iceberg worth of time spent alone at His feet.  Today I could feel the Holy Spirit singing through me and I was not worried about the show, like I was in years past. I was able to connect deeply with the Lord and it felt like the flood gates of heaven opened up and streams of living water flowed out through me. I don't know what anyone else experienced but I connected with God in a way I have not in a very long time.} 

 ^{I don't talk about my past much, but I am coming to realize that the disapointments, the brokeness, the seeming failures, have molded and shaped me and they have driven me to the feet of Jesus. It is at His feet that I have found healing. I find myself so often now, ministering out of my brokenness. Most of it is healed but I can remember and I can relate in a way I would not be able to, had I not been broken and repaired. I have a lot of scars but they are beautiful to Him.  I am not sharing this to say "hey look at me" but to encourage you that God does block things in our lives for a reason.  He knows what we are ready to face. He knows the depth and strength of our reationship with Him. He knows the spiritual battle that goes along with various callings. He knows how to heal broken hearts and lives. He is the great recycler.} 

^{Whatever that "thing" is in your life, that "thing" you just can't seem to figure out. That "thing" that you are shaking your fist at God and demanding for Him to tell you why or to do it your way. Its time to surrender it to Him.  I love the verse today, it reminds me that if I turn things over to the Lord, He will take it all and make good out of it.} 

^{I encourage you to trust Him. Like that Reliant K line says "the beauty of grace is that it makes life not fair." We don't get what we deserve. Our sins deserve punishment and seperation from a Holy God. The beauty of grace is that Jesus took what we deserve - its not fair. He took everything so we could be restored to a right relationship with a Holy God.  When I start to feel sorry for myself, I remember that every blessing I have is far above and beyond the punishment for my sins that I deserve.  Its not fair that I am blessed and Jesus suffered in my place.} 

^{It moves me to find a heart of thankfulness, that reaches out to others so they may also expereince the depths and the beauty of His Grace.} 

^Prayer: 

^{Dear Lord, Help me to realize the beauty of your grace. Help me get out of my ruts and to deal with my complacency. Help to find at your feet the way to move from where I am today to where you want me to be in your plans and purposes for my life.}

 

Approaching God’s Throne with Confidence

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A Devotional by Margot Cioccio

Hebrews 4:16 (NIV1984)
Let us then approach the throne
of grace with confidence, 
so that we may receive mercy 
and find grace to help us
in our time of need.

I guess it is hard to have a relationship with the Lord if you can’t approach his throne of grace with confidence. I meet a lot of believers, who love the Lord, go to church and read their bible but lack confidence in their relationship with the Lord. For some they feel guilty for their less than perfect lives. Others struggle with spiritual self-esteem and feel like they are unimportant or unworthy to go to Gods throne room. Yet we are told in this verse to approach the throne of grace with confidence.
For some of you this is easy because you have fully accepted what Jesus has done on your behalf and realize it has nothing to do with personal merit. It has everything to do with Jesus.

God is both loving and just and he won’t fudge on either one. In His great love He made a way to satisfy both. In his love He sent Jesus to satisfy justice. Jesus steps in and takes on the
punishment we deserve. Ephesians 2:4-10 pretty much sums it up. 

“But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy,  made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved.  And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus,  in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus.  For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—  not by works, so that no one can boast.  For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

It is really important that you get this, otherwise you will spend your days trying to measure up as a Christian. You will think, "I don’t pray enough, I’m not kind enough, I don’t read my bible enough. I’m a failure as a Christian, I don’t know why God even puts up with me".   It is not about how good or bad you are. Your very best is filthy rags, compared to the holiness of God.  Grab ahold of this truth! Jesus has done it all and because of what He has done, you can, and you should, approach the throne of grace with confidence. Go there and talk to your heavenly Father. Tell him about your day where you struggle and where you shined for His glory. He loves to be with you and in His presence you will find grace to help in your time of need.  I love 2 Peter 1:3 in the Contemporary English Version.

We have everything we need to live a life that pleases God. It was all given to us by God’s own power, when we learned that he had invited us to share in his wonderful goodness.

It has all been done for us. The enemy wants to keep you busy beating yourself up, because he knows as long as you feel like a pitiful lowly worm you will avoid God. Accept what has been done for you and begin to get to know God, not as the hard task master who is going to zap you for messing up. You might as well get over the image of the weak old man because God is all powerful and while we may deserve to be zapped for our sin He has made a way for us to return to Him. It is because of Jesus that we can boldly go before God and have our relationship with Him restored.  I will end with this passage from A Snoodle’s Tale - it is my favorite Veggi Tale and should be required viewing for Christians.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A Snoodle's Tale is the 22nd episode in the VeggieTales animated series, released on November 2003 and May 2004 on both DVD and VHS formats. Subtitled "A Lesson in Self Worth", the episode focuses on teaching viewers that they are special in God's eyes, that they don't need to have extraordinary talents or resort to gimmicks to be worthy individuals.
SNOODLE 
“Are you saying that’s - me? I’d like to believe it, but, sir, I’m afraid to.”
STRANGER
“I know who you are,” ...He replied “for I made you.”
“I built the tower and set it in motion.
I planted the meadow - put fish in the ocean.
And I feed the finches, though most Snoodles doubt it,
Not one of them falls that I don’t know about it.”
“I’ve seen you fall down in the mud and the goo.
I’ve seen all you’ve done, and all you will do.
I gave you your pack, and your paints and your wings.
I chose them for you. They’re your special things.”
“The Snoodle-kazoo is so you can sing
About colors in Autumn or flowers in Spring.
I gave you your brushes in hopes that you’d see
How using them, you could make pictures for me.”
“Most of the Snoodles,” The old one said sadly,
“Just use their paints to make others feel badly.”

The young Snoodle pondered the things he’d been told.
Then wondering something, grew suddenly bold -
“But sir, if you made this incredible land,
Can’t you make Snoodles obey your command?”

The big one smiled warmly, then said to the small,
“A gift that’s demanded is no gift at all.”

With that the small Snoodle reached into his pack,
And pulled out the picture he’d made 10 miles back.
“They’re Far-lillies, sir, from over the bridge.”

The old one beamed bright and said,
“That’s for my fridge!”
I guess as an artist the idea of my art being on God's fridge makes me smile.
If you have not seen Veggi Tales in a while you might not remember how every episode ends-
but it is worth repeating.
"God made you special and He loves you very much"

Then I Heard The Voice of The Lord

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A Devotional by Margot Cioccio

Isaiah 6:7-8
7 With it he touched my mouth and said,
“See, this has touched your lips;
your guilt is taken away 
and your sin atoned for.”
8 Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying,
“Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?”
And I said, “Here am I. Send me!”

I think it is interesting that it is not until after Isaiah’s guilt is taken away and his sin is atoned for, that he is then able to hear what God is saying. As believers in Jesus our guilt is taken away and our sin is atoned for. As a result we should be able to hear His voice. Our personal relationship with the Lord should develop its own intimacy. How you connect with God may be different than how I connect with God. You should be connecting in some way and your relationship should be growing deeper.

If all I did when I talked with my husband was give him a list of things I wanted or was not happy about, we would not have much of a relationship. If I do all the talking in a friendship and never do any listening the relationship quickly becomes very one sided.  Our relationship with God should be more than a never ending list of things that we want or need Him to do. My encouragement in this post is to begin to actively listen to what He is speaking to your heart about ways you can more deeply connect with Him.

I think God is always speaking but we are not always listening. Hearing God and hearing others takes practice. I need to make time to be quiet before Him. I’m not saying you should empty your brain of thoughts and check it at the door.  If I am interested in what you have to say, I will keep my mind focused on what you are saying. I will not be thinking about what else I have to do, or who else I want to talk or even how I will respond to what you are saying. I will focus on what you are saying and do my best to hear what you are sharing. The focus is on you, not me in that moment. In our relationship with God our focus should not just be about us all the time, but about knowing Him more too. In our relationship with God He may be speaking through His word or in that still small voice or through a sunset. He knows how He wired you and He knows how to help you connect with him. How He relates to me may be different than how He will relate to you. He might speak to you through music, or inspire you to write, or to paint, or give you great insights. In our human relationships it takes time to figure out how to relate to one another. It takes time to discover the things we have in common and to understand one another’s differences. It takes time to know and be known. It takes time to figure those things out in your relationship with God too. As in any relationship if you don’t make time to be together and make an effort to know and be known by being open and honest the relationship does not grow. You soon wonder why you are drifting apart.

I love to write I can often feel God leading me as I write these posts. Quite often I start them not really knowing where they are going. The Lord guides and directs me, it is part of the relationship that we have developed. For thirty years I have been journaling my thoughts and listening for His thoughts. I write them down and see how they line up with His word. I don’t always get it all right, but I am trying to listen. The more I have practiced the more I have grown in knowing His voice. The more I have spent time in His Word the easier it is for me to hear Him and to know that the things I am hearing are lining up with His ways and His Word. He often speaks to me by leading me to just the right passage in His Word.  I have gotten used to the feel of His nudges.

You may hate writing and God may want to speak and relate to you in some other way. Sometimes He speaks to me in strong impressions filling me with His peace, faith or courage. Perhaps He speaks to you when you go for a walk and enjoy the beauty and wonder of His creation. Maybe you are musical and he puts songs in your heart or brings to mind a verse from a song you have heard. Experiment until you find ways you connect with God.  Trust that He does want to connect with you and will help you to find ways to grow in your relationship together.
 
Prayer
Dear God,
I want to know you, to know your voice and to be sensitive to the leading of your Holy Spirit. I want to share a deep abiding relationship with you. Help me make time to be with you so we can discover together, our special unique relationship.