Recognizable?

As believers in Christ, we are His ministers. Our lives are a testimony to who He is and what He has done for us and in us. When we interact with others, they should recognize attributes of Christ in us—His love, kindness, and compassion to name a few. We may be the only epistle from Christ they see (or read).

Clearly, you are a letter from Christ . . . This “letter” is written not with pen and ink, but with the Spirit of the living God. It is
carved not on tablets of stone, but on human hearts.
We are confident of all this because of our great trust
in God through Christ. It is not that we think we are qualified
to do anything on our own. Our qualification comes from God.
He has enabled us to be ministers of his new covenant.

2 Corinthians 3:3-6a, NLT

During a recent phone call, a friend of ours experienced a situation where he contacted a woman from his church to see if he could schedule a sales appointment with her. The lady he called hung up on him. The woman texted him a few days later to apologize. She felt terrible that she’d been rude. She explained that she’d had several robocalls already, and it was late. Since the call, her actions bothered her, and she wanted to tell him she was sorry. This is an example of a believer who admitted their mistake and was quick to seek forgiveness. We’re not perfect—we mess up, but we strive to be like Christ and fix our blunders.

Just as Paul spoke the words above to the Church at Corinth, we are living epistles or letters read and recognized by others. The Holy Spirit has written on our hearts Christ’s message of life and love. We have confidence in the Holy Spirit’s work in us because of our trust in God. Our sufficiency comes from Him. We cannot do anything on our own, but God qualifies us and has enabled us to be His ministers.

We don’t have to be called into a full-time ministry to be used by God. As His ministers, we can share His love in little ways as well as big. I’ve listed a few basic ways to show Christ’s love, kindness, and compassion to others in our daily lives.

  • Be a blessing to someone in need

  • Be a friend

  • Be quick to forgive and to seek forgiveness

  • Do our best for our employer and to those who we’ve made a commitment

  • Keep our word

  • Share a smile

  • Speak kindness to those we meet and to those we love

  • Write a note of encouragement

There are many more. Please list your thoughts in the comment section on how we can be recognizable as a letter from Christ in our daily lives. I believe the key is to do whatever we do for the Lord and for His glory.

And whatever you do or say, do it as a representative of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through him to God the Father.

Colossians 3:17, NLT

Photo by Kelly Sikkema - Unsplash

Prized Possession

I love God’s creation—His prized possession. Not only people, but the beautiful mountains, rivers, and yes, even the deserts. I enjoy seeing the many animals He created and love traveling and experiencing all He has made. My husband and I recently traveled to West Texas and made stops at the Natural Bridge Wildlife Ranch and Big Bend National Park. Our most recent excursion took us to Bosque Del Apache National Wildlife Refuge located in Central New Mexico.

The Natural Bridge Wildlife Ranch is in San Antonio. Their website boasts that they offer an African safari—Texas style. Over 500 animals and 40 species from around the world live on the ranch covering 450 acres. This was our second time to drive through and view the many animals from the safety of our vehicle.

Big Bend National Park consists of over 800,000 acres, including canyons, desert, mountains, forests, and the Rio Grande River. We only spent a day there and explored by car. We hope to return one day soon to hike and enjoy the outdoors. The Rio Grande at Santa Elena Canyon was our favorite site.

This was our second trip to Bosque Del Apache National Wildlife Refuge. This wildlife area of over 57,000 acres is a temporary home to water birds who spend their winters here. The refuge offers a 14-mile Scenic Drive around various lakes and marshland. We saw cranes, geese, ducks, herons, roadrunners, hawks, eagles, deer, and turtles.

What amazes me is that in all of God’s creation, all the beauty that surrounds us and all the creatures of the earth, nothing comes close to His love for us and our importance to Him. Although I stated above that God’s prized possession is His creation, more specifically we, His children, take first place with Him.

He chose to give birth to us by giving us his true word.
And we, out of all creation, became his prized possession.

James 1:18 (NLT)

On Guard

Be on guard. Stand firm in the faith. Be courageous.
Be strong. And do everything with love.

1 Corinthians 16:13-14 (NLT)

When I read the above verses this week, the words, “on guard” caught my attention. I recognized the expression as a fencing term. With limited knowledge of the sport, I looked up the term’s meaning. “En garde” is French for “on guard” and alerts fencers to take their positions for the bout (match) is about to begin.

In the verses above, Paul gave urgent advice to the church at Corinth as he closed his letter to them. He had just offered instruction on matters of morality and theology—problem areas within the church. He concluded his letter with Chapter 16 informing these new Christians to be on guard, stand firm in the faith, be courageous and strong, and to do everything with love.

I would imagine that the sport of fencing requires similar instructions. Fencers need to take their positions and be ready for the bout to begin. They need to stay alert, be aware of their opponent, take a firm stance, and have faith in their training. Courage and strength also sharpen their skills. I doubt they go after their opponent with love, but it’s a nice thought.

As I prepared for this blog post, God’s love for me moved me to tears. I am so fortunate to have His message available to me in written form to read whenever I choose. The Word of God is my lifeline during hard times and even when things are going well in my life. As I stay alert to His prompting, and aware of the enemy’s lies, I can reach out to others in love and confidence and allow God to use me. To have the Lord with me and leading me is a beautiful gift. I am so thankful.

I’m thankful, too, for Paul and his letter reminding us to be on guard—to stay alert and strong when those fencing bouts with the enemy occur. And to be aware of what’s happening around us including those in need of our love and kindness. We’re reminded to grow in our faith, courage, and strength. And do everything with love.

Thinking about fencing led me to my favorite movie—the 1995 BBC mini-series of Pride and Prejudice. I pulled up the fencing scene. Although they did not use “on guard,” Mr. Darcy states after his bout, “I shall conquer this. I shall.” He wasn’t talking about fencing. He referred to a personal battle he was facing. We can conquer our battles during our fencing bouts with our sword of the Spirit, the word of God.

Watching that tiny clip made it difficult to stop my DVD player to finish this blog post. Now that it’s posted, if you need me during the next five hours, you’ll find me in front of my television.

Blessings!

Photo by Eugene Lim - Unsplash

A Blemished Rose

In my debut novel, Only a Glimpse, roses play a significant part in Blake Conner’s life. Roses are dear to him because they were special to his wife who died a few years before my story takes place.

In an encounter between Keedryn Reynolds (my heroine) and Blake’s daughter, Allison, they discuss a painting in his office which was painted by his wife—a crystal vase filled with beautiful roses of various colors.

“The gifted artist captured intricate detail in each petal. The painting included one blemished rose. The rest were perfect.”

Keedryn asks Blake’s daughter about the painting, and Allison shares the story of the blemished rose and why her mom painted it that way.

“She’d say this rose represents us. Blemished. But God doesn’t notice. He’ll accept us as we are if we’ll come to Him. He’ll surround us with His beauty, goodness, and love and wash away our blemishes.”

Some may feel they need to clean up their lives before they can come to Christ. But if we believe and surrender our lives to Him, the Lord welcomes us to come just as we are. If we confess our sins and follow Him, He’ll wash away those sins, and embrace us with a new life—one of love, acceptance, and forgiveness.

But the Scriptures declare that we are all prisoners of sin, so we
receive God’s promise of freedom only by believing in Jesus Christ.
Galatians 3:22 (NLT)

But if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to
forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness.
1 John 1:9 (NLT)

Now repent of your sins and turn to God, so that
your sins may be wiped away.
Acts 3:19 (NLT)

Is there something in your life needing to be confessed? Do you feel you need to be perfect in order to live for Christ? Come to the Lord and allow Him to wash away your blemishes, and enter the beauty of His love, acceptance, and forgiveness.

Photo by Jeremy Bishop - Unsplash

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