Skip to main content

Tough Luck?

 

Google image

🍀Top o' the mornin' to ya!  What's the craic (What's going on)? I hope it's grand and no one's acting the maggot  (misbehaving) or it will be donkey's years (a long time) before it's deadly (excellent) again.   Erin go bragh (Ireland forever)!  

I love the Irish, Ireland and St. Patrick's Day.  But it turns out St. Patrick wasn't Irish at all.  I'm not sure how the holiday of drinking got attributed to him either.   And lucky? You decide...

He was born in Britain and was captured during a raid where his home was burned by Irishmen and he was taken to Ireland as a slave.  He found a deep faith while being imprisoned and had a vision of escape that he followed and made it back to Britain. 

🍀After several years of evangelizing in Britain, he believed through a vision that God was leading him to a ministry back to Ireland- back to his captors.  He made the hard choice to return with only a Bible in hand.  While being violently opposed by the superstitious Druids, he  successfully helped plant hundreds of churches with thousands of converts.  

🍀I don't think anyone would call that luck.  

What an incredible example of someone who became sold out for God, in spite of his horrible circumstances, and was obedient to his Lord.  He left a comfortable place and made himself available to the uncomfortable.  And the Lord left a legacy of believers in his trail- people whose lives were forever changed.  

🍀What's uncomfortable to us?  People who drain our time, attention, and pocketbooks?  Those who cause us inconvenience, change of schedule, steal our peaceful plan for the day? Or when our priorities are forced to shift and get deprioritized? Those who cause us to extend our talents, capabilities, actions?  

Life sure gets messy if any people are involved, because people are messy.  I am messy sometimes.  And sometimes my messiness gets transferred to other people.  

🍀This beautiful Irish hymn sums up the beauty God makes from the messes we give Him-


(click on image to listen)

The apostle Paul, along with every one of the disciples, trusted God for the outcome of their messy ministries.  The reward is eternal life with Jesus for their obedience and all of us who have read, believed and obeyed the Scriptures these disciples wrote for us.

🍀What seems like tough luck is true ministry.

✙ Dear Heavenly Father, thank You for the way You can orchestrate all the circumstances in our lives for our good and Your glory.  Please take our messy lives and make beautiful songs of praise to You. Help us to overcome our resistance to getting uncomfortable so we can help people come to know You as their Savior.  Amen.










Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

How to Fight Back the Darkness

  Crosswalk image Nothing makes Satan weak in the knees more than when we are on our knees."   ~ Skip Heitzig, Pastor Death.  Killing.  Violence.  What do we do with such heavy hearts in such a dark time? With the knot in our throats and the pit in our stomachs that are weighing on our souls?  When we look around us, nothing on this broken earth can fill our void of sadness and despair.   So we look up to the One who created all things and who alone has the power to bring light and help: "I lift up my eyes to the hills. From where does my help come? My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth.   What does help look like?  When does it come?  How much will we get?  Anger, confusion, bitterness, hostility, helplessness and fear overcome us in different ways and at different times.  We want reasons- we ask, "Why, Lord, why?" We instinctively want a reckoning- someone to pay for the injustice that has happened....
2 comments
Read more

Knocking on Heaven's Door

  "Earth has no sorrow that heaven cannot heal." ~ Troy Ramey, artist My mom knocked on heaven's door this week, and was let in.  She had lived 94 years on this earth- through the Great Depression, tragedy, and a host of health issues- but plodded on with feistiness and a sense of humor. My mourning wasn't the only woe being experienced this week- miscarriages, mental illness, broken family relationships, fear of uncertainty - all woes this broken world has handed out to people I love.  And the prince of this world loves to throw them at us relentlessly.  Lord, how do we endure? How do we fight back the tendency to grow tired of it and let it rob us of our  joy? We ask God to give us the fruit of self-control and guard our minds.    "Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable - if anything is excellent or praiseworthy - think about such things."...
2 comments
Read more

The Power of 4

"Mathematics is the language with which  God  has  ruled the universe." ~ Galileo . Go back with me to a quick math lesson recall from Geometry (stay with me, it's short I promise).    Straight logic, right?  Let's apply one of the principles our Almighty God, the great Mathematician who designed numbers and the universe and our minds, created.   (a) - He knew we would need advice, help and support on this earth, in this broken life. (b) -  He gave us His Holy Scriptures, His Word, that miraculously survived over the years, to guide us. (c) -   He gave us the Holy Spirit as our "advocate", to help us understand His Word. So, therefore, our support, guidance and help comes by way of the Holy Spirit guiding us as we read the Bible- the holy, inspired Word of God.  Isn't math awesome? Don't just take this from an 8th grade math teacher.  Even man-made institutes support the benefits of reading the bible frequently, conclud...
Post a Comment
Read more