GOD’S PENCIL

  Mother Teresa said of herself, “I am a little pencil in the hand of a writing God who is sending a love letter to the world.”
Her life is a model of sacrifice and service.  One of her favorite quotes was, “We cannot all do great things, but we can do small things with great love.”

  Let’s look briefly at her life: MOTHER TERESA, Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu, was born on August 26, 1910 in Macedonia.  After her father’s death, when she was 8 years old, her mother raised her as a Roman Catholic. At 12 years of age, she was convinced that she should commit herself to a religious life.  She left home at age 18 to join the Sisters of Loreto as a missionary. She never again saw her mother or sister.  She served in Calcutta for almost twenty years as a teacher in the  convent school and in 1944, she was appointed headmistress. Although she enjoyed her duties in the convent, she became increasingly disturbed by the poverty surrounding her in Calcutta.  She began her missionary work with the poor in 1948. Teresa wrote in her diary that her first year was filled with difficulties. She had no income and had to resort to begging for food and supplies. She believed that the Lord wanted her to learn the poverty of the cross.  In October of 1950, she started an organization that became known as “Missionaries of Charity.”  It began as a small order with 13 members in Calcutta. By 1997 it had gown in care for the needy: to more than 4,000 nuns running orphanages, centers for Aids, hospices, and charity faculties worldwide.  The care extended to refugees, the blind, disabled, aged, alcoholics, the poor and homeless, and victims of floods, epidemics and famine.   On March 13, 1997, she stepped down from the head of “Missionaries of Charity.”  She died on September 5, 1997.

  President Ronald Reagan presented Mother Teresa with the Presidential Medal of Freedom at a White House ceremony in 1985.  In 1990, a poll of Americans ranked her first in Gallup’s List of Most Widely Admired People of the 20th Century.  

  I don’t believe that Mother Teresa cared much for the accolades, honor, applause, given her in this world.  Her life witnessed to the truth that she wanted only to be used by God.  She was used by God, serving Him, being His pencil, writing His message of love to the needy.

  Isn’t that what every Christian is to be?  We are God’s hands, feet, personality to a lost and dying world. Read what the Apostles Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 5:17-20: “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is new creation; the old has gone, the new has come. All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: be reconciled to God.”  

That’s it, we Christians are to be God’s pencil writing His love letter to mankind. 

AMISH GRACE

  On October 2, 2006, at 10:30 a.m., Charles Carl Roberts entered a small one-room Amish school house in Nickel Mines, Pennsylvania, intending to rape the  young girls in attendance.  He dismissed the boys and the adults present and began tying up the girls. Alerted by a 911 call, the state police arrived on the scene within minutes. Roberts, realizing that he would be unable to complete his initial plan, lined up the girls on the floor and killed five of them. Hearing the shots the state troopers broke through the windows and witnessed Roberts turning the gun on himself.   

  The news of this tragic incident spread across the world.  But, what was even more shocking to many people was the fact that the families of the slain girls announced they had forgiven the killer.  They even made contact with the killer’s family to assure them that there was no ill will towards them. The Christianity that believers profess, but which the Amish actually practiced, left the world stunned.  A movie has been made about it, as well as a book written concerning “Amish Grace.”   For the Amish, forgiveness means that they deny themselves the right to revenge or to even hold a grudge.  They do not deny a wrong has taken place, but they give up the right to hurt the wrong doer in return.  The commitment to forgive is intricately woven into their lives and their community. They are a people who take the words of Jesus seriously.  Their nonviolent traditions have shaped their way of life.  Several members of the Amish community attended the killer’s funeral and set up a fund to help support his wife and children. 

  This is a true story that tugs at our hearts.  I ask myself, could I have been as forgiving?  Vengeance and hate would have been the more natural reaction.  Yet, we know that our Lord taught us to love and forgive.  “For we know Him who said, “Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,” says the Lord.  And again, “The Lord will judge His people.”   Hebrews 10:30   Only God can judge perfectly, because He knows the heart of man.  Forgiveness does not remove all the consequences of wrong doing.
Unforgiven man will pay for his sins.  Leave judgment up to God.

  The real issue is, how could God forgive sinful mankind?  “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while were still sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him.”   Romans 5: 8-9   Can you believe that?  We had better…that is our salvation.  Our hope is based on God’s love to forgive.  Oh, sin was paid for, as God laid on Jesus the iniquity of us all.  He bore our sins on Calvary.  In Jesus, we are forgiven.  The forgiven are to be the forgivers.

  Listen to the challenge to followers of Christ: “And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you.”  Ephesians 4:32

AM I A PHARISEE?

  The thought of the possibility of being a Pharisee is really disturbing.  The Pharisees were a politico-religious sect during the days of Jesus.  These were those laymen who separated themselves from the heathen.  Pharisaism became practically synonymous with Judaism. They devoted themselves to special study and strict observances of the Law of Moses.  Their works were performed to be seen and praised by men.  Jesus denounced them in the bitterest language.  He called them in such terms as:  “hypocrites, frauds, blind guides, brood of serpents, fools, washed tombs.” The Pharisees had no personal relationship with God. Their worship was merely formal religious observance.  They proudly quoted Scripture and strutted their own righteousness. 
Now, let me ask you the question again, “AM I A PHARISEE?”  Here is a simple summary posed by “Christ Life Ministries.”

  “You might be a Pharisee if…
Your memory is excellent when it comes to remembering your good works and other’s faults.
You routinely dismiss anyone who would dare to point out a ‘blind spot.’ 
You verbally challenge the people who disagree with you.
You rarely say, “I am wrong” or “I’m sorry.”
You find it difficult to fellowship with those different from yourself.
You build up yourself and your group by tearing others down.
You despise people who do not hold your convictions.
You excuse your arrogant behavior because you hold to “the correct position.”
You call your uncanny ability to catalog the faults of others “discernment.”
Your sense of self-importance blinds you to the fact of how repulsive you are to others.”
You feel the trail of broken relationships in your past is due to some fault in the other parties.
You visually and intellectually comply in order to gain acceptance and approval.
You are so caught up in your own circle that you will do anything to maintain your reputation.
You are dominated by the fear of men.
You are insulted by the notion you may be a Pharisee.”

  May we learn from Jesus, that true religion consists not in forms, outward observances but in an inward Spirit.  “If we have not the Spirit of Jesus, we are none of His.”  Jesus taught and modeled humility.
Perhaps you are reading this, looking for some kind of offense, looking for a rock to throw.  Your white robe might just be hiding a dirty heart.  Come clean from your Pharisaical attitude.

  I must ask myself, and it hurts, “AM I A PHARISEE?”

Garage Sale Grace

  I saw this title and article in Red Letter Believers blog, June 20, 2011 and I saved it thinking I would make a devotional out of it someday.  Now is the day to see what I can do with it.

  The author told of seeing in a garage sale, a dirty, rusted, completely unusable Underwood Typewriter.  I had such a manual typewriter.  With it, I typed my sermons, letters, Bible study material.  It worked well. It was a sturdy machine. But, what a change came when the electric typewriter was invented. It took me some time before I could get use to the speed and efficiency of the new typewriter.  It was not as easy as the old Underwood.       Now, back to the garage sale…

  What had happened?  This once glorious instrument was now nothing more than another piece of junk at a garage sale.  Broken, unusable, despised was this Underwood Typewriter buried in a pile of rubble. 
Three dollars, that was the price set on this machine.  Really, even that was too much for something completely disabled.   But, it was there to be rescued.  So, the purchase price was given and the Underwood Typewriter was carried home.  SAVED.

  I thought, we are much like that old Underwood Typewriter.  When we were new, first made, we really looked good and worked well. Over time, we began to change, time began to take a toll on us.  We made mistakes, sinned, and as we grew older, we didn’t get better.  Our worth decreased.
However, all the while our Maker God was trying to restore us, make us like new. To accomplish this, He extended His Grace.  Grace, His everything to us who deserved nothing. He offered His love in the gift of Himself in Jesus. He paid for us, redeemed us, bought us back out of ‘hock’ to the devil and sin.  We were a pawn to our own selfishness.  

“But God demonstrates His own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”  Romans 5:8

“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come.”  2 Corinthians 5:17

  You see what happened, like the old Underwood Typewriter, we were discarded, of no worth, but Jesus came into our lives and NOW, WE ARE MADE NEW AND OUR WORTH IS BECAUSE OF THE VALUE HE PUTS ON US. 

“Neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything; what counts is a new creation.”  Galatians 6:15