Aug 17th

A Season Of Stepping Down To Step Up

By Nancy Sheridan

A Season Of Stepping Down To Step Up
 August 17, 2010

In the past few years since Steve started deploying, I’ve felt the Lord nudge me to lay down outside responsibilities and positions. I was so involved with volunteering with the different ladies ministries at church and working part-time for a Christian therapist, that I really wished I didn’t have to step down and step out of all the serving and leading that I enjoyed. However, my children needed me to focus on them, and my husband needed me to be stable for him, so I did it as an act of faith and obedience, not as something I preferred.

I cannot even describe all the blessings my simple act of obedience has produced in my marriage, in my children and in myself. I finally gave myself, and God, the room to help me mature, find peace, and learn to enjoy all the different roles I already play in this life. God brought me through a tremendous faith ‘spurt’ and I trust Him so much more than I ever have. Sometimes I do wish I could commit to every small group, home group, bible class, event or volunteer  opportunity, because it’s fun, rewarding, and a way to love others; I do miss that at times.

Still, I know that God had to set me aside to strengthen me for the trials of facing deployment again and buffering the effects of having Daddy gone for the children. It’s a sobering responsibility, but one that is bearing much fruit. My children tell me that they feel loved by Daddy and that they miss him so much. They talk about all the great things that he did with them and that warms my heart. Now, I serve people by bringing a meal, or pampering someone in crisis, or just being a shoulder to cry on. Beyond working on my role as mother, I can do those things and pray, and somehow, it seems to be enough for now.

 
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Aug 12th

Why Is It Better To Obey Than To Sacrifice?

By Nancy Sheridan

Why is it better to obey than to sacrifice?

To obey is to do what God asks of us no matter what the consequences, to give Him our absolute best even when it hurts. To sacrifice is to hold out what is in our tightly clasped death grip as if it were something too precious to let go.

Take Abel, he obeyed God’s command with his heart and his deeds. He didn’t think twice about giving God his most valuable possessions. Cain, well, let’s just say he thought his sacrifice was worth a whole lot more than it was. Then, his true heart was revealed with its murderous intent.

With thirty years of harboring pain from childhood wounds, twelve years of strife in marriage because I wasn’t trusting God, and going on 3 1/2 years of deployments and separations with all the highs and lows, I’m done with holding murder (rage, anger, unforgiveness) in my heart. I thought what I was holding on to (pain, pride, hurt, offense, my comfort, my life) was worth more than obeying God in word and deed, and my faith suffered for it.

I would much rather obey than sacrifice now, because the difference that letting go makes is complete freedom and wholeness after years of anger and misery.

Wouldn’t you?

~Nancy

1 Samuel 15:21-23 (NIV)
21 The soldiers took sheep and cattle from the plunder, the best of what was devoted to God, in order to sacrifice them to the LORD your God at Gilgal.”
22 But Samuel replied: “Does the LORD delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in obeying the voice of the LORD ? To obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed is better than the fat of rams.
23 For rebellion is like the sin of divination, and arrogance like the evil of idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the LORD, he has rejected you as king.”

 
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Jan 22nd

Under Attack

By ArmyWife319

My children and I have recently had the privilege & blessing of spending several weeks with my cousins-in-law. Throughout the last two weeks or so of our stay, our twelve-year-old cousin, Josh, and I sort of battled it out between surprise attack tickling/wrestling matches (initiated by Josh) and ice fights (presumably where he would daily put large pieces of ice down my back at the most unexpected and inopportune moments!)

So, I began planning my counter attack. I just let the wheels turn, and gave no sign of what I was thinking. Once I came up with a plan, however, I did give him a simple warning: “I’ll get you back; don’t worry. It’s coming, and it will be good, and it will be unexpected.” Daily, Josh would ask me countless times what I was up to. He would smugly remind me, “You still haven’t gotten me yet”, but as the days wore on, I could see him relax, thinking I’d forgotten all about my plan for revenge. Little did he know…

I set my alarm for VERY early on my last morning there. When it went off, I got up and began filling a large pitcher full of very cold ice water. Josh’s parents, Cam & Marilyn, and his sister, Jessie, all knew what was coming (I’d asked their permission to do this ahead of time), so they got up with me (Apparently, Josh is quite the prankster, so they wanted to see him put in his place as well, haha). We snuck quietly into Josh’s dark room, and I tiptoed over to his bed where he was sleeping so soundly, bundled up in his nice, warm, cozy blanket. Jessie had the camera rolling, and Cam was in charge of the lights, so I pulled back the covers slightly, careful not to pull them all the way off ~ we didn’t want him to wake up too soon ~ and whispered, “Turn on the light”… Suddenly, the room was lit up, bright and almost blinding, when I ripped the rest of the covers back and doused Josh in the icy water! He awoke startled and screaming, scared and shocked, unsure of what was happening. It took him a minute or two to calm down, as Marilyn sat on the dry corner of his bed quietly telling him, “Josh, it’s ok. It’s us. We’re here” as he sat there trembling with teary eyes as he began to realize what had happened.

I realized something myself this morning… This is often how Satan works in our lives. See, Satan does not know all things as God does, so he has to use other methods to get to us. He observes us and he learns what and where our weaknesses are, as well as our strengths. He studies us as intricately as necessary, in order to figure out the best way to get at us… the best way to trip us up, and when he figures that out, he keeps at it, mercilessly trying to succeed in hindering, and even stopping, our walk with God.

Sometimes, he (Satan) will lash out as Josh did. He will plan surprise attacks that can come out of the blue, sometimes knocking us down, other times, we are able to fend them off fairly easily. Sometimes, we see them coming, or even if we don’t see them or know exactly when they’re coming, we are alert because we do know they could happen at any moment, so we keep our guard up and say, “Get thee behind me Satan” (Mark 8:33).

Then, there are those times when we let our guard down. We either haven’t been attacked much lately, or we’ve had no problem fending off the attacks, so we gradually become complacent, even proud or smug, in a way, and we forget that, at any moment, an attack could come and if we aren’t ready for it, we could lose the battle.

Though Josh and I were just playing a game, it’s just like my strategic early morning attack on him. It wasn’t that I’d forgotten about him; instead, I was waiting for the right moment to “attack”. I had to wait until he was not on guard, and would not be able to do any change-ups on me, possibly deterring my plan of action.

Satan does that same thing. Sometimes, he will step back, he will sit, and wait, and watch, allowing us to “recover”, thinking that we have “finally succeeded” in fending him off for good; he lets us think that we are so good that he couldn’t possibly get one over on us. He leaves things alone, allowing us to not only enjoy, but get used to, how good (by our standards) things are. He gives us just enough time to “forget” (or at least, put on the back burner) all of those little attacks from before… And as he waits, he is planning something major; something that will hopefully (in his eyes) shake us to our core. He will choose just the right moment, when we are complacent, unexpecting, and as unprepared as possible, and he will attack, without warning, without concern, without mercy. He will do whatever he can to leave us shaken, feeling helpless and unprotected, scared and alone.

But in those times, God is there. Even when we fall under attack, God is right there beside us. He knew ahead of time what was coming, even when we did not. In fact, just as I went to Cam and Marilyn for permission before launching my surprise attack on Josh, Satan must go to God for permission before he can do anything to us (i.e. Job 1). God “will never leave you or forsake you” (Hebrews  13:5), and just as Marilyn sat by Josh on his icy, wet bedside, God is by our side saying, “It’s ok, I’m right here.” It’s just a matter of listening to Him. You see, when those attacks come, we have a choice to make: we can either get caught up in the moment of the battle, and find ourselves lost in the minefield Satan has set before us, OR… we can choose to keep our eyes on Jesus. We can choose to “be still, and know that [He is] God” (Psalm 46:10). When the battle is raging around us, and we are disoriented, unsure of what to do, not knowing what is coming, or even, at times, what is happening all around us, and we feel completely shaken to our core, we can focus on that “still small voice” (I Kings 19:11-13). You see, as the battles ~ the winds and the rains, the earthquakes and fires ~ rage around us in our lives, God is there. He is not in those things, but He is in us, His children, and if we listen with our hearts, we will hear his “still small voice”, reminding us that “it’s ok” because He is there, and we are His.

I believe that many times, God allows Satan to attack us in our lives in order to bring us closer to Him (God). Sometimes, we get so caught up in everything else, that we forget about His “still small voice”, just as Josh didn’t hear my whisper in his room, and we tune it out… When we stop listening to God in the small ways, He uses/allows bigger things to get our attention. It’s like the refiner’s fire: sometimes, we have to go through the fire to burn away all that extra “stuff” that builds up, gradually blocking our view of God, separating us from Him, and His hand in our lives. In order to get rid of all the junk, all the little things that we hold on to that keep us from seeing Him and hinder us from walking with Him regularly, He has to allow it to be burned away. It’s not always easy or fun or pleasant; sometimes, it’s shocking, and painful, and hard. But in the end, it’s what is best for us because it puts us in our place ~ in the place and the condition that God wants us to be in.

So, the next time you find yourself under attack – expected or not – keep your focus on God. Remember that He will only allow these attacks if there is a good purpose for it. James 4:8 says, “Draw close to God and He will draw close to you”… take heed of that and draw yourself close to Christ Jesus, the King of Glory (Colossians), and let Him strengthen your faith. Let Him lead you to victory. Don’t forget that the war is already won; we are just making our way back across the battlefield, and Satan is there, throwing fits of anger and fury, refusing to accept The Truth.

But, "Blessed is the man who perseveres under trial, because when he has stood the test,

he will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love Him"... ~

James 1:12. I'm praying tonight for God's strength in overcoming the trials and

temptations that seem to crowd their way into our daily lives. May we choose to trust in

and rely on Him, Christ Jesus, the King of Glory, for He will see us through. He is there,

right beside us, just waiting for us to acknowledge Him and let Him lead us to victory.

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Nov 17th

Are you Philip, Andrew or 'the boy'?

By Claire
John 6:5-11 (NIV)
5When Jesus looked up and saw a great crowd coming toward him, he said to Philip, "Where shall we buy bread for these people to eat?" 6He asked this only to test him, for he already had in mind what he was going to do. 7Philip answered him, "Eight months' wages[a] would not buy enough bread for each one to have a bite!" 8Another of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, spoke up, 9"Here is a boy with five small barley loaves and two small fish, but how far will they go among so many?" 10Jesus said, "Have the people sit down." There was plenty of grass in that place, and the men sat down, about five thousand of them. 11Jesus then took the loaves, gave thanks, and distributed to those who were seated as much as they wanted. He did the same with the fish.

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I don't know about you, but when I read this passage I can empathize with Jesus' position. Have you ever hoped to just sit down and relax when all of a sudden a problem of mob proportions comes right at you? Isn't it always something ladies? The kids have the flu, deployment is coming soon, you need to move and the car breaks down - it seems at times that the demands of life can get the best of us. 
 
In the passage above we see our Lord just sitting down to celebrate the Passover feast with His disciples. He was a hunted man at this time and He would not allow one thing to happen outside of the sequence of events that His Father had ordained. Jesus had already performed incredible miracles and managed to become the #1 on the most wanted list by the authorities for His work on the Sabbath and equating Himself with God.  

We see in our passage Jesus sitting with His disciples after delivering the most profound Christological discourse in scripture (John 5). He certainly deserved a rest and some peace and quiet after all of that! He sits down and as he does so he looks and sees a crowd of around 5000 people approaching them.

Watch the Master at work and learn from His response! If you were to watch me you might see a frustrated woman who does not want to be bothered when she feels she deserves a good rest! 

At this point in Jesus' ministry, His disciples had already witnessed a great deal from the "Son of Man" they followed. He had turned water into wine in front of them, cleaned the temple of money changers, healed the blind, healed from a distance, and reached out to a Samaritan woman and changed her life forever, to name a few! He was not a stranger to them -- or was He?

Jesus turns to one of His beloved disciples, Philip and asks a pretty reasonable question. Scripture reveals to us that Jesus asked this question in order to test Philip. Christ simply wanted to know how much it would cost to feed the approaching crowd. Philip immediately does the math and tells the Lord the grim news. It's impossible.

Later in the book of John (Chpt. 14) Jesus asks Philip "Don't you know me, Philip? Even after I've been with you such a long time?" Philip was standing in the presence of God incarnate, but he relied on his own understanding of the problem at hand.  His skills as a mathematician caused him to be short sighted. 

Suddenly, Andrew chimes in with some resources to help out with the problem. Andrew found some resources. Sure, it wasn't barely enough for one man, but Andrew must have remembered what Jesus had done in the past. Andrew spoke up in faith. He knew that 5 small barley loaves (probably the size of rolls) and 2 small fish could not satisfy the crowd, but he knew in the hands of Jesus something good would happen. 

There is, however, one unsung hero in this story.  Andrew said to Jesus "Here is a boy with ..."  More than likely this little boy did not have much - this may have been his lunch or supper that he had been carrying. Regardless it was rightfully his, but he shared it. He gave the loaves to Jesus in order to perform the miracle. Jesus could have done the miracle without anything in His hands, but doesn't it say a lot that He took an offering from an unknown child to feed a multitude of men?

In Matthew 18:3 the disciples were asking Jesus who is the greatest in the Kingdom of heaven. Jesus provides them with an answer they probably were not expecting.: 

3And he said: "I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.

How do you respond when you are facing impossible odds? What is your answer when you are approached by a mob (or angry groups of tired and hungry children)? What do you do when you are being asked to do something that seems to big for you to do?

Do you respond like Philip and forget what the Lord has already done for you? Do you forget what He is capable of? Do you lack the faith to trust Him and rely on your own skills and understanding?

Do you respond like Andrew and offer the Lord some resources, but maybe you still are a little unsure of how He is going to pull it all off? Do you hand your life to Christ with reservations?

Do you respond like the child? Do you give the Lord all you have? Do you trust that He can take even the smallest amount of what you have to share and use it to build His kingdom? Are you content being known by your Savior even if your name is left out of the details? 

Father in Heaven, We praise you Lord as the Bread of Life. Your Word truly does sustain us, and we have been saved from spiritual starvation because You have so generously given us all that we need. You have even provided for us above and beyond our needs so that we can share the Bread with those who are dying from spiritual malnourishment and starvation. Father, help us today to be more like Your child. Help us to trust you with our lives, our decisions, our children, our homes, our husbands, and our resources. In Christ Jesus name I pray. Amen.
 
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