In due time ...

I am not a farmer, but there is SO much to learn from them!   Correct me if I am wrong, friends, but I learned a farmer will use a land this way:  plowing, sowing, waiting and then harvesting.   Once in a while though, he will let the land rest, it can become overworked.

I believe that, as well as the farmers, we can relate to each one of those stages as we share Jesus with friends and family.  Sometimes I have made the mistake to overlook the last part: resting the land, giving it time ...

Visiting a city where we used to live I got the chance to have breakfast with a former neighbor.  During the time we lived close to her family, my husband and I presented the Gospel several times as we did life together.  Her life was pretty put together, both of them had nice jobs, several properties, nice kids, etc.  We truly loved them not only because of our desire of presenting Jesus, but because they ministered to us, helping us with our babies, sharing so many meals together, etc.

We have many times looked back and wondered:  what else could we have done?  They were always open to talk, but in a polite way explained their very Post-Modern view in life.

Having breakfast with her we learned lots of the latest chapters of their life more in details.  Her husband developed Parkinson desease, her Mom has Alzheimer's  desease, and her adult daughter  who lives with her is going though depression.   All depending on her for care and strength.

I asked her where she found strength.  During the conversation, in tears, for the first time she was open to talk receiving what I had to share with an open heart.  I was able to share about my own struggles and how I only find hope in God.  At the end of our conversation, Dwight downloaded, at her request, an app with daily messages from the Bible.

While in town I also was able to arrange for a Christian lady to apply for the job to care for her husband at home.   I am hoping this would work out and she would have a witness living in with them, blessing them each day with the presence of Jesus.

I have seen throughout the years that God uses our absence to speak to people.  They can get used to the fuzzy feeling of having Jesus around without having to commit.  When we are not around though, they realize they want that same presence in their lives.  Sooner or later, through experiences and trials, they will recognize the difference of the presence of Christ.

I write this praying that her heart will be blessed by the daily messages on her phone and that she will soon commit to Christ for He is the one from whom all our blessings flow.

Meanwhile, friends, wait patiently for the Master’s Arrival. You see farmers do this all the time, waiting for their valuable crops to mature, patiently letting the rain do its slow but sure work. Be patient like that. Stay steady and strong. The Master could arrive at any time.

James 5:7-8

Acts: tradition or freedom in Christ

Our house church has been studying Acts. It has been exciting to see our group reflected on what went on those days. BUT we all come from different backgrounds (cultural and religious) and it is very hard not to lean on what we already know by experience. On Acts 15 we are faced with the dilemma: tradition or Christ. Even though we know the right answer is, how often we fall on the same things from the past. They are not intrinsically wrong, they are just not vital or as important as we thought they were.

That is why I love our meetings, we are ourselves, we are a family. We do not burden each other with expectations that are not Biblical. If someone cannot come, we realize there must be a reason. If I have to meet with someone instead, it is understood I have a divine appointment and instead of receiving criticism, I know I can count on their prayers.

Now, it is hard not to put an unnecessary burden on each other, we have so much baggage we bring from past experiences!

My prayer is that we learn to live our freedom in Christ and act on it in relation to our brothers and sisters. Help me, God!

Blessed are the children ...

We just started a new venue to broad our influence where we live. I invited, for the first time, kids of friends to come to our home and participate on a child friendly Bible class. Because of where we live, I thought no one would buy into it. I was wrong. On Friday night 13 children gathered in our living room to sing, pray, play and do crafts around our theme:

JESUS, THE GOOD SHEPHERD.

I have to admit, it was different. I was tense for a moment. Here, it is a big responsibility to teach children without their parents consent. There I was, I had their avail, but I was so nervous … I wanted to do it right and that they would come back for the next meeting.

Everything went so well. Kids just loved it. It was a first time for most of them. They ate every word I said. They were so receptive! At the time for responses to the message, they all stood up by a picture of Jesus. They place the little sheep they had cut out by Jesus without thinking twice. In their minds, Jesus is the Good Shepherd. I am the little lost sheep. I need Him! That simple!

It made me think of all the adults we are trying to lead them to see it and they have so many but´s and why´s. Jesus’ words make so much sense in light of this experience:

“Blessed are the children for of such is the kingdom of heaven”

We must become like them!

AND … they loved it so much they are inviting new friends for the next meeting! The word is getting around at the school! PTL!

If you are in the frontline, expect to get hurt ...

Being in the frontline put us in a vulnerable position. We might just get hurt …

My husband writes:“We met P and R while living in the north, several years ago. Mara met R thru her gym class and then P and I got introduced. We hit it off great, he wanted to improve his English so away we went ... the four of us got together on many separate occasions. And C and I got together several times a month, to talk English, play pool, jog together, etc. One time while at their place, the subject of life and death came up, and we had a brilliant opportunity to share the gospel, the hope of Christ, the certainty of salvation, etc. And on other occasions I was able to share with P, one to one…
This past Monday I called P, out of the blue more or less, as I hadn't spoken to him for a while. They had moved to M, at least for the short term. He had a close cousin who was tragically killed in a car accident in December, and that had spun him a terrible vortex of depression. … I had a great time chatting with P, upon hearing of his depression I told him that we would be praying for him, he said that they had run into a local believer from an evangelical church there in M, I encouraged him to go to one of their meetings, etc…¨

Isn´t what we do all the time? Look for opportunities to share… but do we know is time is in our side? I have news, time isn’t…
My husband continues:“I didn't know that two days later that he would suffer a fatal heart attack ... he wasn't much over 40 ... if even that ...”

We are left hoping all we shared came together in God´s timing … the fact that Dwight called him out of the blue … it makes us think that God was pursuing him during his last moments ….

We are hurting not only because we loved and appreciated him as a good friend, but because we are uncertain about his eternity. One day we will know.

Meanwhile, God is telling each one of us to preach time and time again, as we do know what tomorrow brings.

I am glad I am not in charge!

It was Saturday night and my family went to the elevator in turns as there was no way all of us would fit, considering all the extra load of “stuff” we take for our house church. The meeting would be at one of our regular’s home on the next door building.

We had some songs to sing, some food, the advent wreath, candles, the guitar, kid’s activities with supplies, our Bibles, etc

Getting there we had plans to spend time around the wreath, sing and read the Bible, have some thought provoking questions and nice answers that would make all of us feel warm inside. This time of the year is so special and that was our plan for the event.

We get there and people are going crazy with food preparation. They had so much! It was sweet of them, but it took the focus from our time. We then started singing some songs that they brought from their Catholic church. Nice songs and we even knew some. Nothing like it was planned …

My husband started talking about last week’s focus. As the topic starts to penetrate our minds and hearts the last visitor family arrives. They then started kissing everyone, and the food started being served. Nothing like it was planned …

Almost like an instinct I admire in him so much, my husband starts the conversation again. This time the kids are in the back doing their Christmas crafts and reading portions of the Bible with my daughters. He starts talking about faith on the promised of God through Jesus, topic of the second week of Advent. It only started there, questions such as “Is God real?”, “Why does God allow suffering in the world?”, and statement such as “I am happy as an Atheist” brought a different dynamic to our meeting. Nothing like it was planned …

We had dessert and the kids wanted to present us a performance they had prepared in the back. It was about forgiving our friends when they wrong us. It had a good message but at times it was hard to get it with all the noise, disturbance and discussion among actors! We sat there for a while until we demand a last act! Nothing like it was planned …

We finished the meeting with an open end. We did not answer all the questions and not all questions were mentioned. It was midnight and we were tired. Strangely we walked home with joy our hearts. It was crazy at times but all that happened had a purpose. We were growing in knowledge of each other, as a family. People felt free to express their view and opinions. Kids felt part of it. The Word was preached. God was glorified!

When we meet as a family, do we ever plan every step of the way? No, we visit family with open hearts wanting to spend time together and sharing life’s experiences with each other. That was what happened. Did we plan exactly that way? No, but that is OK. I am glad I am not in charge! Our Father is in control!

A Broken Heart

Just lately, it seems that G. has brought many poeple on my way that have had very difficult situations in their lives.

We, as a family, are making an effort to get to know people in our circles of influence. For an extrovert, such as me, meeting people is fun! Getting to know their hobbies, what we have in commun, their backgrounds, etc ...

But not all is fun ... knowing people and actually showing you care means getting involved in their struggles, problems and many times to be heart broken over what they are going through!

I find myself experiencing this lately. One friend I met has breast cancer on her early 30's, one lost her husband on a contruction accident and the other on a traffic accident. Both are under 50!

I have been so sad knowing of their life struggles. I pray for oportunities to share about what matter to me the most but the HS will have to do His job first. They will have many questions about G. and how He relates to what is going on on their lives. It is a tough job but it is not my job, He has healed many and is ready to heal an open heart.

My p. is that one day, they will experience the freedom in C. I pray for you too, that is reading this blog post and is going through a similar circunstance. He will carry you through as you share their burden and love "them" into the Kingdom.

Scrapbooking

If you know me you know I am a scrapbooker. I just wish I had more time to devote to it, but you will hear it from any scrapbooker.

I started doing it to record the way Dwight and I met. It is such a cool love story that I wanted to keep all the detailes, including all the letters we exchanged, etc.

Then, with kids and family events, I saw it as a wonderful way to make those memories alive and even more beautiful.

It was with time that I realize what a wonderful tool it is in making friendships and sharing your faith and values with other ladies!

In Madrid, Spain, God brought a group of ladies to scrapbook together. I had many changes to share my faith, my biblical points of view on different aspects of life, and me!

Also, it becomes a support group. In this busy pace of life we all live, it is hard for anyone to find true friends, who know you, who cares about who you are and are interested in what you have to say.

I feel this kind of group offers this kind of support. Through their pictures, they share their most valued memories, they share who they are and we get to know each other really well.

We met once a week and in some of those morning, we never got to actually scrapbook. We shared so much over coffee that there was no time to work on the pictures! We had all kinds of circunstances. Some times it was just plain fun among girlsfriends. Other times it was not as light. We had one lady sharing family problems over tears. We had other one sharing about all the bitter memories she had when seing some of her baby/child pictures. And the list goes on ...

We also had two occasions in which a group came to do a workshop for them. There are many stablished churches there that have a scrapbook ministry and would love to come and help you with resources and their presence. Actually, many do not realize the impact they can have in a church start. Our experience shows that many, if not most churches start with ladies!

So, as you can see, I am an avid scrapbook lover!

Visit this article I wrote in my other blog about how I found out that "Scrapbooking is Biblical!" :

http://marasplace.blogspot.com/2005_05_01_marasplace_archive.html
Note you will have to scroll down on this page above to read the article!
Have a good week and get those pictures out of the shoe boxes!