HE WEIGHED YOUR CROSS BEFORE HE STUCK YOUR NAME ON IT

If I were asked to give two words that best describe Life, I would say – change and challenge. These are two things that everyone regardless of their age, gender, race or religion will experience countless times during their life time. There is a 100% guarantee that everyone will experience life’s storms at some point or the other if they continue to have the breath of life in their nostrils. But have you ever felt like you’ve been dealt a heavier blow than anyone else alive?

I know that a fundamental requirement for any disciple of Christ is to pick up their cross daily, following the Master (Luke 9:23) but have there been seasons in your life that you felt you must have picked up the wrong cross? Have you ever found yourself asking God to cross check the name tag on the cross you were bearing because you were totally convinced the weight of that cross could not possibly be for people in your category? You know, like setting up a light weight boxer against a heavy weight champion?

When I was much younger, I had an ambition similar to that James and John (Mark 10:37). Mine wasn’t to sit at Jesus’ right or left in His coming kingdom ( I guess those positions must have been filled by now since people have been vying for them as far back as when Jesus walked this earth!!). I used to pray for trials because I wanted to be a saint! But as I grew older and started facing the storms of life, I returned to God and asked Him to delete those request I made as a child (my guess is the delete button is broken – you know what I mean?). I remember the days when I got beaten for attending church, the days when I came home to no food as my punishment for sneaking out of the house to attend church. I used to dance and rejoice like the apostles did the first time they when beaten with many strokes for preaching the gospel.

Therefore, in the present case I advise you: Leave these men alone! Let them go! For if their purpose or activity is of human origin, it will fail. But if it is from God, you will not be able to stop these men; you will only find yourselves fighting against God." His speech persuaded them. They called the apostles in and had them flogged. Then they ordered them not to speak in the name of Jesus, and let them go. The apostles left the Sanhedrin, rejoicing because they had been counted worthy of suffering disgrace for the Name (Acts 5:38-41 NIV)

It is easy to dance when your cross is ‘feather weight’. What do you do when your cross appears to be ‘heavy weight’? I have learnt to plead my case with God –

"Present your case," says the LORD. "Set forth your arguments," says Jacob's King. (Isaiah 41:21 NIV). But I do it the way Jesus did, I ask God to let the cup pass me by, but if I must drink of it, then let His will be done.

And he went a little further, and fell on his face, and prayed, saying, O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt. (Matthew 26:39 KJV)

The reason I do this is because I am aware that not every cross is my cross just as not every yoke or burden is the Lord’s. No one can run away from carrying a cross in life, if we do not pick up our cross, Satan will put his cross on us. The good news is for followers of Jesus, each person’s cross is custom made to fit the carrier. And His cross is like His yoke which is easy and His burden that is light. Crosses, yokes or burdens, light or heavy are no fun to our fallen nature. However, Jesus has never required us to do anything He did not set an example for us. He led by example. Each cross yoke or burden designed by God is aimed at bringing out the best in us. Life is an endurance race. Our endurance level determines the degree of authority that will be bestowed upon us here on earth and the rewards that will be awaiting us once we step out of time.

What is it about endurance? See what the bible says –
By your endurance you will save your life (Luke 21:19 GW)

Because you have kept my word about patient endurance, I will keep you from the hour of trial that is coming on the whole world, to try those who dwell on the earth (Rev 3:10 ESV)

More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope (Romans 5:3-4 ESV)

We see that endurance is a key ingredient for producing hope. In my opinion, hope in God is everything because it is the root that sustains faith, without which no one can please God.

Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; but those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint (Isaiah 40:30-31 NIV)

So endurance is the answer to a ‘heavy weight cross’.

Monday is the Memorial Day in the US, a day set aside to honor all who served and are still serving in all segments of the armed forces. A service was held today at our church in honor of the living and fallen heroes of this great nation. Our Senior Pastor gave gifts to everyone that has served in the armed forces in any capacity. They were all seated on the front row and everyone got a chance to shake their hands and thank them for their service to this country. One thing our pastor did that caught my attention was that he did not only thank them individually for their service, he also thanked them for submitting themselves to training!

As I watched that, the Holy Spirit bore witness to my spirit that in the same way our heavenly Father will reward us for every study, and training we undertake on earth that makes servicemen fit for use by God, (2 Timothy 2:15). It’s exciting to know that we are not just going to be rewarded for our services but also for our training (which sometimes comes disguised as trials, cross, yoke and burden)! I find this comforting because some people will spend most of their lives being trained and be used only in the last lap of their time on earth, but they will still be rewarded just as if they were in their assignment all the time. Remember the parable of the workers in the vineyard? (Matthew 20:1-15).

You may not be dancing over your cross but if you hang in there, with a decent attitude, you will get to your place of victory. For the joy that was set before Him, Jesus endured the cross (Hebrews 12:2). Sometimes, the weight and pain of the cross may cause you to stumble, but don’t give up. When I find myself in a place like that, I pray that God will send me my ‘Simon of Cyrene’ (Believe me, you will need one at some point), because I’ve come too far to back off, waited too long to give up, hung on too long to let go now. If I can’t run, I will walk, if that is impossible, I will crawl so long as I’m moving towards the finish line.

And they compelled a passerby, Simon of Cyrene, who was coming in from the country, the father of Alexander and Rufus, to carry his cross (Mark 15:21 ESV)

If you perceive you are ‘light weight’ and are carrying a ‘heavy weight’ cross, you might want to update your beliefs about yourself. God will never put a ‘heavy weight’ cross on a ‘light weight’ saint. He promised none belonging to Him will ever be tempted beyond what they can endure (1Corinthians 10:13). He weighed your cross before He put your name on it. If He put it on you, it’s because you’re worth it!

Stay the course!

With Love,

Angela

P.S
The Orofino Public Library will be hosting my book signing between 1.30 -3.30 pm on Tuesday 26th of May 2008. If you are in the area, do stop by. Will be looking forward to seeing you!

THANKFUL FOR ALL MOMS!

Today I want to pay tribute to a very special woman in my life – my mom! She is my hero, the most admirable woman in my entire world! Now don’t even begin to think that my mom is perfect or got it right all through my childhood. That’s very far from the truth. Below are some things that make her special;

• Though I’ve never heard my mom say “I love you” to any of her five children, I know, that I know, that I know that she loves every one of us with her entire being. How do I know this? By her actions and the sacrifices she has made over the years to give us the best life she could afford.
  
• Mom always said “I have no inheritance to leave behind for any of you, but I will pay the price to give you all the best education any child can get” She stayed true to her words.
  
• Mom was very strict. Right or wrong her ‘yes’ was yes and her ‘no’ was no. I had to learn to fast and pray at a young age to get my mom to change her mind. In retrospect, I’m grateful for her stability it made my world less confusing for me.
  
• Mom hardly bought us anything that was in ‘fashion’, which made me cry as I was always the odd one out among my peers. I thought mom was mean, but today I’m so thankful for her stand because it taught me that to be different does not make me less valuable. And my value is not in what I wear or what I possess but in who I am and who I can become.
  
• Mom was and still is a hard worker. She taught me that there is dignity in labor. I learnt that if I stayed focus, remained diligent and embrace excellence, every dream can come true.
• I always heard mom speak about her career goal – to reach the peak of the nursing profession before her retirement age. To do that she had to constantly improve her skills, sometimes she had to return to full time education. I saw mom struggle as a single parent, I saw her deal with the discrimination that came with being a single parent. But one thing mom never did was give up in the face of a storm. About three years ago, her dream came to past, she reached the pinnacle of her profession and retired a very happy woman last year.

Have you taken the time to count the things you are grateful to God for about your mom? It doesn’t matter how many negatives there were, if you look very closely, you’d find something to be grateful for.

When God gave us mothers, He gave the world an irreplaceable gift. Motherhood is not just about biologically producing children, it’s more than that. You don’t have to be a biological mom to be a mother to a person. The church is in dire need of mothers to birth children into the kingdom of God and even more to nurture the children that have been born to maturity.

How many people have you birthed into God’s kingdom? How many people are you proactively influencing for God?

This week, I celebrate not only my mom, but all the women out there transforming the world for Christ one life at a time. My praise goes out to the countless women who open up their hearts, arms and home to children whose moms cannot be there for them. For all that you do to put a smile on another child’s face, I want to say thank you! Great indeed is your reward in heaven!

With Love,
Angela

FEARFULLY AND WONDERFULLY MADE

At our women’s study group, we are currently reading Lisa Bevere’s book ‘Fight like a girl’. We’ve been having a blast reading that book. The book is centered on loving yourself for who God made you. Satan has been working very hard on our generation trying to get as many as he can confused about their gender and wanting to be something else. Have the saints helped him accomplish his goals? Yes, at least to some extent and mostly ignorantly.

Lisa reminded me of something I was taught in 9th grade – what makes one male or female? Is it just the hormones and the organs of the body? No, much more than that, it is our chromosomes, our genes! A male is one with an XY chromosome and a female is one with an XX chromosome. To the best of my knowledge there is no scientific procedure that can change that. Meaning you don’t become male or female simply by altering your organs and hormonal composition.

Why are some people deceived, thinking they are in the wrong body? It is partly because our society and culture has defined the characteristics of the male and female outside what the word of God says. E.g. the society defines males as aggressive, loves football, hates shopping, uses about 70% less words than the female, not emotional, must not cry, can’t stand cooking, not designed to do house chores, definitely not ‘touchy feely’, hates to give details of how his day went, designed to be stubborn, must be able to make all the decisions all the time, he is the boss at home, must have all the answers all the time, must be a handyman. Unfortunately, some in the body of Christ embraces and teach these as the definition of the males. I don’t see anywhere in the bible that defines the characteristics of the male as any of the above.

When God created human kind, He made them male and female (Genesis 1:27). God did not ‘mass produce’ mankind, we are all uniquely made. Even scientists have testified that no two people share the same finger prints. God did not create us and then decided a purpose for our lives rather He had a purpose for our lives before creating us. It is that specific purpose that determined whether we are going to be male or female, our biological parents, how long we’d live, the exact places we’d grow up and our personality types.


Your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be (Psalms 139:16 NIV)

"Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations." (Jeremiah 1:5 NIV)

From one man he made every nation of men that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live. God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us (Acts 17:26-27 NIV)

My husband and I always laugh when we read a book or watch a program on TV especially marriage seminars where the presenter defines the males with the attributes I listed above because it is not true of us and I can count several other males who don’t fit those description. When my husband gets into a shop, he wants to stay there all day. I am the type that goes to a shop, get what’s on my list and get out. When my husband talks about his day, he wants to tell you everything that happened. I am the opposite. My typical response to a ‘how was your day’ question is ‘Oh… it was ok’ and I’m done, I’m learning to talk more now because I know he wants to hear more. I love football and my husband does not care about it. My husband and I have so many things in common but I listed these differences to establish you are not male or female based on your likes, dislikes, or your personality type. God in His infinite mercy had to create men like my husband, for women like me and vice versa.

Words like ‘tomboy’ for girls and ‘sissy’ for boys are from the pits of hell, to mislead people into thinking something is wrong with them because they don’t fit into man made description of male and female. My suggestion will be to rid our vocabulary of those words. If a girl is determined, adventurous and likes getting things done, tell her so. If a boy is nurturing, tell him so and encourage them to discover why God designed them like that.

Our personality types – extroverts or introverts, adventurous or cautious, are gifts from God. We have the responsibility of learning how to manage our weaknesses so they don’t sabotage our strengths bearing in mind that we house these precious gifts in fragile earthen vessels (2 Corinthians 4:7)

If my husband and I were not secure in who we are in Christ, we’d probably think we are in the wrong body based the secular definition of the genders. I am the right mix of character traits for the call of God on my life and so are you. You are not a biological accident, you were fearfully and wonderfully made, designed to fit your destiny. Rejoice in who you are in Him – your joy is an act of worship unto God.

To your success!

With Love,
Angela