A Witnessing Story

Matthew 18

Go ye therefore and teach all nations...

In line with our challenge last week to witness and share Christ with others, I have a story to tell.  Last year I was trying to make a bit of extra cash by selling books.  This was really prompted by my committment to get off the diet roller coaster and come to a point where I wanted to sell all of my diet books (photo on the blog).  One day I received an email from an Amazon customer who asked if I had mailed his diet book that he had purchased 2 weeks earlier.  I could not find an email confirming that the book had been sold.  I panicked, as I am a very committed book seller desiring good customer feedback, and checked all my inbox folders.  There tucked away, unread, was the confirmation that the book had been purchased yet never shipped.  I sent a long apology, sent it right away and gave him a credit for the book as an act of good business.  I received a phone call one week later from an elderly man saying that he received the book and thank you but that he also received a credit.  I explained that that was intentional as I was so sorry that I had missed sending it on time and didn't want him to be upset.  He laughed and said that if anyone really got mad over some simple oversight like that, then they don't have their perspectives right in life.  I laughed and agreed but told him I still wanted him to keep his money.

Later that week I received an envelope in the mail from Nevada with a small book of the Gospel of John and this letter:

My husband, Gordon, told me he called and talked to you about the book.  We do appreciate you sending the book to us.  We want to send this to you for your kindness.  I have a good little book for you.  I hope it makes your day.  I wrote the poem.  Gratefully, Linda Wilkins

Taped inside the gospel tract was this poem:

Open me and you will see

Glimpses of truth and eternity.

The best gift is from above,

God's Word shows us His love.

No matter what season it is:

Always time, we know He lives

In this book you can know

A friend whose love He will show

If you should not open this book

The dust on it for you to look.

Return me, someone will find

The treasure you missed, left behind!

A friend in Christ, Linda Wilkins

What a precious thing to receive from a stranger because of my oversight from sending my diet book!!  It encouraged me to not only keep leaving my tracts behind in public restrooms and handing them to check out clerks, but to see the example of an elderly Christian couple, whom I've never met and who live so far from me, taking the opportunity to share Christ with me was enough to spur me on to do the same.  May the habit take root in my life to spread Christ in ways both big and small!!

Praying for My Husband

Today for Monday Fast, I have been praying for my husband using Scripture based prayers from a bookmark that I received from TEACH magazine years ago.  It's for a 7 day prayer plan.

Day 1:  Pray that he might grow in all 12 descriptions of a man who will not be shaken as listed in Ps. 15.

Day 2:  Pray that the Lord might give him wisdom to lead his family physically, emotionally, mentally and spiritually.  Eph. 1:17-19

Day 3:  Pray that he might stand firm against the schemes of the devil and resist Satan in all circumstances.  Eph. 6:10-18, James 4:7

Day 4:  Pray that the Lord might protect him, guarding his course.  I Peter 1:5-8

Day 5:  Pray that he might be forever captivated by my love and be kept from strange women.  Prov. 5:18-19, Prov. 13:20

Day 6:  Pray that he might have a burden to see lost people come to know Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.  Matt. 28:19-20

Day 7:  Pray that he might learn to love as God has commanded.  I Cor. 13:4-7, Rom. 12:9-12, Eph. 5:25

Self-Discipline

One of my best friends started reading a book last week.  She said it was SO great and she knew I would love it, so she blessed me with a copy.  It arrived a few days ago and I am grabbing every moment I can to read it.  It's the perfect book for me and I love it already.  It's called Large Family Logistics:  The Art and Science of Managing the Large Family by Kim Brenneman.  There's several things I've been reading that I wanted to share with you without just printing the entire book on this blog.  One is the chapter on Self-Discipline:  It Starts with You.

Getting from goal to execution requires self-discipline.  Self-discipline is making yourself do something that you don't want to presently do.  John MacArthur says it this way, "Biblically, self-discipline may be summarized in one word:  obedience."  Our sin nature groans at this thought!  It is so easy to give in to the flesh and do what it wants to do right now.

Yet when we stop to consider the consequences, we really don't want what our flesh wants at the moment.  Chocolate fudge brownies with ice cream won't help us wear those clothes that used to fit.  Self-discipline means delaying gratification.  When we have a goal, we must delay the gratification for the instant fleshly thing in order to achieve the long-term reward and blessing.

Learning self-discipline starts with keeping our eyes constantly on the goal.  As Christian mothers, our goal is to be God's goal.  We first must be seeking His kingdom, and we do that by studying His will for our lives as Christian women.  We learn about kingdom living in the Bible and by praying for His help through the Holy Spirit.  The Holy Spirit is given to counsel us on where we need to put off the old man through repentance, and we must confess our sins and turn from them when we are convicted of wrong behavior.  Guided by God's Word and the Holy Spirit, we can overcome our weaknesses and live disciplined lives for Christ.

When we have God's Word in our minds and are sensitive to the Holy Spirit, we will gain control over our selfish fleshly desires.  We must not give in to our emotions but surrender them to God daily through a life of prayer.  God tells us to pray without ceasing for a reason.  It is hard to give in to temptation and pray at the same time!

Gaining self-control over emotions is found through the renewing of the mind.  When you hide God's Word in your heart, you will replace selfish thoughts with His thoughts.

Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.  Romans 12:2

That's some good stuff and I could keep going.  She talks about how memorizing Scripture helps to keep our emotions stable and keep our tongues in check.  It replaces good with bad thoughts.  This is what caused me to start Spur Girls:  the need for self-discipline with like-minded sisters in Christ.  These focus areas have been forming good habits in us, hopefully habits that will last.  How do we not become discouraged when we think of all the areas in our lives that are in need of self-discipline?  We take it one small step at a time.  We have been focusing on 4 areas for 3 months.  When these are habit, add another one.  Season your day with God's Word and lots of prayer and take small steps. 

May we all be more like Jesus in the example of self-discipline! 

Testimony of Fasting

^{Matthew 6:16-18}

¹⁶ “When you fast, do not look somber as the hypocrites do, for they disfigure their faces to show others they are fasting. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. ¹⁷ But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, ¹⁸ so that it will not be obvious to others that you are fasting, but only to your Father, who is unseen; and your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.

In the year 2000, we moved to Singapore and I met a lifelong close friend there.  She taught me and challenged me in many ways in my Christian walk and probably most areas were unbeknownst to her.  One way that she challenged me was in fasting. I had never fasted before, never considered fasting and never knew of anyone fasting personally.  She, as a young 20 something, fasted regularly.  The seed was planted in my heart to study more into the idea of Biblical fasting.  Fast forward about 5 years and I believe that the Holy Spirit laid it on my heart to commit to fasting weekly in prayers for my husband and children.  I was nervous and scared because I still had never fasted myself, so I went searching for a partner to commit to this with me.  I asked several girls, but like me, they were nervous of that kind of promise and were not ready to commit to such a thing.  Add to that, I was either nursing or pregnant during this time, and heaven forbid I deny myself food as we all know I was to be eating for 2 (hear my sarcasm??), and so I put it off.

Then January 2010, God brought this thought back to my mind as I pondered New Year's Resolutions, and thought of how I could help our family with the hard economic hit that was greatly affecting us.  I decided to just make the commitment and I started fasting on Mondays in prayer for my family.  That April was when I discovered The Lord's Table program and enrolled on line.  I read A Hunger for God by John Piper and further educated myself on fasting Biblically.  Mondays became something that I looked forward to, knowing my mind would be shifted off the focus of food and on to prayer and praise.  As I went through The Lord's Table, I chose their eating plan which involved a week long of fasting in various ways (juice fast, food fast, half portion fast).  It was a time of much learning, stretching and blessings for me.  As Phase 2 of The Lord's Table, My Man and I enrolled in their very challenging 30 day juice fast.  I was so challenged yet blessed with the Bible study that I went through daily as I learned even more to shift my focus off of food and satisfy my physical hunger and look to the Lord more for my daily nourishment.


When Phase 2 was complete, the holidays hit hard and I found myself with a metabolism that was out of whack a bit.  This was when My Man and I went to a nutritionist to help us get things back in order.  During that time, my Monday fasting was put on hold.  Here I am months later and have not gotten back into gear with fasting on Mondays for my family.  When the Lord put on my heart to challenge the Spur Girls to take a 24 hour fast this week, He also nudged me into remembering my promise to fast weekly for my family.  Beginning this week I am back on track, in hopes to not fall out again, for this lifetime commitment.


Fasting to me has become a time to begin my week in prayer and praise throughout my day as my hunger pains serve as reminders.  I used to set my watch to beep hourly to remind me to say a quick prayer.  Over time I got used to hearing the beep and never noticed it.  Hunger doesn't seem to have that affect on me.  It's much harder to overlook than a beep.

I feel that fasting has been too often overlooked in the Bible among modern day believers.  One of the reasons, I believe, is because we really don't like to deny ourselves anything, especially the pleasures of food.  Discomfort is temporal and the blessings are long-term.  Have you considered fasting occasionally?  regularly?  Would any of you pray about joining me in my lifelong commitment to weekly fasting for your family?  Be cautious about responding yes, because that will mean that you and I will have to be friends and accountability for life!!  Anyone game?

No Mas Limpiando

Thy Word is a lamp unto my feet

and a light unto my path.

 

This was the first week in several years that I started cleaning my whole house.  I know that makes most of you say "Poor thing! (sarcastically)" but having married a builder and having a lot of kids, we have a very large house.  When the 4th was born  and I was homeschooling full time, My sweet Man got me some house help.  I've had a lady clean my downstairs for the last several years and I do the upstairs with the kids.  It has been a huge blessing to me and I am so grateful for this bonus, not to mention it has increased my Spanish speaking ability by leaps and bounds.  :)  This month due to braces on my son, 3 in Christian school now and a pay cut in my husband's job, we cancelled the house cleaner.  I came up with a schedule for cleaning about 2 hours a day for myself since I'm only homeschooling a 1st grader.  I actually haven't minded it once I make the time for it.  The thing I have loved the most is listening to God's Word while I clean.  It has been a wonderful thing for me to hear the Words of the Lord over and over.  I think I've gone through the NT 4 times in the last month!  I'm so ready to find an OT that I can put on my phone to listen to.  I really don't have (or maybe don't make the time) to sit down and read the Bible for hours.  I think my task-oriented mind would be reading on one side and thinking of laundry, dirty dishes and supper preparations on the other. 

One of best ways that Spur Girls has helped me this summer has been to show me where I need to improve, and that was in my daily Bible reading.  It has spurred me to find creative ways that work for me and my schedule to fill my day with the Word of God.  It has proven to be such a blessing to me.  I don't do it for points but because it has become a blessing to me and a habit that I want to continue with.

How about ya'll?  Has Spur Girls helped you to kick into gear any new habits?  Have you lost weight this summer?  Have you rekindled a special love for God's Word?  I hope so!

Back on Track with Tracts

Philemon 1:4-6

I thank my God, making mention of you always in my prayers, hearing of your love and faith which you have toward the Lord Jesus and toward all the saints, that the sharing of your faith may become effective by the acknowledgment of every good thing which is in you in Christ Jesus.

About 4 years ago the Holy Spirit laid it on my heart to be more pro active in sharing my faith.  Being a stay at home mom who really stays at home the majority of every day, I didn't encounter non believers often.  Regardless of this, I still felt some guilt for not being more outspoken about my faith.  Some of these thoughts originated from my reading missionary biographies of very vocal Christians.  I had been through the seminar called Contagious Christian, encouraging believers to live out their faith and sprinkle conversation with things of the Lord in hopes that others will ask questions, but my desire was more than that.  It was apostle Paul-like boldness.

I shared this with a small group of friends with whom I am in an email group with and many of whom are missionaries.  One of them lives close by and scheduled for the 2 of us to meet with an older lady at her church who is very proactive in sharing her faith.  Our time with this Titus 2 woman was rich.  I wrote frantically on my notepad of all the ways over the years that she has shared her faith whenever possible and the fruit that she was able to see through her small efforts.  I was motivated, encouraged and ready to start.

I shared with my very young children that we were going to share Christ with others in whatever way we could.  I ordered tracts off the internet and decided that every person we had contact with was going to receive a tract from us and a prayer later as a family.

It was hard at first, I will be honest.  I felt embarrassment that I am ashamed to even admit.  We left tracts in every bathroom stall that we visited, and with 5 littles ones, I frequented every bathroom in Walmart, Kroger, Target, Dollar Tree...well, you get the picture.  We also handed the clerk a tract as they handed us our change at check out.  I would say, "We'd love for you to read this on your break."  It was a learning experience for my kids as we talked about how our family is a witness for the Lord...whether good or bad...because people watch their behavior.  We also handed out tracts to the helpers who took our groceries to the car as we tipped them.  Once we got into the car, we prayed together that they would read the tract and that the Lord would plant seeds in their heart for the gospel.

My children enjoyed doing this so much that they started asking me constantly if people knew the Lord and if they didn't then we must give them a tract.  It was high accountability to this not-so-bold Mama!!

Unfortunately our zeal and my memory to do this faded over time.  I still keep a stack of tracts in my purse but the majority of the time, I forget to hand them out.  I challenge each one of you to think of ways to share your faith more proactively.  Let's spur one another on to furthering the gospel in small ways as this.  I'm ready to get back on track with my tracts.  How will you hop on board??

The Big But

Isaiah 40: 28-31

Have you not known?

Have you not heard?

The everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth,

Neither faints nor is weary. 

His understanding is unsearchable.

He gives power to the weak, 

And to those who have no might He increases strength.

Even the youths shall faint and be weary.

And the young men shall utterly fall,

But those who wait on the Lord

Shall renew their strength;

They shall mount up with wings like eagles,

They shall run and not be weary,

They shall walk and not faint.

The last verse above is one we probably all know and love.  When I was a junior in college and serving as my class vice president, it was my job to come up with a theme for our school year and have class t-shirts made.  I chose this last verse from Isaiah 40 with the theme "Seek.  Serve.  Soar."  Our t-shirts had a circle with these words on them with eagle wings on the side.  I drove to the closest city to pick up the 100 t-shirts I had ordered and after having passed out about 1/3 of them, I happened to notice that the verse reference said Is. 40:30 instead of 40:31. I went to my room and quickly looked up verse 30.  It said, "Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall."  UGG!  How appropriate of college students, right?  Not exactly what I wanted written on our shirts with my great theme I had come up with.  The great news is that the passage doesn't end there with that downer.  Verse 31 starts with a big BUT (and not the kind we are trying to get rid of - tee hee).  It's RENEWAL, MOUNTING, SOURING, RUNNING and WALKING!!!  I am so thankful for that big BUT, aren't you?

My verse that I am memorizing is Isaiah 40:28 and 29 (If I can pull off 2 verses well this week.) because we all are so familiar with verse 41 - and now, thanks to a printing typo, I am familiar with verse 40 - but verse 28 and 29 are just as great.  I love using questions with my kids for emphasis on what I am instructing them.  "Don't you know you're a Fish kid and we don't behave that way?"  "Would you want others to treat you like that?"  "Do you know how happy that made Mommy feel when you helped your sibling just now?"  Jesus used questions too to make a point and teach and also reprimand.  I need to remember Who I serve as I grow faint and weary from the day in and day out affairs of motherhood.  I need to get an extra dose of that power in verse 29 that He gives freely to those who have no strength.  When I try to get that strength and power on my own, my joy goes out the window and I probably shove junk in my mouth as a result to self-gratify in attempts to falsely strengthen.

If I can get some creative juices flowing, I will try to make up a jingle to this verse so that they never leave my mind (I'm one of those with a rotten memory except remembering every word to every mindless song!)  So what verse are you memorizing this week and why did you choose it??