Leah Ness's Blog, page 10

Buried Treasure

 

I work part time in the children’s ministry at church and it’s been a big blessing these last few months. Not only do I enjoy working with the kids, but I’ve been privileged to meet many wonderful brothers and sisters in Christ.

My boss, for example, has such a passionate heart for evangelism. I love the way she talks, mentioning God and Scripture in nearly every sentence, bolding proclaiming the Gospel.

One of my coworkers has such a beautiful way of praying. Instead of using impressively long words, she just speaks directly to Jesus in a way that gives you the sense that He’s listening.

I’ve been comparing myself to these women, and the others I work with, and I keep coming up short.

It reminds me of one of the more well known parables in the Bible; the one with the servants and their talents found in Matt. 25:14-30. In it, a Master gives three of his servants some money to take care of while he’s away.

“To one he gave five talents, to another two, to another one, to each according to his ability.”

Matt.25:15

I often feel like that third servant, the one who was given a single talent, according to my abilities. I look at others around me and think, “Boy, are they being used mightily by God. He has a lot to work with when it comes to them.”

And honestly, part of me likes the idea of being trusted with only one talent. That way, if I mess it up, I really didn’t waste all that much. That way, I don’t feel guilty about burying it like the third servant did. After all, what’s one talent in the great scheme of things?

But last night, I discovered something interesting. According to Wikipedia, “The heavy common talent, used in New Testament times, was 58.9 kilograms (130 lb).”

Yep. 130lbs. Let’s assume it was a talent of gold, shall we? The current value of gold is $1,285.80 an ounce.

Suddenly, my safe and relatively inconsequential talent doesn’t seem so small. In fact, in today’s market, (assuming my math is correct) it’d be worth approximately $2,674,464.

Wow. I don’t know about you, but I’m suddenly feeling richly blessed and very well equipped.

The movie quote, “I am burdened with glorious purpose,” pops into my head as I consider the responsibility I’ve been entrusted with.

Of course, the work of the Kingdom doesn’t come down to dollars and cents. I’m merely presenting it in that form to make my point. Or rather, to echo Peter’s point:

“To those who have obtained like precious faith with us…as His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness…”

2 Peter 1:1b,3a

Peter said we have obtained ‘like’ faith with them, ‘them’ being the apostles. The NIV says, “a faith as precious as ours”! And verse 3 says we have been given all things.

Don’t fall into the trap of comparisons. This leads to envy and complacency. We convince ourselves that since we don’t have his charisma or her compassion, we aren’t fit to serve. That’s when we become tempted to bury our measly little talent in the sand, rather than lose it on a risky venture such as sharing it with those in need.

But it’s gonna take a lot of time and energy to bury $2.6 million in gold. Instead, make it multiply by investing it in God’s Kingdom. Let’s pour out our talents to bless others and touch the heart of God.

I’m gonna go grab my shovel and dig up my talent so I can use it for God’s glory. Who’s with me? 

Book Release

Well, today is the day, and despite the horror of formatting, ‘Ransomed’ is now available on SmashWords and Amazon!

Soon, it will also (hopefully) be available on Nook, Sony, etc, and in paperback. I will definitely let you guys know when that happens =)

 

 

Book Review: The Power of a Half Hour

The Bible warns us in Eph. 5:16 to be ‘wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil.’ But living in this ‘privileged’ age of technology, spending time meaningfully is becoming more and more difficult.

Almost all our spare time is eaten up by our favorite TV shows, facebook updates, pintrest goodies, and video games. Even during personal encounters, people are spending much of the visit sporadically checking their smart-phones.

Because I spend much of my workday on the computer, managing my time wisely and resisting these distractions is becoming more and more challenging.

That’s why I was drawn to Tommy Barnett’s book ‘The Power of a Half Hour.’

Though the primary focus of the book is time management, I felt like it all boiled down to priorities.

They say you can tell where a person’s heart is by looking at where they spend their money, and with online tools it’s easy enough to track purchases now a days. But what if we could track our spent time as easily as we track our expenses? What would our spent time tell others about where our hearts are?

One of my favorite lines from the book was “Time is the most significant nonrenewable resource at our disposal.” There is such truth in that, but it’s so hard to see in everyday life.

Pastor Barnett really uses his book to drive home the point that every minute counts, even the little half hours of free time that seem like such perfect slots for those facebook updates.

He goes through several important areas of life where time can be mismanaged and gives thoughtful, practical advice for redeeming the days, thirty minutes at a time.

There are helpful tips on how to deepen your relationship with God, build your character, strengthen your faith, improve your relationships, etc. And the book is chock-full of great stories and testimonies’ from Pastor Barnett’s life as well as the lives of his friends.

As I read the book, it made me feel very uncomfortable more than once. And I mean that in the best way possible! I felt the Holy Spirit nudge me over and over as Pastor Barnett outlined many ways we can use our time to love on others, glorify God, and invest in eternity.

I’m very tired of reaching the end of my day and knowing that, once again, I left no impact. I didn’t strike up a conversation with the cashier at Wal-mart to make sure she was having a good day. I didn’t bring my neighbor cookies and invite her to church. And I didn’t spend a half hour in prayer, talking to the Lover of my Soul.

With His help, the end of today will be different.

If you have the opportunity to read this book, I highly recommend that you do so. I promise it won’t be a waste of time!

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free through Blogging for Books. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commision’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

I Don’t Want to be Justified

As many of you read, I’m releasing my book in a little under two weeks. I am, therefore, spending a lot of time smoothing out details and trying to get everything perfect.

One of the first orders of business is the tagline. I have one that I almost like but it doesn’t sound quite right….

“What would you sacrifice for someone else’s freedom?”

I have issues with the ‘someone else’ bit and I couldn’t figure out why. So I posted the question to some fellow writers on google+ and most said it was too vague.

They wanted to know who this ‘someone else’ was. It’s a fair question. After all, shouldn’t we give more for a loved one than a stranger?

So I went about trying to find a descriptive noun to make both me and my readers happy. And that’s when it dawned on me: I don’t want description, I want justification.

My first thought when asked what I would give for ‘someone else’ is who this person is. Am I being asked to give $30 a month to free a child from poverty? Or a few minutes of my time to free that homeless person on the street from loneliness? Or is it going to cost me more than that?

We humans, Christians included, do this a lot. When the opportunity arises for us to give something up for the sake of someone else, we want to know why we should so we can find a good reason why we don’t really have to.

A perfect example of what I’m talking about can be found in Luke 10. Here, a lawyer is asking Jesus what he must do to enter the kingdom of heaven. Short answer: ‘Love the Lord with all your heart, soul, strength, and mind and love your neighbor as yourself.’

Look at the lawyer’s response in vs. 29:

But he, wanting to justify himself, said to Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”

We want to justify that voice inside that says, “Someone else will do it, you do enough,” or “Do you really have the time for that? After all, I think there are other things on your schedule that are more important.”

I’m a pretty good debater and I can talk myself into or out of almost anything. I can take even a vague command and find justification to disobey it.

But does a neighbor, a ‘someone else,’ really need to be anyone more than a fellow human being in order for me to sacrifice for them? Even if I lay down my life for a stranger, that doesn’t even come close to approaching the sacrifice Jesus made on my behalf.

In the end, I don’t want to be justified, I want to be blameless.

This, of course, doesn’t solve my dilemma over the tagline. It makes for a great self-teaching moment, but many people aren’t going to think about it deeply enough to ask the question, ‘does it matter who they are if I can help them?’

I’ll have to pray about it and see what I think the Lord wants me to say.

Meanwhile, I’m going to ask God to give me both the opportunities and desire to make sacrifices for ‘someone else.’ 

Exciting News!

After much prayer, research, and consideration, I have decided to self publish my novel Ransomed.

I spent the morning getting things together for a new cover design that I’m very excited about. Once the cover is completed, I will publish my book on amazon, Barnes & Nobles, Smashwords, etc.

My planned release date is Friday, March 28th.

Just to wet your appetites, here is a sneak-peek of the image I’ve chosen for the cover….

 

I want to thank everyone who’s been faithfully following this blog and encouraging and praying for me!

Lord willing, I’ll be able to share my book with you soon! I hope you enjoy it =)

Counting Fish

We’ve all heard the expression ‘count your blessings.’

If you’re anything like me, being told to do this will instantly fill you with contrition, gratitude, and contentment. For about five minutes.

We all know it’s true that we have been blessed and there’s always someone out there who has it worse than we do. But what does it mean to truly count blessings?

In John 21 we read about how Jesus appeared on the beach after His Resurrection. His disciples were out in a fishing boat but hadn’t caught anything. He told them to cast their nets on the other side and they soon caught too many fish to pull into the boat.

Because something similar had happened before (Luke 5:4), John turns to Peter and says, “It is the Lord!”

I can’t even imagine what must have gone through their minds at that point. Peter even jumped overboard, he was too excited to wait for the boat to dock. They must have been so overjoyed.

That’s why John 21:11a confuses me:

“Simon Peter went up and dragged the net to land, full of large fish, one hundred and fifty-three…”

I mean, who cares? Jesus is alive! He’s proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that He is the Son of God, and the disciples have their Teacher and Friend back! What a completely euphoric moment!

And they pause to count the fish? All 153 of them?

What’s that about?

Whenever I’m reminded to count my blessings, it’s inevitably during a period of drought and worry, when I need to be reminded of God’s faithfulness.

But often times we need a reminder of His faithfulness when the nets are full. Because if we don’t remember Who caught the fish, we start to think we did it and can do so again should the need arise.

Sometimes, if we don’t pause to count the fish, whether there are 153 of them or 2 fish and 5 loaves, we start to believe that we need to take care of ourselves, and we put our trust in manpower instead of God’s power.

That’s when feelings of fear, anxiety, discontentment, jealousy, worry, etc, rear their ugly heads, because our faith is in us and our own abilities. We lose gratitude for what we have because we figure we’ve earned it. Then we focus on earning more. 

In reality, the one thing we truly need, God’s love, can’t be earned. But when it’s freely given and freely receive, it will satisfy and fill us.

We need to remember that when we put our faith in Jesus, we will always be drinking from our saucer. That’s why it’s important to count: to prove to ourselves and others that His goodness will always, always, be enough.

Whether our testimony is that God fed us with 153 fish or that He fed us with 2, the bottom line is that He has fed us and we can trust Him to continue to do so.

Are you counting fish today? 

If You Had Been Here

I just read the account of Lazarus’s resurrection in John 11. There are two verses in the passage that I could chew on for a lifetime and never really fully grasp. This is a lesson that will challenge me until I go Home.

Here we have the story of three of Jesus’ friends who desperately need His help.

John 11:3 tells us that the message the sisters sent to Jesus was, “he whom You love is sick.” Though Jesus shows no partiality, clearly these are people who are precious to Him.

I’m sure that sending for Jesus was the first order of business. They had a deep, personal relationship with Jesus and every reason to expect Him to rush to their aid. I doubt if they were even that concerned in the beginning.

“Not to worry,” they must have said. “Jesus will be here any moment.”

But time dragged by and He didn’t show. They waited, anxiety intensifying along with their brother’s illness. I can picture them taking turns watching over their brother and watching for the Lord. Much like Elijah’s servant in 1 Kings 18:43.

I can just see Mary coming back to Lazarus’s bedside to tell Martha that Jesus still isn’t there. “Go back, look again.”

They reach the eleventh hour and still no sign of their beloved Jesus. Then, the unthinkable: they lose Lazarus.

After he’s dead and gone four days, after he’s already in the ground, that’s when Jesus comes. I don’t think either of the sisters were happy with Him. Mary didn’t even go see Him (John 11:20). This is the Mary who’d chosen the ‘one thing,’ but she’s too heartsick to sit at Jesus’ feet in that moment.

When she does go to Jesus, she echoes her sister’s sentiment; “If You had been here, my brother would not have died.” Can you hear the accusation? The confusion and pain?

They’re crying out to Jesus, saying, “Lord, you let me down.”

How many times do our own hearts entertain this thought?

Perhaps the unthinkable has happened to you too and you’ve lost a loved one. Or maybe you’ve felt the sting of an unanswered prayer in a different area of your life.

“Lord, if You had been here, the money wouldn’t have run out.”

“Lord, if You had been here, it would be my wedding day instead.”

“Lord, if You had been here, we would have a child by now.”

But look at the very beginning of John 11:

‘Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. So, when He heard that he was sick, He stayed two more days in the place where He was.’

John 11: 5-6

That doesn’t sound right. If He loved them, shouldn’t He have rushed to their side immediately? In fact, He didn’t even have to move. He could have healed Lazarus from where He was. He’d done it before.

So why, if He loved them, wouldn’t He help them? This doesn’t reconcile with our definition of love.

But we have to remember: God is the Author, the Creator of Love. And He had a plan to love them so much better than they could even imagine.

You can see from what Mary and Martha say to Jesus that they’re faith only reaches a certain point. They are set on the idea that the only deliverance in this situation was through healing Lazarus while he was still alive. Resurrection is not an option they take seriously.

They had God in a box.

“You weren’t here, You’ve come too late. You can’t fix this now.”

I know I’ve been guilty of saying this to God before.

God can fix anything. No situation is outside of His control. There are no lost causes where God is concerned.

His plan in Mary and Martha’s situation was that they would get to witness the glory of God.

Imagine what must have gone through their heads when they saw their brother walk out of that tomb. Imagine how loved they must have felt.

God has a resurrection planned for your situation. It might not look the way you expect. Maybe you won’t get that higher paying job, maybe your true love will marry someone else, maybe your family member won’t beat cancer… That does not mean that Jesus didn’t come.

He is right there with you through every circumstance and He has the outcome planned for your good. He has better plans for you than you have for yourself. Plans for a future and a hope. He knows your needs even before you ask for them. You can rest assured that He wants to give you the same blessing He gave to Martha, Mary, and Lazarus.

No matter what your situation is, His plan for you is Life and Resurrection. His plan is that you may witness His glory and feel His love.

Don’t tell Jesus that He’s arrived too late.

When God’s Goodness Runs Out

I just read the account of the golden calf in the book of Exodus and it was reminiscent of looking in a mirror.

If you’ve ever sat in a sermon about Exodus, you’ve probably heard that we modern day Christians are a lot like the Israelites were. I always had a hard time swallowing that.

I mean, look at the miracles they witnessed! The great deliverance the Lord worked for them! And then they turned around and rejected God in favor of a statue of a gold cow?

Nope, I never do anything like that.

What we sometimes fail to take into account are the cultural differences. Back then, the people were more honest. They wanted to rule their own lives and make their own laws. So they made gods for themselves and called them gods.

These days we make our own rules, but we call our gods things like Career, Academics, Social Status, anything that gives us the illusion of self-reliance.

Even Christians. How often do we pray for God to deliver us to the ‘I’ll take it from here’ point?

This ‘do-it-yourself-who-needs-God’ attitude stems from insecurity.

Look at what the Israelites said to Aaron in Exodus 32:1;

‘Now when the people saw that Moses delayed coming down from the mountain, the people gathered together to Aaron, and said to him, “Come, make us gods that shall go before us; for as for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.”’

How often do we decide to take matters into our own hands when we think God is ‘delaying’?

We stress and plan and break our backs at work to earn every penny we can all so we’ll have a cushion for the day when God eventually lets us down.

We worship the idols of Job and School and Status because we are anticipating the day when God removes our training wheels and leaves us to rise or fall without Him.

The Israelites didn’t believe in the goodness of God. So when Moses hadn’t come back in over a month, they decided to govern themselves. They would rather eke by, struggling against God the whole way, than trust that He is as good as He says He is.

I am so guilty of this. When I look ahead to the future, I’m careful to plan a contingency in which God’s plan for me isn’t all that great and I have to make stuff happen on my own.

It’s tax season; how many of us are tempted to fudge the numbers because they believe the future God has for them isn’t as good as the future they could get by moving that one little decimal? (*raises hand*)

I’ve written about this before, but I still find myself tripping up almost every day. I have to remind myself over and over again that God is good all the time. He’s not going to stay on the mountain and leave me. I don’t have to rely on idols. I don’t have to eke by.

God gave me a question a couple of weeks ago that has had me in a near constant state of challenge. The question has been popping up everywhere, ever since He first asked it. I’d like to take this opportunity to pass this challenge along:

Do your actions and your attitude prove that you believe in the goodness of God?

Or are you, like the Israelites, preparing for the day when His goodness runs out?

Getting Sifted

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: I love Peter. He is my very favorite disciple and of all the people I’m looking forward to meeting in heaven, he’s at the top of the list.

One of my favorite stories of Peter is when he denies Christ three times. I drink deeply of this story not because of what Peter did, but because of how Jesus loved.

When Jesus and His disciples participate in the Last Supper, Jesus tells Peter a test is coming.

And the Lord said, “Simon, Simon! Indeed, Satan has asked for you, that he may sift you as wheat. But I have prayed for you, that your faith should not fail; and when you have returned to Me, strengthen your brethren.”

Luke 22:31-32

Jesus tells Peter, “I’m praying for you.” Rom. 8:34 and Heb.7:25 both tell us that Jesus is interceding for us. He is going to the Father on our behalf.

It’s a great comfort to me to know that Jesus is praying for me. But if I got to choose the type of prayer, I think it would be more of a ‘live long and prosper’ prayer.

“But I have prayed for you, that your faith should not fail.”

If I were in Peter’s place and I’d just found out that satan was asking about me, I think I would prefer that Jesus say, “I have prayed for you, that satan may not touch you,” or “that satan would leave you alone.” After all, the best battle is one you don’t have to fight, right?

But Jesus doesn’t pray that Peter be totally delivered from his coming trial. Why? So that he can “strengthen his brethren.”

Imagine what it must have felt like to mess up as badly as Peter did. The Scriptures say he ‘wept bitterly.’ Imagine the tears that fall because you just saw the look of hurt on your Savior’s face, and you know you put it there.

Then imagine the feeling of total grace. Think about how it must have felt for Peter, when he saw the Lord again and knew he was forgiven. What an awesome gift.

Fast forward a bit and picture Peter ministering to someone who thinks they are too far gone for Jesus’ love. Peter would have responded, “You think that’s bad. Wait till I tell you what I did.” The Bible says those who are forgiven much, love much.

No matter how hard we try, we’re all going to fall short. We’re all in need of that grace. And when we can have a brother or sister come up to us and say, “I’ve been there. God’s grace is sufficient,” it comes as a tremendous encouragement to us.

My favorite bit: “When you have returned to Me.”

Jesus doesn’t say ‘if,’ He says ‘when.’

Jesus is telling Peter, “I am praying for you. Your faith will not fail. When you return to Me…”

He’s not telling Peter that if he tries really hard he might make it to the other side. No. He’s assuring him that there is another side.

When you have won this battle… When this trial ends… When you’ve passed the test…

We are already more than conquerors through Christ Who loves us. Our hope is secure in Him. He has already won the war.

We don’t have the promise that trials will never come, or that we will pass each test with flying colors. Peter didn’t, and look how mightily he was used by God.

“In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.”

John 16:33b

There are hard times right around everyone’s corner. But take heart. Jesus is praying for you, and when the battle is over, when you stand before the Lord in eternity… that’s when you’ll know it was worth every faith strengthening second. 

Assistance Requested

We’ve all heard the story. A man and his wife are going on a road trip and he knows a shortcut. Next thing they know, she’s telling him to ask for directions and he’s refusing. This cliché has been used so often it’s become a male trademark.

My husband assured me that this is the way most men are. They like to tinker, he says, figure stuff out on their own. They don’t like to ask for help.

I know many women will be rolling their eyes and nodding their heads at this, but… let’s be honest with ourselves, ladies. Most of us are just as bad when it comes to admitting we need help. Especially moms.

The need to prove ourselves and not be thought of as incompetent is a gender neutral trait. For many of us, saying we need help with something is like confessing that we don’t quite measure up.

Just the other day I was trying to make my husband breakfast and ran out of hands. He didn’t mind helping at all, but boy did I mind needing it.

Then I read Exodus 18:23:

“If you do this thing, and God so commands you, then you will be able to endure, and all this people will also go to their place in peace.”

At first glance, that sounds like a call to arms, doesn’t it? People need you! You can endure! Pull yourself up and get it done!

But this verse tells a different story when placed in proper context.

Exodus 18 tells about how Moses’s father-in-law came round for a visit and offered some advice. He saw that Moses was sitting with the people every day to listen to and judge their disputes. Moses was getting worn out and wasn’t even able to help all the people.

His father-in-law basically told him to knock it off and ask for help. He told Moses he would get burned out by trying to do everything himself and that he needed to appoint leaders under him to help govern the people.

So it will be easier for you, for they will bear the burden with you.

Ex. 18:22b

The ‘thing’ Moses was commanded to do in verse 23 was to ask for help.

Now, I’ve known people who take asking for things way too far. We shouldn’t use this as an excuse to do less than our best and get lazy. We should, however, obey God’s command to let go of some blood-sweat-and-tears pride and let Him help.

It was for this reason that He gave us the Sabbath. In Mark 2:27 Jesus tells us that the Sabbath was made for man. And God was the one who ordered all the holidays and celebrations in the Jewish culture.

He doesn’t want us killing ourselves to try and impress Him or other or ourselves or whomever. He has scheduled us break-times.

Take a look at your To Do List. Even if every item on there is for the purpose of furthering the Kingdom, if there’s no room for rest and spending time with the Lord, it’s time to re-prioritize.

David Wilkerson once said, “God cares more about saving all of you, than He does about you saving all the world.” (slightly paraphrased)

It’s true. You are important to God. He loves you and longs to help you. He wants you for a child, not a slave.

All of us have bitten off more than we can chew before, and we’ll probably do it again. Trying to do everything by ourselves won’t benefit anyone. God wants to help, and He’s put other people in our lives to help, too.

So cut yourself a little slack. Take a break and enjoy the Lord for a few minutes. Rest in Him and let Him carry your extra workload. He’s here to help, if you let Him.