My Idea Of A Relationship!

I was lazy this week & didn’t post anything…  So I am making up for it now :)

I got this email today & I really enjoyed it. I figured I would share.

This is MY idea of a relationship with HIM!

 

MOM'S EMPTY CHAIR 

A woman's daughter had asked the local minister

to come and pray
with her mother.
When the minister arrived,

he found the woman
lying in bed with her head

propped up on two
pillows..
An empty chair sat beside her bed.
The minister assumed that the woman

had been informed
of his visit...
'I guess you were expecting me, he said.
'No, who are you?' said the mother.
The minister told her his name and then remarked,

'I saw the empty
chair and I figured you knew

I was going
to show up...'
'Oh yeah, the chair,' said the bedridden woman
'Would you mind closing the door?'
Puzzled, the minister shut the door.
'I have never told anyone this,

not even my daughter,'
said the woman.
'But all of my life I have never

known how to pray.

At church I used
to hear the pastor talk about prayer,

but it went right
over my head...'
I abandoned any attempt at prayer,'

the old woman continued,

until one day four
years ago, my best friend said to me,

' Prayer is
just a simple matter

of having a conversation
  with Jesus.

Here is what I suggest..

'Sit down in a chair;

place an empty chair
in front of you,
and in faith see Jesus on the chair.
It's not spooky because he promised,

'I will be with you
always'..
'Then just speak to him in the same way

you're doing with
me right now...'
'So, I tried it and I've liked it so much

that I do it a couple
of hours every day.

I'm careful though . If my daughter
saw me talking

to an empty chair,
she'd either have a nervous breakdown

or send me off to
the funny farm.'

The minister was deeply moved by the story and

encouraged the old
woman to continue on the journey.
Then he prayed with her, anointed her with oil,

and returned to the
church.
Two nights later the daughter called

to tell the minister
that her mama

had died that afternoon. 
Did she die in peace?' he asked.
Yes, when I left the house about two o'clock,

she called me over
to her bedside,

told me she loved
me and kissed me on the cheek.
When I got back from the store an hour later,

I found her .
But there was something strange about her death.

Apparently, just
before Mom died,

she leaned over and
rested her head on the chair

beside the bed. What
do you make of that?'
The minister wiped a tear from his eye and said,

'I wish we could
all go like that.'  

Ephesians 3:14-20  (New Century Version)

The Love of Christ

¹⁴ So I bow in prayer before the Father¹⁵ from whom every family in heaven and on earth gets its true name.¹⁶ I ask the Father in his great glory to give you the power to be strong inwardly through his Spirit.¹⁷ I pray that Christ will live in your hearts by faith and that your life will be strong in love and be built on love.¹⁸ And I pray that you and all God's holy people will have the power to understand the greatness of Christ's love—how wide and how long and how high and how deep that love is.¹⁹ Christ's love is greater than anyone can ever know, but I pray that you will be able to know that love. Then you can be filled with the fullness of God.

²⁰ With God's power working in us, God can do much, much more than anything we can ask or imagine.

Are WE Sitting In The Shadow Of Darkness?

I heard this message this morning & it was an awesome message so I really want to share the ‘jist’ of it!

Matthew 4:16 

“The people who sat in darkness have seen a great light,
And upon those who sat in the region and shadow of death
Light has sprung up.”

“The people sat in darkness” – The people settled & accepted the darkness because they KNEW NO BETTER!

THE WORLD ACCEPTS DARKNESS BECAUSE THEY KNOW NO BETTER!

Religion produces spiritual darkness – which produces moral darkness & the end result is separation from God = “spiritual death”. This is because all religion strives to reach God by their own good works instead by faith in the finished work of Jesus on the cross.

Most people think they are saved or ‘will go to heaven’ because of their religion.

Christianity is not about religion. It is about a MAN & a RELATIONSHIP WITH THAT MAN!

“Shadow of death” – it doesn’t say they sat ‘in death’. (there was hope) Also, you can’t have a shadow without the sun! (or The Son)

“A light sprung up” – Out of the shadow… comes The Son of God & “THEY SAW A GREAT LIGHT”

-The Greek word for ‘light’ is “phos” which means: underived and ABSOLUTE LIGHT!

The opposite of  complete darkness!

So when JESUS stepped on the scene there was a LIGHT that shined that they had never seen before!

It was a light that brought HEALING!

It was a light that brought LIFE!

It was a light that set the leaper FREE!

It was a light that brought Lazarus from the dead!

IT WAS & STILL IS THE

ONLY

LIGHT

THAT THE WORLD NEEDS TO SEE!

JESUS CHRIST!

 

What is relationship?

Hmmm...let's see here. We are surrounded in relationships, right? So this should be easy.

Here is a definition: 

re·la·tion·ship [ri-ley-shuhn-ship]
–noun
1.a connection, association, or involvement.
2.connection between persons by blood or by marriage.
3.an emotional or other connection between people: the relationship between teachers and students.
4.a sexual involvement; affair.

Here is another definition:

re·la·tion·ship (rĭ-lā'shən-shĭp')
-noun
1.The condition or fact of being related; connection or association.
2.Connection by blood or marriage; kinship.
3.A particular type of connection existing between people related to or having dealings with each other: 4.Romantic or sexual involvement.


So this is something we already knew, right? I think we forget something though. Our relationship with Jesus. Is this (above) the definition of OUR relationship with Jesus? Or do we claim to be something that we are not? Do we have a connection to Jesus? Are we involved with Him?

Take an earthly relationship. "Husband/wife" relationship. We are connected. We are involved. We love eachother. We speak regularly to eachother. We don't do anything to one another that would hurt feelings or make angry. We are not dishonest. We depend on eachother. We trust eachother. We think of them before ourselves. What if we didn't speak to our husbands or wives? Our relationship would crumble and eventually it would be gone. What if we did things that we knew would hurt eachother? How stable would our relationship be? What would happen to a relationship where one put himself before the other? This would not last long either.

Now. Do we have a relationship with Jesus? Do we treat our husbands better than we treat Jesus? Do we speak more to our husbands/wives/kids/parents more than we speak to Jesus? Do we put Jesus' wants before our own - or do we selfishly put OUR wants BEFORE Jesus? Do we depend on Him and trust Him? Do we live the way He told us to live? Or do we live the way WE WANT to?

Do we care enough to read the bible to find out what HE wants from us? Do we talk to Him in prayer every single day? Are we 'doers' of The Word? Do we KNOW HIM?

It bothers me to hear people throw out the word 'Christian' like it is just a lable. Like when you fill out a survey or application. Check the box that says you are 'white/caucasion' or 'african american' or 'christian'. I also think people just assume they are Christian because they "believe in God".

Christianity is a relationship with God and His son Jesus!! If the lawenforcers came to your house and arrested you for being a Christian - and then your day in court came. If you stood in front of the judge - would there be evidence of you being a Christian? Or would the judge throw out the case - because there was NO EVIDENCE of your 'so-called' "Christianity"?

Excuse Me, Are You Jesus?

An email I received:

“A few years ago a group of salesmen went to a regional sales convention in Chicago . They had assured their wives that they would be home in plenty of time for Friday night's dinner. In their rush, with tickets and briefcases, one of these salesmen inadvertently kicked over a table which held a display of apples. Apples flew everywhere. Without stopping or looking back, they all managed to reach the plane in time for their nearly-missed boarding.

ALL BUT ONE!!! He paused, took a deep breath , got in touch with his feelings, and experienced a twinge of compassion for the girl whose apple stand had been overturned.

He told his buddies to go on without him, waved good-bye, told one of them to call his wife when they arrived at their home destination and explain his taking a later flight. Then he returned to the terminal where the apples were all over the terminal floor.

He was glad he did.  The 16-year-old girl was totally blind! She was softly crying, tears running down her cheeks in frustration, and at the same time helplessly groping for her spilled produce as the crowd swirled about her; no one stopping and no one to care for her plight.

The salesman knelt on the floor with her, gathered up the apples, put them back on the table and helped organize her display. As he did this, he noticed that many of them had become battered and bruised; these he set aside in another basket.

When he had finished, he pulled out his wallet and said to the girl, 'Here, please take this $40 for the damage we did. Are you okay?' She nodded through her tears.. He continued on with, 'I hope we didn't spoil your day too badly.'

As the salesman started to walk away, the bewildered blind girl called out to him, 'Mister.....' He paused and turned to look back into those blind eyes. She continued, 'Are you Jesus?'

He stopped in mid-stride, and he wondered. Then slowly he made his way to catch the later flight with that question burning and bouncing about in his soul: 'Are you Jesus?”

Do people mistake you for Jesus? That's our destiny, is it not? To be so much like Jesus that people cannot tell the difference as we live and interact with a world that is blind to His love, life and grace.

If we claim to know Him, we should live, walk and act as He would. Knowing Him is more than simply quoting Scripture and going to church. It's actually living the Word as life unfolds day to day.

You are the apple of His eye even though we, too, have been bruised by a fall. He stopped what He was doing and picked up you and me on a hill called Calvary and paid in full for our damaged fruit.