Hating the Holy - Martin Wiles

Don’t give pearls to swine! They will trample the pearls, then turn and attack you. Matthew 7:6 NLT

As far as he knew, he was the only Christian in his office.

John was fresh out of college and had just taken a promising job in his hometown. Not ashamed that he was a believer, he quickly decorated his small cubicle with Christian décor. Imagine his surprise when his boss approached him and told him to remove it. The excitement over his new opportunity soon digressed as the antagonism against him progressed. The actions and words of his co-workers demonstrated they hated the holy. He stayed, though, and continued to cast pearls before them.

I’ve owned a few hogs in my lifetime. They are avid eaters and cared for nothing except food and slop to eat, dirt to root in, and a mud hole to wallow in. Had I thrown anything of value in the pen along with their food, they would have trampled it. Trying to give them what they didn’t care about would have wasted my time.

Jesus wasn’t giving a command to pig farmers. Nor was he teaching we shouldn’t share with those who are unreceptive. Instead, he warned about what to expect when we toss the gospel to those who aren’t interested . . . to those content with their evil ways.

Selfishness and contentment with filth are in a hog’s nature. But there is good in the hog when the dirt is washed away—everything, in fact, some say, except the squeal.

Changing a hog’s nature is almost impossible. Changing ours is impossible, too. Like the hog, we’re quite content to wallow in the filth of sin and disobedience. I, too, have cast pearls before some people who had no interest.

God, however, can give anyone a new nature—a nature that loves pearls and all things holy . . . a heart that drives us toward obedience to God’s commands rather than mud.

Wisdom is necessary to know where to cast our pearls. While everyone needs to hear about God’s love, allowing God to guide us helps us throw them where they will reap the most results.

If God has changed your hate for the holy, how can you cast that same pearl before others?

Father, give us wisdom to cast the pearl of the gospel where it will garner the most fruit. 

Tweetable: Do you love the holy? 

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Seeds That Grow - Karen Huffaker

This seed grew and produced a crop that was a hundred times as much as had been planted! Luke 8:8 NLT

The year I tried my hand at vegetable gardening proved a learning experience and a step out of character for this city girl. But I was after seeds that grow.

The soil was primarily hard red clay and challenged me. In fact, my neighbor broke his garden tiller on the rocky ground as he plowed up a small garden spot for me.

Despite the early challenges, I rolled up my sleeves and continued with my new project, planting various vegetables. The tomatoes and peppers didn’t make it. The okra grew, but yielded only a small crop. The two small watermelons were a fun surprise–I didn’t even realize I planted those.

But the crop that grew abundantly was cucumbers. Apparently, cucumbers are hearty plants. The dirt was fertile for them, with just the right balance of nutrients. It seemed we were well on our way to producing a hundred times as much as I planted, both in quantity and size. Unfortunately, I don’t like them, but I did enjoy sharing my little harvest with the neighbors.

As we treasure and keep scriptures in our hearts, they are nourished to grow and produce a harvest of love, faith, and belief in Jesus to share with others. At times, the witness of our faith will fall on rocky soil or wither and die if hearts are hard and ears are closed. But at other times, the seeds of God’s Word take root and grow in fertile soil, and others will accept Jesus as their Savior and Lord.

Whether planting seeds of love, truth, hope, or faith, we can sow the seeds and look to God to produce a bountiful harvest.

What kinds of seeds are you planting?

Tweetable: Are you planting seeds that grow? 

Karen Huffaker is a freelance Christian writer. She has taught children’s Sunday school and single mom’s Bible studies and written poetry. She is from the Deep South and loves reading Christian books, devotionals, genealogy adventures, fishing, and all things family. She is also passionate about her grandchildren’s sporting events. 

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Meandering Monday - Keeper of the Memories - Martin Wiles

Welcome to Meandering Monday, where we take a trip back to an earlier post and enjoy it again.

You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. Deuteronomy 6:7 NKJV

I was the keeper of the memories.

I’ve never had to keep the family memories before. Sure, I knew them—and even helped with a family genealogical book—but most of my relatives were strangers to me. My immediate family was the only ones I had built memories with. Those memories I didn’t have to worry about forgetting because I had patriarchs and matriarchs to help me recall.

Then, it happened. One by one, family members began dying. Now only my mother remains. When she’s gone, I’m next in line. Since her memory is fading, I try to ask her everything I might want to know about the family. Hopefully, someone in the family will keep the memories alive when I’m gone as well.

Early in his history with the Israelites, God instructed them to keep the memories alive. Not family memories necessarily, but commandment memories. The only way their children and grandchildren would know God’s commands was if the parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents talked about them continuously. Regardless of where they were, they should let God’s mandates be on their lips.

The only way to move items from short into the long-term memory bank is through memorization and continual use. I memorized multiplication tables as a middle schooler and have used them all my life. I don’t have to think about what eight times six is. I’ve calculated it so many times the answer comes naturally.

So do God’s commands. I’ve known them since I was able to comprehend them. My parents engrafted them into my mind through various teaching methods. I did the same with my children. Hopefully, they will do the same with theirs.

We can force salvation and godliness on family members, but we can offer them by making them a regular part of our speech and living out the memories through everyday activities.

Are you keeping spiritual memories alive for your family?

Prayer: Father, may we keep the memories of Your commandments alive in our family’s lives. 

Tweetable: Are you keeping God's commands alive? 

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Carbon Copy - Martin Wiles

Those who say they live in God should live their lives as Jesus did. 1 John 2:6 NLT

Now, I can enter the number of copies and click print, but then there was a carbon copy. 

During the summers when I helped my grandfather on the ice cream truck, I watched him stuff a ticket book in his back pocket. When he entered the Mom-n-Pop stores or grocery stores—and after he had straightened up the ice cream—he whipped the book from his pocket and recorded what the customer needed . . . but not before he made sure the carbon paper was correct. 

Carbon copies were the original copier machine. The size of the carbon paper matched the paper on which it hid between. When placed properly, and when pressed on hard enough, whatever the writer wrote on the first sheet was copied on the second sheet. My grandfather gave the top copy to the customer as a bill and as a record of what they had purchased, and he kept the second copy for company records. 

When I read the verse John wrote to first-century Christians—and current-day believers—I thought about the old carbon copies and how they relate to my spiritual journey. God wants present-day believers to be carbon copies of Jesus, just as He did those in the first century and before. But it doesn’t happen automatically. 

God provides the necessary materials. When we trust Christ as our Savior and ask forgiveness for our sins, He gives us His Holy Spirit as a permanent resident in our life. He also provides us the privilege of approaching His throne in prayer whenever and as often as we want. Still, more is needed. 

Carbon copies required pressure. Unless I pressed hard on the first sheet, what I wrote would not come through on the second. God brings and allows pressure in our lives in the form of trials and temptations. If we react correctly, these pressures draw us closer to God, which is His intended purpose. When we move closer, we act more like Jesus. 

Making a good carbon copy required aligning the carbon paper with the paper it was between. Otherwise, a part of what I wrote might not correctly translate. Our positions are prayer, worship, humility, selflessness, and desire. When these are present, we’ll align properly with Jesus’ example. 

Carbon copies also required replacing. After so much use, the carbon copy wouldn’t do its job anymore—or either the copy would be so light as to be illegible. While we only must ask for salvation once, we do have to keep going back to God through prayer, Bible study, and worship if we’re going to represent Jesus well in our words, actions, and attitudes. 

Don’t let your carbon wear out. Keep it fresh so you can be a good copy of Jesus in a world that needs to experience Him. 

Prayer: Father, make us carbon copies that accurately reflect You. 

Tweetable: Are you a carbon copy of Jesus? 

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Fishing for God - Martin Wiles

Jesus called out to them, “Come, follow me, and I will show you how to fish for people!” Matthew 4:19 NLT

As I looked at their setup, I marveled.

One of our stops when my wife and I last visited Georgia was the Pavilion and pier on Tybee Island. After walking through the Pavilion, we made our way along a pier that extended into the ocean.

As we exited our vehicle to begin our journey, a couple beside us got out of their truck. But not with just themselves as we did. They had a cart on which they loaded all manner of fishing equipment. Walking along the pier, I saw many others like them, and when we got to the end of their pier their numbers increased.

Fishermen and fisherwomen of all ages and appearances—but with one thing in common. They all had the proper gear to fish for what a person catches in the ocean. The carts helped them easily get their gear to their destination. Their fishing rods weren’t the ordinary variety I’ve used to fish in lakes and ponds. Their circumference was greater, and their length longer. Huge ice chests sat around, filled with drinks, food, and live bait—some bait almost as big as the fish I once kept to eat. But these folks weren’t fishing for just ordinary fish. They sought the large fish found in the ocean. Some even caught small sharks.

When Jesus called His disciples, He promised to make them fishers of people. And for a reason.

Fishing for people requires preparation and a mindset. We must believe we need to fish for people. The reason they need to be caught is that they are swimming the wrong way. All of us are born with a sinful nature that separates us from God. Unless we accept the forgiveness for our sins that Jesus purchased on the cross, our eternal destiny will be a place we won’t enjoy, and our present life before getting there will be less than God intends.

Fishing also takes effort and trust. The folks on the pier went to great lengths to take their gear to the pier and to prepare for their fishing adventure. They also trusted that they had the correct bait. If the right fish came along and saw it, they would bite.

Although God goes before our people-fishing adventures through the presence of His Spirit, we must go—in whatever ways God directs—trusting that he will put those in our path whom he wants us to influence, talk with, hang out with, or become friends with. God wants us to fish, and He’ll provide everything we need to do the job right.

Why not get your things together and go fishing in God’s name?

Prayer: Father, send us on the fishing adventures so we can catch those You want us to catch. 

Tweetable: How's your fishing? 

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Spreading the Good News - Thomas Brown

When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you
will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze. Isaiah 43:2 NIV

One day, as I sat at my piano, I found myself frustrated with the sound of my music 

I had not practiced for weeks, and I found myself having to review the basics again. I was troubled and thought about how this relates to my Christian walk with Christ. As I sat there and reflected, I realized if we stop doing things it just becomes a habit. Even our good habits can become bad habits just by stopping the good habit. 

The same happens if we stop reading our Bible. Starting again will be harder than it was to stop. Especially since the devil does not want us to read Scripture. 

In Bible times, some kings were strong believers in the one true God, but some were not. Although there were many martyrs, some are better known. But all were killed for believing in Christ. Some were stoned to death and others were killed by other means, but they all died because they believed and publicly preached the gospel—something the Bible tells us to do. 

We should imitate those who died for their faith. We need to keep telling others about God’s love. This is part of God’s command to us.  

Think of at least two people you can tell about God’s love. Little things can make big things happen.

Prayer: Father, give us the strength to spread the good news of Your love and to invite others to come to You.

Tweetable: Are you spreading the good news? 

Thomas Brown is a middle schooler at Greenwood Christian School in Greenwood, South Carolina. He has one brother and a dog named Lucy. He has lived in nearby Abbeville all his life and hopes one day to visit Alaska.

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From Blues to Good News - Sara Lewis

The message that God sent to the people of Israel, announcing the good news of peace through Jesus Christ, who is Lord of all. Acts 10:36 NIV

The older gentleman observed, “Nothing in the news but the blues.”

Years ago, as I traveled in the Bahamas, I met an older gentleman listening to a depressing newscast on ZNS (the Nassau radio station). Hearing the above statement, I smiled at the poetry of it, but the statement has also become a slogan of today’s reality. There isn’t much about news that is good.

As Christians, we use the term “good news” differently than our culture. Our good news—the gospel—is that God in His great mercy chose not to doom us to our own bad choices. Instead, He rescued us by sending His spotless Son to make the ultimate advance payment so that we could live with Him forever.

As correspondents of the Kingdom, we are instructed to share this good news of Jesus with the hopeless, helpless, and defeated. Our personal media resource material (the Bible) records beautiful feature stories to show how God’s plan works: the headline accounts of Moses, Joseph, Daniel, Esther, Ruth, the woman at the well, the good Samaritan, and the Great Reporter, Jesus Himself.

Seeing glimmers of the good news creeping into today’s media reports is heartwarming. Stories of compassion by policemen taking the knee in prayer with peaceful protestors, a man offering his townhome as shelter to people caught in street rioting, hospital workers serving selfishly through exhaustion and deprivation—kindness and light in the face of darkness. These are the good news stories God wants us to show and tell.

As participants in God’s Kingdom, we can demonstrate random acts of kindness amid chaos. We can also inspire others to go out and do more of the same. After all, who doesn’t want to see pretty feet heading their way with a joyful report?

Think of someone in your sphere of influence who needs to hear some good news rather than the blues.

Tweetable: Are you sharing more good news than blues news? 
 

Sara Lewis has responded to God’s calling to pray and to write in several ways. She has written two books: Walking on the Waterways: Parables from Sailing and Called to Pray: An Intercessor’s Toolkit. She has been active in forming two email groups of intercessors, The CORD (Chain of Redeemed Daughters) and the WatchWomen on the Wall. After retiring as a community college English instructor, she and her husband, Monty, began living their dream of winter cruising in the Bahamas, eventually publishing the Explorer Chartbook series of navigational charts and cruising guides. They spend the rest of their time at their home in Ocean City, Maryland.

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Who’s Telling Whom? - Martin Wiles

Repeat them again and again to your children. Talk about them when you are at home and when you are on the road, when you are going to bed and when you are getting up. Deuteronomy 6:7 NLT

Somehow, I wondered if they knew any family stories.

I remembered the stories my granddaddy told me and had committed many of them to memory. Now that I’m older and the memories are fading, I decided I should write some of them down.

My granddaddy’s childhood intrigued me. Almost like stepping back into time. A story somewhat like the Ingles’ on Little House on the Prairie. Except he was in a field, in a small wooden shack with a tin roof, and in a bedroom where a number of siblings also slept.

Most of his stories related to what happened after his dad died when my granddaddy was a twelve-year-old boy. Tending the farm fell to him, along with an uncle who happened to be married to a woman from my momma’s side of the family. I loved to hear about Uncle Ransom and his mule episodes. 

When my granddaddy left the farm, he began working at the local ice company. From there, he started delivering milk and later ice cream, which he did until he retired. Since I spent so much time with these grandparents, I have many stories committed to memory. But I wondered if my students did.

Most of my students still had grandparents living—some even a great-grandparent. Thinking they might not know some of the family stories, I made the assignment: a one and a half page paper telling a family story that happened before their momma birthed them. Sure, I graded for grammatical accuracy, but I was more concerned that they knew the family story.

God was also concerned that His people knew the family story. The story of how He had delivered them from Egyptian slavery, called them as His special people, gave them the Ten Commandments, and gave them the Law. But knowing wasn’t enough. They needed to tell it. Just as God’s children today need to.

My granddaddy’s life told another story his mouth didn’t. By his lifestyle, I knew his parents had taught him to live by God’s standards. He, in turn, taught those standards to his two children and their children—me being one of them. His example impacted me as much as my parents’ did. 

So, tell the story in your family. After all, if you don’t, no one else might. And when the family story isn’t told, future generations forget just how great our God is.

Prayer: Father, give us the courage and the opportunities to pass along our family stories.

Tweetable: Are you telling the family story? 

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Tell Your Story - Martin Wiles

Series: The Road to Humility

Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. James 5:16 NLT

Admitting it made me feel uneasy.

The it was actually a them, and the list dragged on. Things not everyone knew about me. Things I was ashamed of. Things like divorce, financial breakdowns, lust, parental mishaps, addictions, rebellion. Sordid sins that tainted my reputation and could keep me out of certain positions if the wrong person knew.

Now my editor instructed me to be honest in my writings. Put all the bad stuff out there. If I did, others would identify with me. I’d be more human, and more people would read what I wrote.

So I became vulnerable and started sharing it all. Well … most of it. Some things were better left unsaid. I discovered she knew best. Comments from readers told of how they appreciated my honesty … how they’d dealt with some of the same things … how my experience helped them on their spiritual journey.

I stopped worrying about what others thought—the ones who thought they were on a higher spiritual plain. Too good to do some of the things I had done.

I’ve often done what James suggests in small groups and experienced others doing it as well. Confession of sin is the very reason why some avoid these groups. Shame or a refusal to be vulnerable keeps them away.

Telling our stories—even when they’re sordid—keeps us humble and keeps pride away. Pride makes us want to remain quiet. We don’t want others to know we’re less than perfect. We want our facades to be spotless. Fear is pride’s counterpart. Fear of what others will think. Fear they’ll ostracize us, laugh at us, or gossip about us.

Telling our stories helps those who haven’t to open up and share theirs. And sharing—admitting and confessing—is one step on the road to healing. Knowing others face similar things helps. Telling how you conquered your sin gives them fodder to face and overcome theirs.

God uses our weaknesses to assist others. When we’re weak—or when we admit we are—He is strong. Letting others know how God has pulled us through gives them the courage to trust Him to do the same for them.

Don’t fear telling your story to others—even if it includes shameful details. God will use it to help others.

Tweetable: Are you telling your story?

Prayer: Father, give us the courage to share what You’ve done in our lives so others can benefit.

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