BENEATH THE VEIL no.3

THE SALAD MAKER

My roommate’s sister is famous for her salads, “on a platter, never in a bowl,” she proudly explains. Whenever she has guests they are welcomed to a warm and cozy atmosphere. They’re made to feel at home and treated to one of her renowned platter salads. Anyone who’s been there (and they come from distances of over 300 miles) can hardly wait to go back.

This friend doesn’t go to church and doesn’t read much of the Bible. She mostly talks to God on her daily walks in the woods by her house. Not the “typical” Christian. But God has called each and every person, believer and unbeliever. Each has unique gifts and unique talents to contribute to mankind. When our friend took the evaluation from last Sunday’s post, one of her top three gifts was “hospitality!” Go figure.

Humpback whales travel about 3000 miles each year to have their babies in the warm waters around Hawaii and then go back up to the rich feeding waters of Alaska. Loggerhead turtles born in Japan migrate almost 8,000 miles to the rich waters off Baja to feed and mature. Once they have reached sexual maturity, they migrate back to Japan to breed and nest. Scientists don’t really know how they can find their way. They say it may have something to do with the magnetic pull of the earth.

The Holy Spirit is like that magnet.  It pulls each person toward what God already knows we will love doing. God is pulling us to excel in our special gifts. Yield to it and we can be happy as a clam, or should I say, as a humpback whale?

Take the evaluation I mentioned in last Sunday’s blog and find out what your unique gifts are. Any more salad makers out there?

Love, Carolyn

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Where Do I Fit In?

WHERE DO I FIT IN?

I walked up to the door with my witnessing partner. It was my turn to talk. I was totally nervous—terrified! I was supposed to introduce myself and tell them I was from the Way Biblical Research Group. We knocked on the door and a young woman opened it to us. After an uncomfortable pause, I blurted out, “Hello, my name is Carolyn Molica. I’m from the Bay Wiblical...oh crap!” I turned all shades of red and shrunk away. My partner had to take over from there.

I never got much better at the cold turkey approach to witnessing. Some people loved it, but it has never been my thing at all.

If you’re anything like me, you want to serve God and desire to be the best Christian you can be, but you want to know exactly in what capacity God’s called you to serve.

Several passages in the New Testament compare the body of Christ to the human body. Every cell in the natural body is important and does something unique and even has a unique place where it works best. You have millions of skin cells (19 million per square inch) and even though they have similar functions, they’re located all over and are unique to their own area and they know instinctively what they are to do.

When it comes to the body of Christ, we can walk around wondering for years what our particular service for Christ should or could be. Where do I fit in best?

If you’re someone who knows what your ministries are and you’re busily doing them, great. But if you only kind of know and aren’t absolutely sure what the Lord’s designed for you, I’m going to suggest something I did recently that settled all my questions. I think it will do the same for you.

What I’m suggesting is going to the website of my friend Dale Sides. He heads up a group called Liberating Ministries for Christ International. One of the main focuses of his ministry is to liberate others’ unique ministries in the body. In all my years as a believer I’ve never found anything like this and honestly I can tell you it’s been a tremendous blessing. Go the website www.lmci.org  to the home page. Scroll down to the bottom and on the left side click on the Spiritual Gifts Evaluation and follow the instructions. If you have any trouble, e-mail me and I can help you. They will send you a password to your e-mail. There’s no financial or any other obligation. Dale’s heart is to help people like us who want to know for sure in what capacities we serve best.

As a result of my inquiry I found that there was a very good reason I was no good at the door to door witnessing—I’m called to minister to the body of Christ, not cold turkey evangelizing.

PS. I’m not telling you to become a partner of Dale’s ministry. That choice is totally up to you. I’m not even a member myself at this time. But the evaluation exercise he makes available is of tremendous value.

Beneath the Veil no.2 1.23.13

Why Shout?

I was taking care of a friend and started to get symptoms of a cold. I couldn’t afford to have a cold, but the symptoms just kept getting worse and in my mind I was confessing, “I’ve got a cold!” I hadn’t said anything out loud yet and instantly I knew I needed to shout: “The Bible says, ‘By Jesus stripes I was healed,’ so I’m healed!” My cold symptoms were gone overnight.

Sometimes we need to shout louder than the voices in our head—drown them out with a shout of God’s word (the truth)! A shout takes us from the passive to the aggressive. More often than not, we need that.  

A great example is found in John 11 where Jesus shouted to Lazarus to come forth from the grave. He had all kinds of negative words and thoughts coming at Him. First of all the religious leaders were trying to shame Him in front of the people, so they could kill Him. Even Lazarus’ sisters were bothered by the fact that Jesus hadn’t come earlier, and they said so. It had been four days since he died and friends had gathered to grieve. What thoughts and ridicule must have been spoken when Jesus told them Lazarus was going to live?

Since the Bible tells us Jesus was tempted in every way that we’re tempted, His mind would have been bombarded by negative thoughts and words too. The cacophony of voices in the air was thick, raucous, confusing and full of discord. I’ve been in situations where I could almost audibly hear the negative thoughts people were thinking and I bet you’ve been in situations like that too.

Jesus put his faith in what God told Him and in the midst of the confusion He stood in front of the tomb and  He shouted, “Lazarus, come out!”  “And he that was dead came forth, bound hand and foot with graveclothes: and his face was bound about with a napkin. Jesus saith unto them Loose him, and let him go” (John 11:43-44).

Jesus shouted and the life returned to Lazarus. I shouted and my good health returned to me.

Love you, Carolyn

Going Through the Eye of the Needle

GOING THROUGH THE EYE OF THE NEEDLE

God desires that his people be rich and there’s no doubt about that. You’ll see it throughout the records in the Bible. But first of all, He wants us to be satisfied with Him. If all you had was God and nothing or no one else, would you be able to be happy? That’s a big question and one that needs to be considered. Would you be able to trust in Him alone, even if you lost everything and everyone you thought you had? This is the question a certain rich young ruler was faced with. This particular incident made such an impact on the disciples that it’s recorded by three of the four writers of the gospels, and is found in Matthew 19:16-29, Mark 10:17-30, and Luke18:18-30.

The young ruler was rich. He was a leader. He had followed the Ten Commandments since he was young. He was a believer in God. So what went wrong? Matthew recorded:

And, behold, one came and said unto him, Good Master, what good thing shall I do, that I may have eternal life? And he said unto him, Why callest thou me good? there is none good but one, that is, God: but if thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments.

He saith unto him, Which? Jesus said, Thou shalt do no murder, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness, Honour thy father and thy mother: and, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.

The young man saith unto him, All these things have I kept from my youth up: what lack I yet? Jesus said unto him, If thou wilt be perfect, go and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come and follow me.

But when the young man heard that saying, he went away sorrowful: for he had great possessions. Then said Jesus unto his disciples, Verily I say unto you, That a rich man shall hardly [i.e. it’s hard for him to] enter into the kingdom of heaven.

And again I say unto you, It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God [i.e. God’s way of doing things]. (Matt 19:16-24)

In the ancient cities, there was an entrance into the city where the archway was low. This was called the eye of the needle. For the camels to enter, all of the goods on the camels’ backs had to be taken off. Once all of the riches had been unloaded, the camels could go through the “eye of the needle” and then be loaded back up on the other side. As you can imagine, this took a deliberate decision and trust. The owner had to unload everything, walk through empty-handed and expect to get it all back on the other side. Can you see how this applied to the rich young ruler and to us? The rich young ruler had to be willing to unload all that he had, give it to the poor and trust that by following Jesus in his new life the Lord would be the sovereign source of his wealth.

The man knew what it took in the world’s ways to get where he was and he just couldn’t see himself giving it all up. We don’t really know how this man got his wealth. Maybe he got it by inheritance. Maybe he had worked for it. What he didn’t realize and wouldn’t accept is that God is ultimately—and was willing to be to him—the source of all wealth.

If the man had just done what Jesus asked, he would have never lacked another thing in his life. But he was too afraid and he stayed behind. Look at what Jesus said next:

Verily I say unto you, There is no man that hath left house, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my sake, and the gospel's, but he shall receive an hundredfold now in this time, houses, and brethren, and sisters, and mothers, and children, and lands. (Mark 10:29-30)

In other words, if the rich young ruler had been willing to lay down all his possessions, all his riches, all that he had and trust Jesus above all else, he would have received a hundred times more than he had before. That’s not a bad deal. What people sometimes don’t realize is that the Lord is the biggest giver of all.

Let’s look at Job in the Old Testament times. He lost everything because of his fear. “For the thing which I greatly feared is come upon me, and that which I was afraid of is come unto me” (Job 3:25). But Job never gave up on God. In the end, he got back double of what he had before. “And the Lord turned the captivity of Job, when he prayed for his friends: also the Lord gave Job twice as much as he had before” (Job 4:10).

God wants to bless us “exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think” (Eph 3:20), but He does require us to trust Him entirely, even if it looks like we have to give up everything. If we are really willing to do this, most likely we will never have to. It’s a matter of the heart and God wants us to trust Him with all our heart.

The Lord is not a control freak, and He will never make us do anything. He has given us free will and so the benefits for making a free will choice to seek Him first are manifold.

Moses tells us in Deuteronomy that God is a jealous God. What that means is that He wants to be our source, our provider, our first love, but He will never force us to accept that. We have to choose Him and decide to trust Him. If God knows He can trust us to do that, He will be there to overflow us with good: “Prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it” (Mal 3:10). Not having enough room to receive, gives us the joy of overflowing it to others.

We don’t have to covet after what we see other people having. We just may be in the process of unloading our camels and braving the empty walk through the eye of the needle. We need to keep trusting and believing, because if we’ve been willing to give it all for the Lord, we are absolutely going to get it all back plus more.

Love, Carolyn

Beneath the Veil

My Wednesday posts will be called "Beneath the Veil." They will be small peeks and spiritual insights. Enjoy. Here's the very first one:

Jan 12, 2013

Beneath the Veil no.1

NO ANGEL UNEMPLOYED

We don’t want to leave our angels sitting on the bench. Hebrews 1:14 tells us angels are ministering spirits sent to minister for us. Psalm 103:20 tells us that angels hearken to the voice of God’s Word. When we agree with and speak God’s Word we speak the voice that the angels respond to and they have something to do. There are multitudes of angels just waiting to get off unemployment. We can put them to work today.

Here are a couple examples of what I say to give the angels a job: 1. “Psalm 91 says you will bear me up in your hands so I don’t dash my foot on a stone. And since a stone is a natural earthly thing, I expect you to keep me from tripping up on any worldly things today, in Jesus’ name. Amen.”

2. “Isaiah 54:17 says no weapon formed against me shall prosper. Angels I loose you according to Matthew 18:18 to out and work on that to bring it to pass for me, in the name of Jesus Christ.”

3. “God’s Word says in Philippians 4:19 that He supplies all our needs according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus. So angels go out on that Word to bring it to pass for me in the name of Jesus Christ.”

JUST STARTED

Hi. I'm just now starting my blog. It will be my insights, revelations, ponderings, and stories about discovering more of the spiritual side of life. I'll be writing something every Sunday. (That just seems to be the day I let myself meditate more, relax more, and think about what I'm thinking about!) I write articles that I usually send out to family and friends about once a month so those will sometimes be my blog posts, but not always. I hope you enjoy what you read and I'm looking forward to hearing back from you.

I love this remark from T.L. Osborn:

“Jesus did enough!" He did enough to even cover the worst thing we can do. He did enough for ALL mankind, FOREVER. There's nothing we can do to shock Him, scare Him away, disgust Him so much He'd ignore us. He got tempted by whatever tempts us. And when He was crucified for all the results of giving in to those temptations, He took it to the devil and shook it in his face and dumped it off at the devil's feet: ‘There, finished for all time!’”

What a comfort this was to me when I first read it!