REDEMPTION brings BLESSING

So what does it mean that through the redemption of our sins by the cross, that Christ also brought blessing?

This is what I learned.

Psalm 32:1-2, "Blessed are they whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord will never count against him."

It is such a powerful statement that Paul repeats it again in Romans 4:7-8. Paul then goes on to say, "[Jesus] was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification." Romans 4:25. Romans 5:1-2 reads, "Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand..."

We are blessed with forgiveness, our sins covered over! Life!!! Because Paul a little later reminds us, "For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord." Romans 6:23.

And with life through Christ we are also blessed with peace, as the above scripture says, "we have peace with God through our Lord, Jesus Christ." Peace is an extravagant blessing! How often is it that peace is what we long for most in the midst of trouble or stress?

So that is a lot! More than enough, for certain... but it's not all! "Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. For He chose us in Him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in His sight. In love He predestined us to be adopted as His sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with His pleasure and will-- to the praise of His glorious grace, which He has freely given us in the One He loves. In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God's grace that He lavished on us with all wisdom and understanding." Ephesians 1:3-8 [Bold & Italics added by me for emphasis.]

We are blessed with every spiritual blessing! That goes beyond the scope of our imagination... He then says we received the blessing of "His glorious grace," and "all wisdom and understanding". The blessings are beyond measure, y'all.

Christ bestowed on us all of these blessings in His sacrifice... and He calls us to share these spiritual blessings with the world.

Paul says of this, "Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children, and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave Himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God." Ephesian 5:1-2

Christ Himself says, "Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age." Matthew 28:19-20

This week was about acknowledging Christ's blessings and gifts and not just taking them and moving on, but using them as He called us all to. There was a song this week, that seemed to continually replay in my head and on my iPod, at the most random times. It is a song by John Waller called The Blessing. And it says it so well:

John Waller - The Blessing

From the album The Blessing

Chorus:

Let it be said of us

While we walked among the living

Let it be said of us

By the ones we leave behind

Let it be said of us

That we lived to be a blessing for life.

Let it be said of us

That we gave to reach the dying

Let it be said of us

By the fruit we leave behind

Let it be said of us

That our legacy is blessing for life.

This day

You set life, You set death right before us,

This day

Every blessing and curse is a choice now

And we will choose to be a blessing for life.

Let it be said of us

That our hearts belonged to Jesus Let it be said of us

That we spoke the words of life

Let it be said of us

That our heritage is blessing for life.

For your Kingdom, for our Children

For the sake of every nation.

So in conclusion, in His unfathomable sacrifice for our redemption, when He took our sins forever, Jesus wrote blessing into our lives!

Day 14 - The Serenity Journal

So today was a bit up-hill. Some days, maybe it is just me, seem to be harder than others when it comes to putting yourself out there for the whole world to see. I was just feeling somewhat invisible. And that's the honest truth! I don't want to have to confess that in this blog, but it is the reality, so I have decided to be completely truthful... and there ya go!

My low self-esteem this morning coincided, quite curiously, with the prominent enlarging of a zit/cold sore/hideous red mark (whatever it is) on my lip. And it seems that, like me in the mirror, it is hard to avoid looking at it when talking or looking at me. It is no small mystery trying to understand how something so tiny can cause such a deep and catastrophic reaction in a woman's life... but it can!

So in town, as I was sitting in my car waiting for Heather to return from gift shopping at Harry & Davids, whining a little bit to God about not wanting to do anything too embarrassing or challenging for my Lenten blessing today, I got a text. It was a quote from a book that a friend is reading. It read, "The world needs your beauty. That is why you are here. Your heart and your beauty are something to be treasured and nourished."

God was reminding me, through the excitement and unknown obedience of this friend, and words He had spoken to another woman years ago to transform a whole world of woman through her book, that I was valuable and loved and cherished and that I had something to offer the world whether I was able to accept it at that moment or not. I mean, whether my face was bombarded with hideous facial blemishes or not.

Forgive me, Lord. Again. Ok. What do yo want me to do?

Get out of the car and go into that Bible book store.

So I relinquished the safety of my brother's black luxury vehicle with heavily tinted windows, and walked into the store. The woman behind the counter, who I had seen just yesterday, waved and gave me the most welcoming smile in the world. Sigh. I waved and said hi and looked around. I have to admit, I have never been an ambler in stores... I may shop and I will probably enjoy it, but I move quick! So I scanned the store from the door and spotted a huge rack of binded books that looked all kinds of interesting. They were diverse colors, and shapes and sizes with different pictures and designs and bling. My heart was happy just walking over to them. I spun the little rack they were in and stopped at one in perticular that just caught my eye. It was a variety of shades of green and white with beautiful, pearly, shining doves flying all over the shimmery front cover. The binding read, "Serenity Journal."

I opened it and saw that the first page was the Serenity prayer that has been popular and used by many for a never ending list of different purposes over a number of years:

God grant me the serenity

to accept the things I cannot change;

courage to change the things I can;

and wisdom to know the difference.

Living one day at a time;

Enjoying one moment at a time;

Accepting hardships as the pathway to peace;

Taking, as He did, this sinful world

as it is, not as I would have it;

Trusting that He will make all things right

if I surrender to His Will;

That I may be reasonably happy in this life

and supremely happy with Him

Forever in the next.

Amen.--Reinhold Niebuhr

Buy this one. And write in it: Love, Jesus.

That's it? What about... I held my hand to my head in thought.

Just: Love, Jesus.

Ok.

I took it to the counter and paid for it and the sweet woman allowed me to use her pen to write the inscription. Her eyes looked up from the page with a question mark in her brow and I looked back equally as confused and shrugged. "I don't really know."

She laughed and handed me my change and went back to marking down sale items in the shop.

When Heather finally came out of Harry and David we got ready to leave. She spotted the journal right away with big, excited eyes! "Wow! That's beautiful! Who's it for?"

"I don't know," I said. "A girl I think."

"Which girl?" She asked a little concerned. "You should ask their parents if its ok first before you give it to her."

I laughed. "I don't think she will be that young," I guessed, "and something tells me she will be all alone."

Heather nodded. She knows I know nothing more than He tells me, and asking questions is pretty much useless. We were turning out of the mall and back onto the street when I saw a young woman, carrying groceries from a nearby store, headed somewhere. "Her!"

I felt the prod. "You're crazy, Ashley! Its a highway, and she is a total stranger and you are just gonna hand her something weird. That's dangerous!" I could have said many of those same things quite possibly had it been her...

"I don't get to choose, Heather! I just obey, Ok! He wants her to have it!" So I turned and went up the Highway to a cross street that she was just coming to. She smiled at us as she rounded the corner. I thought she would cross so I could just talk to her while she passed. "Excuse me," I yelled. She double-looked and hesitated before walking over to us. "Hi."We said. And I handed Heather the journal to hand her, as she was now standing at the passenger side window. I leaned over so I could look in her eyes. "God told me this is for you."

She smiled timidly and through a thick Spanish accent said, "Thank you."

"God bless," we sighed. We had been received well and she had been willing to take it! She didn't have the words to respond further though it seemed she wished she had, so she just held it up and smiled and then continued on her way. At first I wondered if I was supposed to do more... I even confessed to Heather that I wasn't sure. She said, and I think there is truth in her response, "It was purely from Jesus this way. If she knows nothing about us, and we are just two strange messengers, then when she opens the book and reads, 'Love, Jesus', it may have a deeper impact."

I prayed for less awkwardness and more confidence in my obedience, but acknowledge that Christ gives me the strength to do anything that He asks of me, and it is a gesture of His love, so I won't diminish its beauty or His provision by worrying about if I failed or did something wrong. Rather, I am grateful! And I pray that He will entrust me with more next time.

Who knows what God was personally sharing with that woman today... the things beyond my scope? I was seeing only a tiny part of the story! Who knows where she was in her heart or her life, but Jesus? Who knows what she needs, but Jesus? Maybe she was starting something new... maybe she was in a hard place... maybe she didn't speak English well and the first English He wanted her to learn was this prayer... maybe she was questioning her value or her beauty like I had been that day. What unwritten stories, accounts, prayers, hopes dreams, heartaches, were meant to fill the pages of that journal? Would they?!

I don't know! But God does! and it is so cool to be part of His Kingdom and see and be used in the movements that come from the rapidly beating heart of the One that loves us more than we can ever understand!!

Day 13 - Drive by Blessing

Today was hysterical. Heather and I went into Lincoln City and decided to try Gallucci's Pizza. They had this lunch special on 8" personal pan pizzas so we both got one. Both of us had 2 pieces and were stuffed. When we put our pizza away we had an entire pizza and two left over pieces from the second one. We decided we would try to find someone to give our pizza to but went to Starbucks for some coffee first.

When we got to the order station we could already tell who was working by his thick Southern accent. He is an Oregon Coast transplant from Texas. A nice guy that has a never ending stream of niceties issuing from his mouth. Heather calls him an insatiable flirt. We don't know if that is true or if that kind of talk is just hard wired into him from his upbringing, but whichever it is we always have a good time talking to him.

When we rolled up to the window and got our drinks I heard God telling me to give him the pizza. Really? But... "Heather, ask him if he likes pizza."

She looked at me a little funny but finally leaned out the door (our brother's driver side window doesn't roll down so we have to use the door) and asked him if he liked Gallucci's pizza. "Yeah!" He said. "I've heard its a great place to eat."

"Well," Heather said, we have a pizza left over and were wondering if you would like it. If you can take stuff through the window, I mean."

I leaned across the car, "Do you have a break or something soon? You would have something to eat instead of having to go somewhere, or eating nothing!"

"Wow!" He said, "You know, I get off in just a couple of minutes and I can take this home and eat it. Thank you so much."

Heather handed him the pizza, and he said, "Well thanks, sweetheart."

I was in the middle of saying, "God bless," and leaning over to talk with him a little longer but Heather was obviously done. She said, "Bless you," slammed the door in the middle of his response and we were off!

"He was just about to lean out the window and tell us what he thought about God!" I was laughing hysterically.

"If he called me sweetheart one more time I don't know what I was gonna do!!!" And she started laughing.

"Well," I choked out, "I guess today really was a 'drive-by blessing'!"

I pray that the Texan Barista at the Lincoln City Starbucks feels blessed and knows just how much You love him, Father. Thanks for such fun with you!

Day 12 - My Godson

Today's blessing was so much my own!!! I at last got to talk with my wonderful friend Kelly, after over a year. Kelly has been my friend since she was 9 and I was 11. We were instant friends. We have called each other cousins for most of our lives. In fact, we rarely call each other friend at all.

When Kelly got unexpectedly pregnant at 17 we walked through it together. She struggled with the choices she would have to make and the changes and challenges that a child would bring. Heather and I agreed to be with her through every step and even had the most insanely beautiful privilege of being present for his birth. Kelly asked me and my ex-husband if we would be his God parents. Even after we split, Kelly was adamant about her choice of me as God mother, which made me extremely happy.

But it was a role I didn't fully understand until I understood it from the teaching of the Catholic Church. I will never forget when Father Sebastian explained in front of the entire church what it meant to be chosen as a child's God parent. Not only were you supposed to very present in that child's life, but if the mother should be unable or unwilling to lead that child spiritually and keep them in Godly guidance, it was that God parents responsibility to do so! The God parent was responsible for their spiritual guidance and Godly instruction.

I went home and cried afterward and wrote to my God son. I have kept him lifted up in prayer since, but I have only seen him once since then. Which was hard. It is challenging to gather up the courage to talk about these things with Kelly. So today, when his mother called and we got to reconnect after so long and on a deeper level than we had in years, I felt compelled to talk with her about this realization and apologize for not being more present. I gave God my silence and gave Kelly full view of my heart, and God's heart for her and Caleb. To my surprise she said, "And I need help with that. Caleb needs spiritual guidance, Ash. I mean, he isn't even baptized."

So my blessing was a very open, very deep, very loving conversation with this dear friend about God and offering to research and help do what it would take to have Caleb baptized and given a more intentional Christ directed environment.

My heart could explode with gratitude at this answered prayer! I pray for Caleb! That he might know his Savior!

Day 11 - Forgiveness

It was on our way home that Heather and I found ourselves facing a huge, hideous giant! Today's blessing is too personal to account in detail. We were faced with something very painful from our past.

But this is what I learned... Jesus died on the cross, and took our sins away. In doing this, God provided us with forgiveness! This was a gift. It was given to us in a never ending flow of abundance. And from that gift, we are called to bless others with this overflowing provision of forgiveness... even those in our lives that we may not think necessarily deserve it or haven't asked for it.

My Lenten blessing offering was not only forgiveness but an action made possible through grace... fruit from that decision to forgive. More than I thought I had... actually, more than I did have.

Sigh. I am all Your's Jesus. Be my All... take even the things that I don't know how to let go of... replace them with You.

Day 10 - A song for you

Today my Lenten blessing offering was really really late! It wasn't until well after dark, while Heather and I were still driving to Seattle that God told me what it was. I was praying while I sat looking out the passenger window... what do you wanna do today? Go find someone to give something down-town Seattle?? Is it Morgan?? What's on Your heart?

As we were coming into Seattle God told me He wanted to show somebody His intense love for them... somebody that I also know and love... and that He wanted me to give them something very personal and different from the other blessings.

He wanted something given out of what He had already provided in me. He wanted me to sing them a song. A song that the Holy Spirit had given me the words and the tune for a couple years ago...

He had provided the words... He gave me a voice to sing, no matter what it sounds like it can sing and so it should!! He used somebody very amazing to bless me with a guitar, that I just happened to remember to bring... with my tuner!!! Even though it took a while locating! And He even gave me a phone that records more than 30 seconds of sound... actually up to 10 minutes! Which I have never seen on a phone... ever!

I am realizing more and more, how much God provides us with that can be used by Him to bless His beloved. If we are willing to be used... we don't have to have abundance either... He will provide as we go! If we are willing to enjoy His incredible, unmatchable ability to be creative and use ALL things!

Day 9: Paul

We left late today, as I wanted to finish all the blogs that I had started and not finished. We had to be at Atonement Lutheran Church for Randy's Feed and Read at 5 o'clock and it was 2:30pm. Heather still had to get her driver's licence renewed and I wanted to pick up some post cards, so we were kind of rushing, and I confess I wasn't thinking much about my Lenten blessing for the day.

However, as we got into Depoe Bay we saw a man on a bike with a little weathered terrier and a cart that read "Need Food". Seeing his cart flew me so instantly into flash backs of the vanishing man from the 2nd day of Lent that I suddenly remembered the food that still sat on the floor, in the back from that day, forgotten until this moment. WOAH!

I checked to see if it was the same man, but it wasn't. How amazing! So many parallels!

I threw up my hands, "Sis! That's it! God has already supplied the food!" And I parked.

We grabbed the food and the dog food and jumped out of the car. The man was talking to somebody in a vehicle that had pulled up and we waited to hand him the food. He turned to us, extremely energetic, annoyed that his dog was barking, and said, "Oh she won't eat that stuff, but I'll take the food."

We both stepped back. Then I stepped forward again and handed him the bags of food. He took them and tucked them into the wagon and turned to talk with us. And then he never did stop after that. I think even when we left he was still talking to us. He was funny! Angry, but he had a lot of funny stories to tell. I asked him how he ended up on a bike in the cold and he told me his whole recent history. He was on his way down from Alaska in a lawn mower and got hit by a car. After that he got another bike which also was destroyed when he was hit by a second car. Finally he had purchased this bike somewhere in Northern Oregon.

He laughed but with extreme bitterness. He was angry. Extremely. He asked us, "So, are you real religious people then."

"We are Christians, if that's what you mean."

"Well I ain't savable! Sorry! God's done too many **** things to me, excuse my French."

I wish I had told him that we weren't there to save him, only to feed him, and that the saving was up to God, but I couldn't think of anything to say. I was dead in the middle of an extremely unexpected turn of events.

When I did finally catch my balance I just asked him questions and we talked for probably 30 minutes with him. We found out that his name was Paul. I thought, "What a great name." Finally we made our exit and he said, "Sorry you couldn't save me. But I'm just not savable."

What do you say to that? Argue with him? I don't know!

I finally just turned to him and said what came to my mind. "Paul... are you lovable?"

"Oh boy, you shoulda met this girl..."

"Not like that, Paul. That isn't what I'm asking. Are you a lovable person. Can you be loved?"

"Well yeah! Everybody loves me. I'm a lovable guy."

"Well, then, you are savable!"

Just then somebody came and handed Paul a twenty dollar bill and we left. God was diligently after this man! Blessings were coming from every side.

As we were driving off and I was thinking, "perhaps we were only supposed to hand him the food and bless him anonymously," the realization of his link to Paul of the Bible struck me. We prayed for him. We prayed that, just as Saul, a stubborn, angry man against God had met Jesus on the road, that Paul would encounter his Savior in such an astounding way that he would be turned and claimed for the Kingdom.

Thank you for providing yet again... make me better at that. Teach me to walk more in your guidance and will, God, through your Holy Spirit, and not just my own zealousness. For then I can't be knocked off balance. Thanks for being God, and saving me again and again and again.