Doing the Right Thing

This weekend was a great one.  You were speaking to me, calling me and answering my prayers.  It was my first time attending Mission Fest and I loved it.  Next year, I will make it a full day affair.  I only attended 2 sessions on Saturday and I was hungry for more...  I met up with Marie Ens who told me Cambodian adoptions would be delayed at least another year and then I heard an uplifting message about Christianity spreading like wide fire through China and Ethiopia. Praise you Lord.  Shaine Claireborne spoke at our service on Sunday and he was amazing.  When I came home and to share some highlights of the seminar with my husband, I choked up telling him about Mother Theresa.  I couldn't get over how selfish I am compared to God's selflessness through Mother Theresa.  She always ensured she had the "worse" so that no one would be worse off than her.  She did not bitch or complain, so just took it. In fact she always took the worst pair of shoes - shoes that didn't fit.  She did that for so long that her feet became deformed, yet she did not say a word... wow and what have I to share.

People always ask, "Why do bad things happen to good people? Why is there starvation?  Why is there war? If there is a god, why does God let this happen?"  God's answer,  " I created a solution... you. The question becomes, why do we let these things happen?  There is enough food and medicine to heal all in the world... but greed gets in the way... our selfishness gets in the way... our morality gets in the way..."  Father, I get it now... my role as a teacher is share this message, to teach our next generation about morality... about doing the right thing all the time, and not for an award, but because the reward is far greater than money...

Matthew 13:1-23
Story of the Farmer Scattering Seed
This is a parable I've heard many times and I ask myself, what kind of a plant will I become.   However, the new message is this:  You have been permitted to understand the secrets of the Kingdom of Heaven, but others have not. To those who are open to my teaching, more understanding will be given, and they will have an abundance of knowledge. But to those who are not listening, even what they have will be taken away from them... People see what I do, but they don't really see.  People hear what I say, but they don't really hear, and they don't understand (11-13)

At first, I believed that I was the crop that landed on rocky soil.  I received God's message with joy, but as life through curve balls at me, I lost my faith in God because I was not "grounded" in the word and lacked trust. However as years passed I began to feel that I was the crop that landed in the thorny ground.  I hear and accept the good news, yet I let the materialist desires of this world crowd my mind and harden my heart, moving me away from God... I must admit I still hold these tendancies.  For a while, I actually believed that I was a crop that landed in good fertile soil, representing a heart that truly accepts God's message... but then I realized how far removed I was as tears rolled down my face when I spoke about Mother Theresa and her selflessness.

I can never be a Mother Theresa.  I accept that, but can I be more like Christ?  When Judgement Day comes, God will not ask if I believe in Him, but "When I was a stranger, how did you treat me?" 

Romans 11: 1-6
God's Mercy on Israel
For this passage, I feel God is telling me, 'you are not the only alone. God will save us not by our good works but because of his kindness and love which is free and undeserving.'