A Ministry of Christian Chefs International (CCI)

Saturday, January 21, 2017

Intermezzo...A "Words" about seeking help...

Asking for help is vital to our spiritual "Vitality"!  It starts and ends...with God...God is Love..so whatever is You...( a creation of Love), whatever is important to you (a response of Love), whatever you Feel... ( the Spirit of Love) or whatever you want, need, desire,crave, consume...you get the idea is a manifestation of Love in, of, around, about, and through you.  Living by the life of Love
( that other person of Jesus) that dwells, lives, breathes , moves, works and shines...simply does so because God Loves ...you.
OK so as we follow Him, believe and obey him...we look to this "Author and Finisher of our faith"! And as we look we look....Within... We begin/are born... created.  We "finish" are Born Again...growing in Love...I just shared a statement " It is OK to pray for yourself" with someone...and they admitted they had a hard time with that one...I just heard the word "Resistant"...our Adamic nature is such...that we all living in that sin "resistance" that blinds and binds the Freedom we were first created  in...and now "Made Free" By Jesus's Victory on the Cross...
Free to Love ...yourself!

Leviticus 19:18 “Don’t seek revenge or carry a grudge against any of your people. “Love your neighbor as yourself. I am God.

Hosea 12:6 What are you waiting for? Return to your God! Commit yourself in love, in justice! Wait for your God, and don’t give up on him—ever!

Matthew 22:37-40 Jesus said, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your passion and prayer and intelligence.’ This is the most important, the first on any list. But there is a second to set alongside it: ‘Love others as well as you love yourself.’ These two commands are pegs; everything in God’s Law and the Prophets hangs from them.”

Mark 12:32-33 The religion scholar said, “A wonderful answer, Teacher! So lucid and accurate—that God is one and there is no other. And loving him with all passion and intelligence and energy, and loving others as well as you love yourself. Why, that’s better than all offerings and sacrifices put together!”

Romans 13:8-10 Don’t run up debts, except for the huge debt of love you owe each other. When you love others, you complete what the law has been after all along. The law code—don’t sleep with another person’s spouse, don’t take someone’s life, don’t take what isn’t yours, don’t always be wanting what you don’t have, and any other “don’t” you can think of—finally adds up to this: Love other people as well as you do yourself. You can’t go wrong when you love others. When you add up everything in the law code, the sum total is love.

Galatians 5:13-15 It is absolutely clear that God has called you to a free life. Just make sure that you don’t use this freedom as an excuse to do whatever you want to do and destroy your freedom. Rather, use your freedom to serve one another in love; that’s how freedom grows. For everything we know about God’s Word is summed up in a single sentence: Love others as you love yourself. That’s an act of true freedom. If you bite and ravage each other, watch out—in no time at all you will be annihilating each other, and where will your precious freedom be then?

James 2:8-11 You do well when you complete the Royal Rule of the Scriptures: “Love others as you love yourself.” But if you play up to these so-called important people, you go against the Rule and stand convicted by it. You can’t pick and choose in these things, specializing in keeping one or two things in God’s law and ignoring others. The same God who said, “Don’t commit adultery,” also said, “Don’t murder.” If you don’t commit adultery but go ahead and murder, do you think your non-adultery will cancel out your murder? No, you’re a murderer, period.

OK...now that you have tasted some "nuggets"...chew on them and think about loving yourself...Taking His Word to your heart..obeying and Loving yourself enough to do those things that the Holy Spirit empowers us to do...
First and primary  Ask God for Help!  LIke David in the Psalms...and so so many in the old Testament did,  and others who suffered for NOT asking...and like the Greek, Syro-Phoenician woman who came to Jesus!  begging for help to heal her daughter...Help! Help! Ask! Ask!
While there are many scriptures that speak to that I encourage you to search that out for yourself...Wow...so many encouragements..to Ask for help.  That as Jesus o that bloody Cross...instrument of torture and death should respond to a plea for help...
We all know or have read ...."ask and you shall receive"
Help and be helped..and BE help!

And if I may offer a worldly word on the subject of asking for help...from a magazine article I read [citation needed ;) i lost it]  I read that a vast majority of seriously troubled folk who need help but don't get it  suffer tremendously depression kills many causing suicides ...but of those who sought help....any help  the vast majority like in the 90 percentile actually felt better within two weeks!

So Sistren and Brethren...Love yourself,,,pray for yourself, and yes help yourself by following the Godly advice...As simply put in Proverbs 20:18,
Form your purpose by asking for counsel, then carry it out using all the help you can get.  Get it all from as many of those who would really desire to help you trusting God to answer you in your time of need....God who heals through His people called into the healing profession...God also counsels by those called into that ministry...and that is yet one more awesome reason Jesus is called  WONDERFUL Counselor!
...Run to the Word...seek counsel!   Especially from the Wonderful one...

And Rock and Roll!  Jesus is the Rock....and we Roll!




And keep checking back as our journey continues to that place called Grace...



Wednesday, January 18, 2017

Next steps..Knowing ...now GO-ing...

Join me in this story based on a sharing I had done a long long time ago about a journey to a place called Grace...now we may still go there  ;)   I pray you are edified and touched...initially there is a Character called the Tour Guide (Guide), and the New Reborn Child (Newbie)...You know we all been there  ;)


"Whew...OK...Let's Go!" said the New Reborn Child "Wait! replied the Guide.  Before we head off at a Holy Spirit breakneck pace...lets look around....Coast clear?  Any Traffic?  Lights on?  Seat Belt secure?...Armour on? Shield up? Sword Sharp?.... says the Guide..."Hay Waitaminit! I thought we were going...you mean I may have forgotten something?" , "Yeah lots..., talkin...You...lets think about it...Where you going?  You just got here and ....Well think about it...where are you?" queried the Guide  "Um  I am ...here... Oh Yeah I know I was lost but now I'm found!  I know I am a sinner...but Jesus died for me!  I know the Holy Spirit filled my heart with Love and ...Power!  I have been forgiven!And got that Amazing Grace!"  Ok so ...where are you going?  Looking around..."well I know got to go!  God said Go!  Right? " "...Well Yeah  He did say that...so ...Where?"  "He will lead me!" exclaimed the Newbie.   "Cool...so what are you gonna do?....for how long?  Did you read the map?" asked the Guide.   "Um No...what map?"  "The Word...The Bible..." the guide spoke smiling patiently.  "Yeah I heard of it...has a lot of groovy stuff....I read some a long time ago...am ...I  going to make disciples?  Right?" queried the Newbie.   "Yeah so How you gonna do that?  True God can do miracles  and saving you and me certainly fits into that category...So do you think that being a disciple might help you make...disciples?   Blushing the Newbie said "You are right I don't even know what its like being one...The Guide got the Newbies attention and said "When you meet someone... you could meet and fall in Love at first sight!...but then what?...relationship...Starts... TBC

God Morning, afternoon or evening Sisters and Brothers!  I know how anxious you are...I am also encouraged by the Word where He shares about being anxious...it is the root word for anxiety Amen?And while the word by definition can mean keen, desirous,and eager...and is... wanting something very much... we all feel that the word has a negative aspect to it...it is usually experiencing worry, unease, or nervousness...and as God would have us know...left to itself can lead to Anxiety a more pronounced form of what they share as defined...Worry...please allow me to share a list of synonyms for anxious...
worried, concerned, uneasy, apprehensive, fearful, perturbed, troubled, bothered, disturbed, distressed, disquieted, fretful, agitated, nervous, edgy, antsy, unquiet, on edge, tense, overwrought, worked up, keyed up, jumpy, worried sick, with one's stomach in knots, with one's heart in one's mouth; informal, uptight, on tenterhooks, with butterflies in one's stomach, trepidatious, jittery, twitchy, in a dither, in a lather, in a tizzy, eaten up; strung out, having kittens; antsy, spooked, squirrelly...Whew   OK so some would say these are "normal" for us humans as we traverse this world we live in...I humbly offer that in view of Creation this is yet another opportunity for Our Father to shine...His light Jesus conquering and victorious over this part of "the world" that is not our Home...We want to Go!  Where?   Well lets pick a destination on this Way...We have Jesus in our Heart now...And as He taught about seeing that relationship with His Father we have made that commitment...And Sisters and Brothers you may know that when you say "I Do"  you say a lot...as He is the New Covenant let us experience by His Body and His Blood...His presence...Lets Go there!
And so we are anxious for this new adventure...as these others were ...Lets see what they had to say and what God had to reply...

1 Samuel 9:20 But as for your donkeys that were lost three days ago, do not be anxious about them, for they have been found. And on whom is all the desire of Israel? Is it not on you and on all your father’s house?”

Job 20:2 “Therefore my anxious thoughts make me answer, Because of the turmoil within me.

Jeremiah 17:8 For he shall be like a tree planted by the waters, Which spreads out its roots by the river, And will not fear when heat comes; But its leaf will be green, And will not be anxious in the year of drought, Nor will cease from yielding fruit.

Philippians 4:6 Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God;

As you can see in the intro story I myself have been there jumping in the Truck and saying OK Jesus Lets go!   then after a bit of driving in silence I figured....and said  OK  Jesus YOU drive!  and sniveling got into the passenger seat...then anxious again and all like  "Are we there ye?t Are we there yet??  Are we There yet???  Then in my excitement at being on the road with Jesus I tended to jump out of the truck and run ahead of Him....the conclusion was after years of this I was getting tired of being a speedbump on the Way...Jesus I am sure was sighing each time he ran me over  ;)

With such a daunting journey ahead...we know to pray and not to ...Be Anxious...Don't Worry...Fret Not...But where to start?  Feeling a bit overwhelmed at this New Birth the Newbie humbly asks...Lord where do I start?  "At the beginning" comes the answer.  the Newbie hears the still small voice  "Go to My Word..."  Yikes!  I really need some help! " Thats a great start says the Guide...Hearing more clearly..."Come to me..."  And as a finger may be pointing...

"Hey look over there!"  said the Guide.  "Other journeyers!  Lets go ask them for help"  TBC...



Praying this feeds you in a way that entertains and blesses ...
Rock and Roll!  Jesus is the Rock...and we ROLL!





Friday, January 13, 2017

Knowing...and actually doing...Time to get down to business...

...always something that has challenged and kept me in tune with what God's plan is for me and I believe ultimately ...all of us.  We often hear from the pulpit to Be Church...not just DO "church"...
So in that we all have a job...a commandment, the "Great Commission"...we GO....and make disciples...how, when, and where is as unique as Our relationship with Jesus in our heart...as it is a "Heart" thing...
     Now we have a "private tutor", who provides private lessons...Wow to learn from the feet of the Master...and Jesus gave us the "Way" to do that!  As He IS the Way...Amen?  Teacher,  BFF, and Lover who teaches us with Holy patience ..so caring...so aware of who we are..intimately, totally, and eternally...Wow again  ;)

how we learn from The Teacher, with the empowerment and CO-mission that God made real, possible, and do-able through Jesus...and in His providence of the Holy Spirit to empower, engage, and en-joy us ...REMINDING us...haha I know I need that!  I forget..to be honest sometimes I tend to give my heart too easily to the ruler of this world...But God!  Jesus there at the next heartbeat...and He teaches...
Read in Matthew 11
(NKJV)
"Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.  Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”

(MSG)
“Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.”


Learn....From Me!  Walk...Work...Watch...I'll show you...
Just do that!...We can do this!  Lets do that!

I am oft reminded that the First two letters in God are...Go!
The last two are...TBC

Rock and Roll!  Jesus is the Rock and we Roll!

Wednesday, January 11, 2017

The Word for today...and



even every day...Woke up today with the word Share in my mind...went to the Word...and here is some of what I found! The Holy Spirit is amongst many things a "reminder...er" 

 From Isaiah 55 (NKJV)
So shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth;
It shall not return to Me void,
But it shall accomplish what I please,
And it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it.
From Acts 4
(NKJV)

And when they had prayed, the place where they were assembled together was shaken; and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and they spoke the word of God with boldness.

Sharing in All Things

Now the multitude of those who believed were of one heart and one soul; neither did anyone say that any of the things he possessed was his own, but they had all things in common. 33 And with great power the apostles gave witness to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. And great grace was upon them all.

and (MSG)

While they were praying, the place where they were meeting trembled and shook. They were all filled with the Holy Spirit and continued to speak God’s Word with fearless confidence. The whole congregation of believers was united as one—one heart, one mind! They didn’t even claim ownership of their own possessions. No one said, “That’s mine; you can’t have it.” They shared everything. The apostles gave powerful witness to the resurrection of the Master Jesus, and grace was on all of them.

From Ephesians 4
from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love.

Ah yes Share...
1 Timothy 6
Let them do good, that they be rich in good works, ready to give, willing to share,

Share and Share alike!  remember the gift albeit so intimately personal is a gift meant to Share....when "My" Jesus becomes "Our..."
As Jesus said when you pray say....Our...

It's a Love thing...its a Heart thing...
Its a Love feast!  Pass the Joy please...

Rock and Roll y;all!  Jesus is the Rock...and we Roll!


Sunday, January 8, 2017

i wax...

poetic...
Seeing you

...in this morn I am awakened 
by a crying...a whimpering...
 nothing more urgent than my "beeste" letting me know ...
it is time...
my conscious waiting calmly as my unconscious's remnant...
 departs... 
 dreams and their visions...
visions and their moving pictures and words...
 words...leading to thoughts...
of You Lord...
of reaching out to You Master...
and of reaching out for You Teacher...
leading to revelation...
once again You are being revealed...
 another jot, another tittle...
not a lot, just a little...
more Love

my beginning business moves me hither...
seeking to find my head in the things I awaken with...
 my breaking through the fog of my morn...conscious of pain,
thankful...
reminded i am alive,
 hopeful...
Thank you Master for keeping watch...
so speaks my heart as my mind is still engaging....
placing my right foot on the floor
 attempt to adjust the dishevelment that sleep had rearranged my head...
rubbing my eyes to help bring in to focus...
" get off on the "right" foot, I whisper...
" Ok Teacher what is the lesson today?" 
a song comes to mind 
" Love is the opening Door, Love is what We came here for...
No one could offer you more...do you know what I mean?"
yes Lord my eyes have really seen...
 my beginning business moves me yon...
and I take my coffee outside eagerly desiring to continue this communion...
and I see the sun break into a clear sky landscape still white in frosty dormant sleep...
trees bare and neighborhood quiet...
i clutch my cup in the chilled air...
 leftover snow blowing into my face...
squinting i look and see  the hounds walking about seeking their opportunities to voice their reply to the waiting world...
and i see the light enlightening this Sun-day...
revealing the landscape recently hidden in shadow...
I raise my cup...
" Cheers Jesus"
and sip gratefully seeing the morning sun...
its light proceeding unto the land still sleeping, and the bride therein...
seeing in my minds eye the light breaking upon the multitude of witnesses...
still in slumber awaiting your rise in their hearts and in their eyes that they may see...
i see them in a glimpse from His perspective...
 seeing Love approach with arms...
open...
wide ...
ready to embrace ...
ready to knock on the doors of our hearts...
waiting...
for the opening door...
smiling now as surely as He is...saying " arise my love...come unto me let us...
commune..."
sharing visions, sharing lives...
"Shall we eat?"  revealing His banqueting table...and we look up and read the banner flying overhead....


Saturday, January 7, 2017

Ooooooooooooooo that smell!

Reminded listening to the radio on a trip to visit my Mom in a Hospice facility...by a Lynard Skynard song...and Oddly Godly reminded me of a Men's Encounter retreat in NC many years ago...we as a group were inundated by a stench..apparently (never before or after) a livestock ranch nearby was the source for this prevailing wind that wafted over our group as we sought an encounter with Jesus and were wanting a breaking and opening for the Holy Spirit in our seeking....as we discussed the smell...one person said he thought it was the enemy trying to distract us...that brought to mind that song "That Smell" and I started singing it...many laughed...but God was making even that stench to be an opportunity for ...encountering...And what was spoken was even in the midst of the smell of death...we can arise by the reaching and strong hand of the Lord...Take it and be lifted up...out of our stench out of our mess...completely even out of our generational curse that goes back to Adam...and then the finger of God points...and as we follow His gaze and look and see the Cross!  that pivotal and grand focus point of ALL creation in timeless time, endless eternity ,everything comes together in That Cross...His Cross...I am sure Adam saw it...wanting with all his heart to go back to the Garden....Abraham saw it and rejoiced! Read in John 8.  In the old covenant it was the "object" of faith God's deliverance the one the Hebrew Children tried to "make" in the golden calf...that symbol of the persons who enslaved them tried to brainwash them into believing...So amazing how easily distracted we are...and I am meaning me...how easily I am distracted how easily I give attention to the ruler of the world...forgetting the enemy has been defeated at that pivotal moment ...that Cross.  Thats one of the many reasons Jesus had to send the Holy Spirit..to remind us!  of what he said...for me like looking at my "marching orders"  to me He is saying " Here are your orders, your job, ...and here is your promise...your provision in Grace won for you at the Cross...
I encourage you to read again in Mat 28 and in the encouragement throughout His Word...esp in John 16...
And in John 6...
Jesus sensed that his disciples were having a hard time with this and said, “Does this throw you completely? What would happen if you saw the Son of Man ascending to where he came from? The Spirit can make life. Sheer muscle and willpower don’t make anything happen. Every word I’ve spoken to you is a Spirit-word, and so it is life-making. But some of you are resisting, refusing to have any part in this.” (Jesus knew from the start that some weren’t going to risk themselves with him. He knew also who would betray him.) He went on to say, “This is why I told you earlier that no one is capable of coming to me on his own. You get to me only as a gift from the Father.”

Ah yes  I do have times when I am distracted, and sometimes His voice fades...Yeah those "hard times"  But God!   and sometimes I am reminded by my own self!..." In times like these it's good to know there have always been....times like these"  That is why I cherish His Word touching, feeding, filling, ...reminding me

Be reminded my Sistren and Brethren!
Rock and Roll!  Jesus is the Rock,,,,and we Roll!


Tuesday, January 3, 2017

Happy New York! The New years aftermath...

Sitting here pondering in prayer...looking at the blank page...."What would you have me share Lord?"
"Share your heart..." comes the reply.
So my gaze redirects and I look and ponder within...Seeking Him in my heart and seeking Him in the recent events...the event called New Years...a time of traditions...our eyes attentive to New York and the ball dropping...that grand moment where we sing...and oddly Godly..those traditions are based on...recalling, remembering...pondering ...singing...Auld Lang Syne...I always loved the Scot's heritage their unique cultural make up I sort of...identified with....I felt comfortable with...I'd read the poem...and like many... heard the song based on it...As the Scots singing the song on Hogmanay or New Year's Eve became a Scots custom that spread to other parts of the British Isles. As Scots (not to mention English, Welsh and Irish people) emigrated around the world, they took the song with them...and so many of us followed suit making it part of what we do on New Years day...from Wikipedia, "The song's Scots title may be translated into standard English as "old long since", or more idiomatically, "long long ago","days gone by" or "old times". Consequently, "For auld lang syne", as it appears in the first line of the chorus, might be loosely translated as "for (the sake of) old times"....I was blessed many years ago to hear a phrase that I share to this day " The past is a place of reference...not of residence"  that spoke to me as I was constantly dealing with the past....either as an excuse, or a reason...both wrong things to do...Amen?   Was also blessed in my relationship with Jesus in His Word...
As shared by Paul in Philippians 4 “Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.”

It has been revealed to me that if I ever thought "I made it! or I got it! or I really understand it!"...I have not...just when I thought I figured it out...I hadn't...chuckles  like bowling, after that perfect strike  I thought "Well now I got it!  OK 300 game here we go!"  ahhh  ...no...then comes the gutter ball and I am as before left scratching my head...so it is in my relationship with God...just when I think I had it figured out..a lot of it was because I was looking in the past...and now wondering about all those times I almost...got it.  There is no way to be looking forward while still looking back at “what lies behind” and you can’t strain forward and press ahead by looking over your shoulder. We are only pilgrims in this world and we are looking ahead to a better future so it doesn’t do believers any good to keep looking back all the time. Imagine trying to drive a car by using the rearview mirror. That’s an accident waiting to happen, isn’t it?...For the sake of the old times...Auld Lang Syne...There is for me a precedent...Should old acquaintance be forgot....When I do look back...and I do...I remember...the night we first met...those milestones in our lives...when we first "met" Jesus...When He revealed Himself in a way that touched and opened our heart...when we made that good choice welcoming Him home...when we said "I do"  we remember that "anniversary"  of that commitment.
Our Father is so much God of the future...creator of time that He is...
...and it is important and the Holy Spirit's job...to remind us of what Jesus said....and I recall...
Luke 9:62
 But Jesus said to him, “No one, having put his hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.”

And as He also reminds us in Genesis 19 “But Lot’s wife, behind him, looked back, and she became a pillar of salt.”
Here is a reminder for all of us. Once we come out of the world, like our so-called exodus from sin, we must put the past behind us and press ahead and not look back. When Lot’s wife looked back, she didn’t do it out of curiosity or just to see the destruction of Sodom. She looked back longingly, desirously, and coveting what she had left back in Sodom. She looked back because she wanted to go back. Much like the Christian who comes out of the world but still has to live in the world we look back on the world.
This is why Jesus told His listeners “Remember Lot’s wife!” in Luke 17

Remember Lot’s wife.  Whoever seeks to save his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life will preserve it.  I tell you, in that night there will be two men in one bed: the one will be taken and the other will be left. Two women will be grinding together: the one will be taken and the other left. Two men will be in the field: the one will be taken and the other left.”
 And they answered and said to Him, “Where, Lord?”
So He said to them, “Wherever the body is, there the eagles will be gathered together.”

Something to chew on this new year....To taste and see...
So as we press forward...let us always...
 Rock and Roll! Jesus is the Rock....and we Roll!