We Have Hope

Romans 15:4 (NIV84)

For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through endurance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.

Good morning Zebras,

I am getting ready for the "We Have Hope" retreat in Simi Valley this weekend and I just wanted to share a little bit of what God has been teaching me.

As I began researching the idea of hope I found that hope comes from reading and understanding Scripture (today’s verse) from knowing and trusting God (Psalm 62:5), from believing in and accepting the sacrifice of Christ (1 Cor 15:19), and from walking in the power of the Holy Spirit (Romans 15:13). And when you think about it, it makes perfect sense.

Reading the Bible is where we have to start. It is in Scripture that God reveals Himself to His people. It is there we learn who He is and what He has done for us. Just like the lame man who was healed by Jesus in John 5, if we want to get well, we need to “Get up! Pick up our mat and walk.” And walking, for me, began with opening the Word and getting to know God.

Look at the men and women of the Old Testament who knew their God, especially David, who was promised the kingdom of Israel at fifteen but did not get it all until he was thirty-seven. Yet read David’s Psalms. David knew who God was and knowing that allowed him to wait, to stand up to the ridicule and attacks of others and obey God even when it was difficult, because his God was bigger than the problems around him. And when he failed, he threw himself on the mercy of God because he knew his God would forgive him.

Plus, people who have hope know Jesus Christ as savior and they understand that this world is not their home. They understand that we are passing through and our real home is in heaven. They know that they will be rewarded for the good deeds that they have done in the body and are willing to make any sacrifice for Christ. They know that there is something better to come and they live with their eyes focused on that goal. They know what Paul knew-that everything is rubbish compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus.

Finally, those people who have hope understand the Holy Spirit that lives inside them. They know that they have the power to overcome because of that spirit. They know they can do all the things that God has given them to do because of His power. They know they are not alone in this world because God sent the counselor, the Spirit of Christ, to live in us and to be with us at all times. And they know the truth of who God is because His spirit has revealed it to them

I think what God is teaching me, and what I felt prompted to share, is that all of us can have hope if we know our God personally, as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Love,

Jill

Well Done...

Psalm 37:4 (ESV)

Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart.

Good morning Zebras,

I want to thank you for all the prayers. The Reno conference went really well and I even had a fun God story to share. Since Reno was the last conference for the year, my prayer was that I would finish strong.  I wanted to know I had done well and not have nagging doubts I should’ve said something differently. 

The way conference works is the missionary assigns each of us a room that he thinks will accommodate the people who want to come and hear the workshop.  He also provides what he believes to be adequate seating.  Sometimes they underestimate people’s interest in the topic, and sometimes they overestimate so chairs have to be moved around from room to room.

In the past Mike has overestimated people’s interest in hearing what God has given me to say, and underestimated the interest of the topic that is being presented in the room next door.  More than once people have come into my room and borrowed chairs for other workshops.

So Friday night, as I was setting up the room, I thought, “I’m just going to leave some of these chairs folded up so it’s easier for people to borrow them.” But when I showed Mike what I’d done, he told me to set them all up.  So even though I didn’t think we would use them all I did what I was told.

Saturday morning, as I was walking down the hall, I glanced into the room next door and surveyed their chair situation.  In my mind I was already planning on giving some of my chairs away and I wanted to make sure they had room.  I mean I have been doing conference for six years now and I know how this goes-at least how it has gone before.

To be honest it used to bother me, it’s hard to speak when you think people aren’t interested in what you’re saying, but through a very long and painful process God has really grown me in that area.  Now pleasing Him is what is foremost in my mind.   

The first workshop had twenty-plus people, for planning purposes Mike makes us count attendance, which is pretty normal for a conference of three hundred, the second workshop had more, which again is normal, but what wasn’t normal was that in last workshop all the chairs were filled and for the first time ever people had to go get chairs from other rooms.  And today’s verse came to mind.

Now I know chairs are not a big deal, and numbers don’t really mean anything, but in this case God knew I wanted to know that I had finished well, and I really felt like this was His way of telling me that I had.

Love,

Jill

Scorched Earth

2 Timothy 1:7a (NKJ)


For God has not given us a spirit of fear

Good morning Zebras,

Last month while I was preparing for the Walking in the Spirit retreat, waiting to see if the fires in Mt. Lassen would be put out in time for the event, a zebra sister sent me the following information she found on the internet about zebras and fires. She said she felt God was prompting her to send it to me as a way of encouragement.

"Would you believe," she said, "that the animals in Africa mostly likely to survive a fire are not the ones who run from it - they're the ones who run through it? Those who run away get tired, collapse, and are engulfed by the flames. Zebras, on the other hand, are especially great survivors because, rather than running away from the fire, they run through the fire."

"What a powerful analogy for the healing process," she continued. "The fire is fear. If we run away from fear, we die. However, if we simply turn around, face it, and run through it, we survive. And discover that on the other side is simply scorched earth, fresh for rebirth. And the fire is no longer moving towards us but away from us, no longer a threat to our survival."

This morning, I feel like I have run through the fire of fear and come out the other side. God tells us in 2 Timothy 1:7 that He did not give a us a spirit of fear-and because of that I am beginning to understand that decisions made out of fear are not from God.

For example two years ago as I left the Redding area Awana conference I was so discouraged I vowed never to return. I cried most of the ways home that day and I never wanted to feel that bad again.

So last year I didn’t go. Instead I managed to get myself invited to another Awana conference so I would have an excuse not to go. This year I tried to do the same thing, but God wouldn’t let me. And I knew I needed to return to Redding and face my fears.

And just like the story, running through the fire ended up being the right thing to do.

I made it all the way home yesterday without a single tear and even more surprisingly I had a wonderful time at the conference. The people who attended the workshops were great and I had a truly blessed day talking about the Lord, encouraging God’s people and being encouraged in return.

So thank you little Zebras, for praying me. It made all the difference and I hope my story encourages you to trust God and run through your fears so that you too can experience the blessings on the other side.

Love,
Jill

Power of God

1 Corinthians 10:13


No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it

Good morning Zebras,

I finally found it!

A few years ago God showed me that today’s verse is often taken out of context and used to encourage people who are going through trials to prove that God never gives more than they can handle. A sort of “buck up, you can do it” speech.

But this is a temptation verse.

God never allows us to be tempted beyond what we can bear, but it doesn’t say that God limits our troubles and hardships to those that we can endure. It just wouldn’t make sense. If we could handle everything in our life on our own, we would.

Anyone who has gone through serious trials knows that “bucking up” is not always an option. How can you “pull yourself up by your bootstrap” when you don’t even have the energy to reach your feet? You can’t. But what you can do is throw it back to God.

And here is the proof.

2 Corinthians 1:8-10
“We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about the hardships we suffered in the province of Asia. We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired even of life. Indeed, in our hearts we felt the sentence of death. But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead. He has delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us. On him we have set our hope that he will continue to deliver us.”

If Paul, the super apostle, was given more than he could handle then I think it only follows that we will be too. But what Paul understood was the power that lived inside of him to overcome because three chapters later he writes: We have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us.

All of us are clay jars, fragile and weak but God himself lives inside of us and that is the power we have to overcome everything the world throws at us.

Love,
Jill

Fruitful Branch

John 15:1–4 (NIV84)

 “I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener.  He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful.  You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.

Dear Zebras,

I’m not sure if it’s my imagination but we seem to be having a very windy summer here in Benicia.  And because of that quite a few limbs have fallen off of trees.  The first one was a few weeks ago while I was doing my quite time. I looked up just in time to see a very large branch fall from the tree across the street.

It fell with a large crack and a “poof.”  There were so many leaves on the branch it “fluffed” as it hit the ground taking a few minutes for all the leaves to settle down and quit moving.  Since the house across the street is currently empty the branch sat on the lawn for a few days so I got to look at it every morning for about a week.

What amazed me was how quickly a vibrant branch withered and died when removed from the tree. And I was reminded of Jesus’ warning to His disciples in John 15.

John 15:5–6 (NIV84)

"I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.  If anyone does not remain in me, he is like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned.

As Christians the most important thing we can do is to stay connected to Jesus.  He is what gives us life and the ability to do anything of value.  But too often in this busy world Jesus gets pushed to the background and real quality time with God gets overlooked in our hurry to do “more important” things.

But the truth is there is nothing that is more important, especially if we want to be a fruitful branch.

Love,

Jill

Barking Through the Fence

James 1:25–27 (NLT)

But if you look carefully into the perfect law that sets you free, and if you do what it says and don’t forget what you heard, then God will bless you for doing it.  If you claim to be religious but don’t control your tongue, you are fooling yourself, and your religion is worthless.  Pure and genuine religion in the sight of God the Father means caring for orphans and widows in their distress and refusing to let the world corrupt you.

Good morning Zebras,

Some of you are probably starting to think I need to get out more because God keeps giving me lessons through my dogs. But I believe it shows that no matter where you are or what you are doing, if your ears are open to the teachings of God, He will teach you.

As I have mentioned, my dogs, Abigail and Joshua have very different personalities.  Abigail is by far the more “high strung.” She is the one who hears and responds to every sound and noise. But she isn’t always content with waiting for “noise” to come her way sometimes she goes looking for it.

Three out of our four neighbors whose fences adjoin our property have dogs. And one of Abigail’s very favorite pastimes is to sit by the fence looking through the cracks trying to catch a glimpse of what the other dogs are doing.  As soon as she spies them she erupts into barking and has to be brought inside.

Joshua’s favorite pastime is to sit on my lap.  He will go outside to see what Abigail has discovered, but he usually comes back quickly to reclaim his place of honor

Watching them has reminded me once again that we need to have our eyes firmly fixed on God and not pressed against the fence of other people’s live to see what they are doing. It doesn’t really matter what they are doing it only matters what God is doing.  And all that time wasted at the fence is time that could have been spent with Him.

Hebrews 12:1 tells us to have our eyes FIXED on Jesus, which means we are to look away from everything else and look to only at Him, running with perseverance the race He has marked out for US.  And 2 Timothy 2:4 says: No soldier in active service entangles himself in the affairs of everyday life, so that he may please the one who enlisted him as a soldier.

Jesus Christ is the one who has enlisted us, He is the only who knows what we are supposed to do, and that means we need to work to please Him if we want to remain on active duty.  Which leads to the question: What really pleases Jesus?

According to today’s verses I think what pleases Jesus, is looking into God’s Word, applying what we have learned, watching what we say, taking care of others in need and keeping ourselves from being polluted by the world.

Nowhere do I see sit at the fence and watch others, barking when necessary.

Love,

Jill

Scary Moodles

Matthew 5:23–24 (NIV84)

“Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to your brother; then come and offer your gift.

Romans 12:18 (NASB95)

“If possible, so far as it depends on you, be at peace with all men.”

Good morning Zebras,

About a month ago I was walking my dogs around the neighborhood.  Since it’s a quiet neighborhood with very little traffic, I let them walk off-leash part of the time.  It makes them think they are “big dogs,” (which is important when you only weigh five pounds.)

Anyway, as we were walking along we came upon a lady doing some yard work.  She had her back to us and she was engrossed in her task so she didn’t hear us coming.  This was very unfortunate because when Joshua and Abigail came up behind her and sniffed her arm she nearly had a heart attack.

She started yelling very unpleasant things and telling me to get my dogs off her property.  I tried to apologize but she was so angry she couldn’t hear me.

Ever since then I’ve kept the dogs on their leash because the lady was right and I didn’t want them scaring anyone else.  But I still felt bad about it. I really wanted another chance to apologize to the woman. I thought about knocking on her door every time I walked by her house, but I wasn’t sure how that would go over.

Finally God answered my prayer and put me out of my misery by giving me the opportunity to apologize and set things right.

Last Saturday she was out in her yard again, but this time she was facing my direction so she saw us walk up.  I stopped and apologized; I asked her to forgive me for scaring her and told her how very sorry I was that the dogs had frightened her so badly.

She forgave me-and I felt great.

But this morning was the “final healing.”  Once again I was walking my dogs and once again she was out in her yard, but this time instead of dreading talking to her, I was happy to see her.  Nothing inside of me felt convicted by her presence.

I think she was glad to see me too, because she asked the dogs names and even called us “friends.”  And once again I was reminded of the healing power of forgiveness.

Love,

Jill