Lamps

Matthew 5:14a (NIV84) 
“You are the light of the world.”

Good morning Zebras,

I love when God gives me a tiny glimpse of how large His is. How He has looked down through time and connected people in ways that they do not even realize. One of those moments recently happened at my house.

God has given me the joy of hosting a group of women in my house on Monday nights to discuss Him. A few weeks ago one of the women tried to turn on a lamp in my living room. The lamp is broken so I told her “It just looks like a lamp, it doesn’t really work.” By the next morning I was in tears over that lamp. Not because I care whether or not the lamp works but because of what the lamp represents. 

For me the lamp represents God’s people. Many of His people are getting tired and burned out. They want to be the lights of the world but they are weary. They need someone to come alongside them to encourage them and remind them of the God they serve. I believe that’s the purpose of Zebras. 

This Monday God confirmed it through another woman in the same group. I shared my story about the lamp and she felt prompted by God to share the following poem she had written when she was twelve. We both knew she was talking about Zebras. God had given her a vision for this ministry before He gave it to me.

Candle Light 

A Christian is very bright 
Just like a candle light 
A candle Glows just like a Christian shows 
Other people about Jesus Christ 

When the candle is blown out 
Or the Christian starts pouting about 
It takes a helping hand 
To help the Christian glow again

I don’t know what kind of lamp you are right now, maybe you are shining so brightly that you hurt people's eyes, but if you are broken or wounded here is the encouraging end to the story. Two days after I grieved over my broken lamp God brought someone along who fixed it. And I felt Him say “I can fix My broken lamps if they will just give Me the chance.”

I love you little Zebras, but our God loves you even more.
Jill

Ready for Battle

Good reminder in the Bible Commentary this morning.

Romans 8:31 If God is for us, who can be against us?

Obviously, Satan and his demonic hosts are against believers, but they cannot ultimately prevail and triumph over believers. God is the self-existent One and the sovereign Creator and, since He is for believers, no one can oppose believers successfully.

That wasn’t what I expected them to say.  We get lulled into thinking that if we are for God no one can come against us.  But the truth is if we stand for God we stand against Satan.  Believers should not expect following hard after Christ to be easy.  The more we follow after Christ and the more we encourage others to do the same the more we attract attention from the enemy.  A solider sitting in a foxhole is no danger to the other side, but a solider armed with the Word of God and the Love of Christ dedicated to doing whatever His commanding officer asks of him…that’s another story.

Therefore put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes and remember no one serving as a soldier gets involved in civilian affairs—he wants to please his commanding officer.  (Eph 6:11, 2 Tim 2:4)

Have a great day little Zebras, armed and ready for battle.

Love,

Jill

Correction

James 3:1 (ESV)  

Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness.

Good morning Zebras,

This morning in a series of events too long to go into God showed me that I have been wrong about the order of publications of Francis Chan’s books.  Crazy Love was first, then Forgotten God and finally Erasing Hell.  Not that it really matters, but I had been told Forgotten God came first and because I never checked to see if it was true I passed along incorrect information to countless people.

Obviously it does not matter in what order Chan wrote his books but I can’t help but think what if that had been a truth of God.  What if I had inadvertently passed along incorrect information about our holy, perfect, good, loving, sovereign, righteous God because I didn’t bother to verify the truth for myself? 

Zebras I love you please, for my sake as well as you own, learn God’s word for yourself and not rely on the information disseminated to you by others, even if they are Godly people who love the Lord, because sometimes they are just repeating what they heard.

Love,

Jill

Burning Brightly

Good morning Zebras,

Tuesday at Bible study God gave me the perfect picture for what I believe is the purpose of this ministry. Coals burn brightest when they are in the presence of other coals. If you take them out and lay them to the side away from the heat they begin to grow cold. Christians too need one another to burn bright. Not so they can stay together in a heap and do nothing, but so that they can come together be re-energized by the fire of the Holy Spirit and get back out there doing what God has called them to do with a renewed power and passion. 
I love you little Zebras, more than you know and WAY out of proportion to what is normal.  
It must be from God. 
Jill

Second Chance

Romans 13:14 (ESV)

But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.

Good morning Zebras,

Three years ago when we were planning the first Zebra retreat Mike Sexton, the Awana missionary for our area, let me go to all four fall Awana conferences and talk about Zebras.  From that God brought seventy of the one hundred women who attended.  So last spring when God prompted me to organize another Zebra retreat, the first one for men and woman, I thought “Great I will just promote it at conference again and gather up interested people.”  But God had other plans.

Through a variety of ways, as only God can do, He made it perfectly clear that I was not to speak at Awana conferences this year.  Instead I was to offer my services to Mike and be a support and encouragement to him.  So I did.

Last weekend on the twenty-first I went to Santa Rosa.  It was a great day; God definitely blessed me for doing what I was supposed to do.  Everything was going great, I was focused on supporting Mike and then right at the end someone came and talked to me about Zebras.  They shared a story that was a huge encouragement to me, but instead of just accepting the blessing I whipped out a retreat brochure and asked them to pray for this upcoming event and then I handed one to the woman sitting next to me.

It wasn’t until the next day that God made it perfectly clear I shouldn’t have done that. I haven’t had a day that bad in a long time, but the weight of my disobedience was almost crushing.   God had very clearly told me not to promote the retreat at conference but I had taken a few flyers “just in case” someone asked.  I mean, handing out brochures isn’t the same as speaking…right?  Wrong.  Disobedience is disobedience because God isn’t looking at the actions He is looking at the heart.

He knew I was worried that He wasn’t going to be able to fill this next event if I didn’t help Him out a little, and that is what He was disciplining me for.  It wasn’t for one or two brochures; it was for my lack of faith.  Thankfully, there was one more conference left and I had another chance to show God I trusted Him.  

Yesterday was the Sacramento conference, seven hundred people, lots of opportunities to talk about Zebras but this time because of today’s verse, I left my brochures at home.  I knew if I took them I would give in to the temptation to hand them out and this morning I would once again be sitting around with a crushed spirit. And although I talked about Zebras, God He did amazing things to encourage me I that I was on the right path.

I love you little Zebras; God will do what has promised.  He doesn’t want nor need our help; He just wants our obedience and our faith, and the credit for making it happen.

Love,

Jill

For His Honor and Glory

Isaiah 42:8 (ESV)

I am the LORD; that is my name; my glory I give to no other, nor my praise to carved idols.

Good morning Zebras,

I love you. 

Many years ago God did a miracle for me.  People noticed and when they asked me about it I told them God had done it.  But there was one lady who just kept pushing for a different answer.  She didn’t believe in God and she wanted to know by what human means I’d accomplished it.  I finally broke down and told her. Then she was satisfied.  It wasn’t a miracle from God it was just the outcome of man’s efforts.

After that the miracle went away but it wasn’t until now that I figured out why

People always want to know how to accomplish what they see you doing.  They want a worldly explanation for what they see.  But the truth is, it is not what we do that causes the miracles, it is what God does and all of us need to be on guard that we do not give God’s glory to anything here on earth. 

If God has done a miracle in your life and He has used some earthly means to accomplish it please don’t give away His glory.  The world is more than willing to believe in the power of doctors and the wisdom of men, but what they really need to see is the power and wisdom of God.  But that isn’t going to happen if the Christians keep giving the credit away.

I love you little Zebras, I pray God does many miracles in your life all for His honor and glory.

Jill

Ordinary No More

Acts 4:13 (NIV)

When they saw the courage of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished and took note that these men had been with Jesus.

Good morning Zebras,

I am starting a Bible study with some Zebra sisters here in my area.  We are going to work through Francis Chan’s book The Forgotten God : Reversing Our Tragic Neglect of the Holy Spirit together.  This morning I started lesson one. 

The first thing we are asked to do is to write what we believe about the Holy Spirit and honestly access why we have those beliefs.  Have we searched scripture for ourselves to see the work and purpose of the Spirit or have we simply accepted what other people have taught us?  Prior to last year I would have to say I just accepted what I was taught. Recently I have been studying the Spirit for myself.  But when dealing with an infinite God, no matter how much you learn there is always more right around the corner,

So this morning as I started my lesson I was not surprised when Acts 1:4-8, a very familiar passage, took on a deeper meaning.

Jesus was telling the disciples that the Holy Spirit would give them power to be His witnesses in world.  In the past I have always thought about that verse in the context of their speaking.  They would have the power to go and tell others the Gospel.  But this morning God showed me it is way more than that.  They would have the power, given by the Holy Spirit, to go and live lives that would testify to the world about Jesus not just by words but by actions as well. Now that makes more sense. 

Not all of us are called to wander the world and preach the Gospel, but all of us all called to be His witness in the world.  All of us are called to live lives that are honoring to Him.  All of us are called to look different than the world, to value pleasing God above pleasing men, to treasure heavenly rewards more than earthly ones, to love our neighbors even if they are totally unlovable and to keep our bodies and tongues under control so that we don’t dishonor God with what we say and do. To accomplish this we have been given the power of God.

Therefore no Christian should ever say: “I can’t” when it comes to obeying God because they can, they just don’t know it or they don’t want to.

And that is exciting!  It means that everything God has asked me to do; He has given me to the power to do, from the smallest task to the scariest leap of faith, not so that I can look cool, but so that my life is a living witness to the power of God.

I love you little Zebras and if you are thinking “Rats, I want to be in that study!” just pick up the books and learn along with us or make a group of your own.  The more the merrier.

Love,

Jill