Working with a Smile…

By Renee Burt

Have you ever worked really hard at something, but no one even acknowledges how hard you worked? But then someone else puts in about half the effort you did, but because they let everyone know how hard they think they worked, they wind up getting everyone’s thanks and appreciation? When I used to work in the airlines, I think that was my biggest pet peeve. I believed what the Bible says about not tooting your own horn, but it seemed like if anyone was ever going to notice my hard work, I’d have to do SOMETHING! I was tempted to work less (like my complaining coworkers) and to make sure I looked like I was worn out from all the hard work I was doing…so even if I didn’t say anything, they could take one look at me, see hard rough I had it, and appreciate me. Well, that lasted all of about a day, because the Lord reminded me of today’s verses. So I got right back to working hard…for Him…and when you know that He sees what you do, and you know you have HIS approval, that can’t help but put a smile back on your face!

Ephesians 6:6-7 MSG ~ Don’t just do what you have to do to get by, but work heartily, as Christ’s servants doing what God wants you to do. And work with a smile on your face, always keeping in mind that no matter who happens to be giving the orders, you’re really serving God.

More devotions from Renee’s Fresh Manna

Published by Pastor Tim Burt
Copyright© 2008 Tim Burt, All rights reserved.

http://readfreshmanna.blogspot.com/

“Stay Focused On God”

By Pastor Tim Burt

2 Tim: 8-10 (Message Bible) “So don’t be embarrassed to speak up for our Master or for me, his prisoner. Take your share of suffering for the Message along with the rest of us. We can only keep on going, after all, by the power of God, who first saved us and then called us to this holy work.”

One day you will come to the end of your life. It may come sooner than you hoped or thought. I almost lost my life twice – in a traffic incident and in a near miss on an airplane. By the grace of God, I wasn’t hurt in either but I honestly believe there was miraculous intervention in both. After each of those incidents, it was almost like I went into a type of shock. I just couldn’t stop thinking about how my life almost ended.

The first time I almost lost my life, I didn’t know the Lord except through what I was exposed to in my upbringing. Religion confused me, created questions I couldn’t find answers to, and eventually led me from God. My thoughts after the first near death experience were completely different from the second. After the car incident, I didn’t think so much about what would have happened to me if I had died. I blocked those kinds of thoughts because my path in life was hell bound and I knew it. What I did think about was that the two people in the car with me were almost killed. I had fallen asleep at the wheel and it almost cost all us our lives. It triggered the beginning process of self examination of my life.

Then in the aircraft near miss, our plane missed a head on collision with another aircraft by a short distance. I had asked Jesus into my life by that time. The thoughts I had after that incident again triggered this long season of reflection. I knew I would have been with the Lord if I had died, but what bothered me most was that I had no confidence that I would hear those words that are so talked about in Matthew 25:21, “Well done, good and faithful servant; you were faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your lord.” It was like I flashed back through my life over and over going back to the day I had given it to the Lord. I began to feel great regret that I had obeyed Him way too few times and wasted too much of my life since knowing Him. I thought, if I stood before the Lord right now, I would not have been satisfied. I would have been embarrassed.

Theologically, I don’t think we could stand before the Lord and feel embarrassed and I don’t want to get hung up on that thought. It will be glorious the moment we stand in the presence of the Lord. The point I am making is that I wasn’t satisfied with my efforts to obey the Lord and serve Him wholeheartedly up to that time.

I believe that many if not most people occasionally ‘park by the side of the road’ in their walk with God. What I mean by that is they come to know Jesus and life’s purpose but eventually end up spending more time pursuing their own selfish desires. Living for God takes the back seat in life. People’s lives too easily become side-tracked and distracted by cares or problems or events that have stolen the focus of the real purpose of their Christian life. What is that real purpose? It’s to reach people for Jesus – to touch lives with His love and power – and to make a difference in other’s lives. Sometimes it’s not a problem or situation that causes people to become side tracked. Sometimes it’s the lure of carnal things – materialistic things that we allow to distract us and become too important and take up too much of our time and resources. Sometimes people are distracted by their embarrassment from persecution that comes from being a Christian. People might think you are weird so you water down and compromise your walk with God. Or maybe someone has attacked what you believe, or attacked a Christian leader you have respected, or maybe they’ve attacked your church if your church is making a difference. You feel embarrassed about that and easily believe it and end up pulling back from God. Persecution is designed to bring embarrassment.

Satan is out to stop the gospel of Jesus Christ and the blessing of God to believer’s lives at any cost. He will lie and deceive in order to kill, steal, and destroy. He’ll use rumor, gossip, innuendo, character assassination – what ever he can get people to believe to embarrass Christians, distract them, and knock them off course.

Jesus who had done no wrong was always lied about. His enemies plotted evil and wicked plots to stop Him. Judas betrayed Him and His disciples fled and deserted Him in His worst hour. The Apostle Paul faced the same thing. His enemies vowed not eat until they killed him. Paul had liars continually persecuting him and reciting false charges against him. He ended up in prison having done no wrong – being innocent of every charge, and many of his followers were too embarrassed o their leader being in prison. They backed away from Paul and eventually their life in God. Paul had to write to his followers, “Be not therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me his prisoner: but be a partaker of the afflictions of the gospel according to the power of God.”(2Timothy 1:8)

I regret any time I have ever ‘parked by the side of the road’ in my heart and wasted precious time distracted from that which is so important in this life – that which I will stand before Jesus about at the end of my life. I want to stir up what God deposited within me and cast these distractions aside and follow Paul’s consul to Timothy!

“So don’t be embarrassed to speak up for our Master or for me, His prisoner. Take your share of suffering for the gospel along with the rest of us. We can only keep on going, after all, by the power of God, who first saved us and then called us to this holy work.”

In His Love,
Pastor Tim Burt
http://readfreshmanna.blogspot.com/

Published by Pastor Tim Burt
Copyright© 2008 Tim Burt, All rights reserved.

Protection from Persecution

By Pastor Tim Burt

2 Thes. 3:2 (NIV) “And pray that we may be delivered from wicked and evil men, for not everyone has faith.”

I asked Jesus to be my Lord and Savior at the age of 24 years old. Prior to that I had given up on God and religion declaring it (out of my frustration to really know what the truth was) a bunch of hooie. I was wrong. I am so thankful that Jesus didn’t give up on me. He continued to send people across my path that shared His love with me. I finally met the person that could truly explain Jesus and Christianity in a way that I could get it. My life changed that day and has never been the same.

My children were all born after I became a Christian and were taught by Renee and I of his love from day one of their lives. We sang about Jesus, we read about Jesus, we learned together about Jesus. Jesus is what they knew from their earliest memories. As they grew up, they all went through the process of making their faith their own from their own convictions.

I am telling you all this to say that their experience of Jesus – from day one of their lives, was totally different from mine – receiving Him into my heart at the age of 24. People are going to experience Jesus – learning or hearing about Him, in a multitude of ways in life. We want to and our taught by the Lord that our central purpose in life is to share His love with others. Jesus will use us to be the lifeline thrown to those heading over a waterfall. He might use us to share the last words someone ever hears before they die – hopefully words of Jesus’ love and gift of eternal life. That has happened to me numerous times.

We are agents of His love – and again, make no mistake about it – it is our assignment in life. 2 Cor. 5:18 says, “All this newness of life is from God, who brought us back to Himself through what Christ did. And God has given us the ministry of reconciliation – the task of reconciling people to Himself.”

When a person becomes a new believer in Christ, something supernatural happens. Their eyes are open – spiritually open to understanding things about God that they could never see or understand before. That is a work of the Holy Spirit and it happens to those who sincerely receive Jesus into their heart.

When you begin to share Jesus with others, there eyes have not been opened by the Holy Spirit yet. That means what you share with them can be accepted or rejected to some degree by their mental understanding. If they accept and trust and ask Jesus into their heart, then the Holy Spirit will open their spiritual eyes. If they keep up a wall and reject what they hear, their mind will reject what you have shared and their eyes of their spiritual understanding remain blinded. This is why Jesus would continually say, “If any man has ears to hear, let him hear.” Mark 4:23 and to those who would accept Him, “But blessed are your eyes, for they see: and your ears, for they hear.” Matthew 13:16

We are given the joy of sharing Jesus. But sometimes it won’t feel like a joy. Sometimes we will share and people will listen and receive every word we say. Sometimes people will write you off as a kook. It is the most wonderful feeling when you lead someone to Christ. It can also hurt when someone rejects you. But as Jesus said, they really aren’t rejecting you. They are rejecting Him. So, don’t take it as rejection and always remember that it’s not over till it’s over.

The Apostle Paul was delivering Christians to prison when the Lord got a hold of Him. He became one of the greatest soul winners in the history of man with his life and influence. The very person who rejects you today may mull over what you said and have a change of heart another day. This is our prayer for all!

The reason I am writing this today is to say that persecution for living the Christian walk and sharing your faith, are one sign that you are having any kind of an impact for the Lord. We don’t try to draw persecution. We don’t get judgmental and tell someone they are a sinner because they are living in a sexual relationship with another outside of marriage. We don’t act like a self righteous jerk and tell everything we do and don’t do that makes us so Holy. No, we try to find ways to share how much Jesus loves them. If they get that, the Holy Spirit will take care of the sin problem as they begin to read the Word of God.

When we do share Jesus’ love in the multitude of ways that we can and are led to, persecution will come. The devil will find ways to try and stop you or discourage you. Your family may reject you. Your boss may threaten you. Your friends may look at you as someone who has become a religious nut! That hurts, but, if they do accept Jesus, you have been used of God to help save their soul.

Persecution will often come when you live your life for the Lord. Sometimes people may hate you just because of what you represent. Your love and godly lifestyle may make them feel guilty. Some people that attack you are just ignorant and acting stupid. Others are evil because their heart is so hard. They may lie and find ways to attack you. When this happens, remember and pray in faith today’s Fresh Manna. Pray that you be delivered from those that are being used as someone evil and wicked to come against you. Paul did. Pray what He prayed and don’t be discouraged but continue to be used by the Lord!

2 Thess. 3:1-3 (NLT) “Pray first that the Lord’s message will spread rapidly and be honored wherever it goes, just as when it came to you. Pray, too, that we will be saved from wicked and evil people, for not everyone believes in the Lord. But the Lord is faithful; he will make you strong and guard you from the evil one.”

In His Love,
Pastor Tim Burt
http://readfreshmanna.blogspot.com/

Published by Pastor Tim Burt
Copyright© 2008 Tim Burt, All rights reserved