I just LOVE this article that my dear friends, Kim and John, have written. Their lives have spoken volumes to me over recent years as I’ve watched them narrow their time and possessions in order to reflect the biblical mandates found in Scripture to ‘seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness’.

I’ve tried to implement these principles in my own home. I’m continually amazed at the enormous amount of blessings (STUFF) that I’ve acquired over the years. But, I’ve found that owning things comes with a price tag. There is time involved in the dusting, cleaning and washing of items in my home. Some items are worth the time… others are not. With that commitment also comes the realization that something else is going undone. I’ve had to ask myself if those things ‘undone’ are the Lord’s commands and His priorities.

I’ve gone through all of my possessions twice with each of our moves  over the past 10 years and rid our home of so many things that had the potential to steal my time by dusting and caring for them.  I’m in the middle of that process again as we possibly face another move. As a result I do find that I have more opportunities to minister (if I will make it a priority in my life).

I’m still trying to find ways to walk this principle out in my life and home.  I’d greatly value your input. Have you ever thought of your home as an ‘ambassador’s home’? Is this concept new to you? Do you find yourself spending way too much time in the upkeep and care of your home and as a result less time in ministering to those the Lord has placed in your path? Do you feel guilty because you can’t find the time to fulfill many of the Lord’s commands in 1 Timothy 5:10-15, Titus 2, etc.? What think ye, ladies?

 

First Entry

Just introducing a thought here to begin kicking around from time to time. It’s something we’re keenly interested in and have been thinking through for years since volunteering a little of our time at a missions organization.

The questions we’re challenging ourselves with are these:

If we were leaving our home country to go to another country to live as missionaries and ambassadors for Christ – knowing we would be there for the specific purpose and priority of leading people to the Lord, discipling them, planting churches, and pouring out our lives for them – what would we need to take with us? What specific list of things would we come up with to prepare our home and our life for this? (This assumes that only true necessities to fulfill the above would be able to be transported to the new place.)

After coming up with that list – the next challenging questions:

Do we have more than those things in our home today?

If so, what are they, and why do we have them?

What priorities and purpose in life do our possessions show we have?

What changes in our home are we willing and able to make toward the goal of making our home an ambassador’s home right where we are today?

We don’t live a particularly austere kind of life (as in severe, without ornament or adornment), but we have been paring down for years (more on this at another time). We’re still far from being down to nubbins, but we are aiming at a greatly simplified way of life.

We work a lot, study a lot, and play a lot, and are extremely grateful for the time in history our Lord has placed us, as well as our location and the abundance of things He has given us to live our life. We know we are exceedingly blessed!

But we have some goals, and we’re thinking through certain issues related to those things we have and the time we spend on their upkeep, what our purpose in life is (or should be), and what our priorities are – especially (for these posts) as pertains to our home.

Second Entry

There have been moments in the midst of our country’s most recent war (in Iraq) when our kind Lord used something to remind us that He, His kingdom, and His agenda are what we’re to continue concentrating on (and increase in).

One of those moments came while watching an interview on a public television station of a gentleman who was an ambassador from another country. He was asked what he thought of this and that.

What he said immediately caught our attention. He said it really didn’t matter what he thought, because he was there to represent his home country’s positions to the host country he was in, so that his home country would be better understood.

We knew this is how we as Christians should be living and responding to others since we’re called to represent our King Jesus here on earth. We’re His ambassadors, sent out to represent Him, to speak of His concerns, and accurately convey His view on things.

These are excellent thoughts to follow through. The reality of actually being Christ’s ambassadors – which we are – forces us to evaluate our life, how we live it, and how we respond to others in view of what Christ’s ambassador ought to look and sound and act like.

What things can (and should) we do to accomplish an authentic ambassador’s life?

© 2007 John and Kim Namestnik www.givengrace.com

Permission is granted to copy and distribute this material – if it’s kept intact and not changed in any way, if it’s given without charge, and if this copyright notice is included with it.

I believe that I have been under the Lord’s loving correction this past year in the area of our finances. It’s been uncomfortable, not pleasant at times.. something I would rather not go through… but I’ve known that it’s necessary just the same.

I was reading in 2 Chronicles 33 this morning…

Now when he (Manasseh) was in affliction, he implored the Lord his God, and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers and prayed to Him; and He received his entreaty, heard his supplication, and brought him back to Jerusalem into his kingdom. THEN Manasseh KNEW that the Lord was GOD! (v12-13)

I was meditating on the similarity between the Lord’s discipline towards his children and the discipline of our own children.  Mine are grown now but I remember those younger years of discipline and how the children would try to squirm and wiggle under the correction as they tried to escape the effects of their sin. I would instruct them to remain still or it would take longer. They would then stop the squirming and settle in to receive the discipline. Finally, the discipline was over.. the air is clear… the instruction (both verbal and physically) had been received and we could go on with our day. My prayer was that my children would be trained by the correction and later it would yield righteousness in their lives. Hebrews 12:11

I can see such a similar parallel in my relationship with the Lord and His discipline towards me. At the beginning of this trial I squirmed at times (and still fight the temptation). But, each time I’m tempted to squirm (complain or be discontent about our financial situation) the Holy Spirit will remind me that the Lord only disciplines those He loves and that He is using this situation to conform me into His image.  The thought of this brings great peace and enables me, by God’s grace alone, to settle in to what the Lord is wanting me to learn.  

Hebrews 12:5 says… do not despise the chastening of the Lord, nor be discouraged when you are rebuked by Him; For whom the Lord loves He chastens, and scourges every son whom He receives.

Romans 8:28-29 says….And we know that for those who love God ALL things work together for our good, for those who are called according to His purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.

My prayer is that my response to the Lord’s correction will have the same fruit of righteousness as I read about in Manasseh’s life.

 

 

A few days ago the motor in our well burned out  leaving us with no water the rest of the night and into the early afternoon of the following day. No water to drink or brush our teeth before bedtime, take a bath, wash our face upon rising or to flush toilets or wash our hands afterwards.  ( I had some sanitizing gel (PTL!) which I was SO thankful for!)  I normally keep jugs of water on hand just for emergencies like this but had used them up during the winter. I won’t make that mistake again! 

The next morning I was feeling really ‘thirsty’ for some fresh, clean water. I had diet sodas on hand but they did not quench my thirst. They just left me thirsting for more. My body was feeling sweaty from not having bathed the night before so at 8:30am I couldn’t stand it anymore and decided to jump in our pool for a quick ‘bath’. Boy, did I enjoy that! I stepped out of that pool feeling so clean!

For the first time in my life I really saw the significant value of water. I missed it! I thought about it A LOT. I felt the loss of it. I was really hungering for it. As the day went on I could sense the Holy Spirit using this simple experience to remind me of my spiritual thirst for Christ.

David prayed, “O God, you are my God, earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts  for you, my body longs for you, in a dry and weary land where there is no water” (Ps 63:1).

Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again,  but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” John 4:13-14

Nothing in this world satisfies like drinking from the cool, spring of living water found in Jesus. How often do I go elsewhere, though, to satisfy my thirst? How often do I set aside that cool, refreshing drink found in His Word (for He IS the Word, Jn. 1:1) and instead try to satisfy my thirst with the dry wells of this world? **  In the mornings do I run to His Word and drink deep or do I seek out the empty cisterns of the computer, television or just the busyness of the cares in my home?

When I choose to order my days to drink at the well of living water then I come away from my time with Him having my thirst satisfied. It’s a choice… and most mornings I must fight for it! But, boy, is it worth the fight!

Only Jesus satisfies…

 
**In the Old Testament we read about cisterns being dug in the earth to store water but since the ground was porous the people would return only to find that the water they were thirsting for had run out from a crack in the ground and all that was left was muddy, dirty water.  In Jeremiah 2:13, God uses that example to rebuke His people who had forsaken Him, the fountain of living waters, and dug cisterns instead… broken cisterns that hold no water.

(Don’t forget about the great tool found on the internet to memorize God’s Word. http://biblememory.us  The man who owns the site will set it up so that you can choose your own scriptures to memorize, if you’d like. Or you can just use the ones he provides. Easy, easy way to memorize God’s Word. )