QUIETLY SERVING! 3/16/14

“BUT HOW are men to call upon Him in whom they have never heard?  And how are they to hear without a preacher?  And how can men preach unless they are sent?  As it is written; “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach good news!”  Romans 10:14-15

IT HAS BEEN SAID;   “To some we are the only Christ they will see!”  “We are the only Bible that some will read!”  “We represent the Christ, who is still in the world!”  I read a little story some time ago; “A little girl was walking down the street holding onto her mother’s hand.  She tugged on her Mom’s arm and said; “Look, Look Mommy, there goes God!”  Across the street she saw her Sunday School teacher walking.  Is that how others see you?

UP FRONT people within the congregation, are those who do things that are out in the open.  Boy, do we need those servants of the Lord!  If they weren’t doing it, who would do it?   Those behind the scenes are the ones that make things happen.  Boy, aren’t we glad they are the ones doing it, otherwise, who would be doing it?   Do you feel like that?   I don’t!

IN THE PAST, I don’t think I ever did anything quietly because I was always out there recruiting everyone I could, to help.  I was the organizer; the doer; the participator and sometimes just in the way.  But I was there!  Today, I surprise myself, because I know I don’t have to be out in front, pushing all the buttons, and/or creating some sort of activity.   I am now one of the old folks, but I don’t want to be one of the ones that say; “Let the young people do it!”  I still want to be a doer regardless of my age!

HAVE YOU ever wondered who keeps the lawns and flower beds manicured?  Have you ever wondered who cleans the rest rooms?  Have you ever wondered who continually makes the messes in the kitchen, and somehow it is all cleaned up before Sunday?   Have you ever wondered if the worship team practices and if so, when?  Have you ever wondered who arranges for Sunday School teachers and orders the material that is to be used?  Have you ever wondered who is in charge of the sound system and replaces the light bulbs?  There are so many things that go on behind the scenes that sometimes we wonder if the church has a genie who wiggles her nose and WALLA, it’s all up and running in order.  The church should be a well oiled machine?

I HAVE known many who quietly serve!   They never seem to complain about things, they just do what  needs to be done, or if it needs to be fixed, they fix it.  There are those who just always seem to be around when I stop by the church.  There are many who go about the Lord’s work and never seem to have any kind of fanfare.  They like it that way!  There are many who are type A, and don’t mind being up front, but it doesn’t mean they can’t do things without being noticed.  It pleases God to watch His children at work and play.

IT ISN”T JUST the preacher that considers the church his home away from home.  God asks us to be good stewards!  We care for the building, we manicure the grounds, we bring our tithes and offerings in so the Church can go forward as prescribed in God’s Word.  Church work is not busy work, it is God’s mission that as we go, we take His word and teach, baptize and make disciples!.

“DO NOT labor for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to eternal life, which the Son of man will give to you; for on Him has God the Father set His seal.  They said to Him, “What must we do, to be doing the works of God?  Jesus answered them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He has sent.”  John 6:27-29     If we believe, we then will be His disciples!

BECAUSE we truly believe Jesus is the Christ, we must continue in the Faith!    Jim and I  have chosen to serve our Lord by lifting up and encouraging the Saints!   We do that by seeking first His kingdom, the Church;  teaching, fellow-shipping; practicing His presence!   God is Good and He is happy when His children serve Him!   Thank you Jesus for loving us!   By Jane Ann Crenshaw 3-15-14

EVIL IN THE LAND! 3/9/14

I HAVE attended Sunday School all my life!  My mother sent me, along with my siblings who were close to my age, ever since we were old enough to go!    We would walk!    Today it is difficult to find a church with a Sunday School for all ages.   And when you do, they are located too far from home.    We are even fearful to send our children off by themselves.   So the result is; Sunday Schools are far and few between.

I REMEMBER in March we would have an enthusiastic Sunday School program called March to Sunday School!    You guessed it!   It began the first Sunday in March.   We had contests and prizes for  bringing  a friend; memorization; bringing your Bible; learning the books of the Bible and so on!  In September the promotion was called Sunday School Roundup!   That was because it was the end of Summer and vacations.

TODAY we don’t want to call it Sunday School but ‘small groups;’ and usually it is geared to adults.   Our children, and teenagers are presented with other activities which don’t seem to have the same emphasis as learning the stories of the Bible and understanding God’s love, along with the steps to salvation.  Our college and career young adults stop attending because the churches don’t have anything for them.   We are losing young families for the same reasons!

A SINNER’S prayer is all that is needed and so the churches grow empty as the believers forsake the assembly.  Yes, evil is in the land and we are becoming blind to what must be done for God’s Word  to continue marching on!  

WE WRITE books and read book  after book explaining God’s truth, and leave our Bibles on the shelf.   We choose a translation that is easy to read but neglect to question who the commentators are.   We talk about the evil in our land, but still sit and watch the TV and neglect our families and neighbors when it comes to reaching them for the Lord.

WE TALK about the seekers and set about to disciple them,  yet we neglect God’s people who need to be encouraged and lifted up.   Jesus said; “Come unto me all who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest!”  Matthew 11:28    Isn’t that amazing?   Jesus calls you and the church doors are to be open, waiting for you to enter.   Friend, I want to be there to welcome you and to show you God’s love!

TALK is okay but showing God’s love is what motivates the church and church growth.  “For this is the message which you have heard from the beginning, that we should love, one another, and not be like Cain who was of the evil one and murdered his brother.  And why did he murder him?  Because his own deeds were evil and his brother’s righteous.  Do not wonder, brethren, that the world hates you.”  1 John 3:11-13

HE WHO is born of God does not make sin the practice of his life.  Even while we believers do sin, it is not our custom to be a part of the evil that is in our land.   God said, we live in this evil world but we are not a part of it!    Belonging to God’s Body gives us the edge we need as a child of God.   We do not live a life of sin because the Son of God keeps us!

“EVERY SPIRIT which does not confess Jesus is not of God.  This is the spirit of the anti Christ, of which you heard that it was coming and now it is in the world already.”  1 John 4:3    Evil is in our land because the anti-Christ is here.   Everywhere we turn we are faced with a decision to accept what the world decree’s as legal.  Everyday we must choose what is right or become tolerant of what is wrong.

I HAVE decided to follow Jesus!   I can’t change the world but I can stand up for his kingdom; the church!   I will be faithful and sincere in my walk!   I will encourage and lift up the Saints until God calls me home.   “Who is it that overcomes the world, but he, who believes that Jesus is the Son of God” 1 John 5:5     My prayer is “Thank you God for saving my soul!”    By Jane Ann Crenshaw 3/8/14

MY NAME IS CHRISTIAN! 3/2/14

I’VE HEARD that the name Christian sets many people on edge.   They have the idea that those who are called Christian means they are homophobes, judgmental, full of bigotry, fanatic, intolerant and they walk with an attitude of being full of themselves or all pious.  Jesus is referred to as the WAY, but more importantly, we should remember that he chased the money changers from the temple courtyard.  The world didn’t change His mind or deter Him from His mission.   The world said they didn’t like it; they indicated they were afraid of it, but Jesus said; this is who I am because I am, who I am!    Who was He?   He was the Son of God and He was in the beginning before we knew there was a beginning.  He became the light of the world!  

PERSONALLY, I like the name Christian!    When I confessed Jesus as my Savior and was baptized, I accepted His name for my own.   Christian means “Christ One!”   I belong to Jesus, He is my Savior; He has set me free!   When I married Jim, I accepted his name!    I gave up the name I was born with, and I have never regretted taking his name!   Did it change me?   Absolutely!

I DON'T USUALLY use Webster’s dictionary when writing these devotionals but I think today’s topic warrants it.   Christian means Professing the religion of Christ; representing a Christian people; having traits exemplified by Christ, as humility, etc.   Christianity means we follow Christ’s teaching; we are the Christian part of the world; state of being a Christian!   Why would I want to change my name for anything else when these words identify who I am in Christ.    A part of me wants to say to the world; “World, get use to it!   God is here to stay!”

“SO BARNABAS went to Tarsus to look for Saul; and when he had found him, he brought him to Antioch.  For a whole year they met with the church, and taught a large company of people; and in Antioch the disciples were for the first time called Christians.”  Acts 11:25-26     Some think they were called Christians by those who were not part of this radical movement.     I have always thought, if it isn’t broken, why try to fix it!   This name has set God’s chosen people apart for over 1,967 years!

“AND AGRIPPA said to Paul; “In a short time you think to make me a Christian!”  And Paul said; “Whether short or long, I would to God that not only you, but also all who hear me this day, might become such as I am, except for these chains!”  Acts 26:28-29    Why bicker over a name, when the person who’s name you wear, has lifted you from the bondage of sin, and replaced it with the bondage of GRACE!    Those who are intimated by this name needs Jesus!  Their rebellion cries for it!

THE WORLD knows who we are!    The world can either love or hate us but to deny who we are by giving ourselves a new name, would bring shame to me.  It is saying “I was wrong to call myself a Christian, so if it pleases you, I will say I belong to the WAY!   How is that going to make any difference?    “But let none of you suffer as a murderer, or a thief, or a wrongdoer, or a mischief-maker; yet if one suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but under that name let him glorify God.”  1 Peter 4:15-16     We have a tendency to rationalize how to approach the world with Jesus!   I believe we are to love one another.   Loving our brothers and sisters in Christ; loving our families whether they follow Christ or not; and living peacefully and lovingly in the world is what God has called us to do.

  WHEN JESUS prayed for the coming church He said; “The glory which you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one.  I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you have sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.”  John 17:22-23   Remember the song; “They will know we are Christians by our love!”?    How responsible is that?    How pleasing to the Father when we are doing that!   “For the time has come for judgment to begin with the household of God; and if it begins with us, what will be the end of those who do not obey the gospel of God?  1 Peter 4:17      By Jane Ann Crenshaw 2/27/14

JUST ONCE! 2/23/14

IT IS AMAZING how many times we fall for ‘just this once!’   Have we really done something, thinking it will only be just this once, and discover that since nothing bad happened maybe we can try that again!   Satan loves to play havoc with our sense of well being, by offering us titillating idea’s through family and friends, that encourages us to step across the lines we have drawn for ourselves after becoming a Christian.   I know this for a fact, because many times I have thought I can eat that again, because I didn’t gain any weight!  But doing it enough times, no matter how I try, I can’t change the numbers that eventually seem to get bigger and bigger until I stop!

IN MOST translations when Jesus was being tempted by Satan, in the second temptation, the offer to Jesus was pretty much the same in context.   However, when you read it in the Amplified, Satan says; “Then the devil took Him up to a high mountain, and showed Him all the kingdoms of the habitable world in a moment of time...”in a twinkling of an eye; and he said to Him, To You I will give all this power and authority and their glory, (that is, all their magnificence, excellence, pre-eminence, dignity and grace,) for it has been turned over to me, and I give it to whom I will; Therefore if you will do homage to and worship me (“just once), it shall all be Yours.”  Luke 4:5-7   

WHAT IF Jesus had succumbed to this temptation?   What if Jesus in His weakened state had bowed down before Satan and worshiped him, because He only had to do it one time?    Satan is such a liar that it appears to me that Jesus was the right person at the right time to do all that God had ordained for Him to do! We are the ones that fall into Satan’s traps of ‘just once won’t hurt you; no one is going to know if you only do it once; come on, every one is doing it!”     What is worse is when we are tempted and fall because we think we will be better off, or that it can’t hurt our salvation.
  
“AND JESUS replied to him, ‘get behind Me, Satan!’ It is written, You shall do homage to and worship the Lord your God; and Him only shall you serve.”  Luke 4:8    Where would we be, if Jesus had not been obedient to the Father?   Where would we be if Jesus felt drawn towards the idea of by-passing the cross?  How do we feel when we know that we have failed the Lord once again?   I know how I feel!   My heart cries and I run to Jim but he can only give me momentary solace.   But when I run to the Lord, His peace washes over me and I am able to move on!

SOMETHING ELSE I noticed toward the end of  Luke 4:6 is that Satan said he had power and authority that had been turned over to him and he could give it to whomever he chose to.    I heard it said that he received this power and authority from Adam.   The scriptures say he is the “prince of the  power of the air. We were obedient to him and were under his control, the demon spirit that still constantly works in the sons of disobedience; the careless, the rebellious and the unbelieving, who go against the purposes of God.”  Ephesians 2:2   He doesn’t have that authority over us any more!

IT IS TRUE that disobedience was born through Adam, but God has allowed Satan to be in this world because He wants us to chose life everlasting with Him and to leave Satan in the dust where he crawled away in defeat while in the Garden of Eden.   Living in the world, and trying things just once, can be life altering to those who have chosen to follow Jesus Christ.

JUST ONCE can bring alcoholism, drug addictions, untimely pregnancies, separations, heart breaks and remorse!   Our God is a God of love and forgiveness!  He is the power and authority over everything and has been from the beginning.   Why should we hook up with the deceiver, knowing there is no truth in him.   Why should we want a moment of self gratification which brings discontent, when we can live daily with our heads held high because the one we follow is truth!

“BY HAVING the eyes of your heart flooded with light, you can know and understand the hope to which He has called you, and how rich His glorious inheritance is in the Saints;  His set-apart ones!”  Ephesians 1:18   If you have left your first love Jesus Christ, here is  where you can return just one more time, because God loves you!    By Jane Ann Crenshaw   2/20/14

ONE MORE NIGHT! 2/16/14

OUT OF frustration, anger and even in sickness we all have broken down and said; “I can’t handle this one more night!”   More then likely, we have said we couldn’t handle it for one more minute.   Most of us are short on what we can handle and long on what we desire.   Never have we ever said, when filled with anxiety, just give me one more night and I can lick this!    If we haven’t licked it, waiting for one more night, doesn’t give us much hope!

IN LISTENING to a preacher recently, the topic began with Moses, the plagues in Egypt, and Pharaoh.    Remember the plagues?   “He sent Moses his servant, and Aaron whom he had chosen.  They wrought his signs among them, and miracles in the land of Ham.  He sent darkness, and made the land dark; they rebelled against his words.  He turned their waters into blood, and caused their fish to die.  Their land swarmed with frogs, even in the chambers of their kings.  He spoke, and there came swarms of flies, and gnats throughout their country.  He gave them hail for rain, and lightning that flashed through their land.  He smote their vines and fig trees, and shattered the trees of their country.  He spoke, and the locusts came, and young locusts with number; which devoured all the vegetation in their land, and ate up the fruit of their ground.  He smote all the first-born in their land, the first issue of all their strength.   Psalms 105:26-36  

IN READING the story of how God delivered Israel from Egypt, we discover God’s plans for the journey.   First by man’s instruments; second by overcoming Pharaoh’s resistance and thirdly, by circumstances which gave Israel their wealth and health to travel, along with respect and joy.   However, getting Pharaoh to agree was a feat like no other.

I WAS struck with the story of the frogs!   Pharaoh’s response when Moses asked him; “When do you want me to get rid of the frogs?”  Pharaoh said; “Tomorrow.”  Exodus 8:9-10   Why didn’t he want them gone immediately?   The frogs were everywhere!   The waters swarmed with them; they were in their beds; their houses; in the ovens and dishes; they were jumping on the people and everywhere they walked; getting squashed under feet!

ONE MORE NIGHT with the frogs was an ‘out of the mind’ request!   It could be that God put that in the Pharaoh’s mind because Moses’ response, showed that God was going to make it perfectly clear to Pharaoh, that there is no one like the Lord our God!    God permitted the word of Moses to stand, and all the frogs died;  “And they gathered them together in heaps, and the land stank.”  Exodus 8:14   I remember the smell of the skunks, and that smell still makes me feel sick!

EVEN THOUGH the frogs were gone, along with the remaining odor’s, Pharaoh’s heart was hardened once again, and he would not listen to Moses, and to what the Lord had to say!   His heart was like stone!  Pharaoh demonstrated the obstinacy of the rebellious human heart which remains  unconvinced and unchanged even after hearing the truth of God’s Word; even in the face of overwhelming evidence.  One more night with the frogs, is unthinkable; don’t you think?

A FEW YEARS ago a movie came out called “One Night with the King!”   A story of Esther!
The movie was not the biblical story, but the people will remember it and think she won the king, because she read to him one night.   Once you have the read the true story, I think it would be hard to get caught up into the romance of Hollywood!

ONE NIGHT of reading God’s Word is not enough to get a picture of God and His majesty.
One night hearing about His love for the world would not be enough to cause us to love the world.   It takes many nights of studying to show ourselves approved unto God and to be believed by others.   God changes us by transforming us from the inside out.     We not only will need more than ‘one more night’ but we are going to want many more nights to live in Christ, so that we can become all that He has created us to be!  We have a choice to spend one more night with the frogs or to spend eternity with God.   I know what my choice is, and it has nothing to do with frogs.   By Jane Ann Crenshaw 2/14/14

WHEN STORMS COME! 2/9/14

(*repeat)   STORMS COME in different forms.  They can be rain, wind, snow, hurricanes, tornadoes and even a tsunami.  They can also be events that cause major distress, such as a death of a loved one, or loss of a job.  Circumstances beyond our control can not only cause mental, emotional, but also physical discomfort.  All familys experience a variety of storms, but the one I want to talk about is unusual, to say the least.

IN 82 Danny left for Boise Bible college.  In September of 83 Jennifer left for the same college.  My brother had begun an extensive renovation of his home to accommodate my mother who was in the difficult stages of Alzheimer.  She was coming to spend the holidays with us, and Jennifer was coming home for Thanksgiving.

ONE SUNDAY evening we pulled into the driveway!  Living in the country, it was not unusual to see skunks but this time the skunk was tripping along side our house and disappeared through a 1' square opening just under the south end of our home.  We both saw it and immediately Jim said; “I think we have trouble”!  That was not even the half of it!  With the Thanksgiving holiday just ahead, we prayed that our visitor was just passing through and had no plans to stay.

THE FOLLOWING Tuesday we left for Idaho to pick up Jennifer from school, and my mother who had been staying with my sister Jeri.   A couple of nights after Thanksgiving we went to bed as usual.  This night was to be the last night we went to bed with sugar plums dancing in our heads, for a very long time.   Around 2 or 3 am we were awakened with a strange scratching sound in the heating vents under our manufactured home.  Immediately, our lives changed as fear and troubled hearts entered our lives.  Jim got dressed, and I headed towards the bathroom!  A nightmare of a storm began and lasted until after spring break the following year.

WE NOT ONLY battled the difficulties of caring for my mother but standing as sentinels with gun in hand, briquet fires aglow, to smoke out the enemy, and many sleepless nights.  We cleaned the house many times from top to bottom, after being skunked seven times.  Eventually my mother went home and Jim won the battle of “Skunk Ridge in Sam’s Valley” while being outnumbered 14 to 1.  With gun in hand, Jim led the final charge and ended the life of the last invader.  The final battle was under the north end of our home, and it was then that our embattled home front, became quiet!

DURING OUR TIME of trouble Jim was unusually quiet.  You could say it was our winter of discontent.  But he was strong!  He did what he could!  His mind and his strength was on the adversary and not on me.  Our home had literally been turned upside down!  Every time we heard that scratching sound I had to head to the bathroom, while Jim dressed!   I spent my nights watching my mother wandering throughout the house, and listening for sounds of the enemy.  The siege of the skunks was almost more than we could bear!  We carried the noticeable skunk perfume for months, and until we found a cleansing product to scour our home with, we could hardly stand one another.

“I WOULD hasten to my place of refuge.  From the stormy wind and tempest.”  Psalms  55:8    That is what I did!  I would try to be calm on the outside but inside God was my refuge. “The Lord is my light and my salvation.  Whom shall I fear?  The Lord is the defense of my life.  Whom shall I dread?”  Psalm 27:1-3   This is where Jim found his strength and peace!   We both learned to trust God when the evildoers tried to destroy us, and when the adversaries caused us to stumble and fall.  It encouraged us, so that even if the host come upon us, and in spite of war all around, we still had confidence.  Yes, we battled a storm which left it scars for a while, but with Christ as our captain, we won the prize of endurance.
By Jane Ann Crenshaw 2/8/14  (*2/2/08)

WHO ARE YOU? 2/2/14

ABOUT 19 YEARS AGO I  I attended a  women’s conference, sponsored by K DOVE, a radio Christian program,  where one of the speakers was Pat Winningham.   She was amazing!   A woman in her 40's with Downs Syndrome.    I remember her so well, because she was shorter than me and they had to find a box for her to stand behind the pulpit, so she could be seen as she spoke.   But more than that I remember her because of her message!
SHE ASKED the question; “Who do you think you are?”   And then she told us her story as a Down Syndrome baby with a very short life span, and nothing to live for.   But she found Jesus, and that was all she needed!    She said that God needs so little to do so much!   She said that God did it for others and He did it for her!    She said; “God did not die for junk!”   WOW!
A CORNERSTONE  is where two walls come together to form a corner.  The first one is considered the cornerstone.    God’s word, who is Jesus Christ, is the cornerstone of our relationship with God.   The capstone is the crowning glory of God!  With Jesus as the capstone we become the living stones and God wants us to stay put.   Each one of us are His chosen person!   We belong to God as living stones, a royal priesthood
“HAVING BEEN built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the corner stone in whom the whole building, being fitted together, is growing into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together into a dwelling of God in the Spirit.”  Ephesians 2:20-21.   When we understand that Christ Himself is the only cornerstone of the church, and realize that it is built upon the person of the Lord Jesus, and its membership includes only those who have confessed Him as Peter did, “the gates of Hell” cannot prevail against this church, for Christ has risen again from the dead and will keep His body safe from the onslaughts of death.   We have been built on this rock! We are to come out of the darkness and into the light because we are to demonstrate  who God is to the world.
WHAT WOULD God have us to be?     A noble character!   No matter if we come with a physical disability or if mentally challenged, God wants us to have the character of His Son, Jesus Christ.   When we have His character we become someone that God uses to help His church from crumbling.  Miss Winningham helped us to understand by explaining how she saw herself through God’s eyes.    1) I am acceptable because He died for me!  Come just as you are including sins and your disappointments.    2) I am valuable because God said it is so;  it must be true!   When going to yard sales or even to the dump - what would you pay?  God set the price on us and He did not shop around.   3) I am Capable because He doesn’t give us anything we have earned.  He has a reason for us so He has saved us from hell.  We have a high calling!    “Do your best to come to me!”  2 Timothy 4:9   God makes us capable.  He will open doors that no man can open!    4) I am forgivable because I have received from God.   God does not keep track thru His forgiveness.  He chooses not to remember.  The forgiveness of God is in abundance.  God says come to me!  Bring your all to me!   Come back into fellowship with Me!
“FOR THE mountains may depart and the hills be removed, but my steadfast love shall not depart from you, and my covenant of peace shall not be removed, says the Lord, who has compassion on you!”  Isaiah 54:10    We have God’s love!    “Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the lands!  Serve the Lord with gladness!  Come into His presence with singing!”   Psalms 100:3   When we know that the Lord is God; when we realize that He made us and we are His, we then can be His people and the sheep of His pasture!   “For the Lord is good; His steadfast love endures for ever, and His faithfulness is to all generations.” Psalms 100:5     Can we be less than what God desires of us?   Should we ask;  “Who am I?   We are the children of God; shouldn’t we act like it?   By Jane Ann Crenshaw 2/1/14