Holes

"You earn wages, only to put them in bags with holes in it" (Haggai 1:6).If one were to compare one's life to a purse or a bag, it might be an apt metaphor. Sometimes it feels as if there are holes in the bag and our very life seems to seep through the seams. Our life, like a  poorly-constructed bag seems to be shoddily put together and doesn't seem capable of holding all the pain, suffering, affliction, and difficulty that it seems forced to carry. So heavy are the weights, like rocks, that it appears the very fabric of our lives will fray and fall apart. That the handles of the bag will be ripped from its seam.Of course, one bag looks dissimilar in appearance from another. In fact, one person may carry what appears only to be a small wallet or daintily-made evening pouch; while others seem to be loaded down with a carpet bag or even something akin to a Samsonite valise. But all in all, we all have baggage. But what really matters is not the size of the suitcase but would we put in it. 

How does one go about making a life that resembles something of value, of tenacity, of persistence, of resilience, of strength? That is the question. So we ask that God do what He promised. He said in Ecclesiastes 3:7 that there is a time to tear but that there is also a time to mend. We ask that He will come in and mend, sew, and repair the broken places. We ask Him to fill our purses with love, joy, peace, kindness, gentleness, patience, faithfulness, joy, and self-control by His Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23). There are holes caused by all the wounding, brokenness, pain, and grief of life which cause our power to leak out. "Come now, let's settle this," says the LORD. "Though your sins are like scarlet, I will make them as white as snow. Though they are red like crimson, I will make them as white as wool." (Isaiah 1:18). We know the truth that the things that are broken need to be healed: "He is the healer of the brokenhearted. He is the one who bandages their wounds" Psalm 147:3. The holes need to be repaired. Let God sew them together to hold the treasures of His joy and power. Then, we will have something worthwhile to share with others.

Fellow Carpetbagger,
Mella

 

The Leper

 I once knew a leper
 And the leper, she was me
 Numbed by harsh realities
 And wasting away because of the enemy

 Bitterly isolated
 Waiting to be freed

 A foreigner
 Now, citizen of the kingdom from above

 Hasten quickly down
 To show fruit of the healing tree
 Granted by Israel's Messiah
 To one so bereft as me

 Once a leper
 Wasting away
 In my sin
 Destroyed from within and without
 Pain without end

 Bit by bit falling
 Asunder
 Appendages peeling away
This leperous disease of the sin nature
No longer has its sway

 It is Jesus who has saved me
 And brought true shalom to my soul
 None other would have touched me
 And undone sin's wrong

The Light

The truth be told I was having a rather difficult day and I was wondering why am I here in South Africa? The seriousness and the bleakness of the situation surrounding me was almost like a blanket of heaviness. I’d just finished ministering in Riverview and decided, as I dropped a couple of the kids who helped me from Avian Park at their homes, to do some home visits. As I did so a number of children began running after mescreaming :”Miss Mella! Miss Mella! Can I have a Bible?” They followed me up the road and I stopped my car and began to teach them. While I was in the process of teaching them, a young boy approached me, to ask me for a Bible. I admit as was a bit incredulous and so I said to him:“Why do you want the Bible?” He said he wanted to study the word of God. I said: “Can you read English?” And he responded that he could. 

So I opened up the Bible to a passage and he began to read about Jesus, though bein g in the very nature God humbledhimself and took on the position of a servant. I asked him if he knew what it meant in very nature God. He said it meant that Jesus was equal to God and even though he was equal to God he came and served man. I was astounded. This showed not only comprehension buta depth of understanding and an ability to put into simplistic words the very deep truth about who Christ is. As he was speaking, there was the palpable presence of the Holy Spirit and it was clear to me that this child André was anointed to teach. Right then and there I gave him the Bible and proceeded to lay hands on him. Not that he would be anointed, because he was already anointed, but that he would use the giftings that Jesus had placed in him to begin to teach the little ones that were gathered around his feet. I am acutely aware that I cannot do all things in Avian Park, and that just as Jesus had those who ministered beside him, I  too need those who will take the teaching and the truth of the word of God into Avian Park. The darkness under which I had been laboring immediately lifted and I knew it was for this reason I was doing what I was doing. 

Despite all of the disappointments, challenges, and hardships, the light of the glory that was present in this child brought light to me. I knew that the Greater One, that Christ had chosen André and others in Avian Park and in Riverview and gifted th to share His truth and love. He had already called them and anointed them for this purpose and it was by job to get teaching and the Word of God into their hands and hearts so that they would be empowered to do what they where called to do and to live out their destinies. And I had hope once again that the light would overcome the darkness. That the light would shine in the darkness and the darkness would not comprehend it. And the light was in a boy, a simple child, standing in the streets of a shanti town called Avian Park.

Your Own Two Feet

Many times, I am tempted to reduce myself to my weakest area, to define myself by my failures. In the Bible, we see that there are nameless people who are identified only by their lack, their sin: the man born blind, the woman caught in the act of adultery, the foolish rich young ruler, the prostitute carrying the alabaster jar. All of these nameless people represent our own lives today. It is easy to allow what is broken, what is wounded within us, to define who we are, and so by doing to remain stuck in that brokenness. 

In order to enter the destiny and plan that God has for us, we must by all means assume a new role. A role not defined by our brokenness, our woundedness, our sin, our illness. Obviously, we acknowledge we are broken, wounded, that we were in sin, but we can't stop there. In order, to move past that label, past those established parameters that have defined and limited us, that have served as boundaries and as prisons for who we could become, we have to submit ourselves to the touch of Jesus.

Submit, I use that word carefully, because many times Jesus has to ask us: "do you wanna get well?" Some of us, me included, can be so satisfied in our brokenness. We like the mat where we are lying and we don't want anyone to tell us to get off of it. That mat, that security blanket, that set of crutches, that support our emotional lameness; we don't want to get rid of it. It's comfortable, it's, as my mother would call it, our pet demon, or as in the words of Golem "our precious." And we don't want anyone touching our Precious. 
Standing upon your own 2 feet, whether than having someone carry you, assuming responsibility for your own physical health, whether than accepting hand-outs is all rather frightening when you get down to it. So is it any wonder than many people determine that it's safer, and just a whole lot more comfortable, to remain broken?
But if we're more to be than the nameless individuals that pass through the pages of the Bible, we have to press forward into Jesus. We have to touch the hem of his garment, so that His healing can flow from us to him. So that we can put down our soiled garments, lay aside our soiled mat, leave the crutches behind us and walk into new life. 
Standing Upright,
MJ

Little engine

There once was a little engine, who could, at least she thought she could. Many times she moved much like a locomotive, so quick, so speedily down the track. Then one day, she came upon a derailment. A piece of the track had been dislodged, and in her hurry, she didn't recognise it. And as her wheels speed down the track, she suddenly found herself in mid-air, wondering how she could ever land safely upon the track again.



During that burst of sudden airborne flight, Grace was given to her. Divine calm, and a peace, that she would have never known had it not been for the derailment. Life has its unexpected realities. Sort of like that little train's unsuspected flight lesson. But if we are quiet and still long enough to sense God's presence, those still moments can lead to a greater treasure than the one we thought we were heading toward speeding so recklessly, carelessly and casually on our way to who knows what or where.

We then exchange our 'could' for His 'can.' And we soon learn that what we can do through Christ is much greater that we could do in our own strength. Jesus said it best in John 15:5, "I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing." 
On Track,
MJ




Sent from my iPhone

The Princess and the Pea

Holy Spirit can be like that irritating little pebble at the heel of your shoe that keeps grounding and digging until to we just get to that point of telling the truth. It is His nature as the Spirit of Truth to lead us into all truth, but many times, we are hesitant to speak the truth in love to ourselves and to others. So, we begin a process of self-deception, of keeping secrets, of covering sins and simply lying and deluding ourselves. If we continue in this process, we will likely end up with a completely seared conscious that is described in Ephesians 4: "We will be given over to a reprobate mind which will no longer allow us to distinguish between truth and lies."

I have found that, Holy Spirit is an equal opportunity exposer. He will expose my sin; He will expose others. This fact is an important idea for me, because many times when I'm convicted I want to point fingers at the other person, to say he is also to blame. But because I know that Holy Spirit is a Person of justice, a Person of equity, I can trust that the same Holy Spirit, that is convicting my heart in the ways that it needs to be convicted, is also convicting his. Now, obviously it's my choice and that individual’s choice whether we choose to get to the heart of the place of repentance.

Some people are incredibly resilient to the truth. They can walk around with a boulder-sized rock in their shoe, and it doesn't seem to bother them. However, I've recently learned it, that doesn't mean that the Holy Spirit isn't digging, isn't poking, and isn’t pressing them to repent. It's just that the heel where that rocks sits has become so callous and hard, that it's resistant to the truth. Now, that doesn't give me an excuse to become hard and callous to the truth or to point a finger and say "I'm waiting for that person to repent; when he repents, I repent." No, I repent as soon as I feel that gentle digging irritating pebble that I know is keeping me from being levelled in my walk with God. That is keeping me separate from His best for me. That's keeping my prayers bouncing off the ceiling and coming right down because I'm walking in disobedience and unforgiveness.

So, in the end, Holy Spirit is an equalizer whether he comes as a small pebble, a gigantic rock, or even a large mountain that people don't see, He still comes whether people receive Him or not. I'd like for him to come with just the strength and size of a small pea so that being the princess that I am, I recognise his presence.

Smoothing Away Callouses,

MJ

Lessons from Brazil

The shoe is now on the other foot. There is a team here now from Curitiba, Brazil, and its curiously ironic that when it was time for me to do my Discipleship Training School (DTS) Outreach as part of Youth with a Mission's (YWAM) program it took place in that city. 

 
At that time, in 1998, there was only one base; now there are six. In 2011, I returned to Curitiba to teach at the English Language School serving in the place of my former DTS roommate. Some members of our team were Brazilians who had completed the English Language School at the Richmond, Virginia base.

Our team was multinational composed of Americans, Brazilians,  Swiss, and Dutch, and because of that we had an advantage over this small team that is now in South Africa. I would often share in English and then members of my team would translate for me into Portuguese. But these individuals are now in South Africa, where English  is normally spoken as well as Afrikaans, so the dilemma that they have in reaching the people is more acute. In essence, someone needs to translate first into English and then into Afrikaans. 

This group modeled service by washing feet and loving on the
least of these.  The translators, minister director, and assistants,
many and diverse, served
 alongside of them.

This small group of four girls and four boys really impressed me as they move outside of their comfort zone and are ready to create unity in the body of Christ and bring joy to God's people, especially to the little children in the ministry where I work in Avian Park and River -view. It's got me to thinking about community, about access, about moving pass one's comfort zone, about unity and the purpose of God. And I see myself standing in Curitiba before a large church audience and my Brazilian sister, Karina translating, as I share God's love with another nationality and a far different place.Who would have thought it, that one day I would be the one hosting a team of the nation, the city, the missionary base, that first welcomed me?

God literally wastes nothing. If we've experienced it, we can expect to see it again. 

That English school where I taught in place of my roommate Licia, while she was pregnant, also came back to be a help. I ended up serving as the pronunciation teacher at the English Language School at this YWAM base in Worcester, South Africa.  By the way, she had learned English while a student at the Richmond ESL school as well.


And we know that all things work for the good of those who are called according to God's purposes (Romans 8:28). Some water; some plant, but God gives the increase (1 Corinthians 3:6).