The Mentor

By Heather Allen –

If you have been part of a church for more than a millisecond, you’ve realized there’s an in crowd. At times I have been in, with all the right lingo pouring out, right smack in the A list. At times I have been out, splitting my time between figuring out how to get in and convincing myself why I don’t really want to be there.

I met a woman I considered a mentor. Of course, she had no idea who I was. But I tried to move into her life anyway. The problem was other people wanted to move in too, and before I knew it the only spot left was the basement closet…not exactly the hotspot. Not a place the owner visits much, just here and there when looking for holiday decorations or an old pair of boots to lend out. On those rare occasions when she would visit me, I sat on the edge of my seat hoping she would see something worthwhile in me, hoping she would invite me to the living room. She is something and if she likes me, maybe I’m something too. Perhaps the only thing worse than never meeting someone you greatly admire, is meeting, and realizing they could care less. I decided if she could just see the real me, things would be different. She would care.  I did everything I could to show her I was worth her time. I vacillated between feeling like a circus performer trying to juggle every new act just to get her attention, and a sell-out. Of course she was always polite, but when I heard her say she was deeply lonely, I was astonished.

The question I wanted to dismiss, stared at me. Like a child, repeatedly told to go to bed, it stalled, waiting. I rolled on my side, turning my face away. I began reading Galatians.  But I confess, I found it hard to move past chapter one. There, in black and white was the mirror I could not shield my eyes from.

“Am I now trying to win the approval of men, or of God? Or am I trying to please men?  If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a servant of Christ” (Galatians 1:10, NIV).

The Creator, the one who organized every living being, blowing breath on dust, didn’t just invite me over for an afternoon of conversation & coffee.  He asked if He could move right into me. How could I look past His deep, steady love? Why fill the chasm with approval that can be bought?

Trust His love. May it be the rain that cascades over, coursing through veins, bringing life.

Heather Allen spends most of her time carrying for her hubby and 3 kids.  Check out her blog: http://www.thebloodknot.blogspot.com/

How to Pray for Your Kids

By Teresa Lusk –

Every parent’s knees should hit the floor on behalf of our children, young or grown. What should you pray for them other than their safety? What you pray for you kids is unlimited (Ephesians 6:18, NIV) but there are seven prayer suggestions I’d like to share.

Pray that your children (1) Love the Lord with all their heart, soul and mind (Mathew 22:37, NIV). If they love the Lord with all their heart, soul and mind, they will have received salvation and have a relationship with Jesus Christ.

We are not promised to be spared heartaches and disappointment, but we can ask God (2) to put a hedge of protection over our kids. Many of us get caught at the wrong place at the wrong time. If you have ever been in a “that was close” situation, we could contribute that to God watching over us and possibly someone praying for our safety and protection. Why not cover our own kids with prayer for protection from harm, danger and people’s carelessness.

So much is put out in the world for our kids to fall astray: porn, drugs, alcohol, out-of-control friends. Asking the Lord (3) to build them up in purity of mind, soul, body and spirit will give them a weapon they can use against the world’s pressures. If they are pure in mind, they are less likely to fall into porn or lustful desires. If they have purity of soul, their mind, will and emotions will be covered, and purity of body means they keep it clean as the temple of the Holy Spirit. Lastly, their purity in spirit will allow them to walk by the spirit and not by the flesh.

How many times do we hear on the news about a passionate criminal who was recently brought to justice? Well, if our kids (4) know how to submit to authority, problems with the law, with their bosses and any other government authority will not be a challenge for them. Wrap them in petitions for their ability to submit to their higher ups.

Most of us have gone in and out of many relationships and career choices. What if you would have heard God’s calling on your life since you were young? It may have saved you time, effort and heartache. (5) Hearing God’s calling on their life is essential. Why not ask God to reveal Himself to them at a young age so they can start pursuing their calling?

If we could all pick our children’s spouses I bet we would. We are in America and that will not be happening! The Lord Himself can (6) pick and set apart our kids’ spouses for them, though. Divorce rate is already high. Let Him be the One who picks and sets apart that special person for your child.

Finally, Americans are in serious debt with no savings, and when one looses a job there is nothing to sustain them except hopefully their faith. If our children are equipped with financial wisdom from a young age (7) they may be able to escape the financial sins of our of generation and our society.

All of these points are only a tiny view of what we can pray for our children. One way to discover what we can pray for them is to look back at our own mistakes, the mistakes of our family generations before, and the happenings of the world around them. Entrust them to the Lord and be faithful in our concession to pray at all times and about all things!

Teresa G. Lusk is the author of Good Enough to be a Homemaker and CEO and is a Motivational Speaker. Visit www.teresalusk.com for more information.

Sweet to the Soul: Health to My Bones

By Nina Medrano –

As a mentor, I rely on the counsel of the Holy Spirit and on the Word of God to bring freedom and healing to the hearer. It is always such a sweet benefit to me when the Holy Spirit inspires and anoints a prayer modeled after the precious Word of God. Recently, the Spirit of the Lord inspired such a prayer modeled after Psalm 133.

Abba, Father, as we stand before Your presence, in one accord, in agreement with your Word, in the spirit of unity, I ask that you would release your precious anointing oil and pour it upon the heads of our leadership: government, churches and households. I ask that you would align our thoughts, our wills and our emotions to the will and the Word of God. May we learn to take every thought captive and bring it to the obedience of Christ in everything we do.

Let the precious ointment run down our eyes. Give us eyes to see your works in our lives; open our spiritual eyes of understanding. Let your oil continue to run down to our ears, and give us ears to hear the voice of Your Spirit and remove all blocks and hindrances and all other voices that hinder us from hearing your voice. Let your oil continue to run down over our mouths. Your Word says that the tongue is unruly and undisciplined. We yield our tongues to Your Lordship and we ask you to cleanse and purify our tongues from wicked words and anoint us to speak pleasant words that heal, cleanse and restore the hearers. Place Your hand upon our mouths and fill us with Your Word. We will speak Your word and we will not be afraid!

Let your precious oil run down our necks and shoulders. Remove the stress of this world and if there be any yoke of stiff-neck stubbornness and rebellion, we ask for forgiveness. Release your anointing that breaks off the yokes of bondage off our necks and replace it with the yoke of Jesus which is easy and light. Let your oil run down upon our arms and hands. Forgive us for trusting in the arms of our own flesh and defiling the works of our hands. We place our trust in the arm of God and God alone! Cleanse our hands and make them worthy of ministry and able to deliver many from the yokes of bondage.

Let your precious oil run down our garments down to our feet. Anoint our feet and our lives to walk and live out the gospel of Your kingdom in our private lives as well as in our public lives.

Let the anointing of Your Holy Spirit so settle upon our lives like the dew of Mt. Hermon and just like the frightful, thick fog that descends upon the mountain of Zion; so let Your Spirit descend upon us!

And, there, oh Lord, command your blessing, even life forevermore. We humbly ask for this type of anointing from Your Spirit in Jesus name, amen and amen.

Nina Medrano, a West Texas country girl, enjoys writing, ministry to women and playing with her two Jack Russell Terriers, Daisy and PepperJack.

To Love Another Person Is to See The Face of God

By Marty Norman –

Recently I saw a student production of Les Miserable at the local community theatre in For Worth, Texas. All I have to say is wow, the power of this production! And these were high school students. As surely as I stand, I testify that their voices rivaled those of Broadway stars. It was amazing.

A long time has passed since I last saw the production. I had forgotten the depth of the story, how pertinent and timely its message is for today.

The story takes place in France in the late 1770s, during the time of the French Revolution. The plot revolves around a number of mini-plots with the common denominator the transforming power of love.

Love permeates everything: the love of a mother for a child, a man for a woman, a man for his God and a man for his country. Sound familiar? Almost every song or conversation was about God, prayer, forgiveness, redemption, salvation or un-forgiveness.

Biblical, isn’t it?

What struck me most was the contrast between the two main characters, Jean Val Jean and Javert.  If I didn’t know better I would have thought, in a different time and place, that these two could have been Peter and Judas or at least representatives thereof.  In addition, they both were symbolic of everyman, for there isn’t a man or woman who, when he comes to the end of his life, doesn’t have to make the same choice as they made: to choose God and his plan for salvation or eternal damnation.

This contrast between light and dark was highlighted in song and drama. The first character, Jean Val Jean, was a thief, clearly a sinner, and he knew it. In the middle of his sin he came face to face with a priest who, acting as the hands and mouth of Jesus, poured out unconditional love in the midst of sin. This encounter was life-changing, forcing him to take a deep look at himself. In so doing he recognized his sin and cried out to God for forgiveness. He then turned his life around, experiencing a metanoia not unlike Paul’s on the road to Damascus. He then dedicated his life to serving God and his fellow man. Sounds like a Peter to me.

The second man was also a sinner. Javert, a policeman, spent his entire life following the law. But his eyes and ears were closed to truth. Only when faced with the truth of himself did he make a choice.  Encountering the unconditional love and self-sacrifice of Jean Val Jean, his large ego and even larger pride would not let him receive the forgiveness offered. He commits suicide rather than face the truth about himself, thus choosing eternal damnation and separation from God. Sounds like a repeat of the Judas story, doesn’t it?

So what is the lesson learned?

I believe it is more a question than a lesson.  The question being, which one are you?  A Judas or Peter? A Jean Val Jean or Javert?

As believers most of us are Peters. As a Peter, our job is to be aware of the many Judas’ and Javerts that are out there. Knowing their plot and their end, we should all be spurred to give a helping hand, one that offers the transforming power of a loving father who reaches down from heaven through the gift of his Son, to meet each of us in the middle of our sin and reconcile us to himself.

Just like Les Miserables, this Jesus play has a powerful ending too. No longer miserable, we, His people, are now joyous as we join the cast of thousands who enter into the great drama of heaven, receiving the applause, taking curtain calls, and accepting bouquets of roses as  we  choose the kingdom of light over the kingdom of darkness.

And there’s no better production than that, student or otherwise!

Hannah’s Irritation

By Nina Medrano –

We can discern God’s seasons in life by seeing what is going on in the natural setting. Then we can see the parallel take place in the spirit.

For instance, for the past few weeks, we have been experiencing record counts of rainfall throughout our great state of Texas. In parallel, I have noticed every day as I read the Word of God pearls of truth are reigning down into my spirit. One of these pearls of truth comes from the story of Hannah’s irritation, found in 1 Samuel 1:3-7 (NIV):
Year after year this man went up from his town to worship and sacrifice to the LORD Almighty at Shiloh, where Hophni and Phinehas, the two sons of Eli, were priests of the LORD. Whenever the day came for Elkanah to sacrifice, he would give portions of the meat to his wife Peninnah and to all her sons and daughters. But to Hannah he gave a double portion because he loved her, and the LORD had closed her womb. And because the LORD had closed her womb, her rival kept provoking her in order to irritate her. This went on year after year. Whenever Hannah went up to the house of the LORD, her rival provoked her till she wept and would not eat.

Have you ever had a rival in your life that just irritates you every time he or she enters the room? Even when you take this issue to the Lord in prayer, this person continues to provoke you to the point of stress.

By definition, rivals compete against you. And a rival can be anyone or anything: a family member, a new boss, a home project, a work deadline, a budget and yes, even a ministry. When a rival’s provocation endures for a length of time, we tend not to see the greater work of God that is being done in us through the process of irritation.

When I think of the word “irritate,” the word picture that comes to mind is natural pearls. Pearls form when some type of irritant enters the mussel or oyster shell. As a defense mechanism, the oyster secretes nacre in layers, surrounding the irritant; resulting in some of the worlds most beautiful pearls of great price.

I have had plenty of irritants my life, but, unlike Hannah, I had not always responded to them in a way that was pleasing to God. Thank God for His mercy that is new every morning.

Recently, a new irritant has entered my life. This time around, I responded differently. Instead of complaining and whining, I prayed blessing and wisdom and favor over this person’s life. And, instead of resisting or pushing away or worse, walking away from the irritation as I always do, I struggled to see this person’s value to Him.

In the end, surrendering to God’s process of irritation is difficult. We are such strong-willed humans—dying to self does not come willingly. I am humbled by God’s overriding grace that continues to work in our character.

The Apostle Paul, no stranger to irritants, states this process so well

“But we have this treasure in earthen vessel, to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body.” (2 Corinthians 4: 6-10, NIV).

Nina Medrano, a native Texan, writes short inspirational stories for women and children and leadership articles for the workplace.

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