The Hungry Years

Recently I was listening to the song, “The Hungry Years” by Neil Sedaka, and the words touched my heart in a way that moved me to reflect on how our lives can be with God.

The premise of the song is how he and a love had so much more during their hungry years together versus now when they seem to have it all. They paid the price of letting their love grow cold as they lived to meet their goals, not realizing that everything they wanted was everything they already had. Bottom line, he missed the hungry years when they were closer and he wants to go back.

This can be us when it comes to our relationship with the Lord.

When I look back over my life as a Believer, the best decisions and growth I’ve made were in the midst of the hard times in life. It was during those times; I clung to Jesus like a wet tee-shirt and learned more about His finished work on the Cross and God’s great love for me. But! I also see the times when once the fire or testing eased and things got better—I slow walked back into the exact thing He desired me to come out of. 

We all have a hunger in us. It can be basic and unique at the same time. The basic is, either we hunger for the things of this world or we hunger for the things of God. The unique depends on what we want and how bad we want it in our own individual lives.

There is a spirit in America that seems to have hold of many who say they follow Christ. It is a spirit of casualness.  Yes, too many only know the Savior of the world causally. I would have to say that falls under, “Being lukewarm,” wouldn’t you agree? No, maybe some of you don’t agree because I’m talking about you. But that is okay, because if what I have just said smarts in anyway, I praise God! Because it means He is poking you.

My life was such a messy, mess when I decided to follow Christ. And it took time to follow Him in a way that I knew in my heart there was going to be, no turning back! It took the hungry years or shall we say, “Trials and tribulations!”

Sisters, there are too many of us who if we don’t make a decision soon, will find ourselves without oil in our lamps and not prepared at all for the Bridegroom. (Click to read the 2014 blog How Much Oil Do You Have?) We are putting along, and hungering and thrusting after the things of this world and are blind to what is happening to us. We have moved to the point of defending and justifying our foolishness, versus take correction. We are not, studying the Word of God. Yet! We will be the first to run sobbing and begging Him to ease the pain when times get rough.

I think Paul says it best, “¹¹ Concerning this we have much to say which is hard to explain, since you have become dull in your [spiritual] hearing and sluggish [even slothful in achieving spiritual insight]. ¹² For even though by this time you ought to be teaching others, you actually need someone to teach you over again the very first principles of God’s Word. You have come to need milk, not solid food. ¹³ For everyone who continues to feed on milk is obviously inexperienced and unskilled in the doctrine of righteousness (of conformity to the divine will in purpose, thought, and action), for he is a mere infant [not able to talk yet]! ¹⁴ But solid food is for full-grown men, for those whose senses and mental faculties are trained by practice to discriminate and distinguish between what is morally good and noble and what is evil and contrary either to divine or human law.” (Hebrews 5:11-14 Amp)

I now possess a gratefulness in my heart for the hard times and hungry years, because that is what it took to bring me to a place in life to know who the God of the Bible is. And also to be able to walk in the Freedom of the “finished works of the Cross,” and have confidence I will be able to stand in the midst of what is about to come. Do I have it all together? No way! The more I learn, the more I realize just how much I don’t know. But studying God’s Word and living to please Him, is important to me.

Sisters, no one will be able to stand with just a casual relationship with Christ. It puts you in jeopardy of being part of the great falling away that is to come (some might say it has already started), or even worse—told to go with the goats because our Savior will declare that He never knew you. Is that what you want?

The promise of the inheritance of the Kingdom of God is for those who love Him. And Jesus says, “If you love me you will obey my commands.” It is impossible to obey His commands if you don’t know what they are? And I am not talking about the 10 Commandments of the Old Testament either.

It is time to get serious and stop drinking milk and eating the regurgitated meat of others.

Two weeks ago, I challenged you to give up a television show that was questionable for 2 weeks and replace that hour with reading your Bibles. There were some who defended how watching certain shows was a judgment call and just entertainment. My concern is—when did we start watching what God calls sin and calling it entertainment?

With Easter coming up soon, I challenge you to read at least the book of Matthew and John this week. Also cut back on television and social media. Close off the noise and distractions of this world and see what God has to say to you concerning the price Christ paid on the Cross for us, and what it entails to be a true follower of the Messiah.  

Girls, it could mean the difference between spending eternity in Hell’s fires or eternity with God!

Yes, it is just that serious.

Until next week...

Blessings and Hugs,

Ponnie

How Prepared Are You for Life?

I live in a country that has made education a god. And like all false gods, it has let folks down. The lure of the god of education is that it will set you apart from others; give you an elite status and most of all—prepare you to live the good life.  Therefore many have gone after this god, in hopes of securing a great future. But in truth, it has produced a generation of people who are steeped in debt (they may never get out from under), and a job market that doesn’t have jobs for all these highly educated people. So, where they thought they were investing and preparing for their future, they are now working jobs they didn’t need a college degree to do and are not making enough money to live and pay their debts at that same time. And the bottom line is—they are not well prepared for the future at all. In fact to many it looks pretty bleak.

Now I also live in a country that at this time still has great freedoms in being a Christian. Not as much as just 10 years ago, but still something to behold compared to our brothers and sisters in other lands. But how long is that going to last?  And are we spending our time and efforts preparing for what’s to come?

I think too many of us are not!

You might wonder why I feel this way and where I’m getting my information. Well, the Bible tells us, (in fact Jesus himself) that there will be a great falling away, near the end times. And He also tells us that on Judgment Day, many who think they are in—will be out. So, this information alone is enough for me to draw my conclusion, but I also see with my own eyes, many who are not prepared. Because the little things are knocking us down and throwing us for a loop.

Recently I was in the book of Mark and something Jesus said really jumped out! He was explaining the parable of the sower that sowed seed and fell in four different places. But the seed that fell among the thorn and thistles plants struck me the hardest because I see the working of it very clearly today.

Mark 4:18-19 Amp—“¹⁸ And the ones sown among the thorns are others who hear the Word; ¹⁹ Then the cares and anxieties of the world and distractions of the age, and the pleasure and delight and false glamour and deceitfulness of riches, and the craving and passionate desire for other things creep in and choke and suffocate the Word, and it becomes fruitless.”

Yup girls, this is what is happening to us!

Too many Christians are anxious. Too many of us are very distracted by foolishness and too many of us are spending way too much time pursuing America’s god of education and pushing God out. We can go an entire week without much sleep or rest to get a 12 page paper done or cram for exams and even work two jobs to get a degree. But we will not spend a good hour in the Word of God.  

I hear women expressing how tired they are all the time, but they still find time to watch television shows that are very questionable. Now, I am not the television police or trying to do the Holy Spirit’s job, but the Bible warns us of certain things—yet we continue to play with fire.

Have you noticed lately how more and more homosexuality, lewd and perverted sexuality is casually being put into TV shows? I have! Just a week or so ago, I was watching a show on the food network around 4:00pm in the afternoon with my grandchildren (ages 10, 7 and 4), when a steamy and vulgar commercial came on for Fifty Shades of Grey. I started shouting, “Close your eyes, CLOSE YOUR EYES!” as I scramble for the remote to change the channel. And yes, I wrote them about it, but they never responded. The program is rated “G” for general audiences, so why are you showing “R” rated commercials?

The past 2 weeks I have seen women kissing women on shows that in the past have had nothing like that, and the sad part was it brought nothing whatsoever to the story line. But some of us are feeding off this type of programming and we see nothing wrong in it. In fact we like to post about it on Facebook, and want to hold conversations concerning the latest episode. And you are the first ones, complaining about life and begging for prayer when something tough comes your way.

And that is because we are not as prepared for life as we should be. We are allowing the things of this world to creep in and choke and suffocate the Word, and it is becoming fruitless in our lives. You see ladies, the writer Shonda Rhimes, has nothing on Moses, King David, Isaiah, Peter, Paul or any of the other great writers of the Bible.

I have a challenge for you sisters. If you watch any type of TV show that has a story line, of sex, adultery, homosexuality, greed, murder, foolishness and mayhem—I challenge you to fast from it for 2 weeks straight and replace that slot with studying the Bible. That includes too much time on Facebook complaining, or pinterest (lusting) or anything that has you resembling the ones Christ describes in Mark 4:19.

Why?

Because things are getting ready to change in this world as we know it, and too many of us are not going to be able to stand because we are not prepared for what is about to go down.

Even if you find yourself in a season of thorns and thistles, God is more than able to turn that around so your heart is full of good soil, and can give great increase into your life. Read Mark 4:1-20 Amp (click here).

The time is NOW to dig into the Word of God and solidify your relationship with Him. It will be impossible to build an ark once the storms hit. And they are coming.

Until next week...

Blessings and Hugs,

Ponnie

The Bondages of Christendom (Part 8…Are You in the Right Ministry?)

When we think of the word “ministry” as Christians we are usually referring to being of service or to serve others. Therefore we have the prison ministry, the hospitality ministry, visiting the sick ministry, the children’s ministry, the singles ministry…and a host of others. Didn’t want to name them all, but just want to make sure we are on the same page.

Since I can remember I had always been taught about Jesus. I wasn’t raised in a Christian home, but I went to Sunday school as a kid, a Christian overnight summer camp for about 5 years, and church on Sundays with my aunt and a Seventh-Adventist boarding school for 3 years. So, Jesus was a name I was very familiar with. In the mid 80’s I was starting to feel the call of the Lord, and I started attending a Baptist church with a co-worker and his wife. One Sunday I decided to join.

Immediately following the service I was swarmed by a bunch of women trying to over talk each other to ask me to join their ministry. I really didn’t have a clue as to what they were talking about and truthfully they scared me. This was my first encounter with the new and improved church ways since I had denounced going to church back in 1970.

No. I didn’t join any of their ministries. In fact I didn’t stay a member there for too long.

While growing up and going to church with my aunt, I often found myself in the basement while service was going on setting tables for the guest who would be eating afterwards. I hated it and promised myself that I would never miss the service making preparations for folks to eat when I was grown.

I had a made up mind that I would not be a Martha, but more like Mary her sister, before I ever knew who they were. ~Smile~

Eventually I did get to use my administrative talents to help at a church I was attending and loved. But that didn’t last long, because the head of the ministry was a mean spirited woman and I had to cut her loose. But like everyone else, I too wanted to fit in somewhere. I wanted to be of service. Yet, I didn’t have a clue about true service and was just beginning to get some of God’s Word into me. And most of the stuff people asked me to do I didn’t want to do it. I didn’t want to clean the bathrooms, (I think people should be paid to keep the congregation building clean.) I didn’t want to work in the nursery because though I do like children, I don’t like everyone’s children. I don’t care for fresh, rude and unruly kids and you find a lot of that in the nursery.

After awhile I began to feel useless and feelings of being unworthy and unloved by God began to set in. That was until; I learned in women's bible study—that was not the case!

Have you ever been made to feel guilty if you didn’t agree to do something in the church? This is a huge problem for women. I can’t speak for men, because as you all know I write to women from a woman’s perspective.

One of the churches that supported me (greatly) as an inner city missionary would have many different social gatherings and the women were asked to bring prepared foods. I felt I had an obligation, but in my spirit I hated doing it, so as time went on I did my best to get out of as many of them as I could. When asked by one of the elders wives, (not my elder) why I was even part of their congregation since I didn’t come to most of the functions the women held, my response was, “When you have something for the women in the community, I’ll be the first to sign up and help. We always have teas for the women in the congregation, why not have one for the single mothers and their daughters in the community?” She never bothered me again.

Women have been bullied into certain duties in the church congregations for years. And I say bullied, because there is a mindset that because you are a female then this is what you are supposed to be doing—even if deep in your heart there is no joy. And though miserable, we are afraid to stand up and say, “No!” Often because of what others might think but also a sense of disappointing God.

Sisters that is not God’s MO! And besides, we cannot disappoint God, He knows all about us.

I’ve head TV preachers tell women who are having trouble conceiving that they should sow seed by working in the nursery! There will be no magic in doing that. In fact the motivation is to try to manipulate God in some way.

Our first and foremost ministry is our service to God. But even in that He has an order. Next is our family. As women, we can’t be involved in ministry where it leads us to neglect our husbands and our homes. If you are a mother, you cannot neglect your children either.

There is a season for everything in life. For some of us (especially in the younger years) it is all we can do to care for our home and family. A lot of us also work outside of the home. There is a season for mothers and wives to mostly be home. And if this is your life, don’t allow anyone to bully you into serving on a ministry that will take you away from that. And often single women are expected to do even more since they are not married and don’t have children.

Our spiritual gifts complement our ministry. And that would stand to reason, because God does not call us to do anything and not equip us with what we need to succeed.

I taught women’s bible study for 2 years in church, but after that it was always in my home. I was given the gift of hospitality so that it would be used with my service “aka” ministry. My home, (not the church building) is where I have housed the homeless, feed the hungry, and cared for the sick. But if I had allowed others to bully me into doing things in the congregation, I would have been hindering God’s real purpose for me. You see sisters, most of us are not meant to be workers in the buildings we call church. We are called to be disciples. 

When we allow others to dictate to us, what we should or should not be doing it becomes a problem. Anytime we are doing something that is supposed to be benefiting the Kingdom, yet we are tired and miserable—something is very wrong.

Many of us are gifted and have talents that are to be used for the congregation, but even in that we should be doing what we are called to do and not what someone says we need to be doing.

Back to the main theme of this series…everything for us is relational. It is through an intimate relationship with God, we find the path that He has for us. And in our appointed destiny there is joy and peace. Not frustration, discord and unhappiness.

This is the last of the series “The Bondages of Christendom” and I pray it has been a blessing. I want to thank all who have written to me to share and encourage me. I love you much!

My dear sisters, I can’t say this enough—study your Bibles. There is “Freedom” in Christ Jesus!

Until next week...

Blessings and Hugs,

Ponnie