Bitterness or Betterness?

“For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. 35 A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good things, and an evil man out of the evil treasure brings forth evil things.”

Matthew 12:34b-35

 

When I was little, I was fascinated by treasure and treasure maps. I loved reading books about buried fortunes (Nancy Drew and The Quest of the Missing Map was a favorite). How exciting to follow a parchment map to the foot of a tree, and with spade in hand unearth a treasure.

Buried. Beautiful. Valuable.

 

X marks the spot.

 

Treasure is a key word in Mathew 6:35. In the original Greek it transliterates as thesauros, which means a place to collect things and the place in which good and precious things are collected and laid up. Interestingly, thesaurus also means a casket. Think for a moment.

A container for good, precious things or a casket for dead, lifeless things.

 

In my living room I have a cedar chest, a place where I collect precious things. It holds treasures of the past. Corsages … diplomas … love letters … a wedding bouquet … baby booties … scribbly pictures … handmade Mother’s Day cards … funny little birthday presents from funny little sons.

 

Why do I store mementos in my cedar chest? So I can remember; so I can relive again and yet again the beautiful memories my keepsakes invoke. As I hold a treasure in my hands, it continues to move and change me, to mold my soul.

 

The heart is like a cedar chest—a place to collect things. We decide what to fill it with. Good things. Lovely things. Beautiful things. But, we can choose to fill the heart with bitter things, reliving them over and over, wounding ourselves afresh with every remembrance, shredding our heart and shattering our soul. Bitter memories will also continue to change and mold us.

 

It seems then we have a choice.

 

What shall we store in the heart? At times we choose bitterness. Why?

I prayed for insight and an answer came clearly to my mind. We treasure bitterness because we feel something is owed to us, something feels unfinished.

 

But, when Jesus said, “It is finished,” bitterness died on the cross. It was never meant to be stored in the heart to taint and poison. Give bitter memories to Jesus and trust Him to use them for good. Then, fill your heart with His life-giving Word. Hide it deep in the soil of your heart. His Word becomes buried treasure.

Precious. Beautiful. Valuable.

 

The Cross marks the spot.

 

“A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good things, and an evil man out of the evil treasure brings forth evil things.” Matthew 12:35

 

The choice is yours.

 

Action Points:

1. Ask God to search your heart and remove any bitterness lurking there. He promises to remove your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. Ezekiel 36:26
2. Check your heart by examining your tongue. What are you saying? Are you speaking words of life into your relationships, challenges and trials or words of bitterness and death? “For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.”
3. Pray the Word. Find scriptures that address your current challenges and pray them into your life. “This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate in it day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it.” Joshua 1:8

 

By Mary Kane

copyright 2016

all rights reserved

Then He said to them all, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me.

Luke 9:23

Anyone.

Anyone is welcome. Anyone can come. Any tribe, any tongue, any religion. No one is excluded. All have sinned, but all are welcome. Anyone can come to the foot of the Cross, take up his cross and follow Jesus.

I used to think only special people were really welcome in the kingdom of God. You know who I’m talking about. The pretty people … the smart people … the popular people. The people who’ve been Christians since they were able to talk. Perfect lives marked by wise choices, good decisions and smart moves.  They were the ones God really used.  A-list people with first-string capabilities. Everything I was not.

I barely made the cut. I flew in under the radar—allowed in heaven, but better seen and not heard. I had already messed up God’s perfect will for life, doomed to live on Plan B (or in my case plan Z) until God called me home.

But God says,

“If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me.

Forget Plan  A.  God says anyone is welcome.

Anyone. Broken people marked by sin and shame—welcome. Shattered people scarred by hurt and hardship—welcome. Plain people with common lives—welcome. Anyone may come.

But. we must deny ourselves … of what?

The right to live safe.

The right to stay small.

The right to live unforgiven.

The right to excuse ourselves from abundant life by focusing on our wounds instead of our Healing.

But when we deny ourselves, we indulge the Spirit.

With self out of the way, there is room for the Spirit. Blessing, power and energy flow unchecked from the hand of God to the heart of man. Any man, any woman, anyone who will  follow Him.

“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.” 2 Cor. 5:17

Action Points:

1. Do you believe anyone is welcome in God’s kingdom? Do you believe you are welcome? How can you better live the truth anyone is welcome?
2. Is there any people group you avoid witnessing to, or praying for because you believe they don’t deserve God’s grace or love? What can you do to change this attitude?
3. Is there anyone, anytwo, anythree or four  in your life right now who need to hear they are welcome? How can you share the love of Jesus with them today?

Life is sweet. Anyone may come. Anyone.

All rights reserved.

Copyright 2015

 

Rejoice not against me, O mine enemy: when I fall, I shall arise; when I sit in darkness, Jehovah will be a light unto me. Micah 7:8

Feels like football weather!

is a common saying where I come from. I am a big football fan. I love everything about football season—from the excitement, the competition, the sweatshirts, the cool fall weather, to the big pot of chili bubbling on the back of the stove. Each Saturday, I celebrate when my favorite team marches onward to victory. I must admit there is a dark side to my celebrating — I rejoice when the rival team from across state loses (and loses big…in the Big House).

Satan does the same thing to us. Like a thug hidden in the shadows, he sets his evil traps and rejoices as we fall; however, his victory is short lived. Because in Christ Jesus, we get up.

Rejoice not my enemy.

In Hebrew rejoice means to leap, to be glad, to celebrate the destruction of another. Destruction—Satan’s calling card. Satan hopes our fall will destroy us, but he has forgotten God made provision for the fall in the Garden of Eden. The Garden of Gethsemane. The Cross of Calvary. We get up.

When I fall.

When I fall. When you fall. God knows we will fall. He has a plan. The word fall means to fall, to fall away, to lie, to throw down. But fall also means …

to fall in the hands of

To fall in the hands of…God. We sin and fall, and He catches us. We fall into the hands of God. Where can we run from his love? If we climb to the heavens, He is there. If we make our bed in Sheol, still He finds us there. Our wandering turns out to be His leading. One more life-changing definition for the word fall; it also means to fall on one’s knees.

Ponder this for a moment.

What do we usually do when we are on our knees?

Pray.

Let’s put this all together. Satan tempts us. Because of our own desires, we are drawn away and enticed. We sin and we fall. But we fall into the hands of God and we land on our knees. We pray. We confess. We get up.

I once heard a preacher say the definition of success is getting up one more time than you fall. I think God would agree. Getting up is the key.

What knocks you down?

Is it an attitude, a habit, your sin, the sin of others?

• When you have blown it, AGAIN, by yelling at the kids when they didn’t deserve it—get up.
• When you overhear a co-worker’s nasty comment concerning your project—get up.
• When your husband complains about a meal that took hours to prepare—get up.
• When no one notices your continual sacrifices at home, at work, at school. Your Father sees you—get up.
• When you’ve given gut-level deep and your efforts fall short—get up.
• When you’ve promised you wouldn’t curse/drink/smoke/gamble/sleep around ever again; confess. repent, and get up.

Action points:

1. What do you need to give up so you can get up?
2. Now that you got up, name something you will do in place of what you gave up.
3. Pray. Find scriptures that attack your problem and encourage growth. Pray these scriptures into your situation. Meditate on them and repeat them as often as necessary. Remember change takes time.

Life is sweet. Get up!