A PIECE OF MY HEART...choose sacrifice!

As followers of Christ, we are taught to put others first.

We are to love, honor and serve others more than we love, honor and serve ourselves! But this is not always easy. In fact, such a sacrifice may almost seem too difficult for us. After all, putting someone first may mean we don't get what we want, when we want it!

If it didn't hurt alittle bit, then it wouldn't be much of a sacrifice, now would it?

No matter how difficult it may seem, nothing is as difficult as the ultimate sacrifice that Jesus gave for each of us. His sacrifice extended to the vilest of sinners, the unwanted, the unlovable, and the needy as well as those who were already His followers.

PHILIPPIANS 2:3 "Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves."

Putting others first may mean that we have to give up that close parking spot at Wal-Mart, or it may mean doing something that you don't really want to do. No matter how difficult the sacrifice may seem, remember, Jesus didn't HAVE to give His life...He CHOSE to!

What can you give up for someone today?

and this has been a piece of my heart today!

Living on leftovers?

Today is the day that we live on leftovers.

Leftover turkey, leftover ham, leftover dressing and all of that leftover pie! We go to the refrigerator and dine on whatever is leftover from the big Thanksgiving Day feast!

Sometimes, in our walk with God, we do the same thing. Feast on the leftovers. We try to get by on where we were with the Lord yesterday. We forget that His mercy and goodness is new every  morning. We don't have to be satisfied with what was, when God has so much more in store for us!

LAMENTATIONS 3:23 "Thy mercies are new every morning."

May today be just as satisfying with God as it was yesterday.
In fact...may it even be MORE satisfying! Let's not live on leftovers!

Have a wonderful weekend!

THANKFUL THURSDAY...Happy Thanksgiving!

Have you ever had a child beg you for something and when you finally gave it to them, they forgot to thank you?
 In the book of Luke, this very thing happened with some lepers:

"Now on his way to Jerusalem, Jesus traveled along the border between Samaria and Galilee. As he was going into a village, ten men who had leprosy met him. They stood at a distance and called out in a loud voice, "Jesus, Master, have pity on us!" When he saw them, he said, "Go, show yourselves to the priests." And as they went, they were cleansed. One of them, when he saw he was healed, came back, praising God in a loud voice. He threw himself at Jesus' feet and thanked him--and he was a Samaritan. Jesus asked, "Were not all ten cleansed? Where are the other nine? Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?" Then he said to him, "Rise and go; your faith has made you well." (Luke 17:11-19)

In Jesus' time, leprosy was an incurable skin disease. People with Leprosy were hated, feared and looked down on by other people. They couldn't live with their families or community. They were outcasts, and had to live with other lepers. It was a lonely life, a terrible way to live!

All ten of these people who had leprosy knew that Jesus had the power to heal them. In fact, they cried out for Him to have pity on them so they would be healed. And Jesus did heal them, but once they were healed, they forgot to show their gratefulness. Well, all of them except one. Only one took the time to come back to Jesus to say thank you.

On this THANKSGIVING DAY, may we understand the power that God has in our lives and may we live our lives like the one leper who returned to God to give thanks.

"For the LORD God is a sun and shield; the LORD bestows favor and honor; no good thing does he withhold from those whose walk is blameless." Psalm 84:11

Please share your grateful heart with ours here at THANKFUL THURSDAY by linking up your post below. Next week you will find TT over at (Grace Alone), Iris will be hosting for December. It has been a joy to be your hostess this month and from my house to yours, I wish you a very blessed and bountiful Thanksgiving!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

WEDNESDAY WEEKLY WORD...responding like a dye pack!

God created all of us with a need to interact with others and to rely upon each other.

It was His plan that we would all be born into a family, His desire is also that we contribute to our community and connect with other like believers. There is no avoiding it - we are connected to mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, children, friends, spouses, co-workers, pastors and so many more. All of these relationships have the potential to strengthen and bless us, they also have the potential to cause us pain.

This has always been something that people struggle with. Face it, people hurt us and we hurt people. Either intentionally or unintentionally. Hurt often times cause damage, not just to our relationships but to ourselves. It is not the hurt itself that causes the most damage though, it is how we respond to the hurt and how we react to those who have hurt us.

In last weeks YOUR OPINION MATTERS POLL, I polled the readers the following question, "What do you do when someone hurts you?" The top 3 responses were:

1. 50% of those voting said that they PRAY when they get hurt.
2. 25% voted and said that they HIDE how they feel when they are hurt.
3. Another 25% responded and said that they HURT THEM BACK.

I love how 25% of the voters were honest with themselves. To be honest, I think that percentage would be higher if I asked "how many of us have just "thought" about getting revenge!" Bitterness starts with a thought and it doesn't take long before it begins to grow.

HEBREWS 12:15 "See to it that no one comes short of the grace of God; that no root of bitterness springing up causes trouble, and by it many be defiled."

How can my bitterness cause someone to be defiled?
Well another word for defiled is "stained" and often times my action or reaction to someone can certainly stain our relationship or worse...my relationship with God!

This reminds me of the dye packs that banks use on their money. When a robber steals the money, after a certain amount of time, the dye explodes and everything near by is covered with permanent ink, including the money. There is no removing this ink stain, you can't wash it off, rub it off or get rid of it.

This is exactly what this passage in Hebrews is saying. At some point when bitterness takes root, it will eventually explode and color everything. It will affect all of the relationships that God has ordained us to be in. It is God's desire not only for us to have relationships, but that we show His love and grace to those around us ... yes, even the ones that hurt us!

Don't let your dye pack explode!

A PIECE OF MY HEART...accepting what we don't deserve!

As we fast approach Thanksgiving, I can't help but to think about all the wonderful blessings that I have been given. This time of year is always so great as we take time to reflect on the things that we are so thankful for. But why do we need a special day to do that? Isn't being thankful an attitude of the heart and not just a special day?

Sometimes, I think that we forget to give thanks, especially when everything is going great in our life! And when we don't get what we think we deserve, having a grateful heart is probably not happening, in fact, many times I find myself grumbling, complaining and whining.

Instead of having an attitude of gratitude, we have an attitude of "I deserve!' I DESERVE that promotion! I DESERVE to get an "A" in this class! I DESERVE to go on this expensive vacation!

DEUTERONOMY 8:18 "Remember the Lord your God, for it is He Who gives you the ability to produce wealth, and so confirms His covenant, which He swore to your forefathers, as it is today."

May we never forget where our blessings come from!
They come from His Hand and not because we deserve any of it. We are not any more deserving than anyone else. He blesses us because He loves us and because His Grace is sufficient. We may not deserve this awesome gift from God - but He gives it, freely, to all who will accept it!

Have a grateful heart today!

Gather up those crumbs!

In my kitchen, there seems to be no use for crumbs.

When the last piece of bread has been taken from the bread box, the crumbs are tossed away. The cookie jar gets lots of attention, until the last cookie is taken and nothing is left but some crumbs. Face it, crumbs just don't seem to matter!

I am so glad that God does not think this way about the crumbs in our life. You know, those things in our life that others find no value in but yet He sees the important potential each of them has. God never tosses those imperfections out, in fact, He gathers up those fragments of our lives and uses it!

JOHN 6:12 "When they were filled, He said unto His disciples, gather up the fragments that remain, that nothing will be lost."

When Jesus fed the 5000, He made sure that every crumb was collected carefully. Each crumb mattered to Him and He used each particle of bread that day. If just one crumb of bread was so important to Jesus, how much more value and worth are we to Him?

When we look within ourselves, we may see nothing but crumbs but God sees so much more! Our crumbs are really worth something these days!

Attitude adjustment!

When it comes to disappointments and frustrations with life, Paul certainly had his share! But inspite of all of that, he also knew how to keep the right attitude!

I am not sure that I share the same attitude that Paul had. Face it, sometimes when life is hard and people let me down, I get the wrong attitude! I get angry, I get bitter and sometimes I even feel sorry for myself. Face it, from the very first days of daycare, we are all prone to want to get our own way. And when we don't get our way, we sulk, we pout and we cry about it.

But this is not the right attitude to have for a Christian!

James tells us to "Count it all joy when we fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of our faith produces patience." (James 1:2,3)

James is not saying that we will not have frustrations or trials, because until the end of time, people will let us down and we will let people down. It is just the way the world turns. But when we take on the attitude that Paul had, things change. What changes is not just our attitude, but our perspective.

Do you need an attitude adjustment today?