Shirlee Abbott

Virus? (Tuesday)

Posted on October 21, 2014 by Shirlee Abbott

The church is a clinic for hurting souls and spirits. We must welcome them into our fellowship and carefully care for them. But how do we minister to hurting people without being infected by what ails them?

Healthcare workers caring for infectious patients wear PPE (personal protective equipment). Be careful to wear our God-given protective gear while ministering to sick souls.

1 Thessalonians 5:8 (NLT)
But let us who live in the light be clearheaded, protected by the armor of faith and love, and wearing as our helmet the confidence of our salvation.

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Virus?

Posted on October 20, 2014 by Shirlee Abbott

The Ebola virus dominated the news last week. What do you think?

Doesn’t affect me, I don’t care
An ounce of prevention . . .
Be afraid, be very afraid

Remember that you are spirit, soul and body. Why are we so focused on what sickens the body?

Think of the “viruses” we catch from others that devastate the soul and spirit: apathy, anger, busyness, compromise with our culture, discouragement, exhaustion, gossip . . . The list goes on and on.

Beware lest you infect others; beware lest you be infected by others.

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It’s Not Fair! (Friday)

Posted on October 17, 2014 by Shirlee Abbott

It isn’t unusual for me to prayerfully whine, “It’s not fair!” (usually when I’m sick, or short on cash, or jealous).

God: You never complain when circumstances fall out to your advantage. There’s no protest when someone you don’t like falls on unusually hard times. Seems to me that it isn’t “fair” that you’re after. What you really want is “special treatment.”

Me: Ouch!

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It’s Not Fair! (Thursday)

Posted on October 16, 2014 by Shirlee Abbott

Ponder this from Thomas Watson, Puritan preacher from the mid 1600s:

“God intermixeth mercy with affliction: he steeps his sword of justice in the oil of mercy . . . In the ark there was a rod and a pot of manna, the emblem of a Christian’s condition, mercy interlined with judgment.”

A deep thinker, our Mr. Watson.

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It’s Not Fair! (Wednesday)

Posted on October 15, 2014 by Shirlee Abbott

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It’s Not Fair (Tuesday)

Posted on October 14, 2014 by Shirlee Abbott

Remember the parable of the workers in the vineyard:

Matthew 20:13,15
But he answered one of them, ‘I am not being unfair to you, friend. Didn’t you agree to work for a denarius?
. . . Or are you envious because I am generous?’

A fair world would be just, but lacking compassion and grace.

James 2:13
Mercy triumphs over judgment.

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It’s Not Fair!

Posted on October 13, 2014 by Shirlee Abbott

We hear a lot about what’s fair:

It’s only fair that rich people pay more taxes
It’s not fair that she gets money for doing nothing
He’s so lucky, it’s not fair that he gets all the breaks
What did I do to deserve this? It’s not fair!

Newsflash: God is NOT fair.

God is holy and perfect. In a fair kingdom, God would allow only holy and perfect people into heaven. In God’s kingdom, grace trumps fair.

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Heart Check (Friday)

Posted on October 10, 2014 by Shirlee Abbott

whole heartedly

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Heart Check (Thursday)

Posted on October 9, 2014 by Shirlee Abbott

From Blaise Pascal, mid-1600s:

“There are two kinds of people one can call reasonable: those who serve God with all their heart because they know him, and those who seek him with all their heart because they do not know him.”

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Heart Check (Wednesday)

Posted on October 8, 2014 by Shirlee Abbott

Confession:

I have a consistency problem when it comes to whole-heartedness. It’s a daily (hourly?) problem.

Nobody even listened my idea, Lord. I’m soooo frustrated!
(it’s all about me — no heart)

Oh, Lord God, you don’t seriously expect me to talk about my faith with a stranger? It’s one thing to talk with you privately and quite another to talk about you with others.
(compromising with the world — half-heart)

O God, I’m having a hard time with whole heart. Don’t even want to think about soul, mind and strength.

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