Becky Austin

God’s Promises: Mary of Bethany

11:30 AM




Mary had something valuable in her possession. She had a vial of expensive perfume worth about one year’s wages. This perfume was something one would typically save for a special person and a special occasion. 


And Mary brought that vial to Jesus and broke it....meaning she fully committed to using it. She lavished it’s contents upon the Savior. She used her own hair( her personal glory) to humbly serve Him as she wiped the perfume upon His body. And the Bible says the aroma filled the room.


Why did she do this? I believe it was because Mary actually comprehended many of the teachings of Jesus about his coming death. The Bible tells us she would sit at his feet to learn from Him. She also witnessed the miracle of Jesus raising her brother from the dead. She connected that her value, her significance, her very life was all about Him and she was grateful. She willingly, whole heartedly, and unreservedly wanted to honor Jesus because she valued Him more than anything the world had to offer. 


I think about that broken vial of perfume and I think about how God uses broken things, especially our hearts. Only the love of Christ can truly break our hearts and penetrate through the selfishness, the fears, the uncertainties, the sinful desires, the focus on this world and on our own fierce fight for self preservation. Our broken vessels release the fragrance of Christ...our willingness to sacrifice, our cheerful giving of our resources, our wholehearted willingness to serve Him.


Mary believed the promises of God and surrendered what she had for his glory. She trusted the words and teachings of Jesus. God promises to use our selfless dedication and service...to use our broken vessels ...to use the aroma of our offerings to enrich our lives and the lives of others.


“And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.”

‭‭Ephesians‬ ‭5:2‬ ‭


“But thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession, and through us spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of him everywhere. For we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing,”

‭‭2 Corinthians‬ ‭2:14-15‬ ‭


Do you feel broken? Well, take heart, for God uses broken things...


“God uses broken things. It takes broken soil to produce a crop, broken clouds to give rain, broken grain to give bread, broken bread to give strength. It is the broken alabaster box that gives forth perfume. It is Peter, weeping bitterly, who returns to greater power than ever- Vance Howard


Whatever difficult experience you are going through is opportunity to learn from God and depend on him. I’m sure Mary learned much from the death of her brother and his resurrection. One thing she learned is how much he cared about her sorrow:

“Now when Mary came to where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet, saying to him, "Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died." When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in his spirit and greatly troubled.” John‬ ‭11:32-33‬ ‭

And we know that Jesus wept too. But as Jesus pointed out to her, the difficult circumstance was ultimately for God’s glory. Jesus doesn’t leave us broken. Our brokenness serves great purposes even though we may not fully comprehend it all in this life. But he promises to comfort us and restore us. 


“He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.”

‭‭Psalm‬ ‭147:3‬ ‭


My hope is that you will trust God and wholeheartedly commit your resources to Him. May your life be a fragrant and pleasing witness of His love to all you meet.


brokenness

Not I but Christ in Me {Philippians 2:1-11]

12:00 AM

~ Philippians 2:1-11

 "Have this same mindset among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus."- (Philippians 2:5).

What immediately comes to you mind when you think of revival?


 According to Roy Hession, “Revival is just the life of the Lord Jesus poured into human hearts.” BUT “The Lord Jesus cannot live in us fully and reveal Himself through us until the proud self within us is broken."
“To be broken means to have no rights before God and man. It does not mean merely surrendering my rights to Him but rather recognizing that I haven't any, except to deserve hell. It means just being nothing and having nothing that I call my own, neither time, money, possessions nor position.” ― Roy Hession, The Calvary Road

The perfect example of all of this is found in the life of  Peter. The night of Jesus arrest Peter expressed his desire to be arrested and and even die for Jesus, yet Jesus knew better and told Peter that instead that night he would deny Jesus three times,

Peter said to him, “Lord, I am ready to go with you both to prison and to death.”  Jesus said, “I tell you, Peter, the rooster will not crow this day, until you deny three times that you know me.” (Luke 22:34-35)
We all know that Peter wasn’t ready at that moment (Luke 22:54-62), but notice what happens later on,

And Peter directed his gaze at the beggar, as did John, and said, “Look at us.”  And he fixed his attention on them, expecting to receive something from them.  But Peter said, “I have no silver and gold, but what I do have I give to you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk!”  And he took him by the right hand and raised him up, and immediately his feet and ankles were made strong.  And leaping up, he stood and began to walk, and entered the temple with them, walking and leaping and praising God.(Acts 3:4-8)

Peter, no longer fearful of what others might think or do to him, begins boldly addressing all those in the temple that day and immediately:

"... as they were speaking to the people, the priests and the captain of the temple and the Sadducees came upon them,  greatly annoyed because they were teaching the people and proclaiming in Jesus the resurrection from the dead.  And they arrested them and put them in custody until the next day, for it was already evening. But many of those who had heard the word believed, and the number of the men came to about five thousand.” (Acts 4:1-4)


The contrast between Peter on the day of Jesus’ arrest and this day is amazing! Peter is no longer concerned about what others will think, say or do. He stands boldly in the Temple courts and proclaims the gospel and look what happens! Yes, he is arrested, but many who heard him put their faith in Christ. 

I desire to make a difference for Christ Jesus, just as Peter did that night of Jesus' arrest, but Peter was still full of himself that night. Peter needed Jesus to come take over just like the rest of us do. I believe all of us who know and love the Lord, Jesus desire to make an impact in this world for Him, but how many of us will truly surrender our will and rights? I know I personally battle with surrendering all the time!

 There's so much I'd like to say, but I truly believe Mr. Hession's has said it best in his book, The Calvary Road:

If, however, we are to come into this right relationship with Him, the first thing we must learn is that our wills must be broken to His will. To be broken is the beginning of Revival. It is painful, it is humiliating, but it is the only way. It is being "Not I, but Christ" (Gal. 2:20), and a "C" is a bent "I." The Lord Jesus cannot live in us fully and reveal Himself through us until the proud self within us is broken. This simply means that the hard unyielding self, which justifies itself, wants its own way, stands up for its rights, and seeks its own glory, at last bows its head to God’s will, admits its wrong, gives up its own way to Jesus, surrenders its rights and discards its own glory that the Lord Jesus might have all and be all. In other words it is dying to self and self-attitudes.

If you'd like to read more from The Calvary Road you can click on this link , or pick up a copy of the book. It's another book that I don't like to lay down for long.

Blessings,
sue

Angie Benjamin

Brokenness and Faith {Matthew 1:1-2:23}

11:00 PM





The Genealogy of Jesus Christ- When God Uses Messed-up, Broken and Ordinary People
 {Matthew 1:1-17}

When I first discovered the genealogy was all the way to Joseph, the first thought that came to my mind was but...what? He's not really Jesus's father...as He's not the son of man, but digging into several books and commentaries I came to understand that in Matthew, the genealogy gives Jesus legal or royal lineage through Joseph and this was important for the audience this gospel was directed to.

In his gospel, Matthew presents Jesus as the King of the Jews, the long awaited Messiah. By telling the story of Jesus' genealogy,  Matthew gives us evidence that all points to the same inescapable conclusion: Christ is King. On the other hand, Luke records the genealogy of Mary (3:23-28) and BOTH Mary and Joseph were direct descendants of David.

Matthew also includes 5 women in his genealogy, so clearly he's not diminishing the role of women.

The women mentioned here are rather interesting:

-Tamar who had a sexual relationship with Judah, her father-in-law {Joshua 2;1}

-Ruth was a foreigner {Ruth 1:4}

-Bathsheba is identified here as Uriah's wife {1:6} but we must remember David's adultery with her and murder of Uriah.

-Rahab was a harlot {Joshua 2:1}

-Mary though she was a fine, godly woman, she had a problem of public reputation because of her pregnancy.

The genealogy shows how all the ancestors where both loyal and inclusive...and even from different backgrounds e.g. Tamar, Rahab and Ruth who were non-jews famous for their righteousness and devotion to God. This demonstrates that through the lineage of Jesus, no one is shut out from God's promise no matter their gender or background. God's people include more than one ethnic group or nation.

Also, in all these names we found broken, flawed people, "sinners", some faith-filled, some faithless, both MEN AND WOMEN, some willing and some disobedient, 

I truly believe Matthew included all these messed up and ordinary people to illustrate Gods grace-to give us all hope. To show us that God always accomplishes His will and most importantly He's always faithful to His promises.

If God used all these people in order to carry out His perfect plan, His most beautiful promise, Jesus, I can rest assured that my life also fits into his perfect will. He can take my flaws, brokenness and sins and use them for His glory!

God uses ordinary people to carry out His extraordinary plan.


Wise men from the East- Childlike Kind of Faith{Matthew 2 1-12}

The first twelve verses of Matthew chapter 2 narrate the story of the wise men who were eager to go and worship baby Jesus as soon as they saw the star in the East. We don’t know exactly where they came from nor how many of them there were when they arrived in Jerusalem. We do know from scripture that most our nativity scenes depict the wrong scene. The wise men did not meet Jesus in the manger, by the time they met Jesus, Jesus was probably 1 or 2 years old. Joseph and Mary were in a house in Bethlehem (v. 11). 

These wise men traveled thousands of miles just to meet the King of the Jews. When they finally found Him, they responded with worship, joy and gifts! How different and sad the approach most of us take today...We often want and wait for God to come looking for us, we want Him to explain Himself; proving who he is and yes...we want Him to give us gifts.

Today I want to be like those men...Wise! and seek and worship Jesus not for what I can get, but for who He is.

The gifts give by the Wise men are seen as symbols of Christ identity and what He would accomplish:

Gold: a gift for a King, Royalty
Incense: a gift for a deity
Myrrh: A spice for a person who was going to die.

After finding Jesus and worshiping Him, the wise men were warned by God to not return to Jerusalem as they intended, since Herod had lied. He did not want to worship Christ, he wanted the Wise men to reveal the location of the child to kill Him. This fact teaches us two lessons;

1.-Finding Jesus might mean a change of direction and plans

2.-It's very interesting how satan was afraid of a child, and how a child was the King of the Jews. Kings rule and maybe one lesson here is that if we desire to rule and reign as kings in life (For if, by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive God's abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ!-Rom. 5:17 )  we must also become like little children.

Becoming childlike requires us to be humble, trusting, lowly and forgiven. I believe when we do so we frighten the devil just as the Christ child frightened Herod. We become a threat to the enemy when we become childlike in our faith.

To Ponder:

Are you willing, like the Wise men to drop everything you know and follow Jesus? Or are you expecting Jesus to find you and explain Himself to you? Are you willing to change direction and plans? Do you trust Jesus like a child does?

Beauty

The Blessing in Brokenness {Psalm 33-36}

7:30 PM



Did you know there are blessings in being broken? It seems like such a contradiction of words. The world seems to exalt pride-filled people and look down on broken ones. We applaud success and shun the broken, but not God, never God. In fact, it is in our pain and brokenness that God is closest to us, whether we realize it or not.

 Psalm 34:18, “The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit”.

The word brokenness refers to the state of defeat and surrender we experience when hardships come and we can’t seem to get past it. None of us enjoy the feeling of brokenness, but it’s powerful in bringing the spiritual benefits we covet into our lives. Being broken can also give us a new perspective on the Lord’s plans for our lives.
Brokenness tends to be God’s antidote for our self-centeredness. I like what Rick Warren had to say about what God can do in our broken state:


God says,
·         For the heart that’s guilty, I’ll give you a heart that’s forgiven.
·         For the heart that’s resentful, I’ll give you a heart that’s full of peace.
·         For the heart that’s anxious, I’ll give you heart that’s confident.
·         For the heart that’s lonely, I’ll give you a heart full of love.
·         That heart that has been bitter and angry? I’ll give you a heart that is forgiving and loving and generous instead. Let me do a heart transplant in you. I will set you free.
Why do we need freedom? Because we’re all enslaved. We’re a slave to the expectations of other people. We’re slaves to past memories. We’re slaves to future fears. We’re slaves to current pressure. We’re slaves to the opinions of society, and on and on and on.
 
If we’re honest, I think we’d probably all admit that most of our time spent before God has consisted of asking Him to bless us. We ask God for healing, for success… we want Him to bless our family, our jobs, our plans and so on, but have you ever asked for brokenness? Even though His word is very clear there will be blessings from it;

For thus says the One who is high and lifted up, who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy: “I dwell in the high and holy place, and also with him who is of a contrite and lowly spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly, and to revive the heart of the contrite.” – Isaiah 57:15

But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, “God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.” James 4:6

All these things my hand has made, and so all these things came to be, declares the Lord. But this is the one to whom I will look: he who is humble and contrite in spirit and trembles at my word.” – Isaiah 66:2

I know up until now I’ve tried to paint a roses picture of brokenness, but there is a tremendous amount of pain that comes from,
Broken lives.
Broken marriages.
Broken relationships.
Broken families.
And broken dreams.

Along with our brokenness come the lies that whisper to the deepest parts of our soul during our weakest moments in order to keep us down and broken, “You’re useless… a failure…beyond restoring… you’ll never experience joy again…” And we struggle to hide the scars of shame, rejection, and the lack of self-worth.

BUT God can break through ALL of that. 

With God nothing and no one is ever beyond healing! No one is ever too broken for restoration. He can actually bring us to the point where we will glory in our scars, and have an amazing story to tell, if we are willing! The Lord once said, “Behold, I am the LORD, the God of all flesh; is anything too difficult for Me?” (Jeremiah 32:27) Do you take Him at His word?

With God, brokenness has the POWER, unlike anything else, to bring forth new beauty and strength in our lives! It’s also powerful in inspiring others going through where you’ve already been!

We have a Healer; One who is in the business of restoration! Who is able to put the broken pieces (families, marriages, lives, etc) that no longer seem to fit, back into a perfect design, for He was once broken and poured out for us! He doesn’t simply patch us back together, but beautifully pieces everything together with grace so that we’ll be stronger, and more beautiful than before.

That’s Jesus, my Savior! Who brings new LIFE to all that is broken, for He was willing to take on the brokenness of the world in order to set us free!
 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

If you are in a season of brokenness; broken dreams, marriage, relationships, whatever it may be I'd like to pray for you and have the others on WitW praying as well. Please either leave your request in the comments, or on our Facebook group  and we'll commit to praying that you'll soon begin to see God bringing restoration in your life! I'd truly be blessed to do that for you!

Blessings,

sue