Vision4Living

A dear friend of mine, Terri Smith wrote on her Facebook wall that a dear friend of hers had passed away. She called her an Ambassador for Christ. I started thinking about it, and I realized what a beautiful thing to say about someone.

I looked up the dictionary definition for ambassador: 1. ranking diplomatic representative appointed by one country or government to represent it in another. 2. a special representative , on a mission, an agent with a special mission.

Oh, yes, the second definition is for the believer. 2 Cor. 5:20 says, “Now, then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us; we pray you in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God.” Christ has appointed us, as it were, to represent Him and His kingdom to this world we live in.

It is such a blessing to reflect on all the ambassadors the Lord has placed in my life to guide me over the years. They have represented Christ in my life to show me the way and to impact my life. I would like to share a few with you.

My Sunday School teacher at a very young age, Mrs. Kilpacktrick. She taught me the Spirit of Femininity. She was a lovely lady and always wore a hat. I guess that is where my love of hats began. She taught me the word of God, and it came at a critical time in my young life. I did not grow up in a Christian home, and I walked to the nearest Church every Sunday to sit under her teaching. She was an example of the art of being a lady.

Mrs. Gail Upton, a Godly wife and mother, was in my church also. She showed me, when I was in her home, what a Godly Christian home looked like. She was preparing me to be a wife and mother in the Lord. Something I knew nothing about growing up. She showed me beauty from the heart and feminine strength. Femininity is so much more than lace and flowers. A woman with the spirit of femininity is a woman with a teachable heart – a heart that can give and forgive, protect and respect, and go from craze to praise. “When we nurture the spirit of femininity in our lives we are not just primping and polishing; we are wrapping God’s word around our homes, filling it with prayer, peace, and pleasure.” (Emilie Barnes)

Mrs. Jean Simmons, taught me so much about being the Titus 2 woman and about giving: the spirit of always giving of yourself and time to others. Once I admired a butterfly pin she was wearing, and she took it off and gave it to me. Sounds too simple. That made a big impact on my young heart, and I have never forgotten it. I have done that with others, and it brings such joy to your soul. It’s fun – try it sometime.

Mrs. Verlie House, taught me the Spirit of Stillness. When Charles took his first pastorate she was a member of our church. She was a lady I grew to love and admire. When life distresses came, she was always available for council and to pray with me. She taught me stillness in the word. She was a woman I could trust. “Be still and know that I am God”, the psalmist urges. Stillness is not a word that many of us even use anymore, let alone experience. As a young woman, I was tilted more outward, and she taught me to be more inward. Growing in the Lord and geared towards heaven. We need to experience the fragrance of Christ’s love and let that love permeate our lives – to let the calmness of His spirit replenish the empty well of our heart, which gets depleted in the busyness and rush of the everyday demands and pressures. She was 70 years old and a woman who was like a sponge, always learning and growing in the Lord. I always said, when I am old and grey-headed (which I am fast approaching!) I want to be like her. She was always young at heart! The Lord is so gracious to provide all the spiritual blessings we need in our walk with Him.

Mrs. Louise Crawford taught me the Spirit of hospitality, the spirit of the Kitchen, and the Spirit of Godliness. She became my spiritual Mom. The Spiritual Mom I never had growing up. Her home was a refuge for me and a learning center for Godliness. She is a prayer warrior, a Godly example, and she has and still treats me like a daughter. She taught me genuine love for others. One time as a Pastor’s wife, she came to my home and brought me a beautiful gift of a sweater. She said it was a “happy” and she often did these kind of things. She had a welcoming home, a place of refuge, were people worn down by the noise and turmoil of the outside world could find a safe resting – a place where you are made aware of God’s blessing and through which you pass on his blessing to others. This is the kind of home I want to strive to have. Many a meal was served with lots of invited guest around her table, sharing hospitality and the wisdom of God.

These aren’t huge things, but they were everyday moment-by-moment investments in my life and examples to follow. These are the older Godly women, but there is still the Spirit of Celebration. These are all the young ladies, especially the P4C ladies, that have brought to my life that spirit. Living your lives with exploding joy! Celebrating laughter, a gift of God that brightens our good times; lightens the rough ones. Celebrating their Passion for Christ and each other. What a privilege it has been to spend time with each of you. I am inspired and always renewed in my spirit to serve Christ better.

I feel I must put a man figure in here somewhere!!! Of course, I cannot leave out Charles Cavanaugh, my precious husband of 31 years. He has been faithful to the word of God. For so many years, I was blessed to sit under his preaching. I am a better person for it. He has been a man of God, who has taught me how to stand-alone and to trust the Lord in all situations of life. He is trustworthy, honest, strong in the Lord, and that has been the driving force in our family. Thank you, Charles.

I hope I have caused you to bring remembrance to those Ambassadors the Lord has place in your life. Take some time to be grateful before the Lord for them and maybe this week you could let some of them know what they have meant in your life. A note, a call, or just pray for them. Let us be still and never take for granted the spiritual blessings that are ours in Christ Jesus.

Remember, Child of God, you are an Ambassador for Christ, a special representative on a mission, an agent with a special mission for others.

Share your life, and find the finest joy man can know.  Do not be stingy with your heart.  Get out of yourself into the lives of others, and new life will flow into you- share and share alike. – Joseph Fort Newton

This weekend I spent the whole day weeding and preparing my yard for mulch. It brought to my mind time we spend in our lives. Time began in a garden, not the “tick tocking” get it done time, not stuffed crammed kind of time - sorry I’m late time, I got stuck on the freeway form of measurement. It’s purposeful hours – a time for recreation, for dreaming; a time for growing, for sharing. The kind of time I would like to reflect on is: what are we sowing for worthwhile work? Time: a resource for creating the beautiful and growing the soul – purposeful hours, planting the seeds in our spiritual lives and others.

We can start this spring off right by sowing need seeds in our spiritual life and the lives of others.   Here are just a few you can think about:

1. SEEDS OF KINDNESS.… Psalm 36:7: ”How excellent is thy loving-kindness O God!  Therefore the children of men put their trust under the shadow of your wing.”  Ps. 63:3: ”Because thy loving-kindness is better than life, my lips shall praise thee.

2. SEEDS OF NEW FRIENDSHIPS.…   Proverbs 18:24: “A man who has friends must show himself friendly; and their is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.” John 15:13: “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.”

3. SEEDS OF JOY.… Psalm 16:11: “Thou wilt show me the path of life, in thy presence is fullness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore.” Ps. 126:5: “They that sow in tears shall reap in joy.”  Going out spreading that seed of who Jesus is, brings great joy.

4. SEEDS OF FORGIVENESS.… Col. 1:14: “In whom we have redemption through His blood, even the forgiveness of sins.”   Col. 3:12-14: “Put on therefore as the elect of God, holy beloved, tender mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, long-suffering, forebearing one another and forgiving other, if any man have a quarrel against any; even as Christ forgave you, so also do you, and above all these things put on love  the bond of perfectness.

5. SEEDS OF HOPE.… Psalm 39:7: “And now, Lord what wait I for? My hope is in thee.”  Col. 1:27 “To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles which is Christ in you the hope of glory.”

6. SEEDS OF HELPFULNESS.… Isaiah 41:6: “They helped every one his neighbor and every one said to his brother, be of good courage “ Psalm 124;8: “Our help is in the name of the Lord, who made heaven and earth.”

7. SEEDS OF THE GOSPEL.… Matthew 24:14: “And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations and then shall the end come.”

8. SEEDS OF ENCOURAGEMENT.… 1 Thes. 5:14: “Now exhort you brethren, warn them that are unruly, encourage the fainthearted, support the weak, be patient toward all men.

9. SEEDS OF EXAMPLE.… 1 Cor. 10:11: “Now all these things happened unto them for examples and they are written for our admonition upon whom the end of the ages are come.” (All the things that happened in the wilderness were examples to God’s people. What happens in your life can be used to be an example of God’s mercies.) 1 Tim. 4:12: “Let no man despise your youth, but be an example of the believers in Word, in Conduct, in love, in spirit, in faith, in purity.” John 13:15,17: “For I have given you an example that you should do as I have done to you. Verily, Verily I say unto to you, the servant is not greater then his Lord, neither he that is sent greater than he that sent him. If you know these things happy are you if you do them.”  (Jesus was talking to his disciples while washing their feet!)

So fill your pots with spiritual packets above for worthwhile work, creating the spirit of Godliness. Growing in Godliness is a lifelong process. God wants us to be a container full of His love and mercy.  ”If a man, therefore, purge himself from these, he shall be a vessel (a container) unto honor, sanctified  and fit for the master’s use, prepared unto every good work.” – 2 Tim. 2:21

May the Lord help us to be containers worthy to be used for his glory..

Weed out the old… sow new beginnings… Spring gardens… A time to sow and a time to reap… Let’s reap a harvest of love in the seeds we sow together!

Human perspective is like being on a submarine. All is underwater and if you look out the window, all you see is blackness. God’s perspective sees beyond what we see. We can compare His perspective to a periscope. He sees where the submarine has been and where it is going. He is not limited in his perspective as we are. Romans 3:8 says … “All things work together for good to them that love God to them which are called according to his purpose.”

I used to cross-stitch a lot. If I showed you the wrong side of the cross-stich, it would be compared to our perspective of life. There seems to be no pattern to the underside of the sewing. But if I turn the stitching over, we see God’s perspective is much larger.

Just as we can now see the design of the threads, God can always see how the circumstances and difficulties of our lives work together to conform us to His image. God is doing the stitching! Aren’t we glad! Psalm 139:16 says… “Thine eye did see my substance yet being unperfect and in thy book all my members were written which in continuance were fashioned when as yet there was none of them.”

If I pick up binoculars and look through the wrong end, there is no focus because everything is so far away. I’m afraid most of the time in my life it’s like I am looking through the wrong end of the binoculars. Ever had days like that? But, when I do it God’s way and look through the correct end, things come into focus and God brings things right up to me! Romans 8:24-25 says “For we are saved by hope, but hope that is seen is not hope; for what a man sees, why does he yet hope for? But if we hope for that which we see not, then do we with patience wait for it.”

I think the reason I love Esther in the Bible so much is not that she was so beautiful and charming that the king chose her. It is not that she was clever in the way she got what she wanted out of the king, by wearing her best gown and standing in the right light. She could be passed off as just another dizzy dame… If it weren’t for those 5 little words “If I perish,” “I perish.” That’s when Esther expressed her magnificence! Esther had no idea what God was going to use her for. All she knew to do up until that time was to be a woman – the best woman she knew how to be. Perhaps she didn’t even know she had it in her to say, “If I perish,” “I perish.” I think women in their frantic search for self-fulfillment and identity today is a failure to stop and look at God’s overall plan for their lives as women.

Perspective changes both our view and our attitudes. A writer, Marilee Horton, says: “I must accept the limitations that are forming me into what God called me to be.” My limitations may be mundane, not glamorous or noble – something a maid could do. I must commit myself to look at the opportunities and limitations of family, home, washing, cleaning, illness, etc. and see them as the sun, rain and food that will grow me into what the Lord has designed me to be. We must not become women who have lost the overall perspective of God’s plan and are looking for significance rather than magnificence. Sometimes we may not see the whole picture until we are in eternity. I think of Mary, mother of Jesus, who said: “My soul doth magnify the Lord.” Little did she know that in that moment of her magnificence that she would watch the Lord die on a cross a cruel death. Now that she is in eternity, I am sure she sees the whole plan of God.

There are many stages and deaths in the life of a tree and in the life of a woman. Each death gives was to a resurrection of a new life, periods when we can start over. Thank heaven for the starting overs.

In John 20:3-8, “Peter therefore went forth, and the other disciple [believed to be John], and came to the sepulcher. So they ran both together: and the other disciple did outrun Peter, and came to the sepulcher. And he stooping down and looking in, saw the linen clothes lying; yet he did not go in.” The word used here means “to see with his eyes”, notice, just to see. “Then cometh Simon Peter following him, and went into the sepulcher, and seeth the linen clothes lying [there].” The word “seeth” here means, he saw and paid attention to. “And the napkin [cloth], that was about his head, not lying with the linen clothes, but wrapped together in a place by itself. Then went in also that other disciple which came first to the sepulcher, and he saw, and believed.” The word saw here has a different meaning. It means understanding. When Peter went into the tomb His perspective was from a human perspective. But, when the other disciple looked and saw again he had a Biblical perspective! I like to call it an ahh-ha moment!

The perspective was biblical and spiritual because the next verse says “For as yet they knew not the Scripture, that he must rise again from the dead.” The perspective was understanding who Christ was. The Messiah, the Savior, the bigger picture!

Now I take that cross-stitch picture on the beautiful patterned side and put in in a frame. God wants to take us and frame us in His word and make us a beautiful design for His glory as godly women.

The fact that I am a woman does not make me a different kind of Christian. But the fact that I am a Christian does make me a different kind of woman. For I have accepted God’s idea of me, and my whole life is an offering back to him of all that I am and all that he wants me to be. – Elisabeth Elliot.

Okay ladies, my son has talked me into writing a regular Blog for our ministry. Honestly I come kicking and screaming!!! (figuratively of course). I invite you to join me on this new journey of writing for “The Art Of Womanhood”.  My husband Charles once preached in a sermon that the Christian life is not a sprint but a marathon.

I totally agree.  Come with me as I share life experiences, insights and opening my heart.  Pray for me for the days ahead. I feel like Esther as  Mordecai wrote in Esther 4:14b  ”And who knows whether you have come to the Kingdom for such a time as this?”