Cathy

Irvin

There is a lot of talk about faith. Do we really understand it? Let's think about the story of the Jericho walls. The people marched around, blew the trumpets, and raised a great shout. (Joshua 6) What happened then? The walls came down. Was it because there was an earthquake? No, it was their faith in believing what the Lord said to do. They put action with their faith and were obedient. At the right moment, they SHOUTED.

Faith does not wait for the walls to fall down. Faith shouts them down.

When we least feel like proclaiming a shout of praise and victory about our trials and circumstances, that is the time to do it. We must say what God has said and speak to that wall or mountain in our lives and watch it crumble. SPEAKING and SHOUTING are the actions we need to do. It is our response to what we believe in our hearts to be true. It is the key to seeing the walls fall.

God told Joshua that he had given him the city and how long it would take to possess it. Do we give up too soon when we are waiting on a situation to change? We need to remember to keep on believing. When God reveals the time for your victory, you can shout. His timing is perfect.

We march to the orders of the Lord. We blow the trumpet once we hear the sound of urgency for a situation. The Lord speaks to our spirits and gives us faith. Then we will know our victory is right around the bend. Let us hold fast to the profession of our faith and not lose hope.

If you read the story of St. Patrick, you will find that at age 16 he was kidnapped and taken to a land he did not know - Ireland. Now he could have been angry, despondent and eventually given in to defeat; but Patrick did not do this. He became an overcomer as he persevered in his trials and tribulations.

He was taken and told to tend the sheep. It was there that he prayed, grew in his faith, and walked in love. What do we do when we find ourselves in captivity? We can stay in it or choose the latter.

The history of St.Patrick goes on to tell us that he did get away on a ship to return once again to his homeland, but he was different then. He had found Christ in Ireland through his prayers. Later, he heard the voice of God to return to the very place of evil where he was held captive. Patrick went on to become a Bishop. While he was living in Ireland he taught about the Trinity by using the three-leaf clover.

There is a lost and dying world wherever we are planted. Do we hear the call of their captivity? Can we enter that place of darkness from which we too were once enslaved? Can we hear the lost crying out for help?

We are not all called to be in the five-fold ministry or to be a missionary to a foreign land, but we are all called to be witnesses and to evangelize. The Lord puts people in our paths every day if we are looking, or we can pray and ask Him to place someone in our sphere of influence.

I may like to wear green on St. Patrick’s Day, but more than that I want to know the history of why we celebrate this holiday. This man was a hero; he changed a nation. He lived out his faith. He had a message; and like Patrick, maybe we can tell his testimony to our family and friends and spark a new meaning in that holiday for them.

If we think about it, most of us would either be angry or depressed if we found ourselves having been kidnapped and never knowing if we would see our loved ones again. Patrick, even though he was a teenager when he was captured, had allowed Christ to change his heart so completely, that he felt compassion for the people who made him a slave. Once he had gotten away from them, he could have stayed away, but God had a different plan for him.

Have you ever thought that something was so terrible, that it could never be the same again? Let me tell you a true story.

Last year there were four big, old, oak trees that had to be removed from my backyard. Their limbs were breaking from each storm we encountered. During the last hurricane, one of those branches fell straight through a small shed in the yard and the roof had to be replaced. 

It was wonderful to see those branches finally down. However, the only problem was they were not removed from the yard as soon as I would have liked.

It was a very long time that they lay there. I made a deliberate choice to not go out in the yard for months. My son cut the trees up into smaller sections to clear them and found a small snake. I could not even enjoy sitting out there.

Finally, the day arrived when the men came to remove the fallen trees. When I arrived home, I was excited. I ran to my window and flung open the curtains. I thought of the poem, “The Night Before Christmas” by Clement Clarke Moore.

As the poem says: “Away to the window I flew like a flash, tore open the shutter, and threw up the sash.”

What do you think I saw? No, there were no reindeer. My once beautiful backyard had been dug up by a tractor with big clamps.

The whole yard had been tilled, and all I could think about is the prospect of one gigantic mud hole by the next rainfall. I did not feel like we should rake the yard to get it level, nor did I think that we should buy grass seed to plant because I had more important matters to heed to, such as preparing for my daughter's wedding.

Sometimes you just have to let go. The Bible says we aren’t to worry or be anxious. I decided right then and there to forget about it, like the kids always say, “It’s not that serious,” and it isn’t.

I think I had forgotten I had a yard until one morning, I opened the bathroom window to look out at the weather. I was totally taken back. There was beautiful, green grass all over the yard, and only one small, sunken place in the middle of the yard where there had been a pond years ago.

Now it was full of muddy water, but it seemed so small in comparison to the once giant mud hole that covered the whole yard. It was now fixable.

It seemed as if angels literally came and poured new grass seed overnight, perhaps heavenly seeds since it looked so different!  

Doesn’t the Lord promise to take care of things in our life when we just give it to Him? I had a hard time believing that the original disaster which seemed so devastating could now be something so delightful. The amazing thing to me is that I did nothing to make the change. The Lord created the earth, so He surely knows how to put it back together.

He used all the rain in my muddy yard to speed up the process for new grass to grow. I thought it was ruined, and so did the neighbors.

Next time that you think something is too big of a mess in your life, it really isn’t. It may take some time to get corrected, but it will. Believe God, cast your burdens on Him, and let Him see you through it.

Well it is almost time for the bewitching hour, the day called Halloween. The children wait by their front doors ready to run out into the night as soon as the sky darkens.

The porch lights are on for a welcome sign for those who invite the children, For those not wishing to participate or who are out at the malls with their children, they have all their lights off.

There are so many thoughts about this night (which by the way is the second favorite of children, Christmas taking the number one slot). Is it safe? Should Christians celebrate it?

I am in favor of children going to an alternative, church harvest party where they can dress up and get candy, punch, cookies, etc.

But what do we do if we don’t have any little ones of our own? Do we go help out at those churches or stay home and hide from them? Or do we open the door and be a light in the darkness?  

Jesus said, "Let your light so shine before men that they might see your good works." The people need to see the love of God. These children are innocent. They also need our protection. I have dressed up and gone to a children’s hospital before and gave out candy ... diet candy to the diabetic children. I also have gone to a church to help, and I also have hid in the dark in my home not answering the door. I have done it all.

Last year my daughter and granddaughter asked me to go out with them. So into the dark night with my two great-grandchildren with their mother and grandmother, I went. We checked their candy and talked to them about not going inside anybody’s house. An old man was sitting in a rocking chair in his living room with the door open telling children to come on inside. I told him, "Sir please bring your chair on the porch because we instruct children, and our own especially, not to enter a stranger’s home." He listened as he bowed his head. I hoped he might have thought about what I said as we left never going inside. I told the children they would get plenty of candy in my daughter’s neighborhood.

It didn't take me long to wonder, Why did I even go out with them? I went to pray over all the children that night as we went up and down the streets. I prayed for the people who lived in those homes and found some other Christians who had a light on but no jack-o-lanterns, creepy critters or sounds were to be seen. I noticed they would say, "God bless you" to the children and told them to be safe and hold hands.

We never dress the children up in anything representing evil, and they don’t even want to go up to those scary houses, but they like seeing the costumes, getting candy and riding back home in a wagon.

Do I believe in celebrating Halloween? Absolutely not! Do I want to use this night as an opportunity to show Jesus? You bet I do.

I will expose my good deeds to this dark world, and I will choose to go out into the darkness, where I will let my light shine for Jesus. I may just give something from the Christian bookstore, a message of God’s love on a tract or information about Halloween and some candy on my own front porch; but whatever I do, I will not hide in the dark.  

The decision to go out, stay home, to take the children out into the streets, mall or to church is a personal conviction. Each year you can do something different, but be a light in the darkness whatever you decide to do. 

Valentine's Day has come and gone but this scene will always be in my mind. I saw a man buying flowers. He bought three big beautiful roses: one pink, one red, and one white. They were wrapped in a clear bag. When I went out of the store I saw him again, bending down in the snow to gather some up; and he was putting it in the bag so the roses wouldn’t wilt before he got them to their destination.

This was a wonderful idea and he was so thoughtful; I knew it represented his love for someone to take special care of his gift.

I thought about Jesus like the man who didn’t want his flowers to wilt and die. Jesus came that we might have life abundantly here and to give us eternal life so we really never have to die either. Yes, we will leave this earth one day in the physical, but our spirit man will live forever. Our earthly body (like a rose) dies, but our spirit is renewed day by day.

I heard a song titled Ten Thousand Angels Cried, sung by LeAnn Rimes. I could picture heaven the day our Savior was crucified. Those angels were looking at the torture He endured for the salvation of mankind. They must have pondered this senseless way to die. They saw people mocking Him and spitting on Him, lashing at Him with a whip repeatedly, until He was disfigured beyond recognition.

Why would He choose to leave Heaven’s splendor to die in our place, when we were the sinful ones? We cannot understand this. The fact remains that He chose to lay aside his crown and royalty to take on the form of humanity for you and me.

On Maundy Thursday and Good Friday, people attend services in churches around the world. There is the celebration of Resurrection Sunday, better known as Easter.

When you were a child, did you pick up buttercups or dandelions for your mother? And hide them behind your back? I can remember my mom cooking dinner on a Saturday afternoon. I gave her a handful of flowers I had picked from the yard. She smiled at me and thanked me for such a lovely gift. She took off her apron, sat me on her lap, and told me she loved me.

I recently found a picture of myself when I was quite young. My mother had written on the back of the picture "3-years-old," which is the same age as my precious great-granddaughter, Destiny. The other day Destiny handed me a dandelion from the yard.

Somehow those moments of reflection remind me that Jesus, our Beloved, wants to shower us with gifts of His love. He also expects us to give others little acts of kindness as we journey along here on earth.

I am so glad I gave my mother flowers then. Through the years on Mother’s Day, even though she passed away 12 years ago, her smile still comes back when I am given a flower from a tiny hand trying to say I love you.

Be sure you show and tell your mother or special loved one that you love them all the time, not just on special occasions. Then when they move on to heaven, you can know the Lord is pleased you gave your love away. It is like flowers that last forever for Him: