Today I read the December 29th entry in the devotional guide, Streams in the Desert. The encouraging words end with an anonymouns quote:

                        "When faith goes to the market  it always takes a basket." 

I have a collection of baskets.

Last night I pulled one off my shelf and filled it with bread to take to a friend's home where our two families broke bread and ate yummy spagetti.

The basket sat in the middle of the table. I wish I had taken a picture of everyone's hands as they reached in to grab their bread. No one was shy. We took, we ate, we were filled.

I have a basket sitting on the desk in my kitchen. It is filled with Christmas cards.  Daily I reread cards and letter sent to me over the past month. I may not have seen my friends in years, but I KNOW they are my friends. I know because they remember me and they write to me. I really don't need much more confirmation.

On my coffee table sits a large basket filled with the books I gave my sons each year at Christmas. There are over 30 books - one for each Christmas. Each book represents a stage in life. Each story comes with a special warm memory.

I believe our relationship with God is like the filled baskets in my life- He asks us to come to Him because HE generously wants to give to us. He speaks to us through letters, traditions, and memories handed down through generations.

When I clean house and put up the decorations I am going to place an empty basket on my coffee table.

I am amazed that today's Bible verse is found in Judges (18:9-10). Right now the ladies with whom I meet each week to study the Bible are reading the book of Judges! Any way --- the verse reads:

"Come on...! We have seen that the land is very good. Aren't you going to do something? Don't hesitate to go there and take it over... God has put into your hands a land that lacks nothing whatever." 

Whatever I need is out there ~ mine to claim. .

My basket sits empty as this year ends and a new one begins. I will not be making a New Year's resolution. This year I will live my life out of a theme - Great Expectations.

Each morning I will begin my day asking God to fill my basket with the possessions He has promnised.

Friend- don't forget your basket when you head to the market place. Remember your basket and remember to

Shine!

I'm privleged  to work with  the most amazing group of women in my church- they are the women who make up the leadership team. I wish every woman in the world were blessed with the servant leadership exhibited by the ladies in my church who sacrificially give of themselves year round. They provide the  spiritual and emtotional support we need in order to survive life's challenges.

Today I want to especially thank Melissa and Kendra:

Melissa heads up our women's ministry. You would never know she is the head honcho though. She leads with open hands. It is obvious the ministry is not hers. She has clearly allowed God to take control and she shares her leadership with others, allowing many to enjoy the blessings of leadership, honoring the women of our church by trusting them to use their talents and gifts, and inviting a large contengency of workers to participate in the field work.  Thank you Melissa for sharing the bounty of the harvest!

I also include Kendra in this posting because truly- I never see Melissa. Instead she allows Kendra to be my direct contact. Kendra is the lady who I go to for all my needs as a Bible study facilitator. She unlocks my room and turns on the lights.

Unlocking and lighting... Do you know how huge it is to have someone in your life who unlocks and lights? Just think about the implications of unlocking and lighting!

Do you have someone in your life who turns on the lights for you? Some one Think about it-- Kendra lights up my path. When I arrive at church after dark, I know exactly where to go because over there in that corner I see the light. That is where I take my gifts and serve my God. There is no doubt in my mind where I am go to. Kendra has turned on the lights for me! 

She doesn't just turn on the lights for me-- she provides the tools I need. She secures my resources- DVD's, workbooks, leaders' guides, hugs, smiles, and words of encouragement. 

I wish you all had a Kendra in your life.

Then to top it all off! She gave me the most meaningful gift this year for Christmas. Like I needed ANOTHER gift from her.

Note cards and magnets to remind me of my calling!  We all need to be reminded from time to time. What has God called you to do?                                                                                                                                                                                                                 

This essay, sent to me by a friend, moved me!

HOW GREAT is THAT DARKNESS
By Coach Dave Daubenmire

Most Christians are not. Not really disciples of Jesus that is. As I go about my work, I have become more and more convinced of that truth. The American Experience is in trouble because those who claim to be followers of Jesus really don’t follow Him.
Oh, don’t get me wrong, they “go to church,” and most “believe in God,” but they are not followers of Jesus. They don’t even know what that means...to follow Jesus…even though they are “Christians.” In fact, I doubt whether the Apostle Paul, or any of the first-century believers, would even recognize the “religion” that we call “Christianity” today. Just wondering….was Jesus a Christian?”

Jesus hated religion. It was the “religious” folks that He tried to free us from. “But woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!" 
Read Mathew 23 to understand better what He had to say to “religious” leaders. He stated it better than I can.
Look. Christianity is not a religion, it is not “going to church”, it is not a set of rules and regulations after which you pattern your life, it is not a crutch for the weak, it is not an answer on the US Census, and it is not a home business designed to increase one’s earthly possessions.

Christianity is the life of Jesus living through you. It is an exchange of your life for His, a living out of His nature instead of yours, a “putting on” of the life of Jesus, not a process where you “accept” Him, or “receive” Him, or “come” to Him. It is a death process…a dying of you and your old nature…a transformation really…out of an old life to a new one. “Christ IN you, the hope of Glory.”

Most folks who identify as Christians claim to know Jesus as Savior. Very few know Him as Lord.

That’s why Christianity is so shallow in America. We love the “Savior” part of Jesus, but aren’t quite ready to bow to that “Lord” thingee. Most are interested in having “their Savior” bless their endeavors, but few are willing to “lay down their lives” for Him.
Everyone wants to “follow Jesus” until they find out where He is going…He is heading to a Cross…and He asks you to take up yours and follow Him. This flies in the face of popular Christianity and its “felt needs”… The hearts of Americans are hard to pierce. Stephen called folks like us “You stiff necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, you do always resist the Holy Ghost: as your fathers did, so do you.”

How did the religious folks receive Stephen and his honest rebuke? “Then they cried out with a loud voice, and stopped their ears, and ran upon him with one accord, And cast him out of the city, and stoned him…”

Here is what I am getting at. Most “Christians” are not open to the true Gospel because they already think they have it. They have learned to compartmentalize it, to compromise it, to hang it on the coat rack. But they have heard a different Gospel. They have been taught to follow Christianity, not Jesus.

“For there are certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ.” -Jude

Do yourself a favor. Take the time to read the book of Acts. It is a record of the “Gospel” being lived out by those who were most familiar with the Savior. You will look long and hard, far and wide, to find anything even remotely resembling the modern-day Humanistic, self-serving, Jesus-wants-me-to-be-happy-and-rich- Gospel belching out of the pulpits today. Would they invite Paul, the greatest evangelist the world has ever known, to appear on TBN? Would Rick Warren and Joel Osteen allow him to stand in their pulpits? Can you picture him “dancing with the stars?”

Americans are following a “different” Gospel, which is "no Gospel at all."

“Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked:”

Permit me to state it more succinctly so that there can be no misunderstanding of the point I am trying to make. Most church-goers are not followers of Jesus. They are merely members of a social club called “Christianity”. “Membership has its advantages….”

How do you heal someone who doesn’t know he is sick? How do you save someone who doesn’t think he is lost?

“If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness…”
Americanized Christianity has everything backwards. Somewhere along the line the life-denying-Gospel has morphed into a life-enhancement Gospel. Instead of us giving ourselves for the advancement of the Kingdom we have been fooled into believing that Jesus gave Himself so we could be masters of our own kingdom.

The idea of sacrifice and suffering is anathema to modern, Americanized Christianity. How else can you possibly explain the calloused attitude that most “Christians” have towards the “increase of His government and peace.”

Read Mathew 13. It is here that we read of the wheat and the tares which GROW UP TOGETHER. That’s right. When you go to “church” on Sunday it would behoove you to look around. Many of those sitting beside you are destined for the bon-fire. They look like Christians, the sing like Christians, and they speak the Christian “language”, but they are not children of the Lord.

“Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.” -Mathew 7

Could it be that many are getting the wrong answer because they are being asked the wrong question? It is not “do you know Jesus”, but rather, “does Jesus know You?”
In recent polls eight-five per cent of all Americans self-identify as Christians, yet this nation has become a moral wasteland. “Christians” complain about others “shoving Christianity down our throats.” “Christians” declare that “religion” is a “private matter” while atheistic teachings swamp their children in “public schools.” “Christians” have abortions and vote for “pro-abortion” candidates. “Christians” embrace homosexuality. “Christians” fail to keep their marriage vows. “Christians” ignore the precepts that Jesus taught.
How do you rescue someone who doesn’t think he needs rescued? How do you bring sight to one who thinks he sees? How do you bring knowledge to one who thinks he knows? How do you bring truth to one who doesn’t know he is deceived? How do you bring light to one who doesn’t know it is dark?

America is the most “Gospelized” nation in the world, but my dealings with Americanized “Christians” have convinced me that the greatest mission field in the world is inside the four walls of most American churches. The darkness thinks it is light. “And the evil spirit answered and said, Jesus I know, and Paul I know; but who are you?” “You believe that there is one God; you do well: the devils also believe, and tremble.”
Most “Christians” don’t know enough about Jesus to tremble.
How great is that darkness…

Shine!