Five Minute Friday: BROKEN

Five Minute Friday, where a community of bloggers write on the same topic … 1. Write for 5 minutes flat – no editing, no over thinking, no backtracking. 2. Link back and invite others to join in, http://lisajobaker.com/five-minute-friday/. 3. Visit the person who linked up before you & encourage them in their comments. Seriously. That is, like, the rule. And the fun. And the heart of this community…OK, are you ready? Please give us your best five minutes on: BROKEN

Broken and Spilled Out
Steve Green

This beautiful song came to mind when I considered the prompt for today.

Blessings all … http://youtu.be/aP2kZCigZKE

One day a plain village woman
Driven by love for her Lord
Recklessly poured out a valuable essence
Disregarding the scorn
And once it was broken and spilled out
A fragrance filled all the room
Like a prisoner released from his shackles
Like a spirit set free from the tomb

Broken and spilled out
Just for love of you, Jesus
My most precious treasure
Lavished on thee
Broken and spilled out
And poured at your feet
In sweet abandon
Let me be spilled out
And used up for Thee

 

Lord you were God’s precious treasure
His loved and his own perfect Son
Sent here to show me the love of the Father
Just for love it was done
And though you were perfect and holy
You gave up yourself willingly
You spared no expense for my pardon
You were used up and wasted for me

Broken and spilled out
Just for love of me Jesus
God’s most precious treasure
Lavished on me
Broken and spilled out
And poured at my feet

In sweet abandon
Lord you were spilled out
And used up for me

Thank You, Lord, for your great sacrifice and unconditional love toward me.

Five Minute Friday: He (Jesus) Is Our REST

Tags

adversity, Christian, faith, Family, inner strength, Inspiration, Jesus Christ, Prayer, Trusting God, Women

Five Minute Friday, where a community of bloggers write on the same topic … 1. Write for 5 minutes flat – no editing, no over thinking, no backtracking. 2. Link back and invite others to join in, http://lisajobaker.com/five-minute-friday/. 3. Visit the person who linked up before you & encourage them in their comments. Seriously. That is, like, the rule. And the fun. And the heart of this community…OK, are you ready? Please give us your best five minutes on: REST (Posting late.)

Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give
you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and
lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. ~ Matthew
11:28-29

Life can be brutal at times.
It is what it is.
You never know what the day will bring.
Our faith and hope in God is the only surety we have and He has
promised rest.
He, Jesus our Lord, The Christ, is our Rest.

My husband wrote a song,
He is always in the storm with you
And He sees he pain that you are going through
Don’t you worry, don’t you doubt
He will surely bring you out
He is always in the storm with you
He is our Rest.

That is the rest we have through the mountain and alley experiences of
life
He is there, an ever-present help, the lifter of our heads, the
Comforter
He’s our Rest when we’re weary of the way, lost along the path, shaken
upon the stone of steadfastness
He is our Rest when the whys, ifs, and maybes flood what we know to be
true of Him
When all around us seems unsure, He is our Rest.

Calming the storm
Speaking peace to the waves
Somehow righting the ship that is tossed about in the winds
Shoring up the sails and redirecting our faith
Anchoring us in His Rest
He is our Rest.

Home Is A Sanctuary

Tags

Family, love, Marriage, Ministry, Teaching, Women, worship

Five Minute Friday, where a community of bloggers write on the same topic … 1. Write for 5 minutes flat – no editing, no over thinking, no backtracking. 2. Link back and invite others to join in, http://lisajobaker.com/five-minute-friday/. 3. Visit the person who linked up before you & encourage them in their comments. Seriously. That is, like, the rule. And the fun. And the heart of this community…OK, are you ready? Please give us your best five minutes on: HOME

“Every wise woman buildeth her house …” (makes it a HOME):

I strive everyday to make my home a sanctuary, a safe haven, an abiding solace.

Our Pastor teaches us that the husband is the priest of the home, but the wife is the heart of the home. I take great pride in my role as a wife, mother and homemaker.

We’ve been married for nearly 35 yaers. Our first home was a one-bedroom apartment, then a rented house, several rented houses, then home ownership. We became empty nesters, umm, can’t remember how long ago now. Our joys went off to college, became independent adults, started to make their own dreams. Three years ago, we decided to downsize, so we settled into a penthouse suite in a property on Lake Erie.

When my Love comes home from a long day and evening of work, ministry and service, he comes home to a sanctuary where he can rest his mind, spirit, and body … an abiding solace.

Titus 2 teaches us to be chaste housekeepers, Proverbs 31 celebrates the woman who looketh well to the ways of her household.

As wives, mothers, and single independent women, whether career women (which most of us are), including home/family managers or women of ministry, a valuable lesson I learned long ago is that “ministry begins at home”. Home, marriage and family is our first ministry.

My home is a sanctuary, a place where my family and my God can find an abiding solace.

The home should be the treasure chest of living. ~ Le Corbusier

Where we love is home – home that our feet may leave, but not our hearts. ~ Oliver Wendell Holmes

Pray with me … Lord, abide with us, make our home a sanctuary.

Five Minute Friday: Ordinary

Five Minute Friday, where a community of bloggers write on the same topic … 1. Write for 5 minutes flat – no editing, no over thinking, no backtracking. 2. Link back and invite others to join in, http://lisajobaker.com/five-minute-friday/. 3. Visit the person who linked up before you & encourage them in their comments. Seriously. That is, like, the rule. And the fun. And the heart of this community…OK, are you ready? Please give us your best five minutes on: ORDINARY

When I saw the prompt for this week’s Five Minute Friday, the rolodex of my mind began to spin through seeking inspiration for how to approach this “Ordinary”.
I immediately thought nothing is Ordinary with God because He and everything about Him is Extraordinary. It reminded me that a year or so ago the employee recognition theme on my job was “Be Extraordinary”. Somehow, certainly by the favor of God, I received “Be Extraordinary” recognition for my job performance in completing a task. I was shocked as I didn’t expect or anticipate it but was so honored for the recognition and the distinction.

Back to the present …
After coming off the high of a long and much anticipate spiritual retreat this past weekend, I’ve been struggling with feelings of inadequacy and insecurity. I had a presentation due this week and I struggled in a literal cerebral fog every day in preparation for it, trying to complete the assignment, pull it together, make it more than Ordinary. It seemed to be a simple enough assignment, but in a very strange unordinary way, my confidence and cognition kept eluding me. It has just been one of those weeks.
The flood waters of these emotions which I perviously have been able to control have overflowed their banks and wrecked my equillibrium this week and I’m still a little off kilter (also fighting a cold), but this Ordinary reminded me of a song:

Just ordinary people
God uses ordinary people
He chooses people just like me and you
Who are willing to do as He commands
God uses people that will give Him all
No matter how small your all may seem to you
Because little becomes much
As you place it in the Masters hand
Oh, just like that little lad
Who gave Jesus all he had
How the multitude was fed
With a fish and loaves of bread
What have may not seem much
But when you yield it to the touch
Of the the Master’s loving hand
Then you will understand how
Your life could never be the same

These lyrics of this beautiful melody awakens in me the assurance that whatever I am, whatever I do is made Extraordinary when I place it and ME in my Master’s hand.

Artist: Lester Kerns