A Masterpiece

In Monday's blog post, Precious in His Sight, we learned that we have worth and value in God's eyes, even if we are sin-stained and scarred by life's traumas. Today I want to take it one step further. Not only does God see us as having value and worth, but we are His masterpieces. Consider Ephesians 2:10 as it reads in the New Living Translation: "For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago." When we surrender our hearts, ourselves, to God, He creates us anew. He makes us His masterpiece.

Now a masterpiece isn't completed overnight. Completion often take years. I believe you will be encouraged by the very definition of masterpiece as found on dictionary.com. A masterpiece can be defined as:

1. a person's greatest piece of work, as in an art. 

2. anything done with masterly skill: a masterpiece of improvisation.

3. a consummate example of skill or excellence of any kind: The chef's cake was a masterpiece.

4. a piece made by a person aspiring to the rank of master in a guild or other craft organization as a proof of competence.


Let's take a look at these one by one.

1. We are God's greatest piece of work, His work of art.

2. We are being crafted with Masterly skill. And I had to chuckle about this one; we are a masterpiece of improvisation. Even with all the twists and turns we take in life, all the messes we get ourselves into, God can improvise. There is nothing we can do to keep Him from having His perfect way in our lives, when once we have submitted our hearts to Him. Isn't that encouraging?

3. We are consummate examples of God's excellence; we are trophies of His grace. It's not what we do, but what He does in us. Again, how encouraging is that?

4. God is The Master, not a person aspiring to the rank of master, so we, as His masterpieces, are proof positive of God's competence to a watching world.

So we are a masterpiece of God. He is remodeling us from the inside out. We won't get there overnight, but we are guaranteed to get there! Because God is The Master Craftsman of all time.

May you be encouraged today,
Cheri and Wayne

Precious in His Sight

If someone reached into his or her pocket and pulled out a fresh and crisp, newly minted hundred dollar bill and asked if you wanted it, what would you say? I venture to say that you'd gladly take the bill. I mean, after all, it's a hundred dollar bill! I know that a hundred dollars isn't worth what it used to be, but it's still valuable, right?

What if they took that bill and crumpled it up into a ball? Would you still want it?

What if they covered it with dirt? Ground it under their foot? What if they tore it in half?

Yup. You'd still want it, even torn in half. Because with a little tape, that bill is as good as new and still worth $100.

We need to realize that is how God sees us, as people. We might brand spanking new, the newborn infant who has had no chance to act on his or her sin nature yet. Or we might crumpled, tattered, torn, dirty... yet He sees us through eyes that mark us with value and worth.

What kind of value and worth? The kind of value and worth that He was willing to die for.

Would you die for that hundred dollar bill? Sadly, in today's world, many do die for the love of money. They make money their God and they lose their souls over it. But that's an entirely different blog post.

Today, I'm here to tell you that you are the apple of God's eye. He loves you. He loved you enough to die in your place on the cross at Calvary. And when you receive Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, God sees Jesus Christ's righteousness when He looks at you!

The trials of life may have left you tattered and torn, dirty and crumpled, but He sees you as worthy and valuable. He has the ability to mend your tears and clean your stains. Not only can He do it, but He wants to do it. He's just waiting for you to ask.

So no more moping around! You are valued and treasured, by God, Who created the entire universe.

If you'd like to talk more about this truth, about how you can know Jesus Christ as your personal Savior, please feel free to email me at: cheri@cherihardaway.com.

Have a blessed day,
Cheri  

Give Me God's Odds!

In our last post, we shared how God changes all the odds when He comes into a circumstance or situation. Consider the kitty in our picture to the left. Her odds don't look too good. But since those dogs are under control, she is able to do what would ordinarily be deemed impossible. Those dogs - poised to strike, but held at bay - represent our troubles, our fears, our circumstances, poised to devour and destroy us, but permitted to go only as far as God will allow in order for His purposes to be served. Sometimes He allows our lives to get a little hotter than we'd like, but He is still ready, willing, and able to deliver us and show Himself faithful. We must, like our friend Kitty, keep walking and trust that we will not be destroyed.

Today we want to share some encouraging testimonies from scripture. Then when our faith hits a shaky spot, we can remember these folks and encourage ourselves.

Moses (Exodus 2 - 14) - In a fit of impulsive rage, Moses killed an Egyptian and had to run for his life. Forty years later, having made his peace with tending his father-in-law Jethro's sheep for a living, God spoke to Moses and told him He wasn't through with him yet. God asked Moses to go back to Egypt and deliver His people from bondage in Egypt.

So let's get a picture of this clear in our minds. God is asking Moses to return to the land in which he is a wanted man, to go to Pharoah - the one who can have him killed on the spot - and demand the release of God's people, who are slaves to Pharoah. Do you think Moses might have felt like the odds were stacked a bit against him? But he obeyed God and he went.

God proved Himself faithful by changing Pharoah's hard heart through the ten plagues He brought against the land, and the parting the Red Sea to allow Moses and His people to escape when Pharoah changed his mind and came after them. Not only did God make a way for Moses to escape his enemy, but He destroyed the enemy too, in the process. God can indeed make a way where there seems no way.

David (1 Samuel 17) - David was a shepherd. His older brothers were soldiers in King Saul's army. David's father sent him on an errand to take food and supplies to his brothers, and then to report back to his father on the well-being of his brothers and the king's army. David obeyed his father, with no intent to do more than what had been asked of him.

When David arrived where the army was gathered, he found the entire army cowering before a giant man named Goliath. Goliath mocked the armies of Israel, which was the same as mocking God in David's young mind. Faith rose within him and he slaughtered the giant Goliath with only a slingshot and five smooth stones.

Common sense would say that a boy armed only with a slingshot and some stones could never take down a giant armed to the teeth. Yet David did what the odds said he could never do. God had prepared him through his work as a shepherd to exercise his faith and his giftings to make a huge difference in the outcome of that battle.

Daniel (Daniel 6) - Daniel's steady faith and excellent character made way for his consideration for leadership by the King. Some jealous co-workers plotted against him by convincing the king to make it illegal to pray to anyone or any god but the king himself for thirty days, knowing that Daniel's faithful prayer habits would certainly cause him to violate the new law and sentence him to the lion's den. Of course, their trap worked, and the king had to condemn Daniel to the lion's den, as much as he loathed to do so.

God closed the lions' mouths and spared Daniel's life, which turned the situation around so that the king decreed that everyone in his kingdom must tremble and fear before the God of Daniel. God is able! Man can do what he likes to God's children, but God can deliver us. (There is a similar testimony (Daniel 3) of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego, who survived a fiery furnace for not worshipping a golden statue erected by Nebuchadnezzar.)

Joseph (Genesis 37, 39-47) - Joseph was shown in a dream that he would one day be in a place of leadership; this earned him hatred from his brothers, who sold him into slavery. While a slave, he refused the advances of his master's wife and she falsely accused him of sexual misconduct, so he was imprisoned. While a prisoner, he interpreted the dreams of some of Pharoah's servants, who later mentioned Joseph's prophetic gifting to Pharoah. Eventually, God brought Joseph into a place of favor with Pharoah, and he was made Pharoah's second-hand man. It was in this position that Joseph's brothers found him when they came for food during a famine. Joseph had is opportunity to repay all their evil against him, but he chose instead to recognize that what the enemy had meant for evil and for his destruction, God had used for good in his life. God can do the same with our trials and challenges.

Gideon (Judges 6 - 8) - Gideon led an army of 300 men (which had been reduced from 30,000 by God's command) against Midian's thousands. His plan to subdue their great army in battle was one of blowing trumpets and breaking water pitchers, again by God's sovereign design. 

Let's get ourselves a good picture of this in our heads. We are members of the company of 300 soldiers left who will go into battle under Gideon's command, and he announces to us that our battle plan is to blow a trumpet and break a water pot. Yeah, right. I like those odds.

Yet, God promised victory in the battle, and victory He delivered. He delights to show Himself faithful when no man can possibly take credit for the victory.


Let us take these three truths from today's march through a wing of God's Hall of Faith:

1) As demonstrated by Gideon's army, it doesn't matter what the odds are. They mean nothing, when you have God on your side!

2) Remember, we are never alone in our battles! Deuteronomy 31:6; Deuteronomy 31:8; Joshua 1:5; 1 Chronicles 28:20

3) We can do all things through Christ Who strengthens us! Philippians 4:13


Stay encouraged!

Cheri and Wayne

Breathing Life into Dead Places

There is no logical reason for me, Cheri Hardaway, to be where I am today. Thanks to my self-sufficient ways, by my late teens I was abusing alcohol, flirting with drug use, and looking for love in all the wrong places. Odds favored my self-destruction, except for the mercy and grace of God. When Jesus Christ comes in contact with a life, He changes the odds; He breathes new life into barren and dead places. I know. He did it in my life.

Fast forward a couple decades and I'm married with teens of my own. Hubby and I taught them about Christ, their Savior, determined to spare them the heartaches we'd inflicted on ourselves in our own youth. But mere knowledge was not enough. Religious education cannot impart spiritual life; it can only point the way to the One who can.

It was a bleak day when I sat in my nineteen-year-old son's bedroom, the evidence square in my face. He was using, had been for some time. All our talk, all our plans, all our rules ~ for nought. All our well-meaning attempts to keep him innocent and perfect had failed. I sat there rocking and sobbing for I don't know how long. I had no more ideas. I had no pride. I was broken before God. Anguished, I cried out to Him:

He's yours, God. You've got to take care of this. I tried. I failed. It's hopeless. He's lost his way. If You don't do something, he'll be dead.

I imagine my grief was not unlike the mother scripture tells us about in Luke 7:11-17. I love verses 14 and 15 in particular:

14 Then he walked over to the coffin and touched it, and the bearers stopped. “Young man,” he said, “I tell you, get up.” 15 Then the dead boy sat up and began to talk! And Jesus gave him back to his mother.

This son was literally dead: D-E-A-D. The odds were even more against him than they were against my own son, yet when Jesus came on the scene and touched the situation, He changed the odds. He brought life into the midst of certain death. He made a way where there seemed no way (Isaiah 41:18). He did this in our son's life too; he gave our son back to his mother. While at Teen Challenge, our son gave his life to Christ. God turned everything around.

My husband Wayne and I ventured into the world of blogging in December 2008, with hearts set on encouraging families; in particular, parents who are finding themselves, like we did, members of a club they thought they'd never join: the addiction-is-bent-on-ruining-our-lives club. Here in cyberspace we have connected with and grown to love families who we lift in prayer on a daily basis. God has also brought some local families into our circle for prayer and encouragement. And God has united us with prayer partners who pray for all of us, as well.

If you are a prayer warrior, please add the families below to your prayer list. (I share them as they are known to me, some more anonymous than others. We don't need details to pray; God knows all that needs to be known.) If they have a blog of their own of which I am aware, I'll list their names as a link to their blog, so those who want to drop by and leave a word of encouragement may do so. And if you are reading this post and want to request prayer for yourself or your family, please email me at: cheri@cherihardaway.com.

• Lynn and her husband, J, and their son Ryan
• Sherry and son J
• Lisa and son Bryan
• Athena and her daughter
• Lori and her eighteen-year-old son
• Debby and her husband, C, Debby's son B, and B's dad
• D and her daughter
• B, her husband, L, their daughter and two sons
• Barbara and her son Kevin
• Dad and Mom and their son A
• Angie and her son Randan
• C, her husband, T, and her son and daughter
• W, her husband, D, and their son B
• Janet and her daughter Alecia
• Renee and her son
• ChaiLatte and her son
• Sherry C and her husband, and their son C
• Annette and her daughter H 
• G and K and their son B
• Treava and her 24-year-old daughter

To each of you, our friends, near and far, we want to leave you with two thoughts. 1) Prayer brings God into your situation. We saw from the testimony in Luke that once God is in a circumstance, no matter how badly it appears the odds are stacked againt you, you are not without hope; miracles can happen. 2) We also have another powerful weapon in our arsenal, and that weapon is praise. In 2 Chronicles 20, there is an account of a great army coming against God's people. There are two verses we need to take note of:

 15 And he said, “Listen, all you of Judah and you inhabitants of Jerusalem, and you, King Jehoshaphat! Thus says the LORD to you: ‘Do not be afraid nor dismayed because of this great multitude, for the battle is not yours, but God’s.

22 Now when they began to sing and to praise, the LORD set ambushes against the people of Ammon, Moab, and Mount Seir, who had come against Judah; and they were defeated.

Praise undoes our enemy and his plans and plots against us and our loved ones!

We are praying. Others are praying for us. Now we need to praise and watch God move and victory come into our lives.

Here's a song to get us started:



May God bless each and every one of you,
Cheri and Wayne

For the Love of a Friend...

In Mark 2:1-5, there is the testimony of four friends who carried their paralyzed buddy to Jesus for His healing touch, only to find that once there they could not get to Him, because of the crowd that surrounded Him. These friends, however, refused to give up. They got creative and cut a hole in the roof above Jesus's head and lowered their buddy, "bed" and all, through the hole. When Jesus saw the faith of these four friends, He told the paralyzed man, "Son, your sins are forgiven."

This testimony has always encouraged me regarding faith. The other night in church, our pastor used it to encourage us as prayer warriors. He reminded us that when we pray for others - for healing, for salvation, for their needs - we function as their "friends" carrying them to Jesus for a healing touch.

Just as the picture above is of soldiers carrying a fellow wounded soldier to safety and help, we are soldiers in God's army. When we pray, we are carrying the wounded of the world's battlefield before God Himself for a healing touch. The battle for souls rages all around us, and we must not let fear or doubt cause us to go AWOL. There is always hope. Always.

When Jesus saw the faith of the sick man's friends, he forgave the sick man's sins. Think of the import of that truth. We pray for physically sick people. We pray for sin-sick people. If we pray in faith and refuse to give up, if we refuse to let anything get in the way of our carrying our "friends" into the presence of Jesus through our prayers, our faith can stir Jesus to forgive the ones we pray for.

I can't add to that, my friends. I am still chewing on that truth and marveling at the power and the privilege God has blessed us with in prayer. Never give up on the child you are holding before Christ. Never give up on loved ones who have yet to come to salvation in Him. Never give up asking for healing for illness. Never give up. Prayer works.

God bless you, faithful friends,
Cheri and Wayne

Access Denied

Does this ever happen to you? 

You have been in prayer and intercession for something about which you feel strongly; you've prayed in such a fashion that you find yourself totally spent when finished. Then not long afterwards, you find yourself feeling sad or depressed, but you cannot account for any reason to feel that way.

That recently happened to me. Everything in life was rolling along fairly smoothly. I'd had some really powerful prayer times, times that left me feeling like I'd really rattled the enemy's cage. Then I woke up one morning with an overwhelming feeling of sadness, yet there were no logical reasons for these feelings.

I sought understanding from God regarding my weepy, depressed state, and it hit me that it was likely backlash from my recent intercessory activities. That made sense to me. 

Then I began to wonder why it didn't happen all the time. Again, God was there with an ah-ha moment. This particular day I was not busy. I had no plans outside the house, just a relaxed day of writing planned. I'd, in fact, looked forward to this day for that very reason; thus, to be feeling so blue was not a welcome thing.

As I began to examine this new thought, I realized that I do not often have relaxed days. I am usually too busy to take time to feel this sort of thing, though the emotions may still be there, lurking under the surface. 

This whole concept gave me yet another epiphany ~ that's why God tells us in Psalm 46:10 to be still and know him. If we are forever running crazy, refusing to take time to even "feel," how can he speak to our hearts about what is on his heart? How can he commune with us?

He longs to spend time with us. He longs for us to know him as intimately as he knows us. If we cannot even take the time to know ourselves, how can we ever hope to know him?

And the flipside of this coin is that sometimes we spend too much time knowing ourselves, so much time that we have no time for him. Sometimes we are so busy being victims or feeling sorry for ourselves, that we have no time for anything else.

In either scenario ~ no time to feel or too much time to feel ~ we have a great big old sign posted on our heart that says ACCESS DENIED, whenever God comes knocking. He might want to enlighten the eyes of our hearts to a truth we need to recognize about our self. Or he might want to share an awesome truth about himself with us. Either way, we've lost out, because we have the area of our heart restricted. We have a fortress built around our hearts that denies him access.

Well, those were the wanderings of my mind on this day, the day I took time to feel... 

How about you? What are your thoughts?

Cheri

Poetry for Life

Hi everyone,

After I posted the last two blog posts about "trees" a precious sister-in-Christ sent me two poems she wrote. Her name is Treava Pool, and she has given me permission to share her beautiful work here on the blog. (I also just learned that Tree is a nickname for Treava.)

The Prophetic 'Tree'



‘Twas interpreted a “bush.”
In Truth, ‘twas a humble ‘Tree,’
looking out from holy ground
at ten cities she did see.

Elohim called to a man,
“Come stand before this, My ‘Tree,’”
and fire fell down from heaven
to dance thereupon her leaves.

When needed Words were given
and the man went on his way,
the little ‘Tree’ remained there
to hear what her God would say.

“My little ‘Tree,’ I formed you
with a purpose and a plan
to endure fire from heaven
so that I could speak to man.

Do not be afraid, My ‘Tree;’
You’re branches remain intact.
You’re bearing fruit, even now,
more than ever now, in fact."

God waters her with the Word.
Her roots drink the overflow.
She's grown now -- a 'Glory Tree,'
though, her branches hang quite low.

She looks out at her cities
and prays a little prayer,
thanking the ‘Tree’ Creator
that He chose to put her there.


Though few have known the value
of that humble, little 'Tree,'
she knows the price paid for her.
See, that little 'Tree' is

me.

Copyright: Treava Pool





A Glory Tree


Let me be a glory tree.

Water me with tears You’ve shed.

Let my branches be a place
for the Dove to rest His head.

Let the flutter of His wings,
as He builds His glory nest,
stir the scent within my leaves
to glimmer upon His breast,
so the breeze that touches those
who find solace in my shade
covers them in rainbow mist
from this glory tree You’ve made.

Let me flourish and abound,
my branches heavy with fruit.

Let it be a well toiled ground
in which I can spread my roots.

Let there be, beneath that soil,
solid Rock to steady me.

Let me be the Dove’s delight.

Lord Jehovah, let it be.

Copyright: Treava Pool


Thank you, Treava, for sharing your heart with us!

Blessings,
Cheri