A Blessing or a Curse?
Good evening sisters in Christ,
Brother Jim brought up this subject of 'blessings or curses'.
Behold, I set before you this day a blessing and a curse;
A blessing, if ye obey the commandments of the Lord your God, which I command you this day:
And a curse, if ye will not obey the commandments of the Lord your God, but turn aside out of the way which I command you this day, to go after other gods, which ye have not known.
(Dueteronomy 11:26-28)
As we take our morning walk we often see nails and pieces of metal laying in parking lots so we pick them up and dispose of them, calling it 'loving our neighbor'. We were in an area for a few days and walked quite a bit in one particular area and saw several nails in the parking lot...
After picking up another nail brother Jim stopped me and said 'Stand here and look around. Do you see something fishy going on?'
I stood by him, looked for a couple seconds when I saw this sign...
We had a good laugh about that. (It was a parking lot of an abandoned store without much traffic so it was just some simple humor:-)
Then he said I should write about perspectives and what we see as blessings and curses. If you were driving through the parking lot and picked up a nail in your tire it would have been a curse, but to look up and see the 'tire' sign would be a blessing having it so close but if you found out they tossed nails around on purpose it would end up being a curse.
Oftentimes the walk of a true follower of Christ can have blessings that look like curses and curses that end up being blessings. Brother Jim lost his high paying sales job many years ago due to his service to Christ and although many would see that as a curse, we saw it as a blessing because it set us free to where we are now. I have physical issues that seem to be sticking around and sometimes multiplying, which seems to be a curse but through my tough times I am closer to the Lord and with the delays we have in travel because of it, we end up in the right place at the right time which is a blessing because the gospel goes out.
I'm sure if you looked into your life as a believer that you would end up coming across many such situations over the years you have walked. What starts out stressing us out ends up being the best thing for us. It's all a matter of perspective and are we looking at it all through the Word or our own fleshly eyes?
As we traveled to our destination for the evening we saw these cute ponies...(Jim just corrected me and said they are donkeys :-)
This little guy was probably thinking I would have a carrot or something :-)
They brought us some smiles for the evening :-)
We noticed that this state we are driving through seems to be rather wealthy and we've traveled hundreds of miles across it. Very neat, clean, well kept towns with big brick houses with some looking like extra large mansions with white fence running for miles to mark off their territory. We've heard that it's not this way in the southern part of the state and that the money is not down there like up here. We may be able to find out at some point as we continue our travels, Lord willing, over the years. This too can seem like blessings, having the super fancy house, big tracts of land and the fancy cars in the triple car garage. But they also have to keep making the money to afford it and oftentimes (unless they inherited the money) they are slaves to their jobs in order to maintain it it all, which in turn can certainly be a curse over time. On the other hand people might look at the more downtrodden areas of the state and think they are poor and cursed because they don't have all the fancy luxuries that the rich do but they also have less to maintain and pay for which is certainly a blessing.
As we got off the highway and were heading into this town for the night we saw this beggar.
(I block out faces for privacy.)
We blessed him with a small food packet and brother Jim gave him the gospel, talking to him during the red light. He is blessed when he gets the gospel but he's cursed if he doesn't repent and obey it.
I am blessed, as a godly woman, with kindness and compassion but it can be a curse in my flesh (if I'm not careful) by making unsound decisions.
Brother Jim is blessed with a strong voice to preach and a boldness to back it up but it can be a curse if he's not careful to reign it in when it's not needed.
It's a blessing for us, in our time here on earth, to share the gospel with everyone but what a curse we have in our flesh while on earth to deal with the issues it causes.
And that's what we are all about, sharing the gospel blessings and warning about the curses of satan.
Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time:
Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you.
Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour:
Whom resist stedfast in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world.
But the God of all grace, who hath called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that ye have suffered a while, make you perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle you.
To him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.
(1 Peter 5:6-11)
May the Lord bless you sisters, in His will and ways.
Love in Christ,
Sister Deb
The biblical gospel...