Gotta have her!

Welcome to Unseen today.  If you are like me you may have been questioning your value lately.  If you are beyond that, good for you.  Pray for the rest of us. In the meantime, read on for a lesson on our innate worth.

I gotta have her!

I have a confession. I like to watch Pawn Stars on the history channel. If you haven’t seen it, it is a reality show about a pawn shop. People have brought in everything from canned pearls to Picasso paintings. Sometimes a person brings in something that they want way too much for. Sometimes, though, they will bring in something that is much more valuable than they realize. The camera goes off to the back and is just on the owner, Rick. He says, “This___ is really cool. I gotta have it!”

They start to bargain. He usually asks them where they got it. Many time someone says, “Oh, I just picked it up at a garage sale.” If it is something he wants confirmation on he will bring in an expert. The expert appraises the item, and it is sometimes much more than they were planning to ask.  Then they start singing another song.  Most of the time, he gets the items for a good price. Then he restores them and sells them for even more money.

Have you ever felt like you were something life tossed in a garage sale? The enemy of our souls tells us we are worthless, and then uses the despair to get hold of us. We may use self-destructive habits to numb the pain of feeling worthless, which only adds to the feelings. It is a cycle we can only get out of with Jesus. Picture Jesus going to Satan and saying, “I want that person.”

Satan says, “You don’t want this one. She’s not worth much.”

“You’re wrong about that. I gotta have her.!”

“It will cost you.”

Jesus willingly paid for me, and for you, with his life. Then he turns what was once seen as worthless into the treasure that he knows us to be.

                I Corinthians 6:19-20 says, You are not your own. You were bought with a price therefore glorify God  in your bodies. Isa 43:1 says, “But now thus says the LORD, he who created you, O Jacob, he who formed you, O Israel: "Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine.” Verse 4 says, Because you are precious in my eyes, and honored, and I love you, I give men in return for you, peoples in exchange for your life. Jeremiah 29:11 tells us, I know the plans I have for you, plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope. Many other verses tell the beautiful fact of God’s love for us. Jesus did not have to go to the cross. He did it willingly. In John 10, he says, “I lay down my life for my sheep. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This charge I have received from my Father."

He did this because he looked at you and at me and saw the treasure inside us. Then He said, “I gotta have her!”

You are what you eat

Welcome back to Unseen. This time the delay was not caused by technical difficulties, but by the fact that i got a new job and have been working really hard. healthy lifestyles and good eating are a big thing. Read on to see a spiritual lesson we can learn from this craze.

You are what you eat

 

Four women came to the doctor. Each had different problems, but they were all

related to diet.  The first woman was overweight and had limited strength and energy. The doctor found that she got plenty to eat but did not exercise and did not have enough opportunity to use the calories and nutrients that she got.  The second woman  was extremely, dangerously thin.  She was so weak that she was not functioning.  The doctor found that she often skipped meals and when she ate, she ate tiny amounts of food.  The third woman came in with problems similar to the second woman. She often ate large amounts of food, but then went long periods of time when she ate almost nothing.  The fourth woman was normal size, but still sickly and weak. The doctor found out that she ate, but she was dangerously low on protein and tended to eat microwave meals.  The doctor told each woman what to do to in order to correct their problems. Do you think that they did it?

            Every one of you probably knew exactly what to tell the four women in this story.  But what if we shifted the focus a little?  What are we eating spiritually?  Are we spiritually sluggish and weak because we have not used and exercised what we have learned? Are we skipping service and study times or quiet times, or doing only small amounts when we do come.  Are we going from mountaintop to mountaintop, and experience to experience to get our nourishment? Do we prefer simple pre-packaged study materials and devotional guides?

            If you are like me, you have been guilty of all of these things.  Things that we would never do to our bodies, we commonly do to our spirits without even realizing it. Let’s try diligently to feed on a steady diet or prayer, study and attendance. 

Let’s encourage each other to do the same.  We are all in this race together.