Daily Devotional for January 5, 2016

1 John 2:15-17
Don’t love the world’s ways. Don’t love the world’s goods. Love of the world squeezes out love for the Father. Practically everything that goes on in the world—wanting your own way, wanting everything for yourself, wanting to appear important—has nothing to do with the Father. It just isolates you from him. The world and all its wanting, wanting, wanting is on the way out—but whoever does what God wants is set for eternity.

Scripture quotations from The Message. © 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002 by Eugene Peterson.  Used by permission of NavPress, Colorado Springs, CO.  All rights reserved.

A couple of decades ago, I had this idea to write a book about “heroic” women in my community.  I wanted to write the book while these women were still living and I could personally interview them…and I never got around to doing this.  I may still write the book someday, but here’s the thing…none of these women were world famous.  I doubt a single one of them was anywhere near millionaire status.  Yet they left their mark – on my life, the community at large, and as Christian disciples.

Here was my “short list” of heroes…

Geraldine Monroe McCurry…a wife and mother who devoted her entire life to her husband and three girls, one of whom was wheelchair bound with Cerebral Palsy.  Geraldine and her family normalized a “special needs” child in the 1950s and 60s…when most children like her daughter, Mary, were institutionalized.

Charlsie Baldridge Little…an educator and mother of two whose husband died tragically on December 7, 1941 – while fighting a fire at our local theater.  The wall collapsed, and Milton Little fell with it and was killed. Mrs. Charlsie reared her two sons while teaching and serving as an elementary (and maybe junior high) school principal. She also authored a book about the history of our community’s First Baptist Church.  Charlsie Little was brilliant and remarkable on many levels.

Olive Biggs Baldridge…an amazing military wife who worked tirelessly in her community as an assistant to her husband (who was a local optometrist) - and also in her church and our county’s Democratic Party.  Olive was a force to be reckoned with – and a woman ahead of her time!

Peggy Mahon Logan…”Mrs. Peggy” was the queen of caring. Her life of service was borne out of personal experiences with neglect. As a divorcee, she cared for her dying mother-in-law, and no one from the church came to visit this woman.  Mrs. Peggy vowed that would never happen again on her “watch,” and she made it her mission – and life’s work – to visit the sick and shut-ins and ensure that anyone in need knew that someone cared.

Willie “Polly” Chandler…my paternal grandmother, whose life was filled with a vast array of experiences , both challenging and incredible.  My grandmother drove a school bus in the 1960s – and made dentures on her kitchen stove for the dentist she served as a chairside assistant...all while helping my grandfather manage a small farm, sewing clothes for us and making beautiful hand-stitched quilts. My Mam-ma Polly could do it all…and she pretty well did!

There are other ladies I would add to this book…Miss Ollie Fae Jackson and Mrs. Cora Mae Barnett, to name a couple.  But I will tie this together by saying that the one thing that all of these ladies have in common is their relationship with the Father.  Their Christian faith was/is at the core of every single thing about them.  Of all of the lessons I learned from each one…how to love and serve Jesus was the greatest and most important.

Not a single one of these ladies wanted their own way, everything for themselves, or to appear to be important.  They simply lived humble lives that honored their commitment to God – and blessed a LOT of people in the process.  And I want to be like them.

I may never get the book written, but I will do all I can to honor these “heroes” and serve God as they did. Their examples give me hope and courage…and when I emulate their penchant for service and discipleship, I know I am closer to God.  My prayer is that you know – or have known – people who model this level of Christian faith and humility…and that you are making every effort to imitate them.  Want what God wants…not the world…and see what amazing things this produces!

©2017 Debbie Robus

Daily Devotional for March 21, 2015

Philippians 3:7-11
But Christ has shown me that what I once thought was valuable is worthless. Nothing is as wonderful as knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. I have given up everything else and count it all as garbage. All I want is Christ and to know that I belong to him.

I could not make myself acceptable to God by obeying the Law of Moses. God accepted me simply because of my faith in Christ. All I want is to know Christ and the power that raised him to life. I want to suffer and die as he did, so that somehow I also may be raised to life.

Scripture taken from the Contemporary English Version © 1991,1992, 1995 by American Bible Society, Used by Permission.

I was sitting in the parking lot after attending a funeral, and I spotted a friend from church walking to her car.  I called to her and asked if she would like to ride with me to the cemetery.  She gladly accepted my offer, and as she got in the car, she said, “I wish I was dressed properly.”  She had come to the service directly from her job as a nurse, and she was wearing her white lab coat.  I assured her that she looked fine…that nobody would give her attire a second thought – other than to notice that she took time out of her busy day to attend this service!

Here’s the thing…there are times when it is important to be “prim and proper”…when wearing the right outfit is critical.  And there are times when it is simply most important that you show up!  I’ve had to make a mad dash to the Emergency Department with a loved one in the wee hours of the morning when I looked scary enough to frighten grown men!  But there was no way I was going to say to those in need or the EMTs, “Hang on a few minutes while I put on some makeup and fluff up my hair!”  I seriously doubt that very many people would pause to check their outfit in the mirror if they found themselves in a burning building! It’s all a matter of priorities!

Too often, we get caught up in what we think will “look pretty” to God…and we miss Him completely.  The moment comes and goes…we waste the connection and lose out on a blessing.  We get so mired in how many Bible verses we can quote, who killed who in the Old Testament and what sacrifices were required to atone…we worry about whether we gave enough money, sat on enough committees, said enough prayers, and participated in enough worship activities…and we are completely deaf and dumb to Jesus calling to us…”Hey…c’mon over here and let Me love on you!”

Do not misunderstand me…I believe that Christian rituals are important.  I believe in the sanctity of Holy Communion and only wish that more people fully understood its significance and the profound sacredness of this experience.  I also believe in the holiness of God’s word…all of it!  But if we don’t fully understand the lineage of all of the kings or have a firm grasp on all of the names of the leaders of this battle or that one, yet we truly know Jesus and strive to follow Him…I would say that we have our values in proper alignment.  If we are in fellowship with Jesus and understand WHY He came to earth for us and the full extent of what He accomplished on our behalf…THIS is what matters the most!  The rest will surely fall into place.

I am a “Field of Dreams” Christian…I believe in the “If you build it, they will come” philosophy.  In other words, when we focus on Jesus…when we fully commit to Him and follow His teachings, I believe all of the rest will follow – the desire to study God’s word in depth…the yearning to fellowship with other believers…the conviction to give of our “time, talents and money” to the church…and a craving for time in His presence. 

Jesus doesn’t care if we are wearing a lab coat or our “Sunday best”!  He just wants US!  And I want Him, as well.  What about you?

©2015 Debbie Robus

Daily Devotional for August 8, 2013

Proverbs 15:17
A simple meal with love is better than a feast where there is hatred.
 
Scripture taken from the Contemporary English Version © 1991,1992, 1995 by American Bible Society, Used by Permission.
 
Early one afternoon in August 2009, my Mam-ma Polly (who was then 97) phoned me and said she was preparing dinner for my mom and her husband, Lee - did we want to come? I told her I would check with my [my husband] Greg, and she said, "I don't know what you and your momma will eat (Mom is diabetic - I have a corn allergy). I'm fixin' green beans, corn, sweet potatoes and a lemon pie." I asked her if I could bring some chicken, and she said, "Well your momma is bringing ribs. I told her I would just go out and get some ribs, and she said she already had ribs cooked."
 
I called Mam-ma back to tell her we would come for dinner and that I would bring some roasted chicken breasts.  I also told her that I had checked with my mother, and she said she would take Mam-ma some potatoes to cook (Mam-ma's comment to me earlier was... "I only have 2 Irish potatoes.") We hung up, and Mam-ma called back ... "You can't eat cornbread, can you?" "No, but that is okay," I assured her, and she said, "Well, now... I'm gonna make a pan of rolls, too." For those of you who make homemade rolls, you know what a process this is! Granted, the more you do it, the faster you become, and Mam-ma did it for probably 90 years.  But it's the stirring of that stiff dough that gives us trouble... and for someone nearly 97 with limited arm strength, it was a definite challenge - or should have been. However, her results were light, fluffy, melt-in-your-mouth delicious... and she sent the leftovers home with us! Yippee!!!
 
Call #4 was to ask if my sister and her husband were babysitting their grandson Timothy. “I wondered if they would want to come to supper, too." I told her to call and ask them, but... "do you have enough food?" She said, "Well... I don't know... but if we don't, at least we'll all be together." When we arrived, not only were my sister and her husband there, but my niece Jasmine and her baby Timothy were there, too... and we had more than enough to eat!
 
Such a seemingly simple thing as a family supper was such a day-long chore for the woman who prepared it. Mother and I cleaned the kitchen as Mam-ma tottered in and around us, finding containers for a "dab" of this and a "dab" of that to save as leftovers. I showed her the leftover roasted chicken breasts and broth I had brought, and I suggested she combine all of the vegetables with the meat and create a stew... a dish she seemed to enjoy because she could chew everything in it. Mam-ma put all of the leftovers into the refrigerator individually… I never knew if she made a stew or not.
 
I’ve thought about my grandmother’s comment a lot.  Most of my life, she threw “a little dab of this and a little dab of that” together and created a virtual feast for a family of 7-10 at any given meal.  She was the modern-day example of the “fish and five loaves”!  But the food was completely secondary to the company.  And that was the case at this meal.  We were together as a family around her table… and as it turns out – this was the last time.
 
I think about other meals I’ve eaten in nice restaurants… thick, juicy steaks… seafood feasts… gourmet dishes prepared by highly regarded chefs… and all pale in comparison to the meals around my grandmother’s table.  None of these “fancy feasts” could hold a candle to a birthday dinner lovingly prepared by my mom, as was the case just a month ago.  There isn’t a steak dinner on the planet that could be as good as those my father-in-law used to grill for us and my husband’s brothers and their spouses.  And when you get to the heart of the matter, it has nothing to do with food… it’s about the company and the sense of comfort, camaraderie, and peace.
 
In the same manner, this devotional has little or nothing to do with food.  The point is that we look for peace and joy in the wrong places.  We seek the things of this world… empty pleasures…when what we really need is to spend some time at the feet of Jesus… to come to His table and find the nurture we crave.  We look for the world’s best steak, when the “meat” we really need is found in God’s Holy word.  A true relationship with Jesus and His Holy Spirit is better than the richest piece of cheesecake or your favorite carton of Hagen Daz!  If you want real peace … grace, mercy, forgiveness…true comfort and confidence that God is handling your worries and cares… come to Jesus’ table for “a little dab of this or that”.  Quit trying to have what you think is “the finer things” of life… you’ve already got them in spades!
 
Haven’t you ever had a simple picnic with a friend that tasted like the best meal ever?  This is what Jesus offers us today.  His love is pure, unadulterated, and doesn’t come with a lot of “garnishes”… but you will never find anything that satisfies quite like it.  And you will never find peace that compares.  What are you waiting for?  Jesus’ table has room for all of us… and blessings enough for leftovers!  Will you accept His invitation and “come to supper?”

©2013 Debbie Robus