Choose to Be a Luminary

Matthew 5:16 (TPT) So don’t hide your light!  Let it shine brightly before others, so that the commendable things you do will shine as light upon them, and then they will give their praise to your Father in heaven.”

Having spent nearly a decade and a half in ministry, one of the travesties I’ve seen over and over is people believing they are less than they are. When I look at them, I see a lion, but when they look in the mirror they believe they’re seeing just a kitten – powerless and ineffectual. I’m not sure why we all seem to have an inclination to believe the worst of ourselves and the the truth is hard to receive, but it seems to be the case.

And yet in truth though we may believe the worst, on some level we HOPE that we are wrong. We HOPE that we truly are powerful and able to make a difference. What we fear is failing in that capacity. So we unconsciously come into agreement with the lies we’ve been told about ourselves (or had reflected to us), and decide to live smaller than our call. Thinking somehow this is safer. And yet, doing so leaves us feeling unfulfilled and robs the world of the blessing we are meant to be. Continue reading “Choose to Be a Luminary”

The Sweet Crescendo of His Refining Fire

The process used by metal smith’s to refine gold involves heating the metal until it is molten, resembling liquid mercury, though blazing white hot. A pinch of borax is added to the now liquid gold and small patches of a different texture and molten color rise to the surface of the metal. They appear to be darker, swirling, and spinning rapidly as the impurities, or dross, are burned off in the extreme heat, leaving a pure and mailable metal.  Continue reading “The Sweet Crescendo of His Refining Fire”

Fragrant Offering

Luke 7:36 -38 (NKJV) Then one of the Pharisees (Simon) asked Him to eat with him. And He went to the Pharisee’s house, and sat down to eat. And behold, a woman in the city who was a sinner, when she knew that Jesus sat at the table in the Pharisee’s house, brought an alabaster flask of fragrant oil, and stood at His feet behind Him weeping; and she began to wash His feet with her tears, and wiped them with the hair of her head; and she kissed His feet and anointed them with the fragrant oil. 

Mark 14:4-6, 9 (NKJV) [emphasis added] But there were some (His disciples [Matthew 26:7], Judas Iscariot Simon’s son [John 12:4], and the Pharisee who had invited Him [Luke 7:39]) who were indignant among themselves, and said, “Why was this fragrant oil wasted? For it might have been sold for more than three hundred denarii and given to the poor.” And they criticized her sharply. But Jesus said, “Let her alone. Why do you trouble her? She has done a good work for Me…Assuredly, I say to you, wherever this gospel is preached in the whole world, what this woman has done will also be told as a memorial to her. 

It is first interesting to note and understand the significance of where Mary was on her journey to where Jesus was. I believe it to be significant to the journey your heart has taken. Simon’s name means “listening, to be heard, reputation. His home was in Bethany (which means “house of dates” or “house of misery“) and Bethany was right at the Mount of Olives. The Mount of Olives was and still is one of the most well-known Jewish cemeteries in Israel. Bethany was next to the road that led from Jericho (means “Place of Fragrance“) to Jerusalem (means “foundation/possession of peace“…a place of completeness and wholeness). Continue reading “Fragrant Offering”