There is Blessing in Death

My Devotion

My Heart

There is Blessing in Death

Teresa Jenkins

Then I heard a voice from heaven say, “Write:  Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on.”  “Yes, says the Spirit, “they will rest from their labor, for their deeds will follow them.”  Revelation 14:13

My mother is no longer a part of this life physically.  She will forever be in my heart and I pray that more of her appears in my actions, attitudes, and feelings.  During the process of funeral arrangements, my brother and sisters heard many times how they could see our mother in us.  My brother-in-law spoke, eloquently, lovingly, and with great conviction not only about my mother but her faith in Jesus and how she shared that faith with everyone.  He honored her by speaking honestly about the truth of death of those who die in the Lord.  Mother’s work is done, all she did in this life has followed her and she doesn’t have to work anymore.  But I pray that we will inherit the devotion in her heart to do all she did for her Lord and Savior.  That we in some way can carry on the legacy to love life no matter how hard it gets, and always do more than we have to and give more than we have to give.

I am not grieving the loss of my mother in death, I lost her several years ago to the disease that plagued her mind and body.  I have heard that the death of those who die with the saving knowledge of Jesus in their heart is the sweetest to witness.  I couldn’t believe it until the evening of last Wednesday when I was sitting next to my mother’s bedside as physical life left her frail body and her spirit went into eternity with Jesus.  That was a moment I will cherish always.

Death is not the end and that is the greatest blessing of all for we who believe.  My mother had much wisdom she gained not through any formal education, but from life, from faith, from the Word she believed with her whole being.  “I am not afraid of tomorrow, for I have seen yesterday, and I love today.”  She could only have this kind of faith because of her trust and love for Jesus. 

Death is not loss but gain.  I am closer to my mother now and I rejoice in her victory over death.  Her death just made heaven even more inviting, more sweet for me.  Not that I plan on making that trip anytime soon, but I have more peace and understanding than I did before.  I am grateful in God’s wisdom He knew the exact moment she would join the great cloud of witnesses.  I am grateful that she is not suffering anymore.  My heart can hear her laughter and almost feel her spirit soar like it never has before. 

He will wipe every tear from their eyes.  There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.  Revelation 21:4

I cannot mourn her passing because she is free.  The chains that bound her are broken.  I can mourn the  loss of her physical presence in my life, but my heart refuses to be full of sorrow.  God’s grace has been more than sufficient for me and amazingly overwhelming as He has engulfed me in His peace that passes all understanding.  And in that peace I have been given unexplainable understanding.  

My Devotion

My Heart

God is Love

Teresa Jenkins

We were by nature objects of wrath.  But because of HIS great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions (SIN)—it is by grace you have been saved.  And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages He might show the INCOMPARABLE riches of His grace expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus.  Ephesians 2:3-7

How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called the children of God! 1John 3:1

This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.  1John 4:10

Have you or do you know someone who cannot or  will not put their love outside of themselves they will not risk the possibility of getting hurt?  They have either experienced terrible betrayal, abuse, or maybe their ability to love has been slowly chipped away over time by belittling treatment, by people in their lives who devalued them and finally it just became easier to brick up the door to their wall and stay inside of it.

These people are sometimes hard to notice because they’ve become very good and playing the game of life to all who see them they are the model Christian, they may be married with children, go to work, go to church, teach Bible classes, by all appearances they are right up there next to the angels, or Mary Poppins…practically perfect in every way.  Look closer, not with a judging eye, but do you ever notice these people having any true relationships outside of what it looks like about their marriage, leave that relationship alone.  Do these people let anyone get close enough to see they are human just like you and me?  Friendships are kept at bay but if someone happens to squeeze through the crack in the door of their wall…Bam they are pushed out with some trivial reason and the door is slammed in the face and there you are on the other side of that door shaken to the core questioning who you are in Christ and that you may have not been a good Christian or maybe that you weren’t Christian at all.  This practically perfect Christian person has severed your relationship on the pretense that you did something to keep them from being a good Christian so they cannot be your friend anymore.

It happens all the time people.  Though I’ve only experienced this one time in my entire life as a Christian, let me tell you it shook me to the core and it has taken me almost five months to pick up all the broken pieces of my heart.  I still tremble remember the pain of rejection that I received that was coated in the name of Jesus.  I still have thoughts of how to get this person to be my friend again.  It took lots of time and prayer and seeking God in His word to realize that I may never know the real reason the person rejected me in such a traumatic way.  It wasn’t the rejection but that they used Jesus as the reason to reject and avoid me. 

Jesus, the one I love, and the one I most want to be pleased with me and this person said to me that they could not be my friend, because Jesus told them not to be my friend.  This same Jesus who said, we should do all that we can to bring unity among the believers, to love each other, to help each other live closer to Him, to encourage one another, to teach, instruct, rebuke, and come along side each other especially when someone falters, who slips into sin.  We are commanded to love each other beyond judgments.  Let me tell you it rocked my world and I questioned who I am in Christ, I questioned my worthiness to profess the name of Jesus.  I wanted so badly to have the wall that I used to live behind built back up so I could hide away, but there I was in that really bad nightmare standing naked in the middle of the crowd with everyone staring and laughing at me.

And the thoughts that came flooding back to my mind, that I’m stupid, I’m not a good child of God, I don’t deserve anything, and I should just shut up sharing what God “supposedly” does because He loves us.  This person rejected me in Jesus name, so that has to mean I’m some kind of fake nothing just babbling, that nothing I’ve ever testified about God and His love for me was true and I should just shut up.

Yes this one rejection still hurts, but guess what, God’s love has washed my wound clean He has told me in no uncertain terms, that I am His, that He loves me, that He still has a place for me in the work for His kingdom.  He has reminded me that when we are about His business we will be judged, we will be rejected, we will be hurt, but not to lose heart He has overcome it all.  He is keeping the record and what is out of my control is never out of His.  So I cut my losses, love that person from a distance, pray for her that the love of God will penetrate the wall she has built as a fortress and flood her heart.  Though we may never be friends again, I pray that her relationships will become real and intimate.

Loving someone doesn’t mean you have to be all up in who they are, you may never speak to them ever again, but it’s letting go of the hurt and resentment their actions caused you and letting them go into God’s love.  And the best part, when we can do that we tear down some of own wall and allow God in more intimately, which opens the way for other relationships to be formed and nurture the other ones in your life more intimately.  We cannot change what others do or say about us, but we can change who we are individually.

I learned a very valuable lesson in my heartbreaking experience, that no one or thing should ever become so important to me that God is ever moved out of first place, in my heart, in my mind, in my work, in my life.  I miss my friend, but I have a Friend who sticks closer to me than a brother and when I mess up, He brings it to my attention, not to punish, belittle, or condemn me, but so that I will confess my sin to Him because He is faithful and just to forgive my sin and draw me closer to Him and because He loves me. 

God is love and we can love because He first loved us.  How great is His love that He lavishes upon us.

In HIS Time

Teresa

My Devotion, My Heart by Teresa Preston | ISBN # 978-1-61566-460-3

http://mydevotionmyheart.blogspot.com

Validation Achieved

September 6, 2012
My Devotion My Heart
Validation Achieved
Teresa Jenkins
  Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives live has set you free from the law of sin and death.  For what the law was powerless to do because it was weakened by the flesh, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh to be a sin offering.  And so he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. …those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires.  The mind governed by the flesh is death, but the mind governed by the Spirit is life and peace.  Romans 8:1-7  

I have spent my whole life seeking validation in my relationships, in my performance as a mom, as a friend, as a wife, as an employee and as a Christian.  The statement above, “the mind governed by the flesh is death” jumps out at me like a snake.  There are more ways of desires of the flesh to expose themselves than the obvious immoral ones.  I have come to the place where I am sick and tired of people pleasing myself into further and further frustrations, depression, and loneliness.  Talk about condemnation.  There is no way any one person can please everyone all the time, pleasing one person at a time all the time is a futile pursuit as well.   It has taken me a long time to finally realize that there is only one person’s opinion of me that is my business and should be my number one priority 24 hours a day, seven days a week.  Absolutely everything I think, everything I do, everything I feel should be a direct result of what Jesus already sees in me.  Because I am in Jesus, by my own confession of my inability to pay for my own sin, and accepting His sacrifice for me, the me that is without Jesus is hidden so deeply in Jesus now, Jesus is all Jesus can see.  Even though I mess up constantly and I know the truth about my daily goof-ups, Jesus looks at me and sees Himself.   On my own, I can try to do the best job possible, and still fail, still mess up, still make mistake after mistake, and I will spend more time beating myself up than in doing what I know is the only way to be good or better at anything put before me to do.  Jesus said, the He is the vine and we are the branches.  The branch cannot cut itself off from the vine and expect to produce anything good, much less anything at all.  When a branch is cut off the vine, it withers and dies.  Though we may not die a physical death right away like a branch, our spirit dies, we try to hang on to spiritual truths, going to church, praying, reading at the Bible, but it’s like trying to put a branch back on the vine with band-aids or duct tape.  We still whither up like a leaf unable to receive moisture and nutrients to live.    Why does it get like this in so many Christians?  Because it takes a long time for some of us to look for Jesus with the eyes of faith.  We want validation so badly we look for it, work for it toward only what we can see in the flesh.  But the flesh is weak, and most likely the ones we are seeking validation from are too busy seeking their own validation.  Jesus said that apart from Him we can do nothing.  When are we ever going to let that truth set us free from the bondage of slavery of people pleasing validation we will never get enough of to be valid member of the human race.   Now I am not saying that what other people think of us is not important, it’s just not what gives us the validation we desire so deeply.  But what others see or think of us should be one thing only.  When people see us their opinion should be, that our life in Christ is obvious, that we live an move and are who we are is completely buried in Christ.  Whether they agree with it or not, they can’t deny that we have surrendered absolutely every part of who we are to Him.  We seek favor of those around us, we seek a good report of what people think of us, we want our family and friends to accept us, but on our own it is impossible to please anyone, but in Christ when He becomes our number one priority to please, even in all our faults He does not condemn us but lifts us up out of self-condemnation and any other outside condemnation into His favor and blessing and establishes the work of our hands no matter what it is our hands are given to do.   May the favor of the Lord our God rest on us; establish the work of our hands for us—yes, establish the work of our hands.  Psalm 90:17   Slaves (employees, workers) obey your earthly masters in everything; and do it, not only when their eye is on you and to curry their favor, but with sincerity of heart and reverence for the Lord.  Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, and not for human masters, since you know that you will receive an inheritance form the Lord as a reward.  It is the Lord Christ you are serving.   Anyone who does wrong will be repaid for their wrongs, and there is no favoritism.  Galatians 3:22-25   The number one priority is live for Christ, as Christ, and in Christ, then everything else will be as it should.  Validation achieved.   In HIS Time Teresa My Devotion, My Heart by Teresa Preston | ISBN # 978-1-61566-460-3 http://mydevotionmyheart.blogspot.com

Oh it's been too long

Hello, I'm sure I've lost some readers...but I've been very and haven't had time to post like I should, I hope everyone is well, and I'll be back again very soon.

MERRY CHRISTMAS! REMEMBER THE REASON WE CELEBRATE THE SEASON...CELEBRATE LOUD AND PROUD...JESUS IS THE REASON FOR THE SEASON!

At Home

My Devotion
My Heart
At Home
By Teresa Preston Jenkins

Therefore we are always confident and know as long as we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord. We live by faith not by sight. We are confident, I say, and would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord. 2Corinthians 5:6-8
I often wonder why I internally struggle with so much. For example, I can get into a confrontation with someone, it doesn’t really matter who, but the closer I am to the person I have a conflict with the more I struggle with it. Whether I’m right or wrong in the confrontation does not matter, if I’m right it is no justification that I’m right and if I’m wrong I struggle just the same. I DO NOT like confrontation, disagreements, and strife. I don’t go around seeking out trouble, I don’t stir the pot, sometimes I step outside my boundaries and accidently offend someone, but I don’t maliciously set out to embarrass and hurt other people. What makes me angry in the situation is not necessarily what the other person did, but how I “fleshed out”. That’s what my husband calls it, “fleshing out” allowing my fleshly nature to control me, the ego who will lash out in defense or offense…it always makes for a very ugly scene…and the healing time takes much longer to get over and off on the sideline is an evil bystander hissing his evil laugh because once again individual egos did his job for him. Damaging relationships and even worse personal testimonies of people professing to be children of God.

I am learning that the struggle of human nature, the flesh, goes much deeper than what we can see or communicate. Paul nails it; we are not at home with the Lord. As long as we live in this body, on this planet, in this world of sin we will always be at conflict between good and bad. But there is just enough good in this life that keeps us torn up between what we have and what is waiting for us with the Lord. We can only imagine what God has waiting for us, He gives us clues and glimpses of heaven in His word, but here we can see some good that is good enough to keep our hearts torn between the two.

Yet the Spirit inside us, the Holy Spirit, knows the mind of God, and it’s that knowledge that our words cannot describe that puts a long in us for something better but since we cannot see it we are drawn and held captive by what we can see. What makes you happy in this life? What brings you joy? What do you take pride in? A good job, a family, a nice house, travel, or friends? There is absolutely nothing wrong with any of your answers, those are blessings from God, much of what God blesses us with in this life is just a taste of what He has in store for us when we get to heaven. But it is what we know, it’s good and we are tied to it physically what is heavenly we cannot see with these eyes that we see with.

So if we are at home in the body, but we are not at home it is no wonder we struggle with so much. The more we surrender to the Holy Spirit is the key to learning how to live in this world until Jesus calls us home either individually or when He calls us as a group. If we not only have the mind of Christ, but learn how to use the mind of Christ petty differences would be non-existent. But we just can’t let go of what we can see to hold onto what we cannot lose. If the mind of Christ controlled our mind instead of the other way around how would life be any different? Oh to even imagine it is difficult, but I think it would be as close to being at home with God as it could be this side of eternity.

When we all get to heaven will be a day of rejoicing we have never seen that will never end. What if we practiced that now? What if we lived as if the kingdom was already here? Wait a minute the kingdom of God is already here, the kingdom is within each person who professes the name of Jesus Christ and He lives within the hearts of every believer, we are citizens together waiting for our return flight home. Until then nothing should be more important than living the kingdom life right where we are.

Impossible? It all depends with which set of eyes you are looking through. Paul prayed; I keep asking the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is like the working of his might strength, which he exerted in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority, power, and dominion, and every title that can be given, not only in the present age but also in the one to come. Ephesians 1:17-21

With all that on our side, what on earth are we upset about? Nothing is more powerful than the power and might that God used to raise Christ from the dead after being dead for three days and that same power is at work in you and me. I don’t know about you, but I want to surrender my life, my will, my thoughts, my actions, my attitudes, what I know and what I cannot know to God give Him full authority, rule and reign over my life so that I can experience that power working for me. Lord help us see you bright and wonderful with the eyes of our heart and blind us to the illusion that life in the body is much better than life in You. I want to be at Home in You. In Jesus Name…Amen.

In HIS Time
Teresa
My Devotion, My Heart by Teresa Preston | ISBN # 978-1-61566-460-3

August 17, 2010
My Devotion
My Heart
Every Six Steps
By Teresa Preston Jenkins

So David went down and brought up the ark of God from the house of Obed-Edom to the city of David with rejoicing. When those who were carrying the ark of the Lord had taken six steps, he sacrificed a bull and a fattened calf. David wearing a linen ephod, danced before the Lord with all His might, what He and the entire house of Israel brought up the ark of the Lord with shouts and the sound of trumpets. 2Samuel 6:12-15

To carry the ark of the Lord was a great burden and privilege, with that responsibility came great awareness of who God was and is. The ark had been stolen and had not been with the people for a long time, it had been a long time since they had possession of it. I’m no historian, but even though things aren’t holy, they can help us to relate to the holiness of God and where He chooses to dwell, Today you and I are the ark of the Lord. WE are sacred like the ark was to the people of Israel because Jesus came to live in us the moment we accepted Him. Every time the ark was brought into their camp or moved, great shouts of praise and worship and honor was given to God. David took thirty thousand men to go get the ark and bring it back to the people as they began to return home the verse says those that carried the ark took six steps and worshipped and praised God. I’m not sure how far they had to travel, but I’m sure it took a while to get back home because they were praising God every six steps meant they were continuously praising God for His return to them. Have you ever heard the saying life is not about the destination, but the journey.

I am on a journey to the place where the Lord dwells. I am desperate for His presence in my life. It is what I think about all the time these days, but I fail in some way every day. I allow everything else to be first in my life. I get up with every good intention, but so quickly the unfolding agenda of the day captures my mind and heart. Before I realize it my mouth is pouring out filth of complaining and arguments, instead of worship and praise and encouragement. I find myself in the pit of resentment and disappointment instead of contentment and peace. Just as quickly as the ugly moves in the guilt and shame moves in and I have to go back and make apologies for things I said in a desperate attempt of venting it out of my system. My heart needs a remodel, a total reconstruction…

For where your treasure is there your heart will be also. The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are good, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eyes are bad, you whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness. Matthew 6:21-23

You brood of vipers, how can you who are evil say anything good? For out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks. The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in him, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in Him. Matthew 12:34-35

I cry in my spirit for the evil thoughts I allow to flow out of me. Father forgive me, where I fail to bring light by the words I speak for allowing my heart to be darkened by the abundance of negativity, jealousy and fear that ultimately keeps me from your presence. How many times a day are any of us guilty of allowing darkness to pour out by the bad things we think. Its ugly like a thick crusty scab of a wound on the skin. I want no more of it poisoning my heart and attitude. So how do we get rid of the darkness, bad thoughts, bad attitudes, and sin that flows from our mouth because our hearts have become corrupted?

There is only one way and that is through abiding constantly in His presence and His presence abiding in us. Before you argue that if we have accepted Christ He is always with us and in us. While that is true, the question is; how much are we allowing Christ to live out loud in us. Yes we keep him quietly tucked away until the next crisis, but rarely allow Him to have TOTAL CONTROL of our every thought, movement, and action. We have to actively, consciously remove any unclean and unacceptable thing from our heart and replace it with the fullness of God. Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way of everlasting. Psalm 139:23-24 Be careful this is the place where it hurts and the battle rages against us. The struggle to cleanse our heart from evil will be a messy battle because we are not only battling against ourselves, but every force of evil will rise up and fight against us because the cleaner we become the more of Christ is evident in us and their imminent defeat is drawn closer. Jesus has already won the war against Satan and his evil demons, but while we are here we must face their force every day. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in heavenly realms. Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. Stand firm then…Ephesians 6:12-14

Ladies and Gentlemen the day of evil comes every day. There are evil forces trying to keep us down and defeated so that no more will find Jesus, so that when Jesus does comes our reward will be less than what it ought to be and there will be less people to enter the gates of heaven because Satan and his schemes have kept our hearts corrupted with bad thoughts and attitudes that keeps us from testifying of the love of Christ in us. His presence fully alive in us is crucial to His kingdom and His holiness within us. Don’t let him devour you and the joy of your salvation. Don’t give away the Power that is at work in you. Stand firm and fight the good fight of faith; praise and worship the Lord your God and rise in victory over the battles you come against. The victory is in His presence, live in the continuous victory through continuous praise and worship

We are the dwelling place of God, the ark that carries His presence, worship and praise God, dance in the street like David every six steps. Give Him the praise and the glory all day long!

In HIS Time
Teresa
My Devotion, My Heart by Teresa Preston | ISBN # 978-1-61566-460-3
http://mydevotionmyheart.blogspot.com

Everything else...

My Devotion
My Heart
Everything else…
By Teresa Preston Jenkins

Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened. Matthew 7:7-8

But seek first His kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Matthew 6:33

I wrote not too long ago about what we get out of getting closer to God. What’s really in it for us? What do we get out of seeking Him first, asking Him first? Most of what we want or think we need we can get on our own, right? With a little hard work and determination we can do most everything on our own, right? Well that’s a delusion the world wants you to believe and for the most part we have but even our abilities and determination are gifts from the one who created us. Every good and perfect gift is from above coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows. James 1:17 Every good thing we think we’ve done on our own was still a gift from God.

Jesus asked a very straightforward question; What good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul? (Matthew 16:26) Yet that is exactly the very trap we fall into, giving up our families, our very lives just trying to get ahead or to provide all the amenities of this world for our family when the key to life is life filled with Christ. Do you really think Jesus would just ask a rhetorical question for the sake of argument? We trade our soul every time we chase after something that is less than what God wants to give to us. Instead of taking God literally for what He says…”seek Him first.” We think we have to chase the illusive American dream.

It is completely about getting to know the perfect gift giver, not about what we can get for ourselves. We work way too hard at what is not even important in the grand scheme of life. What are your hopes? What are your dreams? What are you working for? What do you want? Now where are you looking to find your hopes and dreams? There is only one door that holds every dream you dream and even the ones you don’t even know you’re dreaming of. Jesus is the only one who can open the door. Ask Him for guidance. Seek His way to find His door of opportunity. Knock and it will be opened for you. There is only one way to life that you hope for, and that is through Jesus. He said; “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except though me. If you really knew me, you would know my Father as well. From now on you do know him and have seen him.” John 14:6-7

It is all about knowing HIM first…then…everything else will come.


In HIS Time
Teresa