Life 4 Rent?

There is this song called "Life for Rent" by Dido and there is the chorus that always touches some place within me.  

"If my life is for rent and I don't learn to buy

                                       Well I deserve nothing more than I get
                                           Cos nothing I have is truly mine
                                 While my heart is a shield and I won't let it down                                   While I am so afraid to fail so I won't even try                                             Well how can I say I'm alive"


To me this part makes me think about how important it is for a person to invest in their own lives. And how trying, even with the possibility of failing IS part of living! 

It says in John 12:23-28 about letting go of the life we had and making that investment in following christ to have a REAL chance at living a life worth LIVING!

John 12:23-28

The Message

23 Jesus answered, “Time’s up. The time has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.

24-25 “Listen carefully: Unless a grain of wheat is buried in the ground, dead to the world, it is never any more than a grain of wheat. But if it is buried, it sprouts and reproduces itself many times over. In the same way, anyone who holds on to life just as it is destroys that life. But if you let it go, reckless in your love, you'll have it forever, real and eternal.

26 “If any of you wants to serve me, then follow me. Then you’ll be where I am, ready to serve at a moment’s notice. The Father will honor and reward anyone who serves me.

27-28 “Right now I am storm-tossed. And what am I going to say? ‘Father, get me out of this’? No, this is why I came in the first place. I’ll say, ‘Father, put your glory on display.’”

A voice came out of the sky: “I have glorified it, and I'll glorify it again.”

I no longer live as a rental property because I own my condo with Jesus! as christ stated : 

John 14:1-4
The Road

The Message (MSG)

14 1-4 “Don’t let this throw you. You trust God, don’t you? Trust me. There is plenty of room for you in my Father’s home. If that weren't so, would I have told you that I’m on my way to get a room ready for you? And if I’m on my way to get your room ready, I’ll come back and get you so you can live where I live. And you already know the road I’m taking.”

Backyard Missionary, who me!

The lord placed it in my heart years ago that I could speak of his love and guidance as a missionary without ever leaving home. I had thought that this was crazy, cause in my mind, a missionary was someone who went off to another country to speak the message about the lord. He has placed it in my heart again to explain what it means to my understanding of a "backyard missionary" 

Webster's define a missionary as a person undertaking a mission and especially a religious mission. Well what is a mission it is a body of persons sent to perform a service or carry on an activity: a specific task with which a person or a group is charged. Now Jesus gave his disciples including us in:

Mark 16:15

New Living Translation (NLT)

¹⁵ And then he told them, “Go into all the world and preach the Good News to everyone.

When the lord says the world, he did not mean I have to go across the world from my own country to spread his message. There are many people that we meet everyday that don't know the wonderful and mighty words of our lord, right in my neighborhood. 

Every time we speak his name to someone we are obeying his command and doing his mission for us. 

Hallelujah praise the lord! So when you think you are not a missionary for the lord think again, cause as long as you preach his word, do activities in your community to the world of people around you are! 

Sheerah, the City Builder

1 Chronicles 7:24

The Message (MSG)

The Family of Ephraim

^20-24 The sons of Ephraim were Shuthelah, Bered his son, Tahath his son, Eleadah his son, Tahath his son, Zabad his son, Shuthelah his son, and Ezer and Elead, cattle-rustlers, killed on one of their raids by the natives of Gath. Their father Ephraim grieved a long time and his family gathered to give him comfort. Then he slept with his wife again. She conceived and produced a son. He named him Beriah (Unlucky), because of the bad luck that had come to his family. His daughter was Sheerah. She built Lower and Upper Beth Horon and Uzzen Sheerah.

She built... This is so unheard of in ancient Israel. Not only did she get her name listed in the bible but in history books as well. The cities she built were prime locations for a major battle. She had the presence of mind to build where she did, mostly likely from the family she descends from that it was faith lead decision. I can not begin to tell you what she must have thought in the world she was raised and lived in; but we can gain some insight by looking at the name of the cities she built. 

BETH-HORON - beth-ho'-ron (beth-choron (other Hebrew forms occur); Bethoron, probably the "place of the hollow"; compare Hauran, "the hollow"): 1. The Ancient Towns: The name of two towns, Beth-horon the Upper (Josh 16:5) and Beth-horon the Lower (Josh 16:3), said to have been built (1 Ch 7:24) by Sheerah, the daughter of Beriah. The border line between Benjamin and Ephraim passed by the Beth-horons (Josh 16:5; 21:22), the cities belonging to the latter tribe and therefore, later on, to the Northern Kingdom. Solomon "built Beth-horon the upper, and Beth-horon the nether, fortified cities, with walls, gates, and bars" (2 Ch 8:5; 1 Ki 9:17). From Egyptian sources (Muller, As. und Europa, etc.) it appears that Beth-horon was one of the places conquered by Shishak of Egypt from Rehoboam. Again, many centuries later, Bacchides repaired Beth-horon, "with high walls, with gates and with bars and in them he set a garrison, that they might work malice upon ("vex") Israel" (1 Macc 9:50,51), and at another time the Jews fortified it against Holofernes (Judith 4:4,5).
2. The Modern Beit Ur el foqa and el tachta: These two towns are now known as Beit Ur el foqa (i.e. "the upper") and Beit Ur el tachta (i.e. "the lower"), two villages crowning hill tops, less than 2 miles apart; the former is some 800 ft. higher than the latter. Today these villages are sunk into insignificance and are off any important lines of communication, but for many centuries the towns occupying their sites dominated one of the most historic roads in history. 3. The Pass of the Beth-horons: When (Josh 10:10) Joshua discomfited the kings of the Amorites "he slew them with a great slaughter at Gibeon, and chased them by the way of the `Ascent of Beth-horon.' " When the Philistines were opposing King Saul at Michmash they sent a company of their men to hold "the way of Beth-horon." This pass ascends from the plain of Ajalon (now Yalo) and climbs in about 3/4 hr. to Beit Ur el tachta (1,210 ft.); it then ascends along the ridge, with valleys lying to north and south, and reaches Beit Ur el foqa (2,022 ft.), and pursuing the same ridge arrives in another 4 1/2 miles at the plateau to the North of el Jib (Gibeon). At intervals along this historic route traces of the ancient Roman paving are visible. It was the great highroad into the heart of the land from the earliest times until about three or four centuries ago. Along this route came Canaanites, Israelites, Philistines, Egyptians, Syrians, Romans, Saracens and Crusaders. Since the days of Joshua (Josh 10:10) it has frequently been the scene of a rout. Here the Syrian general Seron was defeated by Judas Maccabeus (1 Macc 3:13-24), and six years later Nicanor, retreating from Jerusalem, was here defeated and slain (1 Macc 7:39 ff; Josephus, Ant, XII, x, 5). Along this pass in 66 AD the Roman general Cestius Gallus was driven in headlong flight before the Jews. Now the changed direction of the high road to Jerusalem has left the route forsaken and almost forgotten. See PEF, III, 86, Sh XVII. E. W. G. Masterman  http://classic.net.bible.org/dictionary.php?word=Beth%20Horon

Definition of hollow - A hole or depression in something.

Uzzen-sherah was a town that was believed to be located close to Beth-horon. It was named for its builder, Sherah, daughter of Ephraim. Defined named is the ear of the flesh( Sheerah ).

As I read the definitions of the cities, a look at the woman herself came to me, that we can HEAR her thoughts even between the emptiness! 

Even though there is not written about her life directly, what we do know is enough to value the woman as she was! 

So for all women, no matter how little is know about you by the world you make a difference just by living!

Unseen Faith - ( Sheila )

Hebrews 11:1-16

The Message (MSG)

Faith in What We Don’t See

11 ^1-2 The fundamental fact of existence is that this trust in God, this faith, is the firm foundation under everything that makes life worth living. It’s our handle on what we can’t see. The act of faith is what distinguished our ancestors, set them above the crowd.

³ By faith, we see the world called into existence by God’s word, what we see created by what we don’t see.

⁴ By an act of faith, Abel brought a better sacrifice to God than Cain. It was what he believed, not what he brought, that made the difference. That’s what God noticed and approved as righteous. After all these centuries, that belief continues to catch our notice.

^5-6 By an act of faith, Enoch skipped death completely. “They looked all over and couldn’t find him because God had taken him.” We know on the basis of reliable testimony that before he was taken “he pleased God.” It’s impossible to please God apart from faith. And why? Because anyone who wants to approach God must believe both that he exists and that he cares enough to respond to those who seek him.

⁷ By faith, Noah built a ship in the middle of dry land. He was warned about something he couldn't see, and acted on what he was told. The result? His family was saved. His act of faith drew a sharp line between the evil of the unbelieving world and the rightness of the believing world. As a result, Noah became intimate with God.

^8-10 By an act of faith, Abraham said yes to God’s call to travel to an unknown place that would become his home. When he left he had no idea where he was going. By an act of faith he lived in the country promised him, lived as a stranger camping in tents. Isaac and Jacob did the same, living under the same promise. Abraham did it by keeping his eye on an unseen city with real, eternal foundations—the City designed and built by God.

^11-12 By faith, barren Sarah was able to become pregnant, old woman as she was at the time, because she believed the One who made a promise would do what he said. That’s how it happened that from one man’s dead and shriveled loins there are now people numbering into the millions.

^13-16 Each one of these people of faith died not yet having in hand what was promised, but still believing. How did they do it? They saw it way off in the distance, waved their greeting, and accepted the fact that they were transients in this world. People who live this way make it plain that they are looking for their true home. If they were homesick for the old country, they could have gone back anytime they wanted. But they were after a far better country than that—heaven country. You can see why God is so proud of them, and has a City waiting for them.

****I love my name, which means heavenly blind faith***