Access to God's Power

Jesus visits Simon, and the fisherman is astonished by the biggest catch of his life. Jesus visits a deserted place, and He feeds an imposing crowd to the full with bread, fish and truth. And when Jesus visits Nain, Jairus, and Bethany, Death is compelled to release an only son, a young daughter, a beloved brother.

Doesn't everyone long to have Jesus visit us with His power?

It seems likely that others may have asked Jesus to raise their deceased loved ones, desiring restored life and love, greatest among God's blessings. People certainly returned looking for more after Jesus multiplied the loaves and fishes. And though Simon Peter cowered before the might of God and asked Jesus to leave him rather than empower him as a fisherman, (for he knew himself to be a sinful man), Judas is at least one man who thought to improve his status by capitalizing on his connection to Jesus.

Are we guilty of the same?

"His lord said to him, 'Well done, good and faithful servant; you were faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your lord.' "
~ Matthew 25:21 (NKJV)

We are given a few temporal treasures here on Earth for the briefest of time, as a test of our hearts. We are ever inclined to pray with our sights on temporal blessings—success in business, comfort, fulfilling relationships. These are indeed blessings, to be sought in good conscience. But they are merely the means to many greater ends. We set our sights far too low.

Simon was a good fisherman. Peter was a greater evangelist. Bread comforts our hunger for a few hours. The Bread of Life nourishes our souls for a lifetime. Even if our loved ones are raised from the dead, death will separate us again on another day. Those born again shall never die (John 11:26), destined to spend eternity together.

God challenges me today: "What is your life?" Will I ask to appropriate His power for the good and lesser things that I see? Or do I ask Him to work in me the greater things that He sees?

Have Your way, Lord—with my time, my treasure, my talents. Have Your way in my life. Please reveal enough to me that I might cooperate with You.

Comments are welcome (including respectful disagreement) and will receive a reply.
You may also contact author via Twitter – @anne4JC
or e-mail – use @gmail.com *after* buildingHisbody
Copyright 2012, Anne Lang Bundy, all rights reserved.

Commandment Number 13, Part Two: Payback Time

For some thought, because Judas had the money box, that Jesus had said to him ... that he should give something to the poor.
~ John 13:29 (NKJV)

John's Gospel describes that twice in one week, Jesus' disciples express concern for the poor (above, and when Mary pours expensive perfume on Jesus). It may be surmised that Jesus had both taught and demonstrated such manner of kindness toward the destitute, though He and his disciples were themselves destitute. (See Mark 10:28, Matthew 17:27, Luke 9:58)

As an itinerant Prophet, Jesus often relied upon the kindness and hospitality of others. If some of His disciples criticized Mary for "wasting" a costly flask of oil, perhaps they harbored resentment for those times they went hungry after giving to others from their purse. Or perhaps they had yet to appreciate the proverb Jesus surely esteemed:

He who shows favor to the poor lends to the LORD,
And He will pay back what he has given.
~ Proverbs 19:17

God's payback may or may not include a payback in kind. But God's payback is sure to include all manner of spiritual treasure. We both "lay up treasure in Heaven" for the future, and we reap what we sow here and now. Whatever our material possessions or savings in a bank vault, we ourselves are the vault in which Jesus keeps His Holy Spirit. We become wellsprings of treasure as we make regular deposits of God's Word into our hearts.

Showing favor (Hebrew chânan) to the "poor" may include far more than a monetary handout. It means that we, who are destitute of time, still give of our time. It means that we, who sorrow, give comfort. It means that we, who fall short of being Christlike, lavish patience and love upon those who are not Christlike, as God lavishes upon us.

Holy Spirit, please open our eyes to see opportunities for spiritual investments and loans. Please make our interest grow where we invest our hearts. Please give us patience as we wait for Your payback time.

Comments are welcome (including respectful disagreement) and will receive a reply.
You may also contact author via Twitter – @anne4JC
or e-mail – buildingHisbody [plus] @gmail.com
Copyright 2012, Anne Lang Bundy, all rights reserved.

Laying Hold of the Greater

The woman said to Him, "Sir, You have nothing to draw with, and the well is deep. Where then do You get that living water? Are You greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well, and drank from it himself, as well as his sons and his livestock?"
~ John 4:11-12 (NKJV)

Jesus asserts to the Samaritan woman that He can provide living water which is greater than the well water for which He asks her. Can you hear the pride in her scoffing reply, as she asks if He is greater than Jacob, who is also named Israel?

The sibling rivalry among Jacob's sons goes back nearly two millennia. These Jews are named for Israel's son Judah, while the Samaritans trace their ancestry back to Israel himself. And who is the greater one, the father or his son? The Samaritans lay claim to the well of Jacob. What greater resource can this poor Jew offer a Samaritan in the moment at hand?

If you have a moment, determine what you'd define as your greatest human resource, upon which you most rely. It might be your name or your connections, your material possessions or your talent, your spouse or family or friends. (Think of your answer before you read on.)

Do you believe that Jesus offers in this moment something greater than your greatest resource? If you are willing to ask Him, you can receive it.

Comments are welcome and will receive a reply.
You may also contact author via Twitter – @anne4JC
or e-mail – buildingHisbody [plus] @gmail.com
Copyright 2011, Anne Lang Bundy, all rights reserved.

Dust and Rust Belt

If you are a visitor from the Blog Carnival, I ask your forgiveness for re-directing you to the second post I submitted, which is a more important read: The Gift of Hunger.

There's surely rust in Colorado somewhere, though I don't recall where I might have seen its corrosion when I was growing up. Back home, it was common for people to drive cars 20-25 years old. The only time I remember smelling mildew was when we opened a canvass tent that had been rolled up wet some earlier season. I thought a dry climate meant Phoenix, because it was the only out-of-state place I visited.

Life changed when I moved to the Rust Belt in 1990 and became acquainted with a damp climate. Needles in the sewing basket became rusty the first year. The next year, I found mushrooms growing in the carpet due to AC condensation of my well-maintained suburban apartment—on the second floor.

At present, our 12-year-old Caravan runs faithfully despite the visible rust which makes me wonder about invisible rust in the innards. The 2005 Savannah has needed AC repairs to corroded lines 4 out of the 6 years we've had it. I was up at 2 a.m. this morning to deal with a drip from freezing rain which penetrated the 5-year-old chimney flashing (high wind was partly to blame), and I was cutting away carpet and mopping up water which seeped through the basement floor middle (not wall) at 6 a.m.

Cold damp air doesn't seem much better for people. My daughter goes to the doctor tomorrow to follow up on her pneumonia. Our whole family has more vigor in sunny Colorado despite the altitude there. It seems that weak or scarce Great Lakes sun means lower physical energy and fewer people exercising. Michigan's population is near the top of the obesity charts, Colorado's near the bottom.

But regardless of where or how a person lives, it's only a matter of time before each of us succumbs to injury, illness, or infirmity and returns to dust—before the things we amass here become corroded.

When it comes right down to it, the entire earth is a Dust and Rust Belt. It's only a matter of location and years.

"Lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal ..."
~ Matthew 6:20 (NKJV)

There are three things I have in this life which I can take with me when I leave this world: my family, my praise for my Lord Jesus, and the Word of God hidden in my heart.

The futile effort to maintain life in this world may try us. No matter—true treasure transcends time and distance, even the distance between eyes and heart.

"... For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also."
~ Matthew 6:21 (NKJV)


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This post is part of a blog carnival hosted by Peter Pollock. You're invited to visit his site and see what others are saying about today's theme: Treasure.
Comments, questions, and respectful disagreement are welcome. Reply to BuildingHisBody.com comments, or e-mail buildingHisbody [plus] @gmail.com
Copyright 2011, Anne Lang Bundy, all rights reserved.

Goals and Purpose, Success and Significance

"Success is to reach a goal.
Significance is making a difference in the lives of others over time."
~ Chip MacGregor

Photo Credit: Dan Norcott

I work best on deadlines. When I hear the clock running, I push through distractions and stretch to reach a goal. Few things motivate like a goal within sight. Few things satisfy like the sense of completion when a goal is met.

But super-goals risk becoming gods, requiring all else be laid down before them. We admire the MVP athlete, the virtuoso musician, the best-selling author. We do not see what price they paid to reach their goals. We know that for too many superstars, all else in life has come second.

At some point, their goals became their purpose.

Life has taught me hard lessons about setting goals. Many goals prove unworthy. Others have merit but can interfere with purpose.

The most important goal there can be is to make sure our call and election to eternal life through Jesus Christ (2 Peter 1:10). Having secured this goal, one can better understand one's purpose:

"But indeed for this purpose I have raised you up, that I may show My power in you, and that My name may be declared in all the earth."
~ Exodus 9:16 (NKJV)

My purpose is to love and glorify God. Part of that purpose is making His glory known by sharing His love with others.

Goals motivate me to achieve my purpose. I pray for success as I stretch to meet those goals.

But if the goals become my purpose, I will find that I've settled for success rather than achieved significance.

"For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not sit down first and count the cost, whether he has enough to finish it, lest [others] mock him, saying, 'This man began to build and was not able to finish.'
... So likewise, whoever of you does not forsake all that he has cannot be My disciple."
~ Luke 14:28-33 (NKJV)

: : :

This post is part of a blog carnival hosted by Peter Pollock. You're invited to visit his site and see what others are saying about today's theme: Goals.

Comments, questions, and respectful disagreement are welcome. Reply to BuildingHisBody.com comments, or e-mail buildingHisbody [plus] @gmail.com
Copyright 2011, Anne Lang Bundy, all rights reserved.
Image source: dannorcott.co.uk

God Wants Your Body

"We've just established the excellence of God's knowledge and wisdom concerning His plan for the whole world. So now, please, I'm begging you, act as a rational person and give God your body. Not only will He take great pleasure in having you all to Himself, but in getting a break from the world you'll also get a fresh perspective on the stunning perfection and wisdom of His excellent plan for you."
~ Paul, Romans 12:1-2 (author's paraphrase)

Romans 12:1 is usually translated with the words "offer your bodies as living sacrifices." In the Old Testament method, a sacrifice that meant the body of an animal died. For us, it means that our souls are more alive when we give our bodies to God.

As regular readers know, I've recently come out of a time when I struggled to bring myself to God. It's not that I didn't want to crawl up on the altar and give myself up. Rather, I was aware that the Lord asks for an unblemished sacrifice—the best we have to offer—and awareness of my sinful failings made me feel completely out of place as anything worthy to offer Him.

Silly, mistaken me.

Our Father in Heaven sees as unblemished those who have the protection of Jesus' blood. We're not going to become more worthy of God on our own. Christ's blood has already made us perfect in His Father's eyes.

There's a very good reason God wants your body and mine. God is Light, and any light needs something to hold it or reflect it, at least in our physical world. (Even daylight is held by the sun and reflected off the moon and planets at nighttime.) Although God is evident in other parts of creation, humans crown creation as God's image, and He most wants to be manifest in us—in our bodies.

He wants freedom to transform us from plain clay pots into magnificent vessels of His Light ...
... in our eyes as we take note of others.
... in our ears as we listen to others.
... in our hands as we serve others.
... in our words as we encourage others and praise Him.
... in our feet as we persevere with Him.
... in our faces as we shine with His countenance.
... in our hearts as we give His love to others—and return His love to Him.

Pick any body part. God's got a way to make it beautiful with His Light when it's offered to Him.

"Don't be afraid to give up the good for the great."
~ Kenny Rogers

This post is part of a blog carnival hosted by Peter Pollock. You're invited to visit his site and see what others are saying about today's theme: Sacrifice


"God Wants Your Body" is also the title of a message by Christian comedian and preacher Ken Davis on Romans 12:1. His materials are available at KenDavis.com.

Comments, questions, and respectful disagreement are welcome. Reply to BuildingHisBody.com comments, or e-mail buildingHisbody [plus] @gmail.com
Copyright 2011, Anne Lang Bundy, all rights reserved.

What's Unreasonable to Do is Treasure

"You can't take it with you—
but you can send it on ahead."
~ Dean Stewart

"But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you ..."
~ Matthew 5:44 (NKJV)

Who invites a second slap upon the cheek? What defendant offers the plaintiff double? Without the Holy Spirit, our response to such directives is incredulity rather than compliance.

"Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven ..."
~ Matthew 6:19-20 (NKJV)

Each time we love and bless and do good is a deposit into our stores of heavenly treasure.

Lord, Your wisdom and love defy human logic. Please increase our faith to trust and obey You.


Comments, questions, and respectful disagreement are welcome. Reply to BuildingHisBody.com comments, or e-mail buildingHisbody [plus] @gmail.com
Copyright 2011, Anne Lang Bundy, all rights reserved.