Birthday Bounty

Isaiah 60:1 (AMP)

60 Arise [from the depression and prostration in which circumstances have kept you—rise to a new life]! Shine (be radiant with the glory of the Lord), for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you!

 

A birthday message for me.

On November 11, 2012, I turned 57 years old. A painful 57 if ever there was.

I looked in the mirror and saw a huge disappointment.

I could not help but cringe that everyone else saw me in this way as well.

Then at a surprise birthday breakfast on November 10, my older son prayed for me and included this..."she's such a great Mom.'

At nighttime when I usually prayed for my younger son, he said..."let me pray for you..."Lord, let Mom know what a great Mom she is..and let her be happy..."

Those words penetrated deep. I needed them. The gift I needed.
 

November 11 was a Sunday. The previous weekend I had felt so unloved and such a disappointment with some people we visited that when we went to church I had not even participated in communion with the thought that I was not deserving of this sacrament. So on Nov.10, I planned to stay at home the next day with my undeserving self ***(my baloney sandwich--see story below).

But I woke up early and read my daily Scripture reading:.."Hebrews 10:25 (AMP)
²⁵ Not forsaking or neglecting to assemble together [as believers], as is the habit of some people, but admonishing (warning, urging, and encouraging) one another, and all the more faithfully as you see the day approaching."

 

Ouch. So I went.
 

And our visiting speaker was Miles Valley and he related a story by Bob Benson:

A Baloney Sandwich

By Bob Benson
"You have come to share in the very being of God." 2 Peter 1:4

"Do you remember when they had old fashioned Sunday School picnics? I do. As I recall, it was back in the "Olden days", as my kids would say, back before they had air conditioning. They said, "We'll all meet at the Sycamore Lodge in Shelby Park at 4:30 on Saturday. You bring your supper and we'll furnish the iced tea.

But if you were like me, you came home at the last minute. When you got ready to pack your picnic, all you could find in the refrigerator was one piece of dried up baloney and just enough mustard at the bottom of the jar so you got it all over your knuckles trying to get to it. And just two slices of stale bread to go with it. So you made your baloney sandwich and wrapped it in an old brown bag and went to the picnic.

When it came time to eat you sat at the end of a table and spread out your sandwich. But the folks who sat next to you brought a feast. The lady was a good cook and had worked hard all day to get ready for the picnic. And she had fried chicken and baked beans and potato salad and homemade rolls and sliced tomatoes and pickles and olives and celery.

And two big homemade chocolate pies to top it off. That's what they spread out there next to you while you sat with your baloney sandwich.

But they said to you,

"Why don't we just put it all together?"

"No, I couldn't do that. I couldn't even think of it," you murmured in embarrassment, with one eye on the chicken.

"Oh, come on, there's plenty of chicken and plenty of pie and plenty of everything. And we just love baloney sandwiches. Let's just put it all together."
And so you did and there you sat, eating like a king when you came like a pauper.One day, it dawned on me that God has been saying just that sort of thing to me. "Why don't you take what you have and what you are, and I will take what I have and what I am, and we'll share it together?"
I began to see that when I put what I had and was and am and hope to be with what He is, I had stumbled upon the bargain of a lifetime. I get to thinking sometimes, thinking of me sharing with God. when I think of how little I bring, and how much He brings and invites me to share, I know I should be shouting from the housetops, but I am so filled with awe and wonder that I can hardly speak.
I know I don't have enough love or faith or grace or mercy or wisdom, but He does. He has all those things in abundance and He says, "Let's just put it all together."

Consecration, denial, sacrifice, commitment and crosses were all kind of hard words for me, until I saw them in the light of sharing.

It isn't a case of me kicking in what I have because God is the biggest kid on the block and He wants it all for Himself. He is saying, "Everything I possess is available to you. Everything that I am and can be to a person, I will be to you."When I think about it like that, it really amuses me to see somebody running along through life hanging on to their dumb bag with that stale baloney sandwich in it saying, "God's not going to get my sandwich! No sirree, this is mine!" Did you ever see anybody like that-so needy- just about half starved to death, yet hanging on for dear life. It's not that God wants your sandwich.
The fact is you need His chicken!

Well, go ahead-eat your baloney sandwich, as long as you can. But when you can't stand its tastelessness or drabness any longer, when you get so tired of running your own life and doing it your way and figuring out the answers with no one to help, when trying to accumulate, hold, grasp and keep everything together in your own strength gets to be too big a load, when you begin to realize that by yourself you're never going to be able to fulfill your dreams, I hope you'll remember that it doesn't have to be that way.

You have been invited to something better, you know. You have been invited to share in the very being of God."

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Oooh, OK.

I looked at the 'baloney sandwich' that is my life as I see it and I was willing to curl up in my room with it, while God was calling, "Here, give it to me, come share in my bounty, my Life." 

So I went up for prayer, and accepted by faith God's bounty. I felt no sudden rush of peace or joy.

Just release as tears of pain poured out.

 

God was not finished with sharing His bounty with me as He led my eyes and fingers to click on Francis Frangipane's post on Facebook as my eyes were automatically drawn to the word 'disappointment': for that word described how I was presently defining myself.

Wow. Read for yourself.

 

YOUR APPOINTMENT STILL AWAITS YOU
Appointed Times
In spite of escalating turmoil in our world, and failed hopes for presidential elections in the USA, there still remains one last, great outpouring of mercy before the time of the end (see Matt. 24:14; Acts 2:17). This supernatural season is not something for which we must beg God. No, its coming has been predetermined. It is the “appointed time"...of the Lord.

As most know, an “appointed time” is an open display of the sovereignty and power of God, whether it is in calling a person or calling a nation. In it we discover with absolute certainty that nothing is impossible for God. It is a season when God fulfills the hopes and dreams of His people.

As it is written,
“But You, O Lord, abide forever, and Your name to all generations. You will arise and have compassion on Zion; for it is time to be gracious to her, for the appointed time has come” (Ps. 102:12-13).

During an “appointed time” it is as though the Lord physically rises and moves in unfailing compassion on behalf of His people. It is the time when divine promises, dreams and spiritual hopes are fulfilled. Recall: Abraham and Sarah had waited in faith for a quarter century for the promise of God. Finally, as they neared one hundred years of age, the Lord told Abraham, “At the appointed time I will return to you . . . and Sarah will have a son” (Gen. 18:14). One year later, “at the appointed time” (Gen. 21:2), Isaac was born to aged parents!

While there are, indeed, appointed times of judgment (Mark 13:33), this phrase most frequently represents a time, preset by God, when He invades mankind with “wonders, plans formed long ago, [that unfold] with perfect faithfulness” (Isa .25:1).

Demons may stand arrayed against the Lord; nations may align themselves to fight Him. It does not matter. “He who sits in the heavens laughs” (Ps. 2:4). For He makes all things His servants (Ps. 119:91), even His enemies’ plans for evil are reversed and made to serve the purpose of God (Gen. 50:20; Rom. 8:28; Acts 2:22-24).

If God gave you a vision, a spiritual hope or dream for your future, there will be an appointed time when that which God spoke comes to pass. Thus the Lord assures us, “Record the vision and inscribe it on tablets, that the one who reads it may run. For the vision is yet for the appointed time. It hastens toward the goal and it will not fail. Though it tarries, wait for it; for it will certainly come, it will not delay” (Hab. 2:2-3, italics mine). Though your vision may tarry, wait for it. For it will certainly come to pass at the appointed time.

APPOINTED SERVANTS OF GOD
Consider the Lord’s word to His disciples. He said,
“You did not choose Me but I chose you, and appointed you that you would go and bear fruit, and that your fruit would remain” (John 15:16).

The disciples certainly felt that they had chosen Christ. Yet, the deeper truth was that God chose them before the foundation of the world. Likewise, He chose us and predestined us to come to Christ (Eph. 1:3-5). We could not even come to Christ had not the Father drawn us (John 6:44). Yet, He who chose us also appointed us to bear fruit. The same power that worked in us our surrender and faith continues to work in our hearts, appointing us to bear fruit. Do you believe God has chosen you? Then believe also that He has appointed you to bear fruit.

THE ENEMY’S WORK
One may argue, “But I know people who were good Christians who have fallen away.” Yes, but in most cases you will find that prior to falling away they fell into deep disappointment about a failed spiritual expectation. Disappointment is not just a sad emotional state of mind; deep disappointment actually can sever our hearts from faith. It can “dis-appoint” us from our appointed destiny.

I have known many who were doing well, moving toward their destiny. The future God had for them seemed close enough to taste. Then they became disappointed in someone or something. By accepting a demonically manipulated dis-appointment into their spirits, and letting that event germinate and grow into a disappointment with God, a bitter cold winter overtook their souls and their destiny went dormant.

When one is dis-appointed, he is cut off from his appointment with destiny. Their appointed breakthrough remains in the heart of God, but the individual is isolated by unbelief. Hope deferred has made their heart sick. It is here, even in the throes of disappointment, that the righteous must learn to live by faith (see Hab. 2:1-4).

Listen well my friend: Satan will stop your destiny if you accept the power of disappointment into your life. Disappointment cuts us off from our vision, and without a vision people perish.

Therefore, let me ask you: Are you carrying disappointment in your heart? Renounce it. Forgive those who have let you down. Have you personally or morally failed? Repent deeply and return to your Redeemer.
 Right now, I ask the Holy Spirit to remove the paralyzing sting of disappointment from your heart! Holy Spirit, deliver your people this day from the effect of the disappointment. Let them know that their appointment with destiny is still set.

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If you can identify with me, then pray along with me:
Holy Spirit, I repent of the transgressions that have led me to this state.
I ask the Holy Spirit to remove the paralyzing sting of disappointment from my heart! Holy Spirit, deliver me this day from the effect of the disappointment. Let me know that my appointment with destiny is still set. In Jesus' Name. Amen.