It’s a trashy tale that must be told!

Revival fires are burning in my Spirit. I believe God for the impossible and see it come to pass. The crucible of refinement is my current resting place where thought, word and deed are cleansed daily. Jesus is soon to return, coming for His spotless bride – now that’s going to take revival, Amen!

Last week, while out of town I slipped into the local YMCA where they still name Christ in their mission statement. Many Y’s in our nation have taken the name (that is above every name and causes offense) out of their operations manual. I was there to take a spin class and a young woman came in to teach. She was pretty and slim and had defined muscles, the type of gal that would have intimidated me ten years ago but today @ 45 I have learned to admire and appreciate youth. The teacher put on the CD the music began and off we went, spinning ourselves into a sweaty mess. Half way through the first song I realized that the songs content and language were extremely inappropriate. I’ll just put it this way—I have walked out of other classes for less offensive music. Insulted and disappointed, as that song came to an end I asked the instructor “is all the music going to be this filthy?” She replied, “no.” I made the decision to take her word for it and continued to spin. The rest of the music was ok, many songs even played without words. As the class ended the teacher pulled out an index card announcing that she had a health tip for us. She gave the tip then added and my scripture today comes from Ephesians 4:32…be humble and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other in Christ. When she finished reading the scripture she looked directly at me and apologized for the first song she had played. I accepted, forgave in my heart and went home thinking how the light of Christ cannot shine in its fullness when we allow darkness to be a part of us.

The next morning I took a walk in this small town where I was visiting. I came upon a street where darkness seemed to rule of the day and the night of the people who lived there. I felt my Spirit clear His throat within me as if to say, ‘do something’. Compassion bubbled up and the thought to go door to door sharing the love of Jesus with these souls came to mind. So I went to the Dollar Store and bought some Oreo’s (I don’t bake!) then grabbed up some mini-Bibles out of my car that I had bought at Ollie’s and headed out to be obedient to the leading of my best guide – Holy Spirit. I had a great time meeting people, telling and reminding them how much Jesus Christ gave for them and how much He loves them. They seemed to grab onto the Oreo’s and the Bibles as well. I asked to pray with them and all but one let me. I am never surprised that they let me pray with them. People are hungry to be cared for and when you step out in boldness and pray; hearts are touched and lives are changed. The following morning I had a situation, a trashy situation you might say.

I was in an unfamiliar town, moving my daughter into an apartment. We had accumulated a bag of trash on Tuesday then found out on Thursday that Wednesday was trash day! Great! A day late! And a bag of rotting garbage –what are we girls to do? I suggested we find a dumpster. The next morning while out for a morning jog my daughter found a dumpster so we cautiously placed that full bag of trash in my car and headed up the street . I told my daughter, “we need to be quick because this is not the best thing to do”. I wasn’t out of the car 30 seconds when a man came across the parking lot screaming “unbelievable, unbelievable” I had no real idea what he meant by those words but I threw that bag in the dumpster and hurried back to my car. The closer he came the louder he yelled, “unbelievable, unbelievable.” My fight and flight response kicked in and everything in me just wanted to get outta there. And that is what I was trying to do. By the time I got my car in gear the man was behind my vehicle with his phone taking pictures of my license plate and yelling that he was going to report me. I tried to explain the situation to him but he had no room to hear me as he just kept yelling unbelievable. Then he said, “I can understand the poor people coming and throwing their trash in my dumpster but…unbelievable!” He was still yelling as a tried to pull away. That is when my precious daughter said to me, “Mom, we need to do what he wants.” I stopped the car and said, “Sir, I am sorry. What can I do?” Then he said, “You can get your trash out of my dumpster.” And with that I humbled myself and returned that stinky, leaky, full bag of trash to my car. Oh yeah! My car a 2000..whatever Land Rover with 85,000 miles that caused this man to believe that I was trying to get out of paying the county fee for trash as the poor people had tried to do. That is why I was unbelievable. I later found out that every time you place a bag of trash out on your curb it costs you $3.50 per bag. Praise God I have $3.50 for trash, Praise God I have a car and most of all Praise God that He forgives me.

As we drove away from that screaming man I realized that I was trying to blend the light with the darkness just as the YMCA instructor had done. I apologized first to God and then to my daughter. I realized the attitude of ‘entitlement’ that I had taken on for myself; an attitude that this world takes on daily from their perspective in the kingdom of darkness. I repented of this wrong thinking and then thanked God for that screaming man for stopping me from doing what is wrong and asked God to bless him. Somewhere in God’s Word I have read that what is righteous and what is evil cannot flow from the same well. Even though both wells are available to me (because there is no good thing in me but Jesus) I must decide which well I will draw from. The Spirit of God reminds me that these decisions come out of our quiet time, our intimacy with Jesus from our renewed mind. The more time we spend in the company of holiness (God in prayer and time in His Word) the more apt we’ll be to choose to do what is good. That is the spirit led life. And no, one will never be perfect otherwise we would not need a Savior, but each choice we make to do what is right we grow to look more like Jesus. The more we will grow to look like the spotless Bride that our Groom, Our King is returning for soon.

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