From my kitchen table...and beyond...: Chores...

So with the recent injury of my shepherd, I have been helping with the morning chores.   And I have been "hearing" and thinking on different things that have been building for this particular blog.   I am married to a man who loves chores!   While I am out feeding hay and the like...I must admit that I love the freshness of the morning and there is an accomplishment in making sure everything is taken care of...but to say I love chores I am not so sure I can.

Many of you know Curtis Ball and if you don't he was definitely a "shepherd".   A special friend that went to be with our Lord.   Anyway, he always had animals and he always cared for them.   BUT Curtis also took care of people (especially kids) as well.   He was one of the tough guys but still a softy when it came right down to it.   And so this morning out helping do chores, Curtis was so on my mind and Tim says now there was a guy that loved chores too!   To which I completely agreed.

I have been reading in Ephisians and in chapter 4 it talks of gifts and the passage in my Living Bible in verse 11 that is talking about gifts...a gift that I would like to think is mine but just all of this has made me realize how much is involved in being a shepherd...it is not for the faint of heart...there are "chores" involved.   It isn't just about the "show".   So 4:11 says:

"still others have a gift for caring for God's people as a shepherd does his sheep, leading and teaching them in the ways of God."

But what does one do with these gifts and so I read on to 4:12-13:

"Why is it that He gives us these special abilities to do certain things best? It is that God's people will be equipped to do better work for him, building up the church, the body of Christ, to a position of strength and maturity; until finally we all believe alike about our salvation and about our Savior, God's Son, and all become full-grown in the Lord--yes, to the point of being filled full with Christ."

And I think of this journey that we are on and how that is the ultimate goal. I think of Curtis who has suffered but kept going and learning and growing and helping..."DOING THE CHORES"...and now it is time for him to sit back and enjoy the "show".

So I keep reading in my devotions and I think how fitting that this morning in My Utmost For His Highest by Oswald Chambers it reads:

03
2011
Feed My sheep —John 21:17

This is love in the making. The love of God is not created— it is His nature. When we receive the life of Christ through the Holy Spirit, He unites us with God so that His love is demonstrated in us. The goal of the indwelling Holy Spirit is not just to unite us with God, but to do it in such a way that we will be one with the Father in exactly the same way Jesus was. And what kind of oneness did Jesus Christ have with the Father? He had such a oneness with the Father that He was obedient when His Father sent Him down here to be poured out for us. And He says to us, “As the Father has sent Me, I also send you” (John 20:21).

Peter now realizes that he does love Him, due to the revelation that came with the Lord’s piercing question. The Lord’s next point is— “Pour yourself out. Don’t testify about how much you love Me and don’t talk about the wonderful revelation you have had, just ’Feed My sheep.’ ” Jesus has some extraordinarily peculiar sheep: some that are unkempt and dirty, some that are awkward or pushy, and some that have gone astray! But it is impossible to exhaust God’s love, and it is impossible to exhaust my love if it flows from the Spirit of God within me. The love of God pays no attention to my prejudices caused by my natural individuality. If I love my Lord, I have no business being guided by natural emotions— I have to feed His sheep. We will not be delivered or released from His commission to us. Beware of counterfeiting the love of God by following your own natural human emotions, sympathies, or understandings. That will only serve to revile and abuse the true love of God.

And so a "coincidence" that this was the particular reading I had today...I don't think so! So today I am thinking about a man and inspired by one who would "Feed My sheep". My heart so goes out to the Ball family as they have lost a very special person in their life! We love you Curtis...and who knows maybe there are some chores in heaven!! Thank you for this life and now it is time for rest...