WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE CLOTHING?

I delight greatly in the Lord;
    my soul rejoices in my God.
For he has clothed me with garments of salvation
    and arrayed me in a robe of his righteousness.      Isaiah 61:10-11

When I think of getting all dressed up I think in terms of outward appearance – what shoes, nylons, dress, jewelry will I put on.  I look in the mirror to make sure everything coordinates and that I look as good as I can.   Yes, I do want to look my best most of the time when I walk out my door.   Man, after all, does look on the outward appearance.

But God looks on the heart!

I do not think I have ever considered walking out the door having checked to make sure my interior appearance is spot on – will it be perceived by others as attractive, well-kempt, in order, neat and clean.   Isaiah delighted greatly in the Lord, so much so that he gave tribute to the clothing God provided for him, and which he took great honor in displaying.  Garments of salvation, a robe of righteousness – clothing that no human closet can possibly have hanging; clothing only God can provide.  

My feeble attempts at sewing my own garments of salvation will fail every time.  The seams will be wrong, the length and height and breadth and width will be all the wrong dimensions and in the end it will never save me, really save me.    Should I attempt to piece together a robe of righteousness from my cache of supplies that robe would be as filthy rags, it would wear out (and wear me out) quickly for self-made righteousness will never be able to stand the test of time.  Thieves will break in and steal it away, moths will eat away at the fibers, adornments will rust away from the humidity of life. 

But a garment of salvation provided by God – oh my what a difference.   For all time and eternity this garment will never wear out.  This garment is noticed by others as the real thing, and this garment is one God loves to see displayed on multitudes.  He doesn’t make a one-of-a-kind garment with a jacked-up price no one can afford.  Well, truth be told no one can afford to purchase it, but then no one needs to worry about that either. The enormous cost of this precious garment has been totally absorbed by Jesus.  The price has been paid and He offers it freely to all who believe and receive this garment of Salvation from His nail-pierced hands

And oh that robe of righteousness!   What a price was paid on Calvary by Jesus so that I could be given this robe  - free!  I don’t have to manufacture or try to replicate it, in fact there is no possible way to do so because it is the Blood of Christ that is the thread woven through it which makes it so precious, so valuable.  The wearer of this robe is reminded over and over again that he or she is saturated and adorned by something no human can possibly replicate.
 
The garment of salvation and the robe of righteousness bear the mark of the One who offers it to all.   Attention paid to my interior wardrobe must be more top-of-mind as I walk out my door so that the penetrating, everlasting Glory of God is on display.  That is my assignment on this earth – to show the world my Jesus.   My outward appearance can never do this.  Oh, the joy of the Lord will be evident as I speak and when I smile and when I reach out to give a helping hand but those acts of graciousness can just as easily dissipate when frustrations arise and my day doesn’t go as I planned.   As Isaiah said, I delight greatly in the Lord, and my soul rejoices  in my God for He has given me a garment and a robe that no one can take from me, that stays with me throughout eternity, and which a thread-bear world is desperate for.   If I walk out my door today purposefully conscious that I wear God’s Salvation and His Righteousness it can make all the difference in the world to someone I meet along my path today who needs to see much more than what my clothes’ closet holds.  Such attention to detail can Rock this world!

How humbling.   So - I’m putting on my favorite clothing now as I walk out my door to start this day.   Oh, may the beauty of Jesus be seen ON me.  Amen

suemccarysargis  7/30/2014

An old hymn says it very well:

Let the beauty of Jesus
be seen in me
All His wonderful passion and purity
May His Spirit divine
All my being refine
Let the beauty of Jesus be seen in me

CLOTHE YOURSELF!

CLOTHE YOURSELF! 
Colossians 3:  9-17

“. . . .since you have taken off your old self with its practices ¹⁰ and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator. ¹¹ Here there is no Gentile or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all, and is in all.

¹² Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. ¹³ Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. ¹⁴ And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.

¹⁵ Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful. ¹⁶ Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts. ¹⁷ And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.”

Clothing.   It’s a necessary commodity and has been since Adam and Eve first donned fig leaves and animal fur.  It is a subject to which people all over the world pay much attention, even in impoverished areas it seems the attire is well-attended.  So when we are told to ‘clothe’ ourselves in scripture, the metaphor is something most of us can comprehend.  Yet even I skirt right past these scriptural admonitions much of the time.   I would never skirt the issue of clothing myself as I prepare to go to work each day.  I, like you, pay much attention to getting dressed and to looking the best I can.  I care, after all, what others think even if no one comments on how I’m dressed.  Why is it, then, that I can so lightly pass by verses like Colossians 3:12 – “clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.”?

Amazing, this spiritual clothing that affects all of society in ways my physical dress never will.  The son of a co-worker I have never met flashed through our offices late yesterday with mom trailing behind instructing him not to open doors, not to be so inquisitive, to stop and shake hands, to introduce himself.  He was not a child but an older teen and hanging around his neck was a sign that branded him – “Autistic”.   Why did he have to wear a sign like that, I wondered?   Why single him out like that – and yet I understood that his erratic wanderings in the safety of our own offices were probably looked on by the outside world with just a little disdain.  Did I?  If I am clothed with compassion it will come through loud and clear to that mom who has raised her son in a world critical of behavioral differences.  If I am clothed with kindness, that young man will recognize how I am dressed, as will he comprehend my gentleness and patience and the love of Jesus will pour the oil of joy and love all over the atmosphere! 

If I am to live the life of Jesus on this earth, if I am to affect those around me with His character and qualities – compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, patience – I have to actively participate in my own spiritual grooming.  The writer of this instruction does not tell me to stand still so that God can dress me and get me all prepped for my day.  I am told to clothe myself, and I want to do so simply because I am one of God’s chosen, holy and dearly loved people who gets to be the demonstration of His love each moment of each of my days on this earth.  What better clothing could I possibly attend to as I begin my day today? 

Lord, I want to be a humble, caring, compassionate, kind and gentle person as I step into this world today that is oh so much more interested in physical dressings than dressings that can affect a life for all eternity.  Moth and rust certainly does corrupt all other manner of clothing – but they can never destroy the works You do in and through me when I am spiritually dressed to meet the day.   So right now I clothe myself in compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.  Right now I put on the covering of love, that  the world might know Your great love.  Amen and amen.

AS A HEN GATHERS HER CHICKS

“How often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were not willing.”  Matthew 23:37

I arrived home after a 2 ½ week vacation, proceeding to rake up the plethora of avocado leaves that had fallen on my yard.  It’s a never-ending job.  I’ve been home a couple of weeks now, and every day I have a new bag full of leaves.  I am hopeful it means a bumper harvest of the best avocados anywhere on earth.  I’m convinced they are, as are people I give them too when there are so many I cannot possibly eat them all.  But back to that first raking event post-vacation.

Under some plants I saw this white fluffy thing hunkered down and it seemed to not move at all.   So I bent down to get a closer look, reached out my hand to touch it and all of a sudden she flew up and away, protesting loudly.  A live chicken was sleeping in my yard!  Wow, I live in suburbia and while occasionally I have heard their wake up call and even had one neighbor’s pet hen come peck around my yard, this was something brand new.   A white hen was NESTING in my yard, I soon discovered.   Laying on the ground where she had dutifully, loving been sitting were 9 eggs.   OH NO!  I’ve scared her away and she was sitting on eggs that probably have babies inside.  My heart sank as I emailed my family asking them what to do.   Really, there was nothing I could do but pray she would find her way back to my yard and settle down on her babies again.   Thankfully, she did.   I arrived home that evening and quietly looked between the plants.  There she was, laying motionless once again on those eggs.

I did an internet search to see how long that process should take.  21 days, it said, and if it began to stink in the yard I could be sure the hen was sitting on at least one rotten egg.  That never happened.  I didn’t try to touch her again, but I checked every morning to make sure she was there on those eggs.  She was.

But then yesterday, just a week later as I was leaving for work she was not under the plants any longer.  She was on the cold, hard gravel and I was worried she was sick.  Why would she be laying on the gravel, all hunkered down?  I bent down to talk to her, and as I spoke gently to her I again reached out my hand, ready to pet her.  WRONG THING TO DO!  It startled her again and up she flew, this time revealing six baby chicks that scattered in every direction as mama squawked and squawked.   First, she ran around the yard trying to round them all up and then she came charging at me!  She was mad, obviously, and probably scared that I would harm her brood.  I ran up three stairs to my porch and assured her I was not going to harm her or her little ones.  She returned to the search for the babies as I quickly left for work – again praying that she would be ok and that no harm would come to her chicks.  I prayed she would find them all and gather them, once more, under her protective wings.

I don’t know then end of her story.  When I came home from work that evening she was no longer nesting in my yard.   Obviously she and the babies had gone to a safer place than this one where the inquisitive giant kept disturbing her.   There in the gravel, where she last lay covering her babies I noticed she had pecked and scratched until she got a nice well in that rocky terrain.  In the nest were still three unhatched eggs and my guess was she didn’t want to keep laying on eggs that had no babies inside when she now had six fast-growing little ones to tend.  Very carefully she had recreated a place for her brood, a snug, dry, safe place under her protection and the warmth of her wings until they were big enough to live on their own.

I’m sad she and her chicks are gone, and yet I couldn’t have taken care of them.  I’m gone all the time and besides, I’m sure she belonged to someone who is quite happy to have her and her little ones back home. 

I’ve thought often of the verse in the Bible where Jesus stood outside Jerusalem facing the culmination of His life on this earth – His stalwart journey to the Cross. . . .“I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings.”  Those baby chicks I saw were not new hatchlings.  Obviously they had been out of those eggshells for some days by the time I saw them.  They knew their mamma; they knew they were safe under her wings and they also knew how to scamper when startled by the unexpected.   The image of Jesus gathering us, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings is a vision I now better understand.   I’m not a country girl, and though I had a sense of what this metaphor meant, while it brought peace to my heart that my Lord cares for me just as tenderly as any great mom cares for her kids, I had never seen a hen gather her chicks before.   I didn’t stick around to watch my white mama hen for fear she would peck me to death to keep me from harming her little ones, but I saw those babies under her wing, and I saw something else.   In that instant I not only comprehended the tenderness, but also the fierce protection she afforded her children.  In that instant I was touched to the core of my being with what it means for my God to gather me tenderly, ready to charge anyone who threatens my safety and security.  It’s not just a nesting place; it’s a hiding place, a sanctuary, a fortress – those wings of the hen . . . those arms of my Savior.

“But you were not willing. . .” 

That’s how Jesus’ sentence ends as He begins the journey that secured my place under His wings forever.  I wonder if those babies heard the cry of their mamma and scurried towards her, or if they thought they were strong enough now to venture out on their own, to live life as they wanted.   My hope is the later because I am a city girl and those babies would never endure a crossing on my busy roadways.   Those babies would not survive the predators if mama wasn’t with them, guiding them, teaching them, providing sanctuary for them when needed.   Of course they will not live forever under her wings – I know that.  And I suppose that is where the analogy ends for me and for the children Jesus longs to gather.   Another Bible verse comes to mind which embodies the bigger picture:  “Jesus said: ‘Let the children come to me, and do not hinder them, for to such belong the kingdom of Heaven.”  Matthew 19:14

The greatest safety, security, sustenance is provided, not by my accomplishments and abilities in this world, but by His gracious, tender, strong, powerful, mighty, protective arms.   All my life I am to come to Jesus as His child.   He longs to gather me.  What a precious assurance.   A part of my mother heart understands this.  When I see my own children struggling I want to bring them home and smother them with my love and protection.   My longings for them can only provide temporary respite at best; my Savior’s longing, on the other hand, is always, ongoing, and eternal.  Oh may I never refuse such grace!

PALATIAL RUINS OR CONSEQUENTIAL LEGACIES

1 Kings 6

² The temple that King Solomon built for the Lord was sixty cubits long, twenty wide and thirty high. (about 90 feet long, 30 feet wide and 45 feet high)

³⁷ The foundation of the temple of the Lord was laid in the fourth year, in the month of Ziv. ³⁸ In the eleventh year in the month of Bul, the eighth month, the temple was finished in all its details according to its specifications. He had spent seven years building it.

1 Kings 7

7 It took Solomon thirteen years, however, to complete the construction of his palace. ² He built the Palace of the Forest of Lebanon a hundred cubits long, fifty wide and thirty high (about 150 feet long, 75 feet wide and 45 feet high)

It took Solomon almost twice as long to build his palace as it did to build the temple of the Lord, and when I read these verses the bent of human nature readily comes to mind.  It causes me to stop and ponder how much time I spend building the Lord’s dwelling and tending to the details of my life that project HIM to the world around me, and how much time I spend building and tending to the details of my own creature comforts.   Solomon’s palace was half again as long and wide as the Temple he’d had constructed for the Lord.  Again I ponder – do I put anywhere near as much into my dwelling place with the Lord, my innermost and uppermost quest as I invest in my own space.  These are rhetorical questions, I quickly realize and my heart simply will not let me lie to it.  I spend way more time on my creature comforts than I do building the Kingdom of God within and without.  It is not a proud moment to come to such an encounter in scriptures.   It is not the intent, I am well aware, of these verses to point out my human flaws and yet that is exactly what it does today - so how will these truths impact this day?  This is not a rhetorical question, but rather one that must be attended to swiftly if the light of Jesus is to emanate and radiate consequentially as I go about my day.

Lord, I don’t want to come to the end of my life and leave a legacy of palatial ruins.  I want to learn to enter each day with a heart that keeps constructing ever wider, deeper, longer, higher spaces from which You can bless all You chose to place along my path today.  Let Your love shine through me that the world may see Your great love

Sue Mc Cary Sargis 5/21/2014

THE DAY THE GIFT WAS GIVEN

I remember a year when my dad painstakingly reconstructed bicycles for me and my sister.   Somehow I knew he was collecting parts BEFORE the magical day arrived, and even as a young girl I felt the anticipation build.   But I could never have imagined the true joy of that gift before THE DAY came.  I rode that pink bicycle complete with streamers on the handlebars, wind in my face and I rode with all the joy I could ever imagine.   Even now as I am reminded of that Christmas long ago (for me, it is long ago), I feel the wind in my face and I see the pride on my dad’s face as his gift was received, embraced and loved.

This grace was given us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time, ¹⁰ but it has now been revealed through the appearing of our Savior, Christ Jesus, who has destroyed death and has brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.  2 Timothy 1:9-10

This Grace was given to us in Christ Jesus BEFORE the beginning of time.   Phenomenal!   It is like presents have been under the tree and when THE day came, VOILA!  The revelation of all that lay beneath the wrapping. All throughout history God has been giving glimpses of His grace that would help us appreciate THE Gift when the day came for revelation. 

God gave us the grace of Jesus Christ long before we even knew, and oh the joy I am still bathed in as I remember my own Day of Revelation.   The day I was fully aware that Grace had entered my life forever – not because of anything I had done or will ever do – but because He has a purpose and He is full of grace and truth.   I unwrapped that gift as an eight-year-old and I remember being gripped with anticipation just as I remember waking each Christmas morning before my parents were up, wondering if it was ok for me to tear into the wrapping.  I recall the moment when I released my grip on the pew in front of me and stole down that aisle of that little country church into a revelation that changed my life forever.

Long before I was born; long before any of us was born, before the beginning of time this grace was given, and this is the grace we celebrated every year at Christmas.  

 In the beginning was The Word.  The Word was with God, and The Word was God . . . . The Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we saw His Glory, Glory as of the Only Begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. (John 1:1,2,14)   

Full of grace, Holy Savior
Full of grace and truth
May our hearts be filled with wonder
Of Your great, good news
May we bask in all Your splendor
And embrace the gift You bring
Gift of hope, gift of mercy
Gift of Grace, we crown You King

May the God of all grace fill our hearts and homes.   May many more be awakened to the revelation that came to earth over 2000 years ago wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.

Sue McCary Sargis
December 10, 2013

WHO SITS IN OUR PEWS

Luke 14:12-23 (NIV)

12 Then Jesus said to his host, “When you give a luncheon or dinner, do not invite your friends, your brothers or sisters, your relatives, or your rich neighbors; if you do, they may invite you back and so you will be repaid. 13 But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, 14 and you will be blessed. Although they cannot repay you, you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.”

The Parable of the Great Banquet

15 When one of those at the table with him heard this, he said to Jesus, “Blessed is the one who will eat at the feast in the kingdom of God.”

16 Jesus replied: “A certain man was preparing a great banquet and invited many guests. 17 At the time of the banquet he sent his servant to tell those who had been invited, ‘Come, for everything is now ready.’

18 “But they all alike began to make excuses. The first said, ‘I have just bought a field, and I must go and see it. Please excuse me.’

19 “Another said, ‘I have just bought five yoke of oxen, and I’m on my way to try them out. Please excuse me.’

20 “Still another said, ‘I just got married, so I can’t come.’

21 “The servant came back and reported this to his master. Then the owner of the house became angry and ordered his servant, ‘Go out quickly into the streets and alleys of the town and bring in the poor, the crippled, the blind and the lame.’

22 “‘Sir,’ the servant said, ‘what you ordered has been done, but there is still room.’

23 “Then the master told his servant, ‘Go out to the roads and country lanes and compel them to come in, so that my house will be full. 24 I tell you, not one of those who were invited will get a taste of my banquet.’

We have just begun a new church, New Hope Aloha Pau’ole with this mission statement: “We are committed to loving God and to advancing His kingdom by loving people to a place of freedom.” Our very first sermon was based on the story of the three kings – of Israel, Judah and Edom – who God called together to defeat the Midianites. But the possibility of doing so was against all odds for the people were few in number, by comparison to the Midianites, and the people were weary already and thirsty. They had no water to drink for several days and no prospect of that happening. God’s prophet told them they had to dig ditches so that the valley would be full of ditches to receive the waters that would come. That made no sense at all, but they dug ditches and when the woke the next morning the ditches were full of water. They had filled the valley with ditches and the valley was now filled with life-sustaining water.

Doing church the way we are compelled to by Jesus in Luke 14 makes about as much sense as a mandate to dig ditches when the enemy looms on the horizon and we are dog-tired and thirsty. Don’t invite the privileged ones who can pay the bills and keep things nice and orderly, but rather go invite those who are poor and crippled and blind and lame; those who live in alleys and streets, not in houses. That’s hard work, messy work, abnormal-in-our-modern-day-church-culture work.

Our Pastor told us we would need to dig ditches so that the waters of the living God would fill the valley and people could drink freely of these living waters. He said it would be a messy ministry – that of loving people to a place of freedom. It’s a messy thought – going out into the highways and byways, the alleys and the streets to reach people who are thirsty for the living waters of our God’s saving grace.

As we begin our ministry in a regular Sunday service at Moanalua Elementary School in Moanalua Valley - two services under our belt now - I wonder how we will fill this valley with ditches. Traditional church culture is invasive and the reality that we could settle in to what we all know, in some form or another, is a culture that says ‘come and see’ instead of ‘go and bring them in.’ It is a culture where people are satisfied with snippets of God’s truth on a Sunday morning – just enough of His truth to get us through the week and just enough so that it does not step on our orderly lifestyles. We cannot lose the vision and the heart of the mandate to dig ditches, to go out into the alley ways and streets, or we will just settle back into a western world religious ‘Christian’ culture.

Who will fill the pews of our church, and what will those pews look like? To move out of this established church culture will take constant revisiting of the vision God has given us. To move out of this established church culture we will need to see the work God has before us as one that has no ‘normal’ for if it begins to feel normal then we will forget the alleys and the streets and the ditches that need to be dug so God can pour out rivers of living waters from the very throne room of Heaven into dry and parched hearts.

In a year I pray we will look back and see that we have been faithful to our calling, that we will see our pews, whatever they look like and wherever they might be, filled with people whose lives are transformed because we did, indeed, love our God and advance His kingdom, not our agenda, His Kingdom by loving people to a place of freedom. I want to keep ever before my own heart this simple question – Who sits in your pews? And in reality, with the vision ever before us and call of God mandating every move we make, those pews will be banqueting tables where we will feast with others, people like us who were once poor, crippled, blind, lame and we will all be rejoicing together at the ongoing wedding feast of the Lamb – the Lamb of God who compels us to live life as He, Himself, demonstrated in word and in deed.

Luke 14 ends with these words:

34 “Salt is good, but if it loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? 35 It is fit neither for the soil nor for the manure pile; it is thrown out.

“Whoever has ears to hear, let them hear.”

Oh God, keep Your vision ever before us. Help us dig those ditches. Fill them with Living Waters. Fill your banqueting table with those we have compelled to come in.  Help us to love others as You demonstrated love, for as our pastor reitterated this past Sunday -- They will only know we are Christians . . . by our love.

suemccarysargis  1/14/2013

A MARKED MAN - LAZARUS

John 12:1-2; 9-11


Six days before the Passover, Jesus came to Bethany, where Lazarus lived, whom Jesus had raised from the dead. 2 Here a dinner was given in Jesus’ honor. Martha served, while Lazarus was among those reclining at the table with him.

9 Meanwhile a large crowd of Jews found out that Jesus was there and came, not only because of him but also to see Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead. 10 So the chief priests made plans to kill Lazarus as well, 11 for on account of him many of the Jews were going over to Jesus and believing in him.

I never noticed, in all my readings of these scriptures over the years, that Lazarus was a marked man. This one who had died once and was resurrected by Jesus four days after he officially was declared dead, this one whom Jesus instructed those standing around weeping, “take the grave clothes off him!”; this one of whom the people said: “He stinks! Don’t you know he’s been dead so long already?” and this one of whom the shortest verse in the Bible is written, “Jesus wept” - he, resurrected and testifying of the power of the long-awaited Messiah, was a marked man. And who was out to get him? None other than the religious leaders of the day – the Chief Priests made plans to kill him ‘as well’ – or at the same time they did away with Jesus.

We don’t know anything more about Lazarus so he may have died a martyr or he may have died naturally at a ripe old age but of one thing we can be certain – he was a marked man.

Yes, marked by the religious zealots bent on destroying the testimony of the One who came to redeem us all but more importantly, Lazarus was a marked by the power and love and grace of God and his life was forever changed. He got a first-hand lesson that few have or will ever experience – one that allowed him to know death and life are held only in the sovereign hands of God and none other. He got to know the passion of Jesus as his sisters told him how Jesus wept at his grave site. He got to experience the stench of death leaving him as those strips of death shroud were carefully removed by friends and family standing by his tomb as he came forth. He experienced, first-hand, what it meant to be marked by the redeeming grace of the Son of God who came to seek and to save that which was lost. No doubt this marked man was hunted down the rest of his life and he may very well have died a martyr’s death just like most of those first century evangels; and yet the mark on Lazarus that remains most significant is the mark that sealed his fate forever – the mark of eternity stamped on his heart and soul and mind that day in Bethany by the Messiah.

We who have received Jesus into our own hearts are marked as well. Yes, we too are marked by those yet out to do away with our own testimonies, but more importantly we, like Lazarus are marked for all time and eternity by the imprint upon our hearts and souls and minds of God’s unending, matchless, redeeming love and grace.

suemccarysargis 12/22/2012