Pillows of Peace

Mark 4:35-41 And the same day, when the even was come, he saith unto them, Let us pass over unto the other side. And when they had sent away the multitude, they took him even as he was in the ship. And there were also with him other little ships. And there arose a great storm of wind, and the waves beat into the ship, so that it was now full.  And he was in the hinder part of the ship, asleep on a pillow: and they awake him, and say unto him, Master, carest thou not that we perish?  And he arose, and rebuked the wind, and said unto the sea, Peace, be still. And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm.  And he said unto them, Why are ye so fearful? how is it that ye have no faith?  And they feared exceedingly, and said one to another, What manner of man is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?

Do you get scared when there is a storm? My husband is one that loves storms. He loves watching a storm come in. He loves watching the wind blow, and the rain come rushing in. He especially loves thunderstorms. I don't even think it would fear him to stand out in a storm. It fascinates him! Now I am just the opposite. I am a little fearful of storms and I think the reason I am is because I think about the damage they can cause. Thunderstorms, tornadoes, lightning storms and hurricanes can cause great devastation. I do not enjoy the destruction that some storms can cause: destroyed homes, loss of possessions, and sometimes loss of lives.

In the Bible, we find examples where Jesus was always in the midst of storms: Storms of nature and the storms of life. One thing you will notice is that Jesus always had the same attitude towards each storm He was involved in, and approached each one in the same manner: with calmness and peace. Some he slipped away from, and some he even slept through.

Peter, one of Jesus' disciples, was in prison, and with death facing him the next day, he was asleep and had to be very roughly awakened by an angel sent to deliver him from his prison. How was it that Peter was able to sleep, knowing that he was going to die? I believe that Peter was able to have peace in this stormy situation because he had been on the ship Jesus was on and had witnessed Jesus calming the storm. And just as Jesus had been sleeping peacefully through the storm, Peter also was able to sleep through "his storm". We can be most assured that we will find ourselves in the midst of storms in our life. And how we respond to them is very crucial.

Paul and Silas, also followers of Jesus ended up in prison too. These two men were able to sing songs of praise and worship even in prison. I am sure that they had heard the story many times how Jesus had calmed the storm, so that when they were faced with "a storm of life", they were able to pray and worship their way through it.

We all have found ourselves one time or another in the midst of a storm and become afraid. But when we see the terribleness of the storm start to rage all around us, we need to climb into the ship with Jesus, turn our eyes away from the storm and onto Jesus, and we will find him peacefully asleep on a pillow. Our Lord desires to comfort and cushion us with "heavenly pillows of peace" when we are caught up in the storms of life. Life will supply the storms that come to us, but Jesus will always be there to supply the "pillows of peace" that will cushion us and provide comfort through those storms. He will speak peace, in the midst of your storm, that brings a calm in your life if you will keep your eyes on Him.

The next time a storm blows your way, just grab your pillow and cuddle up to the Lord and let it not be said of you by the Master, "Why are ye so fearful? How is it that ye have no faith?" Always trust the Lord to provide "pillows of peace" in your storm.

Connie J. Schmoll

Suffering In Silence

Our heart is never hid from God. He hears our hearts cry. When we are hurting or suffering in some way, it will show on the outside in different ways. Until we learn that suffering in silence only brings more pain, we will never receive the healing that we need. We must talk to someone. -Connie

SUFFERING IN SILENCE

"Unless the Lord had been my help, my soul had almost dwelt in silence" Psalm 94:17

Have you ever watched a child withdrawal from the world -- from their life? Ever been a witness to an explosion of anger from a so-called rebellious teen or even an adult friend? Ever noticed fear in the eyes of a friend growing distant? Do you ever find that others around you seem to be caught on a spiritual roller coaster ride and can't seem to get off? Or maybe you have found yourself in one of these situations.

We all have things in our life that we wished had never happened. And we want so much to forget them. But most of the time, we become victims of suffering in silence -- trying to hide or bury our hurts and pains brought on by circumstances in our lives.

Choosing to suffer in silence and hoping to hide the hurt and pain, never works. They can never be hidden, because they are eventually shown on the outside by our actions.

The sad thing about suffering in silence is that the actions revealed on the outside portray the person that we most definitely are not! It portrays a person in pain. Our true identity has been lost. You see, the heart is never hidden.

Matthew 12:34...out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaketh

From deep within, our hearts cry out for peace, and wanting the turmoil within to come to an end. We want our true identity back.

I John 3:20 When our hearts condemn us, God knoweth the heart.

Our heart is never hid from God, and our hearts cry is never overlooked by Him. The only way to ever stop the turmoil and to find peace, is to confess our faults to one another. It is then, your true identity is found again and known by others as well.

What is your hearts cry? What lies deep within that has been buried way too long and hinders you from becoming what you can for Christ? Do you yearn for deliverance?

We need to overcome the things that keep us bound. We must first learn to recognize these areas in our life and bring them before God. Search to find the source of your problem. Determine to face the problem head on and God will bring the solution.

A time of transparency is very critical in the success of ministry. If God is ever going to be able to minister to our hearts cry, we must become transparent. Nothing is hid from Him anyway. Becoming transparent sets us free of excess baggage that we have carried around that was not for us to carry in the first place.

Transparency helps the "specific needs" to be met, as written in James 5:13-16 ...Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing psalms. Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith will save the sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. Confess your trespasses to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.

How are we to know to pray for someone or to lend a hand to someone if we do not know the need? How is anyone able to help meet a need of ours, if we never let it be known? If I am hungry and in need of food for survival, and do not let my needs be made known, I will starve. I understand, that this is a very difficult thing...to be transparent, especially when the matters are very personal. It means letting our guard down. Suddenly we are not the person everyone thought we were. Oh no, what will they think of me? We feel we will be less of a person in their eyes.

I have recently discovered and started to understand that some people choose to "suffer in silence" because if they express or share too much to others, all that those people see is their behavior, instead of trying to understand the heart. The behavior of hurting people sometimes is not pretty and so you have people calling them on it, with the understanding that the hurting person should expect it. (expect to be rebuked) I disagree! These people are HURTING!! And the last thing on their mind is their behavior. The last thing they care about is how they are representing themselves. And WE as Christians need to overlook such behavior, for a time, realizing that it's just them acting out the hurt. This is our opportunity to HELP the healing process start instead of kicking them while they're down and adding to their wounds.

In my experience, I have developed a great admiration for those who are transparent. This shows great courage. I, too, long to be more transparent.

Transparency doesn't just take place with anyone. You must first develop a bond with someone. Developing trust and uniting with one another is very important. After the trust is established, then the transparency takes place. We become united in the Spirit of the Lord. We are opening up. We all go through many things in our life for the purpose of helping someone else. When you find yourself in a place of suffering, try to visualize it as "a ministry in the making".

Again, I ask you, what is your hearts cry? Confess it to God. He will lead you to the ones who can help you deal with the issues that keep you bound. Please choose this day to no longer suffer in silence but TELL SOMEONE so that you may be healed. And after your healing comes, you now become a vessel God can use to help someone else who might be going through something similar to what you did.

"When I kept silence, my bones waxed old through my roaring all the day long" Psalm 32:3

--Connie J. Schmoll

God Meant It For Good

There are times in our life where we have to face hurtful situations brought on by others. We may be the one that is looked down on or thought bad about. But we must keep our trust in the Lord and believe that all is still in His hands and realize that some time these times that we go through, God Meant Them For Good.

GOD MEANT IT FOR GOOD

Gen 50:20 But as for you, ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save much people alive.

Have you ever had series of events happen in your life that caused a lot of trouble and you were the one who was looked on as the bad person when the situations were all over and settled? When something like this happens, it really makes a person feel down on them self, even though deep down inside, they know they were the innocent person. If we are truly honest with ourselves, we would realize that the main thing that we are bothered with, is what other people think of us after something like this happens. Many of us want to be liked, and we worry so much about what other people think of us, or just how they look at us. But do you know that the Bible says that we should not be man pleasers, but God pleasers? It has taken many hard lessons for me to go through in my life to finally get to the place where I am finally healed of the "disease to please" people.

Gal 1:10 For do I now persuade men, or God? or do I seek to please men? for if I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ.

There is a story in the Bible that I always refer to now when something like this happens to me. It is the story of Joseph. The life of Joseph speaks of godly encouragement to God's people who suffer and are persecuted.

In Joseph's life, he first shared his dreams with his brothers and his father. But his brothers were jealous of his relationship with his father. Jealousy led to the act of them throwing Joseph into a dark pit, and then selling him to some merchants. They let their father believe Joseph was dead. But wherever Joseph was, he always won the favor of people. He ended up in the house of Potiphar, and was put in charge of all that Potiphar owned until his wife accused Joseph of trying to take advantage of her. He then ended up in prison. From prison, because of his gifts and wisdom, he ended up in Pharaoh's palace in a great position of power. He was responsible for saving many people, including his family, in a time of famine.

Just like Joseph's life, God has many stages that we may have to walk through in order to reach our ultimate destiny in Christ. God showed him his place of power in two dreams but he never revealed the painful paths that Joseph would have to walk to arrive in that place of greatness.

When we first come to Christ, we have a zeal and faith that skyrockets. And then some things happen. As in the case with Joseph, our brothers in the Lord begin to get jealous and look for any excuse to humble us. Jesus warned that a man's enemies would be those of his own household and that can include the household of faith. We are suddenly attacked. We go along serving God when unexpected opposition comes into our life. We ask for prayer, and suddenly, are surrounded by people who are accusing us of every sort of wrong motive. Just like Joseph, we are cast into a deep dry well where no light is shining. If they can't find fault in our actions, they presume on our motives wounding us with jagged accusations wrapped in sweet words of grace. Then it is as if the Father's favor is stripped from us and we suddenly are demoted to the lowest of the low places a slave. People treat us with contempt and we have to learn to bear the injustices in silence. Forsaken by friends and family, we learn in our isolation to draw comfort from God. Even as the Lord was with Joseph, He is with us as well.

After the slavery comes a small promotion and still another test. Will we abuse our newly found authority? We then end up in another place of accusation, and we end up once again stripped of our robe. (or positions in the Church, as was with our situation)

Then comes the prison, the dumping ground of ruined humanity, a place where all hope is vanquished. We are a nobody. The promises of God are now faint memories but His presence becomes our secret abiding place. We have been wrongly accused, sentenced, and locked away. And in such places we learn to allow God himself to become our life. He becomes our comforter, companion, and sweet secret friend.

If you find that life's circumstances seem to be symbolically like Joseph's life, and you have found yourself now in this deep dark prison, be encouraged and know that just like Joseph, a time will come when you will be cleansed of that prison dirt, and you will be brought to a place of power where you speak the Word of the Lord. Suddenly a royal robe is wrapped about your shoulders. This is not the robe of a noble child, but of one in full authority. The Father's favor is again publicly placed on you. After so many false starts, you suddenly find your true place of service. The taunts of your accusers fade in fear of the authority on your life. And the promises of God burst forth to maturity and you inherit his long delayed blessings. Please take heart: God is preparing you for your true place of service by first breaking you, and then remaking you in His redemptive image. He who promised is Faithful and True.

All the things that have happened to you in your life may seem to have been bad, but God is faithful and what others meant for bad God meant for good. God has a purpose for all things that you go through. And I'm not saying that God causes these things to happen but what I'm saying is that when these bad things happen, God is there to work them out for the good!

Rom 8:28 And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.
And since His ways are not our ways, His thoughts are not our thoughts, (Isaiah 55:8) the outcome of situations may not be what we expected, nor do things look the way, to others, as God sees them. Just be encouraged to know that God is always in control and all will work out as long as you trust in Him through everything you go through. Even if the place you are at today does not look so good, don't lose faith, because all that you have gone through because of others, God meant it all for good. Do not lose hope and never forget the dreams that God has given to you. It is your dreams that will lead you to your ultimate destiny in Christ.

Connie J. Schmoll

Blessings of Brokenness

And as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and blessed it, and brake it, and gave it to the disciples, and said, Take, eat; this is my body. Matt 26:26
 

We all have had times happen in our lives where we felt like our heart was breaking in two. During these times the pain is so bad that we feel like nothing could ever be the same again and that it is going to be so hard to go on with our life. We wonder why these times have to be. We soon learn that the times of “brokenness” are much needed in our lives.

When we are “broken” we begin to value the brutal and disgraceful assassination of Jesus more than anything, which He did for us so then we become willing to stop any negative addiction or sin in our lives. Brokenness is the key that releases our God-given potential to bless others.

Throughout the Bible Jesus teaches this principle of brokenness and it is also demonstrated by the lives of others. Jesus demonstrated this “broken process” during the Lord’s Supper (communion) but also His own personal life was a demonstration of brokenness.. . This symbolized the body of Christ given for the church. This process is applied to our lives as well, the life application being how the bread underwent 4 processes: Taken (Amos 9:2,3), Blessed (Deut. 28:2-6), Broken (Matt. 26:39) and Given (Rom. 12:6-8)

I think about the time when thousands of people were fed (nourished) by the act of a small boy placing all that he had (lunch) that day into the hands of Jesus. He blessed it, broke it, and gave it to the people. He broke it some more, and gave more. Broke it some more and gave more.

At salvation, we are TAKEN into Jesus’ hands and He lifts us up to the Father who BLESSES us in imperfection with the abilities and gifts for His use. He then BREAKS us spiritually, releasing that reservoir of greatness and blessing, that it may be spilled out or GIVEN unto others. Continually we are broken and given, broken and given. Everything we go through is for a reason and has its purpose in our lives. (2 Cor. 1:3-7)

There is a well of oil trapped within us, but cannot be released until we are broken. Brokenness is painful but it is the passage to the promise. Once we start to understand brokenness, and it’s purpose, we can look back and accept our beginnings.

Through the life of Mary Magdalene, the woman who came with the alabaster box, the principle of broken was demonstrated. When she came, she was ridiculed by others but Jesus accepted her. She gave the gift or offering (alabaster box) to Him. The box is a representation of us – taken, broken, given and oil poured out, the odor filling the house. (Mrk 14:3-6)

Again, we have an example in John 12:24 when he mentioned the corn of wheat falling to the ground, and if it dies, it brings forth much fruit. Jesus (corn of wheat) gave himself unto death (fall into ground), went through the process of brokenness (died) and the oil of salvation was released for all mankind (brought forth much fruit).

We have gifts, untapped resources lying dormant inside us and we need to die to self, go through the broken process, so the oil of worth is released for others.

Jesus is the oil of salvation for us and we are the oil of blessings to flow to others. Our family, our church, those at our jobs or anyone who crosses our path needs the oil of blessing that we process. Let’s not deny our generation. Don’t leave this life without giving others what was God-given to you for their purpose. Do not make the cemetery the richest place in the world.

There is definitely Blessings in Brokenness.

Connie J Schmoll
July 4, 2003