christianity

Can God Use You?

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I think if God can use any one of these people, He can use you and me. The key is not our ability but our availability. God isn’t looking for charismatic leaders or powerful speakers or Billy Graham-type evangelists as much as He’s looking for those whose hearts are open and willing. Simply, God is looking for people who will say YES, no matter the question.

The beautiful part is that there is no expiration on God’s call. There’s never a time limit. You never age out of being useful to God. God wants people both young and old, to kids from 1 to 92 like the old Christmas song says.

The Bible says, “God is always on the alert, constantly on the lookout for people who are totally committed to him” (2 Chronicles 16:9, The Message).

You may be a child. You may be past retirement age. It doesn’t matter. God has a call on your life that is uniquely suited to you and no one else. You alone can accomplish God’s specific calling, and you will only know what that is when you step out in faith (like Indiana Jones in that last real Indiana Jones movie).

May our answer to God always be YES, no matter the question.

Anointed with Oil

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Have you ever wondered why Psalm 23 talks about anointing the head with oil? I guess I always assumed it had something to do with David being anointed king or maybe it was a symbolic gesture. Here’s something I found that explains it quite well. It’s also a good word for those of us who have intrusive thoughts that won’t go away:

“I always wondered what this part of Psalm 23 meant. I thought ‘He anoints my head with oil’ was figurative language to refer to God keeping the psalmist healthy. I never knew this parallel.

Sheep can get their heads caught in brambles and die trying to untangle themselves. There are horrible little flies that like to torment sheep by laying eggs in their nostrils that turn into maggots and drive the sheep to hit their heads on a rock, sometimes to death. His ears and eyes are also susceptible to tormenting insects.

The shepherd then anoints his entire head with oil. Then there is peace. That oil forms a protective barrier against the evil that tries to destroy the sheep.

Do you have moments of mental torment?

Do worrying thoughts invade your mind again and again?

Are you banging your head against the wall trying to stop them?

Have you ever asked God to anoint your head with oil?

It has an infinite supply! His oil protects and makes it possible for you to fix your heart, mind and eyes on Him today and always!

There is peace in the valley! May our good Father anoint your head with oil today so that your cup overflows with blessings! God is good and faithful!!” (Francisco J. Toledo).

40 Days of Prayer

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Last year, my church participated in a Chronological Bible reading plan that involved all nine campuses. This year, we’re starting off 2025 by doing a 40 Days of Prayer initiative where we focus on specific local, national, and global partners in the gospel going forth to all nations in all the world.

I’m also doing my own personal prayer focus with books like the Book of Common Prayer and The Orthodox Christian Prayer Book. I’ve always believed in the power of prayer, but this year I’m trying to be more intentional and not just haphazardly praying whatever comes to mind.

I truly believe that the greatest and most underutilized weapon in the Church’s arsenal is prayer. We very rarely spend any significant corporate time in prayer other than between the worship set and the sermon. For those of you who remember the old Wednesday Night Prayer Service, you know that most of the time that ended up being just another regular church service with full sermon and not a lot of actual praying.

There’s something powerful about agreeing in prayer as a body of believers. Samuel Chadwick once said, ““Satan dreads nothing but prayer. His one concern is to keep the saints from praying. He fears nothing from prayerless studies, prayerless work, prayerless religion. He laughs at our toil, he mocks our wisdom, but he trembles when we pray.”

William Cowper also said, ““Satan trembles, when he sees the weakest Saint upon his [or her] knees.”

There is untapped power in prayer as both individual believers and together as the Church of Almighty God. I’m convinced that if Satan can keep us busy doing anything and everything but praying — even if that is worship and preaching and evangelism — he will have succeeded, because nothing is more impotent than prayerless worship, prayerless preaching, and prayerless evangelism. We end up going through the motions with nothing to show for it.

I confess that I’m not very good at praying. My mind wanders all over the place and it’s easy for me to get distracted by social media or a song on the radio or something on TV. Many times I will fall asleep in the middle of prayer.

But even my weak attempts at prayer are better than not praying at all. Satan trembles when any of God’s children — including me — get on their knees to pray because He knows the power is not in the pray-er or even the prayer but in the One who hears. Satan knows that we have not because we ask not but when we do ask, the heavens are opened and God’s riches and blessings are unleashed.

So I’d love to pray for you this year. If you want to email me your prayer requests at gmendel72@icloud.com, I’d love to pray over you in 2025.

A Bold Prayer

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“Bold prayer : “God, change anything about me that isn’t about You” (Taylor Johnson).

I posted this little prayer on Facebook 11 years ago today. That was a good prayer in 2014 and still is in 2025. It probably will be in 2026 and beyond until Jesus comes back.

Another way of praying it is “Thy will be done,” the prayer that never fails (for those who are familiar with Jan Karon’s Mitford series and Father Tim Cavanaugh, you will get the reference).

It’s the prayer of the refiner where everything that is dross in us is burned away until all that remains is refined and the Maker can see His reflection in us.

Of all the things I could pray for and ask for (and there are lots), I think nothing trumps this one. To be more like Jesus is the ultimate goal, the endgame, the final destination because Heaven beyond all the gold streets and mansions and pearly gates is where Jesus is and where we’ll finally be fully mature and where our faith will finally be sight.

So in the meantime, my prayer is still “God, change anything about me that isn’t about You.”

Make me a disciple who makes disciples and who isn’t ashamed of the gospel. Make all of us bold in our faith to have gospel conversations with anybody, anytime, anywhere wherever we live, work, or play. Amen.

Those Two Little Words

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If I were to quote a passage, do you think you’d catch it if I left something out? Like this:

“Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice! Let your considerate spirit be known to all men. The Lord is near. Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and petition let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus” (Phil. 4:4-7, Legacy Standard Bible).

Did you notice anything missing? Now let me quote the verse with the missing part put back in:

“Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice! Let your considerate spirit be known to all men. The Lord is near. Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and petition with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus” (Phil. 4:4-7, Legacy Standard Bible, emphasis added.

I added the bold to make it obvious. Two little words “with thanksgiving” were missing from the first quotation. But that’s what is missing in a lot of our prayers and petitions. At least I can speak for myself and say that I go through a lot of requests in my prayers without ever giving thanks. But I think that’s the key.

I’m not saying that a few magical phrases will automatically make God grant you everything you ask for. But I wonder if sometimes if the gratitude part is what keeps us from seeing God at work in our petitions. Maybe the giving thanks part is like praying in faith believing you have already received what you ask for.

The answer may not always look like what you expect. But you can be sure that God honors His promises to give us what we ask when in faith with thanksgiving.

And note that it does not say that we’re ever to give thanks FOR everything but IN everything. We shouldn’t be thankful for cancer or car wrecks or wildfires. But we can give thanks in the midst of those things because God is working even in those cases for good. Out of those ashes will come something beautiful.

But let us be thankful people, regardless. Even if God did nothing else for us from here until eternity, we’d still have a million reasons for gratitude and thanksgiving. We could still give thanks if for nothing else than salvation and the next breath.

So let’s not leave those two little words out next time. Or, maybe I shouldn’t leave out those two little words next time.

Five Helps for the New Year

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I found this on the interwebs and thought I’d share. It’s something to work on if you haven’t already made your new year resolutions. In fact, these are things you can work on at any time and at any point of the year, new or old.

“1. Thank God. Often and always. Thank him carefully and wonderingly for your continuing privileges and for every experience of his goodness. Thankfulness is a soil in which pride does not easily grow.

2. Take care about confession of your sins. As time passes the habit of being critical about people and things grows more than each of us realize. …[He then gently commends the practice of sacramental confession].

3. Be ready to accept humiliations. They can hurt terribly but they can help to keep you humble. [Whether trivial or big, accept them he says.] All these can be so many chances to be a little nearer to our Lord. There is nothing to fear, if you are near to the Lord and in his hands.

4. Do not worry about status. There is only one status that Our Lord bids us be concerned with, and that is our proximity to Him. “If a man serve me, let him follow me, and where I am there also shall my servant be”. (John 12:26) That is our status; to be near our Lord wherever He may ask us to go with him.

5. Use your sense of humour. Laugh at things, laugh at the absurdities of life, laugh at yourself.

Through the year people will thank God for you. And let the reason for their thankfulness be not just that you were a person whom they liked or loved but because you made God real to them” (Michael Ramsey, Archbishop of Canterbury, 61-74).

Grace (by Frederick Buechner)

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“After centuries of handling and mishandling, most religious words have become so shopworn nobody’s much interested anymore. Not so with grace, for some reason. Mysteriously, even derivatives like gracious and graceful still have some of the bloom left.

Grace is something you can never get but can only be given. There’s no way to earn it or deserve it or bring it about any more than you can deserve the taste of raspberries and cream or earn good looks or bring about your own birth.

A good sleep is grace and so are good dreams. Most tears are grace. The smell of rain is grace. Somebody loving you is grace. Loving somebody is grace. Have you ever tried to love somebody?

A crucial eccentricity of the Christian faith is the assertion that people are saved by grace. There’s nothing YOU have to do. There’s nothing you HAVE to do. There’s nothing you have to DO.

The grace of God means something like: “Here is your life. You might never have been, but you are, because the party wouldn’t have been complete without you. Here is the world. Beautiful and terrible things will happen. Don’t be afraid. I am with you. Nothing can ever separate us. It’s for you I created the universe. I love you.”

There’s only one catch. Like any other gift, the gift of grace can be yours only if you’ll reach out and take it.

Maybe being able to reach out and take it is a gift too” (Frederick Buechner, Wishful Thinking).

I always like the acronym for GRACE – God’s Riches at Christ’s Expense.

That means it is undeserved.

It’s the flip side of mercy. If grace is getting what you don’t deserve, then mercy is not getting what you deserve. And salvation involves both.

May we be a people of mercy and grace in 2025.

All I Needed to Say

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I know several people who are dealing with grief and the loss of a loved one. It’s never easy, especially with the recent end of the Christmas season that makes loss even more difficult to bear. I found a post with the lyrics from a Michael W. Smith song from his second album. Let these words sink in and express your own grief and loss:

“Sad goodbye
Never quite got said
Now the time is gone
We’re moving on
Even though it hurts so bad

If I could
I’d turn back the days
And I’d love again
To be your friend
In a hundred different ways
But we can’t turn back the time
The days

So if I never said, all I needed to say
I’ll say it now
You know I loved you once
I love you stronger today
Please love, find me a way
Words, I still need to say
But I don’t know how

Can’t stand still
Still I can’t move on
Lord, I need your strength
Need you and me
‘Cause a part of me is gone

In time, I will know
What I’ve yet to see
That through all the pain
You hurt the same
And you’re standing here with me
More than anything it’s you
I need

So if I never said, all I needed to say
I’ll say it now
You know I loved you once
I love you stronger today
Please love find me a way
Words, I still need to say
Please show me how

Words, I still need to say

So if I never said, all I needed to say
I’ll say it now
You know I loved you once
I love you stronger today
Please love find me a way
But I don’t know how
Please love find me a way
Please show me how” (Amy Grant / Michael W. Smith).

Another Year, Another Bible Reading Plan

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Last year, my church and all the other campuses of Brentwood Baptist Church read through the Bible in a year with the Day by Day Chronological Bible. It was a bit different reading the Bible chronologically with Genesis followed by Job as an example. But it was a great help for my faith as each daily reading had an introduction, as well as a synopsis for each week.

This year, we’re following the M’Cheyne One Year Reading Plan. I’m using the YouVersion app and the Complete Jewish Bible translation. So far, so good.

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve read through the Bible. Partly, it’s because I really can’t remember. But every year, I can’t wait to start over. The meta-narrative is so compelling as a story of God setting out to rescue His own after they sinned and rebelled against Him.

The older I get, the more I understand that the real heroes aren’t Abraham or Moses or David or Joshua. They’re the ones God chose and used, but they were as fallen and flawed as anyone else. They simply chose to take God at His word.

The real hero of these stories is God Himself. God is the one who orchestrated history to raise up a people through which would come a Redeemer to be the Savior of the world. He was able to work through both the good and bad and even the ugly to accomplish His purposes which led to both Jews and Gentiles alike having access to this redemption and salvation story.

Today, I read Genesis 1, Matthew 1, Ezra 1, and Acts 1. It was a bit of an unexpected start, but I’m excited to see where it leads. Plus, my church is going through a guided 40 Days of Prayer to start the year. I’m anticipating God to do great things through these prayers and petitions.

Also, I’m still tackling The Book of Common Prayer. It’s such a helpful prayer guide, especially during the Lent and Advent seasons. I’m thankful to have access to so many amazing resources when it comes to my faith.

I don’t know what to expect in 2025, but I know God already knows. He’s gone ahead to meet us there and He goes there with us. Whatever it is, I know God is good, and that is enough.

Glory in the Skies

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“God’s glory is on tour in the skies,
    God-craft on exhibit across the horizon.
Madame Day holds classes every morning,
    Professor Night lectures each evening” (Psalm 19:1-2, The Message).

This afternoon, I drove down I-840 from Christiana to Brentwood to get to Room in the Inn at Brentwood Baptist Church. I was a little anxious about facing 4 pm traffic, but I shouldn’t have been worried in the least. It was such a peaceful drive.

As I drove toward the sunset, I could see the sun peaking out from behind the hills in the distance as it was sinking toward night. Everything around me took on a kind of golden glow as the daylight faded away.

I do think that dusk is my favorite part of the day. It almost always makes me feel relaxed and calm, reminding me that despite anything that I may be worried about, creation is a classroom where the glory of God is the subject and I am the student. I need to be reminded that just as God displays His majestic wonder every morning and every evening, so will He show Himself mighty in taking care of my needs.

Also, it’s a helpful lesson in humility to recall that in the grand scheme of things, I am very small and all my problems aren’t all that dire in the light of creation and the universe and the story that God is unfolding across time and history, yet He cares for me as one of the little sparrows.

I wonder if God orchestrates history for moments like these for me to be driving down the interstate and see a beautiful sunset. Not that I am super important or influential but just because maybe God knew I needed it.