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Articles by Rita Reid

Our Heart-Soil: Stony Soil

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Have you ever thought of your heart as a bed of soil for the seed of God’s Word to grow? When better than spring—a time known for new growth—to consider the soil of our hearts? How well does it allow the word of the Lord to grow? Won’t you join me this week as we search for answers? You might be as surprised by what we discover!

 

Stony Soil

“A farmer went out to plant some seed … some of the seed fell on a footpath, and the birds came and ate it.” Mark 4:3-4 NLT

Monday_day_One_Pic-Heart_of_StoneOne Sunday at the end of the weekly church service, I decided to stand in line and say something substantive to the preacher. So I said, “Great sermon today, Pastor.” Feeling satisfied, I stepped forward only to have the pastor reply, “Tell me Rita, what was it about today’s sermon that made it so great for you?” Stunned, I stood there in silence as I strained to come up with something, anything, which he’d spoken that morning. Nope, I had nothing substantive to say. I weakly murmured, “You know, all the parts about Jesus!” Then, I hastily beat a retreat out of his presence. Can you even relate to my loss of dignity in that moment?

I’d sat through the entire sermon while the word of the Lord was snatched from me faster than the birds grabbed the seed in our Dose verse. Read it now.

The seed that fell on the footpath represents those who hear the message, only to have Satan come at once and take it away. Mark 4:15

We may believe that these verses simply refer to blatant rebellion against God’s Word but that isn’t the only way to demonstrate a heart hardened to the truth. A pattern of bad habits can get us there as well.

I wasn’t operating in blatant rebellion, but the soil of my heart was not receptive to receiving the fresh seed of God’s word that Sunday morning—or many other Sundays for that matter. My discerning pastor recognized that also. How often have we heard the word but failed to absorb it? This is especially possible for those of us who’ve either grown up in the church, or as regular attendees, gotten too comfortable in our church routine. When we repeatedly have a heart that doesn’t take in the word, it’s a heart that gets harder and harder over time. The results can be just as devastating as blatant rebellion to the word because we allow the Devil to snatch the precious seed of truth from a stony bed of soil, our hardened hearts.

The wise pastor isn’t looking to see how impressed we are with him or his sermon because it’s not about him; it’s about the Lord speaking to our hearts and our willingness to truly hear and respond in humble obedience to the Holy Spirit’s calling.

Only Jesus Christ can transform the stony soil of a hard heart to one softened for the growth of His Word.

Does your heart need softening today? Ask Him, He’ll do it.

Softening the stony heart,

Rita

What’s Your ‘Tude?: Gratitude

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“It’s a good day for my bad attitude!” If that slogan’s speaking your language right about now, perhaps you should consider joining me this week to discover what the Bible says about attitudes. Could be a ‘tude adjustment is in order!

 

Gratitude

“I tell you, her sins—and they are many—have been forgiven, so she has shown me much love. But a person who is forgiven little shows only little love.”

Luke 7:47, NLT

We’ve looked at the role our attitudes play in allowing us to show God’s love to others. We’ve seen how sinful attitudes are ineffective for reaching others with the love of Christ and harmful to our Christian growth.

Today, let’s consider one of my favorite ‘tudes—gratitude. As I have a natural tendency to take blessings for granted, I appreciate the work of the Holy Spirit in my life to remind me to stop complaining and start remembering the wonderful things God has done in my life.

Friday_Day_Five_Pic#2-Woman_oils_Jesus_FeetRead today’s Dose verse. It refers to the story of a woman who the Bible describes as having been immoral. She crashed a party at a Pharisees’ home in order to get close to Jesus, who was invited to dine with the Pharisees.  “When a certain immoral woman from that city heard he was eating there, she brought a beautiful alabaster jar filled with expensive perfume. Then she knelt behind him at his feet, weeping. Her tears fell on his feet, and she wiped them off with her hair. Then she kept kissing his feet and putting perfume on them” (Luke 7: 37-38). The Pharisee was indignant that this immoral woman was not only at the party but that she “wasted” expensive oil on washing Jesus’ feet and dried them with her hair. Jesus reminded the Pharisee that he’d not even bothered to greet Jesus properly, let alone, anointed His head or feet with everyday olive oil!

He told them a story about gratefulness. (vs.39-46) This woman was so grateful for Jesus’ forgiveness that she went toFriday_Day_Five_Pic#1-grateful what looked like extreme measures to lavish her love and gratitude on him. But, she was so grateful because she’d been forgiven of many sins. She didn’t think she was too good to acknowledge her sinfulness. She valued the forgiveness extended to her. The Pharisees acted like they only had a few, if any, sins to be forgiven. Jesus said this is why they showed little love.

Showing an attitude of gratitude is important in our walk with Christ and relationship with others. It shows others that we appreciate their assistance and recognize we’ve grown with help, not on our own efforts.

God desires for us to have the attitude of Christ Jesus. Through Christ’s obedient sacrifice for our sins and the power of the Holy Spirit, we can. Now that’s something to be grateful about!

Grateful for forgiveness,

Rita

[Read the story of the woman with the alabaster box in Luke 7: 36-50.]

I’ve referred to Believers a lot this week. If you’ve not yet come into peace with God and would like our help to find out how you can, please contact any member of our ZMI team. We’d be honored to assist you.

What’s Your ‘Tude?: Servitude

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“It’s a good day for my bad attitude!” If that slogan’s speaking your language right about now, perhaps you should consider joining me this week to discover what the Bible says about attitudes. Could be a ‘tude adjustment is in order!

 

Servitude

“When you were slaves to sin, you were free from the obligation to do right…. And what was the result? You are now ashamed of the things you used to do, things that end in eternal doom. But now you are free from the power of sin and have become slaves of God. Now you do those things that lead to holiness and result in eternal life.” 

Romans 6:20-22, NLT

Thursday_Day_Four_Pic_#2-broken_chainYears ago, when I’d ask a certain acquaintance to help me with various tasks, she would more often than not reply with the quip, “What do I look like, your slave? Do it yourself, I’ve got more important things to do!” These days, I hear people say, “I’m nobody’s slave!” Or, “I won’t be anyone’s slave!”

But the truth is, it’s impossible to be middle-of-the-road regarding servitude. Everybody serves a master, so everyone’s somebody’s slave! The question is whose? Read today’s Dose verses. Before we surrendered our lives to Christ Jesus, we were easily consumed by an attitude of idolatry and self-centeredness. We were free to do what we wanted, when we wanted, and how we wanted, because we were guided by the fulfillment of our own desires.

This type of freedom was a freedom from doing right because all we were capable of doing was wrong. Our behaviors were wrong because our motives were wrong. Our motives were wrong because our hearts were wrong. Our hearts were wrong because our master wasn’t God; it was sin. Serving the master of sin may have appeared effortless and fun for some time, but focusing on our own desires gets old after a while. We have no power from the Holy Spirit to change our hearts so we’re caught in the grip of serving self and neglecting to find a bit of concern for others. We easily modeled the old adage, “I’m not much, but I’m all I think about!” The result of this type of attitude was agony and destruction. We weren’t equipped to serve anyone with the love of God. Thursday_Day_Four_Pic#1-Jesus_On_the_Cross

But once we surrendered our lives to Christ, we experienced an attitude change. Mastered by God and following the desires He placed in our hearts, we turned from our idolatry and self-centeredness to serve Him ahead of ourselves. In turn, we are able to let His love show through us in service to others. This is an attitude of servitude.

Christ modeled the best example of serving others to the point of laying down His life for our sins. He served God, the Father, in perfectly obedience.  When we’re willing to serve Jesus Christ, we have the Holy Spirit’s power to serve others around us, with a godly heart. This is how our lives are rebuilt and attitudes changed. Love does not demand it’s own way (1 Cor. 13:5).

Serving the Master is the sole way to a life of holiness and eternity with God. Whose slave are you?

Servitude over self-centeredness,

Rita