Encouragment Archives

December 29 2020

Why Locusts?

Bryant Stokes Contributor, new Acceptance, Anxiety, Blog, Christ, Church, Disappointment, Doubt, Encouragment, Expectancy, Expectation, Faith, focus, Growth, Perspective, Prayer, Steadfastness

I hate bugs. They always seem to strike a particular annoyance with me. Those little creatures seem to pop up at the most inopportune times. My first response is always to kill what annoys me, especially when the fate of its life is dependent upon my jolted emotional state. And if you’ve ever been bitten/stung by a bug, the bite stays for much longer than desired.

Ironic right?! that something God created can be so annoying? Why would God do that? Doesn’t He care how I feel about bugs? Doesn’t He know that when they bite, sting, or are just present that their effects carry long lasting impressions? Clearly he knows. He has to know.

I can think of three instances in the Bible where bugs, locusts in particular, were certainly necessary.

God will use whatever is necessary, whenever necessary to acquire and retain our attention.

In Exodus, locusts were used as a weapon against Pharaoh and the Egyptians. God used the stubbornness of Pharaoh to show His miraculous power on behalf of the Israelite slaves and through the command of Moses the swarm of locusts ate everything that grew from the ground.

In Joel, we receive word through the prophet that God will restore what the locust has eaten. The words of the prophet are incredibly specific to how it was lost and the fact that it will be restored.

“The Lord says, “I will give you back what you lost to the swarming locusts, the hopping locusts, the stripping locusts, and the cutting locusts…’” Joel 2:25 NLT

Lastly, in the Book of John, we find the Prophet John who lives in the wilderness eating wild locusts and honey. They were provided as a form of sustenance, as abnormal as it may be.

Here’s the epiphany. God will use whatever is necessary, whenever necessary to acquire and retain our attention.

In all three instances we see the character of God being reveled: as divine protector and deliverer, as a restorer, and as a keen provider. The small things in your life are merely signals that God is there with you. Prayer helps us navigate our emotions to find God in every situation.

According to Genesis, God created every living creature. His purpose and intention for each of them is divine and harmonious. The same goes for you. No matter what may annoyingly insert itself into your ecosystem, God is the sovereign sustainer of life and remains in complete control. My warning is this; don’t kill what God is using to protect, provide and restore you.[/et_pb_text][/et_pb_column][/et_pb_row][/et_pb_section][et_pb_section fb_built=”1″ _builder_version=”4.6.0″ _module_preset=”default” width_tablet=”80%” width_phone=”80%” width_last_edited=”on|tablet” max_width=”1920px” module_alignment=”center” locked=”off”][et_pb_row custom_padding_last_edited=”on|phone” _builder_version=”4.7.4″ background_color=”#ffffff” width=”100%” max_width=”1920px” custom_margin=”0px|0px|0px|0px|true|true” custom_padding=”51px|60px|51px|60px|true|true” custom_padding_tablet=”60px|40px|60px|40px|true|true” custom_padding_phone=”40px|20px|40px|20px|true|true” border_radii=”on|10px|10px|10px|10px” box_shadow_style=”preset1″ box_shadow_color=”rgba(0,0,0,0.1)” locked=”off”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″ _builder_version=”4.0.3″][et_pb_blurb title=”@ET-DC@eyJkeW5hbWljIjp0cnVlLCJjb250ZW50IjoicG9zdF9hdXRob3IiLCJzZXR0aW5ncyI6eyJiZWZvcmUiOiJCeSAiLCJhZnRlciI6IiIsIm5hbWVfZm9ybWF0IjoiZGlzcGxheV9uYW1lIiwibGluayI6Im9mZiIsImxpbmtfZGVzdGluYXRpb24iOiJhdXRob3JfYXJjaGl2ZSJ9fQ==@” image=”https://8kwd60.p3cdn1.secureserver.net/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/bryantbiophoto2020.png” image_max_width=”150px” content_max_width=”860px” image_tablet=”” image_phone=”” image_last_edited=”on|desktop” image_max_width_tablet=”150px” image_max_width_phone=”150px” image_max_width_last_edited=”on|tablet” _builder_version=”4.7.4″ _dynamic_attributes=”title,content” header_font=”New Montreal Medium|600|||||||” header_text_color=”#333333″ header_font_size=”22px” header_line_height=”1.4em” body_font=”Neue Montreal||||||||” body_font_size=”16px” body_line_height=”1.9em” text_orientation=”center” animation=”off” header_font_size_tablet=”18px” header_font_size_phone=”17px” header_font_size_last_edited=”on|desktop” body_font_size_tablet=”15px” body_font_size_phone=”17px” body_font_size_last_edited=”on|desktop” custom_css_main_element=”font-weight: 400;” border_radii_image=”on|200px|200px|200px|200px” box_shadow_style_image=”preset1″ box_shadow_vertical_image=”10px” box_shadow_blur_image=”20px” box_shadow_color_image=”rgba(0,0,0,0.1)”]@ET-DC@eyJkeW5hbWljIjp0cnVlLCJjb250ZW50IjoicG9zdF9hdXRob3JfYmlvIiwic2V0dGluZ3MiOnsiYmVmb3JlIjoiIiwiYWZ0ZXIiOiIifX0=@[/et_pb_blurb][/et_pb_column][/et_pb_row][/et_pb_section]

December 24 2020

Merry Christmas Eve

Pastor Brittney Baird Contributor, new #Christmas #Hope, Acceptance, Blog, Brittney Baird, Christ, Christmas, Disappointment, Encouragment, Expectancy, Expectation

[et_pb_section fb_built=”1″ custom_padding_last_edited=”on|phone” _builder_version=”4.6.0″ _module_preset=”default” custom_margin_tablet=”” custom_margin_phone=”-82px||||false|false” custom_margin_last_edited=”on|phone” custom_padding=”||12px|||” custom_padding_tablet=”” custom_padding_phone=”0px||||false|false”][et_pb_row custom_padding_last_edited=”on|phone” _builder_version=”4.6.0″ _module_preset=”default” custom_padding=”0px|||||” custom_padding_tablet=”” custom_padding_phone=”|0px||0px|false|false”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″ _builder_version=”4.6.0″ _module_preset=”default”][et_pb_image src=”https://8kwd60.p3cdn1.secureserver.net/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/Christmas_Eve-1-scaled.jpg” title_text=”Christmas_Eve (1)” disabled_on=”off|off|on” _builder_version=”4.7.4″ _module_preset=”default” custom_padding=”||8px|||” border_radii=”on|8px|8px|8px|8px” box_shadow_style=”preset1″][/et_pb_image][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.7.4″ _module_preset=”default” text_font=”Neue Montreal||||||||” inline_fonts=”Ogg Medium”]Merry Christmas Eve! Tomorrow is Christmas Day and today is my 33rd birthday! Yup, my birthday is on Christmas Eve. I grew up my entire life with people asking me the same questions year after year. Questions like: “Do you like your birthday being on Christmas Eve?”, “Do people forget about your birthday because it’s on Christmas Eve?”, “Do people wrap your birthday gifts in Christmas wrapping paper?” And the most common question of all was, “Do you get less gifts for your birthday because it falls so close to Christmas?” If you or someone you know has a Christmas-time birthday, I’m sure you can relate to these questions.

Despite the occasional annoyance of these common and redundant questions, I grew up not only embracing, but enjoying the novelty that my birthday fell on a special day. And now that I am older, and a mom myself with children of my own, my embracing of my Christmas Eve birthday as a novelty has turned into amazement.

My amazement is that my mom gave birth on a Christmas Eve evening. My amazement is that the night before Christmas with all of the hustle and bustle of family and getting last minute gifts wrapped, completely unplanned, she went into labor. She didn’t want to leave my older brother on Christmas Eve, so she waited as long as she could, and thus arrived too late and too progressed at Fairfax Hospital to get an epidural; she had to have me without one.

Sorry mom.

Are you at the point in your life yet where you wonder if Christmas, although maybe redundant in the fact that it’s celebrated every single year, has real implications to your life beyond just being a holiday?

Now at 33 years old, I have given birth four times myself and understand the ins and outs and logistics of labor. I understand the cocktail of emotions surrounding it, the physical demands attached to it, the mental weight of it, and the practical aspects that go with it. To a mother, labor with all of its emotion, excitement, and physical requirements is like a holiday in and of itself. I can’t imagine doing all of that on the eve of the most popular holiday in the world that everyone else is celebrating too. So, my perspective of my Christmas Eve birthday has shifted. Growing up, I thought it was neat and cool that my birth fell on a sorta-holiday, but now, I think it’s amazing that on a sorta-holiday, my mom gave birth. Notice the difference?

As we get older, many things, like my Christmas Eve birthday, that once seemed like cool little novelties can shift and turn into amazement as we mature and we take time to reflect and take in all that had to transpire in order to make that thing a novelty in the first place.

Christmas is like that. Every year we celebrate Christmas. It is a novelty. There’s nothing like Christmas! The greatest gift was given. Heaven came down. God Himself became flesh. God sent Jesus to fulfill the scriptures to lead us out of darkness and to give us life. Jesus, The Messiah was born.

As Christians, we know and celebrate these truths year after year, yet I wonder if we have allowed ourselves to move past the novelty of Christmas and be personally amazed by it?

Are you at the point in your life yet where you wonder if Christmas, although maybe redundant in the fact that it’s celebrated every single year, has real implications to your life beyond just being a holiday? Maybe 2020 has forced you to ponder this question.

Especially life in 2020. Life can be hard, ugly, painful, unfair, confusing, depressing, heartbreaking, and tragic. But Christmas is better because Christmas acknowledges the realities of life but gives us Jesus to walk with us through it all. And this is what our souls truly desire—God with us.

You know, by 33 years old, I would have thought that I’d have this “life” thing figured out. I’m married, have kids, have personally lived and walked with people through some crazy and unique life experiences, but I don’t. I do not have life figured out. And I feel it’s safe to assume that despite your age, your occupation, your socioeconomic status, your background and life experiences, you don’t either. And the amazing thing about Christmas is that Christmas lets me know that that’s ok. And if you are like me and have come to the terms with the fact that you don’t have life figured out either, I want to let you know that Christmas lets you know that that’s ok too. If we had life all figured out, we wouldn’t need Christmas! We would not need a Savior at all.

You see there are these polar opposite extremes that we tend to cling to when we don’t have life figured out to sort of help us cope and feel like we have some amount of control and understanding of life. Either we become like blind optimists and gloss over everything negative going on in our world and we tell ourselves that this is what hope is (“Everything is great, it’s all going to be fine!”) or we are like extreme pessimists who are negative and full of despair with everything going on in our world and we sadly have no hope (“Nothing could ever possibly change; this is the way it is and I’m going to feel this way forever.”). But if we take time to reflect, we will gain the understanding that Christmas rejects a one-or-the-other extreme. Christmas is above that. Christmas is beyond that. Why? Because Christmas gave us Emmanuel. God with us. This may be messier than you would superficially desire, but I can assure you it’s what your soul actually desires. It’s messier than what you may superficially desire because our flesh really wants everything to just be great and happy, but the truth is life is awful sometimes. Especially life in 2020. Life can be hard, ugly, painful, unfair, confusing, depressing, heartbreaking, and tragic. But Christmas is better because Christmas acknowledges the realities of life but gives us Jesus to walk with us through it all. And this is what our souls truly desire—God with us.

The Word became flesh and dwelt among us. He was born in a barn and placed in a dirty manger. He did not bypass any hardship while on this earth. There was no majesty or beauty about Him that would attract us to Him, nothing about His appearance that would cause us to desire Him. He was tried and tempted by the devil. He experienced loss. He experienced betrayal. He experienced mockers. He experienced injustice. He experienced physical pain. He wept. This is the type of Messiah that came on Christmas. Not one that glosses over or rejects the hardships of life…but One that knows, understands, and walks with us through them. So, we don’t have to pretend that nothing is wrong and place our security in a false hope, but we can embrace all of the hardships of life knowing we are walking through them with the real Hope; the Hope of the world. So, this Christmas, I encourage you to look beyond the novelty of Christmas and be amazed at what the birth of Jesus actually means for you.[/et_pb_text][/et_pb_column][/et_pb_row][/et_pb_section][et_pb_section fb_built=”1″ _builder_version=”4.6.0″ _module_preset=”default” width_tablet=”80%” width_phone=”80%” width_last_edited=”on|tablet” max_width=”1920px” module_alignment=”center” locked=”off”][et_pb_row custom_padding_last_edited=”on|phone” _builder_version=”4.7.4″ background_color=”#ffffff” width=”100%” max_width=”1920px” custom_margin=”0px|0px|0px|0px|true|true” custom_padding=”51px|60px|51px|60px|true|true” custom_padding_tablet=”60px|40px|60px|40px|true|true” custom_padding_phone=”40px|20px|40px|20px|true|true” border_radii=”on|10px|10px|10px|10px” box_shadow_style=”preset1″ box_shadow_color=”rgba(0,0,0,0.1)” locked=”off”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″ _builder_version=”4.0.3″][et_pb_blurb title=”@ET-DC@eyJkeW5hbWljIjp0cnVlLCJjb250ZW50IjoicG9zdF9hdXRob3IiLCJzZXR0aW5ncyI6eyJiZWZvcmUiOiJCeSAiLCJhZnRlciI6IiIsIm5hbWVfZm9ybWF0IjoiZGlzcGxheV9uYW1lIiwibGluayI6Im9mZiIsImxpbmtfZGVzdGluYXRpb24iOiJhdXRob3JfYXJjaGl2ZSJ9fQ==@” image=”https://8kwd60.p3cdn1.secureserver.net/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/Baird-30-scaled-e1608747732288.jpg” image_max_width=”150px” content_max_width=”860px” image_tablet=”” image_phone=”” image_last_edited=”on|desktop” image_max_width_tablet=”150px” image_max_width_phone=”150px” image_max_width_last_edited=”on|tablet” _builder_version=”4.7.4″ _dynamic_attributes=”title,content” header_font=”New Montreal Medium|600|||||||” header_text_color=”#333333″ header_font_size=”22px” header_line_height=”1.4em” body_font=”Neue Montreal||||||||” body_font_size=”16px” body_line_height=”1.9em” text_orientation=”center” animation=”off” header_font_size_tablet=”18px” header_font_size_phone=”17px” header_font_size_last_edited=”on|desktop” body_font_size_tablet=”15px” body_font_size_phone=”17px” body_font_size_last_edited=”on|desktop” custom_css_main_element=”font-weight: 400;” border_radii_image=”on|200px|200px|200px|200px” box_shadow_style_image=”preset1″ box_shadow_vertical_image=”10px” box_shadow_blur_image=”20px” box_shadow_color_image=”rgba(0,0,0,0.1)”]@ET-DC@eyJkeW5hbWljIjp0cnVlLCJjb250ZW50IjoicG9zdF9hdXRob3JfYmlvIiwic2V0dGluZ3MiOnsiYmVmb3JlIjoiIiwiYWZ0ZXIiOiIifX0=@[/et_pb_blurb][/et_pb_column][/et_pb_row][/et_pb_section]