Just A Stone's Throw Away

Have you ever lost something dear to you?  Something of value? What are some of the emotions or actions that are brought about by loss? When I think about loss I think about contention, anger, jealousy, bitterness, conflict, etc.  Which reminds me of a story in the Old Testament 1 Kings 3: 16 -27. The story of two women who each gave birth to sons. During the night one son died and the woman realizing it took the child to the other woman’s bed while she slept and took her child leaving her with the dead child. The next morning when the mother realized that the child that was with her was dead but was not her child they were brought before the king. Since both women were steadfast in their position both claiming that the living son was theirs, the king asked for a sword to be brought and ordered the child to be cut half giving each woman half the child. The real mother of the child, said no, let her have the child. It was her love, a love that was so strong that she was willing to give up her child so that he may live that proved to the king that she was indeed the mother. Can you imagine the other woman so cold and bitter that she was going to allow a child to be cut in half because she had lost her son?

When you come to a crossroad and you must make a choice, what do you consider? Do you think about how your decisions will affect others, yourself, or the future? What do you think that Jesus was considering when His journey was coming to an end? Actually, how many times do you think that Jesus ask for this cup to be delivered from Him? Matthew 26: 38-44 says that He asked His Father 3 times to be delivered from what he was facing but He said , (Luke 22:42)… nevertheless not my will but Your will be done.

Wow, Jesus our Savior, can you imagine how overwhelmed He was to seek His Father 3 times for the same prayer. My heart breaks when I think about Him there in the garden, just a stone throw away, from His disciples asking His father for possible deliverance.

Both God and this woman both were willing to give up the ultimate sacrifice, their son. The woman, so that he may live, God so that we may live. Love always equals sacrifice.

Has God ever asked you to give up something? Maybe he is asking you to give up something right now or maybe He is calling you to do something for Him. Every cross road that you come to in life, every sacrifice that you have to make, will either petrify you or purify you. When Jesus went to pray he was only a stone’s throw away from His disciples and no matter where you are He is always just, A Stone’s Throw Away from you.

When we take a deeper look into the lives of these two women here is what we find.

Both women were:

Sinners, Alone, Gave Birth, Had Sons, Steadfast in Their Positions

One was dishonest……..One was deserving

One was cold and cruel…..One was compassionate

One was rejected…………….One was rewarded

One was selfish……………….One was sincere

Which woman are you?

Give Me Vinegar!

How many ladies out there love the taste of vinegar? Well, I am not one of them. To me vinegar is bitter and yucky and oh the face to be made when taking a swig of it. Do you know that there is a website that shows 1001 ways to use vinegar? It can be used for cooking, gardening, cleaning, automotive, laundry, health and pets, but I have a use that wasn’t listed on the site. Are you ready for it, taming the sassy tongue of a child. Raising three boys, needless to say has been an amazing adventure one I would do over and over again, minus a few things. J  One of the wonder years is when your child develops a mind of his or her own and chooses to express it verbally, which my granny would define as old fashion sassing.

 For the middle son Trenton, sassing days began at almost 8 and was it ever so prevalent in the mornings.  I don’t know if you have had a child that is difficult to discipline, for example, Nothing Works, so what do you do? You break out the vinegar. I was fortunate enough that this sassing son of mine also shared my taste on vinegar, he hated it. So every morning, when that sassing mouth began to show its ugly head I would simply pour vinegar in a small glass and make him take a drink. Yes, ladies it worked, amazingly well.  Excited about my new disciplining technique I felt I was a conqueror of the sassing mouth.  I owned the title and wore the belt for it. 

Isn’t it amazing how our children, although we think they never pay attention to what’s going on, really are paying attention? My youngest little hero, Cole, was taking it all in and like most he wanted to do everything his big brother did including tasting the nasty vinegar. I remember him so clearly saying, “Mommy let me try it.”  To him not so bad, he liked the taste of vinegar, go figure. One day momma’s little hero got in trouble and as I was headed to him, eyes bulging and momma horns starting to grow out of my skull he said, “Just Give Me Vinegar Mommy,  Just Give Me Vinegar.” 

I thought a lot about what he said and then I thought we, as Christians, are just like that. When God is about to disciplines us, well for me anyway, it is like drinking vinegar. It’s bitter, nasty and hard to swallow. I have found myself like my little hero asking God for a much tastier less hard to swallow way out.

We discipline our children to teach them, grow them, set their boundaries and most of all because we love them and He disciplines us because we are His.

(NIV )Jeremiah 29:11 says, “For I know the plans I have for you," says the LORD. "They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.”

We as parents have plans for our children, plans for them to succeed, plans to teach them morals, plans to better them, plans to make them strong, plans for them to become what we envision.  God has His own plans for us. He wants to refine us, mold us, and make us into a vessel that He can flow through, a vessel that He can use to bring others to Him.

Hebrews 12:6 says,

For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.

Deuteronomy 8:5 says,

Know then in your heart that as a man disciplines his son, so the LORD your God disciplines you.

While God’s discipline is never sweet tasting going down it is served with His divine hands of love. Discipline is like medicine it doesn’t taste good but it makes you better, especially when it’s God with the spoon in His hand.

Ladies we are amazing, because we have an amazing Father that loves us enough to discipline us because of the plans He has for us. Come on girls lets open wide and gulp it down. We owe Him let’s give Him our best.

Hunger On, Son!

As most of you know I have a son who has made choices in his life that haven’t been so productive. At each fork in the road he kept choosing the wrong path and finally his path has led him to serve time in prison. Of course I have been devastated, humbled but most importantly God has been able to show me just how BIG He is and just how itty bitty I am.  So yes it’s been tearful but oh so joyful. Throughout it all I have, if you can imagine, I have spiritually clasped my arms around His ankles and have refused to let go. I want to share a story with you that helped me hang on tighter and with a smile.

What is so incredible is when God speaks to your heart and then confirms it. I would call this one of those hit me with a brick God moments.

Wikipedia defines hunger as the physical sensation of desiring food. Now that is a definition that I can relate to, but have you ever really been hungry, hungry to the point that all you could think about was food and even though you were eating food you couldn’t get full? In the evenings, usually around 8:00 my phone would ring and the familiar voice recorded man would always greet me to let me know that I had a call from and inmate, my sweet son. I looked forward to those 15 minute phone calls daily mostly because I wanted to know that he was safe and well. But every phone call always ended the same way, “Mom, I am so hungry.” That’s all he could talk about. This child of mine who was once so full of life and energy had by his own choices reduced himself to an orange jumpsuit, with locked doors and an empty belly. For those of you reading this that has children you can only imagine how hard this was to listen to. So one Saturday evening lying awake in bed I begin to talk to God, I was just expressing my heart to Him about how hurtful it was for my son to be hungry. The next morning I found myself in the shower having the same conversation with God.

(Explanation: I, once I realized that I could not fix or help my son, spiritually carried him to the alter and said God he is yours, vowing not to pick him up again.)

So back to the shower. I was trying to think of a creative way that I could pose to God my request and here is what I came  up with . “God, would it be possible for you to allow the food that my son is given to nourish and fulfill his body so that he is not hungry?” and here is what He said to me. (No he didn’t speaking audibly to me, he spoke to my heart although he spoke so loudly that it might as well have been out loud.) “What if HUNGER is party of My plan for him.” Wow, God if that is your plan then I accept it, but I accept it painfully.

I finished getting ready for church wondering just how hunger could possibly fit in to His perfect plan for my son. Well when in doubt sometimes God sends reinforcements to give you a clearer vision of what He is trying to say.  That morning in church my pastor instructed us to turn to Luke 15: 11-32  the parable of the Prodigal Son. Please if you haven’t read it lately take time to do so. Here are the key verses and what my pastor said about them that spoke so beautifully to my heart.

(NIV Translation”)

¹⁶ He longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating, but no one gave him anything.

¹⁷ “When he came to his senses, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have food to spare, and here I am starving to death! ¹⁸ I will set out and go back to my father

WOW… it was hunger that made this son realize exactly where he was at, where he had been and where he needed to be. So guess what I did. I went home from church, got a pen and paper and began to write my son a letter sharing the parable of the Prodigal Son with him and how that I had prayed for God to quench his hunger and what God had revealed to me. So my words to my son were, Hunger On!  After he got my letter he called me and said, “Mom, its true when I am the hungriest is when I remember where I came from, how I was raised and who I used to be.” So we agreed from that moment on, hunger wasn’t a punishment it was an opportunity for him to remember.

This story could be for you too. Are you starving for something and you can’t seem to get satisfied. Well, have you met my God? He can feel every spiritual pang that overtakes your tired, stressed, mess of a life body. Maybe you already know Him but you’ve been distant, maybe you have been dining with the hogs. If so pick yourself up take a hot shower ladies and put on your dining clothes, cause my heavenly Father the King has a place set for you at His table. If you are reading this and you are hungry I say to you boldly, Hunger On, hunger long enough to remember who you are and who you belong to and where you need to get back to.

The List

          The list, there are so many lists. The to-do-list, the wish list, the grocery list, the Christmas list and I am sure that you have your own special list too. However, I want to talk to you about my list, the very list that I didn’t want but the list that would matter the most because it came from Him.

          God, had blessed me with a wonderful job that provided more than my needs. It was a job that I was completely new at, a job that I had to completely rely upon Him to equip me with the knowledge and understanding to successfully do the job. The previous job that I had I was completely confident in, I was experienced and one might even say distinguished in. It was the one thing in my day to day life that I knew I was good at, which is why when God had a change of plan for me. I was skeptical. It is difficult to move from knowing every aspect of a job to nothing. Once I accepted the new job and journey I realized that it was just not the job that God had for me but a plan. This new job required me to be on the road 5 days a week traveling sometimes 3000 – 4500 miles a month. It required me to meet new people develop new relationships and market a product. I love people, and people was the favorite part of my job and what I later found out, people is why God provided me the job. I wasn’t in the field too long before I realized that “people” were hurting, hungry for love and attention and in need of prayer and with all of the traveling that I was doing what better to do than to pray for those in need. What I found most appealing was the look in their eyes when I would say in conversation, I ll be praying about that for you. Although, they may have not had a personal relationship with God, I am sure by the look in their eyes that they knew I did. It was like a complete revelation one day when I returned to my car after telling someone that I would remember them in my prayers that God spoke to my spirit and said, this is why I have you in this job. Now, while my main task was to promote products for a company my direct task for Him was to encourage and pray for those in need. From that day on I looked at my job differently. I became more passionate about it because I was not only working for a company I was working for Him. When I realized that,  and I let go of the fear of learning everything about my new job and I released the fear of not knowing every aspect then came the knowledge and the wisdom I needed to perform for my company. Isn’t it funny how when we truly turn things over to God, that He will reveal to us what He has planted in us.

          So now, on to the list. Sometimes we forget who we are and why we are here and why we are doing what we are doing and I am no exception. About a year into my job my company changed things up a bit. They gave us a new list of specific people to see and wanted them seen weekly. When I got my list I was ever so disappointed because I had never heard of the majority of those on the list. Then when I talked to a team member and they had shared their list with me my disappointment turned into anger and frustration, for he had the perfect list. His list included those very people that I had worked on so diligently building relationships with and now he has them. Doesn’t it always seem to be that way others always get the perfect list, or the perfect location, or the perfect everything. After talking with my team member I hung up the phone and I could feel that little tingle creep up the back of my head as that is what anger and aggravation will cause. I was so angry, I was hateful and almost to tears and I grumpily told my family that I was off to bed, which is where God gave me His list.

          I slung the covers back beat my pillow and plopped into bed. I jerked the covers around me as tears began to sneak out of my eyes and down my cheeks as if they were almost afraid or uncertain weather or not to flow. I just wanted to punch something and then there it was, that still small voice, it was Him oh and was I glad that He was present because I had some things to get straight with Him but before I could voice those things here is what He spoke to my spirit.

          “Rachelle, didn’t I give you this job?” Yes, Lord. Don’t you drive a nice vehicle that you don’t pay for? Yes, Lord. Aren’t you provided free gas and insurance on that vehicle? Yes, Lord. “I thought we agreed that day in your car that you are working for Me, not just a company and that you are ministering to the needs of my people not just promoting products.” Yes, Lord I remember that. Well, let’s talk about this list. Don’t you know that I am in control of every aspect of your life? Yes, again Lord. Then wouldn’t that mean that I am in control of the list that you received?” Yes, Lord. Hmm, then have you ever thought that I may have given this list to you because I need you to be in their life. Tears now flowing, heart broken, Yes, Lord. Also, Rachelle if you are worried about doing well on the business side of this for the company that you work for, don’t you think that I will get more glory by giving you an undesirable list that looks hopeless? Yes, Lord. Then remember that your are ultimately working for Me, do your job and I’ll do mine.

          Wow, that night I laid in my bed and cried not tears or sorrow but tears of joy. I apologized to Him, for getting my eyes off of Him and letting the things of this world tempt and taunt me. When I recap that night in my mind I realize that the list He provided me with that night, the list that reminded me who He is and what He is capable of was undoubtedly list the greatest of all.

Green Car, Red Roof and Black Leather Seats

Eyes barley squinted I could see the sunlight peeking through my bedroom window. I was nestled comfortably in my warm down blanket and enjoyed the roaring sound of a window air conditioner. Dreading to leave my humble nest I greeted the Lord with a good morning smile and a thank you for this day. As I lay there my mind begin to put into motion all of the things that I needed to accomplish for the day. Wash this, clean that, pick up this mail that…deciding that those tasks wouldn’t miraculously take care of them selves I pulled the warm covers back, put on my fuzzy house shoes and tattered but favorite robe and headed to begin my morning ritual.

          At this time in my life I was a stay at home mom with two amazing little boys and one on the way. I was truly blessed to have the opportunity to have the full time job of raising my family. I always began my days with a cup of coffee (flavored with vanilla creamer of course) sitting in a hand me down tan wing back chair and reading my daily devotion. I don’t quite remember what my devotion was that day but I do remember clearly what I was in need of or our family was in need of. We were in need of a new vehicle (by new I mean new to us) while being a stay at home mom was priceless its cost required many sacrifices and a strict budget. Now, as silly as it seems, I loved to prepare our budget, schedule the bills, make detailed grocery list and account for every one of our little pennies. Every week I was able to be thankful for God’s ability to stretch our pennies and dollars into paid electric bills and a pantry full of groceries.  This particular morning, after my devotion and prayer time, I decided to break out the little budget book to see exactly where we stood in terms of really being able to afford a vehicle. Speaking of a vehicle let me tell you a little about what we were currently driving or should I say what was driving us crazy and deeper in debt. We drove a 1988 Jeep Cherokee which was currently 9 years old. This Jeep was really older that it appeared kind of like how dog years are 7 to our 1. This jeep lived a hard tough life on a strip job before we welcomed it to our family and it specialties where endless. The brakes always squeaked, the steering wheel wobbled like an off balance washing machine once it hit 50mph and of course my oldest sons favorite, who was 7 at the time, was that you could actually pull the key out of the ignition while the jeep was still running. I must say it did have it advantages as I could leave the jeep running while I took out the keys to unlock the house door but the problem seemed to be when I left the keys on the kitchen table while I drove to town. Mind you while this jeep had it flaws it was always faithful, but faithful wasn’t going to last much longer. So I began to pray that God would provide us with a more reliable vehicle.  Now back to what happened when I opened my little black budget book. I added I subtracted I erased I juggled and there it was in plain sight. So I added again subtracted again, erased again and there it was again…$250.00. I stared at the figure I ran my pencil over and over it again and then I circled it. My heart began to race with excitement as I latterly skipped through the narrow hallway of our single wide trailer. “Honey, Honey wake up, we are going to be a car today.” Sleepy eyes greeted me and widened quickly as he must have saw the wild look in my eyes. “What are you talking about..” I quickly cut my husband off and began to rattle on wildly as I was deciding which of the three maternity dresses that I would wear. Oh did I mention I was eight months pregnant and counting. “Get up, I said, hurry we are getting a new car today!” Either my excitement spurred excitement in Chris or he realized that he his plea to sleep in on his day off had long been overridden. Once I realized I had his attention I woke up Tyler age seven and Trent age 3 and a half. “Boys get up we are going car shopping today!” It didn’t take them as long as it did their daddy to start moving and before you could count to ten we were buckled and on our way. Hmm on the way… I remember on the way and will never forget on the way as long as I live. I had in hand my list of exactly what we were looking for and exactly what we could spend. Mind you God had worked out a plan for us and I was gonna make sure we stuck to it. My husband at this time had not accepted Christ as his Lord and Savior but he respected my personal relationship with HIM and time after time God’s faithfulness was revealed to Chris through my faithfulness to HIM. On the way, oh yeah my famous words,  my words that I will never for get was these, “ I don’t care what kind of car that we get but I am not driving a green car.”  Key words I AM. Note to self: never tell God what you aren’t gonna do.

At the end of the road with a decision to turn left or right to make the journey to find our new car my husband looked to me and said, “Which way?” I looked left I looked right then left again and left it was. Sixty miles and an hour and a half later we pulled in to a car dealership and this is exactly what I said. “Find us a car honey, but our payment including the insurance could not be one penny over $250.00.” I know what you are thinking what kind of car can you buy including insurance with 150.00, well I am about to tell you.  So out of the faithful Jeep he ventured to find his little family a car. We, me and the boys, watched as he and a stocky little bearded man led him to several vehicles. They then disappeared into the blue and white blocked building 5 minutes, 10 minutes 25 minutes later Chris appeared with a set of keys in his hand and said ok lets test drive a car and yes honey after crunching the numbers we  can purchase this car for 148.00 per month. A smile widened across my face and the boys and I followed Chris to see what we might be taking home. There it appeared right before my eyes, just like the $150.00 appeared in my little black budget book a GREEN 1993 Cougar. Yep, I said GREEN. So there it is the very thing that I said I would not buy was the only thing I could buy. Funny how God works to teach us things about Him and things about ourselves. The blessing wasn’t in the color of the car the blessing was the ability to for us to afford a new car. I quickly fell in love with my new to me car, it really did have specialties like a sunroof, leather seats, powered widows. God’s little extra blessing wrapped in green paint. 

God’s blessing whether we think they are big or little they are from the Great IAM the creator of the universe the One who gave HIS SON for us. Wow! I always get so excited when I think about God’s love and blessings.

As I mentioned earlier we lived in a 1981 Shultz mobile home, 2 bedrooms and 1 bath which, after having my third little boy, we quickly out grew our home. So yes Momma was on her knees bringing her needs before God. His word says in Philipians 4:19 “My God shall supply all of your needs (key word needs) according to his riches and glory.” God is always faithful and He always provides maybe not exactly as we desire or how we envision it but He always provides. He provided Moses a mother, a parted sea and the gift of leadership and I knew He could provide us with a more compatible home. As you can guess I once again broke out the little black budget book once more but this time nothing appeared in fact for several months nothing appeared and then one day one conversation led to a conversation with the bank that led to a trip to look at a new to me home. Another note to self, it doesn’t matter what the little black budget book says when God is ready to provide something for you it may not be written down in black and white.

Now this time on our way to look for a new home my words were nothing like my words were on the way to buy a car. This time my words were soft and thankful and humble and tearful and excited because this time I wasn’t telling God any thing I was thanking God and this time I was focused on the inside not the outside I was focused on what God had for us not what I wanted Him to have for us. When thinking of buying a new home you always have these mental images of what you desire what you can see yourself in and I like everyone else had them to the only difference was this time I keep them quiet. God knew my desires God know everything and all that mattered this time was that I was thankful! After looking at several mobile homes there it was the one that meet all of our needs the one that we could afford and funny as it seemed it had most of those mental images that I had envisioned my home would have.

Several weeks later our home was being delivered, off with the old and in with the new. I, in my little green cougar couldn’t wait to make it up our windy little road to see our new home setting where the 81 Shultz had once sat. Pulling up the drive way there it sat but I couldn’t believe what I saw. There it was right there a Red Roof. I began to cry when I saw the red roof. When we went to look at the home I was so focused on the inside and what our family needed and not on my wish list I never noticed the beautiful red roof. I put my car in park and bowed my head and with tearful eyes I thanked God for the cherry on top our little red roof.  You see my mental wish list, the list of desires that I had wanted in a home included a red roof. That roof was not only there for my desire but it was a reminder a reminder that God knows my every want and need and a reminder that He listens, He loves and He delivers.

          Speaking of delivery, you will love my black leather seats. Let’s move forward about 15 years and examine my little family once more. Since the green cougar, which eventually had its last day and since the red roof God has moved us from the country to the city the boys are nearly grown, my husband was recently injured on the job and is now disabled and for about the last 10 years we have cared for my father-in-law who had a stroke, we’ll call him papaw from here on out. In sharing this story I don’t want to give too much away as it relates to the “Crossing My Red Sea” chapter to follow. I had recently accepted a new job and this new job provided me with a company car. Once again God provided the Burchett family with a much needed new set of wheels. Now throughout the excitement of getting a new job, a new and improved job I might add you can’t begin to imagine how excited that we were as a family to know that momma was getting a new car. Once again, as human as I am I had a little wish list. Now I knew what kind of car I was getting but I didn’t know what color or anything about the interior. The boys and my husband were casting lots on what color it would be. However, I had this crazy feeling that it would be red and frankly at this time unlike the last time I didn’t care if it was green. God had changed my color vision to see beyond the paint.

While thanking God one night for my new job and my new journey that he had set before me I said to Him. “God I am so thankful for the new car that you are providing me it would be awesome if it had black leather seats.” I had always wanted a car with black leather seats, don’t know why just a wish list item.

          Early one morning my doorbell rang, and a sweet little lady greeted me with warm smile and said, “Are you, Rachelle Burchett.” I, of course replied yes and she went on to tell me that she was here to deliver my company car to me. Wow not only did God bless me with a new car but He delivered it too. I, trying to contain my excitement kindly thanked her as I followed her outside and down the driveway. There it sat, a red car, somehow I knew it I just giggled inside because I had won the bet with my boys. I was trying to listen to everything she was telling me but I was so excited and so thankful I was trying to contain myself until I opened the drivers side door and gazed upon the black leather seats. I was about to explode with tears and joy. Now, not because of a material item not because I had gotten what I wanted but because God give me a little something extra like He always does. I couldn’t get her out of the drive way fast enough, I ran into my house and screamed and shouted with tears rolling down my cheeks. My husband unaware of what was going on had to calm me down to explain why I was so hysterical. You see those black leather seats are just black leather seats but they are just like the red roof a reminder of His goodness. When I say reminder I mean that every time that I get in my little red car with black leather seats I smile and I know where they came from and I know that I am where I am supposed to be and I am able to thank Him everyday for His undeserved goodness.

          Take a moment and think about the green cars, red roofs and black leather seats in your life. Yes they are material things and are of no true value but isn’t in exciting to think that the Great I am, thinks and loves you enough to not only send His only son to die for you and that He has the whole world to take care of that He is intiment enough to know the unnecessary desires of your heart and gives them to you. Isn’t He just amazing.