NUDGE

THE NUDGE

Mothers of baby animals nudge their babies when it is time for them to get out of the nest.  They also nudge them when they are in the way or not where they should be.  It is the gentle push that gives a signal to move in the direction they should be going.  The mothers gain the attention of their babies as they nudge with their paws.  Sometimes these loving mothers will nudge their babies closer to them giving them comfort, just like humans hug their young. 

Have you ever been nudged?  Or have you ever felt like you were being nudged?  God gentle prompts us in our lives.  He nudges us to seek Him in everything we do.  He nudges us to do certain things.  Once while I was in Target in Little Rock the Lord nudged me to buy the lady in front of me some porch lights that she had told the cashier she just couldn’t buy at this time.  After I purchased them I found her in the parking lot and give her the lights.  As I gave them to her she started crying and told me she had just been diagnosed with breast cancer and today was her first treatment day.  She wanted to buy the lights to hang on her patio to help lift her spirits.  The other odd part of this story is she ended up working for one of my friends so I was able to keep up with her on her journey of fighting cancer. 

So today I tell you take the NUDGE (Never Underestimate Decisions God Encourages) Go with what He nudges you to do.  You may feel apprehensive, you may feel uncomfortable, but whatever He leads you to do it will be worth it.  The God “nudges”  of life lead you closer to Him.

Matthew 5:14-16

New International Version (NIV)

14 “You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. 15 Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. 16 In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.

REACH

JUST DO IT

Have you ever had the feeling that you need to reach out to someone?  Your insides tell you to call them, text, them, send them a note.  When this happens do you respond or do you let it go?  This morning I woke up thinking about our bible study and how I wasn’t sure anyone was getting anything out of our current book, the next thing I know I had received a text saying thank you for having Bible study.  Sunday morning I was apprehensive about singing.  Right before church one of our church members approached me and thanked me for singing and being involved.  Those two women had no idea how I felt, but they went with their gut instinct and contacted me.  What a difference they made in me.  Just think I would have continued to feel the feelings of insecurities if one hadn’t sent a simple text message and the other said a nice word. 

What do you do when the Lord speaks to you and tells you to reach out?  When we allow the Holy Spirit to live within us we will be nudged in the direction we need to go.  We may feel awkward and we may think why in the world do I need to do that, but don’t just sit there respond.  When the Lord tells you someone needs you go to him or her, whether it be a note, a text, a phone call or a conversation do it.  What are you going to lose?  Who doesn’t like to have a kind word spoken to them? 

When we allow the Holy Spirit to live within us we are walking in the Spirit.  It is our responsibility to follow through with what the Holy Spirit tells us to do.  The Holy Spirit is present to guide us and lead us.  Just as Paul said in Galatians, “If you have been filled with the Spirit then walk in the Spirit.”

I have learned through experiences that when you get those gut feelings go with them.  When the Holy Spirit speaks to you open your ears.  Don’t ignore the prodding and pushing of the Lord.  Do what He tells you to do for you never know if you may be the miracle someone is waiting to hear from.

BETH MOORE'S HAIRBRUSH STORY LOVE IT!

Lesson with a Hairbrush by Beth Moore http://www.proclaimhisglory.org/html/lesson_with_a_hairbrush.html  Knoxville airport all waiting to board planes: I had the Bible on my lap and was very intent upon what I was doing. I'd had a marvelous morning with the Lord. I say that because I want to tell you it is a scary thing to have the Spirit of God really working in you. You could end up doing some things you never would have done otherwise. Life in the Spirit can be dangerous for a thousand reasons not the least of which is your ego... I tried to keep from staring but he was such a strange sight. Humped over in a wheelchair, he was skin and bones, dressed in clothes that obviously fit when he was at least twenty pounds heavier. His knees protruded from his trousers, and his shoulders looked like the coat hanger was still in his shirt. His hands looked like tangled masses of veins and bones. The strangest part of him was his hair and nails. Stringy grey hair hung well over his shoulders and down part of his back. His fingernails were long. Clean, but strangely out of place on an old man. I looked down at my Bible as fast as I could, discomfort burning my face. As I tried to imagine what his story might have been, I found myself wondering if I'd just had a Howard Hughes sighting. Then, I remembered reading somewhere that he was dead. So this man in the airport...an impersonator maybe? Was a camera on us somewhere?.... There I sat trying to concentrate on the Word to keep from being concerned about a thin slice of humanity served on a wheelchair only a few seats from me. All the while my heart was growing more and more overwhelmed with a feeling for him. Let's admit it. Curiosity is a heap more comfortable than true concern, and suddenly I was awash with aching emotion for this bizarre-looking old man. I had walked with God long enough to see the handwriting on the wall. I've learned that when I begin to feel what God feels, something so contrary to my natural feelings, something dramatic is bound to happen. And it may be embarrassing. I immediately began to resist because I could feel God working on my spirit and I started arguing with God in my mind. "Oh no, God please no." I looked up at the ceiling as if I could stare straight through it into heaven and said, "Don't make me witness to this man. Not right here and now. Please. I'll do anything.  Put me on the same plane, but don't make me get up here and witness to this man in front of this gawking audience. Please, Lord!" There I sat in the blue vinyl chair begging His Highness, "Please don't make me witness to this man. Not now. I'll do it on the plane." Then I heard it..."I don't want you to witness to him. I want you to brush his hair." The words were so clear, my heart leapt into my throat, and my thoughts spun like a top. Do I witness to the man or brush his hair? No brainer. I looked straight back up at the ceiling and said, "God, as I live and breathe, I want you to know I am ready to witness to this man. I'm on this Lord. I'm your girl! You've never seen a woman witness to a man faster in your life. What difference does it make if his hair is a mess if he is not redeemed? I am on him. I am going to witness to this man." Again as clearly as I've ever heard an audible word, God seemed to write this statement across the wall of my mind. "That is not what I said, Beth. I don't want you to witness to him. I want you to go brush his hair." I looked up at God and quipped, "I don't have a hairbrush. It's in my suitcase on the plane. How am I suppose to brush his hair without a hairbrush?" God was so insistent that I almost involuntarily began to walk toward him as these thoughts came to me from God's word: "I will thoroughly finish you unto all good works." (2 Tim 3:7) I stumbled over to the wheelchair thinking I could use one myself. Even as I retell this story my pulse quickens and I feel those same butterflies. I knelt down in front of the man, and asked as demurely as possible, "Sir, may I have the pleasure of brushing your hair?" He looked back at me and said, "What did you say?" "May I have the pleasure of brushing your hair?" To which he responded in volume ten, "Little lady, if you expect me to hear you, you're going to have to talk louder than that. At this point, I took a deep breath and blurted out, "SIR, MAY I HAVE THE PLEASURE OF BRUSHING YOUR HAIR?" At which point every eye in the place darted right at me. I was the only thing in the room looking more peculiar than old Mr. Longlocks. Face crimson and forehead breaking out in a sweat. I watched him look up at me with absolute shock on his face, and say, "If you really want to."  Are you kidding? Of course I didn't want to. But God didn't seem interested in my personal preference right about then. He pressed on my heart until I could utter the words, "Yes, sir, I would be pleased. But I have one little problem. I don't have a hairbrush." "I have one in my bag," he responded. I went around to the back of that wheelchair, and I got on my hands and knees and unzipped the stranger's old carry-on hardly believing what I was doing. I stood up and started brushing the old man's hair. It was perfectly clean, but it was tangled and matted. I don't do many things well, but I must admit I've had notable experience untangling knotted hair mothering two little girls. Like I'd done with either Amanda or Melissa in such a condition, I began brushing at the very bottom of the strands, remembering to take my time not to pull.  A miraculous thing happened to me as I started brushing that old man's hair.... Everybody else in the room disappeared. There was no one alive for those moments except that old man and me. I brushed and brushed and I brushed until every tangle was out of that hair. I know this sounds so strange but I've never felt that kind of love for another soul in my entire life. I believe with all my heart, I—for that few minutes—felt a portion of the very love of God. That He had overtaken my heart for a little while like someone renting a room and making Himself at home for a short while. The emotions were so strong and so pure that I knew they had to be God's. His hair was finally as soft and smooth as an infant's. I slipped the brush back in the bag, went around the chair to face him. I got back down on my knees, put my hands on his knees, and said, "Sir, do you know my Jesus?" He said, "Yes, I do." Well, that figures. He explained, "I've known Him since I married my bride. She wouldn't marry me until I got to know the Savior." He said "You see, the problem is, I haven't seen my bride in months. I've had open-heart surgery, and she's been too ill to come see me. I was sitting here thinking to myself what a mess I must be for my bride." Only God knows how often He allows us to be part of a divine moment when we're completely unaware of the significance. This, on the other hand, was one of those rare encounters when I knew God had intervened in details only He could have known. It was a God moment, and I'll never forget it. Our time came to board, and we were not on the same plane. I was deeply ashamed of how I'd acted earlier and would have been so proud to have accompanied him on that aircraft. I still had a few minutes, and as I gathered my things to board, the airline hostess returned from the corridor, tears streaming down her cheeks. She said, "That old man's sitting on the plane, sobbing. Why did you do that? What made you do that?" I said, "Do you know Jesus? He can be the bossiest thing!" And we got to share.  I learned something about God that day. He knows if you're exhausted because you're hungry, you're serving in the wrong place or it is time to move on but you feel too responsible to budge. He knows if you're hurting or feeling rejected. He knows if you're sick or drowning under a wave of temptation. Or He knows if you just need your hair brushed. He sees you as an individual. Tell Him your need! I got on my own flight, sobs choking my throat, wondering how many opportunities just like that one had I missed along the way...all because I didn't want people to think I was strange. God didn't send me to that old man. He sent that old man to me. John 1:14 "The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth." Excerpt taken from Further Still, by Beth Moore, B & H Publishing Group, Nashville TN. Copyright © 2004 Beth Moore. Used by permission of the author. All rights reserved. This article may NOT be reprinted without written permission from the author.  For reprint rights or comments/questions about this article, please contact the author. Read Beth Moore’s excerpt from Experiencing the Great I Am More encouraging stories

TEARS

LET IT FLOW

A single tear can hold an entire prayer. 

No tears!  First this reminds me of when I was a little girl and No More Tangles, do you remember that?  Then it reminds me of hardness.  People who have experienced certain situations in their lives become hard.  They don’t allow themselves to have tears, ever.  I use to be that way, no tears no way!  I was one strong cookie; no one was going to see me cry. Then one day I changed for the better.  I cry at everything, I cry when I sing, I cry just because, I cry when I laugh and I cry when I’m sad. 

Every one has tears but some times these tears aren’t evident.  I read an article that said from the writer’s point of view that someone who doesn’t cry reveals a dry and hard heart.  Such a heart has a void of feeling an insensitivity of stone.  This article went on to say that nothing discloses the inward state of a human heart more than do tears. (http://www3.telus.net/trbrooks/tears.htm)

When you look at tears from the spiritual side you will find in the Bible that the Lord shed tears, he had joy, however you won’t find any laughing in the bible just tears.  Isn’t that interesting?  At Bible study we were discussing how we cry because we have allowed the Holy Spirit to live deep within us.  Tears have brought us closer to Him.  Our bodies have been taken over by the Lord. When we allow ourselves to be filled with the Holy Spirit the characteristic of hardness diminishes and we are full of compassion, joy, peace, love, the Fruits of the Sprit are evident within us.  God loves us when we cry, when we laugh, when we are happy and when we are sad.  God values everything about us, even our tears.  Just like He knows how many hairs are on our head he knows the reason behind ever tear shed.  As in Psalm 56:8 Record my misery; list my tears on your scroll are they not in your record?  He knows every problem so when we feel discouraged remember He is in the midst of every tear. 

 Tears cleanse us, they strengthen us, they help us, and they heal us.  Tears are an outlet from our heart, they release stress.  Let the tears cleans your eyes so you will see more clearly.  Instead of singing LET IT GO sing LET IT FLOW!