Keys to the Kingdom

By Carolyn Tucker

Happy Heart

When I was a youngster attending Vacation Bible School in the summer I liked singing with my friends, “If you’re happy and you know it, then your face will surely show it…”

It’s been said that Christ followers are to watch and see where God is already at work and then join Him. I would suggest that He can also prompt you to do something new as a “solo” ministry. Either way, we shouldn’t hesitate or procrastinate to obey and work in the kingdom of God. You’re bound to find joy in the journey as God provides you with everything you need in order to accomplish what He’s calling you to do. “And my God will liberally supply (fill to the full) your every need according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:19 AMP). If you, as a believer, do not believe that to be true, you should probably hang up your apron and turn in your key.

Please, don’t argue with God like Moses did when God was trying to give him a most-important assignment. Moses even said, “Please, Lord, send someone else” (Exodus 4:13 CSB). Oh my stars, I don’t blame God for getting angry with Moses! This conversation was getting out-of-hand. When God calls the unqualified and inexperienced to do a job, He will qualify us with ways and means that far surpass anything we could ever do on our own. It’s kinda’ comparable to the movie scene when a New York City thug threatens Crocodile Dundee with a knife. Dundee grins and says, “That’s not a knife, (as he unsheathes his own and holds it up) THAT’S a knife!” In our own eyes, we think we’ve got great ideas, but what we need are God ideas. “Don’t be impressed with your own wisdom. Instead, fear the Lord and turn away from evil” (Proverbs 3:7 NLT).

We can be choosy about our peanut butter, but not the assignment/ministry that God calls us to do. It pleases Him when we wholeheartedly accept it and do it with a happy heart. We should say, “Here I am, Lord – sign me up!” We need to keep our eyes and ears open and listen with our heart to the promptings of the Holy Spirit. “Be still, and know that I am God” (Psalm 46:10 NLT). Stay sensitive to the quiet, all-important leading of God. And don’t scrutinize how other believers are ministering and become envious or jealous. We should thank God that He is the Master Creator of variety. God needs all of us to aggressively obey and happily accomplish what He’s designed us to do.

Jesus prayerfully chose a unique bunch to be His twelve disciples. They were common men, but they became uncommon men in about three years. When Paul and Silas were preaching in Thessalonica, the Jews were jealous and declared them troublemakers. “These men who have turned the world upside down have come here also” (Acts 17:6 ESV). These two guys were simply obeying God’s call, but it brought out the worst in the Jewish authorities. The devil doesn’t like it when we say, “Yes” to God. But who cares! Mr. Lucifer is just going to have to get over it and learn to read upside down.

The Lord called to young Samuel four times. The young lad finally responded, “Speak, your servant is listening” (1 Samuel 3:9 NLT). Let’s be like Samuel so that when God speaks we’ll listen and obey…and be happy! “Happy are the people whose strength is in You” (Psalm 84:5 CSB). God provides everything we need in order to do what He’s called us to do. And that should make us happy!

 The Key: Believers who listen, obey, and minister to others will have a happy heart.

Jesus told his followers to be “fishers of men.”  I have known several serious fishermen, including one who is a professional.  He has learned the secrets of winning derbies by reeling in “the big one.”  Another friend recently posted pictures after landing an enormous bass, a fish he snared at the same place where my husband fishes and catches something akin to a pet goldfish.

Thankfully, Jesus was not saying that we had to be great fisher-people to fish for people. We do, however, need to demonstrate some of the skills employed by successful anglers, and as I write this list, I see where I fall short.

For one, we need to put in the effort, knowing that some days we might throw out our line multiple times but catch nothing.  Still, we have to try.  Sitting in our rowboats, staring at the water, praying for a 30-pound bass to jump into our vessels while telling others that we are “fishing” makes us look rather pathetic.  To truly excel in this skill, we need to do our homework.

The same applies for what Jesus meant. Fishing for men requires us to know what the Gospel says about salvation and be willing to share that knowledge by being sensitive to our listener.  Expecting people to show up at our door and ask to hear what they need to do to be saved just ain’t gonna happen.

Fishermen also need to know what bait to use.  Different seas and locations require research to know what the fish want. Bobbers or feathered lures or worms or cheese will likely have different results. If I were to share the Gospel with a farmer, my best approach would be to use agricultural terms like “sowing” and “reaping.”  Discussing what I know best (baseball or teaching) might cause my listeners to yawn or find an excuse to exit hastily to work their field.

Unfortunately, most of us might be good at talking about fishing, but Jesus never said, “Follow me and talk about evangelizing.”  We read Christian books (maybe even the Bible), attend conferences, listen to Podcasts and skim articles like this one.  We end up with a tackle box full of information and maybe even a few predictable questions (“If you were to die today, where would you end up?”).  Simply discussing what we know is not enough.  We are to act on what we know.

So, why is it so difficult to fish for people? Most Christians know they should evangelize but don’t know where to begin or how.  Researcher George Barna has discovered that nine out of ten people who attempt to explain what they believe to other people come away from those experiences feeling as if they failed. No wonder we don’t do much evangelism. It’s not fun to do something that makes us feel like a failure 90% of the time.

In Mark 16:15, Jesus commands us to “Go and preach the gospel to every creature.” No Christian can wriggle off the evangelism hook. We are to spread the good news about Jesus Christ by seeking opportunities wherever we go, and the best part of all is that we don’t have to seek only that 30-pound large-mouth bass.  Sometimes, a tiny little goldfish might be the biggest win of all.

Keys to the Kingdom
By Carolyn Tucker
Unpickled Beets

Several days before my family gathered in to celebrate our Lord’s resurrection, I’d sent out a group text and asked what food item(s) were desired for our meal. Hands down, the answer was “pickled beets and cottage cheese.” Welp, that’s easy enough. I’ve used Betty Crocker’s simple recipe for years. As we began to set the food on the table, the usual sneaky taste-testing began. I wasn’t even in the kitchen when I heard my daughter yell, “Mom, you forgot the vinegar!” I came in, ate a beet and calmly said, “Yep, you’re right.” Well, to my daughter and son, this was a disaster so they began to quickly troubleshoot how it fix it. We decided to put the unpickled beets and juice in a plastic zipper bag, add some vinegar, and shake it around. It worked! I realized an interesting fact — before tasting the beets, they looked perfectly pickled and delicious. They weren’t.

You might say these pickled beets were hypocrites – they weren’t what they were supposed to be. There’s no way my family was going to eat these things in the shape they were in. A remedy had to be found – they had to be salvaged. Likewise, God carefully watched mankind and knew we had to be rescued, saved, and restored. There was no way we could fix ourselves so He sent His Son Jesus, the one and only remedy.

“Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good; Blessed is the man who trusts in Him!” (Psalm 34:8 NKJV). Just like tasting those unpickled beets, we have to get up close and personal to find out for ourselves if the Lord is who He says He is. Since believers are God’s children, designed to emulate their heavenly Father, we need to do a taste test on ourselves and evaluate whether we’re who we proclaim to be. We “taste ourselves” in the mirror of His Word, which means we read it, believe it, and do it.

If we evaluate ourselves and don’t pass the taste test, don’t throw the beets out the back door! Remember, there is a Remedy Redeemer when we need to be restored. Penned by John the beloved, we find the recipe for living the beautiful life God designed for us: “God is light, and there is no darkness in Him at all. So we are lying if we say we have fellowship with God but go on living in spiritual darkness; we are not practicing the truth. But if we are living in the light, as God is in the light, then we have fellowship with
each other, and the blood of Jesus, His Son, cleanses us from all sin. If we claim we have no sin, we are only fooling ourselves and not living in the truth. But if we confess our sins to Him, He is faithful and just
to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness” (1 John 1:5-9 NLT).

Mariam and Aaron loved pickled beets so much that they weren’t willing to dispose of them. They worked together and devised a plan that rescued the hypocrite beets from the garbage disposer. The above scriptures assure us that God loves, values, and cherishes every person on the face of the earth. God’s love and mercy is unfailing and eternal and all the ingredients we need to live in the light are at our disposal. Reading and following the recipe (God’s Word) will cause believers in Christ to experience a satisfying,
fulfilling, and abundant life without condemnation. The flavor of living an obedient life that’s genuinely surrendered to Christ is delectable!

The Key: Do a taste test on yourself and see if you’re an unpickled beet posing as a pickled beet. If you need to, fix it.

The road from anger to bitterness is not a difficult one.  The journey appears smooth and easily traveled, yet what awaits us around the bend is a cavernous pit.  A U-turn is necessary before we ever get to that end, yet some people never make that choice.

Bitterness is deadly.  It causes us to weep when others rejoice and rejoice when others weep.  It will rob us of our ability to recognize and reveal God, as it renders us powerless to love others.  The roots of bitterness squeeze life from our hearts, as this sin shows up as anger, pride, sarcasm and hostility.  Others recognize it in us, but few of us recognize it in ourselves.

At the root of bitterness are three lies about God:

1.  He does not understand my problem, so I feel isolated.                          2.  He has left me to deal with this alone, so I feel forsaken.                        3.  He cannot do anything to help me, so I feel hopeless.

These are lies from the enemy.  God will never leave nor forsake us (Acts 17:28).  He knows the plan He has for us (Ps. 139:13-14), and He can do anything (Luke 1:37).

This year, as a high school teacher, I have watched several students act out bitterness.  They share their stories, and I get it.  A father rapes his young daughter and then commits suicide when he is found out.  A stepdad molests his son, my student, and the son has to miss class to relive the incident in court.  Children are forced to move in with aunts or grandparents who let them know they are an obligation, not a blessing.  Yesterday, a male student showed me a video of a former student who chose to fight another teen “because that way I don’t cut myself.”

Those are the ones I can write about.  Others have shared secrets so dark, they want no one to know their stories.

I have to wonder if I wouldn’t be equally as tormented.  These teenagers “act out” their bitterness by failing their classes or becoming defensive with the least bit of constructive criticism.  Their mood swings are painful to watch.  I overhear them tell their friends about the teachers who hate them (basically, anyone who holds them accountable). The girls sleep around.  “Will anyone make me feel valued?” Not even lessons learned in their church youth group penetrate their wounded souls.

Bitter people often do not choose to move past this destructive behavior.  If this describes you, you need to know that it’s never what you can do; it’s what God can do through you.  If you find yourself on the road to bitterness, there are a few things He wants you to do:

1.  Admit it and confess it (1 John 1:9).

2.  Ask God to show you how bitterness damages you (Prov. 16:2).

3.  Stop rehearsing your bitterness with others (Mt. 15:11).

4.  Stay in harmony with godly people (Prov. 11:14).

5.  Read the Bible (Mt. 13:18-23).

6.  Look ahead, not behind (Phil. 3:13-14).

7.  Study winners who chose contentment over bitterness (Gen. 50:20).

8.  Remember, winning over bitterness takes time (Romans 8:25-30).

God offers the path that destroys the root of bitterness; if you choose not to accept it,  it will destroy you.

Keys to the Kingdom

By Carolyn Tucker

Size of the Fight

My favorite dog breed is the Boston Terrier; I’ve owned four of these adorable spunky dogs off and on since I was a kid. Because they wear a tuxedo every day, they’re the best-dressed canine! Bostons are a small breed, but I’m convinced they see themselves as 300 pounds of muscle with powerful steel jaws. When I was in grade school, my Boston and Dad’s bird dog got into a raging fight. For some reason the crawl-space door was open and both dogs got under the house and went at it. The dogs were as mad as hornets and they meant business! I didn’t want either one of them to get hurt, so I crawled under the house, separated the dogs, and promptly ended their ferocious fight. When Dad got home, I told him about the dog fight and my efforts to stop it. He rightly scolded me, telling me to never do that again! He said, “When dogs are fighting, they’re mad and will bite anyone and anything that gets in their way.”

Living in the country can sure add extra spice to your life! In the early years of our marriage, my husband found a huge bull snake and killed it. Our Boston Terrier was quite excited and latched onto one end of the dead snake. Jimmy grabbed the other end and swung the snake around with the little dog’s steel jaws firmly holding onto the snake. This sounds unbelievably bizarre, but I have a photo to prove it. The Boston is little on the outside, but thinks like a bulldozer on the inside.

Dwight D. Eisenhower was absolutely right when he said, “What matters is not the size of the dog in the fight, but the size of the fight in the dog.” This statement can be applied to Christ followers too. When life gets tough do we have the tenacity of a little Boston Terrier to hold on for dear life? We have the answer herein: “I will fight on for God, holding tightly to the eternal life which God has given me, and which I have confessed with such a ringing confession before many witnesses” (1 Timothy 6:12 TLB).

If you’ve got the determination and perseverance, God will provide the strength and stamina to accomplish what you’ve made up your mind to do. Making the right decision is always the first step. We used to sing the chorus, “I have decided to follow Jesus….” After that life-altering decision comes the followup of being steadfast and unmovable. Any pip-squeak on the outside can start something, but it takes a tough-and-firm inside to stick with it and blow through the finish line with flying colors at the end of your life.

As believers, it wouldn’t hurt us to adopt this well-known motto: “When the going gets tough, the tough get going.” John Thomas, a 1950s football coach, spoke those inspirational words to his team to inspire rock-solid resilience and action. Apostle Peter also shares great encouragement to believers in overcoming life’s hurdles: “Take a decisive stand against him [the devil] and resist his every attack with strong, vigorous faith. For you know that your believing brothers and sisters around the world are experiencing the same kinds of troubles you endure. And then, after your brief suffering, the God of all loving grace, Who has called you to share in His eternal glory in Christ, will personally and powerfully restore you and make you stronger than ever. Yes, He will set you firmly in place and build you up. And He has all the power needed to do this –forever! Amen” (1 Peter 5:9-11 TPT).

The Key: How big is the size of your fight?

Isaiah 40:28-31 (NIV) Do you not know? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary, and His understanding no one can fathom. He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak. Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint. Isaiah 40:28-31 (NIV)

How can two people accumulate so much junk? Dave and I are packing to move from the lake area into town.  This move, probably because we are tired of paying per-pound for things we never will use, we are trying really, really hard to declutter.  For some reason, I look at Dave’s things with clearer eyes than I do my own.

“Honey, you don’t need those old baseball folders.  And when was the last time you wore those polyester pants or needed those rusted tweezers or those tireless bikes?”  Dave is equally as helpful.  “Patty, didn’t you wear that outfit on our honeymoon?  How many hair products do you actually need?  Aren’t three spatulas enough?”

And then we both defend whatever it is our spouse thinks we should throw away.  This is ridiculous.  We have no problem moving, leaving behind years of sweet, family memories, but we can’t part with unnecessary junk.  Change is a natural part of life.  We can embrace it, or we can fight it.  The choice is ours.  Just like the eagle’s.

The eagle has the longest life-span among birds. It can live up to 70 years, but to reach this age, the eagle has to make a hard decision. In its 40s, the eagle’s long and flexible talons can no longer grab prey, its food. Its long and sharp beak becomes bent, and its old and heavy wings, covered with feathers that have grown thick over the years, become stuck to its chest, making it difficult to fly.

The eagle is then left with only two options: die or go through a painful process of change which lasts 150 days. This requires the eagle to fly to a mountain top and sit on its nest. There the eagle knocks its beak against a rock until the beak falls off. The eagle will then wait for a new beak to grow back and use the new beak to pluck out its talons. When the new talons grow back, the eagle starts plucking out all of the old feathers. After five months, the eagle takes a famous flight of rebirth and lives 30 more years.

Change is sometimes needed to survive. Read the Bible.  Every story includes choices people had, either to follow God or not.  What is God asking of you?  How is He working to increase your faith by making a change in your life?  The answer is simple. He is preparing your steps to move out of your comfort zone, to get rid of useless material junk, to eliminate destructive habits and to focus on what is truly important.

When Dave and I began to concentrate on what we really need, we found a certain satisfaction in not holding onto what was familiar. Joshua 3 illustrates how God works in these decisions. The Israelites were close to the Promised Land, but the Jordan River stood in their way.  God asked them to take one step into the water.  He would do nothing until the Israelites obeyed.  The lesson is one for us all.

Don’t wait until you believe it all.  Don’t wait until you can see it all.  Don’t wait until you understand it all.

Take the first step.  God will meet you there…even if it involves rusty tweezers and multiple spatulas.

Keys to the Kingdom

By Carolyn Tucker

To Do or Not to Do

I have certainly been on the receiving end of people “doing good” on my behalf. More than once, when I was grieving heavily over the loss of my late husband, I prayed, “Oh God, please impress upon several people to intercede and pray for me right now.” Within a few short minutes, my burden of sorrow had lifted and I felt relief and peace. Someone fulfilled their Christian duty toward me, resulting in my desperate prayer being promptly answered. Believers must constantly be aware that God uses His obedient servants to accomplish His will, and to answer prayers of petition for others.

 “I live before God, doing my duty with a perfectly good conscience” (Acts 23:1). This is a BIG little verse which basically covers our entire life in a nutshell. It’s plain to see that Christ followers are to live our lives in obedience to God’s Word and Jesus’ example, which produces a clear conscience.

Galatians 5:13 is another BIG little verse: “Through love serve one another.” If believers are going to do our duty through service, we have to actually be with someone to serve him/her. Please stay in touch with one another. When the Holy Spirit brings someone to your mind, reach out to them. I’m still working on this “others” process. Let’s think realistically about how many people you and I know, and then ponder why our mind would bring “Sue” or “Bob” to the forefront of our thoughts. We need to be alert and  realize that this occurrence is not just happenstance. Sue or Bob needs us to reach out.

As a personal example, I’d been thinking of my friend “G” so I jotted down a note to call her sometime that day. That very morning, while shopping, I spotted her. We visited a few minutes and then I asked if I could pray for her and she said, “Yes.” I openly prayed for her in the produce aisle and then we parted. So did I help her? I don’t know, but I did my duty to love her and bring her situation to the Throne of God. When I left the store,  my conscience was good. I had obeyed the Holy Spirit to pray for her right there in front of the potatoes, tomatoes, and avocados.

Do I deserve a Brownie button for that act of kindness? No, no, a thousand times no — I was just doing my duty as a fellow believer and friend. Compared to God’s everlasting love and kindness, what we do is on the lowest level of “achievements.” But it’s paramount that we aim for the highest level of obedience.

And remember, the devil will always try to talk you out of doing something good. If I would have hesitated a split second to pray for my friend, the devil would have convinced me not to do it. I know this for a fact. He will do anything to cheat you out of a blessing by doing your duty (moral obligation/responsibility). Jesus went around doing good so we should do the same without hesitation (see Acts 10:38). Fleshly hesitation is like opening the door just enough for the enemy to stick his big, ugly, stinky foot inside. We never ever want to give him a foothold because nothing good will come from that mistake.

The Key: Will you do your duty or not?

Jacee asked for a Mental Health Day. She needed time off work because she was stressed, not to mention her employee contract allowed her three of those days a year, so she was entitled to it.

Where were those days when we were living in Houston, Dave was playing baseball in another part of the country and our children were young? No one offered me a day to regroup, not even when I found my outdoor wreath nailed 18” above the baseboard in the living room (i.e., where the ping pong table was located, of course). As it turned out, when Adam beat Jeff in a game, Jeff threw his paddle at his younger brother who retaliated by shoving Jeff through the drywall. The wreath was their brilliant plan to hide the butt cheeks’ hole in the wall.

Or how about the time teenager Jeff placed the riding mower in drive instead of reverse, pinning me against the wall in the shed…the same teenage Jeff who tried to take a shortcut home from mowing a neighbor’s yard and drove into a ditch full of water, dropping the keys in the muddy water when he jumped off the mower? I never got time off work when I was mentally unstable. I got time off work when the principal of Adam’s middle school called me to say that the history teacher was tired of Adam’s shenanigans. Would I trail Adam at school for a day to see if he behaved better? That was my mental health day.

According to Jessica Brodie, author of “5 Sneaky Habits that Cause Serious Mental Health Problems,” mental health issues range from diagnosed mental illness (many times caused from a chemical disorder, genetics or trauma) to short-term periods of mental imbalance. What intrigued me about Brodie’s article was that mental health problems can be caused by five behaviors: lack of sleep, poor nutrition, not exercising, substance abuse and lack of self-love.

Except for substance abuse, I was guilty of the other four but certainly not unsympathetic to single parents who resorted to “substances.” I mean, how was I to sleep when I realized Adam disconnected the security system so he could sneak out his window at night? I guess I needed to be more like Jesus whose disciples had to wake him when a storm arose. (I could not relate.)

As for nutrition, yes, I know that our body is the temple of the Holy Spirit and deserves proper nutrition (1 Corinthians 6:19-20), but was it my fault Little League concession stands sold only hotdogs and nachos instead of salads? Then there’s exercise—so over-rated. Who has time for a spin class? Wasn’t it enough that daily I played catch with my sons and retrieved balls that somehow missed my glove? Proverbs 31:17 addresses the strength of a godly woman: “She sets about her work vigorously; her arms are strong for her tasks.” My arms were strong; it was the rest of my body that suffered.

Matthew 22:39 deals with self-love. Matthew never met my kids. How does one love herself when she is told by other parents that on several occasions her older two sons put a football helmet on their younger brother and had him run through the woods, target practice for their BB guns? No doubt, I was the topic of conversation for many of my son’s friend’s parents.

As I reflect on the hundreds (thousands) of incidents with my children, I understand that had mental health days been offered to parents who deserved them, I never would have worked a day in my life. Still, the wildest thing about all of this is that I now consider my children as some of my greatest blessings. Crazy how that works, isn’t it?