Christian living Archives | Grace on Parade

July 19, 2018 by Karen Wingate Leave a Comment

Jesus: The Best Bargain of All

I love a bargain. Doesn’t everyone?

As part of the Bon Ton liquidation, our local Bergner’s and Younkers stores announced store-wide going out of business clearance prices. I’m a shop-the-sales-only kind of girl so I didn’t twitch at the beginning. Forgive my bargain mania but a 20% sale isn’t much of a sale. My husband and I decided to bite when the store announced sales were now at 50-70%. Off we went to find a bargain or three.

We were in the market for a new comforter and set of bedsheets. Among the dwindling stock, we found a beautiful comforter both of us liked. While I unpackaged our new purchase and spread it over the bed, my husband disappeared into his man cave to google the brand name of the comforter only to find we didn’t get that much of a bargain. We paid the same amount the we could have on Amazon, reinforcing his belief that Bergner’s always did charge too much for retail. “They’re still making a bundle of money,” he quipped.

What makes us work so hard to catch a bargain?

[Read more…]

June 4, 2018 by Karen Wingate Leave a Comment

Serving Jesus: It’s What We Do

“What are you doing?”

The co-director and head cook of our local Christian service camp facility and retreat center recently spoke to the Women’s Fellowship group at my local church. Jamie grew up in the Roseville church and made us smile with her memories of Children’s Church, our “SuperGang” midweek Bible club, and early memories of church camp. She told the story of one volunteer who wouldn’t greet campers with the expected, “How are you?” Instead, he asked, “What are you doing?”

This was in the day when campers helped set tables, wash dishes, and clean latrines. The kids might be hanging out at the flagpole, drying a dish, or scrubbing a table. Wasn’t it obvious to this clueless adult? Confusion grew when he wouldn’t accept their obvious answer. Instead, he shook his head and retorted, “No. You’re serving Jesus.”

That left an indelible impression on Jamie. She told how those words followed her into adulthood. Now, whenever she is cooking, preparing the facilities for the next round of campers, or paying the water bill, she’s encouraged by those words. She isn’t doing some thankless, small, nobody cares kind of task. She’s serving Jesus. Jamie expressed that now it is such a thrill to give back to the campers the gifts she had so taken for granted when she herself was a camper.

Serving Jesus in Europe

Her story reminded me about my own encounter with serving Jesus. I spent two weeks at a Bible training center near Vienna, Austria. The mission organization found it was cheaper to ask American volunteers to come to Europe on their own nickel and act as housekeepers and cooks instead of hiring local people to do the job. We got a taste of the organization’s efforts to train Eastern European and central Asian church leaders, the students saw what they thought were proud Americans taking on the biblical role of servants, and we took back exciting stories of God’s work to our home churches. What a win-win.

Sunny, the head cook, told us this early on. “You aren’t scrubbing potatoes. You aren’t wiping counters. By cooking and cleaning, you are freeing up young men and women to devote themselves full time to the study of God’s Word. You are serving Jesus.”

Now, I think there is no food more gross than a jar of slimy pimentos. One day, Sunny asked me to slice pimentos for the hot sandwiches we were preparing for lunch. My inner voice formulated what I wanted to tell her. Sunny, I’ve done everything you’ve asked me to do. I will stay in the dish room the rest of the week. Just don’t make me slice pimentos!

Then I remembered: You aren’t slicing pimentos. You aren’t making sandwiches. You are serving Jesus.

What about you?

What is God calling you to do this week?

Care for an elderly parent?
Babysit your grandkids?
Clean your house for company?
Watch your teenager play softball on an extra hot afternoon?
Show extra kindness to a beleaguered store clerk?
Teach the preschool class at your local church?
Weed the worship center’s outside flower bed?
Mow a neighbor’s yard?

Are you dragging your feet? Does it seem unimportant? Does no one seem to care or appreciate your hard work?

Remember this: In whatever you do, you are serving Jesus.

And He is smiling.

April 27, 2018 by Karen Wingate 6 Comments

No Sea In Heaven: 3 Reasons Why That’s Important

Psalm 93:4 - God is mightier than any ocean — God is mightier than any ocean.

There will be no Sea in Heaven.

That’s what Revelation 21:1 says. Does that surprise you?

When I finished guiding a ladies’ Bible study through the book of Revelation, I wiped my forehead and said, “Whew! We made it!” Teaching Revelation was the most challenging – and rewarding – study I’ve ever conducted. Like many Christians leaders, I’ve been afraid of the book, afraid to get involved in the controversies.

I’m glad we studied Revelation.

I’ve learned so much about worship, God’s intentions for His followers, and God’s response to the evil that is strangling our culture. So many little details surprised me, enough that I needed to ask over and over again, “Why is that so?” One was the comment in Revelation 21 that there will be no sea in the new Heaven.

But the sea is a nice place. Warm beaches, surf boards, crashing waves, and boating. What could be more picturesque and pleasant than watching the waves?

A picture is worth a thousand words and the Apostle John used powerful imagery to prove his points about God’s plan for the ages. The images attempt to describe the indescribable and suggest greater truths. This is especially true in John’s expression that there will be no more sea.

Our Bible study group discovered three reasons why John mentions that there will be no sea in Heaven.

No more fear

According to Matt Proctor, in his book Victorious (College Press, 2013), to a first century Greek, the sea was a place of chaos and evil. Put yourself in some Greek sandals. To your way of thinking, the sea would be uncrossable. Loved ones died in shipwrecks. Enemies arrived in foreign looking vessels. No sonar systems plunged the depths and analyzed strange creatures that lived below the surface. The sea was a place of fear and dread.

No sea means no fear. No more danger, death, or destruction. No more enemies or uncertainty. Wow. Can you imagine life without fear or cause to fear?

No more separation

A good Bible study method is to compare one verse with other verses. Earlier in Revelation, John says there was a sea before the throne of God:

“Also in front of the throne there was what looked like a sea of glass, clear as crystal.” – Revelation 4:6

This scene is in the present Heaven, the one that exists right now. The New Heaven in Revelation 21 will be established at the very end of time after Jesus eradicates all evil from the earth and brings His bride, the Church, to live with Him forever.

The only ones with complete access to God’s throne in Revelation 4 are the twenty-four elders, the four living creatures, and the angels. But in Revelation 21, the barrier of the sea no longer exists.

Catch that! We’ll no longer stand at a distance, separated by time and space from the throne of God. While He invites us to draw closer now with confidence (Hebrews 4:16), we’ll have full access to His throne. Isn’t that wonderful?

No more segregation

Over the centuries, what has kept people groups from each other? The ocean. Even with all our modern technology, the sea still separates super-powers. China, Russia, and Australia might as well be in another world. They don’t seem real to us because it takes so long to get there.

At the end of the ages, the sea will no longer separate people groups.

He will raise a banner for the nations
and gather the exiles of Israel;
he will assemble the scattered people of Judah
from the four quarters of the earth. – Isaiah 11:12

That verse refers to both the return of the exiles after the Babylonian captivity and the gathering of God’s people, the Church, at the end of time. Nations will never again be at odds. We won’t be Americans, British, Russian, or Saudi Arabian. Those who follow Christ will belong to God’s Kingdom. We will stand together shoulder to shoulder with people from every nation and every era with no barriers of difference between us.

In the meantime, Eternity starts now. God is with you in this moment. He reigns supreme. He is mightier than anything that threatens to destroy your life and livelihood, separate you from His love, or segregate you from anyone also made in His image. He is more powerful than the mightiest of seas.

He truly has prepared a special place for us (John 14:2,3). It’s more special than anything than we can imagine. It’s little catch phrases like “no sea” that give me a glimpse of Heaven’s reality and convince me all the more – I want to go there.

Check out these resources for more on Heaven’s reality:

The ministry of Don Piper:

Eternal Perspectives: The ministry of Randy Alcorn:

Victorious by Matt Proctor

90 Minutes in Heaven by Don Piper:

Heaven by Randy Alcorn:

October 12, 2017 by Karen Wingate Leave a Comment

Guilt, Rubber Balls and Glue Sticks: How To Bounce Back From False Guilt

Have careless comments from others left you with a load of guilt?

Are you the kind of person who mulls over past decisions and reflects on others’ opinions about those decisions? Does that leave you with a case of the could of, should ofs?

Be rubber, not glue, my guest, Linda Cobourn, advises.

I love this post! Ever since Linda shared it with me, it has run through my mind countless times as I’ve reminded myself, Let it bounce off of you.

When I think of rubber, I think of those wonderful paddle ball toys we played with when we were children. We’d try with all our might to whack that ball just to watch it bounce helter-skelter. Sometimes I feel whacked by life, ready to crack at the seams. What fun to be like that rubber ball! Any whack would just make me bounce higher and, in fact, might even break the paddle.

Instead, way more than I care to admit, I view problems, issues, dramatic overstatements, and careless criticisms like glue traps, crouching in the corner to grab me and hold me captive for the rest of my day. Other times, I’m like an uncapped glue stick, holding my stick aloft to catch any criticism and draw it inside of me. It clings to me and taunts me with the lies Satan would love to have me believe. You’re no good. You’re a failure. You blew it. You can’t succeed. Why do you even try?

It doesn’t have to be that way!

Let’s be rubber, not glue this week. Here’s Linda.

Caregiver Guilt: Confessions of a Walking Glue Stick
By Dr. Linda Cobourn

“I’m rubber, you’re glue, whatever you say bounces off me and sticks to you.”

My father-in-law blamed me. It was unreasonable, hurled out of frustration while we stood in the trauma unit, waiting to see if my husband would survive. I was thirty miles away in a graduate class when the driver of the pick-up truck broadsided Ron’s Taurus, but the reproach stayed with me for seventeen years.

I’m a walking glue stick.

Guilt is a common emotion for those who find themselves in the position of caregiver. The 2015 State of Caregiving Report noted that 81% of spousal caregivers feel guilty, making guilt the #1 emotional trap. We think we should do it all without complaint and we become frustrated with ourselves because we can’t. We self-punish for simply being human. I beat myself up for an accident I did not cause, questioning every decision I made concerning my husband’s care. Yes, I agreed to the emergency surgery and it damaged his heart. My fault. Yes, I let him be put into the rehab unit where his slippers were misplaced and he caught pneumonia. My fault. I even had occasional thoughts that it might have been better if Ron had not survived the accident.

That thought stuck on with Gorilla Glue.

But God is a solvent to even the strongest of adhesives. I began to search the Scriptures for a way to dislodge my self-reproach. One day, I was led to this verse in Joshua 5:9:
This day have I rolled away the reproach of Egypt from you.

The Israelites had been so beaten down by 430 years of slavery they no longer believed God could love them. Before they entered the Promised Land, God told them that the shame they carried was rolled off them. They were not stuck with the reproach of Egypt. They could stop being walking glue sticks.

So could I. It took time, prayer, and counsel from friends to realize that the guilt I bore was irrational. I held myself responsible for things that were not my responsibility. God had forgiven my shortcomings; I needed to forgive myself. Time to learn to be more like rubber, repelling thoughtless remarks.

Just the other day, someone ventured to criticize a decision I’d made for my husband’s well-being. I let it bounce off me.

Because it really is better to be rubber.

ABOUT LINDA:

Dr. Linda Cobourn is a Literacy Specialist who works with at-risk learners and non-traditional college students. She holds Instructional II certificates from Pennsylvania and Delaware in Elementary Education K-6 and Reading PK-12. Dr. Cobourn earned her doctoral degree in Educational Leadership, focusing on the use of critical literacy in middle school. Currently, she teaches at Springfield College in Wilmington. She was recently cited by the Mayor of Philadelphia for her work constructing literacy programs for inner-city youth. She is the author of three published books and writes a blog at http://writingonthebrokenroad.blogspot.com/