When I was a little girl my uncle served in Vietnam. I remember parts of that very vividly. We would bake cookies and send him care packages. I remember one day mom being distraught because they had bomb my Uncle’s barracks. He was away on maneuvers but it was a while before we knew whether he had been in the barracks or not. I remember that they broke in and stole all his pictures of things back home, like of his wife and his mom and of us.
We have had many missionaries come and speak at our church and they all have touched my heart greatly, but one stands out. There was a gentleman from my own church that went to Vietnam. He showed us things there and it really touched my heart.
He showed us houses called orphanages that can be built for 1,900 dollars and they would house an orphan and give them an opportunity to go to a Bible believing church and to get an education. This has so touched me.
It is my hearts desire to get into a position or shape, financially, health wise and freedom wise to be able to accept anything the Lord would have me to do. I am not sure I will ever see foreign soil, but I want to be ready if the Lord should call me to do that.
I once heard some one say we needed to be baskets. So I looked up the uses of different baskets in the Bible.
In Genesis they were in the dreams of Pharaoh’s butler and chief baker and Joseph’s used them when he interpreted the dream. They symbolized days in the dreams.
In Exodus, Moses was hid in a basket to keep him safe.
Baskets were used to gather the food left over in the feeding the multitude.
Baskets were also used to separate the good and the bad fruit. What kind of fruit are we baring. Jeremiah 24:1-3.
My mother in law used to collect baskets. The had no purpose but to put it on the shelf and look pretty. Some Christians are like that.
They come in and take their seat on the pew and they smile and look pretty.
I don’t want to be a “show” basket. I want to help people, I want to serve people and, in doing that, serve God.
But before our baskets can do any good they need to be empty. A basket full of the wrong things can do little good for anyone.
What ever God has in store for me, I want to be ready. My basket has some things that are old and need to be thrown out. My basket contains some hurts that I have held on to and I need to let go. My basket contains some guilt for things which I have long been forgiven for. So I am cleaning my basket to be available when He says, go there and take some food, or go give someone a ride, or help a missionary passing through. I just want to be ready to say "Yes Lord here I am, let me”.
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