Marching Orders #213... "Trades Day or Swap Meet Anyone?"

LET THE

SONSHINE

..."Your eyes light up your inward being.

A pure eye lets sunshine into your soul."

Luke 11:34a

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Whitehouse, TX 75791

Trades Day or Swap Meet Anyone?

When we lived in Phoenix, Arizona, a huge swap meet was held every weekend . Acres and acres of articles for sale or trade were offered by individuals and companies. I think I will ALWAYS remember a particular time that we took many of our household items to it. Our things weren't discards or junk...it was all of our "good stuff". We were moving out of our home into a travel trailer to go evangelize.

As we proudly set out antique dishes, furniture items and other bric-a-brac, I noticed the Mexican family next to us unloading some, what I thought to be, really ugly, cheap looking, shell-shaped lamps made out of thick plastic string. The colors were atrocious.. hot pink, lime green...and yuk...ORANGE! Who in their right mind, I thought, would ever decorate in THOSE colors? I figured we'd really have a successful day being parked next to "junk" like that!. Was I ever surprised when their table was packed with buyers. People looked right past our precious items, just like kids at a Barnum and Bailey Circus rushing towards the rabbit fur monkeys on a stick! Within several hours they had sold out, packed up and went home.

We scarcely sold enough to pay for the space rental...and to top it off, we did sell an old Buick car for $300, but we had put a $500 item under the front seat for safe keeping and forgot it was there until the new owners drove off with the car. We were never able to locate them to retrieve it either. You could say ours was NOT A GOOD DAY!

Did you know that God offers what I call a "Trades Day"? You can find it in Isaiah 61:3... He wants to make a trade with you... And guess what? He doesn't want the things we look at as our good stuff...He's asking us to bring something that the world looks at as junk, and He'll trade us for His precious gifts... He wants to give us...

Beauty....for ashes

Joy....instead of mourning

Praise...in place of heaviness

Salvation for sins

Has all that you've worked for been burned up into ashes? Perhaps you've gone bankrupt or lost your home or vehicles? Maybe a marriage has disintegrated right before your eyes? Or the ministry you felt Him leading you in has been pulled right out from under your feet and you stand before Him with nothing but ASHES to offer Him. He's ready to trade! And for those ashes, He will give you beauty...the beauty of a humble, broken and contrite spirit.

Perhaps you are mourning the loss of a loved one... or your health, a job you sacrificed so many years for...He wants you to bring it to Him and trade it in for His JOY! Take your breaking heart to Him and make the trade...give it to Him and allow Him to give you "joy unspeakable," the oil of His gladness." He's waiting!

Or are you under a heavy garment of despair. Nothing seems to be right...there seems to be NO HOPE for you at all. He's willing to exchange that for a garment of praise. He's ready to have you be called "oaks of righteousness, a planting of the Lord for the display of His splendor."

Jesus came anointed to preach the good news...He came to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives, and release for the prisoners...to comfort all who mourn, and provide a crown of beauty for those who grieve. Do you have a life of ashes, some things you are mourning over, or a heavy heart to trade with Him today? He has said...Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I WILL give you rest." (Matt. 11:28) He asks us to cast our cares upon Him, because He cares for us.

There may be some of you who have never surrendered your life to Him...you're possibly waiting to get "good enough"...well, let me tell you...He's not looking for your "good stuff"...He's ready to take your "junk". In Isaiah 1:18, He said,

"Come now, let us reason together..." He is ready to trade you a cleansed heart as white as snow for one full of dark sin. As He says in Revelations, He stands at your heart's door and knocks... He doesn't barge in...He waits for you to open the door so He can enter in.

If you're ready to make a trade with Him today...let's pray...

Lord, I bring you all my broken dreams, my heavy heart. I have nothing but the residue of burned hopes to offer You. I come before you broken and discouraged. Will you take these burdens and make something beautiful out of me and my life?

Father, how you must understand what it is like to lose someone you love...Lord, I come to you and offer to you my recent loss. I give You the mourning over people and possessions, accomplishments and things. I give you all the humility that surrounds my disappointments. Restore unto me the joy and gladness that surrounds Your heart.

I shed this garment of heaviness, Lord. The depression and discouragement that I've allowed to come upon me, I lay it at Your feet. I trade it for a garment of praise...Let my heart well up in praise to You for all that You are and all that You constantly do for me, and for what has already been accomplished at Calvary.

Jesus, all I have is a sinful heart to trade. Please take every sin I've ever committed. Return to me a cleansed heart worthy to be restored to my Father in heaven. I thank you, Jesus, for suffering and dying on the cross for me, and by faith I receive forgiveness now, in Your holy name. Amen

Please let us know how He's touched your heart and what He's done for you.

In Him and He in me,

Marlene

MARCHING ORDERS #213

Marching orders are compiled from paraphrased verses out of the Living Bible. No commentary is added...they are the pure Word of God.

"As Christ's soldier do not let yourself become tied up in worldly affairs, for then you cannot satisfy the one who enlisted you in his army." II Timothy 2:4 L/B

Upon it (what looked like a throne made of beautiful blue sapphire stones) sat someone who appeared to be a Man.

Christ Jesus, himself man. - Who, though he was God, did not demand and cling to his rights as God, but laid aside his mighty power and glory, taking the disguise of a slave and becoming like men. And he humbled himself even further, going so far as actually to die a criminal’s death on a cross. - Since we, God’s children, are human beings made of flesh and blood, he became flesh and blood too by being born in human form; for only as a human being could he die and in dying break the power of the devil who had the power of death.

I am the Living One who died, who is now alive forevermore. -

Christ rose from the dead and will never die again. Death no longer has any power over him. He died once for all to end sin’s power, but now he lives forever in unbroken fellowship with God. - What will you think if you see me, the Messiah, return to heaven again? - (God’s power) raised Christ from the dead and seated him in the place of honor at God’s right hand in heaven. - In Christ there is all of God in a human body.

His weak, human body died on the cross, but now he lives by the mighty power of God. We, too, are weak in our bodies, as he was, but now we live and are strong, as he is, and have all of God’s power to use.

(Living Bible:)

Ezekiel 1:26.

I Tim. 2:5. - Phil. 2:6-8. - Heb. 2:14.

Rev. 1:18. - Rom. 6:9-10. - Jn. 6:62. - Eph. 1:20.

- Col. 2:9.

II Cor. 13:4.

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