Live Treasured Podcast and Blog

Though we don’t always think about it, our days truly are numbered, and with that comes the reality that our words are too. With this in mind, what are the words we share with those around us?

What is the message our life portrays to the world around us?

What is the purpose you are pursuing and promoting with your life?

And lastly, how would you be remembered? 

Jesus lived a life of perfection, he portrayed constant communion with the Father and the result of that was the over-arching message of perfect love. In knowing Jesus, in studying the life he led, we are studying love itself. And the faith we have in who Jesus is and what that love did for us is the truth that saves us.  

Knowing Who Jesus Is in Your Heart

In his final address to those closest to him, Jesus lifted them up to the Father in prayer. It was this prayer, filled with purpose, that Jesus proclaimed his purpose in showing himself to the world.  

“And this is the way to have eternal life—to know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, the one you sent to earth.” John 17:3  

You can’t have one without the other, if you are going to claim to know God, the attributes of Jesus must also be known to your heart.

And it’s the truth that we store in our hearts of who Jesus is that fills us with not only joy, but the love that unites. 

“…I told them many things while I was with them in this world so they would be filled with my joy.” John 17:13 

Christ came to get us back, to return us to the Father and break us free, but he can’t do that without being known.

He offered freedom by offering himself to us.

How beautiful and heartbreaking it is to know that Christ gave himself fully, knowing so many would not only reject him, but turn against him entirely. In pursuing the knowledge of who Christ is we are also pursuing the heart of the Father, and that common pursuit should be what brings us together. 

“I pray that they will all be one, just as you and I are one—as you are in me, Father, and I am in you. And may they be in us so that the world will believe you sent me.” John 17:21 

Celebrating Christ

As we prepare for the celebration of the greatest victory in history challenge yourself to celebrate the life that Christ led by taking a good look at it. The more we study Christ the more we do justice to the purpose he came for.

Celebrate Christ, celebrate the love that defined the life he led.

Look at the words he prayed over those he spent his time with. 

At the end of the day, the words, purpose, and actions, of our lives should lead to the purpose of love. Because when we love others, when we allow them to know that they are deeply loved, we are giving them knowledge of the Father, we are pointing them to the truth that saves.  

We carry the truth of the gospel to the world around us, and love is the greatest vessel of that truth. Commit yourself to knowing Christ intimately.

Nourish Scripture: John 17

To connect with Christ more intimately, you need to change the way you approach the Word. Download Nourishing Your Heart to discover how to do just that!

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This blog was written by Millicent Phillips. Millicent is part of the Treasured Ministries writing team. © 2019 Treasured Ministries.

What to do when your world needs fixing? 

When everything teeters on the brink, how do you cope? 

You cry out to God, pray earnestly for His strong arm to mend the broken, to rescue before collapse. You search Scriptures, search your heart, search earnestly for something, anything, for a remedy. 

But what do you do when after all this – the tears, the prayers, the repentance – it all falls anyways? Prayers for repair seemingly return with rubble. 

The Trouble with Prayers for Repair

I’ve pondered this much of late: how to reconcile my cries for fixing with answers with further breaking.

Was the Lord averse to my cries?

Had my pleas fallen on calloused ears?

While emotions raged and circumstances spun, I sensed His gentle Spirit whisper to my weary soul: 

I am not a handyman. 

Patch this. Mend that. Indeed, my prayers for fixing desired repair work on existing structures, keeping the status quo minus the cracks. “Here’s MY plan for fixing, Lord. Be a good handyman and get the job done.” 

As I wrestled with this new realization of my heart’s desires, He lovingly, patiently whispered another transforming truth. 

You are clay and I, the Potter. 

God Is the Potter

The Potter.

Master craftsman.

Clay always transforms into its destined design within the molding palm of its Sculptor’s hands. Should cracks develop or walls weaken, He does not simply patch nor mend.  The Potter presses the entire piece to the ground, flattening to scratch and building again from the bottom up. For the vessel to hold true, it must be made new.   

For the fractured, fixing requires breaking. 

With this newfound perspective, I realized my cries for mending had in fact been answered! Not by mere patchwork that would eventually give way to greater rupture but by the loving leveling of the Master Potter’s Hands. Not out of disdain or frustration but clear vision of the full potential trapped within my clay, potential that could only be realized by His molding touch. 

He allowed all to fall so it could be built up in Him, strong and sure. 

Take heart, weary one. You are not forsaken.

When it all falls down, rest your battered bones in the palm of the Potter. His desire exceeds mere repair of fractured places. Know you are ever in His sight as the apple of His eye. He has a masterpiece in mind! 

Therein lies the beauty of being broken. 

Nourish Scripture: John 16 

Do you want to discover God’s purpose for you and transform the way you live? Download Nourishing Your Heart to find out how!

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This blog was written by Patience Leino. Patience Leino is a solo mama, a worship leader, and a sought-after advocate and educator in pediatrics. A Maryland native, she graduated from Liberty University with a degree in Biblical Studies and now calls Raleigh home. You can explore her adventures in faith, food, and failure on her blog.  © 2019 Treasured Ministries.

Another long day, grappling past lies and current insecurities and future worst-case possibilities.

Craving words of reassurance to raw wounds open, I reach out to friends with said aching, seeking remedy. 

Disappointment comes again as well-intentioned words fall hollow on these doubting ears.

Shame lays another layer down upon a battered heart.

And round about this carousel of craving I go again…   

Seeking Wholeness in the Wrong Places

We’ve likely all taken a spin or seventy on this merry-go-round, seeking wholeness in the words of trusted friends for our scarred places, wounded spaces.

Guilty as charged.

For me, it happens most often come evening. When the world slows, and children finally sleep, and I lie alone in bed. “Am I enough? Is God still kind? Not to us all but to me.  Did my failures today scar my children for life?” These are some of my frequent flyers. I’m confident your list stands ready in the wings too. 

What do we do? What do I do? I grab my phone and reach out to people to fill these aching gaps. They respond as best they know how yet my holes within only expand under the weight of sincere yet inadequate platitudes.

This cycle repeats until loud lies feel true and worth seems lost and alone becomes more than a place but a defining status.   

Maybe it’s just me… 

But I know it isn’t. 

Life happens, wounds happen, heck – simply human existence happens – and we reach out battered hearts for divine balm from mortal sources. Funny how loneliness often perpetuates itself through the avenues used in seeking remedy. 

Recently, I found myself on this well-worn path again. Questions of worth, the purpose for pain, value where history had “proven” otherwise. In the middle of the familiar reach towards my mobile, a soft stirring began to sound. 

You’re not alone in loneliness. 

Finding Peace by Bestowing Community

I’ve heard it said that if we recognized how often people feel lonely, we’d find community within our loneliness. Or something like that. Bottom line – you’re not the only one aching, the only one seeking, the only one asking these same questions. 

• What do you long to hear?
• To believe?
• To have someone who knows your story believe of you, for you, speak over you? 

Such questions gave me pause. What did I truly want to believe as TRUTH in my depths? Words began to fill my mind, snatches of verses often cliched in their application. Words of worth, destiny, beauty springing from ashes and hidden hopes realized.   

“Ok, Lord, I ‘know’ all these things are true, but I want to believe them, and I honestly don’t.” His next whisper surprised me. 

Who else needs to hear these words too? 

Full stop. I sensed the Lord challenging me to trade seeking for serving, to lift my eyes from sorrows, off licking proverbial wounds, and recognize those surrounding me.

It took conscious effort, this changing of perspective: wounds in one hand and desired spoken truths in the other, both held out before the One who ultimately bore all wounds, who alone bestows all healing. And the results astounded me.   

Slowly, surely, as names came to mind, a choice lay before me. No, an invitation: set aside my own wounds to extend balm for another.  And if asked of its source, I’d only be able to point to the One who was pointing this all out to me.  

Pick up a phone, select a person, type away. Only this time, not in gathering, but in bestowing, in speaking life. As their faces came to mind and words were sent on blessing’s mission, the most remarkable thing occurred:  My own ache began to ease and texts started coming in. 

“How did you know?” 

“I so needed this.” 

 Grateful, I responded, “Me too, my friend.  Me too.”

This paradox turned hurting on its head, bestowing community where, moments before, loneliness reigned.

It’s counterintuitive when wounds screaming loud bleed raw and words from trusted friends fall flat on aching ears – to lay down craving in place of grace-proclaiming. What if we transformed our intuitions to seek into commissions to serve? Who else might need to hear the very things our own heart longs for?

Simply put – bestow the words you crave. 

Nourish Scripture: John 14

Jesus is calling you to find nourishment in the Word. Download Nourishing Your Heart to discover the key to connecting with his Word that transforms the way you live. 

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This blog was written by Patience Leino. Patience Leino is a solo mama, a worship leader, and a sought-after advocate and educator in pediatrics. A Maryland native, she graduated from Liberty University with a degree in Biblical Studies and now calls Raleigh home. You can explore her adventures in faith, food, and failure on her blog. © 2019 Treasured Ministries.