Mason Jars Ministry Blog 1

2nd Kings 4:1-7

On Wednesday, November 29, 2023, at about 9:15am I was sitting at the counter in my kitchen reading my morning devotional, and the Bible scripture for that day was 2^nd Kings 4:1-7.  It is a story about a woman whose husband died.  Her husband was a prophet who feared the Lord and he had two sons.  When he died, he left her in great debt, and she needed assistance from the man of God ASAP as creditors were coming to her home to take her sons away and use them as slaves so that the debt left by their dad could be paid off.

She went to Elisha the prophet and explained the situation to him, and he asked her, “what do you have in your home?”  She replied, I have nothing in my home but a jar of oil.  He then told her to go and borrow vessels from her neighbors, shut the door behind you and your sons.  Next, he said, ” pour oil from your one vessel to fill all the borrowed vessels.”  She did as he said, pouring oil from her one vessel into the vessels her sons borrowed from the neighbors.  Once the vessels were filled the oil stopped flowing.  She obeyed the man of God, and he said, “go and sell the oil and pay your debts.”  Then you and your sons can live on the remainder!  Please read this scripture whenever you have time to capture the essence of the story.  It’s a great reminder of obedience, faith, and following instructions from the man-of-God.  If you don’t have time, you can ask ChatGPT for additional explanation.

Strange Instructions

As I reflect on this Bible narrative, it resonated one of the many miracles of God, and how He uses his prophet(s) like Elisha to show Himself as a faithful provider.  Likewise, God told me to get all the Mason jars in my house and garage, put them on my kitchen island and take a picture of them.  I had no idea why, but I figured it can’t hurt.  After all, I was listening to the Holy Spirit.  He was telling me to do it, so I did it.  (Just a little sidebar) when the US was under quarantine due to COVID-19, I started canning veggies and fruits to help me cope mentally with the uncertainties of a COVID-19 environment.  I needed to focus on something not related to the daily news and my surroundings.  When it became clear our world was no longer in imminent danger, I stopped canning and had quite a few jars left-over that I stored in my home and garage as you can see from the pictures.

After I took the pictures, I put the jars back where they belonged.  I asked myself “now what?”  Later that same day my sister and I decided to learn about acrylic paint-pouring on vases.  I took a clear vase I had laying around and a mason jar to her house for me to practice on.  I may post a picture below of the first Mason jar I painted.  It was a mess but for some reason I thought it looked okay (lol).  I started looking at YouTube videos about paint-pouring and it encouraged me to buy the paint and try my hand at it.

What? That Doesn’t Make Sense!

The Holy Spirit in the meantime told me He was giving me a ministry.  It would be called Mason Jars Ministry??  What??  What is unique about that I thought?  What will people do with a Mason jar?  I don’t even know what to do with the ones I’ve started painting.  Lord I’m going to look crazy to myself and everyone else?  What Lord?  CRAZY FAITH!  I can do that for sure!!  (I did crazy things all the time when I was in the world).  I knew enough about the Bible to know that faith without works is dead, so I thought keep painting girl, anything is possible!

What Next?

During this time, I ran across a video by Pastor Michael Todd called ‘CRAZY FAITH” Part 1 that dealt with Noah building the ark.  As I began to study and reflect on this teaching, I learned that Noah was 500 years old when he started building the ark.  His children were born during this time, and it took him and his family about 100 years to complete the task of building the ark.  The incredible thing about this act of faith is that it had never rained on the earth.  According to Genesis 2:5-6, God had not yet sent rain upon the earth.  Verse 6) but a mist went up from the earth and watered the whole face of the ground.  I wonder what Noah and his families thoughts were when they saw water falling from the sky.  Experientially, hearing it for the very first time had to have been a phenomenon of great proportion.  Was the sound harsh, was it quiet, gentle or could it have been the sound of an angry torrential downpour?  Nevertheless, what we do know is that Noah was counted as obedient, righteous, faithful and therefore saved for the purposes and plans of Almighty God.

God often gives what I would call strange instructions.  Noah builds an ark (Genesis 6:13-14), Abraham was told to sacrifice his only son (James 2:21-22), Linda was told to take old jars lying around her house and garage, put them on her kitchen island, take a picture and began to paint them.  The Holy Spirit then tells me “I’m starting a ministry using you and you are going to call it Mason Jars Ministry.”  CRAZY FAITH!  Now what???

TO BE CONTINUED….