Author: Carrie Dameron

NCFI Cares: Proceed with Caution

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“My Father is working ucautionntil now, and I am working.” (John 5:17) This was Jesus’ response to the Jewish leaders who had accused him of violating the Sabbath by healing a lame man.  Jesus repeatedly came up against the religious establishment for doing things in contrast to their rules–healing the blind, touching the unclean, and teaching the people.  We can find ourselves in similar situations as Jesus. Especially, when the work of the Lord is in contrast to health care and/or educational institutions rules.  We may find ourselves coming up against the leadership.

For example: a group of Christian nurses want to meet weekly to pray, but the hospital administrators refuse to give them permission to use a room. What can the nurses do?

  • Pray for the situation and the administrators while trusting the Lord to provide.
  • Listen to the Holy Spirit who knows the work of the Father and the “will be done”
  • Proceed with a heart filled with the grace and peace of Christ, knowing we represent Jesus to our colleagues and leaders.

This is just one example of when our Heavenly Father’s work is in contrast to the goals and plans of our health care and/or educational facilities. When these occasions arise we need an extra dose of discernment and guidance. Please recognize, this is not a call to be rebellious for rebellious sake. Instead, it is a reminder when conflict arises to proceed cautiously and discern the good, acceptable and perfect will of God (Romans 12:2).

NCFI Cares: The Test from upon High

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I wanted to share this guest devotion from my colleague in Argentina who provides godly wisdom during times of testing by the Lord. It is not only relevant. The timing of the devotion also demonstrates how the Lord impresses upon different members of the body of Christ to teach and encourage others during such a time as this. Peace of Christ to you, Carrie77ba6-ncficares_3bloglogoJames 1:12 “Happy is the one who endures testing, because when he has proven to be genuine, he will receive the crown of life that God promised to those who love him.” Reading: James 1:12-18.

My friend listened silently, as the doctor gave a diagnosis, treatments, and a long list of explanations. The doctor, noticing my friend’s quietness, stopped and asked her, “Why are you not asking questions?” She replied, “I stopped listening when you said that my small son has Diabetes.”

A simple sentence “Your son has Diabetes.” is difficult for a mother to hear. As believers we ask the question, “How does God allow these things to happen?” The Word says, “Blessed is the man.” But, can you be happy for someone who receives this diagnosis? Is it a punishment or a test? It is common that we have a mistaken concept of what the word means by “test”. And it is common that we have a wrong concept of what means the word “proved”.

Abraham had a similar experience, yet more profound. After many years God gave him a son, whom then God asked Abraham to sacrifice (Genesis 22:9-12). How is it that we are before God a “friend” of ours delights in our suffering (James 2:23)? Often we have read that God not only proves us, but allows the test. But whom does God prove? God tests those he loves. Those who are his friends. Difficult as it is to understand, with the criteria of this world, but those of us who know God as our Creator we know that God is molding us.  Since he has given us form, it is possible that it hurts us, a tear never escapes from us. God is never going to leave us alone in the tests. Instead, he is gives us the assurance in his Word that will not just prove us beyond what we could expect.

The tests that come from upon High extracts qualities of light that God has been sowing in our heart: obedience, faith, humility, patience, and total dependence. If you have decided to serve the Lord prepare yourself for the test. Say to the Lord, “Here I am.” And in times of adversity you will be able to reach Peace.

Guest devotion by Martha Fernandez Moyano, Argentina, NCFI International Board Member

 

#notforsaken

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Are you suffering? Overwhelmed with grief? pain? anguish? loneliness? despair? fear? Do you feel like Christ did in the Gethsemane: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me”?  #notforsaken

Receive daily posts through twitter @CarrieDameron

Facebook Page: Carrie M. Dameron 

 

NCFI Cares: Equity — A NCFI Value

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As we look at the final NCFI value, we explore equity and God’s grace.

According to Ross, a Bible scholar, a lesson of God’s equity of faithful service is found in the parable Matthew 20:1-16 “Workers in the Vineyard”. The landowner hires workers at various times throughout the day. Some at the start of the day, some in the middle, and some for the final hour. At the end of the day, when it is time to pay the workers their wage, the landowner pays the same wage to each worker, whether they had worked 1 hour or for the entire day. The lessons from the story are:

  1. The Lord, the landowner, is sovereign over His kingdom including the workers and the wages.
  2. Everyone who serves the Lord will be treated fairly and can trust his equity.
  3. How the Lord treats all of His servants is by grace. Until the workers were approached by the landowner, they had no work. If he had not found them and arranged for them to enter his vineyard, they would have remained with nothing.
  4. The workers should be pleased with what He gives them.

In the final analysis, by Ross, it is not by length of service, or amount of work, that grace operates—it is based on what God chooses to give.  “So the last will be first, and the first will be last.” (vs 16)

Thus my reflection on equity as a NCFI value is we are all colleagues, workers of the vineyard. The Lord, as the landowner, is sovereign over every detail of our vineyard, NCFI, including the workers. We depend on the Lord to search for workers and br
ing them into our vineyard and trust him with how he will supply each need. Unlike an ac
ademic setting that has tiers of masters or doctorates or clinical facilities with staff nurse, managers and administrators, each nurse is welcomed and respected as a fellow colleague. We encourage everyone to use his or her gifts in the vineyard without delineation of education, rank or title (1 Peter 4:10; Romans 12:6).  We live out the grace of God as we recognize each person’s contributions, whether it is small or large, or during a short season, or a life-time of service.  Finally, our landowner, the Lord is generous and gracious with his rewards in this life anncfi-valuesd the one to come (1 Peter 5:4; James 1:2). We praise him for the wonderful opportunity to serve Him in NCFI!

“Equity and justice are the foundations of your throne. Loyal love and faithfulness characterize your rule. How blessed are the people who worship you! O Lord, they experience your favor.” (Psalms 89:14-15)

Ross, A “Workers in the Vineyard” (Matthew 20:1-16).

NCFI Cares: Love–The gift that keeps on giving.

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As I looked into the  NCFI value “Love”  I was overwhelmed with where to start. Until I found an excellent definition from the International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (ISBE) written by William Evans entitled Source of Man’s Love

Whatever love there is in man, whether it be toward God or toward his fellowman, has its source in God–“Love is of God; and every one that loveth is begotten of God, and knoweth God. He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love” (1Jo 4:7); “We love, because he first loved us” (1 Jo 4:19). Trench, in speaking of agape, says it is a word born within the bosom of revealed religion. Heathen writers do not use it at all, their nearest approach to it being philanthropia or philadelphia–the love between those of the same blood. Love in the heart of man is the offspring of the love of God. Only the regenerated heart can truly love as God loves; to this higher form of love the unregenerate can lay no claim (1 Jo 4:7, 19, 21; 2:7-11; 3:10; 4:11 f). The regenerate man is able to see his fellow-man as God sees him, value him as God values him, not so much because of what he is by reason of his sin and unloveliness, but because of what, through Christ, he may become; he sees man’s intrinsic worth and possibility in Christ (2 Co 5:14-17). This love is also created in the heart of man by the Holy Ghost (Ro 5:5), and is a fruit of the Spirit (Ga 5:22). It is also stimulated by the example of the Lord Jesus Christ, who, more than anyone else, manifested to the world the spirit and nature of true love (Joh 13:34; 15:12; Ga 2:20; Eph 5:25-27; 1 Jo 4:9 f).

In other words, God gives us love. Not for us to keep, like a selfish child. Instead it is given to us to share and give to others. The mystery of God’s love is the more we give love, the more we receive love. Truly, love is the gift that keeps on giving.

NCFI Cares: Christmas WOW!

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wow

Every Christmas we celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ. A lowly infant born amidst a chaotic world to bring salvation to humanity. The life-changing miracle that is veiled behind the simplicity and monotony of a child’s birth is an amazing WOW for humanity. God became flesh on Christmas Eve (John 1:14). WOW! The omnipotent, omnipresence, and omniscient God (all powerful, all present, and all knowing) became Jesus Christ, the fully human and fully divine. Double WOW!

As I reflect on the cataclysmic miracle of the “I AM” existing as a human to display divine love for you and for me, I want to fall on my knees in holy worship.

“Fall on your knees

O hear the angels’ voices

O night divine

O night when Christ was born”

 (O Holy Night)

This truth is intensely theological, yet it is this mystery that is the real Christmas WOW and makes all our other WOW’s possible.

As you make last minute preparations for Christmas, look to experience your Christmas WOW. Do you find it in the innocent joy of children, the loving embrace of friends and family, is it  the extended heart to the suffering under your nursing care, or is it the quietness of the night as you ponder the night divine?

Merry Christmas from NCFI!

p.s. Share your Christmas WOW below OR in a comment on Facebook

 

Christian Nursing 101: Aging Gracefully

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I will admit that I have many friends that are in their 60’s, thus the many questions related to “retirement” come up frequently. How many years left to work? Will you relocate? Downsize your house? etc,. At the same time, I have had the same conversations with my younger friends, who as busy working professionals trying to plan ahead.

Even before, I began searching the literature on aging for the column, I knew the concept of retirement looked differently for Christians. This became more obvious as I searched scripture and paid attention to the ages of the Biblical saints and their ministries. Their faithful service was until death. They provide us a new take on the phrase “until death do us part”.  We are in a lifetime, eternal relationship with God as his disciples committed to his calling. Nowhere in the Bible, nor in Christian history did the saints have a retirement party, nor use their golden years to fulfill personal “bucket lists”. They may have changed their roles, but the Lord continued to use them to provide wisdom and guidance to the future generation.

I would love to hear your thoughts and plans, and how the Lord has spoken to you about Aging Gracefully. 

 

NCFI Cares: God’s Faithfulness

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“For I know the plans I have for you” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future”. (Jeremiah 29: 11)

God, our father and creator has plans for each one of our lives. In Jeremiah 29:11 our Lord declares that He knows the plans He has for us and those plans are only to prosper us and not to harm us. God plans to give us hope and a future.

This declaration assures us that when we are jolted in this world by trials and turmoil we need not become discouraged and lose hope. We trust and believe in a faithful and unchanging God. He is a God who keeps His word for ever. We in our human nature fail to keep our promises and many a time have failed to be faithful to our ever faithful God.

In 1 Cor. 1:9 God, who has called us into the fellowship of His son Jesus Christ our Lord, is faithful. Yes, He has called us and He is faithful to fulfill His plans for us.  Having such a faithful calling which is so special and superior, let not any situation or anyone around us strive to take away the hope and the future promised to us by God in Jer. 29:11. Let us always be assured that God has His own plans for each one us to make us prosper and not to harm us.

What a faithful God have I

What a faithful God

What a faithful God have I

Faithful in every way.

Mrs. Rosaline Jayakaran

Secretary – ENFI, India

NCFI International Board Member

 

An NCFI Value: Respect for All

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Another value for NCFI is Respect. The International Council of Nursing (ICN) states “respect for human rights, including the right to life, to dignity, and to be treated with respect”. This statement emphasizes the importance in providing dignified, respectful health care for the promotion of life and health. As Christians our inclusive care for all patients and families is based on Galatians 3:28 “There is neither Jew nor Greencfi-valuesk, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female – for all of you are one in Christ Jesus.” We also have Ephesians 2:11 that says, “God shows no partiality or favoritism” which reminds us that God values all people.

As I reflect on respect as a Christian nursing value and the Lord’s word, I see 2 challenges for nurses.  The first is to not show partiality, but reconcile within our self to provide the same love and grace to ALL persons. Christ encourages us to love them as we would love him no matter what their religion, life style, or criminal behavior (Matthew 25:38-40).

Our second challenge is to respect our colleagues. I think the Lord’s teaching is explicit with Philippians 2:3b, “each of you should, in humility, be moved to treat one another as more important than yourself”.  Whether we are providing nursing services, conducting a meeting, or educating others, the Lord challenges us to have a humble heart of servanthood to our colleagues, our patients, and their families.

Pray for our brothers and sisters in the region of Africa. Click on the link to learn more: NCFI: Africa Region

 

NCFI Cares: Celebrate Unity-a NCFI Values

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ncfi-values-wordcloudOne of the coolest things about NCFI is the unified voice of Christian nursing. I am not saying everyone is in agreement, nor that there is never conflict. Disagreements are to be expected with any family, group or organization, especially considering the diversity of cultures, experience, education, and personalities NCFI represent.

What I am speaking more about is the unity of Christ manifested by the lack of individual denominations. In other words, the question “What denomination do you belong to?” or “Where do you go to church?” has never come up. I have attended 2 NCFI Congresses, International Board meetings, and various international conference calls and our focus has been on Christ-centered nursing.

We are all disciples, unique members of the body of Christ and unified for the same goal—equipping and encouraging Christian nurses to integrate Biblical principles and Christ centered values. Which, by the way, is our mission!

Ephesians 4:1-6 is a passage to anchor us to our purpose in NCFI:

“….I urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call—one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.”

Let’s take the unity of Christ beyond NCFI and into our daily nursing practice–committed to focusing on commonalities instead of areas of dispute while preserving our unified faith through the dwelling Spirit.

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