I am a Christian, a retired teacher, a mother and a grandmother. I love to read and I love the Lord Jesus Christ! Unless otherwise specified ,all visual illustrations are from the YOU VERSION APP of the Bible.
If you are Biblically literate, then I am sure you know the story of Joseph and how he ended up as a slave in Egypt after his jealous brothers sold him. The finality of the story is Joseph forgiving them and saying this to them:
I did not make a mistake. I put Joseph’s words with a cross background because Jesus could have said the same thing and it would have been true. The people who crucified Him (all of us, because we would have most likely been in that mob and because we are ALL sinners), meant Him harm. Harm being a euphemism for death. They wanted to kill him and get Him off the earth and out of the way of their plans to keep on sinning.
But God and Jesus had other plans. When He was resurrected, He showed everyone that they had actually helped God carry out His plan of redemption through their evil obsession with killing Him.
How many times have others offended me or harmed me? How many times has God turned it around for me for good? Too many times to count, but I am sorry to say that, unlike Jesus and Joseph, I did not recognize what they did as something that God could use for my good. Today’s devotional opened my eyes to a new perspective about people who are against me. What do you think? Is this true for you, too? No matter what, God’s plans will not be thwarted. He works for our good and continues to work out His purpose for our lives.
My prayer is for the healing of our nation as we turn back to God. We need to look forward and not back, forgiving as the Lord forgave, and pray for our new leaders. The new President may not be the one you wanted in office, but he is the one that God allowed to be there, so the commandment is to pray for those who lead us. It doesn’t say to pray for those you like and agree with…pray for the leaders.
I spent the last four years praying for President Biden even though he was not my choice. I believe God had a purpose in allowing him to be in office. And since I don’t have God’s mind, I cannot tell you what that was. But I prayed, sometimes begrudgingly and sometimes half-heartedly, but I prayed.
Today is a new day and a new administration. I hope that you will join me in praying for President Trump and his family, for Vice President Vance and his family. May all they do be for the good of the nation and the people that God loves.
God’s attribute of omnipresence means that there is no where I am that He is not already there. I can’t run from God, hide from Him are escape Him. I don’t recall ever really wanting to be away from God, but I do recall times when I thought He was far away and not listening to my pleas for help or safety. But that is a lie from Satan, the one who does not have the powers of God and envies God, so much so that he tries to get us to believe lies in order to turn us away from God.
With grandchildren getting ready to graduate from college and high school this year, I am looking at the world and thinking what a scary time it is for them to live. But God has assured me and continues to let me know that He is watching out for them and He is there, right where they are. He was with Tyler on his trip to Europe, even while protests were happening in Germany. He was with Isaac when he had to have cancer tests again, the kind that make him nauseous. God is there because He chooses to be right there with us. He created us and loves us enough that He won’t step away and leave us on our own.
It has taken me a long time to come to the realization that God does not just take off when the going gets tough. He is right there, walking alongside me in the hard times as well as in the times of rejoicing. He comforts me so that I can comfort others.
As a finite being who can occupy one space at a time, it is hard for me to comprehend that the God of the Universe can see all of His creation and be present with every one of us all the time. That is part of the mystery that is God and knowing that He is God allows me to accept and just know in my heart that He is there, all the time.
Hope is everywhere we look, but many of us are looking in the wrong place and to the wrong person for hope. For me, hope is found in the sparkling eyes of our grandchildren. They are hope for a bright and promising future. Hope is found in the rose bush that is currently dormant. It will bloom again in the spring, but right now it’s just waiting for its time. Hope is in the cardinals that hop around outside my window. They trust in their Creator to provide for them, and sometimes we help out by putting out bird seed for them. Hope…it’s in the trusting and waiting that hope is really found.
God is the God of hope. As we trust in Him, then we can have hope and the bonus of joy and peace. Thursday was a hard day for us here at the Watts household. We were awakened before six with the carbon monoxide detector beeping because the electricity had gone off. We waited quietly in bed for a few minutes, hoping it would flash back on, but since it didn’t, I got up and called Dominion Virginia Power. I went through a bunch of automated hoops and was ultimately told that I was the first one to report an outage and there was no estimated time of restoration. Knowing it was in the low teens outside, I fed our cat and went back to our warm bed. About nine, I got up again to a much colder house (it was about 58 degrees at that time, according to our thermometer on the wall of our bedroom), so I got my phone and checked the outage map. No info there, so I called Dominion again. This time, there was a technical issue, so I got to talk to a live person. She was very considerate and kind and said she did not know an estimated time of restoration but there were others out in our area. A few hours later, I checked the outage map again, found out that in our rural area, there were 160 people without electricity and the technicians were out trying to find the problem. The estimated time of restoration was by one o’clock. So, I bundled up and sat in my chair to take my blood pressure so I could take my morning meds. That done, I took my bundled self back to bed, with the temperature in the mid 50’s in the house now. I fell asleep for about an hour, got up and checked the outage map again. It had changed slightly. Now, only 111 were without power, so some had their problem fixed, just not us. I contacted the people in our small group from church and asked for prayer. Harry had surgery on Wednesday and was not feeling well enough to venture out to someplace warmer. So, we stayed in and bundled up as much as possible. One friend from church offered to let us come stay with her, which was very kind and offered hope (just in case Dominion couldn’t get the power back on that day). I was sitting in my chair with four layers on (blankets and jackets plus clothes and winter underwear) when I suddenly saw our digital frames come on. Then, I heard the heater start. Praise God! Our electricity came back on at almost exactly one p.m. Wonder how Dominion did that? So, I waited until the house got over 60 degrees and started to shed layers. I turned the breaker back on for the water heater. (Did you know that when the electricity goes off you are supposed to turn off the breaker for the water heater so the element doesn’t burn up? A good plumber friend told us that long ago when we first moved into our countryside dwelling.) Anyway, by 3 p.m., the house was warm, the hot water was restored, the electronic gadgets had been reset and I was finally able to do my online devotional. The plan is always to do my devotionals first thing in the morning before I get distracted or busy, but Thursday was a crazy day. Taking care of Harry, electrical issues, electronics issues and the cat kept me busy for a while. So, what does all of this have to do with hope? I HOPED that the power company would get the electricity back on soon and be safe as they worked. In fact, I prayed for the safety of the linemen that were out in the very cold weather trying to help me and 159 other families. I had HOPE that if our electricity did not return before dark, we could go to Bonnie’s house, about fifteen minutes away, and have warmth and light. Through it all, I had HOPE that God was with us and would keep us safe. And He did! We were not particularly comfortable in our many layers, but we were safe and warm enough that we could fall asleep in the middle of the crisis. I have to confess that I was not feeling especially joyful, but I didn’t feel frantic or out-of-sorts which is my usual go-to mood when things don’t go as planned. Instead, I felt peace, knowing that God was in control, of the weather, the electricity, the linemen and us as well as all the others in the same powerless condition as us.
Once the power came back on and I was doing my devotional, a truth struck me. We are all powerless without God, unable to function as we should and to carry on with our daily life because we aren’t plugged into our power source. He is our only source of hope in a life that has some unexpected surprises sometimes.
I don’t know about you, but I am guilty of judging people by the way they look. If a big, hulking man is coming near me, I tend to shy away and look for the nearest “safe-looking” person. You may say to yourself that’s just my natural instinct to protect myself. But what if, instead of shrinking away, I were more accepting of differences and looked at others the way God sees them.
Every person is worthy of God’s love, not because of what they have done or because of what they look like, but only because they are a special creation of God. He made each of us, even the scary looking dudes, to have a relationship with Him. If not one of us tells them about the Lord because we are afraid to talk to them, then they may never hear the gospel. Let that sink in. Our fear may hurt someone for eternity. I don’t remember one single passage in the Bible in which Jesus avoided someone because their appearance wasn’t acceptable to Him. Jesus saw their hearts and called the Pharisees a brood of vipers. But it wasn’t because of what He saw on the outside.
I want to take the time to stop, pray, ask for God’s vision for each person I encounter and follow through with sowing His seeds for them. God chose King David, a young boy hardly worth noticing, to start the royal lineage to Jesus. He saw David’s heart, not his youth or impetuousness or even how small he was compared to his brother. It’s time for me to start looking more carefully and stop judging from the outward appearances.
Please go to the original post and follow David. He has a lot of wisdom and insight that you will not want to miss. And watch for Part 2 of these lessons!
In our finite minds, sometimes it is hard to conceive that God, who is infinite, chooses the timing that is best for us. In our world of instant gratification for just about everything, we want to hurry it all up. But we need to trust that God knows exactly what He is doing and how to do things at the right time for all of us.
God could have sent Abraham and Sarah a son when they were younger, but then what kind of miracle would that have been and how would it have grown their faith? Abraham is known as a man of faith because he believed that God would fulfill His promise in spite of the fact that he was old.
Christ came to the world at just the right time, but He also came into each of our lives at just the right time. When Christ was introduced to me, I was alone in my first apartment, lonely and really needing friendships. A neighbor became my friend and introduced me to the Savior who would be my eternal friend, especially needed as less than a year later, I became a military wife and began a series of moves to new places where I leaned in to Jesus, His guidance and His love.
When we are having a tough time, we wonder where is God and why He is not immediately rescuing us. The answer is that God can use what we go through to teach us more about Him, His character and His deep love for us. If He always intervenes right away, we don’t learn anything but to expect Him to stop the pain and then we go on our merry way. The expectation of God is that we humble ourselves before Him, wait for Him to act and appreciate whatever He does for us. It may not be the answer we expect or in the time we wanted it, but whenever God answers will be what is best for us and at the perfect time for us.
Waiting is hard, but not waiting may have consequences that we don’t really want to go through.
Success has come quickly to Holmes, Marple & Poe Investigations. The New York City agency led by three detectives—Brendan Holmes, “the brain,” Margaret Marple, “the eyes,” and Auguste Poe, the “muscle”—with famous names and mysterious pasts is one major case away from cementing its professional reputation.
But as a series of child abductions tests the PIs’ legendary skills, the cerebral Holmes’s absence leaves a gaping hole in the agency roster.
Only by closing ranks and solving the mystery within can they recover all that’s been lost.
My Thoughts
The private investigative team of Marple, Poe and Holmes takes on a really tough case involving stolen newborns. Their investigation is turned on its head when Brendan Holmes decides that he doesn’t want to be part of the group anymore. Suffering from the lingering effects of addiction, Holmes isn’t sure what he wants to do, but he knows that he doesn’t want to continue to work in the partnership. Marple and Poe convince him to help them with the case of the kidnapped infants and thus the non-stop action begins. Encompassing several U.S. states and two continents, this book is a high-octane thrill ride, with false clues and multiple suspects along with a police detective who is less than cooperative with their investigation. I really enjoyed the way the trio figured out what was really happening and followed their instincts to try to save the babies’ lives as well as solve a second mystery involving a serial killer. There was a lot going on in this book, at a fast pace and with the author’s signature style of short, packed with action chapters. I felt as though I got to know Marple, Holmes and Poe more personally in this book because their flaws were evident as well as their many strengths. They also showed how much they cared about each other and that solving the case was not for monetary gain but rather for the satisfaction of helping others stay safe. The interaction between the characters was realistic and the plot is relevant and compelling. This is the second book in the series but can be read and enjoyed as a standalone if you have just discovered it. Disclaimer Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher via Netgalley. I was not required to write a positive review and all opinions expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16th CFR, Part 255, “Guidelines Concerning the Use of Testimonials and Endorsements in Advertising.”
This is general fiction. I would rate it PG.
About the Authors
James Patterson is the most popular storyteller of our time. He is the creator of unforgettable characters and series, including Alex Cross, the Women’s Murder Club, Jane Smith, and Maximum Ride, and of breathtaking true stories about the Kennedys, John Lennon, and Tiger Woods, as well as our military heroes, police officers, and ER nurses. Patterson has coauthored #1 bestselling novels withBill Clinton, Dolly Parton, and Michael Crichton. He has told the story of his own life in James Patterson by James Patterson and receivedan Edgar Award, ten Emmy Awards, the Literarian Award from the National Book Foundation, and the National Humanities Medal
Brian Sitts is an award-winning advertising creative director and television writer. He has collaborated with James Patterson on books for adults and children.
He and his wife, Jody, live in Peekskill, New York.
I say that I have faith, but I have to confess that sometimes my belief wavers. I have faith that God loves me, sent His Son to die for me and that one day I will go to heaven to be with Him forever.
But when we are barreling down the highway at seventy miles an hour, my heart pounds and I am barely able to keep my eyes open when the trucks pass us. That is when my belief wavers. Is God really big enough and powerful enough to keep me safe in those situations? How about when my husband goes to visit his brother and I am all alone in the middle of the big woods? Every little sound sends me scurrying to turn a light on and to cuddle my cat. What happened to my belief then? Is God with me in the scary times, too? Or when one of my children or grandchildren is facing a battle against an injury or disease? How big is my belief then?
I came to understand this morning while reading my devotional that Abraham had faith, but he also still had doubts. God told him that he would become a great nation and Abraham’s response was that his servant would be inheriting everything. That sounds a lot like doubt to me. But God assured him that the son that he himself had with Sarah would begin a lineage that would bless the whole world.
I don’t often, maybe ever, get such an assurance from God about His promises, not audibly anyway. But I do read His Word daily and glean a lot of promises from that. Last time we were racing down the highway so fast that my heart started pounding, I remembered Ps. 121: 7-8, a verse that I memorized last month. “The Lord will keep you from all evil; He will keep your life. The Lord will keep your going out and your coming in from this time forth and forevermore.” Thus, the Lord really did speak to me. My heart slowed down, my breathing became normal again, and I was able to have a conversation with my husband. That may not sound very amazing to you, but it really was to me!
I am learning that my belief is in direct proportion to the word that I have hidden in my heart and that I can access whenever I need it. I am on week 14 of memorizing a scripture verse each week. It’s not a great accomplishment, but I am sticking to the plan and the plan is a good one. At least, it has been for me. My verse for this week is Isaiah 46:4. “Even to your old age and gray hairs I am He, I am He who will sustain you. I have made you and I will carry you, I will sustain you and I will rescue you.” That’s quite a promise when my bones are creaking and each movement feels like the floor is coming up to greet me. God is taking care of me every minute that I am still on earth, and I am grateful for that assurance.
Do you have any favorite verses that help you to believe when times get hard? Or even when things are regular but not exactly the way you wish they could be? Please share in the comments.
Speaking of comments, I just discovered that many of you have been commenting and I didn’t see them until yesterday when I accessed Word Press online instead of on the app. I am not sure why that is, but I went to the comments section online and forty-seven comments popped up. I will try to do better about checking that so I can respond. I sincerely appreciate your kind words, your advice, and your friendship.
I will leave you with the scripture verse that began my journey of memorizing, Isaiah 43:2: “When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; When you walk through fire, you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you.”
Have a blessed day, filled with awe, wonder and belief!
Watchman Nee became a Christian in mainland China in 1920 at the age of seventeen and began writing in the same year. Throughout the nearly thirty years of his ministry, Watchman Nee was clearly manifested as a unique gift from the Lord to His Body for His move in this age. In 1952 he was imprisoned for his faith; he remained in prison until his death in 1972. His words remain an abundant source of spiritual revelation and supply to Christians throughout the world. (From Watchmannee.org)
Watchman need had a lot to say about many Christian topics, including grace. He was wise in saying that those who have received grace, which is all of us who proclaim to be Christians, should learn to be gracious to others. What is grace and what is being gracious?
According to Christianity.com, “grace can be defined as ‘God’s favor toward the unworthy’ or ‘God’s benevolence on the undeserving.’ In His grace, God is willing to forgive us and bless us, even though we fall short of living righteously.” Grace is God’s forgiveness and love for us even though we don’t deserve it.
Grace is a free gift from God. We are forgiven by the grace of God, not because we have arrived at righteousness, but because He gives us the righteousness of His Son. We are not worthy, but God calls us worthy and forgiven.
So, how do we show grace to others, i.e. how are we gracious? We must show the love, mercy, compassion and forgiveness that God has shown to us. Judging others, declaring our hatred for certain groups, turning away from people in need and holding grudges or bitterness are all the opposite of grace. We have been shown grace by a compassionate and loving God, so how can we do any less than extend grace to others? In so doing, we show the world who Jesus is inside of us and how Jesus would treat them if He were meeting them.
I don’t know about you, but I often fall short of being gracious to others. I get impatient and short-tempered about the same people wanting the same help all the time. Sometimes, it is hard for me to let go of offenses. I say I hate the sin and love the sinner, but sometimes, I am not really sure that’s true since I don’t want to be around the sinners. I am particularly offended by all of this transgender foolishness, but I have to keep reminding myself that they are sinners to whom God offers grace and I should do nothing less.
My word study today has brought me full circle, It starts with God who shows grace to us and then I am supposed to show grace to others in the hope that they, too, will get to know God and His grace.
Vickie's Book Nook and Meditation Corner 