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.
Author: vicklea
I love to read! I’m a retired teacher with a spouse of 45 years, three amazing children and nine wonderful grandchildren. I am blessed!
God captures us with love, grace and mercy. That is a great way to be a captive! No fear, no chains that bind us…just a lifting of our great burdens into His capable hands and a complete feeling of being able to relax and let go in His arms. As His captives, our responsibility is to spread the Gospel wherever we go. I love the imagery of this verse…the good news of the knowledge of Christ is like a sweet perfume. Have you gone into a room and knew instantly that someone you love dearly was just there because the essence of their scent was left behind? That’s what this verse makes me think about. As part of Christ’s triumphal procession, we need to act like victors, not downtrodden captives held by an oppressive dictator. God is love and always wants what is best for us. He knows that living for Him is what it always best!
When you are seeking something, you are looking hard for it, not just with your eyes but in your mind and heart, trying to find out the last place you saw it and may have put it down.
I love this Scripture verse because it encourages us to seek the Lord, but God shed more light on it for me as I meditated on it this morning. God is NOT the one who is lost! We are. We seek Him so that we can get back on the right path, not so that we can boast about finding Him. He never left, never moved, never was not exactly where He has always been. He is as close as your next prayer and as far as you try to push Him out of your life. God is nearby if that is where you want Him to be, but sometimes in the deepest part of our hearts, we relegate God to a lower place than He deserves and desires, and that is why we need to seek Him daily. I need to put Him on His throne repeatedly and take myself off of it. I think, in my human pride, that I am okay in my life and all is fine…and then, something happens and I know that is not true. When God is not on the throne, when I am not seeking Him daily, then I am the one who is lost and needs to find my way back to where I left Him. Because the truth is that He never leaves me…or you.
There isn’t much in this life that is free. I get excited when I win a prize from an author that gives me a free book. But once I read that book the excitement is gone and I look forward to the next one, even if I have to pay for it. God’s grace is free all the time, ready and waiting for us to accept it. His unmerited favor is right there…like a gift that keeps on giving every day if we just reach out to God, stay connected to Him and accept His free gift.
We have nothing that we can do to save ourselves. God did all of the work on the cross through His Son Jesus. We just have to accept that gift and its magnificent benefits and then use that grace that we have to bless others.
The knowledge and understanding that we need is readily available to us these days though various sources. I have multiple copies of different versions of the Bible to read. I also have the YouVersion Bible App, technology that makes it possible to have all kinds of versions at my fingertips on my computer. The real knowledge and understanding come from a relationship with God. He loves us, we love Him and that love overflows to others. That is the foundation of our understanding God. He is love, pure love, poured out for us and on us so that we can pour out that love to a lost and dying world that needs to know Him and His grace.
If we are traveling the road of life, which all of us are, we will encounter sin and evil. Nevertheless, God’s Word tells us to stay on the path to life and He will honor us. One day, the wicked will be totally destroyed. That is our hope and our assurance. Not that we want to see the wicked destroyed, of course, What we really want is for them to repent and come to God. But God promises that one day we will not have to endure their wickedness, their plots and schemes against God and His people will be gone forever.
In the meantime, as we face the trouble here during our earthly journey, we can depend on God to rescue us and to provide a shelter for us. He is our stronghold, our fortress, the One on whom we can always depend.
The wicked think that they are winning the battle. What they don’t know is that they have already lost the entire war. The final victory belongs to God!
While we Christians sometimes despair at all of the wickedness in the world, let me assure you that God is not dismayed. He knows, and we should know, that God will not forever put up with all of this foolishness. Pride month? We know what God’s Word says about pride, right?
So our heartfelt and faithful prayer should be for God to rise up.
I like how this verse encourages us to be brave and courageous as we wait for the Lord. We can depend on Him to answer at just the right time and with our good always at the center of His answer.
God answers with good things and then gives the answer in front of all, even the doubters. God’s answers to prayers for us are a living testament to His goodness and grace. We are a walking testimony every day, if we will but share the good news of all He has done for us.
After months of testing, I can share my testimony that God has restored my health and is continuing to strengthen me. I am not as young as I once was and don’t have all of the abilities that I once had, but I am strong enough to do what God blesses me to do, and that is enough. Praise His Name for the answers to prayers that all of the tests showed nothing remarkable and the fainting is simply a reaction to my heart medicine!
As a parent, I had to work at not showing favoritism because, of course, one child was easier to manage and more compliant. But as a Christian parent, God showed me clearly that showing favoritism would create wounds that would be difficult or almost impossible to heal. Thus, I was ever aware of making sure that each child felt equally loved and my hope is that I was successful.
More importantly, God has no favorites, not among people as individuals or nations. Like me, He probably finds some more compliant and easier to get along with. Yet He still treats us all equally and give us all the same opportunity to come to salvation through His Son.
I love the words in this Scripture verse that say in every nation. Not one group of people is omitted. The Good News is for all! God set the standard for reaching out to every people group and it is our responsibility to do the same. There may be some who are easier to approach or talk to, but all are the same in the eyes of God. Everyone needs a Savior; thus, God provided Jesus for each and every individual on the face of the earth, regardless of nationality, personality, background or any other factor. He is One God for all.
I am currently spending time with family and it’s important to me that God answer this prayer as I share Bible truths and stories from His Word with my young grandchildren. Curious by nature, one of the children has been asking repeatedly about stories from the Bible. I have told her the stories of David and Goliath, Abraham and Isaac, Gideon and his fleece, Saul on the road to Damascus and creation. My prayer before our visit was to help me make a difference in the lives of the children. So, as I continue to share, pray and speak about Jesus and His saving power, may my words please the Lord who has given me the opportunity to be with these precious little ones.
As I listen to snippets of the news (I can never stand to watch an entire broadcast because the reports are so negative) and receive blurbs about what’s happening around the world, I am struck by one common theme. People around the world have lost their fear of God. They don’t reverence Him nor are they awed by His power. Mankind in general has become a god unto themselves. They are their own idols, and in setting themselves up for their own narcissistic worship, they deny the reality of God and the fact that one day He will reign and every knee will bow before Him.
It is the fear of the Lord that gives life because in fearing our Lord, we are ready to submit to Him and His desires for us. The escape from death comes when we recognize Jesus as Savior and Lord so that one day we can live eternally with Him. Those in the world today are living for today with no thought for the eternal consequences of their actions. That is why it is imperative for those of us who know the truth to be good ambassadors and share the Gospel, even when others don’t want to hear it. We have to fulfill our responsibility before the Lord, giving Him the respect and awe He deserves and then step back and let Him work in that person’s heart. One person at at time is how change happens, and the Lord knows that change certainly needs to happen in our world today. I think it starts with a healthy fear (respect) of God.
I think that this verse has been a theme in my life for the last three or four months. Undergoing one medical test after another, I must say that anxiety fluttered within me and tried to take hold. I kept repeating verses to myself about casting my burdens on the Lord and that He was with me no matter what I faced.
My last medical test was on Monday, an MRA, which I was told means Magnetic Resonance Angiograpy. In other words, they were taking pictures of the blood vessels inside my brain to see if anything was amiss there. (This followed an episode with blurred vision and severe vertigo.) Anyway, I would be lying if I did not confess my anxiety that hit strongly as my husband drove me to the hospital for the test. He prayed for me, I went in and tried to read as I waited to be called. The test itself wasn’t so bad, just a helmet like thing fit over my head and face and into the tight quarters of the MRI machine I went. I prayed while I was in there, and I gave thanks for all of the good reports so far. None of the multitude of tests had shown anything significant, so I was very grateful that all kinds of medical issues had been ruled out.
I got the results sent to me via message from the hospital later that evening. Of course, I couldn’t understand the medical terms but I did notice that the MRA picked up on the fact that part of my brain doesn’t get blood anymore. That would be where I had my stroke, of course. So, I waited for my neurologist to call to interpret the results. He called after I was in bed (he is one of the hardest working, most dedicated doctors I know, working long after office hours) and left the message with my husband.
“The results are normal!” That was the doctor’s pronouncement.
My husband let me know once he got off the phone and I was exultant that God came through for me again. As I prayed, I asked God why so many tests and then normal results. Now, don’t get me wrong. I didn’t want a bad report. I was just surprised that I had so many symptoms and the test results were all fine. God spoke to my heart and told me that He used the tests to draw me closer to Him and the healing came from Him.
Arising this morning to a new day without any new tests or specialists to see, I immediately turned to praise. As I took my shower, I sang “1000 Hallelujas” quietly to myself. As I read my devotionals, I played Chris Tomlin’s “Holy Forever” over and over again, worshipping the Lord for His power, grace, mercy and love for me.
I accept God’s sovereignty in my life and His magnificent way of getting my full attention. I am thankful that He loves me enough to take the time to work on me.
Vickie's Book Nook and Meditation Corner 