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.
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.
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.
Have you ever thought about the fact that sometimes things don’t work out the way we had expected? But it all turns out okay in the end because God is right there.
I read in my devotional today that Abram turned aside from the promised land to go to Egypt because there was a famine in the land that God was sending him to. What? In Egypt, Abram got a little off the path of faith because instead of trusting God to take care of him and Sarai, he told her to tell Pharoah that she was his sister. Read Genesis 12 for the entire story.
Sometimes we are a lot like Abram. We expect one thing, get another, and then we try to help God by taking matters into our own hands. Believe me when I say that is never a good idea. I haven’t read a single scripture in which God tells man that He could really use his help. Actually, God is generally waiting for us to call on Him for help and then to be patient as we wait for His answer.
The “they” in these verses refers to Paul and Barnabas, the missionary duo in the book of Acts. Notice the last part of the verse. If these two men who had been imprisoned, beaten and cast out of cities because of their witness recognize that entering the kingdom of God is not a stroll in the park, then who are we to expect that?
God promises that in spite of our wandering off the path (also known as His best plan for us) and in spite of our insisting on going our own way, He does not abandon us. That is quite a promise to hold on to. Neither does God abandon His plan for us. He has a plan and He will fulfill it; we just need to be so in tune with God that we trust His plan to unfold, in His time, not ours.
Our response is to speak with a confident testimony to all of the scoffers and doubters around us. We don’t need to be afraid of them because God is still helping us, sometimes out of the mess that we got ourselves into.
I found this song to apply to my post today and hope that you enjoy it as much as I have. It speaks to the scriptures above and trusting God for all things in all times.
I was reading in Genesis today about Noah and the ark, and I once again noted that God closed the door of the ark, sealing out the floods that were to destroy the earth.
Just as God separated Noah from the judgment that was about to take place on the earth, He calls us to be separate from sin in our lives so that we aren’t not judged unworthy on the great Judgment Day.
Jesus is our door to eternity with God and when God executes judgment on all of mankind, the time for making the right choice is over. The door is shut so that the evil of the world is not welcome in the new heaven and the new earth.
Many people are enjoying prosperity today, the kind that the world gives…fame, riches, and all the trappings that accompany it. But where will they run on the Day of Judgment, the day when it will be too late for them to declare their loyalty to the One True God? What will happen to all of their riches then? Jesus said repeatedly that we need to leave the things of this world behind and concentrate on our walk with God. There will be a day of reckoning, and God will not want to know how much money you made or how successful you were in your own eyes. He wants to see you clothed in the righteousness of His Son, and if you are not, then the judgment of His wrath that He had been holding back will become your new reality.
Are Christians the ones who are wailing? I think we will be the ones around the throne singing a new song of rejoicing, but those who have not accepted the Lord as Savior will be wailing for their destruction is absolute and certain.
There were many in the days of Noah who ridiculed him for building the ark. They drowned in the flood of judgment that God sent. Don’t let the ridicule of the world keep you away from making the choice that will keep you safe in God’s arms for all eternity. Choose life…choose Jesus! He is the only secure place in a world that is overrun with evil. He is the only door to the Father, and He has invited everyone to come in before it is too late.
This morning in my devotional, I read several scriptures about God’s holiness. Thus, I was enticed to dig in and find out more about what that means to me as a Christian.
The characteristic of holiness is ascribed to God repeatedly. In fact, one source I consulted (see footnote) reports that the word “holy” is used 431 times in the Old Testament in Hebrew and 180 times in the New Testament in Greek. When we think about God’s attributes, we generally think of His mercy, grace and love. Holiness seems to be a part of God that I don’t think about too much, but perhaps I should. God is holy because He is separate from His creation; in fact, the Bible says no one can look at God and live. Moses got to see the back of God from a cleft in a rock, but He did not see God face to face. That marvelous privilege will happen when we live with Him in a new heaven and new earth, where He is the ruler forever and ever.
But why does the Scripture constantly admonish us to be holy? Is that something that happens as soon as we become Christians? No, rather we are “becoming” holy…we will not be complete until we are in His presence.
I cannot imagine the entire earth being filled with God’s glory, but I am excited about it. The angels called God holy, and God tells us to be holy as He is. We are supposed to be separated from the sinful world and sacred to Him, our Creator and Redeemer.
Our God is holy and we can be like him but we cannot be Him. He is the Creator and the One worthy of all of our praise and adoration.
Is Jesus called “holy”? Of course, because He is the Son and has always been with the Father from the beginning. But Jesus doesn’t make us holy; He shows us the way to holiness by living according to the standards he set forth in His words to His disciples. The resource I used stated that even our best efforts cannot make us holy. That is the work of the Holy Spirit. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that “holy” is part of the name of the third person of the Trinity. He is the One who continually works within us to help us to be holy. That still small voice that reminds you of commitments to God and things you should be doing, wise choices you should make? That’s the Holy Spirit that resides in each of us once we have become adopted into the family of God as His children. God doesn’t just say, “be holy.” He sends a helper to aid us in our quest to be more like Him. (John 14:26)
I have not arrived at holiness yet, and I don’t know anyone who has. I think that Enoch, the man who walked with God and never died, must have reached that goal, but I don’t know for sure. I am on a quest to be better today, closer to Him, more “holy” if you will, than I was yesterday. Will I fail sometimes? Yes, more than I want to, but I am still striving to the goal of holiness because God says to be holy. He didn’t wave a magic wand and say, “Okay. You’re holy now.” We have to make wise choices every day, every hour and every minute in order to move towards the holiness that God wants to see in us. Does that mean that we are not righteous before God? No, I may be wrong, but I think righteousness is different than holiness. Righteousness is the right standing with God that Jesus gave us by dying for us on the cross. Holiness is what we strive towards in our daily walk with the Lord.
I am not sure I am making sense here to anyone but me, but I hope that this post has made you think about holiness and how God is holy all the time and He doesn’t have to work at it. He just is holy! Praise His Name!
These verses are very sad, aren’t they? Adam and Eve were living in a perfect world, in total harmony with God and nature. Then, they sinned and God banished them from the Garden of Eden that He had created for them. Not only that, God put cherubim with a flaming sword to guard the tree of life. God, who made man in His image, casts him away from the closeness that he had enjoyed since creation. The hopelessness and despair must have been overwhelming.
Lest we decide to blame Adam and Eve for all of mankind’s problems, the Bible is filled with reminders that we are ALL sinners. Not one of us would have been allowed to stay in the Garden of Eden! We can now stop pointing that finger at Adam and Eve and point it back at ourselves. We are sinners. We are the reason that Christ had to die for the sins of mankind.
Aha! Hope follows despair if we know that Jesus is our Lord and that He died for us. God didn’t just send man out of the garden. He already had a plan for the redemption of mankind, if man would only believe and accept His free gift of salvation.
Like many of you, I have been watching with horror as a great swath of Los Angeles burns. I have been praying for the people there and for the firefighters and rescuers. But I have also been praying that no one has to suffer the eternal fires of hell. These fires in L.A. look hot and unrelenting. Imagine if you can the torment of eternity in a fire created by God for those who choose to go there. Yes, that’s right. If we don’t repent and ask Jesus to be our Savior, we are choosing to spend eternity separated from God and in the eternal fire of damnation.
As you sit mesmerized in front of your screen, please pray for all the people in L.A. But, more importantly, pray for the souls of all those who have not yet come to know Jesus as their Lord and Savior. Let’s pray together that they come to salvation before Judgment Day.
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