Tag: Jesus

Friendship

On By vickleaIn Scripture4 Comments

Friendships in life are so important to our well-being and to our having a positive outlook on life. Six years ago, my best friend in Virginia passed away after a long illness. Heidi was the one whom I could talk to about anything and everything, including my faith. She and I both got into the habit of eating lunch together once a month, going to each other’s houses to visit and just chatting on the phone regularly. We met at the school where we both worked and since she helped me acclimate to a new school and new requirements, I looked to her for assistance a lot that first year, forming a friendship that seemed to be unlikely. You see, I’m not wealthy. Heidi was. I’m a biological child of the parents who raised me. Heidi was adopted from Germany as a child. We got to be really close when Heidi’s marriage dissolved due to her husband’s infidelity. I became the one she leaned on as she gradually came to accept that the philanderer was never coming home again and that she could survive without him. When she met Bob, her future spouse, she was so in love that it radiated from her entire being and I was delighted for her. I was her matron of honor and we celebrated this new chapter in her life together. But less than ten years later, Heidi was in terrible health. I’m so thankful that she had Bob to be by her side as she faced one devastating health crisis after another. I went to the hospital weekly to be with her, reading to her, chatting and laughing at fond memories. Friendship is important, so when Heidi died, a part of my heart died, too. She passed away only a few months before my father, so those two losses in the same year almost did me in. But God did not leave me. He never does. He made sure that I had others checking on me, calling me and lifting me up in prayer. God’s friendship is eternal and we never have to worry about death separating us from Him as long as we know Him as our Savior.

My mom used to say to be careful who your friends are because they will determine how others see you. So, I’m careful now to say that Jesus is my best friend, one who never leaves me and who listens to all I have to say, giving me wise counsel and loving me through difficult times. I have other earthly friends now, but no one as close as Heidi was. I will probably always miss her on this side of Heaven, but I hope to see her when I get there.

Friendships don’t always last. Sometimes time and distance change things, but they are important so as the Bible says, we need to chose reliable friends. And, more importantly, we need to be a reliable friend to others.

Have a blessed day, my online friends, and may each of you form lasting friendships that make a difference in your lives and show the world a model of friendship with Jesus.

Boasting

On By vickleaIn Scripture2 Comments

As humans, we have a tendency to compare what we have to what others have: cars, homes, jewelry, etc. But the only thing we can really boast about and not be envious is Jesus Christ, the One who died for us. It’s hard not to covet or to boast. But this Scripture reminds us that only Jesus is worth boasting about. Food for thought, isn’t it?

Have a blessed day and as you look around you, think about all that Jesus has done for you and testify of His goodness. That’s the right kind of boasting!

A Message of Love

On By vickleaIn Scripture1 Comment

Love those who may be the most unlovable because they need to know the power of love the most.

Have a blessed and glorious Sabbath Day! Remember to look for those who need you to show them love and don’t be afraid to reach out. Be the hands of the Lord today! Live, laugh, love!

Representing Jesus

On By vickleaIn Scripture1 Comment

There’s a really important word in this verse, “whatever.” It doesn’t say some of the things you do or say or most of the things you do or say. It says “whatever.” The last few years that I taught high school, this was a popular word for the teens to say when you asked them to do something they didn’t like and they knew that they were going to end up having to do it anyway. Their tongue-in-cheek response was always, “Whatever.” What they were really meaning was “not if I can help it.” But the “whatever in this verse means everything that you can possibly think of doing or saying, remember that you are doing it as a representative of Jesus Christ. That means our attitude has to be right so that our actions will follow. As I go into town today to help out my sister, this verse is perfect for me. I usually get along with my sister, but we are like oil and water. I am a Christian and she is a self-proclaimed agnostic. I have three children, she has one and she only acknowledges one of mine. (Because he is very liberal just as she is.) I’m a Bible—believing conservative and she is not. You get the idea. But I’m going to help her and I’m determined to do my best to fulfill that job, doing it as a service to the Lord, as if I am His hands reaching out to Her. I pray that my words will be words of life and encouragement, just as His would.

May your day be blessed with opportunities to show Jesus to the world around you and may you shine forth His light as a good representative of our Lord!

Jesus’s Sacrifice

On By vickleaIn Scripture4 Comments

Since it is Holy Week, all of my devotional material is focused on Jesus and His death, burial and resurrection, just as it should be, of course. In keeping with that theme, that is my focus this week.

There is absolutely nothing we could ever do to be righteous enough to stand before the Lord on our own merits. We were not saved by our own works but rather by the sacrificial blood of Jesus. But He didn’t stop there. He also renews us daily by His Holy Spirit. Accepting Jesus as Lord and Savior means entering into a relationship with a God who held out His hand to us first, expecting nothing in return, and who made the ultimate sacrifice for our benefit. I think that often when I plan to do something for someone, my selfish thoughts first go to how a certain action will affect me. God just sent His Only Son to die for us, without a single selfish thought.

Our response to the sacrifice of Jesus is to devote ourselves to doing good. No, good works don’t save us! Jesus does! The good works are our response to having Him live in our hearts. Our lives are only productive if we are meeting the needs of others instead of only focusing on self.

The excuse that many use for not doing good is that others will ridicule us because of our position as Christians. A younger me shied away from helping others publicly because I didn’t want anyone to notice me. But Jesus was not ashamed of me when He went to the cross willingly. There is nothing that I can do for others to ever compare to what Jesus did for me. So, ridicule is nothing. Being called names online…nothing. Being ostracized from certain unbelieving family members…nothing. Yes, my beliefs might be considered radical to some. After all, I believe in a risen Savior who died that I might live eternally with Him! But isn’t that what His sacrifice on the cross was all about? His entire life was focused on doing God’s will and fulfilling the destiny that He knew God the Father had established for Him. Can I do any less than seek God’s will and do it, regardless of peer pressure?

May you have a quiet day of meditation and reflection about all the Lord has done for you and all He is still doing for you daily. God bless you!

Being a Follower

On By vickleaIn Scripture2 Comments

These days we find ourselves in a technology era, one that I never imagined. There are so many social media sites that I cannot comprehend the number of followers on each of those sites. But whom are we following when we go online? Whether it is on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook or even WordPress, we should be careful whom we follow.

The word follow is an interesting word. It can mean successive events but it can also mean to “go or come after, move behind in the same direction.” (http://www.dictionary.com) So, if you are following someone on social media, is your goal to emulate them? Do you want to move behind them in the same direction that they are going? If you are following those who are famous or rich, perhaps that is your goal, to be like them. But that is not the One we are called to follow.

This is what Jesus said when He called His disciples. He did not say to seek fortune or fame. Rather, He said to deny yourself and to take up your cross and follow Him. The cross was a place of shame, a punishment that was undeserved and yet our Lord and Savior suffered the humiliation of the cross. But here we are in this modern era claiming to have X number of followers and to be following X number of people. Our statistics seem to matter more than the example of those we are following. I follow a lot of people who read books similar to what I read, including authors and publishers and other readers. Does that make me not a follower of Jesus? No. But it does show where my priorities are. Reading is important to me, books matter to me, so those are the people online whom I follow. I also follow other Christians online, like the pastor who discipled me almost five decades ago and the current church that we attend. Jesus does not have a page for us to follow, does He? Of course not because His Book, His pages, are written in our hearts. So, when we follow Him, we are expected to follow His example. He gave without thinking of the cost to Himself. We should do likewise. He completed the ministry that the Father gave Him to do. We should do likewise. No matter how many days that God gives us on this earth, our calling is to find God’s purpose for our lives and fulfill it to the best of our ability. My greatest desire is to follow Jesus, no matter where He leads and no matter the cost. I want to wake up every morning with His Name on my lips and His sacrifice in my heart. I don’t want to be a statistic that says “Oh, me? Well, I’m a Christian. I follow Jesus.” I want to really choose to make Him the most important person in my life, my reason for being.

This is my prayer for me today and I hope it is your prayer, too. When you go online to the various social media outlets today, I hope that you will take a serious look at who is following you and what kind of example you are setting there. When you write posts, are you making sure that what you are saying is edifying, true, kind and necessary? When you respond to posts, are you responding in a way that shows you care for that person? I’m convinced that if Jesus were literally born into this age, He would be on social media but His would be a presence that called people to Him because of His great love. We are His hands, feet, eyes, ears and fingers typing on the keyboard. Are we showing His example to the world online? Are we being His witnesses as He called us to do?

Once again, my prayer for you and me is that we may be blessed so that we can be a blessing. But I also pray that God will help each of us become more like Him, a person worthy for others to follow, both in our physical lives and online.

Identity Crisis

On By vickleaIn Scripture9 Comments

Have you ever wondered who you really are, beneath the makeup, clothes and all the external trappings? There was a time in my life, two actually, that stand out in my memory as periods of time when I wondered who I really was. One was when all of my children had left the nest and I wondered if I was still a mother, just without children to care for, guide and admonish. Of course, I was and I am still a mom but my loneliness without my children there was tangible. I had to convince myself that I would always be a mom, just from a distance. The second time was when I retired from teaching. My identity was wrapped around my ability to teach, a career that I pursued for almost four decades before retiring. Then, it was time to retire and I questioned myself about what I am without teaching. This question, God has answered lovingly over the last six years since retirement. I am His child and I still have the gift of teaching, but I use it in different ways now.

This morning in my devotional, I read this Scripture about Jesus.

Jesus was in the temple and reading from the book of Isaiah. It boggles my mind that Jesus was born knowing exactly who He was and the destiny that He would fulfill. He accepted Himself just as He was and went about doing what He was called to do. Wouldn’t our lives be simpler if we did likewise? Just ask God what He wants us to do with our lives that He has gifted us and then fulfill His will for us here on earth? Jesus knew His Father intimately and knew exactly what He was going to do to complete His work on earth. He had no identity crisis and no one, not even the scoffers, could move Him from His path or convince Him that He wasn’t exactly who He said He was.

Jesus’s confidence in God inspires me to seek God more and to find out the next step for my life. My identity has not changed but my role that I play in life has, due to circumstances like aging. But that does not limit God from using me, so my new identity may be as a grandmother who lovingly tells her grandchildren about the Lord and all of His marvelous works. It may also be as a Sunday school helper, again working with children. My identity, and yours, is only limited by our own vision of how we see ourselves fulfilling God’s purpose. I’m still the same person I was fifty years ago when I started teaching. I’m also the same person I was forty plus years ago when I gave birth for the first time. There is no book I can pick up and read what the next step in my life is, but all of the wisdom of God is available to me through His word and through my prayer life, talking to God and waiting for Him to tell me the next step.

God wants to take us from where we are to where He wants us to be, no matter what stage of life we are in. There is no such thing as an identity crisis for those who are children of the living God. He has a plan and He will carry it out. We just have to listen instead of being captured by the latest psychobabble of the current generation.

May each of you have a blessed and wonderful day, filled with the knowledge that your identity is in the Father and He loves you with an everlasting love.

God Has a Plan

On By vickleaIn Scripture6 Comments

These days, it’s hard to pick up a newspaper or turn on the news for only a few minutes without getting discouraged. There is so much evil in the world that it seems to be overflowing with it. Now that war has begun in Europe, it seems that the vile things that man does to other men is indescribable. Nevertheless, in my devotional this morning, God spoke clearly to me that He is in control and He has a plan.

Have you ever started your day with your hours all planned out? It’s a long “to do” list and you proudly check off things as you accomplish them. Then, there are the days that you have the list, you have the plan, but you don’t get to check off anything because you are just trying to make it through the day. Have you ever thought about the fact that God, the Sovereign Lord, does not have those kinds of days in which He gets discouraged and nothing seems to go right? He makes the plan and carries it out. In fact, He makes the plan before the plan needs to be made.

A case in point is Jesus. There was a whole system of sacrifice established in the Old Testament and described in great detail in the Book of Leviticus. A lamb without blemish. Blood on the altar. Take away the sins. All the columns were checked. But it wasn’t enough. Even before the foundation of the earth, God had a plan to save mankind from our sinful natures, once and for all. His plan was Jesus! Before I knew that Jesus died for me, God had already provided Him as my Savior.

I like the part in this verse that says I was still a sinner. God didn’t wait for me to get my act together and complete a “to do” list of things to accomplish before I could be saved. His plan was Jesus…already made. Done! Finished!

Now, back to the scenario of war in Europe. This verse is my prayer for the brave Ukrainian people. But it is also my prayer for anyone facing a formidable enemy. Instead of thinking about the power of the enemy, consider the power of our God who is beside you and who already has a plan. When Elisha’s servant was downhearted in II Kings 6 because he saw how great the enemy was, Elisha prayed for God to open his servant’s eyes. The prayer was answered and the servant saw a host of angels prepared to fight the battle. We don’t always know what God’s plan is, but we can rest in the absolute certainty that He has one, and it’s good.

I have read this verse many times because waiting is just not something I’m very good at. But today is the first time that I paid close attention to the middle part of the verse. It says to be brave and courageous. We are not supposed to cower away from the world and events that cause us fear. Instead, we are to bravely wait for the Lord, knowing with all of our being that He has a plan. And it’s a good one!

Andrew Murray was a pastor and author, most known for his missions work and establishing churches in South Africa. I saved this quotation from one of my devotionals last year and when I read it again today, I knew that it would be useful for my current blog. We limit God because we put Him into a box of humanity, thinking that He can only do so much because that is what we can do. God, however, cannot be fenced in. He is everywhere, all-powerful and capable of doing anything. So, today, as you pray over your to-do list or pray for the people in Ukraine, be bold in your prayers. Be brave! Know that God is hearing and will answer them. Perhaps His timing is different than ours would be. Most likely, that is true. That’s because God is always on time, He knows the best time to answer, and He has always and will always be there for us. Why? Because He loves us and He has a plan. And it’s a good one!

God bless you as you go through your day and may God show you part of His plan for you and encourage you today with that knowledge.