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Archive for the ‘Biblical’ Category

The Three P’s

Posted in Biblical, Devotional, tagged , , , , , , on January 29, 2021| Leave a Comment »

But I have raised you up for this very purpose, that I might show you my power and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth. Exodus 9:16

When in comes to the Christan walk, there are three p’s:

Prayer

Power

Purpose

Prayer is the most powerful tool we have for fulfilling God’s purpose. When a car has a wobbly tire, it is hard to steer it straight. It keeps wanting to veer off. Prayer brings our mind, heart, and spirit in alignment with God the way a mechanic aligns the tires. It keeps us going in the right direction. Prayer is a privileged conversation with the Almighty, which requires listening as well as talking. It reminds us of God’s power when we humble ourselves and trust. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective. (James 5:16b)

Power is an elusive thing, except when it comes to God. He has power over everything, yet He grants us the free will to accept it or not. Many people find this to be a stumbling block because they wish to retain power. But once a person experiences the power of God, they soon fall to their knees in awe, and their response is prayer. They discover a new purpose–letting go and letting God. They learn freedom is bliss inside boundaries. They are no longer tethered to the lie that they have to be in total control. For thine is the kingdom, the power and the glory forever and ever. (Lord’s Prayer)

diego rosa- unsplash

Purpose – most of us at one time or another ask ourselves what our purpose is in life, or if life itself has a purpose. The answer is found in our relationship with God. Job knew this even after he went through more calamities than a person should ever have to experience. He said, “I know that you can do all things; no purpose of yours can be thwarted.” (Job 42:2). The Christian has two purposes, which Jesus stated all else rests upon–Love God, love neighbor. (Matthew 27:37-40). Neither is easily accomplished without the Holy Spirit’s guidance in our lives, giving it purpose.

The initial Scriptural quote from Exodus is concerning Pharoah and his hardened heart. I chose it as an encouragement. God has a purpose for everything and everyone. He used Pharoah to show His power not out of some ego stunt but to show His people, the Hebrews, that He was with them and would not forsake them. It was also to show Pharoah that he was not a god. His power was limited.

Today there is pesecution in ways we have never experienced, and some say it will only get worse. Society will conintue to crumble into chaos, morals will keep declining, and life will be further devaluated.

Fear not. God has the power and a purpose. We can seek that and receive it through prayer, bringing power and purpose to our lives and those of others.

For more information, consider getting P.R.A.Y.I.N.G: Bringing more Power and Purpose to Your Prayers

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What Gift?

Posted in Biblical, Christian, Devotional, tagged , , , , , on December 8, 2020| Leave a Comment »

This time of year many of our minds are on gifts. What are we going to give Uncle George who is so hard to shop for? What about our grown kids? Our coworkers? Our pastors or ministry teams? How much should we spend? Should we bake cookies and treats to give neighbors or is that against the new social distancing rules?

And when someone asks us what gift we want this Christmas, what should we tell them?

This year, I want to ask you what I have been asking myself. What will I give Jesus this year?

After all, it is His birthday.

The magi brought Him gifts of frankincense, gold, and myrrh.  According to the song. the little drummer boy brought him his talent by playing Jesus a song on his drum. And the baby Jesus smiled when he did. If anyone has heard a child play an instrument, they can relate. It may not have been the most amazingly executed tune they’ve heard, but the heart, the enthusiasm, and the intent on pleasing are there in every note. Who could but smile?

According to Romans 12:6, We have different gifts, according to the grace given to each of us.  

God has gifted us with amazing things – forgiveness, eternal life in His presence, and a love that brings peace beyond understanding. These are all wrapped up in the birth and sacrifice of His Son, who was born to die so we may live.

And through His Holy Spirit Jesus gifted us with gifts of the Spirit so we can live in this world without despairing, draw others to Him, and give Him the glory.  And He has graced you with a talent that can be used to His glory. Be it the ability to write, to calculate, to invent, to make money, to speak and inspire, to sing, or perhaps to play the drum.

Everything you have is a gift from God in one way or another.  Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows. James 1:17

So what can we give the One who has everything?

Ourselves is the obvious answer. But what part of ourselves will we particularly give Him in 2020? Our best? He has that already. 

Why not pledge to give God something He can use? 

  • Our tendency to be anxious instead of trusting?
  • Our quick-to-judge character that dams up our ability to love and empathize?
  • The temper that blocks us from opening our hearts?
  • The doubts and fears that stop up our ability to give thanks in all circumstances?

Strange gifts perhaps. But if we give God our shortcomings, He can turn them into blessings for us and others. When we give of ourselves, it is the gift that keeps on giving once it is in Jesus’s nail-scarred hands. Because once we give our doubts, fears, anger, and prejudices to Him they are no longer in our possession. He can then do amazing things with them while He gives us comfort, joy, peace, and a loving heart instead. That will attract us, believers, to people and people to us.

Let us lay at His feet one of the things we need to work on in our character that keep us from being Christ-like and watch what He can do with it in 2021.

Christmas blessings.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Reflect on It

Posted in Biblical, Christian, Devotional, tagged , , , , , on September 22, 2020| Leave a Comment »

As water reflects the face, so one’s life reflects the heart. Proverbs 27:19

diego rosa- unsplashThe closer you get to a mirror, the sharper the image becomes. You may begin to see wrinkles, blemishes, small details previously unnoticed. But you also can see beauty, clearer characteristics, and sparkling eyes…if you look the right way.

As believers, we are to reflect Christ. So it makes sense that we will reflect Him and His beauty more the closer we get to Him. People will see Him reflected in our lives, our actions, and our speech. In fact, the image may become so sharp that it will be harder and harder to tell us from Him until one day, in eternity we will all stand together with total clarity and purity.

Paul stated it beautifully. For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known. I Corinthians 13:12.

A few people have achieved that in this lifetime. Mother Teresa maybe. St. Francis of Assisi, perhaps Paul.

However, if we move away from His image’s effect in our lives and let our problems get between us and Christ, His image in us will dim. It will become smudged by the worldliness we portray.  And as we blend in with everyone else who do not rely on His love and promises to find peace, others will be less likely to see Him reflected in the crowd. Sins will cloud the view like steam on a bathroom mirror or breaths on eyeglasses after wearing a nonsurgical mask.

A cleanser is needed to get rid of the smudges and grime. The Holy Spirit acts like a window washer’s squeegee. It may make us cringe at first, but oh, the view will be worth it. And if we daily go through the cleansing process of confessing our shortcomings, reading Scripture, and praying then the more the image of Christ will come into view, for us and for others. Our human tendency for self, stress, and success will fade, and Christ’s brightness will emerge as He perfects our individual uniqueness into the beauty of a godly purpose.

Just something to reflect upon…

 

 

 

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It Takes Skill

Posted in Biblical, Devotional, tagged , , , , , , on May 26, 2020| 2 Comments »

Sometimes it just jumps out at me from the Bible. Today, I found a message from our Lord in Psalm 47:

For God is King of all the earth; sing praise with all your skill. (verse 7)

We praise God by doing what He has designed us to do. All of creation does. Trees praise Him by leafing out each spring and providing shade in the summer, then becoming colorful in the fall, and losing their leaves as the sap drops in winter. Birds praise Him by singing. The sun and moon praise Him by rising and setting.

We praise Him with the skill He has designed in us. We each have one. A gift that He slowly develops in us the way a piano teacher trains a child prodigy to play his best.

Maybe it is patiently raising active children. Maybe it’s writing, like me. Maybe it is extending hospitality to others, or giving grace to the invisible in our society. Perhaps you are a super organizer, a motivator, or an empathizer. You are good with your hands, skilled with mechanical things, or can see inside people and help them see themselves.

Each time we use our individual skills, we glorify the Creator who provides them. True, we can try to claim the glory, but that will eventually lead to our downfall. Even then, God will be glorified when we are redeemed from self-centered sin and brought to repentance.

Never think you have nothing to contribute. Someone somewhere needs your skills. God made you for a purpose. Yield to Him and let Him bring out the best in you. Then praise Him with your life.

 

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Revealed

Posted in Biblical, Christian, Devotional, tagged , , , , , , on April 21, 2020| 1 Comment »

We read the Scripture passage of 1Peter 1:3-9 in our online service this week.  What hit my heart anew was verse seven: These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.

I always took that to be somewhat apocalyptic. But today I see it in a new way.

They say hindsight is 20/20. I often do not see Jesus moving in my life until after the fact. Perhaps I am concentrating too much on the “now” to see the eternal. But suddenly the light dawns and I see He was there all along, steadily working out His plan in the background. I see how He purposes good from what seemed distressful and even evil, like the proverbial silver lining at the end of a storm. Then I  “give thanks in all circumstances”, as Paul reminds us to do in 1Thessalonains 5:18.

What we are living through now definitely fits the definition of a trial by fire.  Perhaps during this time, we are being purified by God’s holy furnace. The dross of our modern world, which once captured our attention, is melting away. We are hopefully drawing closer to God and, even though we can’t be physically together, we are more together because we realize how important our friends and family are and we miss them so dearly. Our values have been readjusted.

My prayer is that during this time, Jesus will be revealed in your heart, mind, and soul. I pray you will, by your testimony of the “great things He hath done”,  reveal Him to others who so desperately need to “see” Him revealed in their lives. Especially now.

May we all give Him the praise, glory, and honor.

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A Tad Different?

Posted in Biblical, Devotional, tagged , , , , , , , , on February 27, 2020| Leave a Comment »

I poured out a cheesy snack into a bowl. You know? The kind that turn your fingers and tongue orange?

What amazed me was how differently they were shaped. Yet, if one took an individual piece and held it in their hand, anyone else, at least in the U.S., would immediately know what it was. They may even snatch it and pop it in their mouths.

All unique and distinct. However, each came from the same bag, the identical batch of dough. From the same recipe, the same processing plant.

As we start into the Lenten season when we traditionally reexamine our faith-walk, the passage from Ecclesiastes is read in our church service. “Remember, o’ man, that you are dust and to dust, you shall return” (3:20).  Are we truly so very different, or much the same?

Image by Elias Sch. from Pixabay A recent TV program stated that 98.5% of our DNA profiles are identical. Astounding, right?

It is that tiny 1.5% that makes up the things we tend to notice as far as looks, personalities, and propensity for diseases. That itsy-bitsy percentage determines our hair color, skin color, eye color, metabolism, capacity to absorb math, and ability to be creative in the arts…or not. And scientists are learning more and more about the things that 1.5% can actually determine.

Why is it we concentrate on all the minute things that make us different? God made us the same and loves us the same. He died for each and every one of us, though many do not realize that fact. They don’t understand the bag they come from, the bowl they belong in.

Maybe if we, who have God’s love flickering inside of us, would concentrate on seeing the similarities, then we could help those who do not know Jesus see the difference He can make in their lives.

As I crunch down on those equally delicious, individually shaped, cheesy squiggles…I wonder.

 

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Stacked to Stand

Posted in Biblical, Devotional, Nature, tagged , , , , , , on August 13, 2019| 1 Comment »

thanks to Peggy Sue Thompson for this photo

A friend posted this on Facebook and stated if it had been her, she’d have cut the tree down since so much of it was missing.   As I looked at that majestic tree the Holy Spirit whispered to me, “I have done this for many whom others have seen as a lost cause.”

I don’t know what happened to gouge out this tree.  But some kind soul saved it by pushing these stones inside the hollow trunk. It was a purposeful act, not a freak of nature.

Thanks to the stones stacked inside, the vulnerable core of the tree was protected from varmints, bugs, and weather. The stones strengthened it and encouraged it to grow straight and tall instead of toppling over. They, by their very nature, add substance and sturdiness to the trunk.

What a testimony of a Christ-filled life!

What are the stones in our lives? Are they our trials, lessons learned, or spiritual nudges when faced with a decision? With the Rock of Christ living in us, stone by stone He is building a testimony.  Each rock is stacked just so in order for us to keep standing, keep growing and keep digging our roots deeper into the faith. As a result, we are able to withstand what otherwise might topple us.

Jesus said in Luke 19:40, “I tell you,” he replied, “if they keep quiet, the stones will cry out.”  For me, these stones cried out today telling of the amazing work Christ can do in people we may consider lost causes.  They also tell of the work He continues to do in me.  What happens to me through this process is a purposeful act, not a freak of nature. 

May He continue to use whatever He needs in order to strengthen me from within. I pray the same for you.

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See? Good.

Posted in Biblical, Christian, Devotional, Life Experiences, tagged , , , , , on May 28, 2019| 1 Comment »

“O taste and see that the Lord is good!” Psalm 34:8

This verse had always confused me until I saw something in a restaurant. A mom carved off a very small piece of her meat and put it in her toddler’s mouth. The tiny eyes widened as a smile spread across the little girl’s lips.

The mom nodded. “See? Good.”

Toddlers taste everything. They judge what is good and bad by how it reacts on their tongues. Are we any different? How many of us have asked someone to taste what we are cooking to “see if it is good”?  Even though smell and taste are intertwined, we describe food as yummy or yucky more by its taste than its smell, appearance or texture.

So, why should we not taste and see that God is good?

And how good is He? The yummiest thing ever. Better than gooey caramel, a chocolate candy bar, or a fresh-from-the-oven bread. Better than lobster dripping in butter, chowder on a cold night, or ice cream…well, anytime.

Jesus often used food as a conduit to fellowship. One of his miracles involved multiplying a simple lunch of fish and bread. It wasn’t until He served the disciples fish that they recognized him on the beach after the resurrection. At the Last Supper, He said the bread represented His body and the wine His blood and commanded us to remember Him whenever we broke bread together.

Recently, I had not been physically able to attend church in months. A person from the congregation brought me a small, tasteless wafer from the communion service. That way I could be “a part” of the community of believers that had gathered at the altar table. As it dissolved on my tongue, it truly was the best thing I’d ever tasted. I instantly felt the connection of the Cross…vertically to God and horizontally to the people in my church.

I could almost picture God smile and say, “See? Good.”

Yes, Lord. I have tasted Your goodness and now I see. Let me always hunger and thirst for Your righteousness and for the fellowship with others who believe. Amen.

 

 

 

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Portable Eden

Posted in Biblical, Christian, Devotional, Life Experiences, tagged , , , , , , on May 21, 2019| 1 Comment »

In Bible study on the Book of Exodus, our lecturer said the Ark of the Covenant was a “portable Eden”. It was where God chose to dwell among His people on earth.  Placed in the Holy of Holies inside the Tabernacle, God recreated Eden in a golden box so He could travel with His believers and be in covenant with them.  Once the temple in Jerusalem was built, God dwelled there, in the midst of the land He’d promised them. It became “Eden.”

That sent a flutter through my chest. Why? Paul told the Corinthians that their bodies were the temple since the one in Jerusalem had been destroyed. It has never been rebuilt, by the way. Not that it needs to be because God now dwells in the hearts of believers. “Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in your midst?” (1Corinthains 3:16).

That makes you and me portable Edens!

In Eden, there was love, goodness, peace, calmness, and serenity.  Mankind freely communed with God. They shared time and space. Sin was an outsider.

Eden is not a lost world. It still exists. The peace that passes all understanding still resides there like a gorgeous flower that is always in bloom. Faith, trust, and compassion flourish in lush fullness. This wondrous place now travels with us wherever we go in this un-Eden-like world. It is our “go to” spot whenever we need it. Better than comfy pants or chocolate.

So, if this portable Eden is always with us, and thus God is, why are we not more serene and content?  Why aren’t our lives centered more in Christ?

And…If our hearts contain that marvelous, fruitful place called paradise, why do we try to bring the seeds of worry, strife, anger, and bitterness through the garden gate? Those need to stay outside. We don’t need to haul them inside to dwell where only God should.

Where can we find God today? He is in Eden, a heartbeat away.

 

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Turning

Posted in Biblical, Christian, Devotional, Life Experiences, tagged , , , , , , on April 23, 2019| Leave a Comment »

“God does all these things to a person—twice, even three times— to turn them back from the pit that the light of life may shine on them.” Job 33:29-30

A dear friend gave me a pothos ivy. The kind with wonderful green leaves that stretch into strands to dangle down bookcases, shelves or stair rails. I placed this one on top of my bookcase near a window so it could get some sunlight. Soon, the tendrils began to grow longer, curling down the side of my bookcase, leaves angled toward the light streaming through the blinds. After a while, all the leaves exposed to the light had turned toward it. Their leaves were lush and full.

However, on the “darker side”, the leaves stop growing, and several died. I decided to turn the plant so that side could receive the light. And sure enough, the thriving side’s leaves still began to turn toward the light, even though they were further away. They had gotten used to it and knew it was what they needed.

Now the botanists among you will nod, saying this is common. For plants, yes. But is it common for us humans?

Once we receive the light of the Son, we thrive on it. We know we need it to grow in our faith. To flourish, we need to be near Him daily. But Jesus wants all of us exposed. That means even our darker sides. The side that harbors our bad habits we try to hide from the world. The sins we have pushed to the back of our hearts and minds because we simply do not want to deal with it right now. Perhaps we gossiped, or unkind words slipped from our mouths. Maybe we left off some tiny thing on our tax return so we could get a bigger refund. Perhaps we told a lie because it sounded better, or we didn’t want to reveal the truth. Maybe worse.

Eventually, Jesus will nudge us to turn those darker things to Him so His loving mercy can expose them. Once that happens, His grace can pour in. We can begin to flourish again where we were once stunted, and in fact, shriveling.

My ivy taught me that though I may not wish to do so, I must expose my whole being to my Lord so I can reflect His Light in my life. All my thoughts, fears, desires, and doubts need to be turned toward Him. Full Son exposure!

Do you dare turn your darker side to His glory?

 

 

 

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