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Archive for the ‘Devotional’ Category

Clouded View

Posted in Biblical, Devotional, tagged , , , , , , on March 19, 2023| 2 Comments »

I am certain this has happened to many of you. You read a passage in Scripture you have read or heard all your life…then wham! A new thought hits you. Well, that is what happened to me, so I had to share it.

On Wednesday evenings at church, we are studying a book about the Transfiguration of Jesus on the mount as witnessed by Peter, James, and John. It is recorded in all of the Synoptic Gospels (Matthew 17, Mark 9, and Luke 9.) Moses and Elijah appear on either side of Jesus, representing the Law and the Prophets. Peter, bless his impulsive heart, wants to build a tabernacle for them.

Here is where it jumped out at me: He [Peter] was still speaking when, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them, and a voice from the cloud said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him” (Matthew 17:5-6).

Did you catch that? God covered Moses and Elijah with a cloud. Now I know this reflects back to Moses on Mt Sinai. God often appears in a cloud. But as I read this verse, it was as if I heard God say, “No Peter. Don’t look at them. You are missing the point. Look to Jesus. He has come to fulfill the Law and the Prophets” (See Matthew 5:17).

It gets better … “When the disciples heard this, they fell on their faces and were terrified. But Jesus came and touched them, saying, “Rise, and have no fear.”  And when they lifted up their eyes, they saw no one but Jesus only’ (Vs 7-8).

This thought made me recall the times God has clouded my vision so I was no longer distracted by what I thought I should think or do. He made the situation so nebulous that I could not see a way out on my own. He distracted me for a reason. To help me refocus on Him and not on my circumstances. He made it to where all I could do was lift my eyes to seek Jesus. As the familiar lyrics by Helen Howarth Lemmel states, “Turn your eyes to Jesus and look full in His wondrous face. And the things of earth will grow strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace.”

If you feel as if you are in a pea-soup-thick fog right now and you can’t see the outcome, hang tight. Bow your head and pray. Ask God what He is distracting you from. What lesson is He trying to show you? What character is He developing in you? Then wait. At the perfect time, Jesus will call you out of the mist and tell you to have no fear. Concentrate on Him. Let Him lead you out into the clear to see things His way–the best, all-powerful, all-knowing way.

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Footnote

Posted in Christian, Devotional, Life Experiences, tagged , , , , on December 22, 2022| Leave a Comment »

In September, after a long nine-month trek through doctors’ offices and imaging facilities, I finally found a surgeon that would “try to fix” the broken hardware in my pelvis so I could walk again without dragging my right foot with excruciating nerve pain. Trouble was, the first opening in his schedule was Nov 30th. More waiting…

Two weeks later, the ball of my right foot went numb. Okay, probably the nerve, right? But it persisted and a lump developed. I saw a podiatrist and he immediately booked me for surgery. He told me I would not be able to put any weight on that foot for two weeks. I have to admit I lost it when I got home. All my faith and strength swirled through my head and out my eyes in tears. Why??? Haven’t I been through enough during this trial?

No booming voice from heaven. No suddenly meaningful Scripture verse or lyric in a Christian song on the radio. But I felt a renewed nearness to God as if He rubbed my shoulder and whispered, I am here.

Now I know why. For eleven years I have blogged about where I found God today. I found God working out my situation in a rare vascular, and praise Him, benign tumor that threatened to cut off circulation to my toes. Let me explain…

When it came time to have the big surgery on Nov 30th, I was prepared. I knew how to offload my weight, get around with a walker, And navigate through my apartment. And, when the surgeon said all went well and I could put partial weight on my right foot, I had an amazing template … the healing scar on the ball of that foot. Still being tender, I immediately knew if I put too much weight on it.

Had it been my left foot, it would that have made my life difficult because I have had to bear most of my weight on it.

I have heard it said that hindsight is 20/20. In my case, it is. Now, I can humbly thank my Lord and ask forgiveness for not trusting Him more with my life’s circumstances.

Christmas is the time for gift-giving. God gave me an amazing gift even though it was wrapped in something different than I would have imagined … an unexpected surgery. A serendipity.

My gift to you is the moral of my testimony, as written long ago in Proverbs:

Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight. Proverbs 3:5-6

Amen.

May it be your testimony as well in the year to come. Whatever life presents, you have the presence of God if you believe. He is there, and He cares. That is why He came to earth to be born in a stable.

Emanuel, God with Us.

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There’s A Difference

Posted in Biblical, Devotional, tagged , , , , , , on October 26, 2022| Leave a Comment »

If you have been following some of my blogs you have figured out that I am a word freak. I love words…word games, word search, the origin of words, and words backward and forward.

Two words seem to often be interchangeable … haven and heaven. But they truly are not. A haven is a refuge. It is a safe place away from danger. Many seek a haven from stress, life’s demands, or a reprieve from their jobs. The thing is, a haven is temporary, like a weekend at the spa or in a cabin by the lake in the mountains.

Photo by Quang Nguyen Vinh on Pexels.com

Heaven is something entirely different. It is permanent. Not very many return from there once they gain entrance. One man comes to mind who did, and a good portion of the Bible is a testimony to his life. But He is the exception to the rule. In fact, even Jesus told a story about the permanency of heaven. It is found in Luke’s Gospel.

In Chapter 16, there is the story of a selfish rich man who daily ignored a beggar named Lazarus (not to be confused with the man Jesus raised from the dead). When Lazarus died and went to heaven and sat near Abraham, the father of the faith, the rich man in hell asked him to reach down and touch his tongue with a drop of water. Abraham’s response is, “And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been fixed, in order that those who would pass from here to you may not be able, and none may cross from there to us” (vs. 26).

Whether you believe the streets in heaven are paved with gold, we will each have a mansion, sit on fluffy clouds playing harps, or spend our time in awe, bowing at the feet of our Savior and singing “holy, holy, holy” with the angels is not the point. The idea is permanency.

You see, it is all in the word. The power of one letter that totally changes the time span. (See why I love words?)

The difference between a haven and heaven is one letter… an e. And that “e” stands for eternity. All of us will die and leave this world. All of us will spend eternity somewhere else than here. The point of this story in Luke 16 is that we have a choice of where we will spend it. But choose wisely because your choice is permanent.

But the news gets better. If you seek a haven, then you can call out to heaven right now. Jesus also said, “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28). We don’t need to dream of heaven. If we believe that Jesus is Lord and confess our sins, we have already received the passage to eternity. We can feel secure right here, today.

Jesus warned that the Christian path in this life is not an easy one, but also promised that if we lean on Him, He will bring a reprieve that doesn’t just last for a little while. It can last forever. “Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.  For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”

A week’s retreat to a cabin in the mountains or to a beach lapped by waves across a turquoise sea may seem idyllic, but there is something much, much better within everyone’s reach. The question is, will you reach out to Him and receive a touch of heaven today?

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BOXED IN

Posted in Biblical, Christian, Devotional, Life Experiences, tagged , , , on August 7, 2022| 1 Comment »

Let me roam free. Don’t fence me in. I have to be me.

Not cats. Oh, yes, they do roam free but they know there are boundaries, and if you have ever seen a cat gravitate to a box for a good tongue-wash and a bath, you know it is because they feel secure when they are boxed in.

victoria alexander- unsplash

We, humans, seem to despise boundaries. We want to make our own choices, and decide if the rules apply to us and our situation.

Subjectivism. It seems to be more and more the way of the world. It is what CS Lewis sadly described in his book, The Abolition of Man. He stated that in every culture and religion there exist laws that allow us to live with each other in peace and harmony. When someone steps outside of those laws’ perimeters, trouble happens. When too many people leave the secure boundaries of society, chaos occurs. That opens the door to the degradation of other humans’ rights and ironically, allows an unscrupulous person, with only their interests at heart, to step in and take control. Because deep down inside we all want some boundaries.

Most ancient cultures thought in terms of “we” not “me”. Collectivism. What one person did affected all those around him or her. “We’re all in this together.” We Christians call it the Body of Christ. And our boundaries are clearly spelled out by our Lord when he quoted the first two commandments upon which everything else depends– love God, love neighbor. (See Matthew 22:34-40).


Paul addressed this in Acts 17 to the citizens of Athens: “And he (the Lord) made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place…” God not only put Esther on earth for “such a time as these” but all of us as well, to serve Him and each other.

But, as Brandon Robbins often states in his YouTube videos, when the laws become more important than the Lawmaker, they will break down and lose their purpose. The “me” enters into the picture again way too strongly and pushes out the “we”. It is what the Sadducees and the Pharisees were guilty of doing. That is why Jesus said He came not to abolish the Law but to fufill it. To lead people back to the One who made them in the first place.

Perhaps if we once again set aside our own personal agendas, redefined our boundaries as stated in the Ten Commandments, and tried to live peacefully within them, glad for the security they provide, the world might be a better place. But then again, God granted us free will to make that decision ourselves, didn’t He?

Cats do not know who made their box. They are just grateful to find it. Let another cat intrude into the box and a few spats and hisses may occur.

Photo by Tran Mau Tri Tam ✪ on Unsplash

We, humans, know better. Don’t we?

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It’s All in Order

Posted in Biblical, Christian, Devotional, tagged , , , , , , on June 27, 2022| Leave a Comment »

Photo by Suzy Hazelwood on Pexels.com

Words can be fun.

In my Wordplay Mysteries, they often lead to crime clues. Wanda Warner, widow and head of her town’s neighborhood watch teams, has a knack for solving word puzzles and crimes … and in the latest mystery, Hang on Every Word,** she has been given a part-time position creating word puzzles for her local paper. Thing is, the answers to her clues perpetrate crimes against some of the downtown merchants and everyone is pointing the finger at her! Words are suddenly not as much fun for her … but they still are for me.

For exampel, words can be transformed by just rearranging the same letters.

Is evil really vile? Do you live under a veil?

Can a strap make traps? Do parts make tarps?

Will the tide be tied to your diet?

I bet you could think of other words that can be made by simply rearranging the letters. Might be a fun thing to do as a family one night or at a party with friends. Take some Scrabble tiles and see how many words you can make out of them.

Other things can be fun to rearrange. Like the furniture in your room, or the pictures clustered on the wall. Sometimes rearranging your schedule can give you a much-needed breather.

But when we rearrange our priorities, we need to think hard about the potential results first. What message does that send?

Matthew 19 tells the story of the rich young man who asked Jesus what he must do to obtain eternal life. He thought he had kept all of the commandments. Yet he had not. When Jesus asked him to sell all his wealth and give it to the poor, the man walked away discouraged. Why? Because he had rearranged his priorities. His wealth meant more to him than following God. He not only broke the first commandment to love God above all else, but he lacked the faith that God would provide even after he sold everything.

Don’t be too harsh on him. We all worry about money and if we will have enough in the future to survive. Especially now when prices are skyrocketing out of control. Will there be too much “month at the end of our money?”

Jesus preached in Matthew 6:25-33 that we should not be anxious about our lives and survival. God takes care of birds and flowers. Will He not even more so take care of us? Has He not provided in the past? Why do we doubt He will in the future? If we seek Him first, then tomorrow will take care of itself.

Not to say we should not save and be prudent with the blessings He has provided. But we need to remember whose money we are clutching in our hands before we put it in the offering plate and sing the verses from First Chronicles 29:14: For all things come from Thee, and from Thine own have we given Thee.

If we declare in the same breath that the Lord is the creator of all things, then so are our earnings a blessing from Him. We may have worked to earn the money, but He gave us the ability to learn the skills it takes and to possess the talent or strength to do the work.

It is all about rearranging our thoughts to align with His Word and His Truth. If our tummies clench or we toss and turn in the night as worries crowd our attempts to sleep, perhaps we need to shift around our thoughts to realize we are not meant to be in control. We can only see this very moment, whereas our Father in Heaven sees all, beyond the confounds of time. Can we truly sing “God is in control” and worry at the same time? Can we struggle with fear and still have a strong faith?

The clock doesn’t control time. It only displays it. What is our faith displaying to others? What do our actions spell out for others?

Photo by Aphiwat chuangchoem on Pexels.com

Like words, our actions can reveal a lot about ourselves. Are things out of sequence? Do we need to rearrange the letters of our lives, so to speak, to make sure the right message is coming across?

Maybe it is time for an item in your life to be a mite more clear!

** If you pre-order this book before July 1, as a thank you gesture, I will email you chapter a week free over the next 8 weeks until launch day so you don’t have to wait – details at www.juliebcosgrove.com

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BEAM ME UP

Posted in Christian, Devotional, tagged , , , , , , on June 5, 2022| 3 Comments »


These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full (John 15:11).

I am living a dream. Decades ago, while in seminary, I received an opportunity to possibly be chosen for a scholarship to go to Oxford for a six-week summer term to study C.S. Lewis. As an Anglophile extraordinaire, it was beyond my wildest dreams. But, during the qualification stage, I fell in love, married, and within a few months became pregnant, spending a good portion of those nine months in bed. No Oxford in my future. So long C.S. Lewis.

Fast forward to now…

Just when my housebound confinement due to medical issues had finally begun to wear on me, I saw a small ad for a free online course offered by Hillsdale College on C.S. Lewis and Christianity taught by the renowned C.S. Lewis scholar, yes from Oxford, Dr. Michael Ward. The optional eight books by Lewis to be read in conjunction with the course cost only $120 with S&H. And I had just received my quarterly book royalty check. Hurrah! I could do this. I had the time. I had the funds. I was in between deadlines with my publisher. Isn’t our Lord’s timing perfect!

So for the past month, I have been emersed in the nonfictional writings of C.S. Lewis. And I want to share with you what I have learned.

JOY IS NOT AN EMOTION! It is not fleeting like happiness.

Lewis tells of a time when, as he stood in a woodshed, he noticed a beam of light coming through a crack. Contemplation told him it was a beam from the sun. He saw the illumination, the angle, the dust mites dancing in it. Intellectually, analytically, in his mind, he knew it to be a true sunbeam, not a figment of his imagination.

Beautiful. It caught his attention. But then he dared to step into the sunbeam. Lewis chose to immerse himself in it, and upon doing so, he experienced the joy of the sunbeam. Lewis no longer saw the beam but looked along it to where it led. He saw the sunlight dancing on the new spring leaves and reaching back to the sun. The beauty captured his breath. It quickened his heart as the warmth penetrated his soul. His whole being focused on the beam’s projected path.

That is the joy of faith. That is the true experience of religion. When one immerses his or herself in the will of God and joins into what is good, right, and designed to be, then and only then does the person begin to fulfill the first and great commandment … You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. (Matthew 22:37).  It is no longer a head trip, but a full-body, mind, and soul experience. A move from contemplation into joy.

Stepping into the beam and following where it leads engages the whole human being. It enlists trust, hope, and worth. It aligns us with the cycle of the universe, the created order of our God that extends beyond what our personal agendas and desires dictate. It opens our hearts to the Holy Spirit’s guidance and lets our souls embrace our Savior’s immeasurable, unconditional love. We leave the subjectivity of “what I want” and enter into the objectivity of God’s will for us in the dance of creation.

Faith is no longer a set of rules, traditions, and boundaries. It is no longer colored by our limited knowledge or experience. It is being of one accord with the Holy, and in that Eden-like moment when we walk in the garden with our God, it unites us with humanity as it should be. All the things that divide us–all the prejudices, hate, anger, and hurt–disperse.

This joy goes beyond contemplation or earthly rationalization. War, death, illness, and sorrow cannot break the beam. Hardship and despair cannot dim it, neither can envy nor pride bend it. Because we experience the totality of God’s love through joy, we can openly share that love with others and urge them to step into the beam as well. “I can’t explain it. It’s beyond cool. You gotta come do this for yourself.”

If you have ever witnessed a new birth, be it a butterfly breaking its chrysalis, a kitten, a puppy, or a person emerging from the womb, or participated in someone being baptized and becoming a new creation in Christ before your eyes, you can probably recall the joy of that moment. Forget the science. Set aside the tradition. Something else more marvelous is occurring–the fulfillment of creation. The soul and heart are engaged as well as the mind. Your whole being, as it was created to be, is experiencing the moment. You have stepped into the beam.

And that is what prayer should be … being emersed in the beam. Beyond feeling, beyond visual perception, beyond intellectualization or emotion, and a fulfillment of all of the above. It is immersing yourself in the eternal while still standing in the temporal.

Lewis’ reconversion into a faithful believer in Christ occurred when he took Tolkien’s advice and let the joy happen. When he dropped to the wayside the misconceptions, the hurtful remembrances of stifling rules and traditions, and his prejudices, and then stepped beyond the limits of his intellectual mind (which was vast) into experiencing the Bible itself. He immersed himself in the story of God’s love for His creation, His attempts to woo humanity back into the order of relationship, His coming to earth, then dying for our sins and triumphing over death so our hearts could soften to receive the Holy Spirit. Then, and only then, in the light of that Love did all the traditions and commandments make sense.

I am beginning to once again tap into that joy that had dimmed so recently. To take my mind off myself and re-focus on my First Love. I am starting to feel the warmth again–the peace that passes all understanding — and I pray you will step into it as well so it may guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus (Philippians 4:7).

Dare to step with me into the beam. And bask in where it leads.

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Just Adjust

Posted in Biblical, Devotional, Life Experiences, Nature, tagged , , , , , , on May 26, 2022| 2 Comments »

When my mother first became widowed, this was a card she received. She tore off this message on the front and framed it. When she passed on, I took it home. Even now, widowed for twelve years, I still keep it on my desk. My daily reminder.

It is a message for all of us humans who have a tendency to want to be in control.

We cannot direct the wind but we can adjust our sails.

I have never sailed in my life, so my knowledge is poor at best, but I have read books and watched movies about sailors and the seas. About steering into the wind so it billows the sails or away from it to change direction. Sailors are at the mercy of nature and the Creator of the winds. They know it is better to adjust than to try to fight against it. Which is futile and a waste of energy.

There is another saying, which I see daily. I have taped it to my computer monitor. It is from Psalm 25:5. Guide me in your truth and teach me, for you are God my Savior, and in my hope is in you all day long.

Often times hope is depicted as an anchor, a stronghold. For me, it is also a sail. It helps me stay on course and not veer off. It helps me seek the direction the Creator wants me to head. The Holy Spirit can be described as the wind, or so scholars say, because both the Greek and Hebrew word for “spirit” can also be wind or breath. If so, then I should not fight the direction God’s Spirit wants me to go. I need to adjust my sails.

Ad-just. Ad is the preposition that means to go toward something. Just, as an adverb, means exactly, recently, simply. As an adjective, it means appropriate, well-founded, and morally right. Adjust – to go toward what is simply and exactly right and appropriate.

God is just. His ways are true. His motive is love. To ad-just is to move in the way of His character. It is to be exactly and no less, simply, now, appropriate and good.

Why would we not set our sails to that? Why would we choose not to adjust our emotions, thoughts, and actions to match? Why would we try to control something that is not in our power to control? Can anyone truly harness, tame, and manipulate the wind? Only God can.

Wind may come swiftly, causing us to act with all our strength and wits. It may be so still we barely feel it nearby. It can be pleasant and soft, even refreshing. It can be cold and cause us to shiver. But I believe if it is from God through His Spirit, it is always just what we need at the time. The wise will learn to adjust and “go with the flow”.

Lord guide me in the way you wish me to go, and teach me to trust in the direction you lead. Amen.

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Bask in It

Posted in Christian, Devotional, Life Experiences, tagged , , , , , , on April 24, 2022| 2 Comments »

When my son toddled around the house, he’d bring me an A-B-C- book of animals to read to him. It had phrases such as “Birds tweet. Tweet, Bird, tweet. Cows moo, Moo, Cow, moo.” You get the idea. But when it got to the letter “L” the author didn’t choose a lion to roar or a lamb to bleat. The author chose a lizard.

Now, lizards are not known for their sound, right? They are fairly quiet, timid, and skitter away when approached. But they also need to rest. This book said, “Bask, Lizard, bask.” Maybe because the word is not usually found in a pre-k book, or maybe because of the picture of the lizard sprawled on a branch … but we laughed each time. Lizards bask in the sun to get warm, then in the shade to cool off because their bodies cannot internally adjust to temperatures. Trouble is, the shade is illusive. It moves as the sun does. So their rest is interrupted. Over and over again. Constantly on the move seeking comfort, they really never truly bask.

The memory popped up in my grey cells when a friend of mine posted this photo of her dog on Facebook. Dogs love to bask in sunbeams. Let the warmth and the light penetrate their fur, skin, and bones. So peaceful… Now, agreed. the sunbeam will move. My guess is so will the dog, because he wants to continue to rest in the warmth. But unlike the lizard, the dog is secure in its surroundings and won’t likely skitter away. He will seek to stay in the light long as he needs it and his body will retain the warmth.

But notice the statue of the kitten crouching in the dark corner. Which are you? the dog or the cat? Do you bask in the Light of the Son in peace and absorb His Spirit in your life? As the rays of His love move, do you follow, seeking His peace? Or do you cower in the darkness of your situation like a cold, stone statue, afraid to move? Perhaps, like the lizard, you keep moving to find a place to bask on your own. Try new herbs, breathing exercises, and meditations to find a bit of peace.

Lately, I have done all three when a setback and not-so-good news from a doctor gut-punched me. My immediate reaction was “Why, God?” I became depressed, couldn’t sleep (mostly due to the debilitating pain that would not ease up after the last “diagnostic procedure”), and pondered…no wallowed…in my worry. Froze in my fate. Cowered in my circumstance as my mind swirled of ways to cope with my possible new lifestyle. I mimicked Jesus in the garden…alone, weeping – take this cup. Well, I didn’t sweat blood and tears, but almost.

Then the “I can adjust” mode kicked in. Make do with what I have. This is my lot in life. So be it. Make whatever effort I can to adjust. But I still felt restless and didn’t find true peace.

Little by little, possibly because Easter loomed – Hallelujah – I edged into His light and let it soothe me. Let His peace penetrate me and soak into my soul.


But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me (2 Corinthians 12:9).

What a difference.

I don’t have to fix things or solve things on my own. I can’t physically pull myself up by my bootstraps anyway. Right now, I can bask, Julie. Bask. Relax, pray, and wait for His guidance to unfold. Feel the warmth of His hands cradling me, knowing He is there and He cares. Let His light guide me and keep choosing to rest in it.

We all have a choice. Be the cat, the lizard, or the dog. Cower in a frozen position, continually try to make things better on our own, or learn to bask in His warmth.

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Cancel or Leave

Posted in Biblical, Christian, Devotional, tagged , , , , , , on April 13, 2022| Leave a Comment »

I have been watching The Chosen … again. Love these episodes, and right now, leading up to Easter, they are being broadcasted live every night at 7:30pm CDT.

If you haven’t seen these episodes that portray the lives of the disciples before Jesus chose them to follow Him as well as their spiritual development as they follow Jesus around Galilee and Samaria, I highly recommend them. They are free on YouTube, or on their downloadable free app. So far there are two seasons (16 episodes.) Five more seasons are planned.

Anyway… I decided I wanted a “Bing Jesus” bumper sticker from the gift store, also on the app. All proceeds go to help fund the actors’ salaries. The show itself is totally crowd-funded. Well, I got my sticker and went to pay. A message popped up – Leave or Cancel.

What? I don’t want to leave. I want to buy my item. And I don’t want to cancel my purchase. Not wanting to choose either, I was stuck. Which do I choose? Is there a third option?

I finally chose to leave, and it took me to my secure check out with my Google pay. Oh, okay. Got it.

Did you get it? When Jesus asked his disciples to follow Him, they had a choice. Leave or cancel. Because in order to follow, one has to leave, right? Leave what is normal. Leave what is comfortably status quo in your zone. Maybe leave preconceived ideas.

Or cancel out on the opportunity and return to what was. Don’t step out.

I had really never thought of how choosing to follow meant having to leave. But it does.

Thank goodness twelve brave men and several women in the first century Judea chose to leave. They walked into the unknown. Not perfectly. Not without hang-ups or preconceived notions. Even so, they took the first steps just as they were because Jesus saw their potential. True, one ended up canceling out and betraying Jesus later. Ten others ran into the night when the Roman soldiers came to arrest Jesus.

But those ten didn’t click cancel. They had followed too long and learned too much to do that. They’d left the old behind.

Soon, after huddling in terror for three days waiting for themselves to be arrested as well and possibly suffer the same fate as their Master, the resurrected Jesus entered their midst again with the same message – leave. Get up and go into the world and make disciples (Matthew 28:20).

https://www.hearthymn.com/jesus-appear-forty-days-after-resurrection.html

And they did. They left that upper room. They went into all nations.

Billions, perhaps trillions over the past two centuries have been affected by their choice to leave that day. As a result, the accounts of their lives are still read in a multitude of languages. And portrayed in films and streaming videos like The Chosen is doing now. Their choice is shared around dining room tables, on playgrounds, or by campfires. The impact of their choice to leave is still impacting us.

Each of us now has the same choice. Follow or stay put. Leave, or cancel.

Which will you choose? I leave it to you to decide.

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Aromas

Posted in Christian, Devotional, Life Experiences, tagged , , , , , , , on February 26, 2022| 2 Comments »

But thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession, and through us spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of him everywhere.

2 Corinthians 2:14

Manufacturers spend millions on finding just the right scent for their lotions, soaps, and perfumes. One laundry detergent company’s fragrance is so recognizable other products claim to have that aroma in them as well.

The scent of soap or shampoo not only fills our noses with a pleasant smell but lets others know we have just been cleaned as well. That fresh-out-of-the-shower is attractive. Ask any romance writer…

Flowering bushes let off pleasant smells in the breeze drawing people to stop and take a whiff. Air fresheners make our houses smell inviting and clean. They welcome people in. A pleasing aroma can turn a frown upside down.

When we have been cleansed of our sins, we emit a spiritual aroma that is attractive to others as well. People take notice that we are different. There is a glow about our faces. A peacefulness emits from our soul. Love and forgiveness shine in our eyes because we have just received them from our Lord.

Just like the fabric spray or a scented candle, the scent lingers. But on this side of eternity it never lasts, does it? Just as we need to shower often, we need to be cleansed of our sins often. Otherwise, the stench of the world will cling to us. Others won’t be as drawn to us. Our witness becomes stale.

We all need a good scrubbing now and then. Ask any mom of a teenage boy…

Take time daily to let the Lord wash away your sins from your soul, just as you take time to remove the grime and sweat from your body. That way, when you head out into the world, others will notice–IN A GOOD WAY.


Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin! Psalm 51:2

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