A Visitor

 

 

A visitor to our home decidedly stated that the Nativity figurines that I have in every room was a bit obsessive and eccentric. He said that he did not need a figurine to remind him of what Jesus accomplished for us on Calvary’s cross. He informed me that Jesus’ sacrifice was what bought our salvation for us and is a common theme of the Bible. 

 

So, I asked him, “How often do you think about what Jesus suffered throughout His lifetime in order to pay our penalty for our sins?” (Isaiah 53:3). He thought for a moment and then hung his head, “Well, any time that I read a verse about it in my daily devotion, or during Christmas when I hear the Christmas carols sung.” 

 

I simply replied, “Exactly. That is why I have a trophy of the Nativity in every room. So, I can thank Jesus multiple times every single day for what He did for me.”

 

A difference of opinion … a divergent viewpoint … neither is right or wrong. It is simply a matter of focus. I choose to focus every day on my intense gratitude to Christ for giving up His glorious existence in Heaven, for what He suffered during His selfless lifetime of 33 years, for His horrendous persecution, and for His final torture on the cross - all for my sake. 

 

He was slain for my transgressions and bruised for my iniquity (Isaiah 53:3). What a small tribute to His accomplishments are my various figurines of His lonely birth in a stable. He did it for my sake, and I choose to praise His name for this privilege each time one of these trophies of the Nativity attracts my attention.

 

During His lifetime, the Spirit of the Lord was upon Jesus, and anointed Him to proclaim the good news to the poor, to proclaim freedom to those captives to sin, to heal sick bodies and deceived minds, to bring a liberating life to anyone oppressed of the devil, and to declare the year of the Lord’s favor upon mankind (Luke 4:18-19).

 

Although Isaiah and King David never knew Jesus personally, their precise predictions of what was to come are so exact that they inspire me to listen to God’s Spirit each moment of the day in order to ascertain the will of God for my life and for His glory. 

 

The Spirit of the Lord is within the spirit of everyone who humbles him/herself to the point of believing in Jesus’ sacrifice on our behalf, and who turns away from their sinful lifestyle and rotates towards holiness instead (Romans 8:9-10). Jesus is our Savior, and our soon coming King.

 

Prayer:

Father God, we can never thank You enough for taking on a human form and sending Jesus to suffer as we do. Now He serves as our advocate for all of our prayers (1 John 2:1). Jesus sits on the throne at Your right hand and makes intercession for our daily needs (Romans 8:34). He gives us the glory that You gave Him, so that we can be united with You, just as You and He are one. 

 

Help us to realize the importance of those words, and to allow the impact of this truth of personal unity to sink into the consciousness of our soul, so that they will change our whole outlook on our life here on the earth. Remind us that our life is now redeemed because Jesus atoned for our sin debt by His supreme sacrifice throughout His life and His crucifixion on our behalf (1 John 3:1-2). This standing guarantees our inheritance as co-heirs with Jesus of Your entire Kingdom throughout eternity (Romans 8:17). 

 

Thought for the Day:

Glory and honor and praises are due to the Lord for His amazing selfless life on this earth; therefore, everything that we do, even if it is as minuscule as what we eat and drink, should be done for His glory and for the furtherance of His Kingdom on the earth; how will people hear unless someone tells them and gives them the opportunity to switch from the wide road of destruction to the narrow road of glory with God for eternity.

- Romans 10:13-15; 1 Corinthians 10:31; Matthew 7:13

 

 

 

The Hope of the World

 

 

The young Mary, Jesus’ mother, had so many negative trials thrown at her at one time: 

·      an angel’s appearance to her, 

·      pregnancy out of wedlock, 

·      a trip to see her pregnant aunt, 

·      a probable estrangement from her fiancé, 

·      her parent’s skepticism, 

·      whispered gossip behind her back, 

·      a long donkey trip for the census, 

·      delivering her baby in a stable, 

·      angels singing to shepherds in the fields

·      the threat of her baby’s murder

·      moving away from her family and hometown 

·      a visit from wealthy astronomers bearing gifts

 

However, Mary just tucked away all of these memories in her heart and wondered in awe that God chose her to be the mother of His only begotten Son (Luke 2:19). She gave birth to and raised the Savior and the Hope of this world, and God gave her Joseph to help her to raise this Son, as well as their own children who came along later.

 

God’s mercy saved us, His grace sustains us, and His love heals us in spirit, soul and body. Forgiving our sins, redeeming our guilt, satisfying our desires, filling our emptiness and using our brokenness, He offers us unity with His Trinity. We cling to the hope and experience that we have with Jesus within us. 

 

As we rest in Him, God fills us with more of Himself, and we decrease in our self-importance, selfishness and lose our focus on our ideals and goals. As we lay broken by circumstances, ill health, calamity, destitution, abandonment, etc. God’s presence in us becomes more real to us, more trustworthy, and more secure.

 

Prayer:

Father God, we thank You for our union with Your presence (Galatians 2:20), Your forgiveness of our transgressions, our refuge under the shadow of Your wings (Psalm 91), Your joy that fills our soul, and the hope that we have in You alone. Although we can grieve Your Spirit with our carnality and cause You to turn Your back on our sin and transgression, thank You that You never leave or forsake us, regardless of our thoughts, words and deeds (Hebrews 13:5-8).

 

You are our hope in the midst of the hopelessness in this world, because You sustain us with Your promises, give us Your everlasting life, and deliver us from all of our fears (Psalm 119:116-117). Your truths are beyond human understanding until we repent; and at the same time, that Your Spirit moves into our spirit forever. We trust only in You with our whole heart, as You lead us in Your ways according to Your timing.

 

Thought for the Day:

God became man as our Emmanuel, and belief in Jesus’ sacrifice on Calvary turns insignificant humanity into His valued family members; there is no place that we end up: not the highest heaven, the driest desert, or the deepest abyss where His presence in our life is not continual and secure.

- Matthew 28:20; Psalm 139:8-10

 

A Surprising Year

 

The year 2020 started out with hope liberally splattered in every area of life. Our church family grew with baptisms, and the church council was talking about having two service to accommodate all the people coming regularly, some of whom were even coming weekly. We were so thankful for the Holy Spirit’s movement in our little village and neighboring towns.

 

Then, in March, the Coronavirus-19 became a real public menace. Our governor put restrictions on public gatherings and encouraged everyone to wear a mask. We shut down our services for a few weeks, and then started a radio broadcast as well as Facebook Live, in order to have services outdoors in our parking lot and to assist those restricted at home.

 

A few months later, there was such an outcry against the government by the church establishments, based on the Constitutional rights of churches, that our church council chose to open public gatherings again for anyone who wanted to attend. 

 

Our numbers cut in half, but we still had Facebook live for those who chose to stay at home. We had few actual cases of Covid-19 in our county at this time. However, this quickly changed as one month marched up to the next. We prayed continually for one another, and God moved miraculously in several health issues in our church family.

 

The Covid-19 cases in our surrounding counties increased gradually, and even some of our church members picked up the virus at doctor offices, family traveling from other states, restaurants, work, and grocery store isles. After prayer, our council chose to keep our services as they were. 

 

Thankfully, God answered prayer for our members who contracted the virus. It was short-lived in all but a few cases, and no one died of the illness. When winter came, we still followed these same procedures, although more and more county residents succumbed to the disease. Even schools changed their methods for teaching children.

 

Our church staff encouraged us to keep a positive, trusting attitude in our prayers, fellowship and outreach ministries. People filled notebooks with the positive blessings they received each day, as well as noted on social media about the people in their life to whom they owed a debt of gratitude. The New Year marched in with anticipation of what we would face next.

 

Prayer:

Father God, this switch in focus kept many of us from joining the myriad of complainers who had nothing but negative to say about the year of 2020. Even many of those who lost loved ones during this dreadful pandemic, were grateful to You for those who actually lived through it and recovered quickly – giving You credit where credit was due.

 

How people could think that a certain year was the culprit and a harbinger of doom, and that a New Year would ring in a whole new scenario of events, I cannot imagine. In all things, great and small, good and evil, new government officials and old, etc. we trust in You with our whole heart, realizing that You hold the issues of our life and death in Your hands for Your purpose.

 

Thought for the Day:

For many of us, to live is for Christ, but to die is for personal gain; we look forward to getting our ticket home to heaven, and to realizing that our work in this earthly realm is done; however, if we continue to live in this world, we will seek God’s purpose for us each and every day, and to continue to grow God’s Kingdom as His Spirit leads us.

-  Philippians 1:21; Mark 4:26

God Lifts Us Up

When life gets hard, and we grow tired and weary, God’s Word always has a way of encouraging us. God promises to allow us to reap the benefits of our obedience to His directives, if we do not allow our self to give in to bombarding negative emotions and trials that are attempting to cause us to quit (Galatians 6:9).

 

At times, we are more than tired – not only in body, but in soul as well. Our thoughts, emotions and choices are taxed beyond human endurance. It is only as we are quiet and still, and when we recognize the supernatural help coming from the Lord, that we reign victoriously over every circumstance (Psalm 46:10, 62:5).

 

God often stirs up our nest, fluttering over us like a mother eagle, until we climb up on His wide-spread wings, and He carries us into unknown territory on His pinions (Deuteronomy 21:11). He takes our right hand and reminds us not to fear, because He is always near to us and in us, to help us (Isaiah 41:13). 

 

When God raises us up – seated with Him in the Heavenlies, and we walk in the Spirit, we accomplish more than is humanly possible (Ephesians 2:6-7). We walk with Peter on churning seas, and we ride on God’s shoulders - close to His heart (Matthew 14:22-31; Isaiah 40:4, 11; 63:9; Deuteronomy 1:31).

 

Even in our old age with gray hair covering our head, He is still our Almighty God – the same, yesterday, today and forever (Hebrews 13:8). He even surrounds us with our guardian angels who lift us up, so that we do not strike our foot against a stone (Psalm 91:11-12).

 

Prayer:

Father God, You infuse our soul and spirit with the unity of Your very presence. When we face troubling circumstances that shake us to the very core of our being, You carry us. You lift us up and carry us with You into the Heavenly realms, so that we are no longer so phased by this world or the trouble and trials that we face here. We have a Heavenly mindset and worldview. 

 

You know us so intimately, that You even keep count of the hairs on our head (Luke 12:7). You care for the sparrows and the lilies, but You care for each of Your adopted children even more (Matthew 6:26). We rest in You as You redeem our spirit and restore our body and soul to sanity and health. Thank You for allowing us to yoke up with You, and to cast all of our cares onto Your capable shoulders (1 Peter 5:7).

 

Thought for the Day:

God created us in our mother’s womb, and He carries and sustains and rescues us throughout our lifetime; as we trust Him with our whole heart, we have nothing to fear, and we find our security in Him and His daily provision for all of our needs.

- Isaiah 46:4; Proverbs 3:5-6

God Can Heal a Broken Heart

 

 

Faith – believing in what we cannot see – is a prerequisite to trusting God with our whole heart (Proverbs 3:5-6). Due to our past experiences, we often withhold part of our heart from God. We put up walls, boundaries between us and Him. This hinders our trust in Him and limits His ability to bless us as He wants to provide for us.

 

We allow our human nature, understanding, misconceptions, expectations, wisdom and thoughts to keep us from following the peace of God in our spirit, and from seeing firsthand the power that comes from Him to us, in us and through us in order to affect our world. 

 

However, human nature is restrictive and keeps us from intimately knowing God. Sometimes, we pray according to our own will, rather than in accordance to submitting to His will; and we get disappointed when we think that He lets us down, abandons us, or spoils our expectations. 

 

We suffer because of our despair, and we take it out on Him. Our shattering experience roots cynicism, bitterness and feelings of rejection into our soul. Sometimes, we cannot accept the pain that shrouds our heart, and we strike out at God, blaming Him for ruining our life. 

 

This puts us in bondage to negative thoughts and behavior that etch away at our soul, as they put a thick shell on our inner wounds. We refuse to entrust Him again with our well-being. We withhold our faith in Him, and we allow satanic forces to fill our mind with humanistic ideals and goals.

 

Only God can mend our broken heart, but we will not let Him get close enough to us to make a difference in how we are thinking and feeling until we realize that everything good in our life is inspired by God and comes from His Spirit’s sanctifying work in our soul. 

 

We take Him and His gifts for granted and even give our self the glory, as if we earned them by our behavior. Yet, when we praise Him for each good thing that He accomplishes in and through our life, our heart swells with love and gratitude for Him – even during our negative circumstances.

 

Prayer:

Father God, we often consider Your provision for our life as our right, as if we earned it. Nothing is further from the truth. We actually do not deserve anything more than hell, because of our unbelief and our transgressions throughout the years of our life (John 3:18). Even our best behavior is equal to filthy rags (Isaiah 64:6; Romans 3:19-23). 

 

We forget that You desire nothing more than to abundantly provide for all of Your children. You are the Father of Light, and You know how to give good gifts to Your children (James 1:17). We want to acknowledge Your generosity in Your provision for us, and to give You the glory that is due to Your name (Psalm 136:1-3).

 

Thought for the Day:

God calls us to ask, so that we can receive from Him, to seek so that we can find His fullness, and to knock, so that He can open wide the windows of heaven in order to pour out His blessing on us; this takes one giant leap of faith to cross the threshold of doubt and to enter that place of total surrender to our Christ and King. 

- Matthew 7:7-8

 

A Good Marriage – One that Will Last

 

There are key values in a relationship that make a marriage viable, lasting and exemplary. At the very core is commitment; not just an agreement, but an honest to goodness, true life, through thick-and-thin commitment. A commitment that is renewed every single morning.

 

Contentment in any relationship is birthed in essential principles, regardless of the personal sacrifice it takes to insure one another’s mutual gratification. Knowing without any shadow of doubt that your mate loves God more than you, and loves you more than him/herself, gives us lasting serenity.

 

We do not have to earn this love. It is freely given regardless of the circumstances, irritations, broken promises, disappointments, etc. We pledge our faithfulness to one another, and we resist any temptation that tends to draw us away from our vows.

 

We trust each other to be faithful, because we are secure in our knowledge that we are truly and absolutely loved selflessly and unconditionally. Our marriage was not one of convenience, or a deadline in our five-year plan, or a shift in circumstances, or confidence that she would say, “yes”, or the end of one road onto the next.

 

Regardless of our life’s direction, we truly and sacrificially love one another as Jesus loves the Church, His own Bride. We cannot imagine life without each other. We practice patience when we disagree, forgiveness when we hurt each other, and honesty when we discuss decisions that we must make as a couple.

 

Do not marry a person who is second best, or settle for someone who is fair, but not great. Waiting for true love is worth the time spent praying for God’s choice of a mate for us. That someone should enjoy spending time with us, who is compatible to our personality, and who shares our worldview and ideology about life.

 

We need to trust each other to always do what is best for one another. Giving each other shared time together is the greatest gift that we can receive. Enjoying each other’s company, even in the little most mundane projects, gives us opportunities to grow together as best friends.

 

Prayer:

Father God, teach us to be selfless in our marriage, to honestly communicate what we want and need, to readily forgive each other’s shortcomings and offences, and to prefer one another more than doing anything else with our time, finances and efforts. Help us to see things in each other that we can appreciate and respect. We are the only wife/husband and mother/father that our family has, so help us to be faithful to our mate and family first and foremost.

 

Remind us to prove to each other that we are trustworthy in all things, because without trust, love will never flourish. Help us to show kindness, compassion, forgiveness, support, consideration, and a willingness to find a third option when we disagree with each other. Prompt us to respect one another’s boundaries and need for alone time in order to make room for individuality. As we seek Your will for each moment of our life – individually and as a couple, we will flourish in our relationship with You and with one another.

 

Thought for the Day:

Expecting our mate to live up to our private presumptions, or the mold formed for men and women by society around us, is self-defeating and unfair; accepting each other exactly as we are, yet being willing to change to meet the needs in our partner’s life, and providing our mate a helping hand when a trial tries to ruin their life, will all help us to form a union and bond that nothing and no one can divide.

Praising through Tribulation

 

 

Through the doubts and fears that assail us as new Believers in Jesus Christ, God teaches us that His wisdom and power will see us through every issue that we will ever face. We are confident in His love for us, and we grow to desire nothing more than to dwell in His courts both day and night (Psalm 27:4).

 

Regardless of the type of trials that assail us throughout our lifetime, God proves Himself faithful to us over and over again. His unconditional love and provision for all of our needs are a constant reminder of His watchfulness over His children.

 

We never need to doubt His Word or His protective Fatherhood over us. As we place our personal cares onto His broad shoulders, He proves His care for us (1 Peter 5:7). He wants us to turn to Him though every moment of our day, to walk in His plans for us, and to follow the guidance of His Spirit (Proverbs 3:5-6).

 

Jesus promises that we will always have tribulation on this earth (John 16:33), but we can be cheerful and praise God for them, in them and through them. Jesus overcame His testing, and He abides within us, so that we can live victoriously too (Colossians 1:27). 

 

Paul and Silas give us a perfect example of mature behavior in tribulation. They praised God in the midst of their imprisonment and God worked on their behalf – resulting in the jailer and His family coming to faith in Christ’s finished work on Calvary’s cross (Acts 16:23-34).

 

We rejoice in the Lord always, and His peace lifts us above every trial as it guards our heart and mind (Philippians 4:4, 6-7). Tribulation tests our faith in God’s faithfulness, allows patience to perfect us, and produces Godly character and perseverance in us (James 1:2-4; Romans 5:3). 

 

We learn to cling to hope and to look forward to the seed for a miracle that God plants in each hardship that we face (Romans 5:3-5). God is faithful, loving, generous, and bountiful in His mercy toward us in every experience that we face in our lifetime.

 

Prayer:

Father God, in this broken and scary world, we know that we can trust in You to give us joy in both our troubles and blessings - in spite of our circumstances. You are always worthy of our praise, and we never have any cause to blame You for not answering our prayers with the result that we want. Your ways are higher than our human understanding, and You always bless us in ways that we could never even imagine.

 

Thank You for Your faithful care for all of us individually through every moment of our day, regardless of what we experience in each one of them. We praise You through every challenge that we face and every heart-rending disappointment that we ever experience. You are worthy of all of our praise, and Your faithfulness is deeper than the oceans and higher than the sky (Psalm 103:11).

 

Thought for the Day:

God hears our prayers as we cry to Him for help, He never hides His face from us when we experience any type of trouble, and He listens closely and answers us quickly when we call to Him; regardless of our physical, emotional, relational, financial, mental, spiritual or financial pain, even when our body aches and we feel misunderstood and dejected and broken, He remains faithful to us and restores to us the years that calamity stole from us.

-      Psalm 102:1-11; Joel 2:25