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In Psalm 139 the psalmist is talking about the presence of God. He has
created us, knows us, and is with us everywhere. There is no place we can
flee from His presence, nowhere we can go without His hand to guide us.
I think that is a marvelous thought. When talking about being with God,
we definitely cannot go by our feelings. Some days we feel far from God,
or at least apart from Him. Some days when we're experiencing meaningful
fellowship with Him, it seems He is right with us. Ultimately, His
presence with us doesn't change at all depending on our feelings or
thoughts. He is the same and has promised to NEVER leave us.
You
can count on the fact that whatever your day brings, all you have to do is
reach out your hand and you'll find GOD is walking right there beside you. Written by Carol Steficek
A new commandment I give to
you, that you love one another:
just as I have loved you, you also are to love
one another.
By this all people will know that you are my disciples,
if you
have love for one another.”
A seemingly simple command, “Love One Another”, I know my
life feels more peaceful when I am feeling loved, which in turn makes me want
to give it back. The reality of life on
earth is that we are not always in a position to feel love because the people
we must sometimes share our days with are not always the loving type. This has effected me greatly over the years,
being hurt by someone and holding a grudge or holding back my love because,
after all, why would I show you love when you don’t even give me a glimpse of
kindness.
The true reality is to love one another
as Christ has loved us. He didn't hold
back because someone was not on the best terms with Him, or because someone was
going through their own personal crisis and didn't feel loving towards
anyone. All He did was show the love of
his heart to all He came in contact with and prayed for everyone! He loves me more than any human ever can and
that is all that needs to be known.
There is no greater love.
I have been practicing intentional love, just as Christ as
commanded, as I go throughout my day with everyone that I encounter. I don’t have to go overboard with gushes of
hugs and statements of love and how we are to love one other always. A simple smile, a kind response, showing
respect, listening to someone’s troubles; there are oh so many ways that we can
simply love on one another. Living a
much more peaceful day to day life is the result of me loving all, as well as
seeing the love given back to me. I am
so grateful for Christ’s commandment and commitment of love. We truly have nothing if we don’t have
love. It is the greatest of great, along
with that is a much warmer heart for us all.
1 Corinthians 13
(ESV)
The Way of Love
13 If I speak in the tongues of
men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2
And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge,
and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am
nothing. 3 If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be
burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.
4 Love is patient and kind; love
does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant 5 or rude. It does not insist on its
own way; it is not irritable or resentful; 6 it does not rejoice at
wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. 7 Love bears all things, believes all
things, hopes all things, endures all things.
8 Love never ends. As for
prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for
knowledge, it will pass away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10
but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. 11 When I was a child,
I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I
became a man, I gave up childish ways. 12 For now we see in a mirror dimly, but
then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have
been fully known.
13 So now faith, hope, and love
abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.
I just returned from mailing a belated birthday card. I have been faithful for years in sending this person a birthday card on time. However, this year the date slipped passed me and I sent the celebratory message well after the fact. Oooops!
As I picked up the card to send it on it's way, I was reminded that our Lord is never late in his responses to our prayers. His solutions to our problems and the help He grants us is always in His perfect timing. Our cares and concerns never "slip His mind."
Isaiah 49:14-17 states
"Yet Jerusalem says, 'The Lord has deserted us; the Lord has forgotten us. Never! Can a mother forget her nursing child? Can she feel no love for a child she has borne? But even if that were possible, I would not forget you! See, I have written your name on my hand. (NLT)
Our Heavenly Father assures us that the love He has for us is stronger than that of a nursing mother for her baby and that we will never escape His memory.
Furthermore, in Hebrews 13:5 the Lord says,
"I will never leave you nor forsake you." (ESV)
These are powerful declarations of the faithfulness of God.
I recently heard the testimony of a recovering drug addict. She had survived a childhood filled with abuse, neglect, and exploitation. Early in her spiritual journey the Lord spoke these words to her: "I will be there for you tomorrow." This solidified her commitment to Jesus and gave her the hope and security she needed to continue in her Christian walk. Whether we are overcoming great emotional trauma or just in need of a word of encouragement in our daily routine, we can rely on the enduring promises of God. The lovely song by Robert Davidson says it best.
Hanging out with Jesus has got to be the best place to spend my time! It is so amazing when I am experiencing the Lord's presence that nothing seems to matter except Him! All my cares and worries and major concerns just melt away! He is my utmost focus and I feel so safe with Him!
His Word tells us in Psalm 23:3
"But You are holy, Enthroned in the praises of Israel."
The word enthroned meaning: give or ascribe a position of authority. Because of the power of our God and His powerful position and intense love for us, He literally shows up in the praises of His people.
I don't know about you but that takes my breath away to be able to be in the very presence of our Most High King as I enter into His throne room with my praises. There is nothing like it and will never be anything like it.
My goal is to spend more and more time with Jesus to the point where the things on the earth do not matter. He is my everything, and in His presence is fully where I want to be all the days of my life.
Dear Lord, I am in summer seeking you. It is so very hot and I am so very dry. With all of my being I cry out for water. My throat is parched and I can not speak. I have no words to express my heart’s cry of yearning. Jesus in you is life. You are the living water. In you I quench my thirst. I would drink of you. I would soak in your presence. Lord Jesus, rain down on me and saturate me, fill me. You bring healing to me and refresh my very being. In you I will find answers. In you I will find peace. It is in the air. I smell it. It is a sweet fragrance. My spirit quickens and I start to run. Into the arms of Jesus I run. He holds me tight and whispers to me, “ It is beginning to rain.”
One Saturday my husband did our usual ritual of going to Starbucks which we usually
do after we have gone to the gym. It was rodeo weekend in our town that
weekend, and cowboyness was everywhere. The cowboys were soon to arrive, and
the whole town was revving up to be consummate westerners.
There
were two children sitting at a table, and their mom was nearby. They were about
three and four. The oldest one was a girl and she was all decked out. She had a
pink cowgirl hat on and a pink vest with fringe on the chest and at the bottom
of it. Her boots were also pink and she had a denim skirt on to complete her
ensemble. The younger child was a boy. He also was wearing western garb…a bit
less fancy than his sister. She was a professional. The boy had on a straw cowboy
hat. He had on blue jeans and a plaid shirt.
Mom
had bought each of them one of those frosted cake lollypops that Starbucks
carries and a carton of chocolate milk. They shone with a happiness to be
alive. Two other little girls were out in the patio, and though separated by
the window, they were making friends and laughing and playing together. I just
could take my eyes off them. They were adorable.
I
had walked down to wait for my coffee when all of a sudden I heard a shrill
shriek from up in front where the children’s table was. When I looked I saw the
little boy had fallen off his chair and was on the floor. His lollypop was
mashed into crumbs and his carton of milk had spilled all over the floor. As I
listened to his loud crying I realized that it was filled with hurt that was
not only physical. It was sounding like the cry of a broken heart. It was as if
he was lamenting the surprise and disastrous end to his perfect morning.
Something terrible and unexpected had happened, and the little tyke was beyond
sad. He just did not seem to understand how such a thing could have happened.
His mother picked him up and tried to comfort
him. She held him for a long time kissing his wet face and rubbing his head.
Finally he calmed down a bit. Then she put him back on his chair where he sat
hiccupping from the cry. Then Mom started to clean up the mess. I watched the
scene with sympathy for the family that this had happened to tarnish their
perfect outing. By then we had finished our coffee and left the store. I never
did see if she bought him a new snack. However, even though you can salvage
jaunt it may be impossible to restore the original bliss of it.
Sometimes
things like this happen to us adults as well. We may not end up down on the
floor in the middle of a mess. I often think of it as a moment in time that you
could go backwards to minutes before the tragedy happened. In one of the
Superman movies there is a terrible earthquake and Lois Lane’s car is swallowed
into a crack in the earth. In this accident Lois Lane died. Superman was flying
above the earth, and he saw what had happened to his friend Lois. He loved
Lois, and he started to cry. Then he went towards the earth and made it spin
backwards in the opposite direction until it was to a point in time before the
earthquake. Lois had not died yet. He grabbed her out of her car, and flew up
in the sky. The horrible happening had been avoided by this time reversal. It
would be really great if this could happen.
In
real life we cannot go back in time to change things that have happened that in
an adult could compare to the heartbreaking thing that had happened to the
little boy. Your husband decides to leave. You hear of fires that not only
destroy a forest but also burn down lots of houses. You make an investment that
does not bring the financial results that you expected, and you are basically
ruined. As you look back you see how innocent you had been about the
possibilities of such a thing happening. It feels as if this incident is life
changing and that we are aware of how great things were before in in the days
of ignorance of such pitfalls.
The
good news is that we have our
Divine Superman
who comes down to comfort us.
He is able
to turn bad experiences to good. He works to help us gain new wisdom and
understanding. Sometimes he sends something into our lives that will help us to
get over our heartbreak. In all of it He is holding us in the palm of His
mighty hand. His love and attention is what we have throughout our lives. We
need to remember this beautiful scripture when we are overwhelmed by
challenges.
“For I know the plans I have
for you,” declares the Lord, “
plans to prosper you and
not to harm you,
plans to give you hope and
a future.
Jeremiah 29:11
Dear Lord…
Thank you that you will
not leave us or forsake us. This means that in good times or bad times we know that we have a Comforter who never lets go of us...no matter what. What a
great and amazing God you are. You are our Jehovah Jirah forever.
Amen.
Apart from God we are nothing. We are unable to do anything to please Him on our own. Some people are separated from God out of ignorance - not knowing about his saving grace. Others know about it but refuse to believe it, choosing instead religious belief in nothing or in some other false god such as "nature" or "spirituality" apart from God, etc. Still others believe in the true God but have fallen away out of lack of a close relationship, or their faith growing dim until the once glowing flame becomes such a tiny spark that it is at risk of forever being extinguished and becoming a cold ash. Those who are separated from God for whatever reason are lost souls. Some of those lives even turn to evil ways, or reveling in sinful actions.
But once we are given the Spirit through baptism, we have received the gift of faith - that glowing ember within our hearts. If we continue by God's power to fan the flame of faith through conscious contact with Him in prayer, meditation, praise and worship, we will desire to thank him with our good works and witness to the world. We are set free from the bondage of sin. Our lives become transformed as we reflect to the world the love of Jesus Christ who died and rose again for all.
2 Corinthians 3:17-18 (NIV) Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.And we all, who with unveiled faces reflect the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.
Dear Lord in heaven, I praise your holy name for all that you have done for me. My life is nothing without you. But by your loving and merciful forgiveness I have been transformed. By your mighty power make me a light to the world, reflecting your glory to others in all that I say and do. Help me when I falter or stray from your side, bringing me back into the fold. Keep me strong in faith so that through my witness others can be brought into a loving relationship with you. In Jesus' name, Amen.
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