Mercy Continues To Fall

Wednesday, November 17, 2010 Devotional

Our God is so full of compassion and kindness and rich mercy. God's word says in Daniel 9:9 "To the Lord our God belong mercy and forgiveness, though we have rebelled against Him." Even though I have rebelled against God many times, our God continues to forgive me and grant onto me an abundance of mercy. He promises me that no matter what I have done or am going to do, that He will never abandon me.

I am in awe of our God who pours mercy on us day after day after day. His mercy is new and fresh each and every morning. Even though there have been many times I have felt I do not deserve His mercy, God never ceases to be faithful to grant that mercy onto me when I have so desperately needed it. Now that is the amazing God that I serve and I am so thankful for.

Blessings,

Written by Sandy

THINK PEACE

Devotional for 11/16/10 

Let  every soul be subject unto the higher powers.

For there is no power but of God:

the powers that be are ordained of God.

Romans 13:1

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Romans 13:1

At the very least, Paul derived this from the example of Christ, who submitted to wicked and corrupt officials and authorities. Jesus had every right to rebel. He was completely innocent and had done nothing wrong—nothing of which He was accused had been part of His conduct. However, He had every intention of doing the right thing, and He carried through with it.

The true Christian consciously chooses to suffer evil rather than do evil because it would be wrong to do anything other than what Christ did. He set the example. He is the archetype; He is the One who goes before. The Christian is not a masochist, but by faith, he takes steps to prevent war. He does this because he recognizes that two wrongs do not make a right. Just because someone abuses authority does not give him the right from God to fail to submit to it. This is why there is never any real thought to war. Somebody gets into power and abuses his authority, and those who are under him react carnally and retaliate to get back at the one in authority—and the cycle never ends!

Will there ever be peace? There will be peace when people submit to God, and that means submitting to His way. If everybody would submit to God's way, war would stop overnight—that would be the end! But men will not submit to God (Romans 8:7). A major principle we are to learn in this life is to submit under duress, under abuse—when the pressure is on and the desire to retaliate is strongest. We have to learn not to justify our retaliation by saying, "He made me do it—the Devil made me do it!" All the ways of man are right in his own eyes (Proverbs 14:12).

Submitted by Annie A.

Touching Lives

Monday, November 15, 2010 Devotional

November 7 was Reverend Billy Graham's 92th birthday. This renowned evangelist has touched the lives of millions of people and has led hundred's of thousand to receive Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior.

I was intrigued by a recent television tribute honoring Billy Graham on his birthday. Reverend Graham has received many awards, accolades, and distinctions. He has written 24 books and has been a pastor to numerous presidents. Despite his high acclaim the man has remained admirably humble and unassuming. Many pastors and ministers appeared on the television program. Each one commented that Billy Graham had always treated them with the utmost kindness and respect. There were repeated stories of how Mr. Graham had served them and helped them in situations which no one else would ever know about. The television tribute showed film clips of Billy Graham preaching to huge crowds in large stadiums. However, there were also clips of him preaching to tiny groups in remote areas of the world. He spoke to these small assemblies with the same passion and fervor as he did to the massive groups of people. There were also recordings of the Reverend singing Bible songs with a group of young children. As he sang with the children and taught them the word of God his face beamed with joy.

It was evident that Billy Graham has a fire in his heart ablaze with the love of God. His desire to see others come to know Jesus and to attain eternal life is immeasurably deep and intense. His character and servant's heart in all situations validate his public ministry and have contributed to its success.

Becoming aware of Billy Graham's tireless dedication to the gospel and his personal integrity has been an inspiration to me.

"I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus." Philippians 3:14 (NIV)

Written By C.F.

SUFFERING AND JOY

Life on this earth is full of problems. Sometimes they are just minor irritations... a hangnail. At other times they are worrisome... someone is late coming home and we don't know why. But at times they are life-altering... a disfiguring injury or the death of a loved one.

There are times when some of us feel overwhelmed by circumstances beyond our control. We may feel as if we are being buried alive, or that we are being held under water by a great weight and are drowning. At times like these, it is helpful to remember that our Lord also suffered. His suffering, however, was to the point of undeserved death.

He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering. Isaiah 53:3

And yet, he endured it for our sake, for the joy that was ahead, for that blessed promise of a heavenly home.

Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him, endured the cross, scorning its shame. Hebrews 12:2

We can take great comfort in knowing that Jesus was willing to suffer even death in order that we may have life eternal with him in heaven. What a wonderful example for us that, that no matter what our situation is and how difficult it may be, we can cling to the hope of a brighter future. God feels our pain, understands our suffering, protects us and walks us through to the other side to joy.

When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze. Isaiah 43:2

Prayer: Thank you, Lord, for suffering in my place and rising again in glory so that I may have eternal joy with you in heaven. Help me to withstand whatever this earthly life deals me and to remain faithful throughout, neither allowing the waters to sweep over me nor letting the flames set me ablaze. Carry me through to the other side, bringing peace to my heart and joy to my life. May I then be a witness to others of your great love for all. In your name, Amen.

Written by Jan Andersen

Ponies, Rainbows, and Butterflies

“In my world everyone is a pony, and they all eat rainbows, and poop butterflies.” That’s a line from a kids movie that my son loves to quote. It’s cute, and he always makes me chuckle when he says It in the voice of the character. I used it this morning to illustrate a point to my kids about truth and worldviews. It’s challenging to train your children to think Biblically when they live in a culture inundated with secular views. We all want to guard our kids from the negative influences out there, and I’m thankful I homeschool so I can do just that. But I don’t just want to guard them, I want to train them. They won’t be homeschooled forever (Whew! Thank God for that!), so before we release them into the lion’s den of this world, I try to have as many of these “teaching” sessions as possible. And this one was successful. I started with a baseball illustration that I heard on the radio and I figured three boys would totally get it. It’s an analogy using three umpires. The first umpire says that he calls the pitches as they are, balls and strikes. The second umpire says that he calls them as he sees them. And the third umpire says, “They ain’t nothin’ till I call ‘em!”

“So what’s that supposed to mean,” they asked. Well the first umpire represents basing your views on truth when the second umpire represents basing your views on how things appear to you. It’s like “proofs” in geometry (and fortunately two of the three boys understood this one). You can’t prove that two shapes are congruent just because they look congruent. If you tried to do that, you’d get an “F” in geometry. You have to prove your statement based on a list of theorems. Theorems are truths and they don’t change. Likewise, when you take a stand on something in life, you have to back up your position with truths. And where do we find those truths? My sons knew the answer…they’re in the Word of God. But just as you cannot successfully get through “proofs” in geometry without first learning the theorems, you also cannot successfully defend your position unless you first read and learn God’s Word. Otherwise, you’ll be just like the second umpire…taking your stand based on how things appear. Since that’s the way it looks to you, that’s what you believe. It might work with calling pitches, but it doesn’t always work well elsewhere.

Well, as I said, I’m thankful and blessed to have the opportunity to homeschool my kids, but I pray that as they grow in maturity, they’ll continue to grow in the Lord and His Word, searching the scriptures. If they don’t they’ll find themselves feeling frustrated knowing that the information was once given to them (by Mom and Dad), but they just can’t seem to recall it. That’s the situation my daughter found herself in recently. She knew that it was possible to defend her faith and answer the question of her college friend, but she couldn’t recall the information or where in the scriptures to find it. I’m glad she came to me instead of giving up. She at least followed the advice of “I don’t know right now, but I know how to find out.” Maybe her frustration will lead her to get back into the Word, and I’ll praise God when it happens, but I suppose right now the greatest testimony in this is that her foundation was strong because it was based on truth. Even though she was frustrated in her mind, her faith was not shaken regardless of how the “questioning” appeared to shake it.

But what does all this have to do with the silly quote I began with? That’s where the third umpire comes in. According to him, the pitches are nothing until he calls them. But he bases his stance on nothing. He creates his own truth. Called post-modernism, it’s not new, but it is a trend that’s been growing for some time now. Well I suppose that would be the next step, wouldn’t it? When so much of the world has rejected God’s Word as truth, why not take the next step and create your own? If it feels good, we’ll call it good and that will be our truth. If it feels bad, we’ll call it bad and that will be our truth. But of course, there can’t be any absolutes because everyone feels different. It’s basically just creating your own values, your own truths, and it leads to a society completely contrary to God’s Word with no one even caring that it does. Homosexual marriage, abortion, euthanasia? Well if you believe these issues to be perfectly fine and OK because you feel they’re perfectly fine and OK, what’s to stop you from going even further? How about legalizing pedophilia or marrying your pet? How about infanticide…killing a fully developed newborn baby? Or maybe we could come up with a maximum age for life, at which point the elderly would just go into the doctor’s office to get their shot to end their life. Sounds preposterous? Of course it does…just like everybody becoming ponies, eating rainbows and pooping butterflies.

Well, at least my boys understood how ridiculous it is to create your own truth. And although post-modernism is seeping into our churches, I think the majority struggle more with falling into the category of the second umpire simply because they’re not in the Word. That’s very sad considering we have more resources than we’ve ever had before, and yet we have the highest level of Biblical illiteracy. We have information at our fingertips, and yet most self-proclaimed Christians don’t know God’s Word? I understand that when a society doesn’t have the truth available to them, they don’t have much of a choice. But we have no excuse!

 We have a limited vantage point, but God has every vantage point. Why would we not take advantage of that? This applies to much more than just your theological beliefs. Even for myself, there are issues that can cause a lot of worry and concern based on what I can see and what I cannot see- finances…health…even the spiritual condition of my family and friends. Take for example my daughter. I could worry about how it seems that she is drifting further away from God. After all, that is what I see. But I’m not going to burden myself with worry when I know the promises laid out in God’s Word. Such as “train up a child in the way he should go and when he is old he will not depart from it.” When I boldly speak His truth from His Word, then I can clearly hear His voice speaking to my heart, “Don’t give up. Pray for her. Trust in Me. I’m drawing her to Me.” And I believe it…because His Word is truth.

Written by Amie Spruiell

“My Beautiful Box”

“He shall call upon Me, and I will answer him;
I will be with him in trouble,

 I will deliver him and honor him.
With long life will I satisfy him

and show him my salvation.”

Psalm 91:15, 16

(Amplified Bible)

I was four years old when I lost my Mother. She died at the young age of twenty two due to a horrible act of violence. Three very short years later my Father lost his life in a terrible automobile accident. By the time I was seven years old I was deeply traumatized. At a very young age, and before I could even understand them, my heart was overflowing with feelings of grief, loss, sadness, confusion and fear.


As a result of all of this, I learned to live my life in what I have come to refer to as a “box”. I worked very hard at keeping my box “safe”. I learned to be very careful about “who” or “what” I allowed into my box. I spent a lot of time and energy keeping my box organized, and clean. It felt a lot safer to me that way. I somehow thought that if I could keep everything “in order” then things like trauma and tragedy wouldn’t be able to come in and turn everything upside down in my life again, especially without warning.


I learned to make everything look “good” on the outside, and tried very hard to hide the tremendous amount of pain that I was feeling on the inside. I learned how to “go” through the motions of life, but for some reason I never really ever felt happy. I learned to keep this inside of me also, because I really believed that something was terribly “wrong” with me. My deepest fear was that others would notice that I “different, and “different” to me somehow meant that I was the worst kind of “bad”.


Although I was quite determined to try and hold all of these feelings inside of me, and to control each and every circumstance in my life, eventually this all proved to be too difficult for me. As so often happens, I reached out to the Lord in the depth of my distress, and I was delighted to learn that He had already been reaching out to me. I began to speak to Him as a Father, and He continued to speak to me as His child.


Eventually, and with the help of many people that the Lord brought into my life, I slowly began to heal. This was a process, and although I was never alone, it was a process that was perfectly suited to me. The Lord helped me and it was all done in my own way and in my own time. I love that about the Lord. He knows how to reach, help and heal each one of us in a way that is perfectly suited for us, individually.


I finally came to the place where I felt as if I was ready and able to “set” my box aside. I felt as if I didn’t need it any longer, and that I could now live my life “outside” of the safe place that I had built up for myself. I had come to understand and believe that the Lord Himself was my “safe” place and that wherever He was, I was with Him, and that somehow that meant that I would be okay, no matter what happened. So, I decided to leave my box.


This was when the Lord showed me an example of His great wisdom and mercy. In my mind I could see a picture of this little girl and she was sitting inside of a box. She had been in there for a very long time, and somehow she had begun to grow. One day she realized that she had grown too big to stay inside of that box, and she wanted to get out. She was no longer afraid. She was excited to see, hear and experience the things that she had seen going on around her, by those who were outside of her box. What surprised her was that once the Lord had helped her to get out, and once she was standing safely beside Him, was that He didn’t throw the box away, as she had expected.

What He did do was turn that box upside down, and proceed to set that little girl on top of the box. He then explained to her that now the very thing that had held her captive would now be used as a platform. It would now be used as a platform to help her to reach out to others that had been through some of the same things in life. That “box” was still something that the Lord could use. Only this time it would be used for the Lord’s purpose and glory.


I cannot tell you how delighted I was to learn this concept. I am amazed at the Lord’s ability to use every single circumstance that happens in our lives for our good and for His glory. There is nothing that cannot be used by Him. So, today I am “out:” of that box, but I am still using it as a platform to reach out to others. It is from that very place that I can now speak to others of the Lord’s goodness, kindness, and His overwhelming and all consuming love.


It is comforting to me, in a way, to still “see” that box in my life. It is a daily reminder to me of where I once was, where I am now, and where I am headed. Most importantly, though, it speaks to me of the One who delivered me, the One who set me free, and the One who is still teaching me how to live daily in the abundance of His love and healing.


Written by Beverley A. Napier

Can I Walk by Faith?

I spent this morning writing some thoughts and experiences down and the Lord put it on my heart to share it with you. I was going to put it off and get some housework done first, but God said, "No, now is good." He knows me well....it probably wouldn't have happened if I didn't do it now. So here you go.


For so many years I've been told, "You have so much faith." The truth is, outside of knowing the definition of faith from God's Word:

Now faith is confidence in what we hope for

and assurance about what we do not see.

Hebrews 11:1 (NIV)

I have struggled to grasp the meaning of what is meant to walk by faith. Recently the Lord has shown me the power of trusting in Him. It starts by trusting that God does truly love me. Now that's a hard one to grasp. Why would God love me?! The wretched sinner that I am. But then again, how can my husband love me or my children love me? After all they have lived with me and know all my junk. It's easy to be lovable to the world. They don't really know me, but my family, there's no fooling them. They know the truth. Yet I believe, in spite of myself, my family does love me. They have proven their love for me.


Wow, by showing me that my family loves me anyway, God has definitely proven His love for me. He knows me even better than my family. He hears my every thought. At least I can hide those from my family - sometimes. But God, well, He knows me inside and out - better than I know myself. He still picks me up time and time again after each failure. He speaks to me all the time - if I only listen. He always has something to say. Then it comes to the question: If I were the only person on earth would God have sent His only Son to die for me? Does He really love me that much? I'm taken back to that familiar verse:

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son

 that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life

 John 3:16 (NIV)

Now when Jesus spoke these words He was speaking to one man, Nicodemus. He was not speaking to a crowd. He cared enough about that one man, He stopped and taught him about the meaning of salvation. I believe I could very well have been that one man Jesus spoke to. I also recognize that God sent His Son that whoever believes will be saved. It is God's heart and intent that the whole world enter into eternal life with Him. He sent Jesus for whoever would believe, even if only one person would believe .


I do believe God loves me. He loves us all and sees us for who He created us to be. It is His desire we come to accept His gift of Jesus. With this gift there are many treasures (gifts). It's like receiving a hope chest and when you open it up it's filled with many useful gifts. Receiving the gift of salvation is only the beginning. God wants so much for us to see with His eyes. He wants us to grasp the full picture of who we are in His eyes. We are tainted (stained) and conditioned by this world. We can't see the truth through the lies - at least not without some help. God's help.


God so desires we open the hope chest and receive all the many gifts He has for us. To do that we must begin to see through His eyes. Seeing through God's eyes is believing He has everything under control. He has our best interest in mind. He love us and our loved ones. If we believe that then we must trust Him for it. Receiving God's gift of Jesus, accepting and believing His love for you and trusting Him with everything is the beginning of what it means to walk by faith. Keeping our eyes fixed upon Jesus, seeking to see through the eyes of God is how we continue walking by faith. Walking by faith brings peace, joy and so much more....the gifts of the Spirit. We can truly be set free from worry and doubt.
If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.

So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.

John 8:31-32 (NIV)

Just last night I came home from working an 8 hour day at the office and began preparing a meal for not just one household, but two. I turned on some upbeat Christian music and got busy cooking. I was having a good time. Then suddenly I started thinking about the mess I was making and about how much work had to be done around the house, especially with everyone coming to my house for Thanksgiving dinner. Then I realized, "Wait a minute, I'm having a good time." Not only that, but I'm blessing others. I remembered that God is aware of my needs and the condition of my house. So I made a choice. I let all the thoughts go and continued to enjoy what I was doing. Then again, as I was clearing the table and putting mail in my daughter's room I was reminded of the choices she was making and all my concerns for her. God so gently reminded me to give her to Him. I made a choice and said "Okay." I walked out of her room, smiled and said thank you Jesus. I can't remember ever feeling such a peace and joy as I had right then knowing I had no concerns or worries. My God was working all things out. I would continue to choose to see with His eyes and trust His heart for everything because I know and believe God loves me!


This is how much God loved the world: He gave his Son, his one and only Son. And this is why: so that no one need be destroyed; by believing in him, anyone can have a whole and lasting life. God didn't go to all the trouble of sending his Son merely to point an accusing finger, telling the world how bad it was. He came to help, to put the world right again. Anyone who trusts in him is acquitted; anyone who refuses to trust him has long since been under the death sentence without knowing it. And why? Because of that person's failure to believe in the one-of-a-kind Son of God when introduced to him. John 3:16-18 (MSG).

Written by Debbie Rodriguez

Shared by Mary Wilkins
(who is out of town)