We're taking a trip chronologically through the Bible this year.
Author: Judy Glasser
Life is a journey. Sometimes I'm coasting downhill and, other times, its a tough road uphill. My journey has been straight uphill since May 19, 2016 when my son, David Glasser, who was a Phoenix Police Officer was killed in the line of duty. When my life and dreams blew apart, I only had one option - to hold on tightly to my Rock, my Father God.
I have a new understanding of just how short life is and how important it is to take loving each other seriously. God is love and all love comes from him. I have seen love do supernatural things since my son was killed.
I have published a book, "Then I Looked Up: Losing a Child, Finding His Legacy of Love." about my tough and painful journey since my son was killed. You can order it from Amazon or you can get an autographed copy by contacting me on messenger.
I am sharing some of my experiences as a survivor of a line of duty death in MYFAMILYBLEEDSBLUE.COM. Please feel free to share these blogs with anyone you know who might find them helpful.
My other blog - JOURNEYTOWARDSTHETRUTH.COM - has been a work of love for many years as I read through the Chronological Daily Bible each year and share what I hear from God when he stops me.
I am inviting you to come along on one or both of my journeys.
Please share as often as you'd like.
Thanks so much for reading!
When we cry out to God for help, he answers us. He has given us the freedom of making our own choices which means he has to stand back and watch when we make bad ones – choices that can have long-term negative consequences for us.
Other times, God creates adverse situations in our lives in order to discipline us and teach us.
Both of these situations cause problems and challenges in our lives.
When we’re knee-deep in trouble, the smart thing to do is to call out to God. BEFORE we get neck-deep.
He will open our eyes to the truth and to the lesson he is trying to teach us.
Isaiah tells us in Chapter 30 that we will hear a voice behind us, saying. “This is the way, walk in it.”
If we choose to obey these directions, God will shower his blessing on us. When it seems like there is only darkness around us, God’s light will break through to heal us and make us whole. He will direct our next step and then our next one, until we get to the place that right for us – where he wants us to be.
On our own, we sometimes decide to do something that we want to do but it’s not a very smart thing to do.
– and He lets us.
Without consulting God, we can decide to go a direction that is going to take us to a place we don’t want to be.
– and He lets us.
We can convince ourselves we need that expensive toy or this new car or that bigger house so we buy it even though we can’t afford it – without checking with God.
– And He lets us.
He also lets us deal with the consequences of making these poor choices. We don’t like that part. We might even ask God why he is letting this bad thing happen to us. How did he let us get into this mess? In reality, we got ourselves into this mess.
God gives us the freedom to make our own choices – knowing that we won’t always make the right ones. He know that he could help us make the right choices – if we would just ask. We have the option of avoiding these nasty consequences.
We are free.
It’s our choice.
Please help us be wise with our choices, Abba Father.
“My child, if you accept my words and store up my commands within you, turning your ear to wisdom and applying your heart to understanding, and if you call out for insight and cry aloud for understanding, and if you look for it as for silver and search for it as for hidden treasure, then you will understand the fear of the Lord and you will find the knowledge of God.
For the Lord gives wisdom, from his mouth come knowledge and understanding. He holds victory in store for the upright, he is a shield to those whose walk is blameless. He guards the course of the just and protects the way of his faithful ones. Then you will understnad what is right and just and fair – every good path. For wisdom will enter your heart and understanding will be pleasant to your soul.”
Yeah, God! We’re adding verse 11 this week:
‘Discretion will protect you and understanding will guard you.’
Discretion means to be careful and thoughtful about our speech and actions in order to avoid causing offense, to keep something confidential or avoid embarrassment.
Could any of us benefit from more discretion? I know I could.
And I love all of God’s promises in this passage about giving us more understanding. Understanding will help us make better decisions and help us determine the best way to act.
Discretion and understanding will protect us from ourselves – bad choices and words that should not be said.
Please give us discretion and understanding, Abba Father.
God has a supernatural math when it comes to our generosity with our money and time in supporting the work of his kingdom.
His math is not like our math where 1+1=2.
God’s math makes 1+1=100. Or 1000. Or 1,000,000 if he wants it to be.
God’s blessing + our giving = everybody wins.
When we give to God, we don’t have less. We have more. Don’t ask me to explain it – it’s just the truth. I’ve experienced it many times. We truly cannot out give God.
God’s math has been true for thousands of years. After the Israelites started to bring their contributions to the Temple of the Lord, they found that they had plenty to eat with plenty to spare. God multiplied their generosity by giving them back more – a lot more. When Hezekiah saw the large piles of leftover contributions, he built storerooms for all of it. The Levites were put in charge of distributing the gifts in other towns.
See how God’s math works? Their generosity just kept multiplying and spreading.
God does the same thing today. If you don’t know that for a fact, test him.
“The hand of God was on the people to give them unity of mind.”
Unity comes from God.
When we are all well-connected to God, we can hear his directions for us. He gives us insight and understanding.
When we are not well-connected, our own desires often cause disunity. When we put what we want in front of Jesus’ desire for us to be ‘one’, we can create dissension. We can become stubborn – the Bible often describes people like this as hard-hearted. When we are focused on ourselves rather than submitting to God, we can become the problem, not the solution.
One way we often show disunity is by being critical of our spiritual leaders. God calls us to encourage and support the leaders he has put in place. He gives us the wisdom we need to do this when we are well-connected with him.
When we are feeling critical and dissatisfied with our church leadership, it indicates that we need to spend more time in prayer and meditation on God’s word.
A shoot from the lineage of Jesse came to earth to save it and fulfill the plans of his Father.
God’s spirit rested on him, giving him wisdom,
understanding,
wise counsel,
might,
knowledge
and respect for the Lord.
His name is Jesus.
And his life reflected a perfect understanding and respect for God.
He does not judge by what is on the outside – he knows our hearts. He does not make decisions based on what he hears – he knows the truth – God’s truth.
When he judges, he does it perfectly.
When he came to earth from heaven to live, he struck the earth with his words – exposing sin and forever changing what we know about love and compassion and submitting to God.
Jesus did the right things everyday.
His faithful obedience to God was evident in every aspect of his life.
Jesus is God’s revelation of himself so we might know him.
I love reading Isaiah as he prophesies about Jesus 700 years before Jesus was born.
Because all of his prophecies came true:
For unto us a child was born,
Unto us, God’s son was given.
He is called Wonderful,
Counselor,
Mighty God,
Everlasting Father,
Prince of Peace.
There is no end to the greatness of his governing of the world.
There is no end to the peace he freely offers us.
He is King!
He reigns over his kingdom today.
He established his kingdom with justice and righteousness.
From now and on into Forever.
Dear Father, We are your light for the people who are walking in darkness today. Please open their eyes to your light of love. Your light of joy. Your light of forgiveness. Your light of redemption and restoration. May your light shine out through us. Please help grow our faith and our witness so that your kingdom on earth will be enlarged. We know we are free when we accept the salvation that your son, Jesus, brought to earth. Help us share that freedom, dear Father. Shatter the yokes of sin that are holding our friends, family and neighbors captive. In the redeeming name of Jesus we pray, Amen.
We are memorizing Proverbs 2 and we are experiencing the blessing of God as he writes these promises and truth on our hearts and minds. We practice saying these several times a day but God is actually doing the etching. Thank you, Father!
“My Child, if you accept my words and store up my commands within you, turning your ear to wisdom and applying your heart to understanding, and if you call out for insight and cry aloud for understanding, and if you look for it as for silver and search for it as for hidden treasure, then you will understand the fear of the Lord and you will find the knowledge of God.
For the Lord gives wisdom, from his mouth come knowledge and understanding. He holds victory in store for the upright, he is a shield to those whose walk is blameless. He guards the course of the just and protects the way of his faithful ones. Then you know what is right and just and fair – every good path.”
We will know every good path because – the next verse:
‘For wisdom will enter your heart and knowledge will be pleasant to your soul.’
Do you feel wisdom entering your heart as we recite God’s words over and over every day?
There’s this supernatural thing happening as I say these words aloud several times a day. They become part of my thinking. They change how I feel. As I’m memorizing, I meditate over these words so much more than I did when I just read them and went on. God speaks to me all of the time through these words as I’m saying them over and over and adding on the next verse.
Is this happening to you as you memorize God’s words?
I also love the anticipation of what the next verse is going to bring up. Where is this search for wisdom going to take my thoughts?
And the knowledge that has come along with memorizing God’s word is very pleasant to my soul. As his words reverberate through my head during the day, he gives me a peace that doesn’t come from anything else in this world. He is renewing my mind….one verse at a time.
God expects us to act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with him. He tells us this in Micah 6.
Act justly – to know what is right and to do it. Often this means doing the opposite of what other people around us are doing because we are doing what is right in God’s eyes, not our own eyes. God blesses us when we obey him.
Love mercy – mercy is showing love and compassion to those who need it but don’t deserve it. They haven’t earned it. And they will never earn it. God sets the example by giving us mercy and expects us to show mercy to others – unmerited love and compassion.
Walk humbly with our God – we need to humbly submit to God’s will, every day. He asks us to bow our knees as we let him take over more and more areas of our lives. I love how this scripture describes our relationship with God as a walk.
It’s a process.
A journey.
One step at a time.
Sometimes just baby steps, but they’re in the right direction.
And sometimes we’re just crawling.
Then there are those times when we are taking steps backwards when we don’t submit and decide to do something our way. These are not happy times. God often disciplines us when we choose to ignore him. He lets us pay the consequences for these decisions until, hopefully, our eyes are opened. Our heart is softened. And we turn back to God with a heart full of repentance. We humbly submit. We bow our knees.
And we start moving down the right path again with God.
Toward completeness.
Toward wisdom.
Toward spiritual maturity.
Dear God, we bow our knees and ask you to help us act justly, love mercy and stay on the straight path of light right next to you. Thank you Abba Father.
Come with me on a Journey through the Bible 