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!

Knowledge and Understanding

On By Judy GlasserIn AugustLeave a comment

God gave Daniel and his friends knowledge and understanding of all kinds of literature and learning.  Daniel could understand visions and dreams of all kinds.August 8 2013

I don’t know about you, but I’m not looking for knowledge and understanding of all kinds of literature – just the Bible.  I have a deep desire to know the Truth and the Truth is only found in God’s word.

This has been a core motivation for me as long as I can remember – I just want to know and understand the truth.

When I realized that the only real truth is what God says to me through his Bible, it changed my life.  I don’t care to understand most of the other stuff that is out there.  Show me the Truth, help me understand the Truth and help me apply his Truth to my daily life – that’s all I want.

Sometimes the truth hurts and that’s okay.  At least it’s the truth.  At least it’s not some lie that our culture has made up and tried to pawn off as the truth.

And I have been hugely blessed.  As I have saught God and his Truth, he has given me knowledge and understanding of his Word.  Almost every time I pick it up, God reveals something new to me.  And I’m convinced that it’s my problem when I don’t have a ‘a-ha!” moment when I’m reading the Bible – I’m distracted, I’m not listening and, sometimes, I just don’t want to hear it:)  When I hear it and understand it, I’m responsible for it, right?

The Truth has set me free!  And I am free indeed!

 

We Have So Much More

On By Judy GlasserIn AugustLeave a comment

King Josiah was very busy in 2 Kings with cleaning up the messes that the unfaithful kings before him had made.  One of his projects was getting the temple of the Lord back into shape.Aug 2 2013

In the middle of doing this, the priests found the Book of the Law that God had given to Moses.  The first thing they did was read it.  Then they took it right to King Josiah and read it for him.  The King understood that this was God’s word and tore his robes as an outward sign of the repentance he felt regarding his behaviors and the behaviors of his ancestors.

He recognized that the Lord had been angry with them because they had not been keeping the Word of the Law.

After reading the limited version of the Word of God that they had, they immediately changed.

How much more is our responsibility as we hold the entire revelation of God in our hands?

Or even worse – as God’s revelation to us sits in a pile of books somewhere in our house gathering dust?

We not only have the entire old testament, we have the incredible new testament.  God’s became flesh and came to dwell among us.  We have seen God and it is Jesus.  The new testament tells us everything God wants us to know about Jesus.  It completes God’s revelation of his Love Story for us.

King Josiah got it right.  He read, he believed, he applied it to his life and he exerted all the influence he had on the world around them to help them also see the Truth.

Now, what about me? 

Where am I planted?

On By Judy GlasserIn AugustLeave a comment

A tree planted by a stream of water spreads its roots out to the stream and is rewarded with a constant source of nourishment.  The heat doesn’t bother it and its leaves are always green.  The tree doesn’t have to worry about rain or no rain – its planted in just the right spot.  It grows fruit every time its in season.  The storms come but the tree’s roots are strong and well-nourished so nothing can blow it away.

Sounds really nice, doesn’t it?  God uses this example a couple of times in his word to us – this time it’s in Jeremiah and the same picture is given to us in Psalm 1.July 31.2

Because this can be us.  This can be our life.  We can choose to plant our lives very close to the Living Water where we will be rewarded with a constant source of truth, peace, joy, love and encouragement. We will live fruitful, purposeful lives.  When we live close to the Living Water, we don’t have to worry about rain or no rain.  The storms come but we are firmly rooted, never blown away.

It’s not a one-time decision.  It’s a daily decision.

We decide if we’re going to live close to God today.

And then tomorrow we need to make the decision again.  And every day after that.

It’s priorities.  We all have a long list of things we can fill our days with that draw us away from God.

God just has to be more important to us than those things.

As God moves up our list of daily priorities, our roots grow stronger and we become better and better nourished.  We begin to grow more fruit.  We don’t have worry about rain and the storms don’t scare us.

By the time God gets to the top of our daily list of priorities, we are experiencing all of the blessings God has for us as we are lavishly fed by his Living Water.  Life is not perfect but it’s as good as it gets here on earth.  We have a Rock, we have a Refuge, we have a Counselor, we have the Truth, we have a loving Father and an Eternal Savior.

We need to seriously ask ourselves – where am I planted?  We can honestly tell where we’re planted by how much of the Fruits of the Spirit we are experiencing in our lives.  Love, Joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness, goodness, faithfulness, and self-control.  How much of these do we have in our lives?  The closer to God we grow, we experience more and more of these fruits in our lives.  If we want more of these, we know the Source.  it’s our choice.

Thank you, dear Father.

Jeremiah 16, 2013

On By Judy GlasserIn JulyLeave a comment

You are our strength and our fortress, dear Lord.

You are our refuge when we are distressed.July 31 2013

For so long we have been worshipping and chasing after false gods.  Many of us learned this from our parents and others around us as we were growing up.  We are ready to sacrifice everything to the god of MORE.  We are consumed with getting MORE of whatever we think will make us happy –  money, big houses, having ‘fun’, the latest and greatest of our favorite things.  We’re confident that the god of More will make us happy – at least for a little while.

The reality is the god of MORE is worthless – only bringing unhappiness and discontent because there is never enough.

We ask you to teach us, dear Father.  Teach us your truth, teach us about the things you value, teach us about the things that you want us to have in our lives because they are good for us.

We want to experience your power in our lives.

We want to know the might of your redeeming love as it transforms us in the people you created us to be.

You are the Lord God Almighty.

We praise your name!

Let’s Boast

On By Judy GlasserIn JulyLeave a comment

We aren’t boasting about our wisdom, dear Father.

Any wisdom we have comes from you.

We aren’t boasting about our strength, Holy God.

Our strength to even breathe comes from you.  It all comes from you.

We aren’t boasting about our riches, Omnipotent Creator.

Whatever we have has all come from you.

We only boast about knowing you.

You have chosen us, we are yours.July 29 2013

You have opened our eyes so we can see you.

You have opened our ears so we can hear you.

We experience your kindness in our lives every day.

We depend on your justice as you rule the universes.

We claim your gift of grace and become righteous in your eyes through the death and resurrection of your Son, our Savior, Jesus.

We boast about you, dear Father.  We delight in you.

Don’t Be Fooled

On By Judy GlasserIn JulyLeave a comment

It’s all around us.

DeceptionJuly 27 2013

Lies

Our culture is in a huge state of confusion. 

Is this right?

Is that wrong?

Or is everything right?

And nothing wrong….

Unless you get caught?

Such confusion.

We have a barrage of voices spewing their opinions, perspectives and misinformation out across our world every day, all day.  They tell us there is peace when there is no peace.  They tell us something is right when it clearly isn’t right.  They tell us something is wrong when it simply doesn’t match up to their lifestyle and choices.  They tell us what they want us to think.

How does anyone know the truth?

There is only one way to know the Truth and it’s through God’s Word to us.

There is no confusion when the Holy Spirit guides us into understanding God’s Word.

The Bible may not be super-clear on all of the less important issues because they are less important.

The important items are crystal clear.  We may not like to hear it, but it’s crystal clear.

And these truths don’t change.

Just like God doesn’t change.  The Alpha and Omega, Beginning and the End.

Jesus called himself the Truth – there is no confusion about that. 

Thanks for coming along on this journey with me – our Journey Towards the Truth.  This Journey will end some day when we are face to face with the Living Truth.  Amen!  Hallelujah!

Watch…

On By Judy GlasserIn July1 Comment

and pray.

Watch and pray.

Watch and pray.July 20 2013

God tells Jerusalem in Isaiah 62 that he had posted matchmen on it’s walls and these watchmen were never silent, day or night.

I know of a specific time in my life when God posted watchmen on my walls.

The watchmen were not silent. 

They watched.

And they prayed.

These watchmen were my mother and mother-in-law.  They were both Godly women who lived thousands of miles away from us but they knew my husband and I needed prayer.  So they prayed. 

They didn’t know the details but they prayed.

It was a time when my husband and I were making a lot of very important, life-changing decisions….

but we weren’t consulting God.

It was a time when we thought we were in control and we had a plan…..

but we never considered God’s purpose for our lives.

When I look back on that time, I am amazed at how well those HUGE decisions worked out.

And then I am reminded of the watchmen on our walls.  They were praying.  God was answering the prayers of our mothers in response to their faithfulness. 

We received the blessings of God through our mother’s prayers.  I still believe that God has a special interest in the fervent prayers of a faithful mother.

God calls each of us to be watchmen for others at different times through our lives.  To watch and pray.  To lift the cares of others up and lay them at the feet of the Father – knowing that all things are possible through him.  We don’t need to know the details because our Father knows them all.  And he cares about them all.

May we be found faithful, dear Father!

Thirsty?

On By Judy GlasserIn JulyLeave a comment

We come to you, dear God, for we are thirsty….July 18 2013

thirsty for the water that only comes from you.

We have no money, nothing of value except what you have given us.

We can come to you through your gift of grace and you take care of all of our needs.  Everyday.

But sometimes we still get tempted by the distractions of this world.  And we spend our time and our passions and the resources you give us on things that don’t satisfy us.  They never will.

Only you, dear Father, can satisfy the desires of our soul.  We want to listen….and then listen some more.

We want to eat what is good – all of the good things that come from you.

When we focus on you, we are delighted by the richness of what you provide.  More than we ever dreamed.

We give you more than just an ear, dear God.  We lift up all of our heart, mind and soul to you today.

We desire to live in your will.

Please quench our thirst, Holy Father.

Do You See It?

On By Judy GlasserIn JulyLeave a comment

God is doing a new thing.

It is springing up!July 14 2013

He is making a way for us even when it doesn’t look like that’s possible.

He has always been faithful in the past

and he will be faithful in this new thing.

God tells us in Isaiah 43 to forget the former things.  He tells us not to dwell on the past.

Because he has created a new day for us.  It’s today!

He is creating a new song for us,

a new perspective,

a new hope,

a new and renewed purpose.

Do you see it?

Yes, We Know!

On By Judy GlasserIn JulyLeave a comment

Yes, we have heard.

It has been told to us from the beginning – since the earth was founded.July 12 Isaiah 40, 2013

That God sits enthroned above the earth.  So high above us that we look like grasshoppers.

Each day he stretches out the heavens once again  like a canopy.  He provides this tent for us to live in.

Rulers on the earth are reduced to nothing.  They think they are powerful but God blows on them and they wither away only to be swept away like chaff in the next whirlwind.

There is no one and nothing that can be compared to our Holy God.

Nothing ever has been or ever will be equal to him.

We lift up our eyes, dear Father, and look to the heavens.

You created everything!

You bring out the stars every night – one by one – calling them by name.

Because of your great power and mighty strength, there is never one missing.

We praise your name, most Holy God!