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!
God has spoken very clearly to me through Isaiah 43:2 these last 7 years since my son, David Glasser, a Phoenix Police Officer, was killed in the line of duty. Here is my response –
When I am passing through the waters of grief...
*of disappointment…
*of disillusionment…
*of pain….
God is with me.
When I am passing through a river of tears…
*pierced by the shattered pieces of my broken heart.
*trying to figure out how to live with a huge hole in my life…
the river does not sweep over me. God is with me.
When I am walking through the fire of anger…
* not happy with my reality…..
* trying to understand….
I am not burned. God is with me.
I am passing through. I’m not getting stuck in these places. Everything that happens in my life has first gone through the hands of my Father God. He has a purpose.
So I will trust him as I pass through the water, the river and the fire.
Thank you for walking closely beside me, Abba Father.
I don’t understand people who tell me they don’t like change. Change has been constant in my life. How about you? Anything change lately?
I realized that change was going to be one of the continuous things in life pretty early on in this journey so I decided I was going to learn to like it. I adopted a perspective that change is good. Maybe not all good, but there would be parts of it that I was going to like.
When things changed, I also realized that I usually got rid of some of my least favorite things in my past situation. Nice!
I remember reading Isaiah 42:10 about 12 years ago when I was facing a big change. ” Sing to the LORD a new song,” God spoke to me, telling me he was giving me a new song to sing through this upcoming transition. My daughter had just announced her engagement so my family was changing – again. After their wedding, she and her new husband were moving to Sydney, Australia for a job opportunity.
So my new song was filled with gratefulness to God for her happiness, asking for blessings on their marriage and requesting help in growing my trust in His care for her as she moved so far way.
Then, before the wedding, my daughter was diagnosed with cancer and my new song to God was full of concern and questions along with words of confidence that He is always in control and nothing is impossible for him.
Since then, God has given me many ‘new songs’ as the seasons of my life have changed.
Seven years ago, my son, David Glasser, who was a Phoenix Police Officer, was killed in the line of duty. My new song was full of grief and pain. But God helped me find hope in the journey and he has given the pain a purpose. A new song filled with a deeper understanding of God and his love and his truth has come out of the worst nightmare a parent can experience.
Just over 3 years ago, my husband and I moved out of Arizona to Denver. God gave me a new song filled with gratitude for being able to live close to my daughter and her family, praises to God for the beauty of the mountains and thankfulness for new friends.
Last year my husband was rushed to the hospital in the ambulance and the staff in the emergency room saved his life. My new song was filled with praise for God’s faithfulness and requests for strength as the next 6 months were a whirlwind of doctor’s visits and more procedures.
Most recently, God told me to write a book and he guided me through this new experience, stretching me and giving me the opportunity to tell the story He had given me. “Then I Looked Up: Losing a Child, Finding His Legacy of Love” was published on Amazon this last February and has been a blessing to my life. So glad I did it.
As my life continues to change, I can count on my Father God to be there, giving me new songs.
My life is a tiny flicker of light that can be extinguished in an instant.
Your life can, too.
This fact was emphasized once again to me one year ago when I was told my husband could have died in the ambulance on the way to the hospital. He could have died in the emergency room.
It was very possible that I could have been coming home alone.
God tells us through Isaiah that ‘Surely the people are grass. The grass withers and the flowers fade but the Word of our God endures forever.” Isaiah 40: 7 & 8.
Forever.
When I sit here with my Bible open on my lap, I am letting the only truth of all the ages soak into my mind. God’s Word has been the one thing that is right and good since time began. How amazing that this is so readily available to me every hour of every day!
How amazing that the Eternal Creator of the Universe speaks to me personally through these words!
How amazing that this entire book is a love story written to me by God. It’s God’s revelation of how much he loves me and you.
My life is short and fragile and just a small flicker of light in the big picture. I’m so glad that I know that my Father God sees me as his precious daughter who is so important to him that he made a way that I could live with him in my forever home in heaven.
My life is but a nanosecond in time on this earth, but God sees me and loves me….
I’vebeen there – a place where there’s no way out. Have you experienced this?
When there is nothing we can do to even try to fix it. A total dead end.
This is when the only way out is up.
King Hezekiah knew all about this place thousands of years ago when a huge Assyrian army came to Jerusalem and camped right outside the city walls.
The Assyrian King told Hezekiah that the LORD had told him to destroy Jerusalem.
What?
King Hezekiah was wise enough to recognize a big lie when he heard it so he went to the prophet Isaiah to get the truth. The Lord told Isaiah that King Hezekiah should not be disturbed by what the Assyrians were saying – God was going to move against them himself.
Next, the Assyrians send a letter warning King Hezekiah that he should not be deceived by God’s promises to protect him. (There were serious mind games going on here.) The Assyrians had been completely destroying everyone in their path and that’s what the Assyrian king was planning to do to Jerusalem.
King Hezekiah knew that was exactly what the Assyrians had been doing – destroying everyone and everything and no one had been able stop them.
So Hezekiah took the Assyrian’s letter to the temple and spread it out before the Lord. He laid out his concerns to God and asked him to rescue them so that all the nations of the world would see he was the Real God.
I visualize Hezekiah on his knees spreading out this scroll full of scarey and deadly threats. Then he totally lays himself down on the floor in front of the scroll as he asks God to save his people.
Isn’t it interesting – he doesn’t summon the commander of his army. He doesn’t consult with anyone. He and his people are facing annihilation and he prostrates himself before God.
I’ve been there several times in my life – when there is no way out but up. Faced with massive issues that were extremely beyond my control, I have laid it all out before God and asked him to take care of it. I didn’t know how he would do it and I told him I didn’t care what he did – I was just placing it all in his hands and trusting in his promise that he is working all things out for my good.
It worked for me just like it worked for Hezekiah thousands of years ago. God heard Hezekiah’s prayer and took care of the situation. God always hears my prayers and he answers by orchestrating situations in his way with his power to benefit me.
I have discovered I don’t have big issues for long when I remember I have a huge God.
Seven hundred years before he was born, Isaiah spoke a stunningly accurate prophesy about Jesus.
Here’s my 2023 response to parts of Isaiah’s prophecy in Isaiah 53: 2-6 –
Jesus was not a good-looking man. The pictures we have of him where he looks like a movie star are totally inaccurate.
People despised him but he was used to pain and sorrow – that was his life. A lot of people ignored him and avoided him when possible.
Yet he took on more pain – the pain that was meant for you and me. He paid the price for my rebellion and lack of compassion. He paid the price for your anger and self-centeredness. He paid the price for all sins for all time of all the world.
Some people were confused when they saw all the problems Jesus had – they thought God was punishing him. Their eyes just weren’t open to the truth.
The truth is that Jesus loves us so much that he took all of the punishment that we deserved…
so he could be our Savior…
so we could have peace…..
so we could be healed.
You and I have sinned. And we keep sinning.
Have I said anything out of frustration or lack of patience today? Not yet – but it’s early.
Have you thought of anything unkind or unforgiving today? God also knows our thoughts – that’s a tough one.
Jesus paid the price for all of our sins for all time….
How often are we on ‘auto-pilot’ when it comes to our relationship with God?
Just going through the motions?
In Isaiah 29, God tells his people that their worship was meaningless because it was based on human rules but their hearts aren’t engaged. They are saying the right words but they didn’t mean them. “The LORD says: ‘These people come near me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.” Isaiah 29:13.
God can tell the difference. He knows when I are focused on him with all of my heart. He knows my thoughts and intentions. He knows when my thinking wanders away from him – even if my Bible is laying open on my lap. He knows when I am just saying things I have been taught to say but there is no passion and love behind them.
My love for God shines bright when its authentic. When its real. When its based on a personal relationship, not just traditions that I have been taught by others.
God sees right into my heart and he knows. He knows if I’m serious about my faith.
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. In 2 Chronicles, 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 and his officials came and saw the heaps (of contributions), they praised the LORD and blessed his people Israel.” 2 Chronicles 31:8. The king built large storerooms for all of the leftover contributions and put the Levites in charge of distributing the gifts in other towns.
See how God’s math works? Their generosity just kept multiplying and spreading. Now their neighbors were being blessed.
God does the same thing today.
If you haven’t personally experienced this, test him and see.
Isaiah tells us that when God comes, “he will come with vengeance; with divine retribution he will come to save you.” Isaiah 35:4.
“And a highway will be there.” vs 8.
This highway is called the Way of Holiness. I can see it stretching all the way up to heaven. Only those of us who walk in the Way of our Savior will use it.
Those who don’t believe will not be able to travel on it. The wicked and the foolish will not go on it.
There will be no danger when we – the redeemed – walk home on this highway. As we return to the LORD, we will be singing praises. There will be no sorrow or sighing –
We ask that the people who walk in darkness today would see your great light. Shine your light of love and grace on all those who are now living in the land of deep darkness.
Enlarge your kingdom on earth, Father. We rejoice before you for you have broken the yoke of our slavery to sin. You have lifted the heavy burden of guilt and shame from our shoulders through the death and resurrection of your son. You have removed the oppression brought into our lives by our disobedience and rebellion.
For a Child was born to us, you gave us your son, Jesus.
We call him Wonderful,
Counselor,
Mighty God,
Everlasting Father,
Prince of Peace.
Those of us who have accepted your ‘saving grace’ have placed Jesus on the throne of our lives where he rules with justice and peace for all eternity.
Have you heard anyone say something like, ” I just can’t figure out what God wants from me?” or “I really don’t know what God wants me to do?”
Statements like these confuse me because I think God is amazingly clear and to the point about the ‘main things’ that need to be the focus in my life.
The only two commandments Jesus gave us are to love God with our whole hearts and love others. Jesus tells me that obeying these 2 commandments fulfills ‘all the law and the prophets’ which includes the original 10 commandments from the Old Testament.
There used to be 10 commandments – now it’s 2. God knows we need simple and clear directions.
As I read the 6th chapter of Micah, I am again amazed at how direct God is as he tells me what he expects from me. ” And what does the LORD require from you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.” Micah 6:8.
Which part of that is unclear?
Act justly – do the right things. God tells us what is right in his Word.
Love Mercy – forgive others. Give people a break especially when they don’t deserve it. Help others.
Walk Humbly with God – develop a close relationship with God understanding that he is a supernatural combination of Creator of the Universe, the Holy and Perfect One and my Abba Father.
Micah told us this thousands of years ago. I have discovered that, if I am serious about doing the things God has already told me to do, he fills in the other details at the right time.
Do you think its time to stop asking God what he wants us to do and focus on the directions he has already given us?
Come with me on a Journey through the Bible 