Category: December

For Those Who Love Him

On By Judy GlasserIn DecemberLeave a comment

In Romans 6, God promises to work all things for the good of those who love him.

When people quote this verse, they often leave off those last 5 words.Dec 8 2014 for those who love him

This is God’s promise to believers, not unbelievers.  Those are very important words to include when we use this verse.

God goes on in this passage of Romans to tell us that he has called us, he has justified us, he has glorified us.

And he promises us as his children that he will work all things out for our good.

We can count on it!

Thank you, Abba Father!

 

Don’t Rely on Yourself

On By Judy GlasserIn DecemberLeave a comment

We just talked about this!  And here in the first chapter of 2 Corinthians, Paul tells us that his group was under great pressure – far beyond their ability to endure.  They thought they were going to die.  But Paul says this happened so that they would learn to rely on God, not on themselves.dec 4 2014 don't rely on ourselves

And then Paul reminds us something that was true for him and is true for us today.  God has always delivered us in the past and he will deliver us again.

Such a comforting truth!  I often remind myself of this reality in my life.  God has always been faithful in the past.  He will be faith now – in this situation I’m facing today.

It’s not in God’s character to drop the ball – to be too late or too early.  His plan unfolds at just the right time in the right way – if we let it.

We will face trials and situations that are far beyond our ability to endure on our own.

But nothing is impossible with God!

Amen!  Hallelujah!

There is a Purpose

On By Judy GlasserIn DecemberLeave a comment

I bet you can relate to this – when something bad happens in my life, I often wonder why this is happening?  What’s the purpose?  I have learned to get very close to God during these times and ride out the storm – not knowing why this had to happen to me.  Then 2 years, 5 years, 15 years later, someone walks into my life who needs to hear about that specific time in my life and how God helped me through it.

It happens all the time.dec 4 2014 a purpose

Paul tells us this is going to happen in 2 Corinthians 1.  We receive comfort from God in our troubles so that we can comfort others.

God has a purpose for everything that he permits to happen to us.  Everything flows through his hands into our lives.

As we learn to trust him more, we can be confident in the knowledge that God is in total control.

God’s got this.

We know God.  He loves us.  He has a plan for us.  He wants the best for us.

All is well.

Thank you, dear Father.

Nothing in Vain

On By Judy GlasserIn December2 Comments

‘Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stand firm.  Let nothing move you.  Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.”December 3 2014 nothing in vain

This is one of my life verses.

Stand firm – grounded in the truth with my eyes focused on Jesus.

Not Moving – faithfully following Christ is the life I’ve chosen.  Nothing is going to change that.

Always give myself fully to the work of the Lord – it’s all about God.  Sometimes I still need to remind myself about that.  And the ‘work’ of the Lord is everything I do, not just what I do at the office.

Nothing I do for God is in vain.  This is my favorite part of this verse.

How much of our time is spent on worthless things?  Things that have no kingdom value?

A lot!  Too much!

But everything I do for God is valuable.  Everything I do in his name has meaning.  Nothing I do for God is a waste of my time.

Love it!

If we want our lives to have purpose and be worthwhile, we need to be all about God!

I’m smiling as I remember the day that I realized I had become a ‘Jesus freak’ 🙂  It  kind of shocked me because the words bring to my mind an image of a hippy looking person driving around in a VW Van with flowers painted on it.

Not me.

But totally sold out to Jesus is me.  So I’m proud to be a Jesus freak 🙂

Completely Wrong

On By Judy GlasserIn DecemberLeave a comment

“God doesn’t give us any more than we can handle.”december 1 b Completely misquoted

I’m sure you’ve heard this – and you might have said this before.

It’s not in the Bible.  The verse that is being misquoted is in 1 Corinthians:

“And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear.  But when you are tempted, he will provide a way out so that you can endure it.”

What?  This isn’t even about struggles or suffering.  It’s about temptations.

And that makes sense to me.  In my experience, God often gives us more hardships and problems than we can face by ourselves.  When these things happen, we are driven to reach out to him, depend on him and he gets us through them.

So, every time I heard someone use this misquote, I knew it was wrong but I just figured out why its wrong.  It’s not in the Bible.

This is a great example to all of us about how we need to be grounded in the truth.

Another saying I hear sometimes is ‘God helps those who help themselves.’  Not in the Bible.  God actually talks to us often about loving others and serving others.

Have you heard any other quotes that sound like they are from the Bible but they’re not?

We know the truth when we read and internalize God’s word to us.   Knowing the truth sets us free from the lies!

Thank you, dear Father!

I Have the Right….

On By Judy GlasserIn DecemberLeave a comment

to do anything – but not everything is beneficial,” Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians. dec 1 2014 i have the right He goes on to tell us that our bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit who lives within us.  We were bought with a price and God wants us to honor him with our bodies.  These verses also mention food.

Recently, the Holy Spirit convicted me that this is true for me.  Don’t you love how you can read these verses for years and then, suddenly, the Spirit uses one of them to rock your world?

This is true for me and food.  I needed to start using food for the right purpose – to nourish me.  Not to comfort me or make me happy or to ‘treat’ myself.  That’s not the way God wants me to take care of the temple of the Holy Spirit which is my body.

When God made this a matter of obedience for me, it was a game-changer.

We have the right to do a lot of things, but some of these things are not beneficial.  So God tells us avoid things that are not beneficial – even if we have the right.

This fits in with God’s direction to us that we will have to deny ourselves – what we want – when we pick our cross and follow him.

It’s not easy, but it’s the truth.  And lining up our lives with what God wants for us is always the right thing to do.

Thank you, dear Father, for the truth.

Lukewarm

On By Judy GlasserIn December3 Comments

Neither hot or cold.

Not sold out.

Not committed.

Little action.

Even less passion.

God tells the church in Laodicea that, because they are lukewarm, he is going to spit them out of his mouth.  He tells them they are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked.

Wow!  Lukewarm is not where I want to be.  God’s says that he would rather we be cold than lukewarm.

And then he calls us to repentance.Dec 28 2013

He is waiting.

He is standing at the door and knocking.  If we hear his voice and open the door, he will come in and give us a passion for him.

He will help us become sold out about our relationship with him.

He will help us commit to a life-long journey of faith and he will give us the energy we need to put our faith into action.

A passionate journey of faith is often uncomfortable as well as inconvenient.

But there’s nothing lukewarm about it!

Thank you, dear Father!

The End…..and the Beginning

On By Judy GlasserIn DecemberLeave a comment

One of my favorite moments in Revelations is when Satan is thrown into eternal torment.Dec 31 2013

Yes!  I love that part!

All this time, Satan thinks he has been winning.  And, sometimes when I look around at the morals and behaviors of our culture, it can really appear that Satan is winning.

But God’s righteousness and holiness will triumph in the end!

I don’t really connect well with the apocalyptic style that Revelations is written in, but I love the end.

Jesus (whose words are written in red in my other Bible) says, “Come!  Come!  Let the one who is thirsty come; and let the one who wishes to take the free gift of the water of life.”

His final words to us in this epic love story are ‘Come’! 

To quench our thirst.

To accept his free gift of life.

Come!

And then Jesus says, ” Yes, I am coming soon.”

Amen.  Come, Lord Jesus.

God’s Chosen People

On By Judy GlasserIn DecemberLeave a comment

For we are God’s chosen people –

a royal priesthood,Dec 21 2013

a holy nation,

God’s special possession.

So that we may declare the praises of God who called us out of the darkness,

out of our brokeness,

out of our emptiness.

Into his wonderful, magnificent light.

Once, we were homeless and without God.

But now we are the people of God.

Once, we knew nothing about God’s mercy.

But now we have accepted his mercy and we are forgiven – now and always.  We abide in his grace.

First, he chose us.

Now, we have chosen him and we are complete.

Amen!  Hallelujah!

Expect It

On By Judy GlasserIn December1 Comment

If we lack wisdom, we just need to ask God and he will give us a generous amount of it.

James tells us to ask and believe – don’t doubt.Dec 20 2013

When we doubt, we are like the waves of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind.  When we doubt, we don’t think we’ve received anything.  We lack confidence in God so we don’t see the results of our prayers.

And God always answers our prayers.  Sometimes he says yes, sometimes he says no, and sometimes he says ‘wait’ because he’s orchestrating something awesome for us and now is not the right time.

James tells us God always says ‘yes’ when we ask for wisdom.  The problem is that we often doubt that he has given it to us. 

We have the holy Spirit living inside of us.  When we listen and obey, we have all of the wisdom we’ll ever need.

Don’t doubt.  Have confidence in God.  Accept his words of wisdom as he whispers them into our hearts and minds.  Then obey.  God promises to give us generous amounts of wisdom when we ask for it.  We need to believe and watch for it expectantly.  Because it’s coming. 

It’s here.