Category: June

It Never Runs Dry

On By Judy GlasserIn JuneLeave a comment

Our car doesn’t start.

The electricity goes out.

Our debit card suddenly doesn’t work at the grocery store.

The majority of the things we really count on in our lives will let us down at one time or another.

A job we thought we would have for a long time ends.

People who we trusted disappoint us.

There is only one thing that we can always count on – our Father God will never let us down.

He is trustworthy, faithful and perfect.

He can’t mess up.

We might think he made a mistake when he does something we don’t understand.

But it’s impossible for him to do anything wrong.

We can always count on him.

We read in 1 Kings the account of the widow who made a loaf of bread with her last handful of flour and gave that bread to Elijah.JUne 4 2016 it never runs dry

Then she discovered that she had enough flour and oil to make another loaf for herself and her son.

And she continued to have enough to make bread through the long drought that was going on where she lived.

God provided for her and he will provide for us.

It may seem like there is not going to be enough but God’s supplies never run dry.

His love and grace and provision for us never run out.

He is watching over us today…right now.

We can count on it.

Thank you, Abba Father.

Pursuing God

On By Judy GlasserIn JuneLeave a comment

Have you noticed how hard it is to start a new good habit but how easy it is to start a new bad one?

We have this inherent desire to do our own thing.  Go our own way.  Do what we want to do – even when it’s not good for us.

It’s called rebellion.

It’s called sin.June 3 2016 pursuing God

In 2 Chronicles, Azariah tells King Asa, “The Lord is with you when you are with him.”

The same is true for us.  When our relationship with God is good, he is able to be close to us.  He is able to wrap his arms around us to hold us and love us.  When we are right beside him, he can give us peace.

When we are far from God, it means that we have wandered.  God doesn’t go anywhere.  By focusing on our plans and doing what we want to do, we can end up very far from God.

So how can we stop wandering?

What can we do to stop getting lost in our own desires?

What would our lives look like if we pursued God as diligently as he pursues us?

What would happen if we loved him as much as he loves us?

The reality is that it’s not possible for us to love him as much as he loves us.    His love is perfect – the perfect amount at the perfect time in a perfect way.

This all makes him a very good Father who is worth pursuing.  It’s worth every effort we can make to stay close to him.

Every day.

For as long as we remain on this earth.

Thank you, Abba Father.

The Right Influence

On By Judy GlasserIn JuneLeave a comment

Every one of us influences the people around us – the people who touch our lives.

The question is – are we influencing others positively or negatively?May 27 The right influence

Are we helping those around us to be better people?  To have more integrity? To treat others with respect?  To forgive?  To love?

We not only influence others, the people around us also influence us.  So who are we surrounding ourselves with?  What kind of people do we allow into our lives to influence us?

In 1 Kings 11 we read the unfortunate story about how King Solomon, the wisest man who ever lived, was turned away from being faithful to the One True God by his foreign wives.  He let these women with false beliefs influence him and this made God very angry.

Solomon had it all and he lost his standing with God because of who he listened to – who he surrounded himself with.

Right now is a great time for us to take a look at who we are letting influence us and what kind of influence we are having on others.

Is there anything that needs to change?

Please open our eyes, Abba Father.

 

The Lies

On By Judy GlasserIn JuneLeave a comment

There are mountains of lies building up around us.

As information flies around the planet faster and faster, it is becoming increasingly less accurate.

Many of the things we watch on TV and videos are not entirely true.

Things we read on the internet have been embellished and edited.

Most of what people tell us are not completely true – everyone has a different perspective.  And – let’s face it – we all love a good story.

It’s just not always true.

Actually, the better the story, the less likely that its all true.

We need wisdom today regarding what we’re going to believe.

We need discernment so we can separate fact from fiction.

Proverbs 14:15 is a great verse for us. “The simple believe anything, but the prudent give thought to their steps.”May 17 2016 the lies

We need to be careful about what we believe and give real thought to our next steps.  Where we are going.  What we’re basing our decisions on.

All real wisdom comes from God.

It is not cynical.

It is not hopelessly optomistic.

God gives us wisdom that is realistic with a good dose of positivity mixed in because of how supernaturally awesome our Father God is.

Giving thought to our steps means not just reacting to whatever is happening to us.  It means regularly consulting with God.  It means making a plan for our lives based on God’s truth and what he is telling us when we spend time with him.

What truth has God revealed to you lately?

Please open our eyes, Abba Father.

What is Required of Us?

On By Judy GlasserIn JuneLeave a comment

God expects us to act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with him.  He tells us this in Micah 6.June 27 2015 real one

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…..

On By Judy GlasserIn JuneLeave a comment

let us walk in the light of the Lord.

Dear Father, we desire to hear and understand.June 24 21015 Come

We want to immerse ourselves in your truth.

Rip the calluses off of our hearts

and open up our ears to you, dear God,

open up our eyes.

Please help us see you with our eyes and hear you with our ears and understand you with all of our hearts.

Dear Father, we turn to you and ask for your healing –

healing for our blindness,

healing for our lack of understanding,

healing for our self-centeredness.

We want to walk in your light every day.

In the redeeming name of Jesus we pray, Amen.

We Lie to Ourselves

On By Judy GlasserIn JuneLeave a comment

We rationalize things we do and say – giving ourselves excuses for bad behavior.

‘Well, I can gossip about this person because I know they are always saying bad things about me.”

“And I can do this mean thing to this other person because they are always mean to me.’June 23 2015 We lie to ourselves

“I can say this because it’s the truth.  It may sound mean, but it’s the truth.”

It may be the truth, but saying it at the wrong time and the wrong place is not love.

It’s not forgiveness.

It’s not how God calls us to react to the evil in this world.

We lie to ourselves.

We tell ourselves that whatever we want to do is ‘not that bad’.  Everyone does this and – it’s not like we’re murdering anyone!  Right?

It’s just a little bad.  I never said I was perfect.  Most of the time I’m good.

We talk ourselves into taking the wrong path.  The path that is evil in God’s sight.

We lie to ourselves.

Isaiah tells us, “Woe to those who call evil good and good evil,

who put darkness for light and light for darkness.”

Woe to us when we lie to ourselves.

Please help us know the truth and live the truth, Abba Father.

Coming Straight at You

On By Judy GlasserIn June2 Comments

One of my favorite things about the Chronological Bible is that the words of the prophets are placed into the reading so they are talking straight at the kings and people who God called them to warn.June 21 Stqaright at you 2015

We are now reading what the prophet Amos has to say to both Israel and Judah.  He was called by God to rebuke the current religious establishment which was focused on leading their people to develop meaningless religious traditions while refusing to give mercy and justice to the oppressed and needy.

Israel was experiencing a time of prosperity which led them to a lifestyle of greed and immorality.

Sound familiar?  Do we see any of this in our culture today?  Immorality – have you turned on your TV lately? Have you looked at billboards along the freeways?  Greed – there are so many examples its hard to figure out where to start.

As we read Amos, God speaks to our hearts and asks us to critically evaluate our religious habits and our ethical conduct.  He also warns us against complacency – getting too comfortable.

Are we too happy about being in our Christian bubble?  For God so loved the world……we have been commissioned to tell the world the good news of salvation through Jesus Christ.  That’s not comfortable – that’s being stretched and reaching into the mess that is our culture today with the love of Jesus.

As we take a close look at our lives, we may find that we have wandered into some immorality.  Or greed.  Or meaningless religious traditions. Or complacency.

If that’s true, God promises us restoration.

When we turn and repent, he restores.  And he renews.  And he gives us strength to change.

Thank you, Abba Father.

 

Do We Want Success?

On By Judy GlasserIn JuneLeave a comment

Do we want things to work out well for us?

Do we want to have purpose and meaning to our lives?

Do we want success that is not defined by how much money we have?  June 20 2015 do we want success

Do we want success that is defined by how much faith and wisdom we have?  How much joy?  And peace?

We read the same formula for success over and over in God’s word.  It can’t be said any clearer than in 2 Kings – as long as Kind Uzziah sought the Lord, God gave him success.

All REAL success comes from God.

As we seek him with all of our hearts, he gives us the desires of our hearts.

It’s that simple.

And it’s that hard.

Because we’ve got this sin thing going on that distracts us.

Sin tells us that it’s all about us.  We get confused and we think we can do anything if we try hard enough – focus on it – give it everything we’ve got.

Sin tells us that we make our own success.  Sin gets us wrapped up so tightly with our own achievements that we miss the main player in this drama –

God.

God is the writer, producer and director of the movie of our life.

When we look to him for direction, we’re going to find success.  The movie will be a success.

His kind of success – success that money just cannot buy.

Thank you, Abba Father.

Unlimited Power

On By Judy GlasserIn June2 Comments

Are you convinced of God’s limitless power?

If not, what would it to take to convince you?June 16 2015 Unlimitless power

If a whale swallowed you up when you were drowning in a storm, would you be convinced?

Jonah was.

As a result, he decided he would obey God and warn Nineveh of impending doom if they did not repent and turn to God.

In Jonah’s prayer, he says he was swirling down to the very heart of the sea with waves sweeping over him, down to the realm of the dead.  He called for help and the Lord brought him up from the pit.

Do we ever feel like we are falling deep into the depths with problems and issues piling on top of us, pressing us down?

Are we engulfed by the cares of this world, sinking down into the darkness?

God tells us to turn away from the worries and fears that distract us and call on him.  Repent and obey.

And he will bring our lives up from the pit.  Just like he did for Jonah.

We believe in your power and in your faithfulness, dear Father.