Category: March

Blessings of Obedience – Leviticus 26, 2015

On By Judy GlasserIn MarchLeave a comment

If you are careful to obey my commands, I will shower my blessings upon you.

You will be fruitful and prosperous.March 6 b 2015 blessings of obedience

I will keep you safe.

I will bless you with peace.  You will sleep well – not fearful of anything.

I will remove all threat to your safety from your life.  Your enemies will fail.

Don’t worry about being outnumbered by the evil ones – I am on your side.  I will look upon you as my favorite child – providing for you and always being faithful.

My blessings will overflow in your life – one on top of another.

I will walk with you and live with you.  I will be your God and you will be my child.

I am the Lord your God who sent my only son to die for you so you might believe and live with me forever.

I gave you freedom so you can choose to stand faultless before me.  You can choose to walk closely beside me everyday.  You can choose to love me and listen to me.

You can choose to obey.

Thank you, Abba Father.

Tassels of Remembrance

On By Judy GlasserIn MarchLeave a comment

God told the Israelites to put tassels of blue cord on the corners of their garments.  When they looked at these tassels, they would be reminded of all of God’s commands and that they were supposed to obey them.  I bought a prayer shawl for my husband when I was in Jerusalem last year and it had several tassels on it.  Devout Jews still wear tassels every day – to remind them to obey.

Where are our tassels?March 6 2015 a tassels of remembrance

What are we doing to help us remember God’s commands so we can obey him?

A lot of people post scripture in their homes – on mirrors, on walls, on refrigerators.

Many of us have scripture in frames or on plaques hung on our walls.  One of my favorites is a picture of several hot air balloons going over some mountains and its hung in my office at work.  It reads  “Faith is holding onto God’s dreams and watching your own come true.”  It’s not a scripture but its a blessing that God has made happen in my life.  It reminds me of the many years God has been faithful to me – in all situations.  And it challenges me to ‘press on’ with obedience in anticipation of what God has planned for me in the future.

Another very effective way to always have scripture available to help change our thinking and change our behavior is to memorize it.  For those of you who are taking on the challenge of memorizing James 1 with me, I know you are feeling the blessings like I am.  We aren’t quite done – we have a couple of more verses to go.  But I already can say that I not only know James 1.  I also feel James 1.  The wisdom in this chapter is woven through my mind.  It has become a part of my thinking process.

How amazing!

What a blessing!

And its all because I did my part and God showed up and did his part.

What are your tassels of remembrance?

Do you need some more?

Please help us remember, Abba Father.

What’s Happening with Our Excess?

On By Judy GlasserIn MarchLeave a comment

God wanted to make it clear to everyone that the Israelites were different – they were his.  One of the ways he did this was by creating laws to protect the weak, the poor and strangers – this was unusual for this time.  And one of those laws told the Israelites what God wanted them to do with their excess crops in the field.

In Deuteronomy, God tells the Israelites to harvest their fields but not go back for anything that was missed, leaving the excess for the poor, widows and strangers.  He told them that, if they were obedient, he would bless all the work of their hands.march 5 2015 become ;unstuffed'

The majority of us don’t have crops……but we have a lot of ‘stuff’.

What do we do with our excess stuff?  Do we put it in boxes and stack the boxes in our garage?  Do we pile our closets full of excess stuff that we think we might need to use some day…..if we can find it?

What does God tell us he would like us to do with it?

Are there poor people or strangers or widows who could benefit if we cleaned out our garages and closets?

I was very convicted by this.  I’ve never been big on keeping a lot of stuff – I’ve always been able to park 2 cars in a 2 car garage.  But my closets and cupboards have gotten to the ‘stuffed’ stage.  So I’ve been giving a lot of ‘stuff’  away with the goal of getting my closets and cupboards at least half empty.

It’s all excess.  Sure – I might be able to use it someday.  But could I find it when I wanted to use it?  And, most of the time, I still have something that works fine as a substitute.

Someone else can benefit from this stuff rather than having it packed into my house, gathering dust.

I’m almost to my goal and one of the awesome side benefits is that I can actually find things when I need them now 🙂

Please open our eyes and our hearts, Abba Father.

A Theocracy

On By Judy GlasserIn MarchLeave a comment

In a Theocracy, God decides the rules, the laws and how the governing of the people works.  He judges and decides punishment.  He directs the use of possessions and how they are bought and sold.  He decides how relationships between people should be handled and the consequences for not following his rules.  If there is a king, he is under the direction of God – just like everyone else.March 1 2015 A theocracy

As we read through the laws written in Exodus, Leviticus and Deuteronomy, we see God addressing all areas of the Israelites life.  Because God was the head of everything.

Is that true of our lives?  We don’t have a theocratic government but we can choose to have a theocratic life.  This means God’s direction and desires govern ALL aspects of our lives, not just of some of them.

Most of us have the main commands of loving God first and loving others as ourselves pretty engrained in our heads.  As we read through God’s laws, its interesting to see that some of the details still translate into our lives today.

What does God say we should do if we find something someone has lost?

How should we care for other’s possessions – like the cars parking next to us in the parking lot?

What is the payment due if we argue with someone and emotionally hurt them?

If we’re selling something and someone offers us more than we know it is worth – what does God tell us to do?

Please help us look to you for direction in all parts of our lives, dear Father.

Wow!

On By Judy GlasserIn MarchLeave a comment

Wow!  Wow!

That’s the best word I can find that describes my experience in the Holy Land last week.

Wow!

I was trying to think of how to describe what has happened to me and I realized that I have experienced this before in my life.  I grew up in northwest Iowa where we had snow 6-7 months a year and only about 6 weeks of summer.  I had heard of places that didn’t get snow and I believed they existed, but it wasn’t until I moved to South Carolina that I actually ‘experienced’ a winter with no snow.  It totally changed my perspective.  I had believed that there were places that didn’t get snow but now I felt it, I lived in it and I loved it!  That’s the reason I live in Phoenix today:)

This is exactly how I feel about the Holy Land now.  I always believed it was there but now I have felt it, I have lived in it, and I have experienced it.  And I have a totally different perspective.

One of our praise songs in worship this morning was asking God to grow our faith so we would ‘walk upon the water.”The Sea of Galilee(2)

I was there – at the beautiful Sea of Galilee (pictured).  I cooled my feet in its waters, I took a boat ride on it and felt the wind pick up as a small storm moved in….

as it often does on the sea of Galilee….

as it did the day that Jesus calmed storm.

I was actually there – the same sea that Jesus and then Peter walked on.

Wow!

I also walked down a steep path on the Mount of Olives.  I saw the Garden of Gethsemane and the Kidron valley.  I floated in the Dead Sea and visited Jericho.

Some of the sites actually had excavations of buildings dating back to Jesus’ time – where he lived and where he walked.

We visited the Upper Room.  We walked down the Via Dolorosa, the way of suffering…. the path Jesus took as he dragged his own cross to his crucifixion.

We spent the afternoon at the Garden Tomb.  Descriptions in the Bible all point to it being Jesus’ tomb.  Of course, he’s not there because he is alive!  And he lives inside of us!  Hallelujah!

We visited Bethlehem which has a cave and a manger which, by descriptions in the Bible, is like the one Jesus was born in. 

We went to the Nazareth Village in Nazareth.  It’s an area the size of a small park that is set up like it would have been in Jesus’ time with people dressed like they would have been dressed and doing the things they would have been doing – shepherding sheep, carpentry and spinning wool.  The lunch we had there was food that was close to the things Jesus would have eaten at a feast.  Wow!

I dipped my feet in the Jordan River and climbed to the top of the Mount of Beatitudes.

We visited beautiful Caesarea on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea.

And  much, much more.

I have felt it and experienced it and it has changed me.

Just like God planned.

Thank you, dear Father!

 

My Pilgrimage

On By Judy GlasserIn March2 Comments

My pilgrimage to the land of my Savior is about to begin. 

God has called me to this journey.  He has told me that this trip will forever change how I read and understand his Word.  So I am very excited as I anticipate what that means.

Those of you who have been on this journey with me for a while know that God gave me a check to cover the cost of this trip.  He has made it very clear that he wants me to scratch this off of my ‘bucket list’.

I can’t wait!

So you won’t be hearing from me for about 2 weeks.

But when I get back, you can expect some new insights from me as God continue to take us on this journey towards the truth.

Please include me and my friend, Angela, who is going with me in your prayers.

Here I come, dear God!

Tested

On By Judy GlasserIn March2 Comments

We all go through a lot of tests in our life.  God sometimes tests our faith just like he tested Israel’s faith in Judges 2.  I think Satan also tests us in some of our weakest moments to see if we’ll sin and make his smile.March 17 2014

Sometimes we test ourselves to see if we’re up for a challenge.  And we all have people in our lives who test our patience every time we’re with them.

Lots of tests.  There are times that we pass the test and others where we fail.  We read about how the Israelites failed some of their tests over and over and over again.  They would fall into sin but, fortunately, they would also repent.

Repenting is the key to keeping our relationship right with God.  God knows what we’ve done, we’re just agreeing with him that it’s a sin when we repent.  True repentance includes a genuine attempt at turning away from the sin – trying not to do it again.  If we don’t intend to try to stop the sin, we are not repenting no matter what words come out of our mouths.

And God is not pleased with empty promises to change.

They Can’t Do That!

On By Judy GlasserIn MarchLeave a comment

The Eastern tribes of Israel had left to go back over the Jordan after completing their promise to help conquer theMarch 15 2014 Promised Land for the rest of the tribes.  They left with Joshua’s blessing and with large herds of livestock, great quantities of clothing along with silver, gold, bronze and iron.

They built a replica of the altar of the Lord near the Jordan before going over to the other side to their land.

March 15 2 2014The Western tribes were angered by this and gathered to go to war against their brothers.  They sent a priest along with the chief man of each tribe to go talk to the Eastern tribes.

They accused the Eastern tribe of breaking their faith with God of Israel and building an altar in their rebellion.

The Eastern tribes explained that this altar had a very different purpose.  They were worried that the Western tribes would someday forget that they all worshipped the same God so they built this altar as a witness to everyone that they shared the same God.March 15 4 2014

The Western tribes went home and happily reported to everyone the good news.

What could have been a deadly war between brothers turned into a celebration of unity. 

Because they talked about it.  Everyone listened to the other side before taking action.

True wisdom.

Finish the Race Well

On By Judy GlasserIn MarchLeave a comment

Moses ran the race well all the way to the end.  He was obedient and strong in the faith to his last day.MMMMMMMMArch 9 2014

I want that to be my story and my legacy.  One of my other goals as I grow older is to become more and more Christ-like.  Not more and more crabby 🙂

Moses was a great man of faith.  We have a great man of faith living today – Billy Graham who recently celebrated his 95th birthday.  He is getting frail like all 95 year-olds and he was quoted as saying:

“One day you will hear that I have died.  It won’t be true.  Because I will be more alive after I leave this earth than I ever was when I lived on it.”

Amen!  Hallelujah!

Leviticus 26, 2014

On By Judy GlasserIn March2 Comments

If you obey me, I will grow much fruit in your life.  Your work will produce harvest after harvest after harvest.

I will bring peace to you and you will not be afraid.  I will remove the things that scare you and I will keep you safe.

When you face your enemies, I will be with you and you will have victory.March 6 2014

I will look on you with favor and I will keep all of my promises to you.  I will abundantly provide for all of your needs and I will always be with you.

I will be your God and you will be my people.

I am the Lord your God who has conquered death for you so you are no longer slaves to sin.  I have removed the burden of your sin and have adopted you as my sons and daughters.  You are now Prince and Princesses of a King.

These are the blessings of Obedience.  Amen! Hallelujah!