The Good Stuff

On By Judy GlasserIn MarchLeave a comment

We want all of the good stuff, right?  We call them blessings.

Prosperity, purpose, good health, joy, love………we want it all.

And God tells us in Leviticus 26:3 – 13 that we can have it all……….we get it from him through obeying him.

That’s how he showers his blessings over our lives – through our obedience.March 6 - blesssings

As I read his promises in this passage of Leviticus, this is what I hear:

When you are careful to obey me, Judy, I can make you productive and effective in your career.  You will work hard and I will make all of your efforts successful and valuable. 

Through your obedience, I will be able to heap blessing upon blessing into your life.  You will have peace and not be afraid.  You will have enemies, Judy, but they are no match for my strength so they will fail every time you trust in me.

Your family will be blessed over and over and over.  You will so be overwhelmed by all of my blessings that you’ll have to work hard to pass the blessings on so that there is room for more in your life.

I will walk with you every day, Judy.  I have broken the bonds of sin in your life so that you can choose to trust in me – every hour of every day.  Then you will experience all of the blessings I have for you.

Thank you, dear Father.

Surprised?

On By Judy GlasserIn MarchLeave a comment

God decreed a special yearlong Jubilee  every 50 years which was supposed to be a holy year.   Land and houses were given back to their original owners.   The land would lie fallow so that there was no laboring in the fields and it gave the land a year to replenish itself.Jubilee

The main idea behind the Year of Jubilee was redemption.   The original owners were to return to their family property and their own clan.  It had once been their inheritance so they were supposed to get it back.  Slaves and bond servants were set free.  Houses that weren’t in walled cities were given back.

God told them they he owned all of the land anyway- they were just using it.  So none of it should be permanently sold.

When they showed concern about what they would eat if they didn’t plant and harvest, God told them he would take care of them by giving them a bountiful year the year before so that they had plenty for their holy year.

All of this was a foretaste of the redemption that would happen when the Messiah came.

There is no evidence that the year of Jubilee was ever celebrated.

Are you surprised?  After working hard and ‘earning’ the right to own what we have, how interested would we be in giving it back?  It’s definitely not the democratic, free market way.

But it’s God’s way.  The Bible is one long story of his plan for our redemption.  We can’t earn it.  Jesus paid the price and we get it all for free.  For eternity.

Thank you, dear Father, for our redemption.  We can never earn it.  We’re so grateful that it’s free.

It’s a Festival!

On By Judy GlasserIn FebruaryLeave a comment

Everyone goes to a designated place to celebrate, give their offerings and to remember what God has done for them.

What does that sound like?

I know what you’re thinking….but I just described the three major festivals the Israelites celebrated each year. 

Each year, all male Israelites were required to travel to a designated place for the Passover and Festival of Unleaven Bread, the Festival of the Harvest and the Festival of the Tabernacles. 

Celebrating Passover was a reminder of how God freed them from their slavery when the Angel of Death passed over their homes.  Then they celebrated the  Festival of Unleaven Bread the rest of the week to commemorate exodus and all God did for them during that time.

The Festival of the Harvest was a celebration where they gave freewill offering in proportion to the blessing the Lord had given them.

During the Festival of the Tabernacles they lived in tents as a reminder of Israel’s wandering in the wilderness.  They were told to celebrate and be joyful because God has blessed all the works of their hands.

Sounds like what we do every Sunday, doesn’t it?I was thinking about this last Sunday as we approached the location of our church and we saw all of the cars turning into the parking lot.

What a great blessing it is to be able to gather EVERY week to praise God, give him our offerings and remember what he has done for us!

And we don’t have stay in tents, either! 🙂

Thank you, dear Father, for giving us a place we can  go every week where we can celebrate you with other believers.

Protected

On By Judy GlasserIn FebruaryLeave a comment

How often do we think about the hedge of protection God has placed around us?

God has promised that he is with us and we know he sends his angels to help take care of us.

Every once in awhile we get a glimpse of something that ‘could have’ happened to us but didn’t.  We see an accident or we read about something happening in a place we should have been but weren’t.

Most of the time we’re clueless.  God protects us, something bad doesn’t happen and we go on our merry way – not knowing that our Father God has just supernaturally intervened in our life to take care of us.

In Numbers 14: 4-10, Joshua and Caleb plead with the Israelites  go into the promised land despite the obstacles the spies had told them about.  Joshua tells the Israelites they will devour the people who are presently living in the promised land because their protection is gone and the Lord is with the Israelites.

But the Israelites rebel, don’t go and begin 40 years of wandering.

They just refused to trust.   They knew they had God’s protection, they knew all about his promises regarding the land of milk and honey that he was taking them to.  But they didn’t trust him. 

They trusted themselves – a very foolish thing to do, wasn’t it?

Thank you, dear Father, for your protection of us.  Please help us to trust you more.

 wasn’t it?

Who has Short Arms?

On By Judy GlasserIn FebruaryLeave a comment

“Are my arms too short?’ God asks Moses in Numbers 11.  Sounds like kind of a strange question, doesn’t it?

And I know God is asking us that same question today when we don’t see him answering our prayers so we take matters into our own hands……..and mess everything up!

Do we think his arms are too short?  He’s not powerful enough?   God can’t take care of the problems we are facing?  He needs our help?

Many of us fail to see God intervene and answer our prayers because we go ahead and  ‘take care of it’, messing up what God had planned.  We don’t persevere long enough to experience the blessing.

If we really, truly want God’s will to be done, we need to wait on him for his perfect timing.

And pray.

And grow our faith by staying very close to him every day.

And – when he answers – it will be worth the wait! 

We know that your arms are not too short, dear Father.  Please help us trust you more.

Stop Giving……

On By Judy GlasserIn FebruaryLeave a comment

we have enough. 

This is what Moses told the Israelites after he saw that they already had more than enough of everything they needed to make the tabernacle.  In Exodus 36:2-7, he send out an order to restrain them from giving more.

Really?  Have we ever been told by our church to stop giving because everyone was so generous that the church had more than enough?

As we read through Exodus and Leviticus, it’s easy to label the Israelites as whiney immature unbelievers.  Come on – if you haven’t said it, you were thinking it 🙂

But it appears that they have this giving back to God thing going on strong at this point in their journey.

What would our world be like if those doing God’s ministries had to ask people to stop giving because there was more than enough?  I know we would see a holy outpouring of God’s blessings because we can never outgive him.  He loves it when we trust him enough to give more than what our accountant thinks is wise.  When we are dependent on God, he has the opportunity to lavish his love on us and on others through us.

And what God gives back to those who are generous to others in His name can’t be bought with money.

Thank you for the joy we experience when we give back generously to you, dear Father!

It Takes Skill

On By Judy GlasserIn FebruaryLeave a comment

Have you read the directions God gave to Moses concerning the tabernacle that he wanted the Isrealites to make?

They are extremely specific and detailed.  This was obviously very important to God.Ex 31

God chose who would work on this project with him by giving them wisdom and knowledge and ability to make everything that he had commanded them to make.

He does the same with us today.  When he asks us to do something, he will give us the knowledge and abilities we need to complete the task.  Maybe not right away.  We may have to hang tough through some struggles – that’s one of the ways he trains us.  

God promises that he will equip us when we step out in faith and follow his lead.  It’s after we step out and after we obey that we will experience his blessings.  We often want to see the blessing first but it just doesn’t work that way.  It’s through our faith and perseverence that God blesses us.

Thank you for your blessings, dear Father!

As the Darkness Spreads…..

On By Judy GlasserIn FebruaryLeave a comment

we live in the light!

Just like the Israelites did in Egypt.Ex 10

As one of the plagues, Moses stretched out his hand toward the sky and darkness spread over  Egypt.  It was so dark that no one could see anyone else for 3 days.

Yet the Israelites had light in the places where they lived.

It’s hard to ignore the darkness spreading through our culture today, isn’t it?  Turn on your TV and the immorality literally jumps out of the screen at us.  Respect for human lives is crumbling as the bullets fly.  Parents refusing to parent are ripping apart the fabric of our families.  The list is growing.

Yet Christ-followers live in the light of God’s truth and his mercy and his love.

Our future is as brighter than the sun.  Heaven has no need of a sun because God is there.  He is the source of all warmth and light and good things.  There is no darkness there.  Hallelujah!

And it’s a challenge to live like one who is in the light when we are surrounded by our world, isn’t it? We’re tempted to be sucked into the darkness, the confusion, the chaos.  It’s all around us….everywhere.

But it can’t touch us when we are firmly anchored on our Rock, who is God.  We are safe when we’re being held tightly in His grip – he’ll never let go.  When we live closely to God, his light shines into our lives and lights up our paths. 

In the midst of the darkness.

Thank you, dear Father.

It Felt Like Years

On By Judy GlasserIn JanuaryLeave a comment

Two years, in fact!

Joseph interpreted the dream of Pharoah’s cupbearer and all he asked for in return was that the cupbearer remember Joseph when he got out of prison.  Just like the dream, the cupbearer was released from prison and given back his job,

but he forgot about Joseph for 2 years.Gen 41.2

Two years of sitting in prison, waiting to be remembered!  Will it ever happen?  Joseph had already experienced hatred, betrayal and treachery coming at him from all angles and now this!

Throughout Joseph’s story, we continue to hear that God was with him.  We know that God was with him in prison – he helped him interpret the dreams. God has told us that he has a plan and a purpose for everything.  So God must have had 2 more years worth of things to teach Joseph in prison – hence, the delay.

But we don’t like delays.  Patience in the face of diversity is a tough challenge.  We don’t like it.  It feels like God is not answering our prayers. 

It’s the trust factor, again.  It’s knowing that, contrary to my circumstances right now, God has the best planned for me.  He is working things out for me.

Right now……..even if it takes 2 years.

Driving a stake….

On By Judy GlasserIn JanuaryLeave a comment

into the ground.Gen 31

In this passage, we see Jacob taking a stone and setting it up as a pillar to commemorate the agreement between himself and Laban, his father-in-law.

We often see people in the Bible setting up pillars or altars to remind them of an event or an agreement.

From this day forward…..

and here is the reminder.

I think we might do a better job of keeping our commitments if we would set up pillars to remind ourselves.  Well, not exactly pillars :), but reminders.

When I decided that I was going to get serious about reading my Bible, I started putting it out in the family room where I saw it all the time.  It was a very helpful reminder and I ended up reading it a lot more often because whenever I saw it, I remembered my committment to God and myself.

Some people tape special Bible verses onto their bathroom mirrors so they see them every day and are reminded of God’s promises.

Simple, but effective.  What are some other things we can do to help remind ourselves of the committments we have made to God?