It’s hard to understand. Dying seems like such a permanent thing here on earth.
But it’s not permanent. My death on earth is when my body stops functioning, but my soul – the core of who I am – does not die. Your soul doesn’t die, either. Our souls live on – eternally in heaven if we have accepted salvation through Jesus or eternally separated from God in hell if we haven’t put our faith in Jesus. If you are reading this and you haven’t accepted God’s free gift of grace, right now is the time. Make the choice today. Life is so short and eternity is very, very long.
As I reach the fall season of my life, my body reminds me daily that it has a specific shelf life and there will be an end. I have made Jesus my Lord and Savior so I have already started my eternal life – this first part is on earth, the second part will be my forever home with my Father.
I’m amazed at how many people call the man-made shelters we live in here on earth their ‘forever home’. Not me – my forever home is much, much better than this one and it’s waiting for me when this part of my journey ends.
The prophet Elijah is one of two people in the Bible whose bodies didn’t die. Elijah and Elisha were walking together when, “suddenly a chariot of fire and horses of fire appeared and separated the two of them, and Elijah went up to heaven in a whirlwind.” 2 Kings 2:11.
I would love to go to heaven that way – now you see me, now you don’t! But I believe my journey home is going to be a lot less dramatic. When I breathe my last breath, Jesus will be holding my hand and he will walk my soul into heaven with him, leaving my body behind.
God is never tired, he is never impatient, he is never distracted, he is never busy.
We are made in God’s image – little glimpses of him show up in each of us.
But he is not like us.
This fact brings me a lot of peace and confidence. I desire to be more like Jesus. I am eternally grateful that he is not like me. He has none of my weaknesses or failings.
Sometimes God tell us about his emotions in the Bible – anger, sadness, and joy. All of his emotions are perfect – for the right reason. They are not like our emotions which are self-centered and can often cause us to say and do wrong things.
When Elijah mocked the priests of Baal in 1 Kings, he was trying to point out the godlessness of their gods. When Baal didn’t respond to their requests, Elijah said, “Shout louder! Surely he is a god. Perhaps he is deep in thought, or busy or traveling. Maybe he is sleeping and must be awakened.” 1 Kings 18: 27. This kicked the Baal prophets into a frenzy of shouting louder and slashing themselves with swords and spears. They often did this trying to get a response from Baal.
I grimace when I imagine this scene of four hundred and fifty bleeding prophets of Baal – crying out to a manmade statue. Looking for answers. Looking for hope.
How futile!
How wrong!
How lost.
When I take a look at the world which surrounds me today with overwhelming violence and lies and confusion, I can say the same thing –
How futile!
How wrong!
How lost.
Jesus came to bring his light of truth, grace and salvation to everyone who would believe. He is the only answer.
He lives within each believer and he has commissioned each of us to be his light in our part of this dark and broken world.
Dear Father, Please help us shine your light brightly right where we live, work and play.
How big is my God? How much does he want to bless me?
God stopped me this week as I read the story in the Bible of the widow whose son was going be taken as a slave because her husband had debts he didn’t pay before he died. She asked Elisha for help saying she had nothing left except a small jar of olive oil.
Elisha said, ” Go around and ask your neighbors for empty jars. Don’t ask for just a few. Then go inside and shut the door behind you and your sons. Pour oil into all the jars, and as each is filled, put it to one side.” 2 Kings 4: 3 – 4. She did exactly what Elisha said and she just kept filling the jars until they were all full. The oil stopped flowing when her last jar was full. Then she sold the oil to pay her debts and had enough money left over to live on.
Now that I know the end of the story, my automatic response is – too bad she didn’t get more jars! Then she could have blessed others as well through this miracle that happened to her.
Did you go there? It was great that she had enough money to live on but how much more did God have for her if she had had a bigger view of her God?
And then I wonder how many times God was willing to bless me abundantly but I didn’t bring enough jars? I didn’t bring enough faith? Enough trust?
How often do I short-cut God’s attempts to lavish love and care on my life because I don’t ask?
The message I’ve been consistently receiving lately from God is that there are some mountains he will move if I will boldly ask. He’s stirring up a wind of his Spirit that he is inviting me to take part in if I will ‘bring enough jars’.
I recently published a book on Amazon, “Then I Looked Up: Losing a Child, Finding His Legacy of Love.’ Its the story of my son, David Glasser’s, death in the line of duty, his life and my struggle to find hope after my world blew up. Writing the book was a huge mountain for me to climb but God guided me up and now I feel like I’m at the top of the mountain with my hands raised in victory.
Nothing is impossible for my Father God so I boldly asked him to help me write this story he has been creating in my life these last 7 years. Now it’s published – and I’m watching to see the plans he has for it.
I have been struggling with the grief of losing my son for over 7 years. Recently, I have gotten a new understanding of just how many of you are also struggling with grief and loss. You are travelling with me on this very tough journey of surviving the death of someone we were very close to.
In February I published a book on Amazon, “Then I Looked Up: Losing a Child, Finding His Legacy of Love.” This is the story of my son, David Glasser’s, death in the line of duty, his life and my search for hope as I figured out how to move forward after my life exploded.
Since publishing the book, I have received many messages from people who have read my story and they tell me how it helped them with their own struggle. These messages have come from all kinds of people, not just those who lost a child. I have heard from sisters, wives, brothers, husbands, children and everyone else out there who has been grieving the death of someone who left a big hole in their lives. I have heard from people who are experiencing grief over divorces. I have heard from people who are not struggling themselves with grief right now but reading the book has helped them understand family and friends who are.
It has opened my eyes to how many grieving people there are in my world who are dealing with these tough, painful emotions.
“Your book changed my life.” one of my neighbors told me when I saw her at our shared mailbox. “I was stuck in a deep, dark pit after losing my best friend and now I have started to move forward and enjoy my life again. I’m sending the book to a friend who really needs it.”
“God spoke to me through your story and it changed everything” another friend told me as she sat down next to me at Bingo. Her husband died last year and she couldn’t get past some of the ‘What if’s’ of the situation until she spent some time studying Job 14:5. “A person’s days are determined; you have decreed the number his months and have set limits he cannot exceed.”
” The truth in your book helped me answer some questions I had that made me get stuck in anger and bitterness, ” a sister of a fallen officer wrote. “Now I feel motivated to move forward and honor my brother’s life.”
” Your book helped me process my daughter’s death from over 20 years ago in a new way” said another friend. “I have a much more positive perspective now.”
And the comments, texts and emails continue to flow in.
What a blessing! I am extremely happy that sharing my story is helping other’s deal with their own broken hearts in a positive way. It gives purpose to my pain.
This is what I believe is happening – in the book I shared the truth that God has taught me about life and death and how different his perspective is from your’s and mine. I also told you my story which gave you ideas of how you can apply this truth to your situation.
When our lives are anchored on God’s truth, he can make all the difference.
One of my favorite comments is when people tell me they sent the book to a friend or family member. You are the people who know people who would benefit from reading this book. A lot of you are doing this!
Keep it up! I love it! It’s something positive we can do when we find ourselves in a “I don’t know what to do. I don’t know what to say.” situation.
Meanwhile, we all continue the struggle – together.
I’m an achiever. I like to get things done. I’m also a planner and organizer so I can make sure they get done.
There have been situations in my life in the past where I have struggled and worked and persevered to make something happen only to discover that it wasn’t the right thing. It didn’t work out.
So disappointing. Have you been there?
As my faith in God has grown, I have realized that I experienced some of that frustration because I was trying very hard to do what I wanted to do. But it wasn’t something God wanted to happen, so all of my efforts didn’t work. I have decided that, from now on, I want God’s plans for my life to become reality, not my own plans. The truth is he knows everything, he has the power to do anything and his plans are perfect.
Mine aren’t.
So now I talk to God about what he wants, watch to see where he is moving and then join him in what he is doing. Does it surprise you that great things happen when I do this?
I’m not surprised.
Does it surprise you that sometimes I forget to do this?
I’m not surprised.
As I’m reading King Jeroboam’s story in 1 Kings, I am reminded of some of the disappointments I had when I was trying to do things my own way. Jeroboam was setting up his own kingdom in Israel without asking God what he wanted and Jeroboam was making a lot of bad decisions. But he persevered and it looked like everything was working.
Then, one day, the king stretched out his hand to command to his men to seize the prophet of God (another bad decision) and his hand shriveled up.
Wow! That would have definitely gotten my attention!
Jeroboam knew exactly who shriveled up his hand so he said to the prophet of God , “Intercede with the LORD our God and pray for me that my hand may be restored.” 1 Kings 13: 6. This was a good decision – God instantly restored the king’s hand.
God doesn’t usually make hands shrivel up today but he is constantly trying to guide us down the right paths so we make good decisions. Since I’m a planner and organizer and doer, I have to be careful to listen to God and not just use my own skills to make my plans a reality. Even when I’m sure I’m on the path where God wants me, if things just aren’t working, I’ve learned to stop and look to God – is he trying to redirect me? Did I misunderstand?
I recently published a book on Amazon, “Then I Looked Up: Losing a Child, Finding His Legacy of Love.” I cannot tell you how many times I stopped and looked to God to figure out my next step in that year-long pretty intense process. It was often. This was a story God had given me and I knew he would guide me if I kept my eyes open. God gets all the credit for the success of the book and the positive impact it is having on people who are grieving the loss of someone close to them.
I made a really good decision many years ago when I decided that, before putting a big effort into climbing a wall, I’m going to make sure it’s the right wall.
When I am keeping my eyes on God, studying his Word and spending time with him, he shows me when I’m getting off track. I ask him to open doors or close doors – somehow show me if I’m going down the right path or not.
And he does. There are times when he opens my eyes to a different next step than I was planning. In other situations, he encourages me and I know I’m supposed to keep moving forward even when the going gets tough.
By focusing on what God wants – not what I want – God doesn’t have to try hard to get my attention. It’s a great way to avoid climbing the wrong wall and experiencing nasty consequences.
“Everything is meaningless,” says the Teacher, ” completely meaningless.” Ecclesiastes 12:8.
Do you ever feel that way?
Obviously this emotion is spreading rapidly through our culture today as we see the suicide rates drastically rising and mass shootings multiply. To many people, tomorrow seems to be meaningless and not worth sticking around for.
“Yet when I surveyed all that my hands had done and what I had toiled to achieve, everything was meaningless, a chasing after the wind; nothing was gained under the sun.” Eccl. 2:11
King Solomon wrote Ecclesiastes. He was uber rich and the wisest man who ever lived and yet, this is what he wrote at the end of his life.
Pretty depressing, isn’t it?
The futility of pleasure – fleeting and never gives us lasting contentment.
The meaninglessness of work – we put so much effort into work to achieve recognition and so we can own things we want – then we leave it all behind when we die.
The injustices of life – evil is very real.
The futility of wealth – those who love money will never have enough.
The limits of human wisdom – “wisdom is difficult to find.”
Death comes to all – “the same destiny (of death) awaits everyone, whether righteous or wicked, good or bad.”
At the end of Ecclesiastes, Solomon finally gives us the good news. Solomon’s final conclusions tell us what will bring true meaning to our lives.
He says to enjoy life while obeying God – real freedom and happiness come exclusively from God. Evil and injustice will always in a part of life on earth. We should live in faith knowing God wins in the end and will judge all things.
Solomon, the wisest man who ever lived, tells us that meaning and purpose will only be found by being faithful to God.
That alone is not meaningless.
Thank you for giving my life meaning and purpose, Abba Father.
I know because I wandered away for several years when I was a young adult. I moved away from home and gradually filled my calendar with activities I knew were not the best for me. The people I met while doing these activities weren’t interested in a relationship with God so we never talked about him. My whole lifestyle changed to ‘looking for love (and fun) in all the wrong places.”
It was easy.
What are you looking for?
Several years later, I woke up (with a lot of nudging from the Holy Spirit) and realized I was not where I wanted to be. Don’t get me wrong – I had worked hard and gotten everything I thought I wanted – everything I thought would make me happy.
But I wasn’t happy. I had a huge hole in my life. I needed a meaningful purpose for getting up every morning beyond feeding the kids, moving up the corporate ladder, paying the bills and getting my ‘to-do’ lists done.
I was empty. I felt it everyday but I didn’t know what to do about it. Do you ever feel empty?
It took me awhile to figure out that the aching hole in my life was where God was supposed to be. I’m sure the Holy Spirit had to work very hard on me to get me to see that. My relationship with God at this point had melted into nonexistence.
I realized I missed God. I missed my spiritual family.
As I look around in our culture, I see this same emptiness in people’s eyes. This ‘looking for something to complete me’ desire is extremely evident in their choices and behaviors.
Are you still looking?
I’m extremely grateful that the Holy Spirit helped me identify my real need and desire so I could get back on track. My relationship with God has given me all the purpose and joy and success that I was looking for.
I’ve seen many Christians wander away –
their Bible starts gathering dust on a shelf.
social activities on Saturday nights make sleeping in on Sunday mornings more important than worshiping God with their spiritual families.
their week becomes too busy with other things so they drop out of small group Bible studies, leaving their Christian friends behind.
Many Christians stopped going to church during our pandemic and have never gone back. It is just soeasy to wander away from being a part of a church family like God directs us to be, so easy to watch church in our pajamas on Sunday and check it off the list, ignoring God’s words in Hebrews 10: 24 – 25. “And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another – and all the more as you see the Day approaching.”
I am reminded that this can happen to anyone when I read about the end of King Solomon’s life. “As Solomon grew old, his wives turned his heart after other gods, and his heart was not fully devoted to the Lord his God, as the heart of David his father had been.” 1 Kings 11:4.
Solomon was the wisest man who ever lived and he lost his way. That’s a little frightening, isn’t it?
God had even told Solomon when he was younger not to marry foreign wives because this would happen.
Solomon was warned and he still wandered.
I feel like God is warning me – and you – today through his Word. I must be diligent about keeping my priorities straight. When attitudes and activities start to draw me away from God, I need to adjust my focus.
I wandered away once. I’m determined not to do it again.
Doing the right things. Making the right decisions. Saying the right things.
God uses an old fashioned term – righteousness – to describe these actions. It’s ‘living right”.
How do I know what is right? The answer to that question is God’s Word is right. It’s the truth. There are large sections of the book of Proverbs where God spells out what living right means. Here are a few –
“The desire of the righteous ends only in good, but the hope of the wicked only in wrath.” Proverbs 11:23.
“The plans of the righteous are just, but the advice of the wicked is deceitful.” Proverbs 12:5″
“The righteous detest the dishonest; the wicked detest the upright.” Proverbs 29:27.
God speaks to me through the words, explaining them and helping me apply them to my life. The Holy Spirit convicts me when my thinking gets off and my actions don’t reflect what I believe.
I’m so glad I have the role-model of Jesus. I don’t have to try to look around me and try to find someone I want to imitate in order to ‘live right’. I have Jesus. This truth has often helped me move past major disappointments with people – especially people in the church. I used to expect people who went to church to be a lot more ‘righteous’ than others until I realized that we’re all just people, struggling with our weaknesses. If we are a believer, God is gradually redeeming our lives but he still has a lot of work to do.
So watching people – especially people who say they are Christians – I got confused and disillusioned. Then I looked to Jesus. Focused on him. And the issues about imperfect Christians went away.
When Jesus was on earth, he gave imperfect people grace and love and spoke truth at the right time into their lives. This makes me glad because I am imperfect – I need grace, love and truth. And I need to give other imperfect people grace, love and speak truth when God prompts me.
Jesus is my role-model. If he did it, it’s the right thing to do.
I can’t believe this person wrote that! Did they really say that?
There are times when I feel surrounded by crowds of people who are not thinking, not using logic, and not caring about the facts. These people seem to be reacting purely out of emotion – to everything.
And sometimes its hard not to respond back in the same way. It would feel good – for a minute – to say what I’m thinking but then I would regret that I was acting just like they were. Emotionally. Not logically. That’s not good.
God generously gives you and I some wisdom in this situation in Proverbs 26:4, “Do not answer a fool according to his folly; or you yourself will be just like him.”
Yep, when I answer a foolish statement with my own emotional, foolish statement, I am on the wrong track. The right track is to look to God for wisdom and discernment.
God tells me in Proverbs 9: 7-9 to forget about correcting a fool. Their response will be to insult me, abuse me and hate me. But a wise person learns from correction and grows wiser.
That’s the kind of person I want to be – a wise person who is learning and being transformed by the truth of God.
Proverbs is full of God’s wisdom regarding all kinds of situations we find ourselves in.
Thank you for your precious Word to us, Abba Father.
We live in a culture where it’s very difficult to be satisfied because there is always bigger and better. There is always more.
How do I find this illusive satisfaction when I am surrounded by all of this?
God tells me through King Solomon in Proverbs 3 how to find contentment in my life.
Never forget what God has taught me.
Be loyal and loving.
Trust in God – be dependent on his power and strength and understanding, not my own.
Make fulfilling God’s will for my life my goal. “In all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.” Proverbs 3:6.
Keep on the path God directs me to take.
Turn away from evil. Respect God and give him the credit for all the good things in my life. Never get too impressed with myself.
Honor God with my time and treasures.
Accept my Father’s discipline. He loves me and wants the best for me.
Ask God for wisdom – it is precious and nothing else will bring me satisfaction.
Hang on to my common sense and discernment – they will help keep me safe and unafraid.
Encourage others.
Don’t make a big deal out of small things.
Don’t envy violent or wicked people. At first, I would say that I would never envy violent or wicked people. But then, I think about some people I know who have ‘gotten away’ with things that were not right but it brought them pleasure or financial gain. Did I ever wish that was me? “The LORD’s curse is on the house of the wicked, but he blesses the house of the righteous.” Proverbs 3:33.
That’s a great list! It’s interesting to me that things like ‘get an education so you can get a good job and make a lot of money’ aren’t on here. Does that surprise you?
There’s nothing on this list that tells me that buying stuff and owning a lot of things is going to bring me satisfaction.
This list is all about me and God working together to grow my faith, grow my character and grow my wisdom.
Come with me on a Journey through the Bible 