Tag: Bible

Choices

On By Judy GlasserIn JanuaryLeave a comment

The choices we make determine the direction we take.  We may ‘intend’ to go a certain direction but we won’t go there if our choices take us in a different direction.

We watch Lot’s future unfold in Genesis 13 as he chooses to live in the garden-like land near Sodom.Jan 5 2014

Yes, he chose to live by Sodom which already had the reputation of being filled with wicked people who were rebelling against the Lord.

What do you think of his choice?  If Lot wanted to live a life of faithfulness and obedience to God, why would he literally pitch his tent next to a place dedicated to the opposite values?  We’ll see later that this proved to be a very bad choice for Lot and he will experience some very hard consequences from it.

Do we ever do this?  We intend to do something good but end up making choices that take us in a very different direction and it all ends badly.  Our choices each day determine the path we are on.

And God as given us a new day today to make different choices if we need to change our direction.  His grace covers our old bad choices.  When we ask, he gives us wisdom and strength to make changes….

Starting today…..

Starting right now.

Thank you, dear God!

It’s Hard to Find

On By Judy GlasserIn JanuaryLeave a comment

Innocence.

Adam and Eve lived in a time of innocence.  There was no shame in their world, no immorality, no darkness.

They were naked and they walked with God every day – innocent.Jan 1 2014

No sexual undertones, no bawdy jokes stepping on the line of inappropriateness, no snickers and side-ways glances.

Sometimes, when I look around at our culture, it really feels like the innocence is gone.  I happened to catch about 3 seconds of the Star Trek crew watching Miley Cyrus’ video on somebody’s post on Facebook.  I bet I don’t even have to say which one – if you have seen it, you know what I’m talking about.

Apalled.  That was my reaction.  Our culture has hit a new low.

It reminds me of how I visualized the Baal worship in the Old Testament when they had temple prostitutes.  After the Baal worshippers became desensitized to all of this sexual activity, they started sacrificing their babies to their gods.  What’s next for our culture? 

The continuing saga of Sodom and Gomorrah.

How marvelous it is to turn away from all of that and dive back into our Father’s word to us.

His truth.

Where his light shines through the darkness and his grace covers the rotting smells of our culture’s immorality.

Jesus has already triumphed over evil.  It just doesn’t always look like it here on earth.

Thank you, dear Father, for helping us stay focused on you through your word.

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!

Our Longing

On By Judy GlasserIn JanuaryLeave a comment

We are longing for a better country – a country of our own.

When Abel, Enoch, Noah and Abraham died, all they had was their faith in God.  They had not yet seen the promised Messiah.

We now know Jesus.  His life, death, resurrection and ascension have transformed our lives.

Even so, every day we join with these spiritual patriarchs as we long for a country where we truly belong.

Dec 25 2013A heavenly country.

A country where every knee bows to God.

A country completely filled with all of the good things that come from the Father of Light.

A country where Satan no longer prowls like a lion looking for something to devour.

A country were we can lay down our armor of God because there are no more battles with the Evil one.

A country with a Holy and loving and Righteous King.

A country wrapped in the loving arms of a heavenly Father.

God has prepared this place for us and – someday – we’ll be going home.

Thank you, dear Father.

Hello, 2014!

On By Judy GlasserIn JanuaryLeave a comment

Do you feel it?

Do you see it?

The sun rose again this morning – bringing us light,

bringing us warmth.

Reminding us that our faithful Father has once again given us another day.

A day to talk with him.

A day to love him.

A day to serve him.

Another beginning.

What new things is he planning for us this year?

What turns and curves is our journey going to take?

We know that God is going to help us know him better.  He promised that we will find him when we seek him.

Dear Father, We are excited to begin another year of our relationship with you.  We look forward to this year with high expectations.  We know you have so much more to teach us!  You also have so much more love to lavish upon us….and we’re ready!  We begin again with a renewed committment in our journey towards the Truth – towards you..  We will face the challenges of this year with confidence because you will be right beside us.  We thank you in advance for the wonderful things you have planned for us.  In the awesome name of Jesus we pray, Amen.

Note: I have some posts left from the end of our reading in 2013 which I’m going to post on my blog throughout today but not on Facebook.   If you usually check these out on facebook, you can catch them on my blog if you’d like.

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.

Here Come the Arrows

On By Judy GlasserIn DecemberLeave a comment

“Take up the shield of faith in order to extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one”,  Paul tells us in Ephesians.

Oh, yeah.  The arrows.

These flaming arrows definitely come at me when I least expect it.  I’m confident Satan plans it that way.dec 15 e 2013

Here’s an arrow that comes at me – I get an opportunity to say something bad (but true) about someone I don’t like or who has done something unkind to me.  My shield of faith has to be up and in place if I’m going to keep my mouth shut on that one.

Another arrow comes my way!  Satan loves to arrange it so that I don’t pay for everything in my cart at stores.  I hate to waste the time to go back and pay for something when I realize that it was missed in the check-out process. I need my shield of faith in place to help me remember that my integrity is more important that the inconvenience.

Another arrow – sometimes I feel surrounded by people who are lacking morals and good judgement in their personal lives.  My shield of faith needs to be up and ready so that I can accept these people and love them with the love God gives to me.  Satan would be pleased if I would judge them and forget to be compassionate.  My shield of faith helps me dodge that arrow.

These are flaming arrows which can really hurt me if my shield isn’t up.  They can make my behavior not pleasing to God.  They can also make me look more like a servant of Satan than a beloved child of the One True God.

So I need to have my shield of faith up and ready every day. 

I never know where the flaming arrows will be coming from.

Thank you, dear Father, for my shield of faith.

Blown Back and Forth

On By Judy GlasserIn DecemberLeave a comment

Let’s grow in maturity in Christ so that….

* we are no longer infants.Dec 15 d 2013

* we are no longer tossed back and forth by the waves of this life.

* we are not blown here and there by every different wind of teaching.

*we are not influenced by the cunning schemes of deceitful people.

Instead, as we speak the truth in love, our faith with mature and we will become the body of Christ with him as our head.

Christ holds our body of believers together in love as we each use our spiritual gifts to do our part.

Thank you, dear Father.