Tag: Bible

A Perfect Father….

On By Judy GlasserIn AugustLeave a comment

disciplines us.

When we do things that aren’t right, God loves us and so he chooses to discipline us.  It’s for our good.August 23 2013

When we react well to his discipline by learning the lesson and not repeating our error, we grow more like Christ and our relationship with God is stronger.

But it doesn’t feel good to be disciplined.  It’s never fun. 

When God has disciplined me, it’s always been a tough lesson.  I have learned one very important thing about God’s discipline – I need to learn the lesson the first time.  Otherwise, the lessons grow bigger and more obvious and harder until we hit bottom and THEN we look up to God.  I think this explains many of the issues we see in our lives and in the world around us – people are not responding positively to God’s discipline and so the issue gets bigger and worse until people finally  turn to God.

I’m trying to avoid that situation by ‘getting it’ and repenting and changing my behavior the first time.  It’s not easy, but its  worth the effort.

I’ve been forgiven and I’ve changed but I still  experience the consequences of some of my old, bad choices.  I’m amazed how sometimes I’m still paying the consequences for bad decisions I made over 30 years ago.  It doesn’t seem fair until I realize that paying those consequences remind me of my need for a Savior.  They remind me of how much I have been forgiven making it easier for me to forgive others.  Dealing with the consequences for my old, bad choices reminds me of my continuing need for God’s redeeming power in my life.  It reminds me of how faithful God has been to me so far on this journey and it helps me trust him with my future.

And I am reminded that he disciplines me because he loves me.  He wants only the best for me.

Thank you, dear Father.

Out of our rebellion…

On By Judy GlasserIn AugustLeave a comment

Into a life filled with God’s blessings.

That is the restoration God promises to each of us just as he promised the Israelites in Jeremiah 32.

When we decide to stop fulfilling our personal will and desires and start listening to and living out the Words of Truth God has for us, we move from the land of God’s great wrath to the land overflowing with God’s goodness.

He will bring health and healing.August 22 2013

We will enjoy abundant peace and security.

Joy will return.

Prosperity will return.

We will dance again.

Our lives will be a well-watered garden – beautiful, fruitful, purposeful.

Let the dancing begin!

 

You are Amazing!

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No words can adequately express our praise to you, Almighty Creator!

It is by your power that the earth was created.August 14 2013

Your wisdom is the foundation of the world.

Your understanding is what stretched out the heavens farther than any one can see.  There is no end – only you, our Alpha and Omega.

When you thunder, the waters in the heavens roar.

The clouds rise from the ends of the earth at your command.

You send the lightning with the rain.

The wind whips out from your heavenly storehouses.

It’s all about you.  Always you. 

Thank you, dear Father!

If….

On By Judy GlasserIn AugustLeave a comment

you will call on me and come and pray to me, I will listen, ” God tells  us in Jeremiah 29. “When you seek me with all of your heart, you will find me.”August 11 2013

The big IF.  The big WHEN.  This is the part we control.  This is our part of the deal.  God guarantees that he will listen.  God promises that we will find him.  IF we call on him.  WHEN we seek him.

The verse right before this is very well-known.  It is a promise of God that we desperately hold on to when our lives are crumbling around us.  We often recite it in our prayers for our children and families.

God tells us that his plans for us are to prosper us, to give us a hope and a future.

Amen!  Bring it on God!

THEN he tells us how he is going to do this.  He will do it IF we call on him.  WHEN we seek him, he will be found and he will be able to do what he has promised – to prosper us.  He wants to give us a hope.  He has a beautiful future planned for us.

IF.  WHEN.  Our choice.

If?  How about we start right now?  When?  Now would be a great time to re-committ.

Knowledge and Understanding

On By Judy GlasserIn AugustLeave a comment

God gave Daniel and his friends knowledge and understanding of all kinds of literature and learning.  Daniel could understand visions and dreams of all kinds.August 8 2013

I don’t know about you, but I’m not looking for knowledge and understanding of all kinds of literature – just the Bible.  I have a deep desire to know the Truth and the Truth is only found in God’s word.

This has been a core motivation for me as long as I can remember – I just want to know and understand the truth.

When I realized that the only real truth is what God says to me through his Bible, it changed my life.  I don’t care to understand most of the other stuff that is out there.  Show me the Truth, help me understand the Truth and help me apply his Truth to my daily life – that’s all I want.

Sometimes the truth hurts and that’s okay.  At least it’s the truth.  At least it’s not some lie that our culture has made up and tried to pawn off as the truth.

And I have been hugely blessed.  As I have saught God and his Truth, he has given me knowledge and understanding of his Word.  Almost every time I pick it up, God reveals something new to me.  And I’m convinced that it’s my problem when I don’t have a ‘a-ha!” moment when I’m reading the Bible – I’m distracted, I’m not listening and, sometimes, I just don’t want to hear it:)  When I hear it and understand it, I’m responsible for it, right?

The Truth has set me free!  And I am free indeed!

 

We Have So Much More

On By Judy GlasserIn AugustLeave a comment

King Josiah was very busy in 2 Kings with cleaning up the messes that the unfaithful kings before him had made.  One of his projects was getting the temple of the Lord back into shape.Aug 2 2013

In the middle of doing this, the priests found the Book of the Law that God had given to Moses.  The first thing they did was read it.  Then they took it right to King Josiah and read it for him.  The King understood that this was God’s word and tore his robes as an outward sign of the repentance he felt regarding his behaviors and the behaviors of his ancestors.

He recognized that the Lord had been angry with them because they had not been keeping the Word of the Law.

After reading the limited version of the Word of God that they had, they immediately changed.

How much more is our responsibility as we hold the entire revelation of God in our hands?

Or even worse – as God’s revelation to us sits in a pile of books somewhere in our house gathering dust?

We not only have the entire old testament, we have the incredible new testament.  God’s became flesh and came to dwell among us.  We have seen God and it is Jesus.  The new testament tells us everything God wants us to know about Jesus.  It completes God’s revelation of his Love Story for us.

King Josiah got it right.  He read, he believed, he applied it to his life and he exerted all the influence he had on the world around them to help them also see the Truth.

Now, what about me? 

Where am I planted?

On By Judy GlasserIn AugustLeave a comment

A tree planted by a stream of water spreads its roots out to the stream and is rewarded with a constant source of nourishment.  The heat doesn’t bother it and its leaves are always green.  The tree doesn’t have to worry about rain or no rain – its planted in just the right spot.  It grows fruit every time its in season.  The storms come but the tree’s roots are strong and well-nourished so nothing can blow it away.

Sounds really nice, doesn’t it?  God uses this example a couple of times in his word to us – this time it’s in Jeremiah and the same picture is given to us in Psalm 1.July 31.2

Because this can be us.  This can be our life.  We can choose to plant our lives very close to the Living Water where we will be rewarded with a constant source of truth, peace, joy, love and encouragement. We will live fruitful, purposeful lives.  When we live close to the Living Water, we don’t have to worry about rain or no rain.  The storms come but we are firmly rooted, never blown away.

It’s not a one-time decision.  It’s a daily decision.

We decide if we’re going to live close to God today.

And then tomorrow we need to make the decision again.  And every day after that.

It’s priorities.  We all have a long list of things we can fill our days with that draw us away from God.

God just has to be more important to us than those things.

As God moves up our list of daily priorities, our roots grow stronger and we become better and better nourished.  We begin to grow more fruit.  We don’t have worry about rain and the storms don’t scare us.

By the time God gets to the top of our daily list of priorities, we are experiencing all of the blessings God has for us as we are lavishly fed by his Living Water.  Life is not perfect but it’s as good as it gets here on earth.  We have a Rock, we have a Refuge, we have a Counselor, we have the Truth, we have a loving Father and an Eternal Savior.

We need to seriously ask ourselves – where am I planted?  We can honestly tell where we’re planted by how much of the Fruits of the Spirit we are experiencing in our lives.  Love, Joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness, goodness, faithfulness, and self-control.  How much of these do we have in our lives?  The closer to God we grow, we experience more and more of these fruits in our lives.  If we want more of these, we know the Source.  it’s our choice.

Thank you, dear Father.

Jeremiah 16, 2013

On By Judy GlasserIn JulyLeave a comment

You are our strength and our fortress, dear Lord.

You are our refuge when we are distressed.July 31 2013

For so long we have been worshipping and chasing after false gods.  Many of us learned this from our parents and others around us as we were growing up.  We are ready to sacrifice everything to the god of MORE.  We are consumed with getting MORE of whatever we think will make us happy –  money, big houses, having ‘fun’, the latest and greatest of our favorite things.  We’re confident that the god of More will make us happy – at least for a little while.

The reality is the god of MORE is worthless – only bringing unhappiness and discontent because there is never enough.

We ask you to teach us, dear Father.  Teach us your truth, teach us about the things you value, teach us about the things that you want us to have in our lives because they are good for us.

We want to experience your power in our lives.

We want to know the might of your redeeming love as it transforms us in the people you created us to be.

You are the Lord God Almighty.

We praise your name!

Let’s Boast

On By Judy GlasserIn JulyLeave a comment

We aren’t boasting about our wisdom, dear Father.

Any wisdom we have comes from you.

We aren’t boasting about our strength, Holy God.

Our strength to even breathe comes from you.  It all comes from you.

We aren’t boasting about our riches, Omnipotent Creator.

Whatever we have has all come from you.

We only boast about knowing you.

You have chosen us, we are yours.July 29 2013

You have opened our eyes so we can see you.

You have opened our ears so we can hear you.

We experience your kindness in our lives every day.

We depend on your justice as you rule the universes.

We claim your gift of grace and become righteous in your eyes through the death and resurrection of your Son, our Savior, Jesus.

We boast about you, dear Father.  We delight in you.

Don’t Be Fooled

On By Judy GlasserIn JulyLeave a comment

It’s all around us.

DeceptionJuly 27 2013

Lies

Our culture is in a huge state of confusion. 

Is this right?

Is that wrong?

Or is everything right?

And nothing wrong….

Unless you get caught?

Such confusion.

We have a barrage of voices spewing their opinions, perspectives and misinformation out across our world every day, all day.  They tell us there is peace when there is no peace.  They tell us something is right when it clearly isn’t right.  They tell us something is wrong when it simply doesn’t match up to their lifestyle and choices.  They tell us what they want us to think.

How does anyone know the truth?

There is only one way to know the Truth and it’s through God’s Word to us.

There is no confusion when the Holy Spirit guides us into understanding God’s Word.

The Bible may not be super-clear on all of the less important issues because they are less important.

The important items are crystal clear.  We may not like to hear it, but it’s crystal clear.

And these truths don’t change.

Just like God doesn’t change.  The Alpha and Omega, Beginning and the End.

Jesus called himself the Truth – there is no confusion about that. 

Thanks for coming along on this journey with me – our Journey Towards the Truth.  This Journey will end some day when we are face to face with the Living Truth.  Amen!  Hallelujah!