Tag: Bible

Don’t Look Back

On By Judy GlasserIn JanuaryLeave a comment

No one in the Bible teaches us this lesson better than Lot’s wife.Gen 19.1

Out of his infinite mercy, God answered Abrams prayers to save Lot and his wife from the rain of fire and death coming down on Sodom and Gomorrah.  They were saved! 

Yet Lot’s wife disobeyed and looked back.  As a result of her disobedience, God turned her into a pillar of salt.

Can you commiserate with Lot’s wife?  I can. Isn’t it hard sometimes not to be tugged backward to maybe a time we felt safer?  A time we felt happier?  A time we were more comfortable or maybe our lives were closer to what we thought they should be?

Yet God has saved us for a purpose….and that purpose is always for now and  the future.  We won’t find it by looking backward.  And we definitely won’t fulfill that purpose by looking back.

How easily we can find ourselves comparing what’s going on today with how things used to be.  This is a pattern that become easier and easier as we get older.

What about if we start comparing today to how it could be tomorrow if we fulfill our purpose in God’s plan?  How much better could it be if we encouraged each other to be all that God wants us to be?  He has big plans for us – what would happen if all of us jumped into those plans with no holds barred?

The best if yet to be!

Test Me!

On By Judy GlasserIn DecemberLeave a comment

God promises in Malachi to bless us so greatly that we won’t have enough room for it all.Dec 31

He says that this will happen when we bring all of our tithes into his storehouse.

“I will open the windows of heaven for you,” he promises us.

And then he tells us to try it – to test him.

Have you ever tried this?

It’s true.  As we learn to tithe, we will start to experience these promises coming true in our lives.  As we learn to give offerings above and beyond our tithe, we experience even more of these blessings in our lives.

When we’re obedient in this area of our lives, we have stories.  These are stories about God’s supernatural provision in our lives.  Stories about times when he opened up the windows of heaven for us – in just the right way and at just the right time.  All as a result of  the bringing of our tithes and offerings into his storehouse.

Test him!  You’ll see!

Why Should He?

On By Judy GlasserIn DecemberLeave a comment

God tells the Israelites through Malachi that they are defiling his altar by bringing blind, diseased and crippled animals as their offering.Dec 30

He tells them they can go ahead and beg for mercy, but why should God show them any favor at all?

God asked them and he’s asking us today for the first fruits of our labor.  The first.  The best.

Not the leftovers.  Not the amount that we can do without.

And he showed us exactly how to do this when he sent his son, Jesus.  His first.  His best.  For us.  He held nothing back.

God could ask for it all – since it’s all his.  And God does ask some people to give it all – including their lives.

For the rest of us, he asks that we put him first and give him our best.                      

Then we can anticipate his blessings as we are obedient and walk in his will.

Thank you, dear Father!

Who are We?

On By Judy GlasserIn DecemberLeave a comment

Dec 26Who are we?

David raises this question to God in Psalm 144.

He asks God why he even notices us.

Why does God think about us at all?

We are like passing shadows and yet God loves us.

He created us in love and he gave us the choice whether to love him back or not.

He didn’t need us when he created us and he doesn’t need us now……

But he loves us and he wants us to love him back.

We have no significance at all – except the significance God gives us by adopting us and making us his children…….

When we believe.  When we choose him and love him back.

Thank you, dear Father, for giving us significance.

It’s Never Enough

On By Judy GlasserIn December, Uncategorized2 Comments

“You eat but aren’t satisfied.

You drink but are still thirsty.

You put on clothes but cannot keep warm.

Your wages disappear as though you were putting them in pockets filled with holes.”

Sounds like Haggai could be talking to us today, doesn’t it?Dec 20

Our culture is definitely anti-contentment.  There’s always something bigger.  There’s always something better.  There’s always something newer.  There’s always ……….more.

If one word could define the motivation of our culture today, ‘more’ might be it.

We don’t stop to consider how much stress and unhappiness ‘more’ actually gives us.

How many divorces are because of  ‘more’?  Sometimes it’s from wanting more and sometimes it’s from the consequences of having more.

How many sleepless nights are the result of ‘more’?

How many broken lives are the result of ‘more’?

God tells us over and over in his word that he is all that we need.  Every desire we have is really a desire to have ‘more’ of God. 

And having more of him actually satisfies us.

Dear Father, Please help us correctly identify our desires as wanting more of you in our lives.  Thank you for the contentment you bring.

Prayer for the New Year

On By Judy GlasserIn DecemberLeave a comment

Dec 16Dear Father,

You have told us what is good.

You have told us what is required of us….

to do what is right,

to love mercy,

and to walk humbly with you.

It is our prayer, as we roll very quickly into the new year,

*that your spirit will live in us more boldly. 

*that your truth will be our daily compass.

*that we will love the things that you love

*and hate the things that you hate.

Please help us walk very humbly

and very closely

with you, our God, in 2013.

Not Hot or Cold

On By Judy GlasserIn DecemberLeave a comment

John’s letter to the church in Laodicea accuses them of being  just lukewarm.

Neither hot or cold.Dec 12

And he tells them he wishes they were one or the other….not just lukewarm.

Lukewarm is comfortable.

It seems like a safe place to be, doesn’t it?

But then John goes on to tell them that they think they have everything they want but they are in fact miserable and poor and wretched and naked….

and blind.  Which is probably why they don’t realize what bad shape they are in.

Blindness.  We all have blind spots.  John is telling us that being lukewarm and ‘comfortable’ is one of those blindspots.

He challenges them to turn from their indifference.

And he challenges us today as we read this.  Where are the areas of our faith where we are lukewarm?

Dear Father, please open our eyes to our blind spots and grow our passion for you until it becomes very uncomfortable to be anywhere but in the center of your will.

It’s Proof

On By Judy GlasserIn DecemberLeave a comment

“And God has given us his Spirit as proof that we live in him and he in us.”

God has given us proof.Dec 4

We know this is true because we read it in the Bible.

And we feel his presence…

when he whispers.

when he wraps us in the shelter of his arms.

when he works things out for us and it’s better than what we had planned.

when he gives us the right words to say at just the right time.

or he helps us keep our mouth shut at just the right time 🙂

Thank you, dear Father!

Don’t Fool Yourself….

On By Judy GlasserIn November, Uncategorized1 Comment

reading the Bible and not obeying what you read will not bring God’s blessings.

That’s what James tells us at the end of his first chapter.

If we read God’s word and obey it, it will set us free and we will receive God’s blessings.

Anything less is foolishness.

He writes this sort of strange analogy about looking at your face in the mirror and then walking away only to forget what you look like.

The other day this made more sense to me.  I was finishing up getting ready for work when I looked in the mirror and saw that I didn’t have any earrings on yet.  I intended to go pick some out but then I got distracted by something else as I walked away.

When I got to work, I happened to glance at the mirror and was kind of shocked to see that I didn’t have any earrings on.  I had intended to put some on but it never happened so now I went all day without earrings.

This experience helped me relate to the mirror analogy.   When I read God’s truth in the Bible, I need to obey it and act upon it.  I can’t let other things distract me.  The best intentions in the world are worthless without action and follow-through.

If I want God’s blessings in my life, obedience comes first. 

Dear Father, please help me grow in obedience.

Most Prized Possession

On By Judy GlasserIn NovemberLeave a comment

What is your most prized possession?

For me, it would be my family, of course.   Nothing else other than my relationship with God is precious to me. 

If we were talking material items, then it would probably be my camera.  I wanted a camera like it for 25 years and finally got one.  I really like it but, if I lost it or it broke, I’d be fine.  It’s not THAT important to me.  Some of my pictures are pretty precious to me but it’s really the memories that are precious – the pictures are just reminders.

I can’t really think of anything else I own that would be a prized possession. Some Christians might say their Bible is one of theirs but I have several that I used for various reasons.  My current favorite one is a large print version 🙂

I love the scripture in James 1  where God tells us that, out of all his creation, we are his prized possessions.

Don’t you love being called a prized possession by God?  I do.

I don’t always act like his prized possession and I don’t always feel like his prized possession but his word is here to remind me that I am.  I really am.  And so are you!

So let’s walk around today with that thought slowly revolving around in our brains.  Let’s dwell on the love that God shows us as his prized possessions.  His grace…his patience…..his strength.  Let this truth permeate the air that we breathe and let this reality change our thinking today.  And tomorrow.  And each day.

Thank  you, dear Father.  For all that you are.  From one of your prized possessions.