Tag: blessings

I want to be…

On By Judy GlasserIn NovemberLeave a comment

like the Samaritan Leper.

He came back to Jesus after Jesus healed him.  He came back praising God in a loud voice.  He threw himself at Jesus’ feet and thanked him.

He was one of ten lepers that Jesus healed in Luke 17 as he travelled to Jerusalem.

Jesus healed them all.

This man was the only one that came back to say thank you.

Jesus had redeemed the leper’s life from pain and death.  And the leper came back to show his gratitude for what Jesus had done for him.

Jesus did the same thing for you and me.  He redeemed our lives from pain, death and eternal separation from the only source of good things in this universe – our Father God.

For the rest of our lives here on this planet, let our first response be gratitude to God.

Dear Jesus, We are very grateful for all of the things you are and for what you have done for us.  Help us live lives full of gratitude, counting the blessings we have received from you each day.  Thank you.  In your redeeming name we pray, Amen.

The Best Exchange

On By Judy GlasserIn NovemberLeave a comment

It sounds daunting.  Nov 3 2014 the exchange

It sounds challenging.

It sounds like it’s too hard, too much.

We must deny ourselves….

– summit our will.

– decide to do what God wants instead of what we want.

It’s not natural.

Not normal.

It’s normal for us to look out for #1.

It’s natural for us to be self-centered and Captains of our own Universe.

But Jesus came and turned our universe upside down – inside out.

He tells us to deny our sovereignty over our space and submit to him in order to save our lives.

By denying ourselves and letting God reign as King of our Universe, we gain it all!

All of the important stuff.

The stuff that counts.

Forget the big houses, new cars, and money……that’s just stuff.

We’re talking about the most important things like ….

purpose for your life…

and peace…

and love….

And how about joy?

How much joy do you have in your life?

Everything good comes down from the Father of Heavenly Lights. (This is one of my favorite verses from James 1 that we’re eventually going to memorize in our Sword Fighting Class)

So we exchange our frustrating, disappointing, heart-breaking attempts to control of our life for God’s control of our life and he makes his dreams for us come true.

I love that exchange!

Don’t you?

Thank you, dear Father.

Full of Light

On By Judy GlasserIn NovemberLeave a comment

Our minds are marvelous, intricate things, created by God for our use and for his glory.

What are we feeding into our minds?October 26 2014 full of light

Because whatever we feed, will grow.

God tells us in Matthew 6 that our eyes are a lamp to our bodies.  If our eyes are healthy, our whole body will be healthy.

But, if our eyes are unhealthy, our whole body will be full of darkness.

Filled with darkness.

Do you ever feel like that?

Have you thought about what you’re feeding into your mind?

It’s hard to avoid the darkness that presses in from our culture all around us.

For some reason, God has developed in me a heightened sensitivity to the darkness around me and a clear awareness of the work that Satan and his team is doing.  As a result, I avoid most shows on TV, most movies and a lot of books.  Any music other than Christian music usually  has some lyrics that turns off the light and brings on the darkness.

We can be careful about what we feed our minds with when its our choice but we obviously can’t avoid it all as we live our lives in this world, but not of it.  God calls us to turn on the light and push back the darkness in our world as much as we can.

In order to do that, we need to be filled with his truth.  Filled with his love.  Filled with his light.

Please fill us with your light, dear Father.

 

A Healing Place

On By Judy GlasserIn October2 Comments

 

Jesus went to a pool called Bethesda and healed a man who had been an invalid for 38 years.  When the water of this pool stirred, the first person in the pool was healed.  This crippled man had no one to help him get into the water first, so he had waited…..and waited….and waited – for years.fDSC_0489

It may not be obvious on the outside, but we all have places in our hearts and minds where we need healing.  We need Jesus to touch those places and make us whole.  It may be an attitude, a lie we have believed all of our lives or a way that we think about a certain subject that needs to be healed.

I had the privilege of travelling to Israel this year and I saw the pool at Bethesda. (pictures).  There was something extremely calming and peaceful about this place.  And I knew I would be coming here in my mind for the rest of the my life when I needed healing from Jesus.

Jesus recently gave me a whole new perspective on food and what I should be eating through God’s Word to me in the Bible.  How I looked at food as it relates to what I believe about God has been incorrect my entire adult life and now I’m on the path of getting that part of my life lined up with what God wants for me.fDSC_0490

My mind has been renewed in this area.  I’ve been healed.  But I waited a long time.

Let’s not wait.  Let’s go to Jesus today and ask him for healing in our lives where we’re not in line with God’s Word.

Let’s go to the pool together.  I will help you get in. 🙂

Thank you, dear Father, for your Word to us.  We lift  up the confused, broken, rebellious parts of our hearts and minds where we need healing.  The places where we need to know the Truth.  As the Holy Spirit moves the waters of our spirit today, we step into the pool knowing it is your will to heal us.  We know that your desire for us is to continue to grow in becoming more and more like Jesus.

We commit to doing our part – reading your word, listening and obeying.  Obeying when it’s hard.  Obeying when we really, really don’t feel like it.  We will bow our knees, declare you Lord in this place in our lives, and we will obey.

For your glory, dear Father!

In the redeeming name of Jesus we pray, Amen.

Blessed….

On By Judy GlasserIn OctoberLeave a comment

are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.gdtDSC_0632

Poor in spirit – when we’ve tried everything else to make us happy, to make us whole, and we’re still empty – wondering if this is all there is. ( I’ve been there.)  So we turn to God and we find in him everything we’ve been looking for and more.  We are so very blessed!

Blessed are those who mourn for they will be comforted.gdtDSC_0626

We mourn when we come to the realization of just how sinful we are.  We become aware of how we rebel against God’s direction to us every day and our soul grieves.  It’s a very bad feeling to really understand the truth about the sin within ourselves.  We have sin so deeply rooted within us that it takes a miracle to change it.

That miracle is Jesus, our redeemer!gdtDSC_0628

We are blessed when we face the truth about our sin which grows our desire for true transformation.

Jesus went up to a mountainside to teach the crowds about the blessings available for those who believe in him and obey.  When I visited Israel earlier this year, I felt the blessings of God flowing over me when we visited the Mount of Beatitudes.  It’s very beautiful and overlooks the Sea of Galilee.

Thank you for your abundant blessings, dear Father!

The Great News!

On By Judy GlasserIn OctoberLeave a comment

It’s all in John 3:16.  We should have this verse ready whenever we’re talking with someone who doesn’t believe because this verse includes all of the important parts of the Good News.

It’s an easy verse to memorize because the words reverberate around in our minds….

bouncing back and forth as we consider this astounding truth…..

God so loved us….October 23 2014 b The good news

so much….

God so love the world!  All of us….

even the unlovable….

and that’s very good because sometimes we are very unlovable.

He gave his Son…

for us……

he gave his Son for the unlovables…..

how much love does that take?

A perfect love……

an unconditional love….

a love we can’t find anywhere else…..

even though we look everywhere….

or hit bottom trying to do it all ourselves….

until we finally we open up our eyes and realize that God is what we’re looking for.

Whoever believes….

that’s me…

I believe….

I’m willing to stake my life on this truth.

My eternal life.

And whoever believes will not perish……

we were on the road to destruction…

we were going to hell for our rebellion…..

we all rebel, some more obvious than others, but it’s there…..

whenever we do something we want instead of what God wants…..

or whenever we don’t do something God wants……

even our thoughts count…..

so we deserved eternal separation from our Holy Father God.

But God intervened and sent Jesus to save the world!

And now believers are reconciled to God for eternity!

Our eternal life with our loving, gracious and perfect God has already started!

And the Best is Yet to Be!

This is the Very Best News anyone could hear!

Thank you for the truth of John 3:16, dear Father!

 

Robbing God

On By Judy GlasserIn OctoberLeave a comment

“Test me in this.”  There is only one place in the Bible where God says this.Oct 5 Robbing God 2014

He’s talking about his directions to us to give him back a small piece of everything he has given us.

When we are faithful in tithing, God throws open the floodgates of heaven and pours out his blessings upon us.

God challenges us to test him because he always responds.

He challenges us to give back a portion because our trust in him needs to grow to the point where being faithful is more important to us than the money.  God needs to be a higher priority in our hearts than what this money could buy.

This is important for our happiness.  We won’t have the peace, contentment and joy that God wants for us until we can gladly give back a portion.

I have to admit – it took God and my husband awhile to convince me of this.  I always felt that we didn’t have enough money to tithe.  Other people who had a lot more money could tithe – but not us.  When the topic came up, I always hoped that someday we would make enough money so we could tithe.

Foolish thinking!

I have realized a very crucial truth in this area – if it’s all about having enough money, there will never be enough.

God tells us in Luke – if we’re not faithful with a little, there is no way we’ll be faithful with a lot.

God wants us to find peace and contentment with what he has already given us.  When we are faithful, he pours out the blessings that money can’t buy.

When we follow God’s directions for our lives, we are putting ourselves under the umbrella of his blessing.  If we don’t follow his directions to us in the area of money, we are holding our wallets out from under the umbrella of his blessing.  The result is that God will not bless our finances.  We will have constant money issues until we bring our wallet back under the umbrella by getting in line with God’s direction for this area of our lives.  His direction is to sacrificially tithe and to give offerings above our tithe.

Because we love God.  He’s more important than the money.

And we trust him.  God’s got this.  We can even test him.

Thank you, dear Father.

Think About It…..

On By Judy GlasserIn SeptemberLeave a comment

Consider it…..

Give it careful thought.

This is the direction given by God to the Israelites about their priorities.  They had been very busy building nice houses for themselves and they had put off rebuilding God’s temple.Sept 26 2014 Think about it

The temple continued to lay in ruins while the Israelites went about their normal lives.

They were planting a lot but only harvesting a little.

They were eating, but they were never full.

They drank, but it was never enough.

They put on clothes, but they were never warm.

They were earning money, but it immediately disappeared into a purse full of holes.

God was telling them that he was withholding his blessings from them because their priorities weren’t right.

What about us?

Is it time to re-evaluate our priorities to make sure they are matching up to God’s?

Are we experiencing all of the blessings God has for us?

* Contentment because what God has already given us is enough?

* Fulfillment because we know we are busy completing God’s purpose for our lives?

* Peace because we have given God control over our lives and we’re trusting him?

* Joy because we are experiencing the love God has for us every day?

* Strength for each day and every situation because our lives are built on our Solid Rock?

God has these blessings along with a storehouse more, just waiting for us.

We thank you for your abundant blessings, dear Father!

 

They Couldn’t Do It!

On By Judy GlasserIn SeptemberLeave a comment

They tried to find something to charge Daniel with but they couldn’t do it.  They found him to be trustworthy, without corruption or negligence.Sept 22 2014 They couldn't do it

This reminds me of the prayer Jesus prayed for us.  In the garden, he prayed for ‘those who would believe’ because of the disciple’s obedience in spreading the Good news.  That’s us! He prayed that we would live in unity with him and with each other.

Jesus prayed that the world would look at us and then be able to believe in him.  He knew we weren’t going to be perfect.  But he also knew that, after his sacrifice on the cross, we were going to be redeemed.

And there should be obvious proof of that redemption in our lives.

We have been forgiven and now we can forgive others.

Our Father God lavishes his love on us and now we can love others.

We have been richly blessed and now we can bless others.

Yes, we are redeemed!

And the people around us should be able to tell it because we forgive, we bless and we love.

Thank you, dear Jesus.

Temporary Insanity

On By Judy GlasserIn SeptemberLeave a comment

The God who created all of the universe holds it in his hand right now.  It all stays together giving us light and breath because he wants it to.

He created the gravity that keeps us walking upon this earth.  We know why the sun is just the right distance from the earth.  God made it that way so we have heat and light but we don’t become a big ball of fire.

He is a God of order and reason.  The sciences and mathematics were created by him – that’s how he works.

There are no mysteries to him – he knows it all. Sept 7 2013 Temporary insanity

And this all-powerful God wants to have a personal relationship with us.  With me.  With you.  That’s why we were created.

He wants to lavish his love on us.  He desires to give us the best this life has to offer.

So why do we rebel?  Why do we choose to do our own thing while turning away from the best the God of All Things has for us?

It must be temporary insanity.  That’s the only thing that makes any sense at all.

In the 4th chapter of Daniel, we read about King Nebuchadnezzar going temporarily insane.

But when he lifted his eyes toward heaven, his sanity was restored.

This sounds like a very wise idea.  When we’re lost in confusion, doubt or despair.  When we don’t like the place we’re at or the road we’re on.  Let’s life our eyes to God and ask him to restore our sanity.  Ask him to be our light.  He promises he will always be there for us.

Thank you, dear Father!