Tag: faith

He Prospered

On By Judy GlasserIn JanuaryLeave a comment

‘The Lord was with Joseph so he prospered’.

Just like Joseph, God is with us and, at every opportunity, he blesses us and prospers us.Jan 18 2014

Sometimes it feels to me like I did all of the work so I prospered myself.  But then I’ve also had times when I’ve worked really hard and I didn’t receive any obvious ‘prospering’ from it. 

So it makes sense to me that it’s not the work itself that is prospering me – it’s the favor of the Lord – his will.

I’ve had several very clear instances recently where God clearly prospered me – just because he wanted to, not because of anything extra special that I did.  If you have been on this journey with me very long, you may remember a year or so ago when I felt that God was telling me he wanted me to go to the Holy Land.  It was very clear to me that he wanted me to go – he wants to forever change how I read and study his Word through this trip.

But I didn’t have the money for it so I asked him how I was going to pay for it.  And every time he reminded me that I was supposed to go, I reminded him – show me the money :). 

A couple of months later I won an award at work that I didn’t even know I had been nominated for.  It came with a check that was the amount of the trip (plus a tithe, of course).

Nice!  The trip has been rescheduled a couple of times and now I am less than 60 days away from going to Israel to experience all that God has planned for me!

I feel like a very rich woman when I think of my little grand-daughter  who is on her way – she’ll be here at the end of March.  I’ve wanted a grand-daughter for a very long time and I feel very prosperous in ways that don’t involve money as I think of all of the ‘girl’ fun we will have in the coming years.  She is definitely a very precious gift straight from the heart of God.

God prospered me again several weeks ago when I found out my position at work had been upgraded.  Out of the blue.  I’m doing the same thing I always do – giving it 100% and adding value.  It’s all God – he decides when the awards and promotions come.

And we prosper according to His will.

Thank you, dear God!

 

It’s Going to Be Good

On By Judy GlasserIn JanuaryLeave a comment

We mess up. We make a bad choice. We wonder down the wrong path. Someone does something nasty to us and things go south.

Isn’t it a huge relief to know that God promises to work it all for our good?

Jan 13 2014This is the theme that keeps running through my head as Jacob deceives Isaac and Esau threatens to kill Isaac who runs away to live with Laban and then spends many years involved in a mutual game of deception with Laban.

Trickery….unkept bargains…..secret plans…….hidden sins.Jan 14 2014

Then Joseph’s brothers sell him as a slave and tell their father that he’s dead.

The treachery goes on – page after page.

Yet, in each instance, God works it all out for their good as they turn back to him, time after time.

On the right path,

Off of it.

On the right path,

Off of it.

Reading this brings me peace. God was patient with  them –  he’ll will be patient with me. God was always there for them – he’ll always be there for me. They sinned and rebelled but God worked it all out for them just like he works it out for me.  And he’ll be patient and work things out for you, as well.

Because we all love him.

Thank you, dear God

He Laughed

On By Judy GlasserIn JanuaryLeave a comment

How awesome that the Bible tells us about real people and clearly shows us some of their warts and issues! It’s very clear that we have a lot in common.Jan 6 2014

When God tells Abraham that Sarah hs going to have a son, Abraham laughs. He asks how a son is going to be born of a man who is a hundred years old and his wife who is ninety?

So Abraham showed his humanity and had a moment of unbelief. It’s ok – right after this he did everything God asked him to do.

Abraham had a moment and then he got right back on track. He wasn’t perfect. He was still in training to be the Father of Nations.

He was a work in progress- just like us!

Thank you, dear God!

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.

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.