Every time I look at the faces of my grandchildren who start smiling when they are still super teeny, I am reminded,
God is good.
My husband, Dave, and I are celebrating 43 years of marriage in two weeks and I am reminded,
God is good.
My calendar is filled with good times and special moments with people I love and I am reminded,
God is good.
I am completely confident in this truth –
My God is good.
During the dedication of the Lord’s Temple in 1 Kings, we read that “The trumpeters and musicians joined in unison to give praise and thanks to the Lord. Accompanied by trumpets, cymbals and other instruments, the singers raised their voices in praise to the Lord and sang:
“He is good; his love endures forever.” 2 Chron. 5:13.
I smile when I think about how my voice saying “God is good” joins with an enormous crowd of people who have praised and loved God down through the ages. When I say these words, I am joining with all believers through all of history. I hear the angels praising God with us, filling the heavens with gratitude through all eternity.
These words were true back when King Solomon built the temple and they remain true today. When I became absolutely convinced that God is good, peace filled my soul The truth is, no matter how bad or crazy or painful things in my life or in your life look or feel, God is good. Our circumstances do not change this fact.
I know you will never let me down. Everyone who trusts knows how faithful you are. Those who don’t trust in you pay the consequences.
Help me know you better, dear God. Direct my steps and guide me into a deeper understanding of your truth. Teach me, Father. All of my hope is in you, God, my Savior.
You have been merciful and loving since the beginning of time. I have confessed my sins and I know you have forgiven me because my guilt has disappeared.
You love overwhelms me. You are so good, LORD.
I feel you walking beside me as I go through my day, God. When I listen, you teach me what is right. You are loving and faithful to those of us who have put our trust in you.
Your grace covers all of my sin and rebellion.
In response to my respect and honor for you, you help me make the right choices in my life. You give me good things and bless my children.
I need to hear your voice, Father. Speak to me – I need you each day.
When my eyes are fixed on you, God, you help me avoid the danger and pitfalls that come my way. I turn to you when I am alone and sad – you take away my worries and stress. When the trials and problems of this world press in all around me, you are always beside me – loving me and giving me strength.
You are my Rock and Refuge, Father. Guard my life and rescue me. I trust in you alone.
I pray that all people everywhere will experience your mercy and strength, God.
It’s time to tell you something that is a really big deal to me…..
but I couldn’t talk about it.
If you have been following my blogs, you know that I’m not sentimental about very many things but I am sentimentally attached to my wedding ring. My husband and I are in our 43rd year of marriage and I think right around year 15 we switched out my teeny, tiny, cheap wedding ring that was all we could afford since we got married when we were still going to college. We bought a nice ring – I described it as exchanging my ‘chip’ for a ‘carrot”. Then we started a tradition of every 5 years growing the ‘carrots’ or adding additional small rings. My ring became a symbol to me of all the blessings and hard work involved when you stay married over many decades.
Our 35th wedding anniversary was 4 days after my son, David Glasser, who was a Phoenix Police Officer, was killed in the line of duty. Obviously, there was barely a mention of our anniversary. After the dust settled and we could take a breath, we went and added a bunch of small blue sapphires to my ring – a way to always remember Davey. That was when my ring became the only jewelry I regularly wear other than my blue memorial bracelet with Davey’s name on it.
It was also when my ring took on a higher level of importance to me.
If you’ve been following me, you also know I regularly take my ring to a major jewelry store to be cleaned and checked because they insure the stones if one of them should fall out. Three years ago I took it in and a stone was loose so they sent it in to be fixed.
A couple of days after dropping it off, I received a call telling me the ring – along with a whole box of other’s people’s jewelry – was stolen. I couldn’t believe it! I never take the ring off except at night and there is only one place it goes when I take it off. I never take it off because I don’t want to lose it. The manager of the jewelry store cried with me on the phone and then told me they would replace it. I was surprised what a good job they did of replacing it – it looked like my old one and they actually added some value to it. It didn’t make up for not being ‘my ring’ but there was nothing else to be done.
The new part of this story starts last November when we were in Phoenix mainly to spend time with our grandchildren who live there – Davey’s two children. The last day we were there, I woke up, got dressed and reached for my ring in the ring box I always put it in at night when I travel.
It wasn’t there!
I immediately knew I was in big trouble because I had absolutely no where else I could look. No where I would put it. There is no scenario that makes sense in figuring out why it wasn’t in that box.
We were staying in an Airbnb and I spent several hours that day looking everywhere for my ring. I spent most of that time in the area around the night table next my bed where my ring box was because that is the only place I took it off. I spent a lot of time facedown on the floor with a flashlight hoping to see a sparkle show up somewhere.
Nothing. So we went home. I let the owners of the place know I had lost it in case they found it. They contacted me a day later saying they looked everywhere and couldn’t find it. I continued having the feeling that the ring wasn’t gone so I looked through all of my bags and suitcases – every pocket, every corner – several times. Nothing.
I also discovered that the loss of my ring was not covered under my home owners insurance unless I had a special rider. I’m sharing that information in case you didn’t know it.
So I got out my mother’s wedding ring and just told myself I was fine – I would wear her ring for the rest of my life. It’s a great ring. But I wanted my ring. I found out I couldn’t talk about – it was just too much. The last of my three older brothers had just passed away, leaving me the only one of my immediate family left. I lost my mother and father, all three of my older brothers, and I had lost my son. Losing my ring took me over the edge and I felt I had hit the place where I had lost way too much, I couldn’t talk about.
The only person I talked to about it was God – and I talked to him often. Whenever I was upset about my ring, I would tell God, ” I know you know where my ring is, and I want you to give it back to me.” When I was in a better mood, I would ask him to give it back to me and I would add a ‘please”. I continued to do this for months.
Then, last month in March, we went back to Phoenix to spend time with our grand children and friends. We stayed at the same Airbnb and I felt that my ring was there, it was not gone. So I continued to look for it all over including getting facedown on the floor with a flashlight by my nightstand which was the only place I would have taken it off. Nothing.
We came home to Denver and started unpacking. Right before we left our Airbnb, I saw a pair of socks on the floor in front of my nightstand and I grabbed them. I had used these every day as my ‘travel slippers’. I stuck them in a side pocket of my backpack – a pocket I never usually used.
While unpacking, I grabbed the socks out of the side pocket and threw them in the clothes hamper. I noticed something else was in the pocket so I looked – and there was my ring!!
Unbelievable!
I yelled to my husband who was in the bathroom- “Guess what I just found!” He could tell it was a big deal so he said, “Your ring!” Yep – there it was, in this side pocket of my backpack in one of those open, netted pockets that you put a bottle of water in.
How did it get in there?
I can tell you some of the waysit didn’t get in there –
I know for certain it wasn’t in that pocket when we got home from Phoenix in November. I looked in every corner and pocket of every bag, suitcase, backpack, several times – including that pocket.
I know for certain it wasn’t in those socks. I wore them every day and they were sitting right where I was laying facedown on the floor several times that week with a flashlight looking for my ring.
I have decided I will probably never know how my ring got in that pocket. I will never know where it was for 4 months.
I have no idea how I lost it, but I definitely know Who gave it back to me.
Hear my prayers, Father, and show me your compassion. I will hide myself in your shadow until my fears and worries go away.
I ask that you fulfill your purposes for my life. I know the angels of heaven are fighting my battles and they will give me victory.
Your love and faithfulness never leave me, Father.
I am surrounded by the evil one who is trying to take pieces of me and devour me.
But I still praise you, God. May your glorious light shine over all the earth.
My enemy sets traps for me – especially when I am weary and distressed. The evil one digs deep pits in my path but then he falls into them himself.
I am confident in you, oh God. My heart sings your praises. I awake every morning with a song of praise to you. Thank you for your love and faithfulness which has no end.
I praise you, Father. May your glorious light shine over all the earth.
Situations where I wish I had a second chance – a redo. When my heart is aching with regret and my head is rolling with things I shouldn’t have said or things I should have done but didn’t do, I wish I could go back.
If I had the chance to do it over, I would do it so differently! Can I get a second chance?
What about you? What’s on your list of should haves, could haves, would haves?
With people, there is never a 100% redo. The deeds are done, the words have been said. Forgiveness is possible but wiping out the memory is not. The regrets can pile up. Baggage from the past weighs us down as we drag it into our future.
One of the many things I love about God is that he can redeem these situations. He can and he does make something good come out of them. He teaches me to grow through these times – helping me mature as he molds my character and thinking. When I ask for wisdom, he always gives it to me which helps me avoid situations where I need redo’s.
As I read Rahab’s story in Joshua 2, I can visualize this huge headline on it –
God’s Power of Redemption.
Rahab was a prostitute in Jericho when she met the two spies Joshua had sent into the city to check it out before the Israelites attacked. Rahab made the courageous decision to put her life on the line for the spies when she hid them from the men the King sent to kill them. She lied to the king’s men telling them the spies had gone out of the city so the kings men quickly went in pursuit just as the city gates closed for the night.
This all could have gone quickly bad for Rahab! Reading this, I know God protected her.
Meanwhile, the spies were safely hidden on the roof of Rahab’s house. Rahab knew the Israelites were going to attack – everyone knew it and were very afraid. When she begged the spies to save her family, they agreed because she had risked her life to save them. Then Rahab helped the spies escape out of the city and sent them on a different direction from the men who were looking for them.
Later, we will read that Rahab and her family were the only survivors of the attack on Jericho.
It’s obvious that God saved Rahab for a purpose. He had bigger plans for her. After God gave her a second chance, she totally changed her direction – she married, had children and became part of the lineage of Christ. A reformed prostitute was the great, great, too many greats to count, grandmother of Jesus, God’s son, who came to save the entire world.
God is extremely serious about his redemption business. He can redeem anyone.
Rahab’s story was obviously shared down through the generations as a popular redemption story because she shows up in the New Testament, “was not even Rahab the prostitute considered righteous when she gave lodging to the spies and sent them off in a different direction.” James 2:25.
A prostitute – used as an example of a righteous woman, related to Jesus. Only God has that kind of love and power.
God is still redeeming your life and my life today. I don’t have to be stuck in my failures and rebellion of yesterday. By putting my faith in what Jesus did for me on the cross, all of that has been forgiven. I don’t have to be weighed down by the mistakes I’m making today – those have also been forgiven. I don’t have to be worried or afraid about the things I might mess up in the future because all of it has already been forgiven.
Today I live in grace provided by Jesus, unconditionally loved by my heavenly Father. I am free.
Before Moses died, God told him, “Go up into the Abarim Range to Mount Nebo in Moab, across from Jericho, and view Canaan, the land I am giving the Israelites as their own possession. There on the mountain you have climbed you will die and be gathered to your people, just as your brother Aaron died on Mount Hor and was gathered to his people.” Deut. 32: 48-49.
I like that. It makes great sense when someone is a believer. Moses’ people were in heaven. His Father was in heaven. And his Savior was in heaven.
This makes me ask the question – where are my people?
God has blessed me by giving me a family with a very long lineage of Christ-followers. Many generations of my people are in heaven. My son who was a Phoenix Police Officer killed in the line of duty is already in heaven.
The people I identify with here on earth are also Christ-followers. These are my people. They will be with me when I am gathered to my Father – when I am gathered to my people.
I’m thinking about starting to use this phrase with believers instead of ‘died’ or ‘passed away’. Some people wouldn’t get it but that’s ok – some people don’t get a lot of things.
How about you? Are your people in heaven? Is your Savior in Heaven? If so, then he has prepared a place for you.
Will you be with me when all believers are gathered to our Father in Heaven?
I hope and pray that you will.
On the day you have already determined, I will be there, Abba Father.
You and I regularly witness this proof that God is still keeping the promise he made over 4000 years ago.
God said to Noah, “This is the sign of the covenant I am making between me and you and every living creature with you, a covenant for all generations to come: I have set my rainbow in the clouds and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth. Whenever I bring clouds over the earth and the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will remember my covenant between me and you and all the living creatures of every kind. Never again with the waters become a flood to destroy all life. Whenever the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and all living creatures of every kind on the earth.” Genesis 9: 12 – 16.
We love looking up into the sky to see these gorgeous colors. I enjoy seeing all the pictures of rainbows posted on social media. Somebody told me recently they bought their house because, when they have a rainbow in their area, it often ends in their backyard. Their literal pot of gold.
I live in Colorado and it’s not unusual to see double rainbows here. I’ve seen so many, I had to look up information on how that happens. Google says it doesn’t happen very often but that’s not true in Colorado. God appears to be making it extra clear to those of us who live here that he keeps his promises.
When we look up into the sky to see all of the beauty and light in rainbows, we should automatically thank our Father God for his faithfulness. He loves us and he keeps his promises. He regularly gives us these giant, wonderful reminders so we never forget.
This will be my 14th consecutive year of reading through the entire Bible. I’m anticipating many great mornings of hearing God’s voice as he speaks to me through his Word.
It’s also fun knowing that there is a group of over a dozen of you who are reading the Bible every year with me. After each of us did it the first year, we realized that we couldn’t imagine not doing it every year. It’s a spiritual discipline that feeds our souls all year long. If you haven’t read the entire Bible before, this would be a great year to start. I read the Daily Bible arranged chronologically by F LaGard Smith.
One of my favorite things about reading the entire Bible is I get a good understanding of God’s overall message on important topics. Like God’s love – reading the Old Testament and then the New Testament gives me a knowledge of God’s love that I’m not going to get reading a verse here or a chapter there.
I am also hooked on reading the Chronological Bible for several other reasons – here are a few:
The Old Testament prophets are placed in the story with the king they talked to and in the correct time in history.
One of my favorite reasons – the psalms David wrote are placed in his story when he wrote them. So I read the psalms David wrote while he was hiding from Saul in the cave when David is actually hiding in the cave.
The several different and extremely detailed accounts concerning the tabernacle and the temple are combined into one reading on each. As a result, what I read makes much more sense to me. All of the laws are combined into one reading instead of repeated in various places. I used to skip over all of these sections because they were too repetitive and uninteresting. Now I actually enjoy reading them because I’m only reading them once.
The New Testament gospels are combined so it doesn’t feel like I’m reading the same story 4 times. It’s interesting to see the differences in perspectives.
The Chronological Bible is not good for in-depth Bible study but it’s great for reading and getting the big picture.
Once again, I start reading this first day of 2024…..
knowing God will open my eyes to more truth this year and he will focus my eyes on truth I already know but need to be reminded of.
I see it in the gorgeous sunrise as God once again declares his faithfulness to me with the start of a new day. I feel it in my 3 1/2 year-old grandson’s hug. I see it in the smiles of my friends. I feel it in the ‘love you’ from my husband of over 42 years.
It’s the great love God has lavished upon me.
God tells me that I am a precious child and he proves that by showing his love for me in a multitude of ways, every day.
“See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called the children of God.” 1 John 3:1a
It’s very encouraging to realize that the closer I get to God, the more of his love I feel pouring out over me. As I’ve been consistently memorizing God’s scripture these last 8 years, I also feel his wisdom pouring out from his Word. More knowledge. More understanding.
I am his child! How much more love and wisdom and knowledge and understanding does he have available for me?
There is no limit!
As 2024 quickly approaches, I am looking forward to seeing what God has planned for this next year. New challenges. More love.
“For this reason I kneel before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and earth derives its name.” vs 14.
You are awesome, Father.
“I pray that out of his glorious riches he will strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being,.. ” vs 16.
Please give us your strength, Father.
“so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith.” vs 17.
Make your home in our hearts, Jesus, and teach us how to trust you more.
“And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with the Lord’s holy people to grasp how wide, and long and deep is the love of Christ…” vs 18.
Grow our roots deep in your awesome love, Jesus.
“and to know this love that surpasses knowledge – that you may be filled to the measure of the fullness of God.” vs 19
Please help us feel and understand the perfect love you pour out on us each day. Only you can make us complete, Abba. The power to live a full life comes from you.
“Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us,…” vs 20.
We believe, Father, that you can do anything – things beyond what we can imagine – and that you want to accomplish your plans through us. We are your hands and feet here on earth.
“to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.” vs 20.
Come with me on a Journey through the Bible 