Category: Devotional

Washing the feet of the traitor
Blog · Christianity · Devotional · encouragement · Jesus

Washing the feet of the traitor

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Jesus washed the disciples feet. That means He also washed Judas’ feet.
How often do we feel like not only does one of our friends have a Judas complex, but also like we have been handed a bucket of hot water and a towel so we can wash their feet?
Friends can be fickle, and it is easy to feel betrayed and hurt by them, or to feel that they are just out for themselves, sound familiar? Sounds like Judas to me. We can never experience the pain of complete betrayal like Jesus ( even if it feels like we have) but dishonest, self seeking “friends” are everywhere and most people have gone through some form of frenimies pain; but Jesus still calls us to be there for them, to show them friendship and once in a while to wash their feet. Our God loves humility and what could be more humble of a task than foot washing? Can you smell the sweat ridden sandals? Can you feel the dirt of the road washing off of them and onto you? Perhaps That was Jesus’ point. He was about to wash us clean of all our sins and put them upon His own body, the same way He washed His friend’s feet and let their dirt wash onto His hands. Hands soon to be pierced by nails and hung on a tree. If Jesus could wash Judas’ feet I can wash the feet of my frenimies.

Jesus, please help us to wash the feet of those who hurt us. If for no other reason let us do it to draw closer to you. Amen

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The smell of rain
Blog · Christianity · Devotional · encouragement · Jesus

The smell of rain

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Perfect rainy days, where the wind blows and pulls on your hair like a vigorous stylist and the rain itself smells salty like the ocean as it plays Chopin on your truck windshield.
Days where adventure in palatable and your fingertips tingle as the dampness of the day plays upon your hands.
I adore days like today because I am a BC girl. Many people find tge rain depressing, but not me. God brings the rain for the plants to grow, to heal and encourage the land, He has a purpose for every drop that touches the earth just as He has a purpose for every person.
Trust in the one who knows all and tells each cloud where to place it’s bounty and calls the wind to direct the shower. There is a reason for everything including a sleepy, rainy day. So enjoy the rain as it falls, listen to it’s music and relax.

Filled with nothing but hope and love
Blog · Christianity · Devotional · encouragement · free · Jesus

Filled with nothing but hope and love

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We dont usually see empty as a good thing, but when the tomb became just an empty hole it was the most joyous day in all of Heaven and earth. When we think empty we usually think void, lacking.
The grave was void, it was void of death. It was lacking, lacking the power to hold Christ and keep Him from rising. It was empty, empty of the sorrow that death brings. It was also full. That big space of nothing was filled to the brim with hope, love, new life and the glittering remnants of the glory of God.They say that love begins at 0. Does that 0 not look like a big empty hole to you? It does to me. Love began before the cross, on the cross and in the empty tomb. Love began in a manger in a little town called Bethlehem. Love is 0, love is a big, wondrous, EMPTY tomb. Because Jesus is no longer on the cross, no longer in the grave, today He rose, soon He is coming back again.
Happy Easter

Palms laid before Him
Blog · Christianity · Devotional · encouragement · Jesus

Palms laid before Him

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Enter Jerusalem, the city streets are filled with celebrating and cheering as a humble and gentle donkey colt strides down the streets.
Palms are laid at the sweet animal’s feet and a sense of pride wells in the donkey’s heart. He is carrying Jesus, as all animals know Jesus is the king of kings, God’s one and only Son; but the donkey senses sonething, a feeling of pain in the heart of his Lord. The donkey is confused and turns his head to nuzzle the King’s foot, a gentle hand strokes the animal’s neck in response. The donkey stretches hard to see Jesus’ face. The beaming smile is a shock to the donkey because it can sense the sadness within the savior’s heart. All the gentle colt can do is continue to carry his Lord.
The animal saw both joy and sorrow and could not understand, but the joy was love for the King’s people, and the sorrow was knowledge that these people were only a breath away from condemning their King to die; but one small donkey showed his love and carried the weight of the savior as the savior carried the weight of the world.

Jesus was recorded as having great anguish as He neared Jerusalem. Anguish that simple human senses could barely begin to understand. To suffer is one thing, but to know you are about to suffer is another. If we saw the suffering that would come in our lives we as people could not handle it. Jesus knew every bit of His suffering to come and that caused Him greater pain than He would have experienced if it had all been a shock or surprise. Days of waiting are too much to bear, but He bore them for us. The false love of the people must have stung and the lies of Judas must have made His heart sick, but He suffered them all because He loves us. Oh what a love that is, who else could give such love? Who else would? Only Jesus loves us so much.

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I’ve got the blood of an innocent man all over me-Petra
Blog · Christianity · Devotional · Jesus · searching

I’ve got the blood of an innocent man all over me-Petra

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When a dramatic, violent death occurs in Anime there is often a painful scene where blood splashes across the protagonists face; it is almost if not absolutely symbolic of the horror, the suffering that is happening. The blood could go anywhere but it hits the face. Why? Because your face is your identity, and now the identity is marred with death.
We seem to avoid the blood of the cross. Oh we sing about it and we read the passage about it, but we like to skip ahead and get to the resurrection. The bright, clean, pure resurrection. We act as if that is the most important part of the story. I can’t help but wonder if it is the crown of thorns, the lashing, the pain, sorrow, blood and tears that are the most important parts.
We drink the blood at communion but that sweet juice does not reflect the warm, thick, salty tang of real blood. If you feel sick I don’t blame you, that is how you would feel if you drank blood.
The cross was not pretty, not clean, not all put together. It was messy, dirty, smelly and horror to the first degree.
Many were crucified but only one was whipped until nearly dead, forced to carry a cross, nailed to that cross and filled with the disgust of the worlds sins.
Even though three days later He rose, we must never forget the crown of thorns which He chose to wear and the wooden throne which read ‘king of the Jews’.

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Music transcends language
Blog · Christianity · Devotional · Jesus

Music transcends language

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One of my favorite songs is completely in Japanese. Eventually I saw the subtitles and could relate also to the words, but even without the words, the music touched my heart. I cannot help but wonder if that is why worship is so important. Music touches us, moves us, changes us. I have heard of missionaries going to non English speaking countries, having church and having people break down in worship to words that they don’t understand because they understand the passion of the Spirit. The Holy Spirit moves in music, I have seen it and felt it and it is amazing! When the Holy Spirit moves your worship then you are truly touching Heaven.

No matter the squalls
Blog · Christianity · Devotional · dreams do come true · encouragement · Jesus

No matter the squalls

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When chasing a dream it is too easy to think the whole thing will be Cinderella. You are working hard under a horrible task master but you keep dreaming, and then one day all your wishes upon stars come true and it’s life in the palace from here on out. That’s a nice story but not a reality. Real dreams don’t just come up to you, take you by the hand and off you go together; you have to work for them. Take heart because the harder you work for a dream the sweeter it is when the dream comes to pass. However, while working I know it is all too easy to hit the ‘I hope this is worth it’ button. Because the minuet you start doubting your goal and start wondering if it’s realistic you easily start feeling like you are putting too much into it. You may even wonder if this is God’s will at all.
I once heard an evangelist say…’if God is putting something on your heart, something you long for and can’t let go of, be prepared, because He is setting you up for it to happen.’
Pray about your doubts because your longing dream may very well be God preparing you for what He has planned for your life. And don’t let go of the helm no matter the squalls that arise, because the light coming off you once you succeed will be the light of Heaven as God cheers you on.

Chaos
Blog · Christianity · Devotional · encouragement · Jesus · searching

Chaos

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Out of the chaos come the best stories.
Think about the greats. Tolkien, Lewis, Dickens, Vern, Stevenson, so on. The main theme of most of their stories is chaos. War, poverty, destruction, and the aftermath of all of the above. And out of these horrors come stories that touch people’s hearts. Stories that soon become legends in their own right; stories that guide you down a path laden with dark, crumbling caverns and forests only to emerge at the entrance to magnificent palaces and lands filled with magic and faeries.
Most stories have at least a moment of chaos that leads the protagonist to the right place at the right time so they can be there when the world needs them, or at least when the author needs them.
If we allow God to lead us through the chaos times in our lives we will find ourselves in the right place, at the right time when the author of the world needs us. And we will find after all the struggles that the grand palace and the land of magic was worth every dark, crumbling cavern we had to climb through; because God knows the end of the last chapter and He is guiding us on the best path to reach the apex of our lives where we will stand undefeated and look behind us to see the gentle, powerful hand that was leading us all along.

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Enough light?
Blog · Christianity · Devotional · encouragement · Jesus · searching

Enough light?

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Stormie Omartan wrote a book titled ‘just enough light for the step I’m on.’
The book itself I have not yet read, but the title has clung in my mind.
How often do we go through times like that? Days when we feel like we only have the dull beam of a dying flashlight guiding us, just enough light to see directly in front of us and that is it. We may even feel like that has been our whole lives, just enough, never more, never less. The point of the very dark and invisible path ahead is Faith. Would we need an all knowing God if we were all knowing ourselves? God could have given us a complete outline of what our lives would be but He knew that if we knew all we would go through we couldn’t handle it. Our free will also comes into play here. If God had given us an exact road map the decisions we made ( good or bad) would not have happened because they were not part of our map.
We have only enough light so we step out trusting in God, and even when we fall He catches us and lets us learn from our mistakes.
We would not be people, with thought and choice, if we had an exact path. Yes God has a path for all of us and a destiny and an end result, but a lot of what gets us where we are going is our decisions. It may be a hard road or an easy road depending on our choices. Sometimes we may even not end up where God plans for us to be because our decisions lead us elsewhere, but He allows us to be real and to make our choices without dictation. Jesus directs us. Not controls us, directs. He lets us choose where we will go but He still guides us to keep us safe.
We have just enough light to see the path and to somewhat make out where each path may go when we reach a crossroads.
Walking a dim path with Jesus is the same as if we were walking in brilliant, full sunshine.
Walking a dim path without Jesus is simply a good way to get lost.

Still a slave
Blog · Christianity · Devotional · encouragement · free · Jesus · searching

Still a slave

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They say we are all prisoners of this world, but when we become Christians we are not; only through Christ are we free from this world so why do we refuse our freedom.

We are like slaves who get so used to their masters that they can’t leave them. This world abuses us, neglects us, starves us, beats us and yet we are so used to it that we refuse to be free from it.
Jesus is right there saying ‘follow me and I will show you how to be free.’ And yet we are sitting back, clinging to this familiar world, refusing to budge because freedom scares us. As soldiers say, true freedom you have to work for and fight for. We are constantly having to fight against the slave master of this world because he knows we are afraid and he knows it’s easy to seduce us into a sense of complacency where we fall into his clutches. But Jesus is stronger than the evil and He is fighting on our side.
No matter how long it takes no matter how hard we fight against Him Jesus will always be there with a nail scarred hand stretched out toward us, pulling us out of our prison and showing us the way of the free.
‘My chains are gone, I’ve been set free. My God, my savior has ransomed me and like a flood his mercy rains. Unending love, amazing grace.’-Casting Crowns