Category: encouragement

Lent day 1
Christianity · CS Lewis · dreams do come true · encouragement · Jesus · lent · Love · power of God · searching · still fighting · The Bible · True Joy

Lent day 1

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Be not cast down

“But do not be cast down.” Said Aslan, “evil will come of that evil, but I will see that the worst of it falls upon myself.” -The Magician’s nephew.
I don’t really need to say it. Maybe all that needs to be done is to change one word here:
Jesus
“But do not be cast down.” Said Aslan, “evil will come of that evil, but I will see that the worst of it falls upon myself.”

(Don’t forget that CS Lewis himself claimed Aslan as a reflection of Jesus, so every moment with the lion has a great meaning.)
Evil came. People weren’t created evil, we were created in the image of God. Yet evil was here. Long before there were any people anywhere, jealousy grew in the heart of one of God’s angels, and evil crawled it’s way into existance. Yet God saw all this coming, why didn’t He stop it? I have no idea. Some may theorize about it, but I am not so bold, I try not to touch what I don’t understand lest I confuse someone else also. But God saw this evil coming and Jesus knew He was going to bear the worst of it Himself in order to save us. The crazy part is that God would want to save us! He could just make new people, start everything from scratch, yet He already loved us. He still loves us, and it breaks His heart when we fall away, because He loves us so much that He sacrificed His most precious treasure to save us. We mean so much to Him that it’s hard to believe, yet it’s true.
As We Begin Lent let us remember why we have the freedom to Lent, a reason to Lent, and why lent begins and ends. It begins in Jerusalem, it climaxes at the cross, and it ends at an empty tomb.

Keeping up appearances.Revelation 2:12-17God was with the church of Purgamum and blessed them, but they sinned against Him so He turned His hand against them. Do we care too much about our church’s appearances? Many churches do. In Purgamum the church wanted to appear as the rest of the city appeared, so it conformed to the city’s evil ways, in doing so the church lost God’s favour and was punished. There are certain characteristics that a church should have, such as following the bible and behaving as Jesus did, being welcoming and kind to others and ministering to the community. But to change to better please the outside world can strip the church of her Christianity and cause her to lose God’s blessing. What’s that scripture? Be not conformed to this world. We are not to indulge in the sins of the world around us, we are to, what? Be transformed by the renewing of our spirits. We can love the people of this world and show them the devotion of Jesus without becoming like them. It’s hard, but Jesus commends those who are faithful in their service without becoming stained by sin. Jesus served and saved people all over the place during His time on earth. Never once did He start sinning like those He was there to save. We may feel we need to add some of the ways of these people into our lives to better witness to them, and though the intention is on the right track the thinking is not exactly correct. We can’t sin to make sinners stop sinning, trying to just makes a sinner out of us and then the devil wins another one. So let us pray that God shows us how to help this world without becoming a part of it.
Christianity · Devotional · encouragement · free · guidance · holy spirit · Jesus · power of God · searching

Keeping up appearances.Revelation 2:12-17God was with the church of Purgamum and blessed them, but they sinned against Him so He turned His hand against them. Do we care too much about our church’s appearances? Many churches do. In Purgamum the church wanted to appear as the rest of the city appeared, so it conformed to the city’s evil ways, in doing so the church lost God’s favour and was punished. There are certain characteristics that a church should have, such as following the bible and behaving as Jesus did, being welcoming and kind to others and ministering to the community. But to change to better please the outside world can strip the church of her Christianity and cause her to lose God’s blessing. What’s that scripture? Be not conformed to this world. We are not to indulge in the sins of the world around us, we are to, what? Be transformed by the renewing of our spirits. We can love the people of this world and show them the devotion of Jesus without becoming like them. It’s hard, but Jesus commends those who are faithful in their service without becoming stained by sin. Jesus served and saved people all over the place during His time on earth. Never once did He start sinning like those He was there to save. We may feel we need to add some of the ways of these people into our lives to better witness to them, and though the intention is on the right track the thinking is not exactly correct. We can’t sin to make sinners stop sinning, trying to just makes a sinner out of us and then the devil wins another one. So let us pray that God shows us how to help this world without becoming a part of it.

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Do you know Him?
Christianity · CS Lewis · Devotional · dreams do come true · encouragement · free · guidance · Jesus · Love · power of God · searching

Do you know Him?

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“It is well. You know me better than you think you know. And you will live to know me better yet.” -The magician’s nephew


Aslan chose the cabby, the humble man of low means and education, to be his first king of Narnia. The Cabby was the only one who had shown a knowledge of someone greater than he guiding things. In the dark and lost feeling of the world not yet born, the Cabby chose to sing a hymn, and in the midst of them up sprung a deep song of no words; Aslan was singing the world into place. The Cabby didn’t feel he deserved to be anything great in the presence of the Lion. Yet when he saw him he knew him. He had always known him. In a different land, by another name, and never yet in person. And here he stood, and he knew the Cabby too. Because when he couldn’t walk by sight, he walked by faith. He grew to be friends with Lewis’s Christ figure in a world where he never saw or heard him, he simply believed.
We can’t see Jesus and rarely do we hear Him as though He were physically standing next to us, but if we choose to seek after His heart and try to know Him in this world, as the lion says, “we will live to know Him better.” So when we stand before Jesus He will say, “I have known you long, do you know me?”
And trembling, we can reply, “no Sir, least of all, not in a regular manner of speaking. Yet I feel somehow, if I may make so free, as how we’ve met before.”

Starving
Christianity · Devotional · encouragement · Love · Prayer · searching · The Bible

Starving

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Starving

Have you ever been so hungry you felt like you were starving? I’ve seen animals get to the place where they eat plastic containers, because they once held food and still smelled like something you could eat. That’s starving. Our guest speaker last Sunday spoke on hunger. She asked: Are we hungry for God? Good question. We look around and see a world that is so hungry for God, but they don’t realize it, so they settle for anything that seems like it might satisfy that knotting and aching. Yet all they are eating is plastic that smells like food, it’ not real food. The only satisfaction for our pangs of hunger, is God. It may sound like a cliche, but reading your Bible and praying is truly the only way to satisfy the need. As the English say, we need to strap on the ole’ feed bag. We pick and nibble at God’s word and prayer, but do we get so into being with Him that we are willing to strap ourselves to Him? Do we set aside time and dedicate to reading the Bible and praying? Or do we just treat the filling of our hunger like a child with a bag of snacks, picking out some of what we like and then hiding the rest under the couch so we don’t have to eat it?
We are in a starving world, yet we don’t reach out and take from the only one who can satisfy us. His hand is open and ready to give to us, yet we play shy. Like my horse last night. I brought him out extra oats. But did he come and take them from me? Of course not. He tossed his head around and acted like I had nothing to offer him. Why? Because he was being a brat, he did take his feed eventually because he did want it, but he had to pretend like he didn’t, just for the sake of it. We know God has what we need, yet we refuse to take it from Him, we shake our heads and act like He has nothing to offer. The difference between God offering to us and us offering to someone, is that eventually we will give up and move on, but God will keep reaching out no matter how many times you reject him. I am so grateful for that character in him. So? As our guest speaker asked last week, are you hungry?

Palms laid before him
Devotional · encouragement · guidance · Jesus · lent · The Bible

Palms laid before him

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Lent devotional 35

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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Let your stones fly
Christianity · Devotional · dreams do come true · encouragement · free · Jesus · lent

Let your stones fly

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Lent devotional 30

Do not let your giant’s shadow block out the light from the Son- He is there and He knows you and He wants you!

Ah the giants. We see them, hear them and manifest them in our own minds. They are big, ugly and can proliferate into thousands of clones that kill all the good around them. Where do our giants come from? They come from a dark section of your mind that fills you fear and nausea until you can’t think. That section could be caused by what you see in the world around you, or by a life circumstance that has you afraid, it could be because of a lack of faith that God can take care of things, or by lies that you have been told that bang around inside your mind and make you doubt who you are or where you’re at or the goodness of God. But He is good. Your giant may look like a huge oozing mass of all your fears staring down on you ready to destroy you, but God has given you armor. You are protected by His Spirit, by His Salvation, by His Faith, by His Righteousness, by His Truth, by His Readiness. He fills you, He enters your heart and mind and fights for you. Your Goliath cannot defeat you if your eyes and mind are fixed on Jesus. He is there taking care of you. Have Faith in Him and courage because of Him. Don’t let your giant win, no matter how big he may seem, your God is bigger.

Finding Jesus
Christianity · encouragement · free · Jesus · Love · Prayer · searching · The Bible

Finding Jesus

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Where is Jesus?

His knees ached as he prayed, he swung back and forth in agony as his soul searched for something, anything. Around him others prayed to their gods and the pain was clear in their mumbled as they searched for the same thing. A woman was kneeling beside him, a book clasped in her hands as she prayed silently, a dim smile spread across her face. He leaned over to her. ‘What god do you pray to?’
She whispered back, ‘I pray to Jesus.’
‘Oh, what is Jesus the god of?’
The woman thought a moment, ‘well, He’s the God of everything. There isn’t anything that He isn’t God over.’
‘Really? Who is He?’
‘He’s the one who died for you. He came to earth from Heaven and was sacrificed for our sins. Then He rose again and took deminion over death. Now we who love Him can join Him in Heaven.’
‘Interesting. How did you get to know Him?’
She began to answer but a rod came down with a crack between them, ‘no talking!’ The guard bellowed, ‘just do your worship and leave.’
The woman went back to her praying, the book clutched against her heart. The man looked around him, some people beat their heads and chests in anguish, some had knives and drew blood from their palms, some merely mumbled to themselves the same things the man had heard them say every time they had come, he looked at the statue of the god he was praying to, it seemed so indiferent to him to his needs, it never died for him, it didn’t care about him. Then he glanced at the woman again, she was smiling, then she laughed softly, she cried but it seemed like a happy cry. He glanced at the guard, the person had moved on. He leaned forward, ‘how do I contact her god? Do I need a sacrifice? She seems to have just come here. He whispered again to the woman.
‘How do I get to know your God?’
She grinned, ‘just talk to Him. Call Him by His name, Jesus, God, even Father.’
‘That’s it?’
She nodded. He began to pray, ‘um…Jesus. Are you there?’ Suddenly a wave sweapt over him. Peace. Fear of the power that surrounded him seized his soul, but the peace chased it away. Then he began to cry as another wave hit him. Love. It was sufficating and beautiful.
The guard rang the bell that said free time to worship was over. The man got up and saw the guard take the book from the woman as he collected all the religious items from the worshipers. He saw her stop herself from reaching after the book. She left. He left. But the feeling of her God didn’t leave him. It followed him as he went to his house. On the road he saw the woman again, he rushed over to her and she startled back from him.
‘Don’t be afraid. But I have to know. Why does it feel like your God is following me?’
She smirked, almost laughed and then said gently, ‘because He loves you.’
‘Me?’
‘Yes. He wants you and is with you wherever you go. I don’t have to attend the worship hour in the chamber to be near my God, He is always with me, I go because they keep the Bibles and I love holding His book in my hands.’
The man didn’t know what to say, the woman suddenly whispered, ‘guards coming.’ And dissapeared.
The man returned to his home, sat on his bed and said ‘Jesus. Are you here?’ The peace and love swept over him again and he decided that day that he would aim to get a Bible too during the allotted worship hour, then he could learn more about this God who clearly loved him. Now when he prayed he knew someone was listening and cared about what he had to say, now when he cried he knew someone was there to comfort him. Now he was loved. And had purpose, if that purpose was simply to worship the god called Jesus.
He never saw the woman again, but as he learned about Jesus and gave his life to Him he knew that some day he would meet the woman again in Heaven, and then he would thank her.

Bringing in the lions
Christianity · Devotional · encouragement · free · guidance · Jesus

Bringing in the lions

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You may look foolish, silly, naive or even crazy at times, but your Faith in God will never leave you void. Today I was reminded of Perpetua. Beautiful woman who found Jesus through her slaves and was arrested, beaten, tortured and killed, yet she refused to deny her Jesus. Jesus sent her dreams to comfort her, He stood beside her in the Coliseum and she felt no pain as the cow gourd her until finally the Pro councel was bored and had her cut down with a sword. Moments before she stood cleaning her face, so the record says, because she refused to go to Jesus looking as though she were sad.
To have that Faith.
We have been attacked as Christians here in North America, we have been harrassed, insulted, made to look like lunitics or worse, like some sort of cult that lures people in. Why? A young Korean boy named Ching once asked the same thing. Why if our government is so powerful and we are so happy do we fear a little book about God? Why? Because evil runs from God and attacks things that represent His power. Any one not of God is controlled by the devil, so these people fear Christians and want to make us look like the enemy.
We don’t like to think that people who don’t follow Christ are following the devil, we like to imagine that there’s an in-between, a gray Zone, but there isn’t. There is no middle world where you’re not Christian but you’re not following the devil either, we like to believe there is, even some Christians like to claim that there is, but there isn’t, and I am sorry because that is so sad to think about.
When we are persecuted, do we give in? Do we fall to the fads? Do we bow to Caesar? Do we stand and tremble before man or do we tremble before God and refuse to deny Him as He is? When brought before the lions do we curse God and flee from Him or do we stand and say “I go to my Jesus with my head held high, broken in body and mind but unyielding in spirit”?
Where will you stand when the lines are drawn? But for me and my house, we stand with the living God.

Counting on you
Christianity · Devotional · dreams do come true · encouragement · free · guidance · Jesus · Love · power of God · Prayer · searching · still fighting · The Bible · True Joy

Counting on you

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Counting on you

We as Christians count on God for so much. We count on Him to be good to us, to forgive us, to love us, to heal us, to help us. But can God count on us for…well…anything?
We don’t think about God counting on us. In fact, we don’t really think that God needs us, do we? We realize that He is God and He can make His plan work no matter what we do or don’t do. But that’s not the point. God doesn’t rely on us, He doesn’t have to, but He does count on us. He counts on us to do His will, to obey His commands, to care for our fellow Christians, to show His love to the lost and broken, He may even have appointed you a position in which you can do these things. He counts on us doing our part. If we never step out our front door, if we never take the chance, if we squelch the voice of God inside of us, aren’t we letting God down. We like to dance around the circle of ‘it’s a partnership, God and I are working together,’ because it makes us think that God is helping us in fulfilling our goals and our dreams, and that is what the outer ring of the circle sometimes looks like- but what about the inner circle, the inner Sanctum if you like, that’s where God is, the place where it’s not our will but His. The place where the fire burns so hot that it hurts sometimes, the place of surrender, are any of us willing to enter that circle? Or do we prefer the edge where it’s safe?
Can God count on us?
Can God say, “I can always count on Lauren to do the right thing?” Or I can always count on Larry, or Lynne, or Tanya, or Carole, or Mark, or Matthew, or whatever your name is, fill in the blank, can God say “him or her, I can always count on”?
I hope so. I hope that we all aim to live within the fire, near the heart of God, so He can count on us.

Counting on you
Christianity · Devotional · dreams do come true · encouragement · free · guidance · Jesus · Love · power of God · Prayer · searching · still fighting · The Bible · True Joy

Counting on you

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Counting on you

We as Christians count on God for so much. We count on Him to be good to us, to forgive us, to love us, to heal us, to help us. But can God count on us for…well…anything?
We don’t think about God counting on us. In fact, we don’t really think that God needs us, do we? We realize that He is God and He can make His plan work no matter what we do or don’t do. But that’s not the point. God doesn’t rely on us, He doesn’t have to, but He does count on us. He counts on us to do His will, to obey His commands, to care for our fellow Christians, to show His love to the lost and broken, He may even have appointed you a position in which you can do these things. He counts on us doing our part. If we never step out our front door, if we never take the chance, if we squelch the voice of God inside of us, aren’t we letting God down. We like to dance around the circle of ‘it’s a partnership, God and I are working together,’ because it makes us think that God is helping us in fulfilling our goals and our dreams, and that is what the outer ring of the circle sometimes looks like- but what about the inner circle, the inner Sanctum if you like, that’s where God is, the place where it’s not our will but His. The place where the fire burns so hot that it hurts sometimes, the place of surrender, are any of us willing to enter that circle? Or do we prefer the edge where it’s safe?
Can God count on us?
Can God say, “I can always count on Lauren to do the right thing?” Or I can always count on Larry, or Lynne, or Tanya, or Carole, or Mark, or Matthew, or whatever your name is, fill in the blank, can God say “him or her, I can always count on”?
I hope so. I hope that we all aim to live within the fire, near the heart of God, so He can count on us.