Hebrews 9:14 NIV
[14] How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God!
Sacrifice. It’s something we hate as people.
We love it when someone sacrifices for us, but we don’t enjoy doing it for others unless we really love them. Jesus really loves us. We remind ourselves of that over and over and over again. But it’s hard to remember. We talk of God’s love and we seek to feel His heart close to us, but in no time at all we forget all He did for us and why. Because of that sacrifice we are no longer required to give God blood, but now are to give Him our hearts and to serve Him as living sacrifices, this is a privilege even if we don’t see it as one. We get to be clean before God because we are seen through the lense of Jesus’s blood. IF. We have given our lives to Him. Now our sacrifice looks like avoiding sin. Helping others. Obeying God’s laws. Sharing Jesus with others. Gifts to God because He gave us the greatest gift of all through Jesus. How much more than the sacrifices we give to God, will the sacrifice His son Jesus be in His eyes. Our gifts are like a sprinkling of sand in the desert. Yet God still loves our offerings because He loves us. We come to God broken, sinful and some days even insincere, and we lay our dirty, blemished offerings before Him. And He accepts them and loves us. Like a child who brings a sculpture of mud to her mom and the mother smiles and takes and says its beautiful, because she loves the heart of the child who made it. That’s what our offerings to God looks like. And His love of us and His love of what we do for Him makes our mud beautiful.
If our dirty offerings can be seen as beautiful. Imagine how much more so the spotless, blameless, pure sacrifice of Jesus is to God. Beautiful beyond compare. The only truly worthy sacrifice.
Cleanse us Jesus from actions that lead to death, so that we may serve the LIVING God!
Category: still fighting
Feet part 5
2 Samuel 22:10-11 NIV
[10] He parted the heavens and came down; dark clouds were under his feet. [11] He mounted the cherubim and flew; he soared on the wings of the wind.
[17] “He reached down from on high and took hold of me; he drew me out of deep waters. [18] He rescued me from my powerful enemy, from my foes, who were too strong for me.
This is one of my favorite verses. I only used part because it’s a long one. Here in 2 Samuel we here the prophet speaking on God’s vengeance for His people. David also quoted this text, the whole thing. Every. Last. Word. That shows how loved this verse was.
We don’t often think of God as vengeful. He’s the guy who tells us to love right? Right. But He also says that vengeance is His. The world that accepts that God is real has a big portion of it that feels like God is all daisy chains and sunbeams. But He is the one true King. Lord of all. A King is always a warrior if He is to be a good king. Loving and benevolent, yes. But powerful and fierce too.
I love that God mounts the cheribem and rides out against our foes with fire coming from His nostrils. So. Cool! I also wonder if we envision the cheribem wrong. If they can be ridden then the human bodies we put on them is probably not accurate. However, that is a topic for a scolar and we will move on.
We often feel like our enemies will win. We get to a place where we feel like we will always be under the thumb of those who oppose us. Yet that is not true. God comes to our aid wearing dark clouds on His feet and riding powerful angelic creatures. He knows the name of our true enemy and will throw the evil one, someday, into the lake of fire. We not see those who strike us and mock us be struck down, but the evil spirit that causes the behavior of our enemies will be destroyed. God will lift us up in His hand and save us from our enemies! Just hold on and wait to see the dark clouds roll in, the ones God’s feet stand upon. The pain won’t last. The evil won’t last. God will avenge and save us.
He knows
He knows
Those battles you fight. Those problems and pains you go through that you tell no one about. Those needs, fears, desires, fallings, sicknesses, screams in the back of your mind, dark pits that circle, boxes you can’t climb out of, endless nights, days that won’t go away. All of it. Jesus is there. You may tell no one. You may never ask for help or sympathy, but He knows. It’s the moment when you feel you have been fighting alone all night long and you suddenly feel an arm around you. You look and see no one, then you realize, it’s Jesus. Those days when you felt like no one could hear or see you, but He hears and sees you. You feel like you scream alone, but He holds your hand and screams with you until your screaming is done and you feel like you will make it. He will make it so you can make it. You fall, but never hit bottom because He catches you.
No matter what. Jesus is there. In all my circumstances- But God.
Hell will not prevail against you
Jesus said in one of his sermons during his final days that the gates of hell would not prevail against Peter, or against the church which was built on him.
Now. Can anyone tell me how Peter died?
Exactly. He was hung upside-down on a cross. Yep.
What did Jesus say? Not that Peter wouldn’t die. Not that he wouldn’t suffer. But that hell would not prevail against him.
After everything Peter did and everything he went through in his denying of Jesus and then meeting him again on the beach all those days later. I wonder what was going through Peter’s head? I wonder if Peter needed to be reminded that hell would not Prevail against him, that his mistake was not the end of his connection to Jesus. Because it was the devil causing Peter to fear which made him deny his Jesus three times. That day the Gates of Hell tried to prevail. But Jesus reassured Peter that the gates of hell would not Prevail against him. They knocked him around and caused him to sin, but they did not win. If only that had come to Peter’s mind before he denied Jesus. Yet in the end Jesus’s prophecy came true, as they always do, and Peter never lost the war aginst hell. Judas ate at the supper but so did Peter. Judas sinned against Jesus and so did Peter. But Peter was the only one of the two of them who fully repented and turned his life around and went back 100% to serving Jesus. That was Peter’s redeeming quality. The moment he fell on his knees before his Lord and friend and declared never again God will I deny you.
Now some will say that Jesus wasn’t talking about actual hell he was talking about that place of execution and religious ceremony of the Romans. They claim that this place was referred to by the Romans as the gates of hell. Some claim when Jesus said the Gates of Hell will not Prevail against you he was talking about this place. I for one do not believe at all that he was talking about that and not actual hell. My Bible which is a study Bible does bring up the gates of hell in the Roman culture later on in a different thing Jesus was talking about. However in this circumstance the study Bible does not ever suggest that Jesus wasn’t talking about the very real hell to which we are all fighting against every day. Now setting that aside and going forward in what we believe in Jesus actually meant. Jesus said the Gates of Hell will not Prevail against you. He was talking to Peter but he was also talking about the church. Too often does it look like hell is getting a foothold within the church. Too often does it look like we are losing ground and the devil is winning. But Jesus told us that the gates of hell would not Prevail against us. He told us that he was always with us. He told us that where he is evil cannot abide. He told us that he walked into hell took the keys from the Devil and now through Jesus we have the freedom to have our bonds loosed. He can take those keys and we can raise our chain hands to him and he will unlock our Fetters and set us free. Christ did not die in vain and he stands in the biggest Gap there is protecting us from the Devil. Jesus never said you were so powerful that you can go out into this world without Him and the Gates of Hell would never Prevail against you. The Gates of Hell will not Prevail against us because Jesus walks with us, he is there holding us guarding us. Like the Cub who runs under the feet of the Lion we are safe from the jackals and the crocodiles and the wild beasts that would hunt us and kill us. Because our Lord Jesus Christ is a great Lion of Judah and he protects us.
We may feel like we are losing ground. We may feel like that person we pray for will never be saved. We may feel like the titans are too large for us to fight. But Jesus is on our side.
In the box of grief
I don’t know who needs this tonight. But grief is like a box. You feel trapped by walls that you can’t touch or see and you feel a need to escape but can’t. This is why so many turn to suicide, because the box is everywhere. You run one direction and it follows you, you go another direction and it’s still there. The worst part of the box is that it is there even when you try and escape into sleep. It follows you into your dreams and makes you feel like you can’t breathe.
No one else sees the box, so they don’t understand how you feel.
But Jesus sees the box. He alone can hear you pounding on its barriers and screaming for help. The best part is, counselors and support groups -though great – can only meet you outside of the box. They try to coax you out and then meet you on the other side. But Jesus doesn’t need to wait until you are free from the box. He goes into the box with you. He sits there with you as long as you feel you need to be there. Because sometimes fighting the box takes too much out of us and we need time to sit and cry. When you are ready, Jesus will hold your hand, tap the box wall and make it fall before you. He will set you free.
If you are in a box right now, take a moment to speak the name of Jesus and realize that you are not alone.
Oh Holy night
Oh Holy night
Fall on your knees, hear the angel’s voices.
Do we?
Here we are about to open gifts and sing Christmas songs, and yet so many don’t know what Christmas is all about. Even some who wear the badge of Christian don’t really get what it’s all about. Not the day, but the reason Jesus came to earth. It wasn’t just about Luke 2, or John 20, it’s also very much about Revelation 22.
Jesus came as a baby, He died as an man, He is returning as the King. And through all of it He is our Savior. He was our Savior while sleeping in the manger, He was our Savior while dying on the cross, He is our Savior as He lives in our hearts today, and He will be our Savior still the day He rides in with His armies to conquer all.
Fall on your knees and worship Him. Seek Him while He is still to be found. That line scares me, some of the modern prophets of the 50s would speak of a time when God would remove His Spirit from the world. We must run to Jesus while He is still to be found. Don’t wait. Don’t miss this.
Behind her
Behind her
My dad has been transferring over a bunch of our HFV s so we can watch them. One of them was a two hour production of a play I was in. I was part of the choir, which was pretty large. At the end of the production the leader came to the lead mic and gave an invitation for anyone in the audience who had not yet accepted Jesus as their Savior to raise a hand. No one did. She gave the call one more time and then we all prayed the sinner’s prayer. You could see she was disappointed that no person From the audience had put up a hand. She had felt the call from God that someone needed her to give the invitation, but she saw no results.
My mom was video taping the whole event, this part too. Behind the leader who had given the call, two boys in the choir and one girl, put their hands up to receive Jesus. The leader could not see them, so she thought she had made a mistake but had everyone pray the prayer anyway.
In the back there were three young souls who had never accepted Christ who went home with the Holy Spirit in them, because a woman gave a call, and wouldn’t give up, even though it looked like no one had answered.
Don’t get discouraged. You may never see the results. But you have never made a mistake by inviting people to come to know Jesus. Come and see said Andrew. Come and see said Philip. Come and see said the shepherds.
Come and see says the repentant souls who know that of no one had ever told them to come and see, they would still be lost.
All we can do is give the invite, the rest is up to God.
Last days burn out
Last days wear out is something no one talks about.
I would like to start this Devotional with the releasing statement that I am not one the great people who study in depth and know great and terrible things involving the end. However, if we believe the Bible (which we do) and read it fully we will know that all the days after Jesus ascended are the last days. So we are in them even if we are or are not fully in the book of Revelation yet.
What I want to speak of is last days wear out.
The Bible says:
2 Timothy 3:1-5 NIV
[1] But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. [2] People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, [3] without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, [4] treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God— [5] having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with such people.
And it says:
2 Peter 3:3 NIV
[3] Above all, you must understand that in the last days scoffers will come, scoffing and following their own evil desires.
There are many more but we will stay with these for today. The last days for those living in sin will look a big party with no rules or rulers. But for those us who belong to Jesus, we can see the truth. What about those of us who long for righteousness? Those who tread carefully on the narrow path? We see all around us and try and remain pure, untainted and faithful, but as the final days of the end draw closer and closer things are getting worse. The world is dying and we can see it and for many of us it’s frightening and tiring. We feel like we are fighting against so much every day. We have lost friends and connections with loved ones and we wonder if we are doing the right thing. But God.
God warned us that this would be what these days would look like, He’s not surprised by any of it. Is He sad? Probably. Is He angry? Probably. But Is He surprised? No. He is still in control.
15] Bear in mind that our Lord’s patience means salvation, just as our dear brother Paul also wrote you with the wisdom that God gave him. [16] He writes the same way in all his letters, speaking in them of these matters. His letters contain some things that are hard to understand, which ignorant and unstable people distort, as they do the other Scriptures, to their own destruction. [17] Therefore, dear friends, since you have been forewarned, be on your guard so that you may not be carried away by the error of the lawless and fall from your secure position. [18] But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and forever! Amen.
We are called to stay on guard and to help our fellow Christians do the same. But it does wear us out. I am worn out. My friends talk and I hear how worn out they are. Being a true Christian in these sad and heartbreaking days is hard work. We pray harder and more often. It seems like the list of needs keeps growing. Evil is standing in the center of everything and is reaching its fingertips towards the church and all we want to do is scream or cry. But God is holding us. He is keeping us together and waiting until His time is right for His second coming and in that we have hope. The wars, politics, lies and deceit are banging around in our heads and Jesus is saying, “just be still. You are here for my chosen purpose. I am always with you.”
So maybe some days we need to take a break and rest and disconnect from social media, TV, and the radio just so we can become realigned with what matters and what is true. Then let us stand up and say:
[20] He who testifies to these things says, “Yes, I am coming soon.” Amen. Come, Lord Jesus. [21] The grace of the Lord Jesus be with God’s people. Amen. Revelation 22:20- 21
They calls us names for they have never seen the true enemy
“They call us all sorts of things for they do not know what we are protecting them from. And we wouldn’t have it any other way, because if they knew they wouldn’t be able to live in the peace they have now.” – Paraphrased from The Fellowship of the Ring.
They do not know what we protect them from. We see the soldiers being torn to pieces on social media so often. But we have no idea what they have faced. Dogs come back broken and scared of everything because of the sounds and scents, the people are no different. The scars aren’t always visible, but they are always there. My family has a military history from my uncle who served in Vietnam to my Opa who was Dutch underground. We know the pain and sacrifice from the stories they brought back that have been passed down through the years, but so many do not have such stories to turn to for learning. I think of my boyfriend from Jr. High, his dad came back from Afghanistan with PTSD. If you looked closely at him you could see the emptiness in his eyes. It was like inside his mind he had never left. It was a frightening thing to see, and so sad. Those who have never seen the death and decay have no right to judge.
In a simile we could say those who do not know the enemy of their souls calls us names. We as Christians are supposed to be soldiers on a different front, though sometimes the same one as well. We are called to fight in prayer and petition against the enemy of our souls. The world attacks us with their words because they see this enemy as a friend and don’t realize that, as Larry Norman once said “he promised to love us, but that was a lie, there was blood in his pockets and death in his eyes.” The world does not see that the devil is a deceiver so they attack those who oppose him, but of they knew the truth their peace would be shattered until they found true peace in Jesus.
Our soldiers fight for freedom of bodies and wills, the Church fights for the freedom of the soul. We need both very very desperately. God help us to see that we need those who are willing to fight and bless and protect the soldiers. Amen.
Lamas
I just want to be a sheep, bah bah bah bah. Remember that song? Maybe most don’t. But when I was a child we used to sing a song about wanting to be a sheep in God’s pasture. But perhaps not all of us are sheep. God said that He would send shepherds to lead the sheep -pastors. But what about those who aren’t simply part of the congregation but have a specific calling inside the church, not as pastor, but as one of the other ministering bodies in the building?
For this let us take a moment to look at a sheep farm. On the farm you have your shepherds, then you have your lamas or donkeys, then you have your collies or terriers, then you have your sheep.
We all know what the shepherds do, but what does a lama or donkey do? We have several shepherds in our area and they will tell you that the lama or donkey is there to protect the sheep. They will fight off wolves and wild cats and keep the sheep safe. They aren’t social and don’t always spend time with the sheep, but they are always there to silently protect and defend. They are our prayer warriors. Our prayer warriors aren’t always social people, they are often missing from group prayer meeting, because they are in their own corner fighting on their knees in a place where they can’t be distracted. They are battling for you against the enemy and keeping you safe. They are the lamas.
Tomorrow we will talk about the collies and terriers. The next day we will talk about the sheep. But for today, be grateful for the lamas in your church. Praise God that He gives us all a purpose.
Carried in the cross 