God always keeps His promises.
Genesis 8:6-12 NIV
[6] After forty days Noah opened a window he had made in the ark [7] and sent out a raven, and it kept flying back and forth until the water had dried up from the earth. [8] Then he sent out a dove to see if the water had receded from the surface of the ground. [9] But the dove could find nowhere to perch because there was water over all the surface of the earth; so it returned to Noah in the ark. He reached out his hand and took the dove and brought it back to himself in the ark. [10] He waited seven more days and again sent out the dove from the ark. [11] When the dove returned to him in the evening, there in its beak was a freshly plucked olive leaf! Then Noah knew that the water had receded from the earth. [12] He waited seven more days and sent the dove out again, but this time it did not return to him.
I love ravens. I love ravens because of my friend ravens who live in our yard and I love them because of the raven on the ark. No one ever remembers the raven. We all like to smile and think of the dove. The dove is lovely and soft and small. The dove brought back the branch to Noah. Everyone remembers the dove.
But what about the raven? Ravens are big and black and people call them omens of bad luck and accuse them of making terrible screeching. But really, ravens are blue and black and purple. They don’t mean bad or good luck. They make many sounds, some are very beautiful, and they will talk with you if you speak to them. They follow people the like. And as Phallen (my dog) found out, they will chase those they don’t appreciate. Most importantly, a raven was the first bird sent out from the ark. But because it was not time yet, it did not find anything. Due to that, it is forgotten. (Also recalling that the dove took several tries before it found land)
When we have been waiting a really long time for something amazing to happen, something God has promised and it keeps not happening, we lose hope. We eventually give up and move on and leave our dream behind us. We forget the raven. We chase doves that fly around with answers in their beaks and never remember the raven again. Until one day. The raven found nothing to bring back because it wasn’t time. But eventually he too got to fly over green fields and feed on olive trees. God will bring us to shore. If He has promised it, then it will come to pass. We just have to wait on His timing. The dove’s time came sooner than the raven’s, but the raven’s time was on its way. He just had to be patient. So do we.
Trusting God is hard. Especially when all you see around you is water, but His promises are true. And then, a rainbow.
Genesis 9:13, 15-16 NIV
[13] I have set my rainbow in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth.
[15] I will remember my covenant between me and you and all living creatures of every kind. Never again will the waters become a flood to destroy all life. [16] 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.”
The rainbow has lost it’s meaning in society. But you will often find a rainbow in the church. On a wall in the Sunday school usually. Why? Because the story of Noah is amazing and a favorite for many. More importantly it’s because the rainbow was and is the sign of God’s judgement followed by His grace. He destroyed the earth because of its sin. But He would not destroy it completely because He still had one man who served Him with all His heart. Rainbows in the skies show God’s promises are true.
They always have been.
So when things are dark. Turn on your headlamp and follow Jesus.
When the answers seem impossible, keep marching and blow your horn!
When the water swells around you and the raven is still flying back and forth finding nothing, wait for your ark to hit land.
When you doubt because of the storm, look for the Rainbows because God keeps His promises. Trust Him.
Category: still fighting
1 Corinthians 6:20 NIV
[20] you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies.
I have enjoyed many novels that are historical fiction based on the open sea. Many of which cover a big thing back then. Slavery. No, not the kind Martin Luther King was against, on the ocean, depending on where you were from and what station you were in slavery was a thing that didn’t hold to just one race or color, anyone could be a slave. If you were in the wrong place at the wrong time and were grabbed, if you belonged to a poor family who sold you, if you were willing to sell yourself because you had no where to go and no money, and so on. Slavery was just common place. Your value as a slave, your price, depended on a few different things, depending on where you were headed. Good looks helped, a strong build, healthy teeth sometimes, if you had a special talent or skill. The better your quality the higher the price.
Now imagine. There you are standing before the block. The slave master close at hand flexing his powerful shoulders and waiting with a bored look. He was once a slave too, but he bought himself out. Yet, he still had to serve his old masters, so freedom was not his possession. You look down the line cautiously. It’s a scraggly bunch. Some strong and young, some bent, some wounded, some with limps or disabilities. You look up the line. The clever, attractive and healthy slaves were selling fast and to good jobs. The ones that looked like you, they sold for next to nothing and went to the one week jobs, one week because you rarely survived longer than that. It didn’t make a difference to the buyers, your type was cheap, they could always buy more.
Hard hands grab you shoulders and lift you into place as the next to be bid on. You know where you’re going. You know what your worth. Then a soft voice says, “I’ll take that one.” You look up at the hooded figure. A shudder runs through you. What is this feeling? It’s something greater than fear.
The auctioneer pauses, “again? Mr. You should wait until I call a price, you keep on paying too much for these.”
The hood nods. The slave master sighs and lifts you back to the ground and you are shoved into a group.
The next in line is placed on the block, the same soft voice, “I’ll take that one too.”
Finally the head of the outfit steps forward and shouts, “ENOUGH! Let us see some coin before you buy the whole lot with nothing but your own skin. We deal in money here, not delusions!”
The hood nods and the man pulls out a small coin purse. You hold your breath. The purse looks pretty flat to you. You past master takes the one object out of the purse and drops it. He steps back. You strain to see. It’s a gold medallion of some type, there’s an insignia on it, but you can’t make it out. The hood steps forward and unveils his head, you cry out, so do all with you. There stands the King. He steps onto the block and lifts his medallion with his crest upon it. “I purchase them all, including you.” He looks at the slave master, the one who had tried and failed to free himself. The big shoulders shake as he falls to his knees. The owner of the auction and all his people flee. The King touches the slave master’s shoulder, “go, release them all.” The big man jumps to his feet and rushes to free each slave from his or her chains. When he gets to you and takes your bonds in his hands you find that they are shaking, he is crying and smiling, your chains drop as he moves to the next person.
You look at the King and He turns, “you have a question my child?”
Your voice cracks, “Yes your majesty.”
He smiles, “and?”
“Why? Why buy us at all when we were yours to do with as you please?”
“To show you your value, and to set you truly free. I do not rule a land where free will is illegal, due to that people are free, but some choose evil. I have to rectify that evil and to free those captive to it. You are free child. Will you come and serve me in my kingdom?”
“What happens if I say no?”
“Hmm, you will be free to live your life as you choose, but you will he on your own and when the day comes when I take the evil fully from this world and bring my followers to my Kingdom, if you did not choose me, you could not come and would be left behind with all those who will die with this world.”
“It’s my choice?”
“Yes.”
“Then of course I choose you.”
The King smiled. To your shock, many did not go with the King to follow Him that day. They loved belonging to themselves too much to belong to anyone else, even to be taken to the castle as the King’s child.
But you went with Him, and so did the slave master. You went because you were bought with a price beyond your worth, now you would always live to serve the one who set you free.
You were bought with a high price, so serve God with your bodies.
The blood, part 2
Hebrews 9:20-26 NIV
[20] He said, “This is the blood of the covenant, which God has commanded you to keep.” [21] In the same way, he sprinkled with the blood both the tabernacle and everything used in its ceremonies. [22] In fact, the law requires that nearly everything be cleansed with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness. [23] It was necessary, then, for the copies of the heavenly things to be purified with these sacrifices, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. [24] For Christ did not enter a sanctuary made with human hands that was only a copy of the true one; he entered heaven itself, now to appear for us in God’s presence. [25] Nor did he enter heaven to offer himself again and again, the way the high priest enters the Most Holy Place every year with blood that is not his own. [26] Otherwise Christ would have had to suffer many times since the creation of the world. But he has appeared once for all at the culmination of the ages to do away with sin by the sacrifice of himself.
[28] so Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many; and he will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him.
I wanted to start with this verse because it sums it all up. It sums up the difference it made to have Jesus come, it sums up the way it effected the church and the way things were done, it sums up the importance of the blood being spilled. Billy Graham once said that people want to avoid the cross because they are offended by the blood. It bothers them. Not just because it shows them their sins, but because blood itself is offensive. So people do away with the blood and gore of the cross and try and make it lovely and reverent, where in fact it was gruesome and vile. The only thing that makes the cross anything but horrible and gross is Jesus’s blood on it. This makes me think of the story of the three trees. The one became a small fishing boat, the other the Manger and the last one became the cross. All had big dreams and goals. All thought their drrams had been destroyed by what they had been carved into. All were proven to be of high value because Jesus was part of them. Two had happy connections to Jesus. One had the worst connection possible, and yet it was the most necessary one out of the three. Jesus’s sacrifice is what makes the cross something to love and strive after. If Jesus had died any other way, the cross wouldn’t matter, it’s because HE died on the cross that it is special and valued and important. We are like the cross. Only through Jesus’s blood on us and His Holy Spirit in us are we special and valued. He values us. We who beat Him and mocked Him and killed Him. Only through Him are we worth anything. He is the final sacrifice. His blood is the only thing pure enough to wash us clean. He changed everything, because we just weren’t getting it. The Law had been put there to help us and guide us but we were missing it. We weren’t able to keep up with it, many ignored it, some had contorted it and we needed an answer, someone to give us more than the rules, someone who would make it so we could be forgiven when we fell short of the rules. We needed Jesus. We still do.
The blood part 1
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!
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.
Carried in the cross 