Sheltered by sin?
Lent devotional 13
The black haron circles it’s wings around it’s body and makes a canopy to imitate shelter and create shade. This way fish swim under it, thinking it is safe, when really it’s a trap.
The devil is like the black haron. He creates things, places and people that look safe, they look like a shelter, but in truth they are a trap to draw you in. The common lie the devil uses is the lie of acceptance. Christians are becoming more and more accepting; not of people, accepting people is not a new thing, Jesus has always required and encouraged that, but of accepting sin. We do the ‘I have to accept their sin to accept them’ dance, and all we end up doing is opening ourselves to cause the same sins. The people are not their sin, we are not our sin, Jesus accepts us with open arms and a heart full of love, but He does not accept our sin to come with us. He doesn’t accept the sin, He accepts us despite the sin. We do not have to accept the sin to accept the person, we do not have to act like the sin is okay to love the sinner. Saying that the sin in okay is simply a way to not be faced with the anger of a person who doesn’t want to stop sinning but does want to go to Heaven, you can’t have both. We are all sinners and people who fall short of Christ, but we repent of our sins- sometimes we repent of the same sin a thousand times a day- but we acknowledge that it is wrong, we ask for forgiveness and we try to not do it again. You can not cling to sin and claim it as okay and be a Christian, but the devil wants us to fall into being tolerant so that we let darkness slip in without realizing it. Be tolerant of the person yes, but not of the sin that binds them. If we became tolerant of the sin that binds us we would not be a new creation in Christ, our lives would not be changed, we would be the same person we were before we accepted Jesus into our lives and what point would there be in that? Now, coming to Jesus will not immidiately change you so your sin is no longer pestering you, and we may even fall back into that sin after coming to God. Sin looks like a safe place sometimes. It’s the devil trying to hold us down and keep us back from God, and he doesn’t want to give up his hold on us, so don’t be discouraged if you find yourself in a battle against your sin and don’t seem to be winning, hang in there, persistance will drive the devil away. If everytime you sin you choose to confess it to God the devil will get uncomfortable, if everytime you feel like you are about to sin and start to pray you will defeat the devil’s hold in your life. We all sin. Everyday. The differnence is when we confess our sins and start new with Jesus, each time, no matter how many times that is. We cannot be tolerant to sin and say it’s okay because that is like saying the devil is okay, but we must always be loving and accepting of the people, because those people are us too. Turn away from the sin chains that hold you down and know that Jesus loves you, He sees that you are trying, and doing your best- even when you fall back and have to try again- and He is fighting with you, and He always loves you. He doesn’t love our sin, He can’t, but He always loves us.
Know my heart?
Lent devotional 12
Psalm 139: 23
Search me oh God and know my heart.
This is a a scary verse. I know people quote it like it’s something soothing or peaceful, but it’s scary. We are literally asking God to search us, to test us, we are putting ourselves into His hands and saying ‘come on in God and de-clutter as you see fit.’ That’s scary. You don’t know what God will want to throw away from your life that He doesn’t like, it may be something of great value to you, and suddenly it’s gone. This is a verse of complete surrender. You do not say this verse lightly. Being rid of things that God does not want in your life is always a good thing, but that doesn’t make it easy. But when God is your ultimate, when He is your everything, your life will have a new direction, you will become more steadfast, you will have greater peace. Don’t say this verse if you don’t mean it, and if you say it and do mean it then be ready for God to do some throwing away, and have Faith that the end result will be worth the loss.
In the end
Lent devotional 12
In the last days we need to come together as Christians, Jews and Gentiles together in one community. Then later we will all gather together with God in Heaven. -Dr. David Jeremiah
We need the strength of our fellow Christians as we watch the world fall apart. Not everyone will stay as the Church feels the pain of the end coming, but don’t be afraid when people leave, just know that you belong to God and keep on holding onto Him. Even if it is a frayed string on the end of His robe DON’T LET GO, EVER!
Just a rock
Lent devotional 11
What if I look deep inside and find no gems? What of I’m just a rock? -Whisper of the heart
We all want to be someone special; we all want to be a woman or man whose name is written in the stars, and most of us fear the same thing, we fear that after a lifetime of searching for gems deep inside we will discover that we are just rocks. Plain. Boring. Not special at all.
That fear can manifest itself in our forcing ourselves into a tallent that we don’t really possess. For years I have tried to teach myself how to draw and, as like all things you work at, I have gotten steadily better. I could never make a career of being a painter or drawer, that’s not my talent, but I wanted to see if I could improve myself because I wanted to. But what if I decided that drawing was my special gem inside myself, even though I was not gifted in this type of art? I could spend a lifetime trying to hone a gem that was not there and end up looking back at my life with discouragement. We fear being just a rock when so many others shine so brightly. We don’t want to feel like nothing. But being a bright and shining star doesn’t make those people better than you, just because they get more applause and have the spotlight. Don’t forget, stars are mostly helium and hydrogen, beautiful hot air. Guess what rocks are made out of? Most rocks are made out of microscopic, fused together, crystals. Even a stone slab covered in grafitti on the side of a bridge is filled with gems, they are just too small to see, but they make up the stone’s substance. Don’t fight your whole life trying to become a gemstone in fear of only being a rock, all rocks are gemstones in some way. Be yourself. Be who God created you to be. If He made you a singer then sing, even if it’s only for the Church worship team. If God made you a painter, paint, even if it’s ceilings in a hotel loby. If God made you fast, then run, who knows? You might win the Olympics. Don’t doubt the value of being a rock, and don’t work to written in the stars, just work to be written in God’s book.
Breathing
In….out…..in
Breathing. Have you ever considered breathing? I don’t mean doing it, that’s required, I mean the action of breathing. Breathing is one of the few things that absolutely everything alive does. Bugs breathe, plants and flowers breathe, animals breathe, fire breathes, we breathe, I have heard it said that water breathes- though don’t ask me how. Everything-that is alive-breathes. Why? No idea. There is no reason that the human body should require air to breathe except the fact that God decided that that was how it should work. Truly. Scientists say:
“Breathing is part of a process called respiration. During respiration, a living thing takes in oxygen from the air and gives out carbon dioxide. This process gives animals and plants the energy to eat, grow, and live life!” -10 interesting facts about air-NASA
That is correct, obviously, but that doesn’t explain why that is necessary. Why do we need a respiratory system? Why does the body need to take in oxygen to produce energy? Why not make it produce energy without air? ( Let’s not get into the energy produced by the sun or this post will be too long.) You may ask my point for this line of questioning, here it is. What is the most constantly ignored and taken for granted function of life, until it is gone? Breathing. God made a complex and masterful design when creating the living organism and we need to remember just how amazing our bodies are. So how about right now we sit for 10 seconds and focus on breathing, and just how amazing breathing is.
Believed in
Everyone says that the person you need to believe in you is yourself. That is sweet but is it true? Maybe for some people. I recently have realized that having others believe in you is an amazing motivator. If no one else thinks you can do it that doesn’t mean you should give up, it simply means that no one else gets your vision. That said, the people around me have always been really supportive. I mean, I’ve dealt with haters, but the people who matter, my friends, my family, especially my parents, have always been supportive, even when that support is a critique or correction to push what I am doing into a better place. Because I know that they support and believe in me then I can take them at their word and not be too offended when that word stings a little. Knowing that when you doubt yourself someone else feels that you can keep going forward is amazing. You all knew that I was rounding this back to this statement so here it is. God believes in you more than anyone else can. He sees EVERYTHING about you. He gave you your gifts and talents, He gave you your drive and He believes that you can do it because He knows that He can do it and He will be forward guard for your every step.
Don’t give up! Your father believes in you!
The Huguenot
Lent devotional 10
Today I ran across this painting by John Millias. The name of the painting is
‘A huguenot.’ You may not find that very interesting, but looking closely at the painting I found it intriguing, I wondered what was up with the white sash and why was the man pulling it away from his arm. When I did some reading on the painting I found out that it is a love story about a Catholic and a Protestant in Medieval France. The Catholic woman was tying a white sash around her protestant lover’s arm so he would be assumed Catholic and not be killed. The man is looking at her with love, but gently pulling the sash away, refusing to deny his true beliefs.
That was a long explanation I know, but I am getting to my point, though it is probably obvious by now.
We as Christians, find ourselves in positions often where we can either proclaim or deny Jesus as our savior. We are traitors if we deny Him, and we do not love Him. Jesus died for us we must be willing to do the same for Him. We must not hide and pretend to be someone we are not out of fear. Yes we may be ridiculed, in some countries we may even be killed but we must stand up and say, “I am a Christian.”
That is easy to say in the safety of Canada I know, and we may never know truly if we love Jesus enough to suffer for Him until we experience such a situation, but acknowledging Him in small things also shows how much we care. At work, at school, on the subway, on Facebook.
Don’t hide, proclaim.
Held by strings
Lent devotional 9
Held by strings
Today on the TV I saw a woman who had been so broken that as she was speaking you could see that she was trying to be strong, while falling apart. These past several days we have seen a lot of people, women and men, who have been trying to hold their voices steady as they speak, trying to swallow back tears while being determined to push forward. You may not be in the middle of a war zone; you may have recentally lost a loved one, or a job, or perhaps you feel like you are losing yourself, your sanity in the swirling mess of what society has become- many are feeling that these days. Suffering, loss, even change has become so wearing and hard to handle that we feel like a dog’s teddy bear, torn apart and held together with streatching strings. We are wondering how many more times we can be sewn back together before there’s nothing left to attach. Humanity feels like the dog has our body under his paws and he is yanking on our arm, determined to pull it off. We wonder. Where is God?
He is here, sewing us back together everytime another part of us comes off. Our fallen world is imploding, just like He said it would. Does that make it easier to handle? No! Does that mean the death and suffering doesn’t matter? Of course not! But God promises that even when the world itself is falling to pieces that He is still there, He promises that even when we scream out ‘how can you let this happen God?’ That He still holds us tight and loves us. Why doesn’t He make it all end and save us? I don’t know. It’s the stuff that we can’t explain that makes us doubt the existance of a loving God, because in the pain we forget the good things we have seen God do. When the children of Israel were in the desert everytime they fell apart God had to remind them of the amazing things and wonders He had done for them, because when you are hanging together by one final thread all you can see is the pain you are in, you -we -I forget the times we have seen God help us and save us and provide for us, but He has and He still does. In the moment you are in right now, hold your hands infront of you, close your eyes and say with me, ‘God, it all so big and such a mess. You know what I am feeling and the pain I am in, and I know that you love me even in this moment that hurts so bad, hold me close please Jesus and help me know that you know what you are doing and that you will never let me go. Amen’
Lent devotional 8
Taken your meds today?
The other day my dad said something really funny. It took an everyday moment and made it brighter because it made me laugh. Later I shared what my dad had said with my mom, who had gone to bed before dad made his five star funny. Guess what? She laughed too, then we reminded my dad about what he had said so he ended up laughing at himself.
When people say ‘laughter is the best medicine’ it’s true. When you laugh, or cause someone else to laugh, it makes you feel better. It takes a God who delights in His people to create laughter. Is it necessary? Maybe not. Does it make life more enjoyable? Yes. God likes to see you smile and laugh, He likes to see you spread joy to others, if He didn’t He would have made mouths a single, straight line and He would never have created the chemical released by your brain that makes you happy when you laugh. So laugh. Tickle yourself pink ( okay, maybe don’t do that, that would be a sign that you couldn’t breathe) but laugh, find joy, and always remeber that God likes to see you smile, He delights in you.
Carried in the cross 