Tag: always loved

Today I die
Blog · Christianity · Devotional · encouragement · free · Jesus · searching

Today I die

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Today I die

I sit in my cell with the bare cold hungrily eating into my flesh, my wounds almost numb from the night before. Suddenly I look up into the face of my executioner. He clamps irons on my wrists and I am pushed, pulled, and dragged up the winding stair case onto the street above. A cross is driven onto my back by the ruthless pull of gravity and I am told to walk, so I walk. A soldier follows in place of my shadow and strikes me with his whip whenever I slow down, so I don’t slow down, I move as quickly as my beaten body will allow until I reach the top of the hill where I am finally permitted to lie down upon my burden. I close my eyes and tense my throat as vomit threatens to choke me from the agony of the spikes being driven into my hands and feet. Tears burn my eyes and soak my neck as I am lifted up. Everything turns blurry from the pain, people were laughing, I think, I couldn’t really hear past the high pitched ringing raging through my ears.
Breath comes in gasps as the hours pass by. Hours? Or was it days? It felt like days. My shadow comes along and begins breaking legs. Mine are next and suddenly the troubled breathing turns into no breathing at all. Tell me someone can hear me. I know I am screaming so where are the ones to save me? Then it ends. I awaken to see a judge. Sad eyes touch mine and He shakes his head. Two dark figures grasp my arms and drag me away, forever. ‘Wait!’ I cry. ‘Have mercy! Please!’
But there is silence as the judge turns His face away and I am led off to my eternal sentence.

This is what it would be like if Jesus had not taken that cross for us. If instead we had gone through our own crucifixion. Pain, death, hopelessness, and no promise of rescue.
If we had been sacrificed instead it would never have been enough to pay back all the wrongs we have done. In the end death would lead to death and nothing could change that.
Thank God that He sent Jesus to save us. Thank Jesus that He was willing to come.
Thank the Holy Spirit for residing in us.
Without love, God’s love, we would truly have nothing.
As the true story reads.

God so loved the world that He sent His one and only Son. Continue with me. That whosoever believes in Him… should not?…. Might not? Will not perish, but have eternal life. -John 3:16

Thank Jesus today for dying for you.

Can you hear me?
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Can you hear me?

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Can you hear me?

There is a novel series I enjoy that is based in medieval times. In one part of the series, the sea ports have been affected by a group of human traffickers (which is still a big problem in many parts of the world).
One scene has a big city wide party going on with loud music and cheering and fireworks. In this scene you can notice the slight screams of the people that are being silently stolen out of the crowd.
In this scene the protagonist asks a companion if they had also heard an odd noise, to which the other character answers, “yes. The sounds of the party covered it, but there were screams.”

I wonder how often we miss the screams in the midst of the party. The laughter, the excitement, the fireworks. Noise. Sounds of pleasure that cover the sounds of pain and distress. The people we don’t see due to the crowd who are silently being stolen away. The world has so much suffering that we just don’t notice.
Question. How many of you were at least a little bit surprised when I mentioned that human trafficking is still a problem? How many were angered and disgusted? If I said that many of the people on the streets in large cities have jobs, sometimes several jobs, but the cost of living is simply too high, would you be confused or argue with me?
I grew up near the large city of Vancouver, a city I love and miss, but even the beautiful lady has a dark side. A very dark side. Because of friends who were cops we learned of the on going and somewhat large problem of human trafficking that was happening right out of the inner harbor. A problem that the police struggled to control because of it’s strength. So you didn’t walk the streets alone.
Because of ministry friends we learned of the plight of the hard working man who lived in a cardboard box in the downtown area. There were many just like him. Steady job. Not enough to get by on.
We learned also that we were far from the only city with these problems. In Canada and the US especially it is easy to live the party life because we can have so much. But there are screams that we can’t hear that are happening just down the street.
This is not a criticism. Feel free to enjoy life. But now you are aware of the pain that you cannot see. What can you do about it?

Who am I?
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Who am I?

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Who I am?

One of the most important things I learned how to do as a pre-teen was how to make a pot of coffee. Why? Because if you cut me open I would bleed Tim Horton’s blend medium roast.

One of the most fundamental mistakes I ever made was my first boyfriend. At 13 years old you don’t know enough about yourself to start knowing someone else. That being said, it was a mistake that I no longer regret, because of how much I learned about myself, my values, my goals, other people and life in general. Oh ya. And high school really does never end.

My best friend has always been my dog. Every dog I have ever owned has quickly gone from cute pet to soul mate in a matter of days. We get each other. We sacrifice for each other. And when my love for live runs dry my dog pours his love onto me, ( usually in wet kisses.)

I grew up somewhat self reliant due to being an only child, so group activities always made me uncomfortable. I also became jealous of the people who click easily and fit groups well. But in turn I ended up with one or two solid friendships instead of tons of wishy washy ones.

Jesus knew what my life needed to make me who I am and who I am becoming. Whomever said that you are an adult by your twenties missed something. 20+ is a small number and we are still small in our understandings, probably still small in our works, and most likely small in the world. That is not a bad thing. We are still growing up and figuring out who we are and where we belong. We don’t need to have everything figured out, that’s God’s job.
I know many people who, at over 40, have decided to rewrite their lives. Why? They wanted to have everything figured out and in place before they were 30, so they ended up in jobs that don’t suit them and with a life style they hate. Enter the re-write.
Take time. Get to know yourself. Get to know God. Slow down and find your ‘sweet spot’ as Max Lucado calls it. If you are in a life place that you don’t feel God has called/ guided you to and you want out..get out. He knows what He is doing and will lead you where He knows you belong. Trust Him.
In the armor of God we almost always forget one important piece. Shoes. The shoes of readiness are things we tend to forget to put on. And come on, don’t the perfect shoes make the outfit? Where are your shoes of readiness leading you? Where does God want you to go?
Slip on your flats, runners, steel toe work boots, or lavendar stilettos and be ready for what God is calling you to do and where God is calling you to go.

Victory takes time
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Victory takes time

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Victory takes time

John Millias’ painting ‘Victory oh Lord’

Exodus 17:11

Who remembers Moses having to hold up his hands to God for victory in battle?
Remember? As long as his hands were up God’s people were winning but whenever they were down God’s people would lose.
The battle lasted so long that Aaron and Hur had to come and hold up Moses’ hands because he was exhausted.
If you were Moses’ wouldn’t you be thinking,
‘Anytime now God! I am really losing will power here!’
Yet Moses persevered in Faith and ultimately the battle was won.
We live in a ‘now’ society.
Everything happens quickly, and we expect it to. When my wifi is slow and I have to wait a minute before something will download instead of the 10 seconds it normally takes, I am irritated. I am also an impatient person and am working on that.
You see my point though. Moses waited so long for God to bring victory that his body literally gave out on him; but Moses knew God well and had seen Him do unreal things before, so he kept his Faith and kept his hands raised.
We know God can do unreal things, so why do we doubt Him? Our arms get tired and we lower them. Our praise ceases, our prayer wanes and eventually we give up the fight. Don’t give up the fight! One more time. Don’t give up the fight! God is moving, acting and working! Keep your hands raised high! If you can’t keep them up on your own, seek help. Help from friends, family, your pastor or church, from a devotional or online Christian speaker, find somebody you trust to help hold your hands up with you. God will bring you the victory, just keep reaching up to Him and don’t stop until you see your breakthrough.

Thank you Lord Jesus for being our breakthrough. I pray for whomever is reading this devotional that they find peace and strength and support as they wait for the victory you are bringing. In Jesus name.
Amen

THREAD BARE
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THREAD BARE

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Sometimes it feels like we are clinging to Jesus by a thin thread. Like we don’t have anything left but a desire to hang on. Standing on a dark expanse of crumbling stone and seeing nothing around to pull you out. The earth shakes and more of what you are standing on falls away into the pitch black below. All you have is a thread, not large enough to even hold onto. You know it will slip from your fingers if it is all you have to cling to so you wrap it around and around and around your hand until there is no slack left in it to keep wrapping. At that moment the ground gives way and you descend with the debris into the darkness. Suddenly the thread catches and you jerk to a stop praying the thread does not break. The thin material cuts into your hand as it holds your weight and the pain draws forth tears. You feel as though your one lifeline will slice right through you and drop you to the blackness below. Your eyes close as a light appears above. You feel two hands clasp upon your wrist and lift you up, the sting of the thread releases as it slowly drops away and you open your eyes to see that the pain of the thread that you thought would slice through you was the thread tightening as you were being pulled up away from the crumbling world below.
Jesus will NEVER let you truly fall. There will ALWAYS be a thread to cling to and that thread, no matter how painful it may seem at the time, will be helping you pull away from the discarded world that filled your view with darkness. Jesus will always be reaching down and drawing you up into His arms; trust Him, He IS there and He will not give up because of the pain we cause Him, because that same thread is wrapped around His hand as He draws us out, it cuts into Him the same way it cuts into us. Our hurt filled words that crush Him as we are dying inside will never make Him leave us. He stays and pulls us up into a healing hug and cries with us. Because He loves you. He loves us. He is love.

Dads
Blog · Christianity · Devotional · encouragement · Father's Day

Dads

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What does the word ‘dad’ mean to you? What is your first thought when you hear someone say father? I think about strength, courage, endurance, sacrifice.

When someone says ‘dad’ I imagine my father. When someone says ‘father’ I imagine God.

God is our father. Why? Why is God not just our boss? Our master? Our king? Our friend? Why is He also our Father? God is our father because He knew we would need a protector, strong arms to run into when we are afraid, strong hands to fend away those who would harm us and courage to not run away from our need. He knew we would need wisdom, knowledge and just general know how for when we are confused or do not know where to turn.

He knew we would need a steadfast and loving heart for when this world crushes ours. God is our Father for every single meaning of the word.

Not everyone has a dad on this earth to run to, but everyone (no matter their age, abilities or needs,) everyone has a father in God.

Dads are our earthly version of Father, to the best of their abilities. Everytime they try, Everytime they help, Everytime they are understanding and protecting and loving, they are being father, just as God intended them to be.

Thank you Fathers for all you are and all you help us to be.

Happy Father’s Day

Please feel free to comment what your dad means to you and to connect him to this site so he can see what you said.

Illogical Miracles
Blog · Christianity · Devotional · dreams do come true · encouragement · Jesus · searching

Illogical Miracles

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When people think Star Trek (the original) two names come to mind..Kirk and Spock.
As all of you who have watched any of the Star Trek shows or movies know, spock’s race of alien believe fully in logic. In one part of one of the movies, Spock states that miracles do not exist because they are illogical. That made me think. Miracles ARE illogical. If miracles made sense then we could figure out how to do them ourselves. GOD alone can do miracles.
I do believe that God can use people to help Him do miracles, but we cannot do them through our own power. Miracles are miracles because only God can do them, it is miraculous because it makes no sense, it is unexplainable and it is amazing. I love seeing God do crazy things. We Christians call it “wow God moments.”
As my Grandfather says, “But God.”
It was impossible to be healed…but God.
The dream was too far beyond her reach….but God.
The Children of Israel had no way out…but God.
Daniel was in the lion’s den…but God.
The fire was heated 10 times the normal temperature and no one could survive that…..but God.
I am too much of a sinner for God to love me….but God…so loved the world that He gave His one and only son. Too lost to be found? Too hurt to be healed? Too dirty to be cleaned? Too scared? Too weak? Too broken? …..But God.
GOD IS ILLOGICAL! That is just how He operates. If He were logical none of us would stand a chance in this world because He would be limited to what WE could understand.
I adore my God who makes no sense to those who do not know Him. I also love His illogical, wonderful, crazy, insane, awesome miracles. Without them we would have dull, logical lives.

Monsters like me
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Monsters like me

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How would you classify a monster?
A wild haired human-like creature, with glowing eyes staring at you from behind rusted steel bars.
A four legged animal (ish) thing with long fangs and a thick chain holding it to the ground as it snarls.
How about a great dragon puffing out smoke and screaming out fire from the contains of it’s cave?
Or would you say me? I am the monster. No one understands the pain holding me behind these rusted bars, the glow in my eyes are simply tears. I snarl out of fear as my guilt holds me to the ground, and my shame keeps me bound. The puffs of smoke are to hide behind, the scream of fire simply a scream of need. No one gets me. Everyone feels this way at one time or another. No one gets me. It is true. No person can possibly get you, the true you, the real you. You think if you are exposed as the true person you are, those around you will see the monster and run. But Jesus has seen that monster. As you lean back and cower in the dark, dank corner of your cage fearing the light; Jesus comes and reaches out a hand to touch you. The brilliance of His presence is almost agonizing, as you hear all the people who have ever brought you down speak into your mind once again; because the pain they have left is no longer hidden in the dark as Jesus draws it to the light. The steel chains burn as Jesus reaches forward and points to your hand. You look down at your clenched fist and slowly hand your fist to Jesus. He gently unfolds your fingers and takes the keys to your chains and cage out of your hand. He unlocks you and carries you out into the sun and suddenly you realize, you are not the monster that you saw, and you see that you are the one who locked yourself in that cage. Your emotions allowed everything anyone ever said about you to make you feel unlovable, so much so that you locked yourself away. Allow Jesus to take the keys and set you free. Permit His love to burn away the fear and pain. He is not judging you, He loves you. Trust Him. You are not a monster. You ARE a child of God.

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MOM!!!
Blog · Devotional · dreams do come true · encouragement · Jesus · mother's day

MOM!!!

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I have no experience being a mother to a person, I do however have a dog that I got at 8 weeks old, and my mom’s constant statement was,
‘Now you see what motherhood is all about.’
There were….and sometimes still are..long sleepless nights, the pain of having to punish this small one whom I cherished, the fear of him getting hurt, the times we would break the rules together, and the times when said rules no longer applied because I just can’t say no to that face. The poop in my shoe, the mud on my floors, the totally destroyed whatever he could fit in his mouth, all led to this point; Almost 7 and a half years of absolute love, not always joy, but always love.
Guess what? I miss those growing up years. I long to go back because I know that I won’t always have him.
Any mothers of human babies nodding their heads and remembering those years with your kids? Or perhaps looking toward them?
Jesus gave us mothers for 3 distinct reasons. (This is my opinion by the way)
1. To be our caretaker
2. To be our friend
3. To show us Jesus

The word ‘Caretaker’ has many limbs to it.
Protector, provider, on call doctor and sometimes surgeon, warrior against the big bad wolf; you get my point. Without our moms, or sometimes a dad or grandparent filling that role, we would die. We need that nurture and care because we are living. We feel, we need, so God gave us someone to help Him take care of us.

‘Friend’ is always that.
Someone to laugh with, cry with, argue with; and someone you can trust has got your back. Sometimes that friend points out flaws that only a friend can, other times they are the only one who understands you, but they are always there for you.
Jesus knew we would need someone we could rely on for more than just provision and care so He made our mothers our friends.

Lastly..yes you can sigh a breath of relief….lastly and most importantly, mothers are here to show us Jesus.
Because our mothers care for us we know they have our needs in mind.
Because they are our friends we know we can trust them.
That is why they are ideal for telling us about Jesus. We know they teach us of Jesus because they know we need Him and He is essential.
We know all they say about Him is true because we trust them. We need our mothers to show us Jesus, we need to learn from this person we love and trust. If they do not show us Jesus then who will? And how can we trust a stranger or know that we actually need what they are trying to sell us? Without our mothers guidance we can easily be lost. Whether we are being that mother or have that mother, or in some cases both, this world needs mothers. These mother cheracter traits can be applied to everyone we take care of. If we care for people, befriend people and show them Jesus, then we can help Him make this world what it should be.
God knew what He was doing when He made moms undercover heros. Hopefully women of prayer who fight along side God. My mom is and so was her mom. My mom’s mom was an adopted war baby, my mom is one of three sisters who are not adopted. Becoming a mom can look very different from person to person, but that does not change the MOM dynamic. Because this world needs us ladies. Do not think the title MOM makes us week, it is the opposite, because we are MOM we are powerful. Warriors on the frontlines all over this world, no matter your race, beliefs, social status; no matter how you ended up a mom, or if you are instead gifted with being mom to those around you that you see need you, you are special and amazing, God blessed with the right traits to make this world a right place.

HAPPY MOTHER’S DAY

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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