Tag: Devotional

Christianity · Devotional

The love of Christ

carriedinthecross2 Comments

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?- Romans 8:35

Many things can separate us from the love of friends, neighbors, spouses and even family. But nothing can separate us from the love of Christ. We are His and He is ours. No matter what we do or say, even if we are not Christians God loves us. Just because you can’t see the sun doesn’t mean it’s not there. God loves us! All of us! And no one and no thing can change that. Not even we can change that. We may want God to leave us be at times, and want to do things our way without having to consider what His will might be, but even when we are like that God stays close and waits until we see that we need Him and He knows best; and all the time He is waiting on us He is loving us, because nothing can separate us from the love of Christ!

Laughing at yesterday
Christianity · Devotional · Uncategorized

Laughing at yesterday

carriedinthecross1 Comment

I know it is not scriptural, really, but when you think of it- discontentment can be such a subtle sin that we don’t even realize that it is there.
If only we could all laugh at yesterday and then forget all that went wrong and move on. We are all weak, and prone to sin, but the sins of yesterday are past and as long as we have asked for forgiveness we are all saved from them. As long as you can laugh at yesterday and smile at the possibilities of today nothing will hold you back.

We must learn to take our contentment from God and hold tight to His unchanging hand.

As my mother says: If we truly lived in contentment and fully trusted God how peaceful our lives could be. – Lynne VanBeek.

We can learn to not be discontented by trusting in God and knowing that somehow all things that happen to us are for our good, though we may not see it until the very end. Trust is Faith and Faith in God draws us closer to Him.

Little is Much
Christianity · Devotional

Little is Much

carriedinthecross2 Comments

Better is little with the fear of Jehovah, then great treasure and trouble therewith-Proverbs 15:16
One of Tolkien’s poems is about an Elvin treasure that has a deep magic upon it; Magic so deep that eventually the elves leave. During this poem a dwarf finds the treasure and delves deeper and deeper into the mountain until he is old, deaf and blind. A young dragon comes and kills the old dwarf taking his treasure. Latter the dragon is old, deaf and blind, when a young knight comes in and slays the dragon taking his treasure. Next the same happens to the knight and when the crusaders come he is also slain. The crusaders leave the treasure untouched and soon it is forgotten. A treasure that takes the very soul of a person, dragon, dwarf, is also like a coveted sin. Many have sins that they know deep down are wrong but they will not yield them. Those sins will eventually cause them great trouble. It is better to have a little and trust fully in God and serve him than to have great riches and power that eventually consume and destroy you.

Christianity · Devotional

Remembering who HE is

carriedinthecross1 Comment

I love how Jerimiah 33:1-3 first states who God is. ‘He who made the earth, who formed it and established it. ‘

Only after this does Jerimiah say the promise of God. ‘  Call to me and I will answer you, and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know.’

Jerimiah doesn’t forget WHO God is, before declaring WHAT He will do.

It is so easy to treat God like a genie in a bottle who grants a wish and appears when you rub his lamp. We forget that God is awesome! In the true definition of the word. We forget that He IS the almighty, the I Am, master, king, creator of the universe. God is so much more than a wish granter, the only reason He pays attention to us is because He loves us. He doesn’t have to help us, He wants to. Let us not take advantage of God’s love and forget who God is in the process.

Set Free
Christianity

Set Free

carriedinthecross3 Comments

What good is it for a man to gain the whole world but to lose his very soul? –Matthew 16:26
In The Voyage of the Dawn-treader, the group of main characters land on an island in search of provisions. While all the others are searching Eustace wanders off and stumbles across a dragon’s hoard. In his blind greed Eustace starts taking bits of treasure. But a dragon’s treasure is cursed and the boy turns into a dragon. Nearing the end of the book, Aslan has Eustace climb into a pool, Eustace tries to wash the scales off himself but fails, only when Aslan helps him do the layers and layers of skin finally come off.
In our lives sins pile up and cling to us, like a forbidden treasure, we keep on gathering more sins until we are so laden down that everyday is a struggle. Only when God offers to peel off our layers of sin will we finally be who we were created to be. We can’t remove the sins ourselves we must have Jesus to remove them by the purity of His sacrifice. By dying on the cross our sins were washed clean, and through knowing Jesus personally we can be made free from the bonds of this world. Sometimes it is painful to have the scaly sins stripped away, but in the end the healing balm of Christ’s eternal presence in our lives soothes the hurt and we can see how much greater it is to be scale free. Without Jesus we are trapped, with Him we are free.