Tag: Jesus

The gift not under the tree
Christianity · Devotional · Jesus · Uncategorized

The gift not under the tree

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At Christmas time we think so much about gifts; giving and receiving. C.S. Lewis says that the greatest sacrifice was not on the cross but in the Manger. God reducing himself to a human baby to save the world. We mostly think of Jesus Himself when we think of Christmas, we don’t always acknowledge the sacrifice that God went through. There is no one on this earth who knows more love than a parent’s child, (Weather natural born or adopted). 

Jesus is in truth an only child. Being one myself I know what that means. It means that there is no one else for your parent to share their love with other than you. You are top on their list and are more valued than anyone else. Now think, God gave His most valued treasure to us to be mocked, beaten and murdered by us. Every tear Jesus shed God would have felt, every lash, every nail. I know that God turned His face away because of the sin Jesus took for us, but that doesn’t mean His heart wasn’t in agony for His beloved son. 

No one I know would sacrifice their child for anyone, let alone a world that mocked and hated them. So as God placed His child in Mary’s arms, knowing what would befall Him, He gave up the center of His heart to save us.

Made new 
Christianity · Devotional · Jesus · Uncategorized

Made new 

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The ocean uses everything in it for the benefit of the ones living in it. One of my favorite childhood pastimes was searching for seaglass. Sea glass is beautiful and highly coveted by beach combers, but do you realize what sea glass is? It’s trash, bits of discarded glass and pottery that some lazy person has dropped on the beach or in the Ocean instead of taking it to the garbage. After being discarded this trash is thrown and tossed and caressed and formed by the sea. Let me repeat that. This garbage is formed into something beautiful and sought after. 

We are like sea glass. In truth most people start off pretty worthless, and then God takes them. There is tossing and rough beatings getting us to our potential  but in the center of that is a gentle guiding hand and in the end we are beautiful and refined. 

As the sea makes broken bottles into shimmering crystals, God makes broken people into strong warriors.

Mistake
Devotional · dreams do come true · Jesus · Uncategorized

Mistake

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You are being yourself and a person questions your character, your dream, what you are doing, your goals and suddenly your concerned. Maybe they’re right, this person is a stronger Chritian than you are, they work at food drives and go on missions trips and live the Christian life that seems to be right. So are you wrong? 

Guess what, what that person thinks or says, does not matter! Yikes, I know right, can you say that about someone else who is a brother or sister in Christ? Yes you can. Constructive criticism is a good thing but these people don’t know what your life is supposed to be all about. They don’t know who God made you to be. I once heard it said that life is a guessing game. And it’s true. Even if you’re a Christian you don’t know what your life is meant to be, and you look at the options guessing, wondering which is right; the difference between a Christian guessing and a non-Christian guessing is the Christian knows the one who knows the answers. Do you know why God gave Moses a burning bush? Because he would never have done what God needed him to do without such a sure sign. Even after all of the wonders God did through him when God asked him to go talk to Pharoh again Moses said, “oh, I don’t know God, even your own people won’t listen to me so why should Pharoh?” God stood there and shook His head, ” seriously Moses? We’re going through this self doubt thing again? What more do I have to do to show you I have this under control?” Then God gave in and again sent Arron to help but the miracles were done through Moses. Do you have any idea how many people told Moses he was a failure, he was wrong, he was doing the wrong things? I bet Moses said to himself more than once, ‘why didn’t I ignore that bush and keep going? I had a good, quiet life as a shepherd and now I’m stuck in the desert with all these complaining, negative people!’ However God had a big plan for Moses. Moses wasn’t a dreamer, that was Joseph, Moses never dreamed of doing all the things he did, but God had planned on it and was leading him to the right bush at the right time. Not everybody can see your potential and they may be down on you because they just don’t get it. Moses simply followed what he saw God leading him to do and when he didn’t see he prayed and God said ‘see that staff of wood in your hand? Stretch it out toward the sea.’ Guess what, that sea parted right down the middle and never again has anyone seen anything like it, even Pharohs sorcerers couldn’t copy that one.

So ignore negative voices and don’t take anything to heart that sounds like it’s not from God. He knows His dream for you, no one else does. Thank you Jesus for you dream for me. Amen. 

The courage to stand
Christianity · Devotional · dreams do come true · Jesus · Uncategorized

The courage to stand

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You will not have to fight this battle; take up your positions, stand firm and see the deliverance the Lord will give you.- 2 Chronicles 17

When we are down and are having a hard time seeing something we are after succeed what is the first thing most of us do? We look for a way to make what we are after happen; because why shouldn’t it happen right now? Why shouldn’t we get that raise and make more money? Why shouldn’t that play we’ve written get produced today? Why shouldn’t the healing we’ve been asking and waiting for happen now? And all that happens is we start to worry more and more and more, until we are consumed by fear. Sometimes God isn’t wanting us to work to attain the things we are after, sometimes God simply wants us to stand. To wait. To trust that He will take care of it all.

It’s funny how doing nothing except praying is often the hardest thing we can do. It should be simple but it’s frustrating  and makes us feel restless. That doesn’t change the fact that God knows what He’s doing, and being annoyed and afraid is not going to make our desires happen faster. Sometimes we just need to have the faith to stand firm and trust God. Our dreams can and most likely will happen, just not in the timing we desire or exspect.

Who is Grace?
Christianity · Devotional · Jesus

Who is Grace?

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According to the richness of His grace.-Ephesians 1:7
What a statement, the richness of God’s grace. Richness that if put into gold or gems would overflow the ocean and fill the greatness of the deserts. God’s grace is the reason we all have a chance to get into his paradise; God’s grace is the reason we always have someone to turn to and the reason life has worth; God’s grace is never ending. Grace is defined as the free and unmerited favor of God, as manifested in the salvation of sinners and the bestowal of blessings. When you look at the definition of grace it’s a single sentence statement, which seems far too simple. Grace, God’s grace is simple; it’s straightforward, God loves us! His grace is unmerited, He gives us blessings, He saves ALL of us and ALL of us are sinners who need to be saved! There is no clincher, there is no pay back in the end, God is abundant in grace and in His grace is mercy. Grace and mercy go together, why should the God who knows everything about us give us blessings? He knows what we’ve done, what we’ve thought and He knows we deserve punishment, but instead He is merciful and blesses us through His richness of grace. That’s our Father who loves us, our daddy who we cry out to, He is all-powerful and full of mercy and grace.

Christianity · Devotional · Jesus · Uncategorized

Screaming alone?

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In God, I will praise His word, In God have I put my trust, I will not be afraid; what can flesh do unto me? –Psalm 56:4
How many times have we sat back and just screamed because we didn’t know what else to do? Instead of fears and screams, we need prayer and praise. As long as we have God on our side nothing can hurt us, it’s when we try to do things without God that we stumble and fall. When we stumble with Jesus He is there to catch us and we never fully hit the ground. Jesus is there with His hand on our backs guiding us along, even though we do not always feel Him, He is there, and we have no reason to be afraid. He dries our tears when we cry and jumps with us when we are glad, He is our friend and our savior.

Christianity · Devotional · Jesus · Uncategorized

Patience and Understanding

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Patience and understanding are two things which cause most people to groan inside when mentioned. Not many want to go to the effort of having patience with other people and trying to understand their situation takes too much brain strain; so what is our solution? We get agitated and sometimes even lash out, (why else would cars have horns?) We look to vent our frustration and make ourselves feel better, often causing the irritating person to feel worse about their private problem that is causing them to bother us. Most people don’t go out of their way to be a problem, some do, but not most. We all have moments where we drive people crazy. Patience and understanding are things we want other people to have with us but are not things we want to have with others. Like I said, it’s too much work. But when Jesus said, “Treat others as you would have others treat you,” He meant it. Jesus had the ultimate patience, ‘of course He did,’ you say, ‘He is God’s son.’ True but He was made into full man and experienced the same temptations we do; don’t you think that Jesus felt annoyed at times? Any of the rest of us would have eventually just told the pharisees after the second, or even the first encounter with them what they could do with their opinions. Jesus didn’t because He did not yield to the spirit of irritation. Yes we need to vent, but let us try to instead vent to God and tell Him how we feel and ask Him what we should do about it. Don’t feel too bad about being annoyed, but try to see the situation from the other person’s point of view and then renew an old saying, ‘what would Jesus do?’

Diamonds in the Rough
Christianity · Devotional · Jesus

Diamonds in the Rough

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It is not what is outside, but what is in.
If God was a miner of precious stones, if He delved deep into the mountains of the world in search of all who were worthy to be fit into a piece of His crown would He pick you? Would He pick me? Would He pick any of our friends or relations? No, because none of us are worthy to be picked by God, to be called His special treasures; but God doesn’t look for those who are worthy; instead He looks for those who have potential, diamonds in the rough. We are less than adequate here on earth, but once we are with God, brought forth into pure beings who serve Him fully, then we will have been refined and been made worthy. Even the most devout Christians have their flaws and yes we do go through a refining process here on earth, but only in Heaven will our true lights shine as reflections of the glowing radiance of Christ.

Christianity · Devotional

The love of Christ

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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

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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.