Monthly Archives: November 2011

Devotional Studies Through the Bible

>In Good Times and In Bad Times

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Discovering the Comings of Christ
and Trust in the Midst of Trial
through the Life of Joseph
 
This post begins the third and final section of our devotional study in Genesis. I hope you have been blessed by the journey thus far and in all sincerity I can’t imagine how you could not be blessed, encouraged, strengthened, and filled with hope as we continue this journey through the Word of God. Let us keep going and be led by the Spirit of God into the recorded life of Joseph, son of Jacob…
 
Joseph, when seventeen years of age,
was pasturing the flock with his brothers
while he was still a youth.
Genesis 37:2
 
We now begin the story of Joseph—the firstborn of Rachel, Jacob’s most favored son from his most loved wife. There is so much to learn from the life of Joseph. He is the most accurate picture of Christ in the Old Testament; the similarities and the foreshadowing are eye opening.
 
One thing that still amazes me is that God, in his sovereignty, chose for Christ to come through the line of Judah as opposed to the line of Joseph. At this point, by all human merit and reasoning, Judah is far from holiness and righteousness and justice. Yet God does not work according to human reasoning; His thoughts are not our thoughts, and His ways are not our ways (Isaiah 55:8).
 
What we learn from these chapters about the life of Joseph is that obedience to God sometimes brings hatred from others. God’s favor on our lives sometimes brings jealousy from those who are not seeking or striving toward obedience to God and His Word.
 
Joseph will go through a lot in the next thirteen chapters of Genesis, yet through it all, he holds fast to God. Might we learn from the life of Joseph how to handle the things in life that we just don’t understand.
 
Oh Father,
 
When I don’t understand why, help me to not forget the who—the who being You, my God. May I cling to and remember Your Word when times of trouble try to overtake me. You have given me Your Word that I might know that You are God. You have recorded the lives of Your saints that I might know that You are faithful. You are my God, and You are with me wherever I go. You never forsake those who seek You (Psalm 9:10). My Father and my God, I trust in You, and I know that You are never caught by surprise, nor are You ever caught off guard. In good times and in bad times, You are my Adonai.
 
My Jesus, it is in Your name I pray,
Amen.
Confessions of a Christian Wife

>Can I Get An Amen!

>One of the attendant aims of missional evangelicalism is to challenge the compartmentalizing of the Christian faith that we see within the Western church. We are fantastic at itemizing our schedules, and even if we don’t assign God a very large bracket, we are constantly remorseful that we “haven’t made much time for him.” While such compartmentalizing — as if “time with God” can or should be hermetically sealed off from everything else — is a natural symptom of our culture and environment, it also reflects a bad theology.

The truth is, the day does not belong to us. It is not our day to do with as we please. We serve a sovereign God. He created the end from the beginning, knows our future exhaustively, and is firmly in control. He made our days and they belong to him. As such, isn’t it a bit arrogant to begin with the idea that each day is ours and then worry about fitting God in? Instead, we should work at the humble awe of knowing all of our moments, every millisecond, waking or sleeping, are perfectly accounted for within the economy of heaven.

Let us stake the flag of Christ’s kingdom into the soil of our first waking moment. Drink your coffee when you get up, of course, but drink it to the glory of God. Then carry on in this way all day, no matter the task, be it menial or notable, so that each day may be a living prayer that God’s will will be done on earth as it is in heaven. This is what it means to live a gospel-saturated life: it means being so conscious of the greatness of the gospel that changing diapers or cutting the grass is as much an act of worship as singing a praise chorus in a church service….

Jesus Christ is Lord over my heart, and he is Lord over my hands, and he is Lord over what I do with these hands, and he is Lord over what I say in my heart while I’m doing it. In submitting to the lordship of Christ, then, I do not treat washing dishes as wasting time I could be spending doing something “meaningful,” but rather as a service to those who eat in my home, as a service to those who would have to wash the dishes if I did not, and as an offering of thanksgiving to God that I have food to eat, dishes to eat it on, and running water inside my home to clean with.

To paraphrase C. S. Lewis, there is not a square inch of our lives that is not claimed by God and counterclaimed by ourselves. If we believe God is sovereign, however, we will see all of life as mission and be led to submit the square inches we otherwise hold so tightly to the Maker of inches and hands.

~ Jared Wilson from Gospel Wakefulness

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Oh wow, I love this!
How releasing, how liberating is it to hear these words?
Are you like me?
Do you struggle with guilt on whether or not you are doing enough for the glory of God?

Have you ever said, if I had have known Christ before I would have been on that mission field?
I wish I could be on a plane right now to that orphanage…
What could I be doing for You God if I had not the “responsibilities” I have in this world?
Or simply, I didn’t make enough time for You today God.
Oh my goodness to be reminded that God is not waiting to be “fit” into “our” schedule.
I never before thought about how arrogant that really sounded.

Just knowing that all that I do is for the glory of the gospel, or at least it should be, does two things:

1) Gives every area of life meaning and purpose for the glory of the gospel of God
2) Reminds us that every area of life should be lived in awareness that it has meaning and purpose for the glory of the gospel of God

God is in our everything… our every moment… our every day…
I know this, I really already do, but it is always wonderful and breathtaking to be reminded of this truth.

Hopefully one day I will fully “get it” 🙂

Names of God Series, Uncategorized

Names of God – El Elyon

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Before we learn about this next name of God we have to do a little context review to get the whole powerful punch of the moment.

If you recall in Genesis 12 God called out to a man named Abram from Ur of the Chaldean’s. He didn’t explain who He was. He didn’t give any detailed message. He simply said something like, “you Abram, go now” and Abram said “okay“. I often wonder exactly how God appeared to Abram. I mean Moses got a burning bush… I guess I’ll have to ask for that first hand account when I see him in eternity 🙂

Okay back to Abram. So the Lord calls him out and sends him to a place that He will show him when he gets there. Now that’s our God for us, “here, go, and I am not going to tell you where, but if you will listen closely as you go, then you’ll get there… and you will learn lessons all the way… because I already know that you are not a very good listener… but you will learn to be as you go.”

Abram heads out, in slight obedience, which is full disobedience. God told him to leave his family, but he took them with him… yeh the not so good listening skills part. So there were things that needed to happen to help Abram get back on the right track and you can read all about it in Genesis 12 and Genesis 13.

Now by Genesis 14 God has Abram and Sarai separated from all the rest of their family. So now here is Abram following a God he does not know all that well and now all his family is gone. They might have thought he was crazy in following this God, but they at least loved him anyway, right. Now it’s just him and Sarai.

Then the word comes that his nephew has been taken captive and so Abram and his men and his God go to battle against five kings, yes that’s right five kings. Guess who wins? Yep, ding-ding-ding, Abram! The amazing thing in this chapter is who Abram gets the opportunity to meet after the battle is over.

Finally after all this time he gets to meet a man who not only follows the same God he has been following, but this man knows Him and can teach him about this God.

Hmmmm what a coincidence… 🙂

This man’s name is Melchizedek and he is king and priest of Salem and he introduces Abram to God as God Most High or El Elyon.

Abram learns this day that this God that has called him out and that he has been following is not just any god. He is not one of the many gods that Abram has heard about throughout his life and travels… this God is El Elyon, God Most High.

Remember the former things long past,
For I am God, and there is no other;
I am God, and there is no one like Me,
Isaiah 46:9

He is the God of gods.

Blessed be Abram of God Most High,
Possessor of heaven and earth; 
 And blessed be God Most High,
Who has delivered your enemies into your hand.
Genesis 14:19-20 
From this encounter with Melchizedek we learn right along with Abram that our God is not only the Creator God who created the heavens and the earth, but He is the Possessor of heaven and earth. He owns it, it is in His hands and all that it is in it.
 For the world is Mine, and all it contains.
Psalm 50:12

We also learn right along with Abram that his victory over the enemies was not his, he did not accomplish this in his own strength and strategic planning. God Most High delivered them into his hands… as He will our enemies if He will just trust Him.

To know that God will deliver us from our enemies we have to recognize that we will have enemies. We will face enemies in our life. Difficult days and people and trials will come, but we must remember who the Possessor of each day is and trust that He is with us. Our difficulties are for a purpose, our battles will teach us more of who our God is if we will just face them and let Him fight for us.

That men may know from the rising to the setting of the sun
That there is no one besides Me.
I am the LORD, and there is no other,
The One forming light and creating darkness,
Causing well-being and creating calamity;
I am the LORD who does all these.
Isaiah 45:6-7
Our El Elyon holds us in His hands and He holds our nation in His hands. No king rises or falls without the permission the God Most High. Nebuchadnezzar is another one who had to learn this lesson the hard way…
this is the interpretation, O king,
and this is the decree of the Most High,
which has come upon my lord the king: 
that you be driven away from mankind
and your dwelling place be with the beasts of the field,
and you be given grass to eat like cattle
and be drenched with the dew of heaven;
and seven periods of time will pass over you,
until you recognize that the Most High
is ruler over the realm of mankind
and bestows it on whomever He wishes. 
And in that it was commanded to leave the stump
with the roots of the tree,
your kingdom will be assured to you
after you recognize that it is Heaven that rules.
Daniel 4:24-26
I don’t know about you but I had rather learn about my God through stumbling through obedience than leg striping disobedience. Crawling around on all fours and eating grass just doesn’t sound like much fun to me…

 

Devotional Studies Through the Bible

>Leave A Legacy Not A Tragedy

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Now these are the records
of the generations of Esau (that is Edom).
Genesis 36:1
 
This entire chapter is dedicated to the descendants of Esau by his three wives. As we read through this list of genealogy, we see the names of so many nations that are enemies to the nation ofIsrael, from past history to present day. It never ceases to amaze me the weight that our choices have on our future and on the future of our children.
 
In Deuteronomy 5:9–10, we read “I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, and on the third and the fourth generations of those who hate Me, but showing lovingkindness to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.”
 
You see this truth played out in the genealogies of Esau. You can see this truth being played out in the world today. When one generation chooses to not honor God, to not obey His commandments, to not teach them to their children, we quickly see the sad results.
 
My parents were taught the Word of God in school. I was not. Now my children are in a day where the Word of God is not simply neglected in school, but it is ridiculed and disdained. You see, our actions always have reactions and our disobedience and sin always have consequences.
 
Do you not rejoice that our salvation is according to us individually and is not hinged on the obedience of others?
 
Thanks be to the divine intervention of the power of Christ and being made new in Him. In Christ we have a future and a hope no matter what lies behind us or before us. In Christ our salvation is not dependant on our nation, our ethnicity, our gender, our race. It is our own personal faith.
 
Oh Father,
 
I so desire to leave a legacy and not a tragedy. Help me to make wise choices according to Your wisdom and not my own. May I never forget that I am a sower of seed. May I never forget that my children are watching me. May I never forget that there are eyes on me who are searching out the reality of You. Might they see in me how You are to be honored and worshiped and obeyed.
 
My Jesus, it is in Your name that I pray,
Amen.
Confessions of a Christian Wife, Uncategorized

>Lifting Grace

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Now the young lady pleased him
and found favor with him.
Esther 2:9

Esther exhibited a grace-filled charm and elegance. In this verse, the literal translation of the original language says, “She lifted up grace before his face.” Isn’t that a beautiful expression? Though she was brought to the harem and participated in these things reluctantly, Esther did not display a sour attitude. I’m convinced she sensed God’s hand in her situation. Why else would she have been there? ~ Swindoll


I would have to say that one of the most important lessons that God is teaching me in and through my marriage is how to give grace. Isn’t it a funny thing how we seem to be able to easily offer grace to the stranger on the street, to the hurting on the mission field, to the friend that’s lost as a goose, but we will find ourselves unwilling to give grace to our own spouse.

We place this expectation of perfection on them and this unspoken demand that they should be able to read our minds and know exactly what we need and want, when we need and want it, the way we need and want it. We expect them never to be angry or frustrated or make a mistake and they simply must just understand us perfectly.

My husband and I have finally learned in our 13 years of marriage that we filter things differently. We see things differently. We understand things differently. We interpret things differently. It took us a while to realize that we have a breakdown in communication between the female and male way of thinking and doing.

One of the most powerful illustrations of the realization I have for this breakdown happened not long ago.
You see I am not “Betty Crocker” at all. I can cook, but I do not love to cook. If I am given the slightest out on cooking I am taking it.

“Oh, your mother wants us to come out for dinner tonight, well great!” (I truly love my mother-in-laws cooking!)
“You’re still full from a late lunch? Okay, the girls and I will have a bowl of cereal.”
“You want to go eat where? That’s sounds like a plan to me.”

Like I said I can cook and usually my food is pretty tasty, but I am a klutz in the kitchen. I literally have kitchen wars battle scars all over my arms and hands from the past 13 years of cooking for my husband.
I always manage to make a mess.  I will spill something, boil something over, knock something over, freakish things will happen to me in the kitchen when I am just tying to do the simplest thing.

Once I was in the middle of making out of the box mac & cheese and I go to shake down the pack of powdered cheese and in mid shake the package opens itself and me and my kitchen are now covered in powdered cheese. I found scattered powdered cheese for weeks.

Now on the opposite end my husband loves to cook and he is a wonderful cook. I mean he is in the “he could do this for a living if he wanted to” category of good. And while I am here in my kitchen klutz mode with battle scars and powdered cheese I felt that I could never meet his standard of cooking and that he was comparing me to all those women on the Food Network who are talking about feeding their men, oh you know, the Barefoot Contessa and her Jeffrey and Paula Dean and her Michael.
I mean I could never be them.

So this is where my cooking frustration is rooted.

Now back to the realization illustration… On one particular day I am cooking dinner and the usual freakish things and injuries are taking place as I attempt to prepare this meal. My husband is in the kitchen and I mouth off my usual “This is why I hate cooking!”  

As I mouthed how I hated cooking, what my husband heard was “I hate taking care of you!”

Ouch!

Of course, me, knowing what I knew about myself, when he let me know this was what he heard, I grew indignant at his response. I thought how in the world can you even think such a thing! That’s ridiculous!

Major miscommunication.

Because in truth what I wanted was my husband to see how much I sacrifice in order to take care of him by the fact that I am willing to suffer the battle scars and the messes made by my kitchen klutzdom. But the words coming out of my mouth counter-acted my actions.

I displayed a sour attitude and I did not lift up grace to my husband. I was playing the martyr. I think that possibly I was even trying to manipulate him through guilt into saying something encouraging to me as I struggled there before the stove. I was sending signals and expecting to hear words of his great appreciation as he acknowledged my willing sacrifice to do this cooking thing I hated so much just because I loved him.
I certainly was not expecting that he would interpret my words as hating to take care of him and our family.

Major backfire.

So here is where grace comes in. My husband knows me very well. Most likely better than any other mortal on the earth besides my parents, but he cannot read my mind. I know my husband very well. Most likely more than any other mortal on the earth besides his parents, but I cannot read his mind.

Neither of us are perfect.
Neither of us can assume everything about the other.
Both of us are growing and changing as we grow in the knowledge of the Lord and in His wisdom.
Both of us have flesh that grows weary and frustrated and sick.
Both of us have needs and wants and particular ways we prefer to have things done.
We understand each other perty well, but not yet perfectly, but we are pressing on for maturity.

As we press on we must lift up grace. If we are to receive grace we must first be willing to give grace. The only way we are able to receive the grace of God is because God was first willing to give it to us. Grace is a gift. Ladies, if we have received grace from God we can give it to our husbands. Let us lavish grace and mercy on them the way that God has lavished His on us.

In Him we have redemption through His blood,
the forgiveness of our trespasses,
according to the riches of His grace 
which He lavished on us.
In all wisdom and insight 
He made known to us the mystery of His will,
according to His kind intention
which He purposed in Him.
Ephesians 1:7-9
Notice that in the grace that was lavished on us God made known the mystery of His will. He does not expect us to read His mind or figure Him out by sending “signals”. In His offered grace He flat out makes known what He wants from us, what He needs from us, and the way He prefers it to be done and also notice it was according to His kind intention, not finger-shaking, head-bobbing, foot-stomping, harsh demand.
So your challenges:
1) Lift up grace before his face. Think of at least one thing that you have been “giving signals” over and then have pouted over because he didn’t get the signal. Offer him grace. Don’t assume he is ignoring the “signal”. Go to him and make known the mystery of your will and do it with kindness not in an accusatory or belittling tone.  
2) Look for God’s hand in a situation that you are not particularly happy to be in. Think of at least one thing that you do for your husband with “a sour attitude” and turn that sour attitude into sweet submission trusting that God’s hand is at work in him and in you and in your marriage.
Names of God Series, Uncategorized

Names of God – Elohim

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When we open to the first verse of the first chapter of the Bible the first thing God does is introduce Himself to us with one of His names.

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
Genesis 1:1
God in Genesis 1:1 in the Hebrew is “Elohim“.
So what exactly does this name tell us about our God?
To find out we must first look at the context. What is God doing when He uses this particular name for Himself? When we look we see that He is creating the heavens and the earth. This is God’s name to show us that He is the Creator God.
The name Elohim is a noun masculine and it is also plural.
In the very beginning God our Creator introduces Himself to us as the Trinity.
When we read further in this first chapter of the Word we read,
Let Us make man in Our image…
Genesis 1:26
Wow!
Now when we look back at the first few verses of this chapter we notice that we see this truth even more clearly…
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 
The earth was formless and void,
and darkness was over the surface of the deep,
and the Spirit of God was moving
over the surface of the waters. 
Then God said…,
Genesis 1:1-3
Now compare with the revealed mystery in the New Testament
In the beginning was the Word,
and the Word was with God,
and the Word was God. 
He was in the beginning with God. 
All things came into being through Him,
and apart from Him nothing came into being
that has come into being. ….
And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us…
John 1:1-3, 14 
In the beginnings God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit… absolutely breathtakingly beautiful!
We also learn from the Hebrew definition of the word created that our Creator God creates out of nothing. We may say we create something but we in our creations we always start with something, but God creates out of nothing.
Our Creator God is so huge and powerful that He not only created this massive universe but He sustains it, orders it, controls it, and upholds it with only His word.
And He is the radiance of His glory
and the exact representation of His nature,
and upholds all things by the word of His power…
Hebrews 1:3
Not only this but our Creator God is so intimately involved with His creation that while He is upholding the entire universe by the word of His power He is also able to tenderly knit a life within the womb.
For You formed my inward parts;
You wove me in my mother’s womb.
Psalm 139:13

 

Oh precious one, how amazing is our Creator God! How can we ever doubt this God is so awesome that He can create and sustain galaxies and yet is so tender and able to draw so close to us that He knits life within our womb? He controls when and how and where the sun shines and a star falls and He also cares for the doe as she gives birth and makes sure a sparrow is fed and knows us so well that He has numbered every hair on our head. How easy it is to see why David cried out, wrote about, and sang about how he and we can find help in His name.

 Our help is in the name of the LORD,
Who made heaven and earth. 
Psalm 124:8
Devotional Studies Through the Bible

>Son of My Right Hand

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Then they journeyed from Bethel;
and when there was still some distance to go
to Ephrath, Rachel began to give birth
and she suffered severe labor.
Genesis 35:16
 
In Genesis 31:28 Jacob wrestled with the angel. When Jacob cried out for the blessing, the angel said, “Your name shall no longer be Jacob, but Israel; for you have striven with God and with men and have prevailed.”
 
The Lord has given him this new name. This new name points us toward the nation that God said He would make through Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. We will see Jacob andIsraelinterchanged throughout the rest of the Scriptures.
 
Here in Genesis 35, God addresses Jacob asIsrael. God reminds him that a nation and a company of nations will come from him, and kings also shall come from him. And what we know today is that the King of kings shall come from him.
 
Israelis on his way home, to the land of his fathers. Rachel again conceives a child. Possibly, her pregnancy was one of the reasons that Jacob chose to set up camp at Shechem.
 
On the journey from Shechem toBethel, Rachel goes into labor. They have to stop at Ephrath, which today is calledBethlehem. Let that sink in for a moment. I believe it is no accident that Rachel goes into labor inBethlehem.
 
The Prophet Micah declared,
 
But as for you, Bethlehem Ephrathah,
too little to be among the clans of Judah,
from you One will go forth for Me to be ruler in Israel.
His goings forth are from long ago,
from the days of eternity.
Therefore He will give them up
until the time when she who is in labor
has borne a child.
Micah 5:2–3
 
Rachel has trouble in her labor. The midwife tries to encourage her by telling her she has another son. Rachel, however, knows that she is dying; her last words are in the naming of her son. She names him Ben-oni, which means “the son of my sorrow.” Jacob, however, changes his name and calls him Benjamin, which means “the son of my right hand.”
 
There are no coincidences with God. In the birth of this son, God gives us a beautiful picture of the comings of Christ. When Jesus came to the earth the first time, he came as the son of sorrow. He came to bear our sin and the sins of the world on His shoulders. He came the first time to die a substitutional death on the cross.
 
Oh, but, precious one, rejoice because He also is Benjamin, the Son of God’s right hand. “When He had made purification of sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high” (Hebrews 1:3). When Jesus comes again, He will come in all His glory.
 
Oh Father,
 
How I thank You for my salvation. My Jesus, thank You for coming to bear my sins, to make the way for me to be forgiven and reconciled to God. ThankYou for now being my High Priest who stands at the right hand of God, interceding on my behalf (Hebrews 8:1).
My Jesus, thank You for the truth that I know You are coming again. The first time You came concerning sin, but the next time You will come for salvation, without reference to sin, to those who eagerly await (Hebrews 9:28). Come quickly, my Jesus. How I look forward to the day when all eyes will see You in Your glory; When all will know and when none can deny that You are King of kings and Lord of lords.
 
My Jesus, it is in Your name I pray,
Amen.
Names of God Series, Uncategorized

Introduction To A Study of The Names of God

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At our Homeschool Co-op we have a Chapel time during our snack time. We break bread (or popcorn) together while we study in the Word of God together. I have the privilege of leading this time.

As I considered this chapel time I had to recognize that we were a diverse group from different denominational backgrounds. I would also be teaching an age range from pre-school to adults. My dilemma was what did I need to focus on that would keep the attention span of a pre-schooler and yet also be edifying and encouraging for every age in the room including the adults, while not offending any one’s denominational doctrine.

As I was seeking God’s will for this chapel time and was asking Him what direction I needed to go in, He led me to Himself. He simply said… teach Me. So the chapel time is focused on learning the names of God.

We learn a new Hebrew name for God each week of co-op and we look at what that name means, where God teaches it to us, and how knowing it applies to our lives.

I introduced the study by sharing how I have had different names through out my life that have shared a part of who I am. My given name is Nicole Love Halbrooks. When I was growing up I got the name No-No from my cousin who is nine months younger than me because he could not say Nicole. My dad used to call me Sleufoot and my aunt called me Red.

When I got my drivers license I got the nickname Crash and Brick because I had several wrecks in a row, in one I totaled my parents brand new car by crashing through two brick columns, thus Crash and Brick. When my oldest niece was born I got the name Nay-Nay, and I am still Nay-Nay to all my nieces and nephews.

Then I met my husband and I became Nicole Love Halbrooks Vaughn. I became Wife and Stepmother to his beautiful daughter. Then I had my Shelby and Bekah and I became Momma. When I became a teacher, I became Mrs Nicole. These are just a few of the names that I have been given that have revealed a part of who I am.

In the same way God has revealed Himself to us in the names He has given us in Scripture. Each name shares a part of who He is and teaches us a little bit more of His character.

Some boast in chariots and some in horses,
But we will boast in the name of the LORD, our God.
Psalm 20:7
The name of the LORD is a strong tower;
The righteous runs into it and is safe. 
Proverbs 18:10
Our help is in the name of the LORD,
Who made heaven and earth.
Psalm 124:8
for
“WHOEVER WILL CALL
ON THE NAME OF THE LORD
WILL BE SAVED.”
Romans 10:13
These are just a small example of the plethora of Scripture that lets us know how important the name of our God is and should be too us.
So I invite you to join us in this study of the names of God…
Devotional Studies Through the Bible

>Put Away

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Put away the foreign gods
which are among you,
and purify yourselves
and change your garments.
Genesis 35:2
 
After the slaughter at Shechem, God comes to Jacob and tells him, once again, to go to Betheland live there. God also says to build there an altar, but first Jacob and his family have business to attend to.
 
They have foreign gods among them; they have rings in their ears and garments on their bodies that represented these foreign gods, and they were to be removed.
 
These foreign gods were made by a goldsmith, formed by silver and gold. These foreign gods had to be carried around on someone’s shoulder. They had to be set in place and stood up by someone because they cannot stand up on their on. These foreign gods that had to be bought, formed, and stood were worshiped, and those who stood them bowed before them.
 
Jacob knew that it was not these foreign gods that had protected him and answered him in his day of distress. The family carried these foreign gods, but the One True God carried the family.
 
The God of Abraham and Isaac had been with Jacob wherever he had gone. Jacob did not have to pack God with the tents in order for Him to come along.
 
Jacob is finally completely surrendering to the Lord his God and is finally stepping up as the spiritual leader of his household.
 
 
Oh Father,
 
You have called us to be separate, and we are to put away all idols and everything that is in our lives that comes before You. We are to purify our hearts and change our actions and our attitudes so that they are in line with You. You called me to be Yours and to represent You and to be a holy priesthood and a light in this dark world. My light cannot shine if it is smeared with the muck of this world. My God, how I need You. You deserve nothing less than all of me. Show me how to give all I am to You.
 
My Jesus, it is in Your name I pray,
Amen.
Proven Path Ministries

Begging You For Mercy

 

As you scrolled through these pictures as a professing Christian what was your first reaction?

Was it to snarl your nose?

Was it to raise an eyebrow and wonder why in the world I had searched and posted these pictures?

Was it fear?

Was it anger?

Was it disgust?

Was it to shake your head and say “oh well, there’s a bunch of folks that are going to bust hell wide open…”?

I have spent the morning studying the gift of mercy.
To do this I had to begin with a word study of mercy.

Mercy in the Greek is Eleeo and it means to have mercy on, to help one afflicted or seeking aid, to help the afflicted, to bring help to the wretched, to experience mercy. The word mercy can also be translated as lovingkindness, kindness, love, and unchanging love…

After the word study I began looking at cross-references. What exactly is mercy according to Scripture and exactly how are we as Christians to live it out? One of the cross-references I looked at was concerning Jesus’ reaction to the people…

Seeing the people,
He felt compassion for them,
because they were distressed and dispirited
like sheep without a shepherd. 
Matthew 9:36

Jesus felt compassion for them…

He did not snarl His nose at them. He did not mock or ridicule them. He was not disgusted by them. He was not angry at them nor did He fear them. He felt compassion for them.

So what is compassion?

In the Greek it is Splagchnizomai and it means to be moved as to one’s bowels, hence to be moved with compassion, have compassion (for the bowels were thought to be the seat of love and pity)

This is what Jesus felt when He looked at the people and then He turned to His disciples…

Then He said to His disciples,

“The harvest is plentiful,

but the workers are few. 

Therefore beseech the Lord of the harvest

to send out workers into His harvest.”  

Matthew 9:37-38

When you go back and look at the pictures in the beginning of this post can you look at them with compassion? Can you look at them and say

Yet for this reason I found mercy,

so that in me as the foremost,

Jesus Christ might demonstrate

His perfect patience as an example

for those who would believe in Him for eternal life.

1 Timothy 1:16

My youngest child for some reason has a burden for the soul of Lady Gaga. I do not know why, but she does. Yesterday she asked if Lady Gaga loved Jesus. My almost initial response was to snarl my nose and laugh with a mocking laugh, but I stopped… no the Holy Spirit stopped me and quickened me.

I had to tell her that I did not think so… because Jesus said if we loved Him we would obey Him and keep His word, and from all that we see and know of Lady Gaga she does not obey the Word of Jesus, so by this action of disobedience she appears to not love Him. I then told her we needed to pray for her but we could not promote her as an artist.

That night before dinner Lady Gaga’s soul was prayed for by my seven year old Bekah… she chose compassion instead of nose snarling.

Whew, had I not stopped and listened to the Spirit and chose to answer my child according to the Word of God and send her in the direction of grace and mercy… this would have been a moment that I would have and could have began to instill a self-righteous Pharisaical attitude in her.

How thankful I am for the Spirit of God that lives within us to give us the right words to say in those teachable moments. A pause and a deep breathe does wonders if we will just take them before we open our mouths and respond in our initial flesh.

I have received the mercy of God.
Therefore I give it to others.

Those pictures up there… I can think of several that fifteen years ago you could have possibly found me in. How thankful I am that there were those who chose mercy and felt compassion and were moved by the Spirit of God to pray for me, to share with me, to reach out to me… so that I too might experience the perfect patience of Christ and believe in Him for eternal life.

When I see theses pictures above and when I see the reality of these pictures in a personal encounter… I want my heart to feel compassion and to see that this is a person, who is without a shepherd and they are trying to meet a legitimate need in a very wrong way because maybe, just maybe, no one has shown them the right way.

Maybe, just maybe, they are begging me for mercy.

I will rejoice and be glad in Your lovingkindness,
Because You have seen my affliction;
You have known the troubles of my soul,
Psalm 31:7

Maybe no one has ever taken the time to see their affliction. Maybe no one has ever known the troubles of their soul. Maybe they have no clue about El Roi the God who sees. Maybe no one has never told them that vengeance belongs to God and He will repay those who have hurt them and gotten away with it. Maybe, just maybe they too would rejoice in the lovingkindness of our God if someone would show it to them in a one on one personal kind of way…

Showing mercy doesn’t mean you disregard or ignore sin or some one’s fallenness. Showing mercy means you recognize that some one’s sin is a result of their fallenness.
In the book that I am reading, Living in Love by James & Betty Robison, James points out that when Jesus confronted someone in their sin He did not condemn them or take them to task for their past. He offered forgiveness and a chance to start anew.

Jesus did not ignore their sin by any means, and He certainly did not condone it or encourage it, but He still showed them mercy.

Blessed are the merciful,
for they shall receive mercy.

Matthew 5:7

I know that there will be those who hate God and His Christ until the very end, until the very end of their individual lives and until the very end of this age, but I do not know who “those” are.

I am not God.

Therefore I show mercy to all. I show kindness to all. I give grace to all.

Yet I do it without hiding the truth or condoning the sin… just like Jesus did.

 He has told you, O man, what is good;
And what does the LORD require of you
But to do justice, to love kindness,
And to walk humbly with your God?
Micah 6:8

I cannot look at someone with my eyes of flesh and see their heart. I never know when my one act of kindness, my one show of mercy, my one offer of grace is what God will use to bring this soul into His eternal kingdom…