Devotional Studies Through the Bible, Uncategorized

>Rebels Without A Cause

>

They said,
“Come let us build for ourselves a city,
and a tower whose top will reach into heaven, and let us make for ourselves a name, otherwise we will be scattered abroad
over the face of the whole earth.”
Genesis 11:4
God had just recently destroyed the earth because of the wickedness of man’s heart, and here, only three generations after the flood, man again rose in rebellion to the Creator. God specifically told Noah and his three sons to “be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth” (Genesis 9:1), and now mankind refused to obey.
Those who built the tower of Babel had the same spirit of rebellion in them that was within Satan himself—the spirit, the attitude, that says “I will be my own God.” Can we ever really grasp the wickedness of our own hearts, the spirit of rebellion that lives within us?
I believe we do when we are in Christ. There was a time in my life when I said in my heart that I would be my own God. I would make my own choices, and I would make them with no regard as to how they affected others.
I said this in my heart while with my mouth I said I loved God. I honored God with my lips but my heart was far from him (Matthew 15:8). I never really saw the deep-rooted wickedness within me until I came to know my Savior. When I saw myself through His eyes, I finally understood how much I needed Him.
Still, every day I see more clearly how I could never measure up on my own. My sin was and is great. I still struggle with rebellion—rebellion against authority. I pray that I shall never shake my fist in the face of God again.
I have lifted my voice up to my Father, and I pray that He would remove me from this earth before I blasphemed His name (Romans 2:24) among the lost again. I know that there will be many times that I am slow to obey and will question my God because I am still in this flesh and in this world, but as for bold-face, open rebellion, I pray that by His grace, I never take that route again.
Oh Father,
I am so grateful for Your forgiveness. I am thankful that You chose me to be Yours. I am forever humbled by Your mercy and grace and Your love for me. Oh, how I worship You. You are all that I need. You are my everything. As the psalmist cried out, oh God, please do not take your word from me (Psalm 119:43). I would perish without it. How I hold on to Your promises. They are my strength. My Jesus, teach me to walk in Your ways and obey Your words. May I scatter when you say scatter. May I be fruitful and be a part of multiplying Your kingdom upon this earth.
My Jesus, I love You.
It is in Your name I pray,
Amen.
Devotional Studies Through the Bible, Uncategorized

>Significance in Every Begot

>

Now these are the records of the generations
of Shem, Ham, and Japheth,
the sons of Noah;
and sons were born to them
after the flood.
Genesis 10:1
Before I studied the Word of God and before I knew God, I thought the seemingly endless list of genealogies with names I could not read, much less pronounce, was purposeless.
What I have learned is how very wrong I was for that view. Now that I am a student of the Scriptures and a follower of Christ, I see the importance of this record. These lists of genealogies are important on many levels.
It shows us that God cares about us, the individual us. He knows our names, our days of birth, our day of new birth, our day of death. After all it was he who knit us in our mother’s womb (Psalm 139).
In these lists, we see the origins of the nations. In these lists we see where we came from. Acts 17:26 declares, “And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined their appointed times and the boundaries of their habitations.” We see that we are not accidents; our place in history is not by chance, but by design.
Most importantly, we see how the promise God made Adam and Eve back in the garden has been carried out down through history, until its fulfillment in the one who came from his mother’s womb both fully man and fully God, our Lord Jesus Christ.
Oh Father,
I worship You. My Jesus, my heart falls at Your feet. I praise Your name. I thank You for my life and for my place in Your story. How honored I am to be Yours; to know that You see me as an individual and not just one of many, like a man looking down on an ant bed. My God, You know me by name. You know the number of every hair on my head. You know when I get up and when I fall asleep. You know my thoughts. You know my heart. You brought me forth at this time, in this day, in this place, for Your purpose.
Oh Father, that Your will would be accomplished in me. My Jesus, I am thankful for Your life, for Your death, for Your resurrection. How amazing you are!
My Jesus, I love You.
In Your name I pray,
Amen.
Confessions of a Christian Wife

>Running Behind Ramblings

>I had so many plans for today. I was going to finish up my Spiritual Gifts and Isaiah lessons. I needed to be at the bank before noon and then wanted to go to the church and get my white board ready for tomorrow morning’s lesson and also was going to work on some CrossRoads Homeschool Co-Op stuff and then be back home in time to fix dinner for my husband before he left for the night shift and then planned to head on over to hear my in-laws awesome bluegrass band pick up a storm.

I had been working on my Isaiah lesson and came in the house at my first stopping point and realized that I was running way behind when I saw that it was already after 12:30pm. I didn’t make it out of the house until 7pm to shoot down to hear some bluegrass and then back home by 8pm to get the girls a goodnight snack, a bath, and into bed.

Tomorrow night I will teach the last lesson in a combined 23 week Precept Upon Precept  class on the book of Isaiah (I highly recommend this study. It is very relevant to the state of today’s American church.). This last lesson will be on Isaiah 64-66. For some reason it has taken me all day to plan this last one hour lesson. I have no clue why.

This lesson completely consumed this Saturday. This after having spent hours through the week pouring over these chapters, they are indeed heavy chapters.

I love teaching the Word of God. It is an honor that I do not take lightly, whether I am teaching a room full of pre-schoolers or a Precept class filled with adult men and women who have been following the Lord much longer than me.

Hear the word of the LORD,
you who tremble at His word:
Isaiah 66:5

I tremble with the responsibility of accurately handling this Word of Truth. I quake in my gut and break out in cold sweats and stuttered speech. I teach in fear and awe of my God and pray that as I stand up there that He is glorified. I do love teaching the Word, but it is truly terrifing to me…
I believe that I can honestly say that at least once a week I tell God that I am done. I tell Him that I cannot do this anymore. I tell Him that I think He’s got the wrong girl. I have even gone so far as to put together my “I quit” speech to deliver to our minister of education… but God just will not have it. For some reason He thinks He’s boss and I am supposed to do what He says in spite of what I think I want… hmmmm imagine that.
But if I say, “I will not remember Him
Or speak anymore in His name,”
Then in my heart it becomes like a burning fire
Shut up in my bones;
And I am weary of holding it in,
And I cannot endure it.
Jeremiah 20:9
 
You see the thing is I couldn’t quit. Because when I try to be silent, like Jeremiah my heart sets aflame and my chest tightens and my teeth clench and Scripture verses flood my mind until finally they spill out of the mouth that I was trying so hard to keep shut tight. I just can’t help myself.
 
So today as I struggled through this lesson prep the “I quit” speech came to mind. Then the tears came as I looked at the joy that was set before me… finishing the race. Fighting the good fight. Accomplishing the mission of completing this in depth study of the prophet most quoted by my Savior. Knowing that God has just placed an arsenal in my mind that the Holy Spirit will use to defeat, deflect, and destroy lies for years to come. 
 
It was not easy. 
It was indeed work.
It required much effort and time. 
It required the sacrifice of other things in order to accomplish.
 
However, it was eternally worth it.  
 
Now as I complete Isaiah, I continue with the Precept Upon Precept study on spiritual gifts… and as I studied this week in Romans 12:1-8 and 1 Peter 4:7-11, I know even more strongly why the “I quit” speech will never be delivered.
 
My gift is teaching. This is my spiritual act of worship. For me not to teach is not to worship God and it is not to serve Him or His body. This is what the Holy Spirit has chosen for me.
I didn’t pick it. It is God’s choice, not mine. God’s will, not mine. I must employ what He has gifted me with that I might be a good steward of His grace. To not teach is to throw my God’s grace back in His face.
So I teach. I teach with fear and trembling at His Word and I pray that it is only the utterances of God that come forth from my mouth so that Christ might be glorified.
 
The lesson finally was planned, though nothing else got accomplished as planned, and I sit here now typing, when I need to be sweeping the dog hair up out of the floor and tucking my girls in the bed and debating on whether or not I am going to click the “publish now” button for this post or just add it to my list of drafts… and yes desiring to go over the lessons for tomorrow one more time.  
 
But I am going to bed and will trust God to work in and through me tomorrow and the next day and the next and the next for it is not by might, nor by power, but by His Spirit sayeth the Lord.  
Devotional Studies Through the Bible, Uncategorized

>Love Cover

>

Ham, the father of Canaan,
saw the nakedness of his father,
and told his two brothers outside.
Genesis 9:22
Noah, the one man God had found favor with on the earth—the one who was righteous, blameless in his time, the one who walked with God—drank of the wine and became drunk. Noah, a righteous man, stumbled in his walk.
How are we to respond when fellow believers, those credited as righteous because of their faith in Christ, stumble in their walk?
We are to respond as Shem and Japheth responded. Shem and Japheth took a garment and walked in backward and covered their father. They did not excuse what he had done, yet they did not blast it for the world to see and hear. They did not make his stumble a topic of conversation and run out to point his sin out to everyone they knew. Proverbs 17:9 says, “He who conceals a transgression seeks love, but he who repeats a matter separates intimate friends.”
How many believers no longer attend church because they have been hurt by the gossip of those inside the walls? When our fellow believers stumble in their walk, we need not give the enemy any help in his condemnation and mocking whispers. We are, however, to take them in and cover them in our compassion, confront their sin in love, and help them regain their step.
We as a church have much to learn from this portion of Scripture.
We are justified by our faith in Christ, and we are sanctified and are being sanctified. We do not become immediately perfect at salvation; perfection is a process. We are saved, but we remain in this flesh, we groan in it, because we still fight its desires. Through the power of the Holy Spirit within us, we can be victorious, but still we stumble along the way, even as we grow.
When we see our brothers and sisters in Christ stumbling, we are not to finish pushing them down, but we are to grab their hands and help them steady their feet: “Strengthen the hands that are weak and the knees that are feeble, and make straight paths for your feet, so that the limb which is lame may not be put out of joint, but rather be healed” (Hebrews 12:12–13). We can do this without ignoring their stumble and without broadcasting it to the world.
Oh Father,
Forgive me for the times my words have hurt instead of encouraged. Forgive me for the times that I whispered behind backs instead of confronting face-to-face with the love of Christ in order to turn one back to You. Oh Father, help me to be one who seeks love and not division. Give me the courage to confront, the compassion to conceal, and the wisdom of conviction to share the truth that will strengthen and heal.
Oh Father, the body of Christ is to build each other up, not tear each other down. Help me to be one who builds, one who strengthens, one who encourages, yet at the same time, one who does not turn a blind eye to someone who is stumbling along the way. Oh Father, Your Word says that “love covers all transgressions” (Proverbs 10:12), and my Jesus, Your love covered all my transgressions. Thank You for this amazing love. Help me to love others the way You have loved me.
My Jesus, it is in Your name I pray,
Amen.
Confessions of a Christian Wife, Uncategorized

>Weight of a Woman

>

Women and weight… ugh the never ending battle… my grandmother is in her late 70’s and still as a woman I don’t think I have ever spent an entire day with her that losing weight doesn’t come up in the conversation.
When do we stop looking in the mirror and measuring ourselves according to our waste line?
When do I stop staring at my reflection in the mirror and sighing over this flesh?
I actually hadn’t worried about the weight factor much here lately… I’ve had too many other things on my plate that just required the priority of my thoughts. But now with several of my facebook friends posting about their zumba classes and their workout shakes and their weight loss goals… and not to mention our beach trip at the end of the month… well now I look at myself in the mirror critically once again.
The truth is I am a yo-yo girl.
I have at least three different sizes of clothing in my closet at all times because I never know what size I am going to be. I fluctuate in weight. One month I am up and then the next month I am down… At the moment I am coasting on the – between the yo’s and by the handful of gut I just managed to grab off of my midsection it would appear my yo is on the way up not down. 
So now the thoughts of starting back on that exercise commitment is coming back to the forefront of my mind. I am one of those weird solo only workout girls. I don’t want others watching me while I workout. I don’t want a fan club or an accountability weigh in partner. Even when I had the opportunity to go to the gym I would stick the earphones in and get’er done and head home. 
There are two things in my life that I thoroughly enjoy most alone… my time with God and my workouts (when I actually did workout). I have also always reserved my mornings for both. My workout time usually coincided with my time with God because prayer just seems to come automatically with pushing ourselves physically.
Life got crazy a year ago and the workout time was flung out the window…
Since then I have survived on coffee not endorphins.
I know that I feel better when I exercise. I feel better about myself and I just feel better period. But knowing this and remembering this does not help in the actuality of getting up and doing it. Then I end up in this vicious cycle of feeling bad because I am not exercising and then depressed because I cannot manage to muster the internal push to do something about it.  
WebMD has this to say about the link between exercise and depression:

“Want to learn more about exercise and depression? Many studies indicate that people who exercise regularly benefit with a positive boost in mood and lower rates of depression.

What Are the Psychological Benefits of Exercise With Depression?

Improved self-esteem is a key psychological benefit of regular physical activity. When you exercise, your body releases chemicals called endorphins. These endorphins interact with the receptors in your brain that reduce your perception of pain.
Endorphins also trigger a positive feeling in the body, similar to that of morphine. For example, the feeling that follows a run or workout is often described as “euphoric.” That feeling, known as a “runner’s high,” can be accompanied by a positive and energizing outlook on life.
Endorphins act as analgesics, which means they diminish the perception of pain. They also act as sedatives. They are manufactured in your brain, spinal cord, and many other parts of your body and are released in response to brain chemicals called neurotransmitters. The neuron receptors endorphins bind to are the same ones that bind some pain medicines. However, unlike with morphine, the activation of these receptors by the body’s endorphins does not lead to addiction or dependence.
Regular exercise has been proven to help:

  • Reduce stress
  • Ward off anxiety and feelings of depression
  • Boost self-esteem
  • Improve sleep

Exercise also has these added health benefits:

  • It strengthens your heart.
  • It increases energy levels.
  • It lowers blood pressure.
  • It improves muscle tone and strength.
  • It strengthens and builds bones.
  • It helps reduce body fat.
  • It makes you look fit and healthy.

So there is a wonderful, sensible, list composed by health professionals of some of the benefits of regular exercise and thus here’s my wonderful sensible list of excuses as to why I have not took part in exercise for a year…

* I will have to put on exercise clothes, plus later my regular clothes, which means double the laundry and I already can’t keep up  
* I will have to take a shower, I could do the messy bun and get by today without a shower if I don’t get all hot and sweaty from working out
* I will have to get up earlier than I already do
* I won’t have time for my whole pot of coffee if I spend time exercising
* I have hardwood floors and they just simply are not comfortable for floor exercises and besides, ick, the dog hair
* I had rather have the extra time to study my Bible
* Hmmmm no, today I had rather sleep the extra time
* I might wake the family up and then I wouldn’t have my quiet time with God
* What’s the point anyway, this flesh is just going to whither away
* I am just too tired
* I don’t live any where near a gym and really isn’t that money better budgeted somewhere else and if I can’t go to the gym why start anything else
* My “fat jeans” still fit… so I’m good
* Hey it’s summer, I can just wear loose sundresses and flip flops that way my rolls won’t show
* Hey it’s spring/fall wind pants and jeans and t-shirts, woo-hoo, that way my rolls won’t show
* Hey it’s winter, layers, layers, layers, that way my rolls won’t show
* I don’t feel bad from lack of exercise, but from lack of sleep… therefore hit “snooze”

Ugh… yes just a few of my list of excuses.

So the weight of a woman is always heavy on her mind… whether we like it or not.

I am trying hard with the ears of my girls always perking up to listen to try and not complain about my body… this body that God gave me. I do not want them to hear me complain about things I cannot change. Like my height, my freckles, my chubby cheeks, my short waste, my large calves and my birthin’ hips. Bones are bones, this is how God knit me in my mother’s womb and He said I was fearfully and wonderfully made (Psalm 139). 

I remember having my self-worth plummeted by snide comments made about parts of my body. Being poked in the stomach and called “pudge” being laughed at and told that “boys don’t like freckles on a girls legs” and being told that I had a “man’s back” and “birthing hips”. Crazy comments made by people who probably thought they were being funny at the time. These are comments that were made over 15 years ago yet still remembered today. However, they no longer have power over me.

How thankful I am that God placed a man in my life to be my husband that has never made a comment about my body that I can recall in a negative light. He has never openly compared my body to another woman’s body. So in all honesty I do desire to maintain the standard that he seems to enjoy to the best of my ability. I suppose that’s one of the biggest reasons why the exercise issue is on my mind again…

That and I am tired of feeling tired and I want my family to have a healthy wife and mother spiritually, emotionally, mentally, and physically.

And yes, most definitely the fact that FB is throwing it up in my face daily has something to do with it as well.

So maybe it is time to put away the excuses and just get busy… hmmm maybe that shall be my Fall resolution. As the trees turn over a new leaf maybe I should as well.

This is a post from John Piper’s blog:

In the previous post I mentioned what I do for excercise. Now is the why.
Disclaimer: I doubt that I ever had a motive so pure it had no sin in it. So you are welcome to fault any of this as tinged with vanity. What I can see, I have confessed. What I can’t, the Lord will bring to light sooner or later.
I just don’t like being overweight. My pants fit funny. I can’t see my belt. When I was about 19 I went golfing with some overweight evangelists. They said, “Well look at that flat stomach on Johnny. Just give him another ten years.” At that moment something happened inside me. I said nothing out loud, but inside I said, “It’s not going to happen.” I suspect there was sin in that. But the resolve is still there.
Quickly, another disclaimer: There is a difference between obesity and gluttony. I was set straight on this one after I made some hurtful blunders. Some people are overweight who have issues very different from gluttony. Never assume that overweight equals lazy and undisciplined.

For Purity and Productivity

Today, my main motive for exercise is purity and productivity. By purity I mean being a more loving person (as Jesus said, “love your neighbor,” Matthew 22:39). By productivity I mean getting a lot done (as Paul said, “abounding in the work of the Lord,” 1 Corinthians 15:58).
Underneath most of my besetting sins is despondency. I am less prone to such melancholy when I hammer my body three times a week. The reason could be endorphins. Could be ego. Whichever, it’s cheaper than Prozac or psychotherapy. I’m simply happier. And I sleep better. I have more energy.
Most of that energy goes into the Bible and preaching and people. And the fruit from that is, I hope, edification. Which means I exercise to be a more loving person and a better pastor.

How the Spirit Produces Fruit

If you ask how the fruit of exercise relates to the fruit of the Spirit, my answer is this: The Holy Spirit produces his fruit both directly and indirectly. He can zap you in your worst moments and make you kind. But he often does it indirectly.
For example, if you are impatient when you get little sleep, and if patience is a fruit of the Spirit (which it is, Galatians 5:22), very likely the Holy Spirit will not only remind you of the sufferings of Christ and the glory of God’s promises, but he will also give you the humility to stop being God and to bed at 9:30.
And if you sleep better when you regularly exercise, then the Holy Spirit will also give you the humble discipline to exercise so that you sleep better so that you are more patient. If he does it that way, it is still his fruit.
I could add that doctors say being fit will help protect me from a hundred diseases and bad effects of aging. I suspect that’s true. But if that were my main motive, I probably wouldn’t drink Diet Coke.
So, in short, I have one life to live for Jesus (2 Corinthians 5:15). I don’t want to waste it. My approach is not mainly to lengthen it, but to maximize purity and productivity now. I want to show as much gospel truth and publish as much gospel truth as I can. I have found, for 43 years, that exercise helps. I think God set it up that way.

Devotional Studies Through the Bible, Uncategorized

>Life After The Flood

>

Every moving thing that is alive
shall be food for you;
I give all to you,
as I gave the green plant.
Genesis 9:3
When God created man, He created him a vegetarian. Genesis 1:29 tells us that God had given man every tree that had fruit yielding seed and every plant yielding seed as food. Genesis 1:30 also lets us know that God created all the beasts of the earth and every bird and everything that moved on the earth as a herbivore.
The fall of man changed this.
In the beginning, death was not to reign. Men did not kill men and animals did not kill animals, but when sin entered the world after the fall, death entered with it. Here after the flood, we see God giving man permission to eat animals, possibly because in this new environment he would have to, to be able to survive, to not be overtaken by the beasts of the earth.
The relationship between man and beast would be forever altered. The relationship between man and man had already been; we saw this with Cain and Abel in Genesis 4.
God tells Noah that He has given the beast of the earth as food for him, but also He reminds Noah that life is precious and that life is in the blood (Genesis 9:4).
When we are sick and doctors are searching for the reason, they check our blood. When we have been wounded and blood leaves our body, we have blood banks available to replace that blood. We have learned that God’s words are true, that life is in the blood. God is the creator of all life, and it is all important to Him, no matter how big or small that life may be.
What God also institutes after the flood is capital punishment. “Whoever sheds man’s blood, by man his blood shall be shed” (Genesis 9:6). What is interesting here is that God is letting us know that this judgment, this flood, has not changed the nature of man’s heart. God institutes capital punishment because He knows that unredeemed man will continue to hate and will continue to murder. He wants us to know that He counts our lives as precious and that we are to count the lives of others as precious. But we also are not to allow those who take this precious life through murder to go unpunished.
Oh Father,
Life is precious in Your sight. You tell us that the life is in the blood. How true Your words ring in my ears. Sometimes it takes the gift of blood from another to give us life. It is the blood of Christ that gives us life—not just sustaining life, but eternal, everlasting life. Yes, there is life in the blood: “My blood has eternal life” (John 6:54).
My Jesus, thank You for the gift of life that You have made available to all who will receive by Your shed blood on the cross of Calvary. Your blood is precious, true, and pure, and by it I am justified, and so are all who will believe. Oh that many would believe!
My Jesus, it is in Your name I pray,
Amen.
Confessions of a Christian Wife, Proven Path Ministries, Uncategorized

>The Art of Friendship

>According to the New American Webster Handy College Dictionary, art is the application of knowledge or skill, it is works designed to give intellectual pleasure (as music, sculpture) and pictorial representation, it is a skillful workmanship.

After having spent the last few weeks pondering this thing called “friendship” I have learned that it is indeed an art. Friendship is cultivated as a sculpture, chiseled out of a hard heart, and formed into a beautiful representation of fellowship. It is indeed a song that soothes the most frazzled mind and calms the most restless soul. It is not shallow or simple but it is built up from a sharing of knowledge and love and hopes and dreams and struggles and fears. True friendship is no doubt a workmanship of God’s design.

Then the LORD God said,
“It is not good for the man to be alone;
I will make him a helper suitable for him.”
Genesis 2:18
True friendship is a covenant not unlike that of a marriage. The first friendship was between man and God, the second between man and wife, the third between brothers and sisters… our friends in Christ are our family. 
 For whoever does the will of My Father who is in heaven,
he is My brother and sister and mother.
Matthew 12:50

When I first thought of Biblical friendship my mind immediately went to Jonathan and David. I grabbed my Bible and turned to 1 Samuel 18 to read their story.
Now it came about
when he had finished speaking to Saul,
that the soul of Jonathan
was knit to the soul of David,
and Jonathan loved him as himself.
1 Samuel 18:1
I thought, “Wow… this is friendship… it is soul-knitting.”
When I read this verse in 1 Samuel 18 there was a cross reference listed so I followed it to read,
“or your friend who is as your own soul”
Deuteronomy 13:6
Then I thought, “Wow, a friend is someone who is as my own soul.”
As my own soul…
I have always heard that if you wanted to know who your kids were you just needed to look at their friends… yet it had never occurred to me to say “if I want to know what my soul looks like, then I need to look at my friends” 
Why do we have the friends we have? Why do we call them this treasured word “friend”? When we look at them, their character, their integrity, their heart condition… what do we see? If they are as our own soul what do our friends say about the condition of our own soul? About our own character, our own integrity, our own heart’s condition?
When Christ came and walked this earth as the Word made flesh, He joined Himself with several men and He spent much time with these men. He shared His heart, His character, His will, His mind, His integrity with these men. He invested His life in them.
No longer do I call you slaves,
for the slave does not know what his master is doing;
but I have called you friends,
for all things that I have heard
from My Father
I have made known to you.
John 15:15
When we become friends with Christ, He knits His soul with ours. He loves us as Himself, and He is as our own soul. We become one flesh with Him and we behold Him as in a mirror and we begin to represent His image. Others should be able to see Him when they see us.
But we all, with unveiled face,
beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord,
are being transformed into the same image
from glory to glory,
just as from the Lord, the Spirit.
2 Corinthians 3:18
This thing called friendship is really an amazing beautiful thing. the desire for it comes from our Creator. I love what A.W. Tozer says in his book, The Pursuit of God, when he writes: 
“We have almost forgotten that God is a person and, as such, can be cultivated as any person can. It is inherent in personality to be able to know other personalities, but full knowledge of one personality by another cannot be achieved in one encounter. It is only after long and loving mental intercourse that the full possibilities of both can be explored.
All social intercourse between human beings is a response of personality to personality, grading upward from the most casual brush between man and man to the fullest, most intimate communion of which the human soul is capable. Religion, so far as it is genuine, is in essence the response of created personalities to the creating personality, God. “This is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent” (John 17:3).
God is a person, and in the deep of His mighty nature He thinks, wills, enjoys, feels, loves, desires, and suffers as any other person may. In making Himself known to us He stays by the familiar pattern of personality. He communicates with us through the avenues of our minds, our wills and our emotions. The continuous and unembarrassed interchange of love and thought between God and the soul of the redeemed man is the throbbing heart of New Testament religion.
This intercourse between God and the soul is known to us in conscious personal awareness. It is personal…”
Did you see in John 17:3 that God desires that we know Him?
Oh precious one, do we not desire to be known as well?
Is that not what the root of the desire for fame is?
Is it not Satan perverting our God given desire to be known deeply and intimately and fully by Him, our Friend, and turning it into a desire to be known shallowly and lightly and emptily, in quantity instead of quality, by fickle man?
Friendship is personal. It is formed after long loving mental intercourse has taken place, a sharing of the minds, hearts, and souls. It is not formed in the crowd, but from one on one invested time with another person. It is formed when we are willing to lay our armor aside and be vulnerable to another, when we consider others as more important than ourselves, and when we are willing to invest and share our future with the life of someone else.
Then Jonathan made a covenant with David
because he loved him as himself. 
Jonathan stripped himself of the robe that was on him
and gave it to David,
with his armor,
including his sword and his bow and his belt.
1 Samuel 18:3-4
So who do you call friend?
Why do you call them friend?
If they are “as your own soul” as God said in Deuteronomy 13:6 then what do the one’s you call friend say about the condition of your soul?
Can Christ call you friend?
Have you laid your armor down?
Have you allowed your soul to be vulnerable to Him?
For we are His workmanship…
Ephesians 2:10
Devotional Studies Through the Bible, Uncategorized

>The Original Rainbow

>

The Lord smelled the soothing aroma;
and the Lord said to Himself,
“I will never again curse the ground
on account of man,
for the intent of man’s heart
is evil from his youth;
and I will never again destroy
every living thing, as I have done.”
Genesis 8:21
God was sorry that He had made man, and He sent the flood. What we see here is that even though God had to judge the earth, His heart still broke over the judgment
It reminds me of when I have had to discipline my own children. I knew it had to be done, but still it broke my heart to have to do it.
God promises here that He will never again destroy every living thing because of the wickedness of man’s heart. He promised that while the earth remained, so would hot and cold, seedtime and harvest, and day and night.
The earth was forever changed after the flood. Rain, once never seen, would now be a regular occurrence, a needed regular occurrence. What I love about God is that He knows the heart of man. God knew that the experience that Noah and his family had just been through was overwhelming, and He also knew that fear would grip them at every rainfall and every storm. Fear that somehow they had finally sinned badly enough that God had changed his mind and sent another flood.
So therefore, God, in His infinite mercy and grace, gave Noah a sign. He set His bow in the cloud. I love that. God didn’t say “a bow”; He said, “My bow.” This bow would be seen by every generation, by every nation, a reminder forever that God keeps His word.
God always gives us a sign. He never leaves us without hope. As believers in God and partakers of Christ, there will be times in our lives that we feel we have messed up so bad that God would remove us from Him, that we have lost our salvation.
Fear can grip us that we could be forsaken, but that is not the promise that Jesus gave us. Jesus promised that he would never leave us or forsake us (Hebrews 13:5). He promised that nothing could snatch us out of the Father’s hands ( John 10:29).
Jesus made us this promise and he gave us a sign to remind us of this truth. Just as God places His bow in the sky, He also places His Spirit in us as a sign that we belong to Him and as an ever-present reminder that He is with us.
Oh Father,
How thankful I am that You are who You are. How thankful I am that You are not a man, that You would lie or change Your mind. How thankful I am that You keep Your word. The true feeling of peace does not come when all is right with the world. The true feeling of peace comes in knowing that in spite of what is wrong with the world and what is wrong with me, You love me. You love me and You are with me.
Even though I stumble, even though I fall, You do not leave me in my failings. You might have to discipline me, allow me to fall, but You are always there to pick me up, wash me off, and assure me that You are still there with me, always with me.
My Father in heaven, great and awesome and holy is Your name. Thank You for Your longsuffering, for Your grace upon grace.
My Jesus, I love You, and it is in Your name I pray,
To You be the glory forever,
Amen.
Devotional Studies Through the Bible, Uncategorized

>Rolling in the Deep

>

On the same day
all the fountains of the great deep burst open, and the floodgates of the sky were opened.
Genesis 7:11
I remember the picture I had in my mind of the flood, the picture formed through the “story of the flood” before I had studied the Word of God for myself. This picture in my mind had the animals all nicely lined up two by two, walking up a plank into the entrance of the ark. Noah and his wife stood off to the side, watching the parade of animals and smiling at each other.
Then Noah and his wife and his sons and their wives would follow the last set of animals up the plank and into the ark and close the door. They would then look out a window and smile as the first raindrops fell to the ground.
In my picture, it would rain and rain and rain, and slowly the ark would rise and float off as the waters and the earth flooded. This is kind of a nice picture of the judgment of the earth—not at all accurate, but nice.
The truth is a little more dramatic.
First of all, it was not Noah who closed the ark door; it was the Lord (Genesis 7:16).
Second, the flood was not so slow and easy. The fountains of the great deep burst open.
Ever wondered how the Grand Canyon really was made? Let God burst open the fountains of the deep, and you’ll see a canyon. Have you ever seen the power of the geysers in Yellowstone? They can’t even compare with what must have happened on this day. If you have ever questioned the validity of the flood, just look at the real evidence around you in nature. It is there.
My husband and I visited Sequoyah Caverns in Valley Head, Alabama. In these caverns you will discover fossils of sea creatures in the walls and the ceilings. It is amazing evidence right before your eyes that the Word of God is true and that a worldwide flood did in fact occur. I am sure that these Alabama mountain caverns are not the lone evidence.
Some mighty powerful waters forever altered the earth as Noah and his family knew it. I also am pretty sure that Noah and his wife were not looking out the window and listening to the gentle rain on the rooftop of the ark. I believe they were inside the ark with their faces to the floor, praising an all-powerful God who had the authority and ability—and the right—to destroy them along with the rest, but was great in mercy and loving-kindness, and was true to His Word that He would save them if they trusted in and obeyed His voice.
Oh Father,
How mighty and awesome You are! You are He who creates, and You are He who destroys. You are He who creates life, and You are He who ends it. All things are in Your hands. All power rests in Your Word.
You are patient and You are compassionate and You are slow to anger and abounding in loving-kindness, yet You will not be mocked. You will not strive with us forever.
One day we must face You—we will face You either in faith or in rebellion. Oh, how You desire that we face You in faith! You have made the way; the door is still wide open. Oh, that many would come. Oh Father, You have every right to destroy me, and yet You have chose to save me. How very good You are. How in awe of You I am.
My Jesus, it is in Your name I pray,
Amen.
Confessions of a Christian Wife, Uncategorized

>Feeling Alone In A Crowd

2 Comments

>I was asked to share this past Tuesday morning at a women’s group about feeling alone in a crowd and the art of friendship… I must say it was terrifying.

The morning began well.
I was up in time.
I had organized the points I had hoped to make and my flow of thoughts were written down. I had highlighted and underlined and asterisked all that I felt God was showing me was important for the ladies that morning.

I left my home ready.

Then, lost in my thoughts, I missed my turn.

Then, everyone’s phones are out of whack, including mine.

Finally I get in touch with my friends. (Just one of the many reasons I am thankful for my friends and that I do not travel this road of life alone)

So I make it to my destination with a little help from my friends… but now I am frazzled, unfocused, and terrified. All the old gut wrenching emotions of standing in front of others hits like a ton of bricks in the pit of my stomach.

Oh I was so disappointed in me. Confidence diminished, boldness gone, feelings of unworthiness crashing on the shores of my soul with unrelenting pounding… who in the world did I think I was to be standing up and speaking to anyone?

I thought God had moved me past this… but alas, here I was again in a cold nauseous sweat trying to smile with the best faked confidence I could muster. Contemplating on how could I turn around and run out the door without humiliating myself or the dear friend who believed in me enough to ask me to come and share.

Fear is now rushing over me, not that I will embarrass me…
I am used to that…
But that I will be an embarrassment to my friend.
What if I let her down? What if I make a fool of her? I mean for goodness sake, I am already coming in late… again.

Thoughts of faking an emergency phone call from home emerge… hey it could happen, right?

I thought I would be so well prepared, had hoped I would be so well prepared, had hoped that I would eloquently share all the wonderful things God had showed me as I researched all this stuff on friendship.

I stood up to share in my state of flusteration and absolutely forgot everything.
I even forgot to pray… which I am sure would have calmed me at least a little.
Here I was feeling utterly alone and foolish in a crowd as I stood to share about feeling alone in a crowd.

I have spent the time since my sharing trying to go back over the morning and trying to remember what I shared. Did I make any sense? And then the oh my’s, why did I share that’s?

I sent a text to another friend and shared my sick to my stomachness and my fear of how I felt I was a blubbering train wreck and she was so kind as to remind me that God used a donkey so she was sure he was able to use whatever I did (well at the moment I most certainly felt like a donkey in the King James translation)

It never ceases to amaze me how often God has to remind me that it is not about my capability but my availability. The power is not in me but in Him and in His Word. I am just a jar of clay with a treasure within it to share with whoever God chooses to bring into my path and with whomever I run into as I go in His commission command.

So now I have to remind myself of the same points I planned to share with others.

1) God said in the beginning that it was not good for man to be alone (Gen 2:18). We need help from each other (Eccles 4:11-12).

2) We cannot bear our burdens alone (Ex 18:18, Deut 1:9-12, Rom 15:1, Gal 6:1-2) even Christ had help when it came to the burden of carrying the cross (Luke 23:26)

3) We are not alone in feeling alone (1 Kings 18:22, Jer 15:17, Ezek 9:8)

4) Sometimes we must be alone in order to discover where we are in life, in our hearts, in our minds, sometimes we must be removed from the distractions of life and others to hear God. (Gen 32:24, 2 Chron 32:31, Daniel 10:8, John 6:15)

5) When we feel alone is when the enemy will attack the hardest (Gen 3:1-5, Luke 4:1-13, 2 Chon 32:31)

6) If we belong to Christ we are never really alone, no matter how we “feel” (John 8:29, John 14:17-18, John 16:32, Psalm 9:10, Psalm 27:9, Heb 13:5)

7) Whenever we “feel” alone we must remember that our feelings will lie to us. Our heart will deceive us and our emotions will confuse us. We must be guided by our renewed minds, renewed by the Word of God, not our hearts, for God is greater than our hearts (Prov 28:26, 1 John 3:20)

8) Many times when we “feel” alone we have chosen to put ourselves in solitary confinement (1 Kings 19:3) either by running away from others or by putting up walls around us by lies we tell so that others, even hopefully God, will not discover who we really are (Isaiah 59:1-6). We weave an outfit of flesh that we think others want to see and we hide ourselves from our own flesh (Isaiah 58:7) and then we live in the darkness of the prison of our own making simply because we fear how others might receive our real authentic selves.

9) We must be honest with ourselves, others, and God (1 John 1:9-10). The biggest lie spoken in our churches today is “I’m fine.”

10) We must not fear each other or fear revealing ourselves to one another. Let us never forget that our Savior revealed Himself on the cross, He laid Himself bare in order to become our friend (John 15:15). A true friend loves at all times (Prov 17:17) and perfect love is supposed to cast out fear (1 John 4:18-19) because we can know that we are loved by our Creator God whether anyone else loves us or not.

11) We must love in truth. Our actions must match our words. We can’t just say we love, we must show we love (1 John 3:18-20) We cannot love with hypocrisy (Rom 12:9) and experience true fellowship and friendship 

Bottom line is we need each other. I need people in my life who know me. I need my friends to help me on this journey called life. God said it was not good for us to be alone and being in a crowd does not make you “not alone”.
Not being alone comes when someone shares your heart, it comes from friendships that are formed from commitment and complete trust. It comes from being willing to let someone see you for you, from being willing to allow them to see your very soul. It also comes from being willing to hear and receive the hard things from those you know love you unconditionally…  
So I don’t know about you, but I get by with a little help from my friends 🙂

The writing and teachings of Nicole Love Halbrooks Vaughn