I’m so very thankful that God is not like me. Nor you. While we give up on each other all the time, (though at times after a lot of effort and time), God never does. He gives us till our last dying breath to come to Him. He is steadfast in His love for us all. In my youth I backslid from my faith for about 9 years and was so afraid of what God thought of me. Though I was in a lifestyle of sin, it was really hard to understand how He could still love me as much as my most faithful day to Him before then, but He does. Let’s hear what Priscilla Shirer has to say in this week’s devotional:
Never Too Far Gone
When he was in distress, he entreated the Lord his God and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers. 2 Chronicles 33:12
To say Manasseh was an evil king is like saying the Grand Canyon is a hole in the ground. The Bible says he “shed so much innocent blood that he filled Jerusalem with it from one end to another” (2 Kings 21:16 csb). If any one monarch’s abominations were to blame for God’s abandonment of Judah to exile, it was this king who had “done wickedly more than all the Amorites did who were before him” (2 Chron. 33:11).
Gratefully, God is not a stoic being who deals with humankind in a manner devoid of emotions and sentiments. “The Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in lovingkindness. He will not always strive with us, nor will He keep His anger forever. He has not dealt with us according to our sins, nor rewarded us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is His lovingkindness toward those who fear Him” (Ps. 103:8–11).
Even when we’ve chosen unwisely, even when we’ve relished our stubborn resistance, He remains eager to express these beautiful elements of His character to us. He longs to receive the rebellious back into His welcoming arms. He loves seeing His grace exalted and watching it change us into His image. Nothing we’ve done, no matter how devastating or devious, can push us too far out of His love to reach us, rescue us, and restore us. When we call to Him, He hears us.
Just like He heard Manasseh . . .
For when the Lord sent the armies of a foreign nation against him, “and they captured Manasseh with hooks, bound him with bronze chains and took him to Babylon” (2 Chron. 33:11), judgment fell like hailstones. But in his distress, Manasseh “humbled himself greatly” (v. 12) before the Lord. And God “was moved by his entreaty and heard his supplication, and brought him again to Jerusalem to his kingdom” (v. 13). After such bountiful restoration, Manasseh received his kingdom back, and the remainder of his life (vv. 14–16) looked a whole lot different than the first.
When we respond to our Father’s discipline by humbling ourselves with the “godly sorrow” of true repentance (2 Cor. 7:11), He will pour out His mercy on us. It’s never too late, and you are never too far gone, to receive the restoring power of the One who loves you.
“And when he was in distress, he entreated the favor of the Lord his God and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers.” –2 Chronicles 33:12 ESV
“But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” –Romans 5:8
This week’s devotional is from one of my favorite Christian women speakers, Priscilla Shirer. It’s about rest. A topic we many of us feel guilty that we do too much of or get way too little of. I seem to go from one extreme to the other. I run full tilt till I burn out and lay low out of frustration and despair.
That’s one reason I’m really into utilizing a planner these past few years. I’m seeking balance. I’m trying to schedule what needs done and where I need to be and find a healthy balance. I’ve improved but I still have a ways to.
I’m way too, “all or nothing”, and I want to find a happy middle ground. I need to remember the passage from Priscilla’s devotional below, that Jesus commands rest. It’s not just a good idea. He knows best!
— Day 3 — Come and Rest He said to them, “Come away by yourselves to a secluded place and rest a while.” Mark 6:31 Rest is becoming a lost art in our modern culture. We’ve exchanged its old-fashioned value for a hectic, fast-paced, breakneck speed of life, which has slowly disintegrated our fervor and passion while simultaneously elevating our blood pressure. Packed within each twenty-four-hour time span is an unsustainable number of tasks we’ve placed upon ourselves, as well as demands we’ve allowed others to deem urgent enough to place upon us as well. And based on our fatigue and frustration, we’d give anything to offload the burden. But rest doesn’t seem like a viable option anymore. Have we forever passed up any kind of reality that dares to include rest as part of a typical day? Or week? Or . . . month? (Or . . . year?) When Jesus sent His disciples off on a specific ministry assignment in Mark 6:7–11, He didn’t shield them from the fact that their journey would not be particularly easy. People would refuse to listen to them, much less give them hospitality. Any cause for excitement would be counterbalanced by any number of legitimate reasons for quitting and discouragement. They would be empowered to preach, heal, and spread the news of the kingdom, yes, but would also be exhausted on every front— physically, emotionally, and spiritually. And even after finally coming back home from their tiring journey, people would still be “coming and going,” enough that the disciples “did not even have time to eat” (v. 31). So as their first order of business upon returning, Jesus greeted them with clear instructions: “Come . . . rest a while.” It wasn’t a request. It wasn’t a friendly suggestion. It was Jesus’ command. Here’s what you’re going to do, guys. They’d been through a lot. And much more remained to be done. But for now . . . rest . . . come and rest. At least for a little while. Do you ever feel guilty for taking time away to regroup and recharge? Are you saddled with a sense of wasted opportunity if every space on your calendar is not filled? Are you afraid your world would stop turning if you disengaged for even a few moments? Are you concerned about losing your competitive advantage if you’re not converting every moment into maximum achievement and efficiency? Then hear the voice of your Savior welcoming you into a place where grace flows, where the Spirit refuels, and where mercy fixes what’s been strained and stressed by the accumulation of life’s pressures. This is the space where priorities and relationships that have been pushed out of alignment and are in need of repair get patched up and recalibrated. Quiet time is not an excuse for the lazy but a wise investment for the diligent. It is for those who are committed to being active servants and followers of Jesus Christ instead of slaves to the tyranny of urgent busyness and activity. By prioritizing rest for ourselves and those we love, we may just rediscover the joy we thought had been lost forever.
From “Awaken'”, by Priscilla Shirer. Check it out! —>
This week is a topic I know has touched the heart of each one of us in one way or another. Where is God when bad things happen? Be honest. We all have wondered that from time to time, even if we’ve never voiced it out loud. Perhaps we’ve not even admitted it to ourselves; but perhaps in the smallest recesses of our hearts and minds the reflection of our curiosity has hinted for a moment. Why? Where?
God audibly prophesied the future of Moses, the future of the children of Israel, and the future of Egypt to Moses in these significant and familiar verses. As believers who are knowledgeable of this Sunday school story, we are tempted to read these verses with a bit of disinterest, because we know all that Moses has to go through. We all know about the plagues, the parting of the Red Sea, and being lost in the wilderness.
But may I just remind you that Moses had not watched The Ten Commandments with Charlton Heston, and he had not taken his boys to see the cinematic version of The Prince of Egypt! Moses did not know what his future held, just like you, my friend, are not aware of what your future holds.
But you serve the God of Moses who has been to your future—and it is good! God sees in advance, and He is able to make a way where there seems to be no way. We know that the God of Moses is a good God and that He exists to constantly work good in all of our life situations. Therefore, He has indeed been to the future and has enthusiastically stamped your future with the word, Good!
The story of this fugitive, Moses, who was on the run and who then hid in the wilderness, serves as an exciting reminder that whenever one encounters a fire, “I Am” will be there, because He never takes His caring eyes off His children for one instant of time.
If you are running away from life and from the consequences of sin, God is there. If you have found yourself in the wilderness with no direction, God is there. We know that if we listen, we will hear His loving voice speaking above the roar of the fire. We also know that the fires encountered by a child of God this side of Heaven have no power of destruction or decimation.
A fire is the wonderful place where God reveals Himself to weary wilderness dwellers and where He speaks purpose and destiny. A fire was fashioned by God to be the most sacred moment in the life of a believer.
This week’s devotion can be found among other’s in Carol’s book below:
I decided to share a Mindful Monday post I shared almost five years ago. There are so many Christians backbiting one another over the September 12th sign and my feeling right now is, “Lord, your people are making me so very weary….” so I felt called to share this again. I hope you glean much from it!
The Bible has a few things to say about how Christians should treat one another:
“Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers.” -Galatians 6:10
In John 13:35, our Lord Himself says, “By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”
The writer of Hebrews tells us: “And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing….” (Hebrews 10: 24-25)
In 1 Corinthians chapter 12: 12-27, Paul teaches us, “Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ. For we were all baptized by one Spirit so as to form one body—whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink. Even so the body is not made up of one part but of many. Now if the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason stop being part of the body. And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason stop being part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? But in fact God has placed the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. If they were all one part, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, but one body. The eye cannot say to the hand, “I don’t need you!” And the head cannot say to the feet, “I don’t need you!” On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and the parts that we think are less honorable we treat with special honor. And the parts that are unpresentable are treated with special modesty while our presentable parts need no special treatment. But God has put the body together, giving greater honor to the parts that lacked it, so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it. Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it.”
And in in Romans 12:15 & 18:
“Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn. Live in harmony with one another…. If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone.”
This is on my mind a lot lately as it seems like every where I turn Christians are being unloving to each other, not showing compassion to each other, and in some cases being downright cruel…I could keep going, but you get the idea. If Christians being loving towards one another is how the rest of the world will know that we are Christ’s disciples, it’s no wonder people watching them interact don’t believe. I think this is a lesson every one of us who claim the name of Jesus in our hearts and lives needs to learn.
I know of a Christian group and a woman (a friend of mine) who had been part of the ministry for years. There was an incident after which she left hurt and heartbroken. She was in genuine sorrow and felt abandoned, unloved, unwanted and unappreciated. Zero compassion. She entered into a conversation with a member of the group afterwards and through her broken heart was sharing what happened and how she felt. In return the other party (defensive of the group itself) replied, “I think you’re using a little too much drama here.” Then she would make little remarks to hurt the already hurting woman whenever she had opportunity…snide remarks thrown out during “sharing”.
Was that helpful? Was it compassionate? Was it edifying? Was it the way one member of the body would treat another member of the same body who was genuinely in pain and hurting? If you smash your hand in a car door, doesn’t the other hand immediately reach out for it? That’s just an automatic thing…we don’t even think about it. It’s just instinct to reach for the body part that’s been hurt. Shouldn’t it be that way with Christians since Jesus says we are all members of the same body??
Whether the person commenting believed my friend had been wronged or not, how loving was it to react that way? It was very risky for my friend who was hurt to let her feelings out and be vulnerable on top of already being heartbroken and when she got the return reply of “I think you’re using a little too much drama here”, by a sister in Christ who then went on to make snide remarks…
What would Jesus do? Is this how He would have reacted? Definitely not, but in the eyes of an unbelieving world, if they see Christians treating each other this way, they’ll think that’s how Jesus teaches them to be. SHAME on us! Our lives are the only Bible some people may ever read!
So my hurting friend sought counsel from an outside friend. The outsider was kind to her and showed her compassion and later said, “That kind of thing is why I don’t go to church or Bible studies. Too many hypocrites.” The hurt woman wanted to share her love of Jesus to the unbeliever, and say something like “I have to answer to God when I die and not them, so I go to church for the Lord. They have to answer to Him for themselves.” But after hearing the hurting woman’s story, how can the unbeliever be talked into giving Jesus another try? It’s so sad that Christians can be so unloving and derogatory towards one another and it. just. should. not. be. so. First for the members of the body, and then for those watching in from the outside!
Most people would tell my friend to seek counsel from her pastor. She had already sought counsel from him and was told in reply “It would be a waste of time.” Was that helpful? Was it loving? Was it Christ-like? Now what’s the woman to do?
In both instances, the enemy is trying to get the hurting woman to believe she can get treated like that from the world, she doesn’t need to get it from people who are fellow Christians, so why bother with them at all? He knows she loves the Lord enough to not leave Him willfully, but if he can put a wedge between her and her point of ministry and fellowship, he thinks there’s a way he can silence her and destroy her testimony.
There was a time she would have succumbed to that kind of thinking, but since she knows her Bible and the fact that Ephesians 6:12 reminds her, “For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places”, she is spending time getting closer to Jesus and praying He gives her direction and that He softens her heart and those of her former group members. That He opens the door to a new fellowship if that is His plan. But she is not turning her back on her first love: the author of life and love Himself. If only we as a church…as His body… would learn to care for each other the way He cares for us individually.
Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” Matthew 22:37-40
“Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I am filling up what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the church” -Colossians 1:24
There is nothing we can do in human strength to mend our differences. We selfishly believe our preferences are better than others’ opinions. So what can we do when divisions arise? Just as Jesus said each time He was tempted in the wilderness: “It is Written”. Go to the Bible. If you can find a scripture to back up how to treat someone (especially a fellow believer), it’s a fact backed up by the Word of God. If you don’t have a scripture…it’s ONLY AN OPINION and not a fact and you should think twice before you act or react. That’s the basis you can stand on. The Word of God.
“Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers.” -Galatians 6:10
This week’s Mindful Monday devotional is very near and dear to my heart. The devotional is given by Anne Graham Lotz. You may know her best as the daughter of Billy Graham. As many of my readers and those who know me are aware, the Rapture and Bible prophecy as a whole is a calling of mine, and has been since a few years before I gave my heart to Christ when I was a senior in high school. Both of my grandfathers were pastors so I grew up in my mom’s dad’s church in my early years. The closest I became aware of what the end times were back then was from singing the song, “I’ll Fly Away.” As a child, I just thought the song was about the time of our deaths.
Through a whole series of events I now realize were orchestrated by my Father, God, I was educated about the Rapture and subsequent tribulation period to be endured by those who would be Left Behind. I definitely did not want to be left behind to
This may be a little long, and I ask you to please bear with me 🙂 You may recall that I mentioned last week that I had spent about 9 years backslidden. Of course if I had it to do over again, I would never have, but as always; hindsight is 20/20, right? 🙂
I was on fire for the Lord though young in body and even younger in my faith than I would have thought at the time. I attended several fellowships or Bible studies and had something going on in that regard every night but Mondays. Little by little it started dwindling as groups stopped meeting for one reason or another. At the point where I started becoming discouraged, I was attending a Foursquare Gospel church regularly where I was driving the church van picking up intercity youth, and also attending the one larger fellowship that I had left called Koinonia.
Koinonia was an alternative to the bar scene, an offshoot of one called Nightlife. Nightlife met on Friday nights and for one reason or another, it stopped meeting after several years of being on fire. Koinonia was on Saturday nights and I had many dear friends there, but was one of the few singles that was left who hadn’t met or married a love interest. It started getting to where myself and a few others started feeling like third wheels whenever we would meet with the others. Yet, I was dealing with it…
How many of you are like me and are just stunned at the popular culture we live in today? I’m not as young as I used to be, but I’m not ancient either 🙂 I remember the days (not that long ago!) when good was promoted and evil was looked down upon. We always wanted to be the cowboy in the white hat and wanted the villain in the black hat to go down. As a Christian, years ago I backslid for a time. As the granddaughter of two pastors, I knew the Bible and the teachings of Christ well enough to know that I was in sin. I never questioned that and I didn’t explain it away as being anything but what it was. In fact, I wouldn’t let anyone around me know that I was a Christian, because I didn’t want to cast a bad testimony upon our Lord or on the reputation of His church. Sin was sin and I knew it. I think I shocked a handful of people who had met me during my backslidden years when I got online and started posting scripture and calls to come to Christ because they had no clue I had a deep faith deep within me that I never demonstrated while in my backslidden state.
When you turn the TV on now, open a magazine, listen in on a conversation while out and about, sin is considered good and appropriate, even (sad to say) while calling ourselves Christians. I know those who live an “alternative lifestyle” that the Bible plainly calls sin who acknowledge their lifestyles openly and say God is ok with it and that they are ready to meet Him when they die. They embrace the thought that He approves of the lifestyle.
We’re all so busy with the rush of daily life. Get the kids off to school, get the house clean, go to your meeting, doctor’s appointment, get home in time to take the husband’s suit to the dry cleaners but make sure to be home before the school bus does, to get the kids off the bus. Get the kids happy and settled and start dinner. Serve dinner, get everyone happy and collapse on the couch for an hour exhausted, get the kids to bed and go to bed yourself. Rinse and repeat 🙂
Even those of us who are planners and bullet journalers. We make sure to get everyone’s appointments down on our calendar. We write down the days we need to do certain chores to keep up on it all so it doesn’t build up and come crashing down around us (because most of us know that if we don’t do it, it won’t get done, right?)
But as today’s devotional reminds us: Don’t neglect the eternal!
In all your planning, make sure you pencil in some time for the Lord. If you don’t put Him first, nothing else will fall into place in any kind of effective way. If if falls together physically, often we are left empty and exhausted and our spiritual and mental health suffers as a result.
This week I would like to contemplate the phrase, “Back to Life”. What does that mean when we consider that phrase? Most of us Christians would first think about Jesus’ death and resurrection, of course. Aside from that, what does it stir up in your spirit?
For me, I’m digging my way back to life after a season of deep depression. It all started with entering menopause at the same time we lost the house we had built and brought our son into the world in. An extremely hurting ending to a 10-year ministry and fellowship with a large women’s Bible study group happened about that same time as well and we moved back to my hometown to be near my mother who had to enter a nursing home having been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. Being an autism mom and daughter of an Alzheimer’s mother has taken its toll. I try to stay close to the Lord and having the commitment of reading the Bible to my son every night as he falls to sleep keeps me in the Word.
I encourage you to find a way to be accountable to read the Bible daily!
I read this devotional during my evening devotional readings on You Version after my regular read-through-the-Bible in a year plan during which my sweet son fell sleep with his head on my shoulder. It touched my spirit and I hope it does yours as well! —>
I have read, meditated on, and heard messages on Ezekiel 37, the valley of dry bones, for as long as I can remember. It’s one of those passages that I’ve heard so many times, I wasn’t sure what else I could possibly get out of it! But after experiencing my own valley of dry bones, and inhabiting a pit of despair for several years, God has illuminated this familiar passage for me.
God very easily could have spoken to the dry bones Himself and seen them come to life. Instead, He commanded Ezekiel to listen to His words, then repeat them to the bones. It was only when Ezekiel obeyed and spoke life that the bones responded.
Similarly, I find that this is how God lifted me out of the dark. Rather than experiencing immediate deliverance, God lifted me out bit by bit, allowing me to learn valuable lessons in the process. He taught me how to prophesy His words over myself:
I breathed out shame, and breathed in grace I breathed out fear, and breathed in peace I breathed out weakness, and breathed in strength This is not to say that I felt these things immediately. But in the beginning of this process, I knew I needed to do what Ezekiel did—prophesy God’s truth over what felt dead. As my friend TobyMac says, I needed to speak life!
I ended the deluxe edition of my ‘Out of the Dark’ album with a worship song that illustrates this process perfectly.
“Shame and depression And all anxieties They have no power over me Addiction and strongholds And every disease They have no power over me”
Even as I recorded those words, I felt shame. But as I repeated those words over and over, the shame lifted. Sometimes our behavior follows our acts of faith. For reasons we may not fully understand, there is great power in God’s Word, and in worship. When I least feel like opening my mouth to praise or proclaim Truth is when it is most important for me to do so. By magnifying Jesus, our circumstances grow smaller in comparison. In those moments when we feel like all signs of life are gone, proclaim the breath of heaven into that situation, and watch God bring those dry bones back to life.
I bought the DVD 3-4 years ago and when I first watched it, I cried like a baby. Not only for my compassion for his relationship with he and his father, but because of how parallel it was to my own relationship with my father. I watched part of it again last night on YouTube while preparing for this post and was on the verge of tears again when I closed it. That heart break never goes away even though I made peace with my father before he went on to be with the Lord in 1997. It stays with you.
I was a victim of severe bullying as child. Not only at school (thought that was really bad) but also at home. I taught a Bible study on this and shared my testimony regarding it for my Bible study group and posted it on my YouTube Channel in hopes of it ministering to others. It’s so much more rampant today than it was when I was a child in the 70’s and 80’s and I can’t image it being worse than it was for me, but at the same time I’m so grateful to not have to contend with cyber-bulling the kids have to endure today.
I share that to say this: The worst part of my bullying was the divide it placed between me and my heavenly father. It was really difficult to view my heavenly Father as a loving, giving, compassionate father, when the other father figure I’d ever know, my earthly father, was irate, berating, screaming and shaming. Now I see that my dad was a victim of sin as we all are, and that Jesus died for him just like he did me. My father died with us both loving each other very much. Thank you, Lord! However…those scars remain and those old tapes continue to play in my view of God no matter how much I fight it and stay in the Word and read the truth. I’ve come to understand that it’s a prime weapon of the enemy to discourage me in my faith. The thing I look forward to the most is meeting my Savior face to face and feel His arms of love around me, never again to struggle with the old tapes again.
Having said that…this week’s devotional:
In Awe of Love
Creation discloses a power that baffles our minds and beggars our speech. We are enamored and enchanted by God’s power. We stutter and stammer about God’s holiness. We tremble before God’s majesty…and yet we grow squeamish and skittish before God’s love.
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