February

Exodus 3:10-14, 4: 10-13
So now, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt.” But Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?” And God said, “I will be with you. And this will be the sign to you that it is I who have sent you: When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you will worship God on this mountain.” Moses said to God, “Suppose I go to the Israelites and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ Then what shall I tell them?” God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: ‘I AM has sent me to you.’”…..Moses said to the Lord, “Pardon your servant, Lord. I have never been eloquent, neither in the past nor since you have spoken to your servant. I am slow of speech and tongue.” The Lord said to him, “Who gave human beings their mouths? Who makes them deaf or mute? Who gives them sight or makes them blind? Is it not I, the Lord? Now go; I will help you speak and will teach you what to say.” But Moses said, “Pardon your servant, Lord. Please send someone else.”

 Judges 6:11-18
The angel of the Lord came and sat down under the oak in Ophrah that belonged to Joash the Abiezrite, where his son Gideon was threshing wheat in a winepress to keep it from the Midianites. When the angel of the Lord appeared to Gideon, he said, “The Lord is with you, mighty warrior.” “Pardon me, my lord,” Gideon replied, “but if the Lord is with us, why has all this happened to us? Where are all his wonders that our ancestors told us about when they said, ‘Did not the Lord bring us up out of Egypt?’ But now the Lord has abandoned us and given us into the hand of Midian.” The Lord turned to him and said, “Go in the strength you have and save Israel out of Midian’s hand. Am I not sending you?” “Pardon me, my lord,” Gideon replied, “but how can I save Israel? My clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my family.” The Lord answered, “I will be with you, and you will strike down all the Midianites, leaving none alive.” Gideon replied, “If now I have found favor in your eyes, give me a sign that it is really you talking to me. Please do not go away until I come back and bring my offering and set it before you.” And the Lord said, “I will wait until you return.”

In Secure in God

As I continue to learn more about the people of the Bible, I am continued to be amazed by them. Not the amazement you might think. I am not only amazed by how God used them, which is quite remarkable, but I am amazed that God still used them. He still used them after they said no, or had the wrong attitude or tried it their own way. To be honest, I can relate. Sadly, I’ve had all those reactions before. I am not always the eager beaver when God calls me to do something. Moses and Gideon were used greatly for the protection and freedom of the Israelites; however their beginnings were a little different. Moses, after 40 years of training as a shepherd, was now being called to shepherd the Israelites out of Egypt. I would say that was a big task and Moses made it very clear to God what he thought. Moses first response is that he is not someone that’s worthy for this calling. God assures him that He is with him. Moses replies back not sure how he’s to respond to the people when they question his authority. God tells him His name. Moses reveals that he lacks the ability to speak as he needs to with Pharaoh. God rebukes him and reminds him of His power. Moses comes back with a clear no. If you continue to read the passages, God becomes angry, but provides him help through his brother Aaron, and God does amazing things through them. God didn’t need Moses to be great; He needed him to be available.
     Many years later, we meet Gideon. It is the time of the Judges and there is a lot of oppression and idol worship throughout the land. God has been sending different people to ‘judge’ the Israelites and lead them not just out of sin, but also from destruction from other nations. Gideon is one of those judges. God meets him alone as He did with Moses. Notice how He addresses Gideon. He calls him mighty warrior. Now at this point Gideon has done nothing ‘warrior’ like, let alone, mighty, but God knows what Gideon’s going to do. After God is done with him, Gideon will be a mighty warrior. Gideon overlooks this point and addresses something more pertinent to him. Where is God? That’s what he wants to know. Gideon and his people are being oppressed and God seems to be gone. Where is the God that led the Israelites out of slavery and performed amazing miracles on their behalf? I might be asking the same thing given his circumstances. God doesn’t necessarily give him a direct answer, but instead tells him that Gideon himself is going to save Israel. God called Moses to save the people and now it’s Gideon that’s being called. Unlike Moses, Gideon doesn’t say no, but he does ask Him for a sign; actually a few signs. Guess what? God gave it to him. Every sign he needed, God provided. God did amazing things through Gideon and the men that fought with him. Again, God didn’t need Gideon to be mighty; He needed him to be available.
     Thank God He doesn’t need me to be great or mighty, because I am neither. After thinking about the circumstances both these men were in and what God was calling them to do, I’m not sure I can blame them for not responding with joy. They were scared, plain and simple. From their responses, it’s obvious that they felt inadequate and insecure, as they should. In themselves, they were not adequate or secure to save themselves, let alone, save the whole nation. Despite their attempt to tell God otherwise, they eventually obeyed God and discovered His power flowing through them to accomplish what, on their own, could not ever be done. God wants so much to use us and to display His greatness through us if we let Him. I have to admit that I feel inadequate and insecure more than I’d like to admit. Yet, isn’t this a great place to be? If I can respond the correct way out of my insecurity when God calls me to do something, then He can accomplish amazing things through me as He did with Moses and Gideon. From my insecurity I must learn to secure myself to Him. I believe that our insecurity serves a greater purpose than we realize. Satan would like to use this sense of helplessness to keep us from obeying God and from being used by Him. God does not allow us to feel insecure or inadequate so that we cower away from Him, but quite the opposite. He wants that out of our insecurity, out of realizing that we really are not secure in ourselves, that we would secure ourselves firmly to Him. Once Moses and Gideon got past the realization that they alone can’t do what God is asking, they secured themselves to their God. You have to read for yourselves the story of Moses and Gideon and see the mighty and amazing things that can be done when your security is latched to the One that does not need to be secure in anything. He does not change, sway, or move. He is the Rock. He is the Fortress and the Shield. I hope I realize the next time I feel insecure or feel as if I don’t measure up, that I am in a good place. I won’t measure up against others. I won’t be secure in myself. It’s a good place to let God take control.

January

Joshua 2: 1-4,8-13,17-18
Then Joshua son of Nun secretly sent two spies from Shittim. “Go, look over the land,” he said, “especially Jericho.” So they went and entered the house of a prostitute named Rahab and stayed there. The king of Jericho was told, “Look, some of the Israelites have come here tonight to spy out the land.” So the king of Jericho sent this message to Rahab: “Bring out the men who came to you and entered your house, because they have come to spy out the whole land.” But the woman had taken the two men and hidden them…Before the spies lay down for the night, she went up on the roof and said to them, “I know that the Lord has given you this land and that a great fear of you has fallen on us, so that all who live in this country are melting in fear because of you. We have heard how the Lord dried up the water of the Red Sea for you when you came out of Egypt, and what you did to Sihon and Og, the two kings of the Amorites east of the Jordan, whom you completely destroyed. When we heard of it, our hearts melted in fear and everyone’s courage failed because of you, for the Lord your God is God in heaven above and on the earth below. “Now then, please swear to me by the Lord that you will show kindness to my family, because I have shown kindness to you. Give me a sure sign that you will spare the lives of my father and mother, my brothers and sisters, and all who belong to them—and that you will save us from death.” ..Now the men had said to her, “This oath you made us swear will not be binding on us unless, when we enter the land, you have tied this scarlet cord in the window through which you let us down, and unless you have brought your father and mother, your brothers and all your family into your house.

Hebrews 11:31
By faith the prostitute Rahab, because she welcomed the spies, was not killed with those who were disobedient.

 New Creation
     How would you like to be known as ‘the harlot’? In Joshua 6, every time Rahab is mentioned, she is titled as Rahab the harlot. That title has stuck all these years because many of you know her as that. Yet she was a harlot until God did some work on her heart through some unusual ways. The two spies that were sent out went to lodge at her place because who would suspect two men staying at a harlot’s house, right? Also, her place was on the city wall which was of course easy access. These men went there strategically, but God’s providence sent them there for the salvation of a harlot. When God would be done, she would no longer be Rahab the harlot, but Rahab the saved, the redeemed, the child of God!
     We don’t know what the spies told her when they got there, but I believe that God was already working and revealing things in her life and preparing her for this very moment. Just like Ruth and Esther, she was going to have to do things she didn’t think she was ready for. Sound familiar at all? You and I also have ‘moments’ that we may think we are not ready for, but when God is at work anything is possible, even if that anything is you and me. Rahab would have to take a step of faith to help these men. I’m sure their actions proved worthy of their character. They could have treated her like a harlot, but instead, they spoke to her as a person. The words that she spoke to them on the roof are evidence that God had been speaking to her through past events and was preparing her heart for something greater than she ever knew.
     Her life and her job as she knew it was a prison. I’m certain her life felt insignificant and useless. Had she experienced real unconditional love yet, though I’m not sure, I do believe she saw God’s love through these men. She was living a lonely life that was man pleasing, but God was going to change that to an abundant life that was God pleasing! She asked to be spared from the attack, not only herself, but her whole family. She was fearful for her life and the life of those she loved, but what I love the most is that she had no clue what she was really going to be saved from. She saw only the immediate death from war, but God was going to deliver her soul from eternal death. Her name was going to be written not only in the Bible, but in the Book of Life! He used her broken heart and her fears to draw her close to Him.                                                     
     The spies had left her and the next few days would have to be endured patiently. I can only imagine her anxiety, her fears, and her wondering whether these men would really keep their promise. Would this God that she was trusting really help her? What did she tell her family, how did she explain it all? Joshua 6 explains how the walls of Jericho fell. The Israelites marched around the wall for seven days. What was Rahab thinking and feeling as she saw these men circling around and around for a week? The anticipation must have been overwhelming. Right before anything could happen, the two men came to her as they promised. They took her and her entire family and they were spared from the coming slaughter. Just like that, after days of waiting and hoping, they were delivered from the attack from the attackers themselves. Her one decision to trust God, to trust these men from God, changed the course of her life forever. She was not just spared, but we know from Matthew1 that she is in the line of Christ. Her faith was going to define her in history.
     Don’t you want to be used like Rahab was? If you’ve read my last two letters, you know I want to be used and I want to live the dream that God has planned for me. Yet in my life I am not going to be hiding spies or speaking before kings. I still want to be ready for my ‘moments’ that could make a difference in my life or better yet, in someone else’s life. I may not be like Rahab who was used in the nation of Israel, but I know that if I am ready and available, God will use me in His kingdom no matter how small the impact. I hope that this new year I can be ready and available. That I, like Rahab, can just do what I need to no matter how scared I may be. I just want to obey.
     Her small leap of faith and trust in God transformed her into a new creation. “Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.” (2 Corinthians 5:17). Her old life was gone and new things awaited for Rahab. She received blessings beyond her dreams. She was not merely delivered, but would have a new life. She would be a wife and mother. Only God can use sinners and transform them into saints. I can tell you that He has done that with me. He has taken this sinner, and given me a new title, saint! Only He can take something broken and make it new. When we hear the name Rahab, let us be encouraged of the new life she received from such a small amount of faith. May the new year be a renewing of our faith in God and trusting Him to turn what’s left of our old self to be transformed into something pleasing to Him. As children of God, we are new creations no matter our age or our past. Let’s prove our deliverance; let’s prove our faith; let’s prove what we believe by what we do-just like Rahab did.

You see that a man is justified by works and not by faith alone. In the same way, was not Rahab the harlot also justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out by another way? For just as the body without the spirit is dead, so also faith without works is dead.
James 2:24-26

December

Romans 4:20-21

Yet he (Abram) did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised.

Galatians 2:20

I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

Fight for Faith-Part two
     Last month I shared about my struggle over my emotions and my faith and that many times they collide. Yet our emotions are good. Yes they can hinder us at times from seeing clearly, but God created them out of His goodness. It is one part of the many dimensions of who we are. Anger does not always lead us to sin, anxiety does not always lead us astray, nor does sadness leave us hopeless. God uses all these emotions, the good and the bad, to transform us into His image. Do you remember I said I was reading two books? I shared one book with you, let me now share the other. After the women’s retreat and in my time of pity, I picked up “What Happens When Women Walk in Faith” by Lysa TerKeurst. I’ve read this book before, but apparently God needed to use it again in my life. Remember I returned discouraged from the retreat I attended? One of the messages of the retreat was that we are called by God to do something, to serve Him in some capacity. I feel like I have been trying to figure this out for the past few years. I opened the first chapter of that book and guess what it said? God gives every woman a dream. Really? Then what the heck is mine? This idea drove me crazy, not because I don’t believe it, but exactly the opposite. I do believe it and yet I am completely lost about my dream, let alone any dream. I was upset at God. Why would you speak about callings and dreams to me days in a row and then not provide an answer? I continued to journal and deal with the ‘undulation’ of my feelings and my faith. Last month I dealt deeper into these feelings and my faith. This month I have gotten deeper into the root of some other places.                                                                                                        
     I continued to read the book slowly and the Lord continued to speak to me through the words of the author. The author tells us that whether or not God has made our dream clear or not, He would make it known in His own time and until then there was a waiting period. Don’t you love that word, wait! Yet during the waiting period is where the pruning and growth comes. It’s during this period where He is truly growing me, exposing my heart, and revealing His. As I dived into prayer and with more questions for God, He revealed fears in my life I knew existed, but had no clue how paralyzing they were. The author spoke about two words that convicted my heart. One was surrender. Surrender is, “to yield to the power or control of another…..to abandon.”1 I was not yielding my fears to God, but allowing them to dictate how much faith I would act on and how much risk I would take with God. For the first time I realized how stationary I was because my fears did not allow me to move. At that moment of revelation, I journaled a list of my fears and seeing it on paper was most alarming yet beneficial. Not only did I have to surrender my fears to Him, but I had to abandon all. I have to abandon all my desires and all my hopes at His feet. I am still in this process of surrendering all to Him. I must abandon my own ideas and wants, so that I can be fully free to fulfill His desires and will for my life.                                                                                        
     Honor was the other word that stayed in my thoughts for awhile. The author knew that during the waiting period we have to honor Him in everything. The mundane is what was bogging me down, the everyday routine. I even made a list of that routine and it was good to see that on paper as well. This was the list that I needed to learn to put honor back into. The routine of waking up, getting ready, going to work, driving back, going to bed, and so on and so forth. You get me, right? Somehow I needed to honor our amazing God in all these acts. Of course I already know this and if you asked me about it, I would say, yes, we honor God in everything, from the rising of the sun to its going down, but somewhere in the rising of the sun and going to sleep, I lost purpose and focus. I have to be able to honor God in the ordinary parts of life, so that when He asks me to honor Him in the extraordinary, I can do it with confidence.                                                                                                                                     
     I have to be honest, from last month to this month, nothing extraordinary has happened or changed. God didn’t part the clouds and give me a message, yet the work of the Spirit in my heart has been extraordinary. Having to truly surrender my fears has been hard and yet freeing. Surrendering means actually exposing that which I’ve been holding onto and letting it go. But there’s no room for pity because as I’m surrendering I’m honoring God and it’s a process, a cycle if you will, that I must go through every day until it becomes part of my life. Remember the law of Undulation? The ups and downs of our hearts, our desires, and our interests are all part of the process. At the end, we still choose how we will act even if how we feel has failed us. In “The Screwtape Letters”, the uncle demon, Screwtape, explains to his nephew something that not only convicted me, but burned in me to be this kind of human. Remember that the Enemy in this book is God. I leave you with his words:

“Our cause is never more in danger than when a human,

no longer desiring but still intending, to do our Enemy’s will,

looks round upon a universe from which every trace of Him seems to have vanished,

and asks why he has been forsaken, and still obeys.”2

1. “surrender” online dictionary, 2010
     http://www.dictionary.com/
2. Lewis, CS The Screwtape Letters. City, State. HarperCollins Publishers. 1942.

November

Jeremiah 17: 7-10
"Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord And whose trust is the Lord. "For he will be like a tree planted by the water, that extends its roots by a stream and will not fear when the heat comes; But its leaves will be green, and it will not be anxious in a year of drought nor cease to yield fruit. "The heart is more deceitful than all else and is desperately sick; who can understand it? I, the Lord, search the heart I test the mind..”

1 Samuel 16:7
“…..The Lord does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart." (In reference to finding a king for Israel)
Fight for Faith-Part One
     I have to confess that right now in my life I am becoming more and more aware of how my faith and my emotions seem to always be on opposite sides and it is disheartening. My faith maybe strong in hard times, but many times my emotions don’t match my faith. Anyone else find themselves in the same situation? Is this what it means sometimes when your flesh and Spirit are at war? If I acted completely out of my faith instead of my emotions or feelings, I believe I could be a valuable instrument to the Lord. I am currently reading two books and God is speaking the same kind of message through both of them. He has a specific way He wants to use me and when He wants to use me and when I forget this and get caught up with doubt and pity, I must push through. My faith must press through my emotions to see God’s goodness. The Screwtape Letters is a scary book to me. CS Lewis, the author, has an uncanny way of showing us in the raw how we can get side tracked from pursuing God. The chapter that God really brought to my attention was on the law of Undulation. Undulation is a rising and falling in waves. Essentially this means that something, let’s say our feelings, go up and down constantly. This would describe me accurately. I hate to admit it, I’d like to say that I am constant in my feelings or my passions or interests, but rather I am constant in changing them. This chapter was important to me because after recently attending my church’s women’s retreat, I came away not encouraged, but rather questioning my purpose and my service to God and to the church. I came away feeling insignificant and useless. This was of course not the intended purpose of the retreat, but God uses what He needs to use to get me to see what I need to see. I admit that for a day I dwelled in self pity and wondered why God wouldn’t do something great in my life and if He did, would I first have to go through some tragedy for it to happen. When I pulled through the self pity, I immersed myself in prayer and journaling. These are always my comforts and way of ‘venting’ to God. I am always amazed how much God reveals to me when I am raw before Him.
     So let’s return to why the law of Undulation is so important to me. It gave me a real name to my ‘rising and falling’. CS Lewis describes it as “..thier bodies, passions, and imaginations are in continual change, for to be in time means to change. Their nearest approach to constancy, therefore, is undulation-the repeated return to a level from which they repeatedly fall back, a series of troughs and peaks.”1 Troughs and peaks, that is how I feel. Sometimes I am secure, satisfied with the day, relationships are great and yet the next day I am not feeling pretty and that hinders a good attitude and nothing feels right. I hope some of you are nodding in agreement with me because you also have been there and done that. Oh to my relief I felt that someone could actually explain really well why the ups and downs. God explains this in Luke 6:45 that the heart is deceitful, who can cure it? Yet out of the overflow of the heart, the mouth speaks. There is deceit in the heart and yet we are told that we are to hide God’s word in the heart according to Psalm 119:11. This is why David pleads for a clean heart in Psalm 51:10. Clean from sin, from doubt, from anxieties and fear. In the Jeremiah passage in the beginning we see that a man is like a tree planted by streams of water. Pay attention to the emotions that are mentioned, fear and anxiety. It says that blessed is the man who trusts the Lord hence when I trust the Lord I will not fear and be anxious. I think you would agree that it is easier said than done, right? Fear, anxiety, anger, and other emotions come upon us quickly in situations, but it’s when they are upon us that we have to remember who we trust so that our faith will push through them.
     Undulation-I have to admit I had never heard of the word until I read it in the book-but it has become my new favorite word. Through the rising and the falling, through the troughs and peaks, my faith must always push and press through whatever emotions and doubts are hindering me from seeing God’s hand right now. My feelings don’t always match my faith, and I admit that my feelings many times dictate my decisions. But it’s really my faith, what I believe and know to be solid truth, that must guide what I do and what I decide. I must fight for my faith despite my own feelings. The struggle of the Spirit and the flesh is very real and I have to deal with it every single day. But I am not alone. The Lord has equipped me with the Holy Spirit and with His scriptures. It is why His word needs to be hidden in our hearts. His word is a weapon and we can’t use what we don’t have. Let us not be complacent with our struggle. Routines and the hustle of everyday cannot allow us to forget that we are being sanctified through the work of the Spirit to resemble God more and more each day. Part of the process is submitting our emotions to the Lord and letting Him use that to increase our faith. My quickness to anger, to fear, to doubt, and to hurt humble me. I am in need of God’s grace and His power every moment. I need to be mindful of my ever changing heart and even though my heart may waver, my trust must be sure and steady in the God who is unchanging.

I seek you with all my heart; do not let me stray from your commands. I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you.
Psalm 119:10-11

1. Lewis, CS The Screwtape Letters. City, State. HarperCollins Publishers. 1942.

October

Matthew 16:13-16
When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, "Who do people say the Son of Man is?" They replied, "Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets." "But what about you?" he asked. "Who do you say I am?" Simon Peter answered, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”
 
Colossians 1:15-18
He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities--all things have been created through Him and for Him. He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together. He is also head of the body, the church; and He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that He Himself will come to have first place in everything.

Who is Christ?
     How do you answer that question? Who is Christ? Is He God or the son of the God? Is He love or the giver of love? Is He a Savior or Destroyer of sin? Who is Christ? I am reading through Colossians and discovered a great insert that the Thomas Nelson publishing company added in the introduction. After reading this, I just marveled at His names and the power behind them. I want to share a portion of it with you and hope you are encouraged and challenged.
     “He is the only Mediator between God and man; He is the Sun that enlightens; the Physician that heals; the Wall of Fire that defends; the Friend that comforts; the Pearl that enriches; the Ark that supports; and the Rock to sustain under the heaviest of pressures; He is seated at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty on high (Heb.1:3;8:1); He is better than the angels (Heb.1:4-14); better than Moses; better than Aaron; better than Joshua; better than Melchizedek; better than all the prophets; greater than Satan (Lk.4:1-12); and stronger than death (1Co 15:55)…He is the Lord of Hosts, the Redeemer-the Holy One of Israel, the God of the whole earth (Is. 54:5); He is the Man of Sorrows (Is.53:3); He is the Light; He is the Son of Man (Mt.20:28); He is the Vine; He is the Bread of Life; He is the Door; He is the Lord (Php. 2:10-13); He is Prophet, Priest and King (Heb. 1:1-3); He is our Sabbath rest (Heb.4:9); He is our Righteousness (Jer. 23:6); He is the Wonderful Counselor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace (Is. 9:6); He is the Chief Shepherd (1 Pet 5:4); He is Lord God of hosts; He is Lord of the nations; He is the Lion of Judah; the Living Word; the Rock of Salvation; the Eternal Spirit; He is the Ancient of Days; Creator and Comforter; Messiah; and He is the great I AM (Jn. 8:58).”1
     How amazing is our God that He can be all things and the One thing you and I need. Jesus asked an important question in the book of Matthew. Who do people say I am? Many thought He was someone else like Elijah or John the Baptist. Then He makes the question more personal. Who do you say I am? He is asking us that as well. Who is Christ? Better yet, does your answer align with your actions? Can you prove what Christ is to you by how you act and what you do? If He is your Comforter, then do you seek Him when you are in pain? If He is your Healer, do you rely on Him for being restored? Does your faith, your actions prove He is what He is? When you are scared, He is your Shield. When you are happy, He is your joy. When you are confused, He is your Wisdom. When you are hurt, He is your Healer. He is your Champion, your Warrior, the Lover of your soul. Peter answered correctly when he said ‘you are Christ, the Son of the Living God.’ He is Christ, but is He your Christ, your Living God? Have you chosen Him as your Christ?


1 MacArthur, John. (2006). The Macarthur Study Bible. La Habra, CA: Thomas Nelson Publishers.

September

1 Samuel 15:22
But Samuel replied: "Does the Lord delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in obeying the voice of the Lord? To obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed is better than the fat of rams."

Micah 6: 6-7
With what shall I come before the Lord and bow down before the exalted God? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old? Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousand rivers of oil? Shall I offer my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?

Just you, just Christ
     If you were standing before God right now and He asked you why He should let you into heaven, into eternal life with Him, what would be your answer? If heaven means being in the presence of God and in the absence of suffering, do you want it? Some of you have a relationship with Christ and are devoted to Him. Others of you have not made that decision yet. Romans 10:9-10 says,”That if you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved”.
     I’m full of questions today; be ready. Do you believe that Jesus is Lord and that there is only one Lord? And that if you put your life, your faith and trust in Jesus, that you are saved? “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast.” (Ephesians 2:8-9). Your words confess Him, your actions portray Him. How often do we place Christ alongside everything else we hold so dear and so sacred? Don’t you know that nothing compares to Christ? There is no other Savior, no other God, and no other Friend than Christ Jesus. Everything else good is but a mere shadow of Him. He wants our works, our talent, our money, not for salvation, but for His purposes. His salvation is a free gift; you accept it or you don’t. It can’t be bought or bartered for and certainly can’t be worked for. However, there is fine print with His gift; can you believe it? God has fine print written at the bottom of His free gift! His one requirement? You. In exchange for your life, you get Christ and Christ gets you! He gets all of you and you get all of Him. You get His love, His forgiveness, His compassion, His blessings, His healing, His joy, His patience, and I could go on and on.
     He doesn’t require your sacrifices, but will there be some, yes! Some of us have sacrificed more than others to follow Christ. Some have sacrificed relationships because they chose to have a relationship with Christ. We make these sacrifices not for salvation, but because of our salvation. And guess what? We continue to sacrifice for the sake of Christ all throughout our walk with God. As followers of Christ, we are branded by our sacrifice. “Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship.” (Romans 12:1) We worship God by sacrificing ourselves for God’s purposes. Christ was the ultimate example of a life being sacrificed, right? “And live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.” (Ephesians 5:2) God sacrificed Christ on your behalf because of your sins. Whether you choose to believe and trust in that or not, it’s real and it’s true. He desires the same from you. He wants you to sacrifice your life to Him, but instead of death as Christ experienced, He grants you life.
     I hope that if you have made the decision to trust in Christ as your Savior and Lord and that you continue faithfully in your life of sacrifice for Him. If you have not made that decision, can I encourage you to please think, pray, seek, and consider Christ for your life?

"And there is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven
that has been given among men by which we must be saved."
Acts 4:12

August

Daniel 6:10
‘..he (Daniel) went home to his upstairs room where the windows opened toward Jerusalem. Three times a day he got down on his knees and, giving thanks to his God, just as he had done before.’

1 Samuel 10, 12-13
‘In bitterness of soul Hannah wept much and prayed to the Lord… As she kept on praying to the Lord, Eli observed her mouth. Hannah was praying in her heart, and her lips were moving but her voice was not heard..’Quantity and quality
     Many things measure what kind of person we are, from our actions to our words, to our thoughts. As a believer, we are commanded to align all three to God’s character. We do this through the work of the Holy Spirit. We would be deceiving ourselves if we thought this was possible through human efforts. To love others, to deny ourselves, to pray daily is an act of submitting ourselves to God. Sadly it does not always come naturally, so we need God’s help. One area where the Spirit transforms our hearts and our will is in the practice of prayer, or our life of prayer. Whatever your prayer life is at this moment, I challenge you and myself to pray more. What you pray for is just as important as how much you pray. When it comes to prayer, quantity and quality matter. Quality isn’t about eloquent words and sounding sophisticated. It’s about who and what you are praying for. We have to submit to the Holy Spirit when it comes to praying. Are we praying for our authorities, for our neighbors (near and far), for the poor, for unbelievers, for our nations, for our families? How much of our prayers consist of these?
     Daniel prayed three times a day. Not because he had the time, but because he knew how much he needed to be on his knees. You may think you don’t have time to pray, but that’s not an acceptable excuse is it? We always make time for what its important. Prayer isn’t about just doing your duty as a believer. Do you want to grow in Christ? Do you want to stand for God’s Truth, for His glory, for His name? Then it starts by being on your knees. Before we can stand boldly, we must bow humbly. Yes there is so much to pray for that it gets overwhelming, and that’s why we must pray more and more. Being organized and keeping a prayer journal can help you stay focused and faithful. We must pray without ceasing; this means we cultivate a life of prayer. We pray in the car, we pray in the shower, we pray at church, we pray when we are with others, we pray. Can you imagine how prayer can transform our thoughts, the way see others, and how we see ourselves? Prayer is not for God, it’s for us. It’s there to communicate, to plead, and to humble ourselves to God through the Holy Spirit. “It is good to have our hours of prayer, not to bind, but to remind conscience; and, if we think our bodies require refreshment by food thrice a day, can we think seldomer will serve our souls? This is surely as little as may be to answer the command of praying always….Though he was a man of business, vast business, for the service of the public, he did not think that would excuse him from the daily exercises of devotion. How inexcusable then are those who have but little to do in the world, and yet will not do thus much for God and their souls!” (Matthew Henry)
     Hannah was a faithful prayer servant. She prayed so long and fervently, believing that God could do what she asked. And when God did grant her prayer of a child, she gave him back to the Lord. How is that possible except through the power of the Holy Spirit working in her prayers? “I prayed for this child, and the Lord has granted me what I asked of him. So now I give him to the Lord. For his whole life he will be given over to the Lord." (1 Samuel 1:27-28) We must understand how much power prayer holds when it’s done in faith. Whether it’s praying like Daniel on his knees or like Hannah crying out, we are to pray without ceasing and we are to pray every day.

“As every day demands its bread, so every day demands its prayers.

No amount of praying done today will suffice for tomorrow’s praying.”

E.M Bounds