Once, on being asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, Jesus replied, “The coming of the kingdom of God is not something that can be observed, 21 nor will people say, ‘Here it is,’ or ‘There it is,’ because the kingdom of God is in your midst.”Luke 17:20-21
My BSGs are embarking on a new study called, “He Speaks to Me,” by Priscilla Shirer. What stood out to me in the first video we watched was her discussion about the Kingdom of God. She shared with the audience about how in the Old Testament the Israelites prayed for the “coming” Kingdom of God. It was something they hoped and yearned for throughout their years as a new and developing nation. And right at the beginning of the New Testament we find John the Baptist proclaiming:
“Repent for the kingdom of heaven has come near!”Matthew 3:2
With Jesus’ arrival, the Kingdom of God (or Heaven) became flesh and was brought to the Israelites. And so many of them refused to grasp that their prayers were answered. And when Jesus was resurrected, the Holy Spirit remained to cover us with the Kingdom.
Today I praise God for His continual presence in our world, in my life and yours. The big word is “omnipresent.” But I like to think of it more as though I move through and live in God’s presence. He’s not “with me.” I am more like the tiny seed that is buried in a fluff of freshly picked cotton. I am in God’s kingdom, surrounded by Him.
When I grasped this idea just a year or so ago it changed my perspective dramatically. I don’t need to ask God to come help me or be near me. I just need to slow down my brain and remember I am always in His presence. We are all in His presence, whether we believe in Him or not.
It reminds me of the movie, The Matrix. There are those in the movie whose brains and bodies are hooked up to a virtual reality machine. They move about in a phony world without realizing its fake character. And then there are the people who have disconnected from the computer and live almost in an alternate space – the real, tangible world. When we disconnect from the world of the flesh and recognize that this is God’s world, His created space, and that we are in His midst, we start seeing life and how to live it from a new perspective.
The Kingdom, Jesus reiterated in our first verse is not a specific “thing” to be seen. It’s because it is everything in God’s creation. It is the grace God gifted us through Jesus. It is His Holy workings in our lives via the Holy Spirit. The kingdom is God and God is the kingdom. Gnaw on that a bit!
When I’m struggling with an issue or feel pulled apart by the fleshly world, I now seek that “sweet spot.” That quiet moment where I can feel nestled in His presence, like that little cotton seed. I wrap it around me like a warm, soft blanket and thank God I can call him “home.”
Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered,it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.1 Corinthians 13:4-7
I don’t think I’d be too off the mark in surmising that so much of human bad behavior stems from a need to be loved. We seek fame and fortune to be noticed, to be loved. We have affairs to feel needed and loved. We engage in all sorts of sexual immorality in seeking love’s bliss. We get petty and petulant because we feel slighted or unloved. We gossip to draw others into our inner circle to feel important and adored. When we feel lacking in being loved or even loving ourselves the doors open for the devil to whisper his sweet nothings to us.
It’s love we so desperately seek in so many wrong ways from the wrong sources.
Praise God that He first, created love. How could He not? The earth, sun, oceans, and garden were a thing of overwhelming beauty created for man to enjoy. A gift like that can only be made out of love. God is Himself love. He gives Himself freely to us, even when we reject Him. He waits patiently in this time of grace, for us to turn our eyes to Him.
There’s no magic formula or check to write for this true love. Even when we are acting out in our most sinful ways, He gives us yet another opportunity to let Him love us. Yes, let Him love us. Too many of us push God away – possibly out of shame or guilt or a feeling of worthlessness. I, myself, have stood harshly judging my reflection. I have struggled accepting God’s love. My past can sit like a demon shadow in front of me, pulling me into darkness. But more often lately I’m looking at the face in the mirror asking God to help me love myself as much as I know He loves me.
Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.”Hebrews 13:5
My greatest hope for my daughters is that they won’t take as long as I have to look in the mirror and know how well they are loved by God. He will never leave them. He won’t gossip about them or betray them. He won’t judge them harshly. He will love their fresh, young faces the same as He will love their old and wrinkly ones.
Love is an emotion that has drawn thousands of poets and scribes to try and describe. It’s not a simple thing. It seems bigger than all the other feelings we have at our human disposal. It’s complicated and beautiful. Just like God.
“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,”declares the Lord. “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.”Isaiah 55:8-9
Have you ever been in a difficult situation where you don’t want to be the one responsible for making the decision? Somehow throughout my life when the hard discussions need to take place or the difficult decisions are required all eyes turn toward me.
I didn’t really realize what was happening until I was in college. It started when everywhere I went people assumed I worked there. Random people would come up asking me where to find x, y or z. It got so strange that one time I was in the college library with a friend and we were near the reference desk (not behind it). I told her, “Just wait, it’ll happen.” And it did. I had multiple people pass over my friend and turn to me asking for assistance. If I ignored their questioning looks, I would then get a throat clearing or, “excuse me!” It got so odd that I usually just tried to answer their question as best I could. And when I started working in my career, even as one of the youngest members of a team, I found myself being the “source” for solutions.
I remember telling my husband one time after a long day that I didn’t want to make any more decisions for a week. I was exhausted from solving everyone else’s problems! But of course, along came my children.
Our children look to us to answer every question, solve every problem. Even as teenagers, when they act like we are the most inane people alive, they still seem to rely on us for getting them out of trouble. Don’t we all though, want someone to be able to turn to for solutions to life’s messes? So many of us work hard at trying, like a toddler, to “do it ourselves!” But in reality, off-loading those burdens would be a welcome relief!
“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.” Matthew 11:28
Today I praise God for having solutions that I can never imagine on my own. And I thank Him for almost begging me to place my burdens at His feet so He can show me a better way to live. We don’t have to “go it alone” or fix it all ourselves. When we trust in Him and are patient (ugh!) He will show us something new.
I had a conversation with someone about a month ago about creative solutions. I told him he needed to seek counseling – if not directly from God then from a trained human counselor. He was struggling to find solutions for his struggling marriage. But he said, “I know what needs to be fixed but she doesn’t want to listen.” My response? We can only know the solutions our flesh-led brains have devised. Someone outside us, like God, can see things from a bigger perspective. A path we may never have dreamed of could be waiting for us, if we just ask. If we just lay it at His feet.
Praise God that He is the one I now turn to for advice, problem solving, and Mr. Fixit. It truly is exciting to see how His solutions are magnificently incalculable.
“Jesus replied, “You do not realize now what I am doing, but later you will understand.””John 13:7
In about ten weeks I’ll be a first time grandma. And even though I’ve personally experienced the miracle of childbirth twice, I still find the whole thing a mystery. When I look at an obviously pregnant woman it still fascinates me that there’s a living, breathing being inside that stomach. It all seems so alien-like.
And that’s what my praise focuses on today – the amazing mysteries of God. As we humans have moved along our timeline, “science” has become its own religion. We must “follow the science” and accept that “science” explains everything. I can see why Jesus, in particular, loved children and child-like acceptance of God. Because children keep asking the “whys.” We can say we understand that a woman gets pregnant because a man’s sperm meets a woman’s egg. But can we really explain why a woman releases an egg on such a regular basis? Why one group within a species only has eggs and the other has sperm? And how a sperm knows the path to the egg and that it should break through the barrier to enter it? And once it does, we know a process begins whereby DNA strands begin multiplying over and over creating that beautiful little baby. But why?
We humans certainly love to fool ourselves into thinking we have a lot of control over what and how things happen on this planet. We think we can control the climate. Yet, the world’s climate has been changing back and forth since before humans were in abundance. Droughts, torrential rain, tornados, hurricanes, blizzards — none of these can be made or controlled by man. Of course, if we remove God from the equation then we think we can get to the root “cause” and fix or change everything.
The other day while I was out for a walk, I just started thanking and praising God for this amazingly biodiverse and mysterious world He plopped us to live in. For the air that is just right from me to breathe freely. For the food that literally just grows on trees. For the process of rain and fresh water. For the mystery of making a baby inside our bodies – how everything gets rearranged just right to accommodate the child, how we still don’t know why our body says, “it’s time to be born.”
I know there’s a lot of smart people out there that can sound more “sciencey” than me when talking about how things work on this planet. When I get into those conversations and keep asking, “but why?” or “but how?” the answers always find their end. Science will never be able to answer the final “why?” As a Christian I know I can say, “because God.”
For I command you today to love the Lord your God, to walk in obedience to him, and to keep his commands, decrees and laws; then you will live and increase, and the Lord your God will bless you in the land you are entering to possess.Deuteronomy 30:16
I grew up not wanting to have children. In my isolated world I experienced a parenting style that used harsh, physical, anger-fueled discipline. I didn’t know there was any other way and knew it wasn’t what I wanted impose on any children. So often as we become our own people, cleaved from our parents, we take the elements of parenting we don’t like and try to do the exact opposite. However, I also acknowledged as a new adult that the harsh discipline kept me from a lot of dangerous behavior. So where was the balance?
If you take a brief walk through the history of parenting you’ll see a modern conflict similar to the one I was having. The harsh disciplinary view of old was met face on with Dr. Spock and his more “loosey goosey” style. But as the Spock kids became the radical children of the 60s and 70s parents searched for a middle ground. One psychologist, Dr. James Dobson took up the challenge. He brought parents back into the position of authority but done with love.
Discipline isn’t, by definition, a bad thing. Studies have shown that the most effective way to foster healthy relationships with children and give them the ability to learn and utilize self-control is through positive discipline.
Lauren Steele, Fatherly.com
We humans need fatherly guardrails. It’s a proven fact since the beginning of time. We need to remember that when Moses came down the mountain with the 10 commandments they were NEW rules. New guardrails of how to worship God, how to treat other people, how to be respectful within our families, and how to protect ourselves from well, ourselves.
The Old Testament has a shadow story woven throughout. Yes, we follow the woeful Israelites through trials, tribulations and successes. But put in context God is constantly showing them how to live differently than all the other nations around them. Nations that He created as well but saw how they overwhelmingly desired to live outside His guardrails – rampant sexual exploits, child sacrifice and more. He was testing them all, just like today. Free self-reign or accepting governance by God.
I praise God today for His guardrails. For the 10 Commandments He gave us to live within. Because just like our children we prove over and over that without them we can get ourselves into a lot of trouble. Without His guidance, His narrow path, we wander off into parts unknown, get lost, live in fear and despair, and ruin not just our lives but the ones we love.
When I met my husband and told him why I didn’t want children he assured me we’d figure it out. He wouldn’t let my past keep me from a full future. Thankfully as we took the journey, we met God along the way. I may have pushed up against those guardrails a few times but He always calls me back to the center of the road.
You have put more joy in my heart than they have when their grain and wine abound.Psalm 4:7
Have you ever ridden on a carousel where the operator, at some point, drops down a metal arm toward the riders and a brass ring drops toward its end? The riders on the outside stretch and strive to grasp that brass ring. The prize? A free ride to the one person who can attain that ring. I think that’s how I was looking at joy for many years. Not only from a grasping and striving point of view but from a scarcity mindset. There’s only one ring and lots of riders. You have to be on one of the outside animals to even have a chance. And once the ring is taken by a rider, your chance is gone. I searched in earnest many years for joy. How to attain it and how to hold on to it. And what I discovered is that joy, freely given in abundance by God, is right in front of me for the taking.
Praise God that His joy, unlike the joy the world offers, comes freely and is never ending. It is available to all. In the carousel world, as we spin around and around, we can choose the outer seat or even one of the animals constantly moving up and down, never finding rest. But how about instead we pick one of the colorful, stable sleds? And sitting there on the bench as we take our seat is a replenishing bucket full of shiny joy rings. Not just one free ride but endless opportunities for laughter and cooling breezes hitting our face as we go round and round.
God’s joy is available to everyone, not just the chosen few. It’s there for the taking when we sit nestled in the promises and gifts of His Holy Word. We pick up a ring from the bucket each time and hand it to the operator saying, “let’s ride!” All the while we watch the outer edge riders stretching for the measly gifts of the world.
The thing about riding a carousel is we carefully pick which animal or sleigh to ride when we jump up to the main stage. We are drawn to the exciting and the colorful, to the chance to grasp the ring. Isn’t that like the world? The bells and whistles of the flesh pull us to stretch for even more? To search for a bigger and better brass ring? But God says, “Come and rest and I will fill your bucket overflowing with joy.” All we need to do is choose Him.
God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground.”Genesis 1:28
My husband and I have four chickens on our little suburban farm. They are our “Covid Babies.” I’m not really sure why we decided to get the chickens back in March of 2020. We knew nothing about taking care of farm animals. But like starry-eyed parents carrying home their little bundle of joy from the hospital we eagerly packed up our four baby chicks in a box and left the dusty little farm store behind. We got four, instead of the two we originally planned, because we aren’t allowed to have a rooster in the city. It was our insurance plan. If one or two grew up to be roosters we’d have to “do away” with them.
And here we are more than a year later with four giant chickens in a fairly small coop. Henny Penny, Mabel, Grandma and Goldie don’t seem to mind. They grew up snuggled in close and seem to enjoy each other’s company. Each day we go out to the nesting box in eager anticipation of fresh eggs and we are rewarded. But what does that have to do with praising God?
Today, as I look out my “She Shed” window and watch my four egg making creatures peck and sleep I can’t help but be amazed at the plans and gifts of God. In the beginning He created the animals and plants prior to man. He prepared a place so perfect for us humans to grow and prosper. The chicken is pretty much God’s perfect animal gift to us. It is an egg laying machine. Left to wander they drop eggs wherever they go – fertilized or not. It’s a daily gift of food, not just for humans, but other animals should they be so lucky to encounter a free roamer.
When we got our baby chicks we read all the books about how to care for chickens and how to train them up just right. Having trained a puppy just a year prior I was ready for the task. And yet, when the time came to put them out in their “Big Girl Coop” they needed no human intervention. At night they headed to their protected beds. By day they hid away in the appointed laying space. All by instinct. All by God’s design. It’s pretty amazing.
When we remove the concept of God the Creator from our lives and look at the world from a random point of view the danger is in placing humans and animals on equal ground. But since the beginning of recorded time humans were appointed by God as protectors and users of Earth’s resources. God did not make a chicken to simply lay hundreds if not thousands of eggs in her lifetime just for them to be unused.
If you’ve ever been around a chicken in the midst of the egg laying process you’ll hear something interesting. When the deed is done, she will often squawk loudly in triumph. My chickens don’t hang around protecting that egg from me. In fact, it’s almost like they are saying, “here, have another!” And each warm egg I pull from the nest is a reminder of our God who has gifted us with all we need.
Day and night they never stop saying: “‘Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty,’ who was, and is, and is to come.” Revelation 4:8
I don’t know about you but as a “baby Christian” I would go entire days if not weeks without thinking about God. Without making any decision based on what God wanted of me. As my journey has progressed that “forgetting about God” can be counted in minutes and hours. And with that I have seen so many changes in my life.
The verse today takes place as the end times draw near. Creatures in heaven praising God “day and night” simply because of his everlasting holiness. As I’ve studied the Bible, I’ve seen so often how God wants a close relationship with us. Here in this verse the creatures never forget about God. But you’ll notice that God is also a constant. He was and is and is to come.
Since the 1970s, one group or another has played “chicken little” screaming from the rooftops about the world ending due to either overpopulation, nuclear war, economic collapse, global warming, etc. At one point a politician even posted a countdown to Earth’s destruction — which ran out about 8 years ago. And according to a current politician we have about 10 years left before the Earth implodes apparently.
But here’s the thing, when you study the Book of Revelation it’s not the Earth or God that is destroyed, it’s sin. God is the Alpha and Omega. He created the beginning and will be with us throughout eternity.
Today I praise the everlasting God. We cannot destroy God, Jesus or the Holy Spirit. We can only, through our sin-filled, unrepentant lives destroy ourselves. My earthly goal is to serve God as best I can with Jesus as my guidebook and the Holy Spirit as my tour guide. That way I can join with the creatures in heaven continuously praising His name.
I will not forget you! See, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands;Isaiah 49:15-16
The other day my Bible study girls (or BSGs as I like to call them) were once again talking about praise versus thanksgiving. I had already been pondering over my praise life when we started talking about how we so often thank God in our prayers for things He has fixed or doors He has opened in our lives. But how often do we simply herald the Creator for being well, the Creator? For being the Holy King of our lives?
As I’ve prayed these last few weeks for direction after completing the Jesus Mindset series, I kept being drawn to this topic of praise. God speaks to us when we ask Him for direction. And throughout the last few weeks He has placed numerous psalms and Bible verses in front of me related to praise. So, it didn’t come as a surprise yesterday when our church’s guest pastor highlighted the following verses in the book of Luke:
"However, do not rejoice that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.”Luke 10:20
And so today I praise God for remembering my name. I praise Jesus that if you look closely at His battered hands, you can see my name tattooed there. And if you have confessed that Christ is your Lord and Savior, that God is our Great Creator, you’ll find your name there too. It cannot be erased.
When we remember someone’s name it also brings to mind the details about their life.
Pastor Joel Fitzpatrick
God knows exactly who we are. What we have done. What we will do. And He still won’t erase our name from His hands. There’s no other relationship we could ever turn to which offers us so much love and forgiveness.
Knowing our name doesn’t take away trials and tribulations. Knowing our name doesn’t make our outer life easy street. Knowing our name brings us inner “settledness.” The knowledge that when the Book of Life is opened our names are carved there for all eternity. When this short life is done, we will rejoice in the heavens with the angels. And that, my friends is something worthy of praise.
On hearing this, Jesus said to them, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.” Mark 2:17
“We are pretty much the only hope that God has for reaching people who need him.”
Joyce Meyer
On a recent visit with my daughter back in St. Louis, Missouri, she invited me to her friend’s 50th birthday gathering. It was to be just a small group as her larger party had already taken place. My daughter, who is 23, is blessed to have a number of women in her life who are not only mature in their marriages and in life in general, but in their faith. As I sat listening to them, I said a silent prayer of thanks to God. He, once again, put me right where I needed to be.
I listened as these Christian women of varied ages shared memories of shared events and the joy of being disciples to younger women. You see, their church encourages all ages to seek being discipled by more experienced Christians – something I haven’t experienced in the 20 years I’ve been an active Christian.
The birthday girl’s good friend suddenly announced we were to all take turns expressing what we loved about the newly christened 50 year old. She turned to me and said, “You don’t know Renee well so you don’t need to say anything.” I disagreed. I definitely had much to love about this woman that I had just met.
As each woman spoke, I felt the love flow throughout the group. It was sweet and brave and authentic. And at my turn I’m sure they all wondered what I would have to say.
“As a mother I miss my daughter terribly. She’s so far away. She has no family for hundreds of miles. And now with a baby on the way it grieves me that she is alone out here. But I realize she isn’t. I am so thankful she has Renee as her friend and godly counsel. A mother couldn’t ask for anything better besides being here herself,” I said.
You see my daughter’s friend, Renee, has taken her under her beautiful wings. She provides wise counsel about marriage, faith, motherhood and more. I could be jealous when I hear my daughter talk about her relationship with Renee. But my faith progression has brought me instead to a place of thankfulness. My daughter is incredibly blessed to be surrounded by Christian women who are prepared and ready to offer Biblical counsel.
“The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free" Luke 4:18
That’s Jesus in the above verse. Jesus our wise counselor setting us free from our prisons. And He trained up His disciples to spread His message of salvation and freedom. Like the old shampoo commercial goes, “and they told two friends and so on and so on.” Which brings us thousands of years later to this little group at a café in Missouri.
Here’s what I noticed about those six women I sat with that night. 1) They didn’t gossip 2) They lifted each other up with genuine compliments 3) They showed love and concern for each other 4) They were confident in expressing their faith and 5) They were eager and willing to take up being disciples.
"Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” Matthew 28:19-20
These women are living the Great Commission. Teaching and guiding and loving Jesus’ flock. I sat there like a fan-girl marveling at being in the midst of ordinary women who were so extraordinary. Yes, ordinary women. They aren’t pastors or scholars although one is in fact a trained Christian counselor. They are students of Jesus. It gave me hope of what I could achieve with faith and the blessings of God.
I took the opportunity to ask a few of them a Christian counseling question.
“If I find myself in a situation with a fellow Christian who is struggling with an issue, what’s your best advice?” I inquired.
Without hesitation three of the women, including my daughter who herself disciples young women, said: “You need to really get to know the person. There needs to be a sense of trust that you come from a place of love.” And the birthday girl? She emphasized my old favorite, truth plus love. Not being afraid to speak God’s truth into someone from a loving perspective. Remember that Jesus trait of having a warrior spirit? Renee takes it to heart. She knows the end game – saving a soul.
“As you being the process of bringing correction into someone’s life, put yourself in his shoes. If you were the one sitting there, would it be easy or difficult for you to hear what is about to be said? If the person you are correcting acts closed at first it may be that he’s just embarrassed or reacting out of insecurity. Therefore don’t stop the conversation unless you can see that he’s just being combative. You need to be patient and slow in judging their reaction to your correction.”
Rick Renner, Sparkling Gems from the Greek
Isn’t this the reaction we worry about the most when we need to speak truth to our Christian friends or family members? A fear of making someone angry or embarrassed? But here lies the reason why “Wise Counselor” sits at the end of our faith progression. Without love, without a sense of serving God, without courage, without knowledge of the Lord’s will, we will probably fail at being what our friend, child, sibling, co-worker, or sister in Christ truly needs.
So, when Jesus asks us to “follow” He isn’t just offering Himself up to save us from eternal damnation which by itself is a pretty amazing gift. He’s saying “join me in a journey.” He’s saying, “we’ve got work to do together.” And if we stop partway on the journey and decide we are “fine” where we are at, we miss the opportunities He wants to put in front of us to free more captives.
I don’t know about you but I need wise Christian counselors in my life. And if I could be like Renee and be a blessing in other’s lives, I know it’d make Jesus smile. My imperfect progress, as my friend Betsy likes to say, is still progress. I want to know and live out having the mind of Christ. I’m not where I was when I started and I still have a ways to go. Thankfully, I can trust that Jesus and the Holy Spirit are my guides and cheerleaders.
When we started this journey, I invited you to say a prayer of confession I found in Sparkling Gems from the Greek. And true to God’s ways He put another in front of me to close out this series. Please join me in this prayer and confession. I pray that you seek love, humbleness, courage, and wisdom on your journey.
“Lord, I ask you to help be kind and patient when it is essential for me to bring correction. Help me to not be offended if the person I’m trying to help doesn’t respond at first the way I wished he would have. Help me put myself in that person’s shoes and to sympathize with how he might feel. I ask You to give me wisdom to know what to say, when to say it, and how to say it. I also ask that You give the other person the grace to hear what I am telling him so he might see that I have his best interest at heart and that I am only trying to help him. I pray this in Jesus’ name!”
“I confess that I have the mind of Jesus Christ! When it is needful to me to speak correction to someone else I do it with love, kindness and patience. I refrain from allowing anger to rise up inside me. I am careful about the words that come out of my mouth, and I refuse to participate in vain arguing. I remain in control of myself as the Holy Spirit works mightily inside me. My words bring life to all who hear and receive them! I declare this by faith in Jesus’ name!”
emboldened.net 