Tag: fountain of life

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Day 11 The Goodness

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I am the bread of life.  John 6:48
Whoever fears the Lord has a secure fortress, and for their children it will be a refuge. The fear of the Lord is a fountain of life, turning a person from the snares of death.  Proverbs 14:26-27

I was talking with a young woman recently who was raised in the Christian faith and at 18 went off to Bible college for a few semesters.  At 19, she dropped out, got married, and was soon pregnant.  At 21, her husband abandoned their family.  Soon after, she abandoned Jesus.

You see when calamity hit, her faith was revealed to be built on the sand Jesus warns us about in Matthew 7:24-27.  Her house fell after the windy, stormy beating.  How could that be?  She was surrounded by the faithful for all her life up until then.  Isn’t that enough?

Let’s look at our faith this way.  If I hung around a bunch of people who loved baking and I enjoyed eating what they made, it wouldn’t make me a baker.  It’d make me fat, however!  I would have knowledge of baking, the process, the ingredients, the do’s and don’ts.  Without the love of baking and actually getting my hands covered in flour I’d just be an observer.  

It’s not the doing that makes us Christians it’s the surrendered belief that Jesus loves us so much He died for our sins, was buried, and rose again in the witnessed resurrection.  He becomes our secure fortress, our daily provision, and fountain of life.  He holds us tight through every tragedy and every windfall in our life.  We soon find Him at work everywhere. He keeps showing up.

When Toby Mac wrote this song it was after the death of his adult son from an overdose.  Of course, it was tragic.  Of course, he was full of tears and heartache.  But he had built his house on solid ground.  He sought refuge in the Lord.  The wind blew and the storm enveloped him.  Eventually, the sun came out and he was able to walk out his door into the warm sunlight of God’s love.

As for that young woman?  She is now happily married and I’m so glad to say she wants to know about Jesus and this Bread of Life.  She wants to learn how to build her life so she too can withstand what this world throws at us.  My prayer is that she will begin to see Jesus at work everywhere.

Click here to listen: The Goodness

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His Abundance

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“To them God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.”  Colossians 1:27

Father God, your riches are boundless, your love endless, and your provisions unending!  While I go throughout my day today help me to take my thoughts off the world’s insufficiencies and turn my eyes to your plentiful ways.  Amen

It was only a short time ago that most of us worried about the scarcity of one product – toilet paper.  It was a man-made problem borne out fear and selfishness.  In fact, one day while at a home improvement store I witnessed a man and woman gleefully overloading their pickup truck with hundreds of rolls of toilet paper.  I’m sure their plan was to sell most of it and their excitement was over the thousands of dollars they would make.  A small part of me hopes they still have a garage full of toilet paper.  My husband’s solution to this dire 21stcentury problem was to install bidets in our bathrooms, therefore eliminating the need for toilet paper. Two points-of-view to the same problem. Scarcity vs. abundance.

We humans have a tendency to always worry about not having enough, whether it be food, water, fuel, trees, love, friends, money, work, or even toilet paper.  But God’s plan for us is so completely different.  He is always wanting us to model our lives, actions and thoughts to His kingdom—which He shows to be the opposite of scarcity thinking.

"Your love, Lord, reaches to the heavens,
    your faithfulness to the skies.
6 Your righteousness is like the highest mountains,
    your justice like the great deep.
    You, Lord, preserve both people and animals.
7 How priceless is your unfailing love, O God!
    People take refuge in the shadow of your wings.
8 They feast on the abundance of your house;
    you give them drink from your river of delights.
9 For with you is the fountain of life;
    in your light we see light."  Psalm 36:5-9

You might be thinking, “that all sounds good but what about droughts and food shortages and waning oil reserves?”  To that I say, trust God first for He is always about abundance.  Throughout scripture, especially in the letters to the churches, we are reminded about the basic lesson of childhood – sharing.  (Something the folks in the pickup truck forgot)  You see, God provides.  He may provide more to you than you need so that you can give to another.  He also provides others with knowledge and skills to discover new ways for God to meet our needs.  Abundant thinking is always solution-based rather than fear-based.

I learned a valuable “point of view” lesson once from Dr. Laura Schlessinger about marriage.  If you always have the perspective that divorce is not an option then you will always find new solutions to marital problems (barring issues with violence and other abuses).  It’s the same with God.  If we always have the perspective that God is a god of abundance – overflowing with unending love and grace and mercy for us – then we will seek ways to see Him at work.  We will see our own abundance as His tools to serve others. 

Friend, God’s kingdom is overflowing with milk and honey.  When we see the world in a panic over the latest scarcity-based fear we need to turn our eyes to God.  His kingdom of abundance is open to all who call Him Savior and for that we should give Him all glory and honor!