Tag: love

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El Shaddai – The Almighty, Self‑Sufficient God

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“When the sun had set and darkness had fallen, a smoking firepot with a blazing torch appeared and passed between the pieces.  On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram.”  Genesis 15:17-18

“For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself.” John 5:26

God doesn’t need you.  He doesn’t need me.  

That may sound shocking or stark to some. But truth is what sets us free. Just like God’s self‑existence, understanding His self‑sufficiency is essential to our Christian walk.

Now, God being self-sufficient doesn’t then lead us into the heresy of deism.  That’s the claim that God did create the world but doesn’t intervene daily in our lives.  Deists must disregard just about every page of the Bible, including the entire New Testament in order to hold to their views.  They must shut their ears to the millions of testimonies by believers of God’s daily intercessions.

On the flip side, we must believe in God not needing us lest we become like pagan idol worshippers or followers of superstitious practices.  Rubbing coins for a god to make our wishes come true.  Or making daily sacrifices to please an unpleasable piece of wood.  

Oh, we Christians do try and fall into this practice.  I heard a friend once say that as a new Christian she was led to believe if she didn’t end a prayer with “In Jesus’ Name,” then God wouldn’t hear her prayer.  If we miss church, “God will be mad.” If we skip our daily 15 minutes of Bible reading, our day will be filled with quiet punishments.

The Truth and The Balm

We need to leave all those big and little lies behind us.  God may not need us but the balm to that hard truth is that He still made us and loves us.  He shows up, He blesses, He listens, He comforts.  The worshippers of the goddess Artemis in Ephesus didn’t have that same security.

We find in Acts 19 the apostle Paul making quite a stir when, with the work of the Holy Spirit, he was making headway into spreading the Gospel.  That not only angered all the artisans responsible for the booming Artemis idol trade but it also frightened them.  

They were worried that without the constant bowing down and sacrificing then the goddess would lose her divine stature and authority.

But the One and Only True God doesn’t need us to rub our beads, wear our crosses, lay flowers at the church altar.  Without us, He is still God. With or without belief, He reigns.

“The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth does not live in temples made by man, nor is He served by human hands, as though He needed anything, since He Himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything.” Acts 17:24-25.

This truth, my Friends, should bring you to your knees in loving worship.  He’s not just a god who loves people.  He is God who IS love.  Between the Son, the Father and the Holy Spirit they have all the love they ever need.  But He chooses to bestow that love upon us.  How glorious is that?  

“Goodness (love, truth, beauty, holiness) is not some external standard He tries to emulate. He is goodness. God has no parts on which he depends.” Michael Reeves, President, Union School of Theology

He Doesn’t Have To

This Spring as the flowers around you begin to bloom and the colors explode in all their majesty remind yourself of this point: God didn’t have to.  He could have been content in His own perfect triune situation.  Instead, with an expert painter’s brush He created the world and everything in it.  He then became the eternal steward of His creation!

The Westminster Confession of Faith (2.2) says this about God’s self-sufficiency:

“God hath all life, glory, goodness, blessedness, in and of himself; and is alone in and unto himself all-sufficient, not standing in need of any creatures which he hath made, nor deriving any glory from them, but only manifesting his own glory in, by, unto, and upon them: he is the alone fountain of all being, of whom, through whom, and to whom are all things; … To him is due from angels and men, and every other creature, whatsoever worship, service, or obedience, he is pleased to require of them.”

God is contingent on no one and nothing.  He is to be reverently feared while at the same time loved as a good, good Father.  When you read the covenants of the Old Testament you’ll find a remarkable aspect of each.  

Our opening OT verse today mentions the flaming pot moving amongst the animals split in two.  It was a type of longstanding ceremony done in those times.  But when done by man, man was responsible for the keeping or breaking of the deal.  A broken deal meant death.  But God’s covenants are made and kept by one faithful person, God.  God makes the promise and God fulfills it. His promise is sufficient.

All we need to contribute is our gratefulness through obedience.  That should help us not only have confidence in God but also allow us to rest easy that we don’t need to be in constant “please God” mode.  

Instead, we can wake each day knowing the gifts we have received come without burden and therefore should be received with all honor and love.

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The Shepherd’s Pursuing Love

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“The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.
He makes me lie down in green pastures.
He leads me beside still waters.
He restores my soul.” Psalm 23:1-2

“I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.” John 10:11

In the last week of my BSG’s study on the Book of Ruth, Pastor Alistair Begg asked, “When have you, like Ruth, wondered, ‘Why?’ about God’s providence and generosity?” It was interesting that most of our group answered with the negative in mind—“Why did this terrible thing happen?” But Pastor Begg was actually pointing to Ruth’s honest confusion in response to unexpected kindness. In Ruth 2,

“I (Boaz the farmer) have told the men not to lay a hand on you. And whenever you are thirsty, go and get a drink from the water jars the men have filled.”

At this, she (Ruth) bowed down with her face to the ground.  She asked him, “Why have I found such favor in your eyes that you notice me—a foreigner?”

She wasn’t questioning punishment; she was marveling at kindness in light of her position.

Chosen With Love

My own “why” answer to the study question was along the same lines—a question I often thank God for in my life: “Why did You choose me when I didn’t even know You? Why have You blessed me so richly and changed me for the better?”

In past posts, we’ve talked about the importance of remembering. For me, it has been essential to my sanctification. When I look back on my life “before Christ,” I remember the ways I sought comfort apart from God, especially in sexual immorality. To that I added anger, unforgiveness, pride, and selfishness. And I still at times, now that I am “in Christ,” ask: why?

“In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.” 1 John 4:10-11

And this is His answer: He loved me while I was still a sinner (Romans 5:8). Just as He loved you, dear friend—not after you cleaned up your act, but before. Before you were even born. It’s hard to grasp that kind of love, isn’t it? Maybe that’s why so much of the world rejects it. It can’t possibly be true—and yet it is.

Our Loving Shepherd

As I considered today’s post, I thought about simply including all of Psalm 23—the familiar “The Lord is my Shepherd” psalm. I’ve always found it interesting that it’s so often associated with death, when it speaks so richly about life and love; the good life held in the arms of our loving Shepherd.

“Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me
    all the days of my life,
and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord
    forever." Psalm 23:6

What a comfort to know this love. A God who loved us before we were born and who follows us all the days of our lives!  A Shepherd who protects and provides for His sheep—and His sheep know His voice. This God is Jehovah-Raah: the Lord is my Shepherd.

No matter how long we’ve walked with Christ, we can look back and see moments we’re grateful He loved us—even then. Some are blessed to have known that love early; others, like me, recognized it later. Either way, His timing is perfect. As I’ve slowly grasped what His love means, chains have broken, wounds have healed, and my love for Him has grown year by year.

In a post from a while back, we talked about God the Creator. On the sixth day, He crowned His creation by making humanity in His image and declared it not only good, but very good. And with that began a love story—a love that never leaves us or forsakes us. When we turn our backs, He still calls, “Come back to Me, your Shepherd.”

“My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand. I and the Father are one.” John 10:26-33

How beautiful is this picture of God’s love for us—to be held secure for all eternity. Today, let us rest in the love of God: the One who defines love, who is Love; the God who loved you then, loves you now, and will love you forevermore.

Dear Heavenly Father,

I come before You with a humble heart, recognizing that Your love is the foundation of all existence. Your love is beyond measure, beyond comprehension, and it surpasses all human understanding. I am in awe of Your boundless love that extends to every corner of creation.

Lord, I pray that Your love may envelop me completely. Fill every fiber of my being with Your unconditional and transformative love. Let it penetrate every thought, every word, and every action. Help me to experience the depth of Your love in every aspect of my life.

I surrender myself to Your love, knowing that it is the greatest force in the universe. Thank You, dear Lord, for the immeasurable gift of Your love. May it be my constant source of strength, joy, and peace. I offer this prayer in the name of Jesus, who embodied Your love fully. Amen.

Author Unknown, Bibleversesnow.com

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Father of Compassion

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“This is what the Lord Almighty said: ‘Administer true justice; show mercy and compassion to one another.’”  Zechariah 7:9

And when Jesus drew near and saw the city, he wept over it, saying, “Would that you, even you, had known on this day the things that make for peace! Luke 19:41-42

When was the last time you saw your father, grandfather or maybe husband cry?  We women seem to cry all the time – tears of pain, sadness and joy.  We cry during commercials and over babies.  We weep when our friends or children are struggling.  We cry watching the sunset.  But men?  Sure there’s a few less “stalwart” men who cry but seeing the men in my family cry has been few and far between.

So now grasp the intensity of emotion when three times in the Gospels we read of Jesus weeping.  Over Lazarus’ death, in the Garden of Gethsemane while praying to His Father, and in the above verse in Luke 19.

As Jesus approached Jerusalem for what would be His final days He stood looking upon the home of His Father’s temple.  He wept knowing of the coming rejection.  But more so He wept for what that rejection meant for His people – separation from the Father and the peace that only He can give.

Throughout the stories of the Bible we see God’s compassion for not just His chosen people but the world at large.  The second half of His Law, given to Moses and the Israelites, is rife with lessons on compassion for others – a reflection of His for us.  The book of Proverbs constantly reminds us of our duties to our neighbors, friends and strangers.

“It is a sin to despise one’s neighbor, but blessed is the one who is kind to the needy.”– Proverbs 14:21

God weeps over our greed, selfishness, lack of kindness, our propensity to argue and war with one another, and our inner turmoil.  His compassion for us draws Him near, seeking to give us His peace and love.  

“Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble.” – 2 Corinthians 1:3-4

His compassion towards us is what should compel us to show compassion to others.  He has forgiven us so much and desires for us so much, how could we not extend it to those likewise in need?

Friend, God grieves over our selfishness, conflict, and inner turmoil, yet His compassion draws Him near. He fills our lives with grace so that it overflows to others. When we recognize how richly we have been loved, we are compelled to share that love—living lives marked by compassion, generosity, and peace.

“God’s love calls me to be kind,
To love the lost, the hurt, the blind.
In His grace, I find my way,
A light that guides me every day.” Unknown Author

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Loving Enough

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Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. Proverbs 3:5

Hello Friends!  I haven’t written for the blog in over a year and have missed hearing from you with your comments and insights!  Many of you know that this year has been one of many highs and lows.  In April, I commenced being a full time caregiver to my father, diagnosed the July previous with advanced bladder cancer.  It was a blessing filled with trials, sadness and laughter.  In September, my eldest daughter and I sat by his bedside watching him take his last breath.

As many of you have experienced yourself, being a caregiver not only takes up your physical time but also your mental and emotional time.  The thought of researching and writing was a dim, distant light this year.  Recently, that light has burned brighter with each passing day.  My prayers have included this burning desire.  I just today began gathering materials for a possible study in Romans.  I don’t know where it will lead but I know being in His Word is always fruitful.

Holy Spirit Nudges

As always happens when I start pondering writing with more fervor, the Holy Spirit nudges me and reveals truths to me.  Today, in fact just a few moments ago, was no different.

In my Truth for Life devotional (Alistair Begg), I was challenged like King David, to repent and humble myself.  To stop covering lies and let God cover them for me.  I wrote that I don’t love God as I should, nearly enough.  It was a hard truth to write but one that has weighed on my mind for some time.

And because God loves a great illustration to bring His point home, as I was sitting indisposed in my bathroom, both my dogs came up to check on my progress.  I say “both” because my dad’s dog now lives with us.  A dog whose fur is the exact color of my now deceased mother’s hair.  A dog who has lived most of his life in an unhappy home, full of strife and anger.  

As both came to nuzzle against my knees, I begrudgingly petted Ben – my dad’s dog.  Yet when my dog Tucker put his cold, wet nose on my skin I leaned in to snuggle with the big lump.  Tucker wandered off and little Ben laid close to my feet.  And I felt that Holy Spirit nudge on my heart.

You see, my allergies have gotten terrible with a second dog.  And after just one day of my new carpet Ben peed on it in two places.  He’s kind of neurotic and yelps at the slightest movement.  He follows me around breathing heavily and anxiously wherever I go.  He wanders off when we are at the beach as though he’s forgotten what I look and sound like.  His bark is sharp and annoying.  He’s underfoot and over needy.  

And I don’t love him like I should.  Like he needs.

Loving At Arms-Length

Ben is cute as a button.  But I don’t want to love him.  I don’t want to give myself fully over to him.  He represents a terrible past that I just want left behind.

In that moment in the bathroom, I realized what it means that I don’t love God the way I should.  I stand at arms-length from Him.  Because if I were to truly love Him, I would have to give all of myself to Him.  I would have to accept the good things and the bad things that come my way through His hands.  I would have to give up my fears, my prejudices, my preferences.  I would have to go “all in.”

While God may not sneak over to a corner and pee on my new carpet, He might bring people (or dogs) into my life that will.  People who need mercy, forgiveness and love.  I know this because He put me, a broken, sinful person, into other believers’ lives.  And I pray for their mercy, love and forgiveness towards me.

More Jesus

Ben, sweet goofy Ben, needs a lot of love and patience.  I need a lot more Zyrtec.  More than that, I need a lot more Jesus.  I need to love Jesus a lot more than I do.  So, I prayed for forgiveness today that I don’t love enough the God who sacrificed His Son for me.  Who has forgiven my yelping and my anxiety.  For making a mess on beautiful things.  

While I know the coming year will be full of unbelievers doing terrible things, I also know that God will be at work.  He will be in the tears and the laughter.  His glory will be available for anyone to see.  And I want to be sure to see and love Him at all times, in all places and in all circumstances.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Ben and Tucker

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The Ingredient for Holiness

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“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, or I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.  For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” Matthew 11:28-30

Welcome back to our second look at the recipe for holiness in our sanctification journey!  If you missed last week’s post and my quest for the perfect Southern buttermilk biscuit, click here!

In today’s scripture, Jesus reaches out His hand and yearns for you throughout the Gospels.  It’s like you’re His perfect buttermilk biscuit!  However, so many read the first line of this scripture and forget the rest.  How does that turn out in following a recipe?  

Jesus goes on to say, “take my yoke.”  That means to put it on and bear it.  You see, we all are yoked right now to something.  We are obedient and submissive to many worldly things.  The rules of the road, rules of propriety, relationship rules, government rules, corporate rules, and the modern virtual signaling rules.  We commit ourselves in obedience each day to them, seeking to be accepted, seen, and loved.  Yet when Jesus commands us to be obedient and submissive to Him, so many decide His rules leave a bad taste in their mouths.  

Unbelievers so often think of Christianity as a set of rules you have to follow.  Plus, plus a bunch of fun-filled ingredients of life you have to give up.  All the while, they search in futility for fulfillment of those nine life goals we talked about last week by being obedient to the culture and fleshly desires.  

Come and Belong

Jesus says, come, all you who are weary.  Weary of trying recipe after recipe to find a sense of belonging and being seen and understood.  Weary of the world’s weight on your shoulders, never feeling like you’re winning at life.

Then he said to them all: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will save it. What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit their very self?” Luke 9:23-25

Friends, I know Christians who yearn for good relationships yet harbor unending unforgiveness.  Others turn their backs on God’s demand for submissiveness as they write up their own life plan to which God must submit.  There are plenty of Christians who seek treasure over Christ.  Man’s approval rather than God’s eternal love.  There are so many miserable Christians wearing God’s head chef hat.

Come and Enjoy

We can enjoy all the goodness God offers today.  The ingredients for the life we all so desperately desire can be found in His Word.  Throw off sexual immorality, despise greed and selfishness, forgive even your enemies, and be loving and a peacemaker to all.  If we know His Word and we have seen Him at work at our most desperate hours, how can we continue to just dip our finger in the cake batter and call us “done?”  I want to be the finished product that God desires for me, don’t you? 

If Jesus, on the eve of His death, could pray, “Your will, not mine” to the Father, then shouldn’t we? 

Christian friend, are you just a churchgoer, someone knowledgeable about God?  Have you gone through trials and learned God loves you?  And yet when you hear His voice speaking to you through His Word, you either pretend it doesn’t apply to you or you flat out ignore what He asks of you.  

He says “forgive” and you won’t.  He says “give” and you don’t.  He commands you to love and you say you can’t.  You are missing out on God’s gloriously good gifts.  True fulfillment means casting off being worried about what the world (and your family and friends) thinks of you. We put on Jesus’ yoke of obedience and submission. 

Come to Eternal Happiness

I may not yet know how to make the perfect buttermilk biscuit.  But I do know the recipe for eternal happiness.  It’s written out in 66 God-breathed books.  Ask yourself today what you are refusing to do for God?  He has a great recipe for your life.  But He needs you to put on your apprentice apron and get to the work He has laid out for you.

Taste and see that the Lord is good; blessed is the one who takes refuge in Him. Psalm 34:8

This week’s question: What is the one thing you continually refuse to be obedient or submissive to God about?

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Tasting God’s Goodness

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"Therefore, rid yourselves of all malice and all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander of every kind.  Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation, now that you have tasted that the Lord is good." 1 Peter 2:1-3

When out walking the other day, I was contemplating the good gifts of God.  Gifts in which I yearn to be wrapped daily.  Peace, love and joy are a few that spring to mind.  Weirdly enough this pondering made me think of southern buttermilk biscuits.  Yes, biscuits.

For the past, I don’t know, 20 years or so I’ve been on this quiet pilgrimage to make and eat the perfect buttermilk biscuit.  A good spicy, pork gravy on top isn’t so bad either.  But that elusive biscuit keeps calling my name.  I’ve tasted many a biscuit from California to South Carolina and Texas to Missouri.  A few biscuits found their way onto my plate in Louisiana and Georgia.  None have met my dreams and expectations. 

I’ve made a number of attempts to make such a mythical biscuit.  I’ve even come pretty close with a famous lifestyle influencer’s recipe.  The process, which took a few days, included chilling various ingredients, grating butter, and what seems to be the most important part, carefully yet not over handling the rolling and cutting of the dough.  My neighbors were gifted much of my last batch which met with mouthwatering approval. 

Yearning for Goodness

So here we are, wondering what biscuits have to do with God’s gifts?  Well, let’s back up a bit.  In our sanctification journey we’ve looked at the importance of knowing who God is, who we are in God, and knowing God’s character and promises.  Then we took on the challenge of how trials take us down bumpy roads.  Yet, they lead us to greater trust in how all that knowledge comes together for our good.  This week we’re cooking up ways to live the life we yearn for each day.

So, let’s start this week with a question: What do you most want out of your short life here on earth?  What do you yearn for each day you wake? 

In the July 24, 2023 edition of CNBC’s “Make It,” therapist Charlotte Weber wrote of the nine things people want most in life.

  1. To be loved
  2. To be understood
  3. To have power
  4. To have and give attention
  5. To have freedom
  6. To create
  7. To belong
  8. To win
  9. To connect

If you answered my questions with yearnings such as a desire for marriage, children, money, or even the perfect biscuit, you could probably attribute any of those with something on Ms. Weber’s list.  But here’s the thing, her ingredients to attaining those nine desires are all temporary.  A spouse who loves you, a friend who understands, a situation where you have power and win.  Getting attention and belonging may last for a day, a month or a season.  And freedom?  From what?  There are rules everywhere we go!  None of these ingredients are bad or even frowned upon by God.  But they are temporary fixes.

My biscuit journey made me realize we make commitments large and small to the things of this world for which we yearn.  I had to submit to the rules of biscuit making.   And if I plan to fulfill my goal, I need to be obedient to that cause.  

Recipe For Tasting God’s Goodness

I want to give you a recipe for the big life goals Ms. Weber revealed which, when followed, last throughout eternity.  You’re probably not going to like it.  But it’s a recipe that been tested for literally thousands of years and those who have tasted it all agree it is good.  You might have guessed it — submission and obedience to God.  

"As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance. But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; for it is written: “Be holy, because I am holy.” 1 Peter 1:14-16

Let’s be honest, when anyone talks about obedience and submission a little red flag goes up in our mind.  Unfortunately, so many Christian teachers and pastors these days seem to blame our lack of obedience to the Lord on our western culture.  Here’s a Bible pro-tip: humans have struggled with obedience since the third chapter of Genesis.  We need to stop blaming modern culture and realize it’s a human problem that spans all time and location.  The Israelites didn’t live in western culture yet I recall a few times where they had kings that “did evil in the sight of the LORD” and were found very wanting.

We do, however, love to compound our basic disobedience to God by being fearful of disobedience to man.  Nowadays that means we’re to be a planet saving, animal loving, anti-capitalists it seems.  We are asked are you using recycled containers?  If not, you’re killing the planet.  Have you given enough money to the homeless?  They are destitute because of you!  Have you ethically sourced your jacket?  If not, you’ve probably destroyed an entire rainforest.  The food you eat, the leisure activities you enjoy, the car you drive – you’re being called every day to submit to new worldly rules.  And if you don’t comply, then you can’t possibly be a good person and be happy!  How could you, you planet destroyer and animal hater? Submit to the modern rules and feel good about yourself!

You may throw up your hands and call the recipe for eternal happiness and joy impossible.  But as Christian author Kevin DeYoung writes in his great little book, Impossible Christianity, “When genuine discipleship becomes impossible, hell often becomes impossible as well.”  In other words, when we believe failure is the norm, we forget the reality of hell.

Lasting Goodness

And I don’t know about you but hell is not what I’m yearning for when I’m done here.  I also know I want lasting, deep peace and joy.  It’s true that what we all yearn for in the now will only be a shadow of what is to come in eternity.  Jesus reminds us that He knows we can’t do everything perfect and need to lean on Him all the time.  We seek holiness as a life goal and know it’ll take the Holy Spirit to do the work in us.  Urging us, teaching us, and even admonishing us.

Make every effort to live in peace with everyone and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord. Hebrews 12:14

The world wants to tell Christians God’s only ingredient for the world is love.  They conveniently leave out that God is also to be feared and revered.  And separation from God, which is what Jesus was experiencing on the cross when He said, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me,” is what we call “hell.”

Our disobedience tells God we don’t revere Him and instead revere ourselves.  We want to be the author of our own recipe.  So, while we have declared our faith in Jesus Christ, we continue to turn away from the holiness He so desires for our life.  To the unbeliever it must be confusing to see us acting this way!  

This holiness is not impossible.  And while perfection may be our eternal goal, in all honesty we won’t achieve it here on earth.  But like my biscuit making we need to keep thirsting and hungering for it.  

"Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled."  Matthew 5:6

Next week we continue our look into obedience and submission, seeking the perfect recipe of holiness.

This week’s question: When you hear obedience and submission, what is your reaction?

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Day 26 How He Loves Us

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For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.  Romans 8:38-39
Because your love is better than life, my lips will glorify you. 4 I will praise you as long as I live, and in your name I will lift up my hands. Psalm 63:3-4

Do you love God?  Sounds like a simple question and one that could be answered flippantly.  But do you really love God?  Do you love Him so much that you seek to worship and submit to Him each and every minute of your day?

A friend shared a comment her adult son made to her once.  He’s seems to be very angry with God.  His biting comment was, “If God is so all-powerful then why does he need your worship?”

How would you answer that?

For me, I realized not too long ago that I hadn’t completely grasped the idea of loving and worshipping God.  I prayed thankfulness, petition and repentance.  But lacked an expression of love.   It led me to ask if I loved God. 

Let’s clear up one thing.  God doesn’t need our worship.  He doesn’t need our love.  He doesn’t need anything from us.  However, I ask you if you had good and loving parents, do you still love them as you’ve become an adult?  If so, then why?  Your answer is probably because they did so much for you.  They tended to your every need as a child.  Fed you, put a roof over your head, taught you, and yes, loved you. 

If you didn’t have that sort of up bringing you probably don’t love your parents.  You may feel a burden of obligation but love isn’t present.  In fact, you may feel the hole where love should be.

Now think about what Jesus has done for you.  For a reason which only God knows He chose you.  Yes you. You backsliding sinner.  He loved you even before you accepted Him as your savior.  While you were still in the mud and muck of your sin.  

He lowered Himself to being a human and didn’t count His divinity as something to lord over us while He was here.  He came to save us from a terrible, painful eternity.  Which all of us deserve.  Every single one of us.  

He went to the cross and died a bloody, humiliating death.  To wash you clean before the Father.  A brother, a friend, the only God who gave His life for you.  That should bring you to tears of love and a desire to worship Him.

His blood and His love cover us and give us a new, beautiful life.  How can we not worship a god whose very essence is love?   How can we not drop prostrate and sing to all the ways that He loves us?

Click here to listen: How He Loves Us

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Day 25 For All My Life

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“Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. 35For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me and for the gospel will save it.  Mark 8:34-35
in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight  Proverbs 3:6

I’ll admit that for almost half of my life I relied on one person to resolve all my problems, to quell my fears, and to help me succeed in life.  Myself.  While I did a decent job of pulling myself up and around by my own boot straps, I also did a bang up job of living a life of stress, anxiety and worry.  When I met my husband, he called me the queen of “woulda, coulda, shoulda.”

In other words, I would regret and worry about every single decision I made.  If I “fixed it” and it didn’t turn out very good then I was also the one to take much of the blame.  I leaned heavily on my own understanding.  The burden became unbearable.  I put the same pressure on friends, family and acquaintances to take on the same responsibility.  When they didn’t, I would look on with annoyance that they weren’t doing life “right.” 

That type of living doesn’t keep quality relationships.  It definitely doesn’t bring joy and love and goodness.  

The study I did this summer on being a slave to Christ (Slave by John MacArthur) has further revealed to me how being owned by Jesus is so much easier than being a slave to a sinful life outside His will.  When we let Him take the lead and shine the light on our paths, we can take a deep breath of fresh air.  We view troubles, challenges or even failures in a different light.

We may not always see our life with Christ as a straight and beautiful path of goodness.  But that’s just the world trying to speak back into us.  As long as we have our eyes always on Jesus it doesn’t matter what seems uncertain.  The North Star is always where it should be even if the road is a bit squiggly.  He will guide you right to Him.

Click here to listen: For All My Life

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Day 16 Come Jesus Come

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You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised. For, “In just a little while, he who is coming will come and will not delay.”  Hebrews 10:36-37
Even youths grow tired and weary,
    and young men stumble and fall;
31 but those who hope in the Lord
    will renew their strength.
They will soar on wings like eagles;
    they will run and not grow weary,
    they will walk and not be faint.  Isaiah 40: 30-31

I wonder how many times the apostles and the other disciples just fell to their knees in desperation and cried out for Jesus to return?  I can only imagine over the last 2,000 years there’s been hundreds and hundreds of the faithful that have done the same.  

It’s a sad truth that modern Christians come from a long line of faithful martyrs who were put to death by rulers afraid of losing power.  Men who have felt threatened by people who proclaim, “I am Christian.”  

In the United States, we have enjoyed a long run of a majority Christian society.  Never facing the intense persecution so many who founded the country faced  As we watch our societies across the world transform into a minority who would state in front of a mob, “I am Christian,” we too may be tempted to cry out for Jesus to come.

There’s so much in this song, “Come Jesus Come” that I love.  The truth of the world when Jesus does return – no more war, no more pain — is something I too long for.  On the other hand, my eldest daughter is yet to be saved.  All my Christian friends have at least one child of whom their prayers for salvation are constant.  I want one more day to pray that the Lord shake the scales from their eyes.

It’s a conundrum which Paul faced in his letters to the Philippians.  He longed to see the face of Jesus yet he also knew he was commissioned to bring as many to Christ as possible while still breathing.  

It’s a romantic thought to want Jesus to come today when we are facing terrible trials – sickness, death, financial loss, feelings of abandonment, being a victim of a crime.  We want Him to come and provide the salve that erases it all.  Until then, however, we are encouraged to persevere.  To grow in faith through our adversity.  To be an example to our unsaved loved ones who need to see the light of Jesus on our faces.  

Deep down we long for Him, to take us home or to come and make this place home.  Until then, we live in the hope of the glory to come.

Click here to listen to today’s song: Come Jesus Come

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Day 10 Jireh

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I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture.  The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.  I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. John 10:9-11
For the Lord is our judge; the Lord is our lawgiver; the Lord is our king; he will save us. Isaiah 33:22

Have you ever wondered why we need a constant intercessor in our lives if Jesus came and did the work of forgiveness for sins on the cross?  Why, if I’ve been forgiven, do I need someone to keep taking my repentance to God?  I’ve been reading Dane Ortlund’s book, Gentle and Lowly: The heart of Christ for sinners and sufferers.  In the margin on one page about intercession I wrote, “Good question!”  The answer, written out in subsequent pages was beautiful and revealing.  But it’s these short examples which solidified the answer:

Think of an older brother cheering on his younger brother in a track meet. Even if, in that final stretch, the younger brother is well out ahead and will certainly win the race, does the older brother sit back, quiet, complacently satisfied? Not at all — he’s yelling at the top of his lungs exclamations of encouragement, of affirmations, of celebration, of victory, of solidarity. He cannot be quieted. “

Picture a glider, pulled up into the sky by an airplane, soon to be released to float down to earth.  We are that glider; Christ is the plane.  But He never disengages.  He never lets go, wishing us well, hoping we can glide the rest of the way into heaven.  He carries us all the way.”

When Jesus calls himself our shepherd He means it for life.  Once He gathers us up into His flock he doesn’t stop caring for us, feeding us, protecting us, and cheering us on.  We go astray from God’s Law looking for better grass and He calls us back.  He provides everything we need until the sun goes down on our life and we are united in heaven.  He is continuously bringing us before the Father with joy.

This is a love more than most of us can imagine.  He loved us while we were still sinners – because that’s what we still are every single day.  And He keeps rinsing us off and standing beside us before a Holy God.  He is enough for us.   Because He is all we need to stand before God, we can believe we are enough too. 

Click here to listen: Jireh