Is He Your Everything?

He. Is. Everything.

I watched this skit for the first time when I was in HUGE trouble and basically betrayed the trust of everyone in my life. If you haven't seen it yet, I urge you to watch it. Even if you have, take a few minutes from your day and refresh your memory. I guarantee, you won't regret it.

Today, watch this and be reminded of Christ's great and POWERFUL love for you!

Desert Time: God Time

So, check it out.

I was reading my Bible the other day. I've been going through Matthew, as I have done probably ten times before in my life, so I wasn't expecting anything new to pop out... (By the way, do I know God AT ALL?)

And I read this verse: 

"Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil."

-(Matthew 4:1)

HOLD ON A SECOND.

Jesus was LED into the desert by the SPIRIT?

What does this mean?

...Pause for effect...

 

It means that the "desert" is God-appointed. 

It means that, when we are ready/mature enough to handle it, God leads us into dry seasons.

"Therefore thus says the Lord of hosts: 'Behold I will refine them and test them, for what else can I do, because of my people?" 

-(Jeremiah 9:7)

It ALSO means that life as a Christian is NOT roses and sunshine all the time. We are SUPPOSED to be walking through the dry seasons, getting our hands dirty. It is what God wants us to do. It is God-appointed.

He does it to mature us. If you think you are super duper mature and don't need to be tested, read the ENTIRE book of Job. Let me know if you change your mind.

To summarize, this is how Job responded to everything in his life being taken away:

"...'Naked I came from my mother's womb, and naked I will depart. The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; may the name of the Lord be praised!" 

-(Job 1:21)

Now, don't get me wrong. God doesn't tempt us; He is not the tempter. 

"When tempted, no one should say 'God is tempting me.' For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone, but each person is tempted when they are dragged away by their own evil desire and enticed." 

-(James 1:13, 14))

In fact, the enemy is SO evil, he will WAIT for you to be in your darkest, most desperate moment before attacking you with temptation. 

In Matthew, Satan waited until Jesus had fasted for forty days before hitting him with three different temptations. 

We MUST be aware that the enemy WILL see us in utter discomfort, sometimes agony (as Jesus must have been), and he'll step right in and throw temptation our way. 

Anything that will pull us away from our purpose and the lesson that God has been trying to teach us. 

I admire Jesus. Any man would have given in to the devil's cunning deception, but Jesus was WISE (He was MATURE) and he saw right through it.

Will we be able to see through temptation when the time comes?

Prayer:

Lord, I pray you give us eyes to see and ears to hear. I pray for strength for me and for my brothers and sisters when hard times come. I pray you help us through every step of the way. Please continue to test and refine us until we are golden, as your sons and daughters should be! We love you Lord and we live to please you!

Amen.

SOAP with Natalie

Hey everyone!

So, today I think I'm just going to read my personal daily Scripture and write a "S.O.A.P" for you all to read.

SOAP is :
Scripture, Observation, Application, and Prayer.

It really helps someone who, like me, doesn't stay structured in their Bible reading. Try it out, and be washed clean by the Word of God!

Scripture:

"This is he who was spoken through the prophet Isaiah: 'a voice calling in the wilderness, "Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for him."'"
-(Matthew 3:3)

Observation:

John was dealt an honor of a calling, but it was also a difficult one. He would be the announcer of Jesus' coming. With this task he would surely be humiliated, despised, rejected constantly. Can you imagine how we would view a "John" these days? Probably the same way we'd view these guys:

 

But still, John wholeheartedly stepped into the role he was meant for.

 

It had to have taken a LOT of courage for John to stand up to the religious rulers and pharisees. At the time, not even Jesus was doing that yet (according to Scripture, He didn't start His ministry until after fasting in the desert, which was after He was baptised by John).

 

John was an enigma: fear did not hinder him.

 

Application:

 

What has God called me to do? Am I afraid to step into that calling? Is that what is keeping me from obeying the will of God, or am I just unaware of what the will of God is? John was confident in his calling--and he stepped into it with boldness and undeniable passion.

 

What am I meant to do so passionately that NOTHING scares me or turns me away? Even death?

 

Prayer:

 

Lord, please make it abundantly clear what I am meant to do! I want to serve you with an unbridled passion, and I feel once I know completely and indisputably you will for me, the passion will come naturally. I love you, help me to want to serve you. Take away my fear and my self-consciousness.

 

Amen

"So He Got Up."

What would you do if God asked you to move?

And I mean literally move: pick up everything, including your wife (or husband) and kids, and travel to a land where you don't know anyone?

Is it easy for us to listen to what God wills for us to do?

"After Herod died, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt and said, 'Get up, take the child and his mother to the land of Israel, for those who were trying to take the child's life are dead.'

'So he got up...'"
-(Matthew 2:19-20)

No questions asked. Joseph and his peculiar little family trusted God enough to just listen and do what he was told with no hesitation!

It must have been wearisome, moving from this town to that with first a very pregnant Mary, and then a newborn baby, and then a two-year-old (he may have been the Savior in little pudgy baby form, but traveling with any two-year-old has to be tiring). They must have been exhausted, confused, and wanting to settle down to raise their family.

But when the voice spoke, they listened. No questions asked.

Why?

Why was it so easy for Mary, probably just a teenager, to automatically respond to the angel, when she was told she would be the mother of the Son of God:

"'I am the Lord's servant,' Mary answered. 'May it be to me as you have said.'" 
-(Luke 1:38)

This is why: 

Joseph and Mary trusted Him. They trusted that God loved them, and would keep them from harm.

"I will sing the Lord's praise for He has been good to me."
-(Psalm 13:6)

"O Sovereign LORD, you are God! Your words are trustworthy, and you have promised these good things to your servant."
-(2 Samuel 7:28)

They also knew, from experience, that God was a "man of His word." Everything that He had said to them that would happen had happened. It would be foolishness not to keep listening to Him!

So let's slow down a little bit.

Why are we so hesitant to believe what God says to us? Why are we hesitant to do what He wants us to do?

Have we forgotten the goodness of our God? Have we forgotten what He has done for us, in our own personal lives? Have we forgotten that He not only is the all-powerful, mighty and supreme God of the universe, but that He also deeply, madly, passionately...

...loves little ol' us?

"... If God is for us, who can be against us?" 
-(Romans 8:31)

Prayer:

Lord, I am weary from the things of this world, but I don't want that to stop me. I want to be more receptive to Your will. Please help me to understand what You want me to do, and BE my strength so that I am able to do it! Help me to remember all that You have done for me, and let that be my fuel to serve and love You to the best of my ability. Give us, me and my brothers and sisters, the trusting spirit of Joseph and Mary. When You tell us to move, we'll move. When You ask us to follow, we'll follow. 

"For the Spirit God gave us does not make us timid, but gives us power, love, and self-discipline."
-(2 Timothy 1:7)

Amen.

Need a cup of joe

I almost do it in a unthinking way, like someone who walks down the hall in the morning with their eyes closed, feeling around for the tools and ingredients needed to create that cup of liquid energy with its billowing steam rising from the brim.

I pull out my Bible, my Life journal that contains my Bible-in-a-year reading plan, my everyday journal, my favorite pen, like one feeling around for the lid of the coffee maker, dumping the grounds, replacing the filter. I find my ribboned bookmark, note that I'm in 2 Peter, like one would note how many coffee grounds they have left. I start reading.

"1 This letter is from Simon Peter, a slave and apostle of Jesus Christ."

Okay, okay.

"I am writing to you who share the same precious faith we have. This faith was given to you because of the justice and fairness of Jesus Christ, our God and Savior."

I'm tracking. Who Paul is writing to. That Jesus gives us our faith because He is just and fair.

...But it's like waiting for coffee to brew. You can smell that delicious scent, and you're left waiting, wanting.

"2 May God give you more and more grace and peace as you grow in your knowledge of God and Jesus our Lord."

Mhm. Almost to the top of the pot. Almost there...

And then there it is. A full pot.

"3 By his divine power, God has given us everything we need for living a godly life."

Woah. God has given us everything we need for living a godly life? Everything?! Everything!

"We have received all of this by coming to know Him, the one who called us to Himself by means of His marvelous glory and excellence."

Woah! By coming to know Him we have received everything we need for living a godly life! So we're not left waiting for God to give us patience that He's been holding out on us or goodness or the ability to love everyone.

He has given us everything we need for living a godly life. And we have received this by coming to know Him.

AH! It's like that cup a joe that allows my eyes to finally open for the first time the day.

I read thirstily through the rest of the chapter and its goodness did not run out.

"4 And because of His glory and excellence, He has given us great and precious promises. These are the promises that enable you to share His divine nature and escape the world's corruption caused by human desires."

Mmm. So good. His promises have enabled us to share His divine nature and escape the world's corruption!

I read and read and what I love about the Word of God is that unlike coffee it doesn't run out, it doesn't lift your spirits and then leave you to crash half way through the day.

It's Living Water. We need to drink of it and drink and drink and let it nourish us and cleanse us.

Prayer: God, thank You for giving us Your Holy Word that is living and breathing. You are a just and a fair God and You care for our daily needs. Thank You that Your Word gives us more than we know how to ask for. May our thirst for You grow and grow. Amen.

Love Your Who? Your ENEMIES?!

43 “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ 44 But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45 so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. 46 For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? 47 And if you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? 48 You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect." -Matthew 5:43-48 ESV

I've been staring at this verse all week, and not out of Christian piety, I'm supposed to teach a bunch of high schoolers today about the meaning behind this verse. So I've stared. And stared.

I get what Jesus is saying in theory, love your enemy. God loves people who are awful to Him. Jesus loved those, who sat in His face and beat Him and tied Him to a cross. It's the practical aspect that I have been pondering on all week.

Jesus didn't say this because He had to or because He's Jesus or because He's hoping we'll just finally figure it out. He gives us all of the answers to our questions about this challenging statement: "Love your enemies."

HOW do I love my enemies?

I wondered this just today. In my journal I asked God how I show love this person who is furious with me. I went back to the text.

"...and pray for those who persecute you."

So I prayed. And I tried not to pray the prayer that I taught my high schoolers one year at summer camp, that when they started complaining about someone that they should immediately pray for the situation because those prayers sometimes sounded like, "God, help that girl who is wearing too short of shorts because I'm not allowed to wear short shorts because I don't want to make it harder on the guys here so God help them to understand that!" Yeah...not the goal.

I did pray. I prayed for eyes to see that person like God sees them. For God to be in the midst of the situation. For my thoughts and words and actions to reflect love towards them.

But I see the question a lot of people would ask if they were honest with themselves and with God.

WHY love my enemies?

God has more time and patience than a busy mother who at times can and need only say, "Because I said so, now do it!" God answers our question in this text.

"...so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven."

It is not a condition to love your enemies in order to be a child of God. You ARE a child of God if you confess Jesus as Lord and believe He rose from the dead for your sins. That said, you are child of God whether you act like it or not. So are you? Are you going to act like a child of God? Because a child typically acts like their parent, and Jesus in the midst of being crucified, with men casting lots for his clothes PRAYED "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do" (Luke 23:34).

Loving our enemies is proof of our relationship with Him. Because guess what? You can't forgive your enemies without God, so you definitely can't love them without God's indwelling presence in you and influence on you!

So how does our Father act?

"...For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust."
I always read this like sun was good and rain was bad. So I'd read it like, "God let's good things happen to the evil and the good and he let's bad things happen to the just and the unjust."

But I was reading an article about this passage and Matthew and it made the point that sun and rain were both necessary in biblical days in order to yield crops and to prosper. So here instead of saying God gives good to good and bad and bad to just and unjust I'm persuaded to think it's showing that God's love is unconditional. It's one-sided. It's non-reciprocal. He loves regardless. That is the model we are being created to replicate.

Can't I just love the people that love me?

 "...And if you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same?"

Did Jesus skip over people when He dealt with crowds? Did he ignore blind beggars or shoo away lame men that are dropped through the ceiling? No, He took time loving, teaching, healing, and correcting everyone because of his unconditional love.

It's not hard to greet someone who you know is going to greet you back, or at least return your smile or your gaze. What about the ones that you know will more than likely give you a harsh look? Are you called to ignore them? To endure them? No, you're called to love them.

Why?

"... You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect."

That's why.

Now realize that on your own you can't be perfect. This statement is supposed to freak you out. You're not supposed to look at your monitor say, "Eh! I can do that!" Because no, you can't.

This statement is supposed to make you realize your dependency on God. You can't attain perfection without Him.

Now with Him, as His children fighting to act like His children, to be like Him, you are that much closer to perfection. But it's a constant humbling, refining process. And we need it. Especially when we're called to love those who hate us or who we have hard feelings towards. But all the same the statement remains.

Love Your Enemies.

Prayer: Lord God it is only with you that we can even near perfection, that it is even a possibility to love those who oppose us. God it is not in our nature to love our enemies, you know that, so direct us on Your path Lord to first forgive and also love our enemies. God change the way we view people that we have stereotyped. Lord redeem the judgments we've made against people, even people we think deserve our judgment. Humble us Lord and continue to show us how we can love like You do.

Me Day vs. HE Day

Have you faced a day where before noon hits or before the sun rises or before your feet touch the hard ground of a new day, you have already decided: today is going to be a me day?

Which for me (Jacky) means it is my (partial) day off so the hours I have free today are going to be spent pleasing ME. If I want chocolate for breakfast or if I want to sleep in and skip my workout or if I want to go home and read beneath my thermal blanket I WILL.

Now what's wrong with this picture (besides my egocentrism) is that I've played this game before.

I've spent days trying to become "satisfied." I go for the first thing that sounds good: a bath, an expensive smoothie, a venti hazelnut latte and that delicious-looking scone. I spend the greater part of my day trying to chase after that one thing that is going to leave me saying, "And with that, I am complete." I mean it! From sweet potato fries at the store to that mind-numbing show on Netflix, to funny cat videos on Youtube, as the list lengthens my ME time diminishes...

And yet.

I know the one thing that will leave me satisfied. The one thing that will cause me to awake the next morning refreshed, revived, rejuvenated. I have searched my cupboards and Starbuck's drink list for that one thing that I think I NEED in order to fulfillment but I have only ever found it in HIM. The Big Man Upstairs. God. Yahweh.

I realized this (again) today as I began to convince myself that today was going to be about ME. That's when what I read in the Bible this morning (while keeping one stern eye on my study hall class) came back mind, to really soak in.

"13 So think clearly and exercise self-control. Look forward to the gracious salvation that will come to you when Jesus Christ is revealed to the world. 14 So you must live as God's obedient children. Don't slip back into your old ways of living to satisfy your own desires. You didn't know any better then. 15 But now you must be holy in everything you do, just as God who chose you is holy. 16 For the Scriptures say, 'You must be holy because I am holy.'" -1 Peter 1:13-16 NLT

Holy. Greek: Hagios. ἅγιος.

Defined as: "sacred (physically {pure} morally blameless or {religious} ceremonially consecrated ): - (most) holy ({one} {thing}) saint."

Instead of spending the 6 hours I have free today slipping back into my old ways of living to satisfy my own desires, I want to ponder on what being made holy as God is holy means.

When Moses spent time with God on Mount Sinai he returned to his people radiant, his face glowing. Moses wasn't just kickin' it with God on a sunny afternoon off. He was in quite the situation with the Israelite people kicking and screaming the whole way through the desert when all Moses was going off of was what God told him to do: lead My people to Promised Land.

So Moses called upon God and asked what was the deal. He and God went back and forth talking (I'm dying to know what that looked and sounded like!). The end of their conversation was Moses either challenging or imploring God, "Then show me your glorious presence" (Exodus 33:18). 

So God agreed the next day to walk past Moses and allow Moses to see Him from behind! I mean WHAT?! 

So Moses spent 40 days and nights on that mountain writing down the new covenant God was making with His people (the 10 commandments) and upon returning back to the people Moses' face glowed, radiating something.

Something so pure and bright that Moses had to wear a veil around the Israelites when he returned from time spent with God.

"You must be holy because I am holy."

Prayer:

Heavenly Father You are holy. As I am in You, I long to be holy in all that I do. Eradicate all unholiness in me Lord so that I may become more like You. I will rest in You Lord. Thank You for the spare time I have today. May it be spent up on the mountain with You.