The Beauty of Scripture

Hebrews 10:24-25 “And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.” If there is anything that is needed in today’s world, it is encouragement. As we look around at the world and the politics and the wars and see the antagonism between peoples and countries it all vies for our attention. It in fact screams at us everyday to listen, to be absorbed, and to cringe in its wake. There is no good news out there in the world! No, we will not find our encouragement in the world around us – unless! Unless we live in the love of Jesus Christ! Our churches are still a place where the Good News is announced. Are we all perfect? No, not one, for none of us are perfect, but we do know someone who is Perfect! Our Lord Jesus, and our Lord is in control of all things that pertain to this world in which we live. The world has been ...

Romans 3:23, 24 For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ. When I think of my own story of redemption and how I came to be where I am in life, I am so grateful for the justification and redemption of my Lord. Paul says there is not one of us who can attain the glory of God – not one! We may strive in life to be good people, and yes, there are many good people in our world, but striving is not enough. Striving will never get me there, nor will it get you there. We are all sinners! We are born in the likeness of the first Adam who was tempted and fell. And we fall. Sometimes we fall hard. We struggle to know why that temptation once again caught our attention. We fight it to reclaim our victory and then fall again. It becomes a cycle in our lives as we go round and round. I have fought those battles. I have walked those paths that lead me back to the same spot as yesterday. You may not ...

 Psalm 59:16 TPT But as for me, your strength shall be my song of joy. At each and every sunrise, my lyrics of your love will fill the air! For you have been my glory-fortress, a stronghold in my day of distress. How glorious it was to see the sun streaming in my windows this morning! We have had so much snow and cloudy days in the past month we almost forgot what the sun looks like. But even more glorious is to wake up with the love of God in my heart! The psalmist says his lyrics of how much God loves him fills the air! Is God your song in the morning? Even in your troubled times, and I know we all have them. Our loved one has a serious illness, or perhaps it is we that deal with something in our body we cannot control. Dementia, cancer, money problems, car troubles, job closures and issues are only some of what may bring us down into the land of discouragement. Do you have trouble in those times to sing the song of love on those days? Sometimes it is difficult, yet look up...

However, if you suffer as a Christian, do not be ashamed, but praise God that you bear that name ~ 1 Peter 4:16 In my daily readings this morning, I was reading that we are called to carry our cross just as Jesus carried his. Being a Christian and following Jesus calls is a difficult path. We have to put our flesh aside which means that what we want, and desire comes second, after what Jesus leads us to do. This sometimes places us in the way of those who disagree with our values, our morals, our decisions, and for that we may suffer. If you are antiabortion, you will suffer for your thoughts and your opinion. If you stand up and proclaim loudly that Jesus is the only way into heaven, you will suffer for mentioning his name in public and denying other faith groups access into heaven. Jesus calls us to be different from the world though. We are not to stand up for commercialism, or for prejudice and oppression. We are to stand up for freedom in Christ which means we live by his comman...

A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another ~ John 13:23 Jesus came in love, to bring love to all who would receive, and as he came showing us his love, so we are expected, commanded in fact, to love one another. What makes the difference in Christ’s love through us is that we don’t love just those who love us, but we love our enemy. In fact, we are to pray for our enemy! Not for God’s wrath to rain down upon them, that day will come when the Lord comes back to earth to claim his own. It is not our job to plaster our enemy with wrath! Love conquers all, and love covers all sins says the word of God to us. If I love only those who love me, I am no better than those who do not love Christ. But when I love as Christ loved me, a sinner, unclean, then my grace, which stems from Christ, flows into the life of another. And when that other is my enemy, or if they are my friend, they are blessed with the grace, forgiveness, and the blessings o...

But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us ~ Romans 5:8 We are still in the time of Lent, where we think of the death of Christ, and the sacrifice he made for us. During this time, we often give up a pleasure, or make sacrifices of our own to serve as our way of undergoing how Christ demonstrated his love for us. In no way do we sacrifice during Lent in the way that Christ did as he walked toward the cross. We cannot in any way give up what Christ gave up. Have you fasted? Christ did much more than fast from certain foods. Have you given up buying luxury items? They matter little in the cost of a life. We do not sacrifice, nor can we, to repay the price Christ’s life expended. He willingly sacrificed his life for you and for me. His love was demonstrated by following the will of his Father in heaven to die for us. His life was the sacrifice which enables us to draw close into the throne room of God and to come into his presence w...

Keep this Book of the Law always on your lips; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful ~ Joshua 1:8 God is faithful to fulfill his promises to us. It is us who forget God’s laws and place other gods before us to worship. If we follow God’s laws, we live in a way that serves both us and others the way in which God calls us to live, and we are in God’s will, putting him first in our life. What is so wonderful about our God is that even when we are unfaithful, he is faithful to receive us back into his fold when we repent. God desires good for us always. We have to live with our humanity and frailty, with our waywardness, and God knows we are formed this way. It is better by far to remain faithful in our heart toward him, but the fact of our humanity makes us at times weak. God understands this about us. Jesus lived on earth as a human, and though he was without sin, he was tempted by all the sin...

One thing I ask from the Lord, this only do I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life to gaze on the beauty of the Lord and to seek him in his temple ~ Psalm 27:4   Like the psalmist, those of us who love the Lord can think or imagine nothing better and have no greater desire than to dwell in the house of the Lord and seek him in his temple. I think of it not only in this life but in the life hereafter. I love going to church and being with God’s people worshipping him. We come together and our praises fill the sanctuary. Even when we come in and would sit alone, just God and me, the time spent is beautiful, peaceful, refreshing. We are strengthened when we come into his holy presence, no matter where that might be. As I love being in church, so I love my mornings when I spend it in scripture, and in reading prayers, and adding prayers from my heart as I lift them up before my God. Time spent with the Lord is never wasted time, for his presence is be...

I waited patiently and expectantly for the Lord; and he inclined to me and heard my cry. He brought me up out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire. And he set my feet upon a rock, he set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand ~ Psalm 40:1, 2 God moves in his time, not in ours, but he does not ignore us. When our hearts cry out to him, he hears and bends his ear toward us. We, however, expect him to move immediately on our time, and our patience runs low. It takes faith, patience and hope as we wait for the Lord to move on our behalf. When we wait patiently for the Lord to act, oh how he works! As the psalmist says, he was brought up out of the slimy pit, the mud and mire. What is the pit that you are in? Is it a pit of depression? Is a pit of financial stress? Is it a pit of abuse whether that is emotional or physical? All these tragedies of life are deep pits which trap us and bring us down. We feel caught, as though we are in quicksand, sinking deeper and deeper. ...