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Posts Tagged ‘God’

A wonderful picture of God’s amazing love is seen in the life of Queen Esther.  She, a Jewish girl orphaned at a young age, is raised by her uncle in Shushan, the capital city of the Medo-Persian empire.  She ends up in a nationwide beauty contest for which the first prize is to become queen.  She becomes the queen of the country.

But the evidence of God’s love in the story of Esther is not about her becoming Queen.  This is no Cinderella story.  Rather, this is the story of a God who sees everything, the beginning from the end.  He knows what lies ahead for His people, and He makes provision for them, even provision in the form of a young, scared Jewish girl.  He keeps all the promises to them no matter how long ago He made them.

When the wicked Haman, an important man in the King’s court, came on the scene and convinced the King of Medo-Persia to pass a law whereby the Jews would be slaughtered and their possessions taken by their neighbors, God had a plan already in place.  That plan was carried forward by Queen Esther.  God had hidden Esther in the pavilions of the palace of the King of Medo-Persia.  She would, in due time, be the vehicle by which God saved His people, the people from which the Messiah would come forth in the fulfillment of time.

You know the story . . . Esther convinces the King through a series of meals and events to pass another law which allows the Jews to survive, thereby preserving the Messianic line for the time hundreds of years later when a baby would be born to a descendant of David, of the tribe of Judah, in the town of Bethlehem as it was promised.

This is God’s love for us.  He makes a promise and never allows it to be broken, so that in the fullness of time, He can keep His promise.   God cannot lie.   Study to know what God has promised for you.

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RomansRoad132x200I rarely have opportunity to quote a Diana Ross song for spiritual insight or inspiration, but I hear God’s voice in these lyrics from the song made famous by Diana Ross and written by Gerry Goffin and Michael Masser:

Do you know where you’re goin’ to?
Do you like the things that life is showin’ you
Where are you goin’ to? Do you know?

As I begin 2014, I ask myself, “Do I have a direction in which I am headed?”  “Am I headed in the same direction as God?” I see the new year as an opportunity, a time to adjust the headings and evaluate what was accomplished last year, and what the goals should be for the coming year, spiritually speaking.

If you are having trouble focusing or setting goals, here are some questions to help you:

  • What have you learned about God this year?
  • What have you learned about yourself from God this year?
  • What things do you continue to struggle with and need God’s assistance or deliverance this year?

May God bless you and give you grace to walk humbly with Him.

Through the LORD’S mercies we are not consumed, Because His compassions fail not. They are new every morning; Great is Your faithfulness. “The LORD is my portion,” says my soul, “Therefore I hope in Him!” Lamentations 3:22-24

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It is not surprising that a book entitled “Genesis” , which means origins or beginnings, has within it, many important “firsts.” For example, in verse 3 we have the origin of light. In verse  5, we have the first morning and the first day. In verse 6, we have the first atmosphere (firmament). In verse 9, we have the first appearance of dry land. In verse 10, we have the first seas. In verse 11, we have the first grass, the first herb that yields seed, and the first fruit trees. In verse 14, we have the origin of the stars and seasons. In verse 16, we have the origin of the sun and the moon.  In verse 20, we have the first sea creatures and the first birds. In verse 22, we have the first blessing recorded. In verse 24, we have the first land creatures. In verse 27, we have the origin of man.

Those are all I saw.  Be sure to leave a comment and let me know if I missed any.

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No coward soul is mine,
No trembler in the world’s storm-troubled sphere!
I see Heaven’s glories shine,
and Faith shines equal, arming me from Fear.
 
 O God within my breast,
Almighty ever-present Deity!
Life, that in me hast rest
As I, undying Life, have power in thee!
 
Vain are the thousand creeds
That move men’s hearts, unutterably vain;
Worthless as withered weeds,
Or idlest froth, amid the boundless main.
 
To waken doubt in one
Holding so fast by thy infinity,
So surely anchored on
The steadfast rock of immortality.
 
With wide-embracing love
Thy spirit animates eternal years,
Pervades and broods above,
Changes, sustains, dissolves, creates and rears.
 
Though earth and moon were gone,
And suns and universes ceased to be,
And thou wert left alone,
Every Existence would exist in thee.
 
There is not room for Death,
Nor atom that his might could render void
Since thou art Being and Breath,
And what thou art may never be destroyed.
 
–Emily Bronte

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Lord, make my soul

To mirror Thee,

Thyself alone

To shine in me,

That men may see

Thy love, Thy grace,

Not note the glass

That shows Thy face

–Blanche Mary Kelly

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Poetry: Grace

How much, preventing God, how much I owe

To the defences thou hast round me set;

Example, custom, fear, occasion slow, —

These scorned bondmen were my parapet.

I dare not peep over this parapet

To gauge with glance the roaring gulf below,

The depths of sin to which I had descended,

Had not these me against myself defended

–Ralph Waldo Emerson

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God, You have been too good to me,
You don’t know what You’ve done.
A clod’s too small to drink in all
The treasure of the sun.
 
The picture fills the lifted cup
And still the blessings pour
They overbrim the shallow rim
With cool refreshing store.
 
You are too prodigal with joy, 
Too careless of its worth,
To let the stream with crystal gleam
Fall wasted on the earth.
 
Let many thirsty lips draw near
And quaff the greater part!
There still will be too much for me
To hold in one glad heart.
 
    –Charles Wharton Stork

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Christmas is the celebration that always looks both to the past and to the future at God’s promises.

The Holy Father, recognizing the total inability of sinful man to be in relationship with a  Holy God, sent His only Son (Jesus – the God-man) to provide the perfect (complete) sacrifice, once and for all, to satisfy the righteousness requirements of a Holy God.

The Son came and showed us the character of the Father and how to obey God by the power of the Holy Spirit. He lived the perfect life having no sin.   When the time for the sacrifice came, the Son showed us how to obey the Father unto death.

Having left the earth to return to the right hand of the Father, the Son left us the Holy Spirit to be our comforter, teacher, and the guarantee of our inheritance.  The Holy Spirit is given to those who belong to the Son – for whom the Son shed His sacrificial blood.

May your Christmas be filled with the power of the Holy Spirit.  May you know the goodness of the Lord in all things especially in your personal relationship with Him, as you walk and abide with Him.  Be encouraged, He is coming back soon for His church.  May you be found ready, with plenty of oil in your lamp.

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Jesus said,  “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs which indeed appear beautiful outwardly, but inside are full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness.”  Matthew 23:27.

He meant they appeared to be clean on the outside, but inside they were nothing but a grave, full of the bones and carcases of dead men.  Jesus was getting at the issue of holiness.  Holiness is not outward compliance with rules and regulations . . . that is the definition of legalism.

Holiness is a heart transformed, desiring to go God’s way.  For the  truly holy man or woman, no outward rules are required.  The desire to please God, to obey God, to maintain fellowship with God will keep him or her from evil.  The Christian has very few outward restraints on his or her conduct.  The restraint is borne out of relationship with God.

May your heart be transformed so that you require no outward rules to make or keep you holy, but only a desire to please the heart of the Father, a love for the Son and the power of the Holy Spirit.

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The expression “born of the Spirit” is used by the Apostle John in Chapter 3 of his gospel.  Being born of the Spirit means to become a new creation by the spiritual washing or purification of the soul, by the Holy Spirit through the Word of God at Salvation.

2 Corinthians 5:17-18 says, “if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation.”

As a result:

  • What was before (the old life) is gone
  • The past does not control the  future
  • All things have become new (they are not what they were)
  •  All things are now of God (God is ruling my life, so everything is subject to Him)

Hallelujah!  What a Savior!

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