lest we forget

Today is Good Friday. I've always wondered why it was called Good Friday. There really isn't anything 'good' about it other than what it signifies in the life of a Christian. Some say that the word 'good' really means 'holy'.I much prefer Holy Friday. I came across a photo that had been posted somewhere that said "Good Friday - the day death died'. Oh, yes, that sums it up pretty good doesn't it. The day that victory over death was won. The day that our LORD gave His life freely on the Cross for all who would believe on Him. The day that Jesus suffered and endured horrific agony on a cruel cross for the likes of me. A sinner. Unworthy.

We are so guilty of 'prettying up' the cross and what took place there. It was anything but pretty. It was ugly. It was bloody. It was more than just 'He died on the Cross for our sins'. Oh, it was so much more than that. My Jesus had to become sin. My Jesus, who was without sin, had to become ALL sin. My sin and your sin and all the sins of the whole world. Past, present and future. He had to become ugly, disgusting, heinous, dirty, filthy sin. Our Lord, who was pure and spotless had to become the sum total of all depravity and wickedness. For me. For you. 

"Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land

unto the ninth hour. And about the ninth hour Jesus cried

with a loud voice, saying, 'Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? that

is to say, My God, my God, why has thou forsaken me?"

(Matthew 27:45-46)

Our Lord and Savior, felt rejection on the Cross. He had to be separated from His Father. He had to be forsaken before He breathed out His last breath, before He uttered those word, "It is finished". 

And yet, this is the time of the year that we turn our focus strictly to the resurrection. And what a glorious event that was indeed! It was when Victory over death came! It was fulfillment of Scripture! But we must never remember the resurrection of our Lord without recalling what had to take place for that to happen! Let's never forget the price that our Savior paid so that we could have forgiveness of sins. And eternal life with Him! Let's never forget that without His death there would have been no resurrection.

"And behold there was a great earthquake; for the angel
of the Lord descended from heaven, and came
and rolled back the stone from the door, and sat upon it"
(Matthew 28:2)

Oh, glory Hallelujah! Our Lord was no longer in the tomb. Our Lord was victorious over the bondage of death. Our Lord was no longer dead.

"He is not here; for He is risen, as He said."
(Matthew 28:6)

Let's shout this from the rooftops! He is Risen!!! He is Risen, indeed!

unshakable faith

"....and the man believed the word

that Jesus had spoken unto Him,

and he went his way."

(John 4:50)

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I love the simplicity of this verse. The man believed the word that Jesus had spoken and he was satisfied. Our faith can be that simple because our God is that great! The scripture pretty much says, "God said it, so I believe it!"

What if we truly lived our lives like this always? What if we really 'got' the unlimited power that our God, our Creator, possesses? What if we understood?

In our humanity, we say, "Show me and I will trust you". But our God says, "Trust me and I will show you".

Trust must come before the miracle. We must come to a place of total belief in what God can do in our lives. He created us so certainly He can heal us! So, why do we continue to doubt? Why do we think that He can't mend what is broken when He is the One who formed us in the first place?

What has happened to our faith?  We are receiving little because we are believing little. Faith is necessary when we face the 'impossible'. When we come to Jesus in a desperate state, we must possess the faith that He can do the impossible in our situations. Our true blessing will come when we trust our God to do what only He can do. 

If we didn't think that He could, we wouldn't even ask. Deep down, we know that He can. But for some reason, we think He won't or can't do it for us. We don't have trouble believing in His miracles for others, but we seem to doubt that it is possible in our own lives. So, we come before Him, knowing He can, but we lay our requests at His Feet not really expecting anything. And so, that is what we get. Nothing.

So, how do we grow our Faith? By digging deep into His Word and coming face-to-face with His power. As we begin to study and grow in intimacy with Him, we will begin to know Him in ways we never thought possible. The more we know Him, the more we will trust Him and then our faith will begin to blossom and flourish. 

But rest assured, that our faith will be tested. If our faith is never tested, we will never know if it is genuine. An authentic faith can stand the purifying fire and emerge stronger and purer than before. 

If we never experience times of testing in our lives, we never have to fully rely on God. So, if there are never any trials to go through, how will we know the depth of our faith?

A faith that is tried is a faith that will overcome.

 A faith that overcomes when tested, is a faith that will continue to dig deep. 

And a faith that digs deep will take Jesus at His Word.

Faith is simply trusting and believing what the Word of God says.  As we seek Him and desire to draw closer and closer to Him in intimacy, we will begin to approach the throne of grace with eager expectation in our hearts. When we begin to be filled with an unquenchable spiritual hunger, we will be able to put our own names in that scripture with conviction of spirit and authentic, unshakable faith.

"... and Beth believed the word that Jesus had spoken unto her...." 

Hallelujah.....

~~~~~~~~~~~

LORD, you are mine!

Are we stirred deep inside by the Word of God?

Are we consumed by spiritual hunger for more of Him?

Do our ears hear with excitement?

If you have ever read Psalm 119, you know that the author had no problem expressing his love for God. He had no trouble letting the feelings deep in his heart be known through his writing. He had a love for a God that He had never seen and this love penetrated down to the very marrow of his bones. 

He talks of hiding the Word down in his heart to keep himself from sin. He talks of God opening his eyes to see the wonderful truths of the law. He says the Word revives him! 

The author desires to be taught the precepts of the Lord, and he wants understanding of His teachings. 

"LORD, you are mine! I promise 

to obey your Words!" (Psalm 119:57) NLT

Do our hearts cry out like this? Oh, LORD, you belong to me! You are my portion!

Truly, that is what we must express from deep down in our spirits to our God! He has to be exciting to us! Our hearts must be stirred down deep by His precious Word! Our ears must receive this with eager anticipation of what we will hear!

I fear that we have lost that first love that we once had for God. We have become accustomed to the things of the world giving us our satisfaction and our security and so we put God on the back burner until times get tough.

How in the world has this happened? I think it is because of excess. We have too much. Too much entertainment and too much stuff. Too many toys and too many things that take priority over God. We spend too much money on things that don't matter. We spend too much time doing things that don't amount to a hill of beans. Too much time pleasing self and not near enough time growing self in Him.

It's time to renew our purpose in Christ. It's time to begin delighting ourselves in the Word of God and not in the world.

It is time for us believers to allow Him to amaze us once again! 

"And they were all amazed at the 

mighty power of God..." (Luke 9:43)

Oh, let's be filled with wonder at the very mention of His name! Let's be in awe of the works of His hands! Do we know Him enough to be filled with amazement at the very notion of who He is? If not, then let's get to know Him more! Read His Word! Study the scriptures! Spend some time face down before Him and ask him to reveal Himself to you in a new and life-changing way!

His Words are sweet in our mouth. It guides us and directs us. It lights our path and keeps us heading in the right direction. His Word is TRUTH. His Word gives light. His Word is LIFE!

Spend some time in quiet reflection and ask God to stir your heart with a desire for His Word. Ask Him to fill you with wonder at the very mention of His name. Pray that you will crave Him and  His Word more than anything else and that it will bring life to your dead spirit! If we long for Him, He will come to us. He will pour out upon us in ways that we never dreamed possible. And when He does, we will be changed forever!

"Thou are my hiding place and my shield;

 I hope in thy Word" (Psalm 119:114)

perfect hearts

Opening the scriptures, my eyes fell on the sweet and powerful words of King Solomon found in 1 Kings 8:61:

"Let your heart therefore be perfect

with the LORD our God, to walk in 

His statutes, and to keep

His commandments, as at this day"

As I gazed at the first part of this verse, my heart yearned to be perfect with my LORD!  Oh, how I desire to walk in His statutes day after day. I want to keep His commandments diligently and walk in His way of perfection. 

The words 'be perfect' become 'be fully committed' or 'be wholly true to' in other translations . No matter what translation of the Word we use, the meaning is the same. When we profess Christ as our LORD and Savior, it is imperative that we possess a desire within us to be truly, fully and perfectly committed to Him.

We need to be consistently and constantly obeying His commands. Walking in His statutes. And the only way we can ultimately do this is to really know what His statutes are. How do we do this?

We study the Word often! We study the Word in depth. We study the Word with eager expectation of what we will glean from it. We study it with a passion to learn.

My hearts desire is to be so in love with my LORD that I am willing to be fully surrendered to Him and to His Word. I want to be so in awe of who He is that I am willing to do whatever it takes to serve Him with my whole heart. To be obedient to any calling that He may place on my life. 

He truly is my everything and I want to live my life so that it reflects Him to all those around me. I want my life to bring glory and honor to Christ in all that I say and do. 

Do you want to have a heart that is perfect with Jesus? It will take work. It will take a purposed heart. It will take a determined spirit. It will take an act of our will to change our lifestyle to one that is pleasing and acceptable in His sight. It will take a denying of ourselves and a more exalted view of God.

But when we fully commit ourselves to be submissive to Christ, the Holy Spirit will empower us to put God first and fill us with sincerity of heart to be able to follow the LORD wholeheartedly.

May our hearts be filled with the impact of the sweet words of King Solomon and may we bow our hearts in humility of spirit as we petition our God for a mighty work to be performed in us. May we pursue perfection in our walk and full surrender in hearts. He is so worthy.

dropping breadcrumbs

It astounds me as I look around and see the overwhelming goodness of the Lord in my life. So many times I think we tend to focus on the negative things that take place and fail to see His love and mercy shining through.  Those things that wound us and hurt us and cause us pain sometimes blind us to what God really intends us to see. Our aching hearts and wounded spirits really get in the way of keeping our eyes turned toward the One who heals and binds up. 

Sometimes the journey through the wilderness is a long and arduous one. Sometimes it seems like it is unending. Sometimes it feels like we are headed in the wrong direction. But in the midst of all the wrong turns and pitfalls that beset us, we can see the glory of God if we just try hard enough. It's easy to let defeat capture us. It's hard to claim victory when you definitely don't feel that the 'win' is coming soon. But just when you really feel like you are faltering and almost gasping for your next breath,  your precious Savior gives you a glimpse of His sweetness and you have hope.

My God has been so gracious to me. At times I feel like I have reached the point of no return in my life and He dispenses just a little more grace to my spirit.  It's always enough to get me to the next leg of the journey. Strength upon strength He guides me and supplies my every need.

He always supplies just what I need and at just the right time. He always gives me enough. More than enough really. It may not seem that way at the time, but I always seem to have a basket full left over. Much like the fishes and the loaves. What He gives me seems to multiply when I receive it with a humble and desperate heart. I want to reach out and grab it like I think He may take it back and then with His calm assurance, He just places even more in my hand and promises that He has more available. 

It overwhelms me. I am so undeserving of His love. But I am so thankful and grateful that He IS love. In my need, He pours out in abundance. And I purpose in my heart to keep more mindful of His Immeasurable Love. I purpose to be more aware of His goodness. I purpose to give the Holy Spirit more reign in my life.

Oh, yes, the journey sometimes seems to be too much. But as I look back, I can see where my sweet Lord has dropped breadcrumbs along the way for me to follow. And it's up to me to keep my eyes focused on the journey that is ahead of me and just follow where He leads. I can do this with full knowledge of the amazing and unending love my Savior has for me. I can do this because if I just look up, I see the glimpses of His glory evidenced all around me. I can do this because of the Truth I find in His precious Word. I can do this because in Him, I have hope. And that is more than enough.
~~~~~~~~~

"My soul faints for thy salvation;
but I hope in thy Word."
(Psalm 119:81)