Archive
I Found A Reason To Celebrate This Week–Have You?
I believe God wants us to celebrate the milestones of our life.
In the Old Testament, he gave the Israelites seven festivals of celebration each year. That’s a lot of celebrating! However, each festival was also a means of remembering the awesomeness of God and an occasion for teaching about the holiness of God.
In the New Testament, Jesus told his followers to celebrate the meaning of the cross and to do so by using unleavened bread and wine to remember his broken body and his shed blood. Unlike the seven celebrations of the Old Testament festivals, Jesus gave no restrictions on the number of times we could celebrate this event–“For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes.” 1 Corinthians 11:26.
I recently celebrated the day I was born. Although I didn’t feel any differently on March 31st, than I did on March 30th, I marked it as special and didn’t treat it as an ordinary day.
Christians and Jews alike mark this week as special, but for Christians, the most important day this week will be celebrated on Sunday. If this spectacular event—which took place on Sunday some 2,000 years ago—had not happened, then this week would mean nothing. There would be absolutely nothing about this week to mark it as special. Why celebrate the death of a man who claimed to be God? Disillusioned people die every single day.
But this man, this Jesus, who said he was God, who claimed that He and Jehovah were one and the same, backed up those claims by coming back to life. After being pronounced dead, wrapped in a shroud, and placed in a borrowed tomb, He showed himself alive to over 500 people.
While certainly spectacular, resurrections from the dead had occurred before Jesus’ death and even occurred afterward–by His hand and power. But, whereas others resurrected from the dead later died, never to be alive on this earth again, Jesus ever lives!
“Christ Jesus who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us” (Romans 8:34).
More importantly—at least for me personally—is the reason behind his intercession for me. The death he died on the cross was the punishment I deserved, both for my sinful nature and for my own willful sins. By accepting Jesus as The One who died in my place, as The One willing to intercede for me before God, I too will be granted eternal life. “Consequently, he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them” (Hebrews 7:25).
Now, that’s a reason to celebrate!
When God Doesn’t Answer, Don’t Act Dumb!
God promises to hear the prayers of His children. “And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us.” 1 John 5:14. And Jesus told His followers in John 16:23, “Whatever you ask of the Father in my name, he will give it to you.”
Quite often, though, when I claim this promise from Him, I overlook one important aspect of it—He never promised to answer my prayers immediately. And, my timetable isn’t even mentioned in this verse.
The truth is, God often delays his answer whenever His children ask Him for something. There have been very few times when God has answered my petition within hours of presenting Him with some perceived need in my life. I’ve heard stories about the doorbell ringing or a letter arriving as soon as the “Amen” was spoken, but it doesn’t happen very often. At least, not to me.
So, when God doesn’t answer immediately, how do I respond? It would be easy to list a few Do’s. For example, I should 1.Examine my heart for unconfessed sin. (1 Peter 3:12). 2. Question the motives behind my request. (James 4:3). 3. Realize God’s ways are not my ways (1 Corinthians 13:12).
But, the best example of what NOT to do, is found in Exodus 32:1. “When the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mountain, the people gathered themselves together to Aaron and said to him,“Up, make us gods who shall go before us.”
The theology behind this passage is clear: When God delays answering your prayers, DON’T act dumb.
Don’t act dumb by 1. Providing your own answer. Like the golden calf, it will be a poor substitute for the real thing.
Don’t act dumb by 2. Acting out of fear. The Israelites rationalized their response by saying, “As for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.” Exodus 32:1. Fears for their future clouded their faith in God’s ability to provide for them and caused them to act irrationally.
Don’t act dumb by 3. Asking God to bless sinful behavior. After acting against God’s will for them, the Israelites sought God’s blessing for their actions. “And they rose up early the next day and offered burnt offerings and brought peace offerings.” Exodus 32:6. Don’t expect God to bless something that came about as the result of sinful behavior.
The next time God delays in answering your petitions, don’t dumb down.
The Reason Behind This
Whenever I have the privilege of signing my book for someone, I do so with this inscription: “Walk in His Light.” I follow that with my name, and, of course, if the request comes from someone who wants a personal inscription, I begin my inscription with a personalized autograph.
However, from this point forward, I’ve decided to add a Scripture reference to my inscription of “Walk in His Light.” I’m doing so because some readers seem puzzled when they read that phrase, and I want to make it perfectly clear what I mean by pointing them to a verse summarizing the thought behind my words.
Although the Bible references God as Light throughout both the Old and New Testaments (Psalm 119:105; John 8:12), I’ve always loved 2 Corinthians 4:6 as a beautiful, yet understandable, verse which explains what happens when a person begins a personal relationship with the God of the Universe in the person of His son Jesus.
This reference will now appear below my signature. 2 Corinthians 4:6.
“For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.”
When I write “Walk in His Light,” I’m voicing a prayer that my reader will look in the face of Jesus, see the glory of God, cling to His provision for salvation in Christ, and follow that Light wherever He may lead.
May you “Walk in His Light” today.
It Doesn’t Really Make Sense
I’m a very practical person, and I like for things to make sense, to be understandable, well-ordered. That’s why, whenever I’m reading the Bible and come across a verse that doesn’t make sense, it immediately gets my attention.
I read this verse in my Quiet Time this morning. Psalm 36:9, “For with you is the fountain of life; in your light do we see light.”
It was the last part of the verse that got my attention because, normally, when believers speak of seeing God or drawing closer to God or sensing the presence of God, there is an emphasis on the fact that it’s during the dark days, when God is most easily perceived.
However, like many aspects of living in God’s Kingdom, man’s way of thinking is reversed. Living in God’s Kingdom means “the first shall be last.” God says if you want to be great, “be a servant.” He admonishes believers to “repay evil with good” and “love your enemies.”
Thus, even though it’s true that the light of His Presence can sometimes be more easily seen when darkness envelops our world, the more we walk in His Light, the more we see His Light.
That’s because, as John writes in I John 1:5, “God is light, and in him there is no darkness at all,” so, the closer we walk toward the source of light, the brighter the light becomes.
Now that makes sense.
This Is A Gross Subject
Until recently, I never realized how gross the subject of purification could be. Then, I had to do some research about my refrigerator’s water filter. That’s when I read about the stuff a water purifier is suppose to remove–things like cysts, radioactive particles, arsenic, bacteria, viruses, and chemicals. I found myself getting a little sick just reading about the stuff.
The same week I was researching pure water, I read this from James 4:8, “Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you men of double mind.”
God expects those who desire His presence in their lives to have their hearts pure, to be free from contaminants. However, pure hearts, like pure water, must go through a purification process before being pronounced clean. Like water from a dirty lake, our hearts don’t become pure on their own. Hearts must be cleansed by an outside source.
David, in Psalm 51:10, cried out to God for purification, “Create in me a clean heart, O God!” Only when we cry out to God for purification does the process of heart cleansing truly begin. Luke, writing in Acts 15:9, says God does His act of purification “by faith.”
Water purification occurs when I connect a water filter to a water source. Heart purification occurs when, by faith, I connect my desire for purity with the source of purity, God Himself.
Matthew 5:8: “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.”
Just Finished Talking To The Creator Of The Universe
Perhaps one of the most astonishing aspects of God’s revelation of Himself in the Bible is that He wants to have a personal relationship with His Creation, and, more specifically, He wants to be intimate with man, the highest of His Creation.
The Psalmist in Psalm 8:4 asks, “What is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him?” Good question. The answer is both simple and complex, and, since I don’t write–nor do you read–long blogs, I won’t attempt to answer it here.
Instead, I want to marvel at the incredible fact that God DOES pursue a relationship with me. At a point before time began, He even decided he would die for me in order for us to have such a relationship for all eternity.
Once established, He doesn’t want our companionship to be one-dimensional. That is, He wants me to continually communicate with Him, just as He continually speaks to me. He does so through His Word, through the presence of His Holy Spirit and through His creation. Psalm 19:1, “The heavens declare the glory of God and the sky above proclaims his handiwork.”
With that in mind, allow Him to speak to you through this incredible video. Worship and listen to your Creator. Here’s the link, if the video doesn’t automatically load.
You Could Always Ask Him!
I believe the disciples who followed Jesus heard a lot about the glories of heaven. Surely Jesus mentioned His own experience of living in perfect harmony with His Father. As human beings, we enjoy sharing our own times of close fellowship with our Father, and Jesus, though fully divine, was also fully human, so I believe He must have talked to His friends about His preincarnate life with His Father.
Like Moses, the disciples of Jesus, were probably persistent in wanting to hear and see more of God’s glory. In fact, Moses’ request of God to “Show me your glory,” (Exodus 33:18) sounds more like a demand that a request.
Whether the disciples had asked (or demanded) to see His glory or not, Jesus gave three of his closest followers the incredible experience of glimpsing a tiny, pinhole peek of the glory He shared with the Father. He did this when he allowed them to accompany him to the top of a mountain as told in the gospels (Luke 9:28-36). “As he was praying, the appearance of his face changed, and his clothes became as bright as a flash of lightning.”
I long for such times of close fellowship with the Lord, and, like the disciples, I believe He gives us opportunities to see a tiny fraction (really, infinitesimal) of what living with Him, seeing His glory, enjoying His Presence completely will be like when we read His Word, bare our souls in prayer, and engage in worship with fellow believers.
Why did Jesus take only three disciples with Him when He revealed His Glory? Perhaps they were the only ones who asked of Him, “Show me your glory.”
“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.” Matthew 7:7.
I’m Doing Something Different This Year
I never make New Year’s resolutions. It’s not that I think there’s something wrong with doing so. I’ve just developed an aversion to the concept, probably because New Year’s resolutions get a lot of bad press.
From comedians to newspaper articles, everywhere you turn, people make fun of New Year’s resolutions. The jokes usually refer to breaking them within a day or even an hour and often involve some form of deprecating humor.
However–and you knew there was going to be a “however” in this piece–I do like the idea of trying something different because a new year has begun.
Here’s what I’m going to be doing differently this year:
Change the way I do my morning Quiet Time: I’ve had a Bible study, prayer and meditation time every morning for the past forty years. I embraced this practice after reading a little booklet entitled Your Time Alone With God. At the end of the book, there was a signature line asking for a commitment to start a morning devotional time. I put my name on that line. Then, underneath my signature, I saw these words, “You’ve now made a commitment to meet the Lord every morning. He’s going to be there. Don’t stand him up.”
I didn’t.
Through these many years, I’ve often followed daily Bible reading plans–reading through the Bible in a year–but, at other times, I’ve concentrated on one book of the Bible for a whole year. Although I’ve often used devotional books, these books have always included daily passages of Scripture. Reading His Word every morning has transformed my life, and I’ve never regretted signing my name on the bottom line.
This year, I’m changing things up a bit because I received a brand new Bible. My old Bible was falling apart, and, for too many years, I put off getting a new one because I’d filled up the margins of the old one with sermon outlines, notes, and tears. I didn’t want to let that go. Now, it’s time to start over.
This year, I’m reading through my new Bible without being able to read my old notes in the margins. I’m writing down new thoughts, shedding new tears, and meditating on newly discovered glories.
As I finished reading through my old Bible last year, knowing I was going to be “breaking in” a new Bible this year, these words from Revelation 21:5 spoke to me: “And He who sits on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new ” And He said, “Write, for these words are faithful and true.”
Even if you have to make a New Year’s resolution to accomplish it, make it a daily practice to read His Word in 2015. You’re sure to find His Words are “faithful and true.”
Why Not Start January 1st?
A New Year. A New You. That phrase, or some variation of it, often appears in commercials and print advertisements around this time of year. It’s used to motivate a consumer to purchase a product which will make a difference in a person’s health, appearance, or career choice in the new year. At least that’s what’s promised.
While such products may indeed change a person’s health, appearance, or career choice, a true version of the “New You” only comes through the One who created it all, the Creator God. Ezekiel 36:26, “Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.”
This same promise is repeated in the New Testament. “Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.” 2 Corinthians 5:17.
How does God work to bring about the “new heart” or the “new creature” described in these verses? He’s sent His Word down to earth, to His Creation, to do just that. “And the Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us.” John 1:14.
By putting faith in His Word, that is, in His communication with man in the form of His son, Jesus Christ, a person can become a new creature.
Faith in Christ is what makes you a New You.
However, the New You must be renewed daily. Renewal in Christ comes through reading His Word. ” For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.” Hebrews 4:12.
Why not start your daily renewal of the New You on January 1st? Explore all your options for daily spending time in His Word on these websites.
Resources for Reading The Bible in 2015
Everyone Should Get One Of These For Christmas
I want everyone on my Christmas list to have the same gift under the tree every year. Well, not exactly the same gift, but at least the same kind of gift every year.
I call it my “Reason for the Season” gift.
It’s a present that I hope will remind each recipient of why we celebrate Christmas in the first place. My “Reason for the Season” gifts aren’t elaborate. In fact, most of them cost very little, and, sometimes, they’re simply stocking stuffers.
These gifts have been as simple as a bookmark with a Scripture on it, or a keychain with a Christian symbol swinging from it. At other times, I’ve given someone a Bible, but, more often than not, I’ve given calendars or devotional books. For children, I’ve put Veggie Tale toys and DVD’s of Bible stories under the tree. I’ve also given mugs and ornamental plaques with Scriptures on them.
I started this practice several years ago when my daughter was a teenager, and I suddenly realized the true meaning of God’s “gifting” us with His Son was being lost in the hustle and bustle of checking things off her Christmas list. Now, purchasing these items from a Christian bookstore a few weeks before the big holiday seems to take the edge off the “Christmas rush,” and serves as a reminder of the purpose of this celebration.
This holiday also offers an incredible opportunity to share a gospel witness. That’s because a Christmas card is the perfect means of putting God’s Word in the hands of colleagues, friends, and relatives who aren’t open to hearing a verbal witness. While many Christian practices seem to be offensive to unbelievers today, a Christmas card depicting the nativity scene and a verse of Scripture still appears to be acceptable.
The “Reason for the Season” is a tiny helpless baby sent by a powerful, holy God to rescue a hopeless fallen sinner. This is indeed something to celebrate!
2 Corinthians 2:15: “Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift.”
Book 12 in the Titus Ray Thriller Series Click on cover
Book 8 in the Mylas Grey Mystery Series, Click on cover
Book 5 in the Silas McKay Suspense Series, Click on cover
Book 11 in the Titus Ray Thriller Series. Click cover
Book 7 in the Mylas Grey Mystery Series on Amazon. Click cover.
Book 4 in the Silas McKay Suspense Series on Amazon. Click cover.
Book 10 in the Titus Ray Thriller Series on Amazon. Click cover.
PREQUEL to the Mylas Grey Mystery Series on Amazon. Click cover
Book VI in the Mylas Grey Mystery Series on Amazon. Click cover
Book III in the Silas McKay Suspense Series on Amazon. Click cover
Book IX in the Titus Ray Thriller Series on Amazon. Click cover
Book V in the Mylas Grey Mystery Series on Amazon. Click cover
Book II in the Silas McKay Suspense Series on Amazon. Click cover
Book I in the Silas McKay Suspense Series, Available in Winter Deceptions
Ben in Trouble follows Four Steps Missed in the Titus Ray Thriller Series
Book IV in the Mylas Grey Mystery Series on Amazon. Click cover
Book VIII in the Titus Ray Thriller Series on Amazon. Click cover.
Ben in Charge, Follows Three Steps Away in the Titus Ray Thriller Series
Ben in Love, Follows Two Steps Forward in the Titus Ray Thriller Series
Two Days Taken:Book II in the Mylas Grey Mystery Series; Click cover.
Book VII in the Titus Ray Thriller Series on Amazon. Click on book cover
One Day Gone: Book I in the Mylas Grey Mystery Series; Click on Cover
NEWEST BOOK: Available on Amazon. Click on Cover.
Prequel to the Titus Ray Thriller Series is $0.99 on Amazon. Click book cover
Book I in the Titus Ray Thriller Series on Amazon. Click book cover
Book II in the Titus Ray Thriller Series on Amazon. Click on book cover
Book III in the Titus Ray Thriller Series on Amazon: Click on book cover
Book IV in the Titus Ray Thriller Series on Amazon. Click on book cover.
Book V in the Titus Ray Thriller Series on Amazon. Click on book cover.
Book VI in the Titus Ray Thriller Series on Amazon. Click on book cover.
Books 1 & 2 in the Titus Ray Series Available on Amazon. Click on cover.
His Glory My Joy, a blog of Author Luana Ehrlich 
You must be logged in to post a comment.