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It’s the Best Plan
Do you have a plan this year? A plan to lose weight? A plan to learn a new skill? A plan to pay off your credit cards? A plan to take a vacation? Lots of plans. But what is the BEST PLAN?
The best plan I ever made was to read the Bible through in one year. I chose a method—one that someone else had already figured out—and within a few weeks, I was enjoying reading God’s Word on a daily basis more than I ever imagined.
That was forty-five years ago, and I’ve read the Bible through each year since then. Strangely enough, it still seems fresh every morning. Only the God who made heaven and earth could do that. Only the God who desires a relationship with me could do that.
You’ll find there’s no better plan for your life than committing a portion of your day to discovering God’s revelation of Himself in His Word.
Your life will never be the same.
Why Was He Born?
Born to be cursed, not to curse.
Born for sinners, not to sin.
Born to love, not to hate.
Born to accept, not to reject.
Born for failure, not for success.
Born to poverty, not to wealth.
Born for hope, not for despair.
Born for healing, not for affliction.
Born to set free, not to bind up.
Born to reveal, not to conceal.
Born for laughter, not for tears.
Born for compassion, not for anger.
Born to die, not to live.
Born for you.
Comfort Food Needed
What’s your comfort food? My husband loves mashed potatoes and gravy. I love bread products. Oh, and chocolate, and maybe some cinnamon rolls thrown in too. And pizza! Don’t forget pizza.
But real comfort food can only be found in the Bible. Here are some of my favorites.
“Be strong, and let your heart take courage, all you who wait for the Lord!” Psalm 31:24.
“Our soul waits for the Lord; he is our help and our shield. For our heart is glad in him, because we trust in his holy name.” Psalm 33:20-21.
For the Lord your God is gracious and merciful and will not turn away his face from you, if you return to him.” 2 Chronicles 30:9.
Most of all, turn to the ONE who gives comfort.
“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort.” 2 Corinthians 1:3
Hidden in Plain Sight
Because I write mystery/suspense/thrillers, I’m always doing research on technology like hidden cameras, spy drones, and everyday objects that can be used for surveillance. Do you know the very best place to hide something? Hide it in plain sight. People tend to overlook things that are right in front of them.
How many people look at a button on a shirt and think it could be a hidden camera? No one but a spy or a thriller writer, which is all the more reason why it’s the perfect spot for one.
But “hidden in plain sight” doesn’t just apply to spies and detectives and hidden cameras. There are all kinds of hidden words for us in Scripture—staring us right there in the face just waiting for us to discover them.
I recently discovered one of these hidden jewels in Jude. Jude? That’s right. No wonder I’ve overlooked it. How often do you read from the book of Jude? It’s the book just before Revelation, so small it doesn’t even have chapters.
Here’s a “hidden in plain sight” treasure from Jude 24-25: “Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy, to the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time and now and forever.”
There are several reasons why these verses got my attention, but here are just three of them: 1) God not only helps us as we struggle with sin, He’s “able to keep us from stumbling.” 2) When we appear before Him in His presence, He’ll present us blameless in His sight. 3) When he presents us blameless before His presence, he’ll do it “with great joy.”
Okay, here’s one more: So often, we think of Jesus as our Savior, and rightly so, for his sacrifice on Calvary “saved” us from the wrath of God we all deserve. Yet Jude 25 calls God the Father our Savior: “to the only God, our Savior . . .”
No wonder Jude ends his letter with a praise to Him that we give him “glory, majesty, dominion, and authority . . .”
There you go—a magnificent truth hidden in plain sight for you to treasure and enjoy.
Oh, the voices!
Voices! We hear voices each and every day. They tell us to order this, pay attention to that, go there, come here.
Other voices post on our Facebook page, our Twitter feed, our social media sites, wanting us to sign this, like that, watch that, play this.
Who merits our attention? Whose voice is the worthy voice?
A crippled old man appears in the gospel of John to answer these questions. (John 5:1-17).
He doesn’t have a name in the gospel, but everyone at the pool of Bethesda knew him. He’d been lying there for thirty-eight years, unable to take advantage of the pool’s healing properties. Then Jesus stopped by one day, and, in one instantaneous moment, He took care of the crippled man’s lifelong problem.
Following Jesus’ instructions, the Man Made Whole gathered up his bedroll and walked away. Later, when asked by the religious leaders what he thought he was doing carrying around his bed on a Sabbath, he told them he was doing what he’d been instructed to do by the man who’d healed him, by the man who had enough authority to make him whole again.
The Man Made Whole was carrying his bed—in defiance of the religious authorities—because he recognized someone who was able to give life to his withered limbs was someone with authority, someone worthy of his attention.
This same man, this Jesus of Nazareth, healed me one day. He healed me of a lifelong sin problem, a sickness so severe I was doomed for eternal destruction. He did so by taking sin’s disease on Himself and paying the price for it Himself. Now, he commands me to take up my life and live it for Him.
His voice is a voice worth hearing.
Listen to His words from the rest of John 5, “Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming, and is now here, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live. For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself.” (25-26)
Don’t Stay Away!
There’s a verse of Scripture in Hebrews that gives me pause whenever I read it. It’s Hebrews 10:22, “Therefore . . . let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith.”
Drawing near to God sounds like a terrific idea. So, why don’t we draw near? What makes us stay away?
Believers don’t stay away from God on purpose. It’s usually the result of not doing something, rather than actually doing something.
Not confessing sin.
After the writer of Hebrews described what Jesus did for sinners by his death on the cross, he writes in verse 27, “If we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a fearful expectation of judgment, and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries.” Unconfessed sin makes us reluctant to be near the One whose responsibility it is to judge sin. We’re afraid, so we stay away.
Not knowing truth.
The writer uses the word,”therefore,” before telling believers to draw near to God. That’s because he’s been explaining great truths having to do with the meaning of the Lamb-like sacrifice and what the shedding of Christ’s blood did for sinners. He says such knowledge gives us confidence to come before God. The reverse is also true. By not knowing what Christ did when He laid down His life for us, we have no confidence and cannot draw near to Him.
Not having faith.
The writer says we are to come before God “with full assurance of faith.” Hebrews 11:6 says, “Without faith, it is impossible to please Him, for he who draws near to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him,” While our faith in God is a gift from Him (Ephesians 2:8-9), we must be willing to act on that faith or we will never draw near to Him.
What happens when we draw near?
Hebrews 4:16 tells us we receive “mercy and grace to help in time of need,” and Hebrews 7:25 says those who draw near to God will discover, “He always lives to make intercession for them.”
Draw near. Take the pathway into His Presence made just for you.
Don’t stay away!!
I Can Do Anything
I love the story of the little girl whose mother found her crying in the kitchen. When her mother asked her what was wrong, she said, “I’m in the kitchen, but I still don’t know how to cook.” Her mother put her up on a kitchen stool and proceeded to help her bake some cookies. Later, as they munched on the delicacies, the little girl observed, “If I let you do it, I can do anything.”
There are times when I’m standing in the middle of life, and I suddenly realize I don’t know how to do it. That’s when I try to remember to do these three things. By doing so, I feel as if I can do anything.
1. Ask God to take over.
Not long ago there was a popular song entitled “Jesus Take The Wheel.” It’s almost comical to think of Jesus of Nazareth in a long white robe and dusty sandals sitting in the driver’s seat and tooling along the highway of life with me in the passenger seat. However, while the picture may be amusing, the concept is theologically sound. John 16:33, “I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.” You can have peace; He’s overcome all the obstacles. Trust Him.
2. Allow others to help you.
It’s an all-American ideal to “make it on our own” or to “act independently,” but, that’s not a Biblical concept. When Paul speaks of believers in Christ, he describes each one as part of a whole. In fact, he sees this whole as if it were a human body. He says in 1 Corinthians 12:14, “the body is not one member, but many.” When I ask help from a fellow believer, I’m functioning in the way God intended His Spiritual body on earth to function.
3. Accept the personality God gave you.
Are you an introvert? Then don’t expect to live as an extrovert. Do you enjoy talking? Then don’t expect to stay silent. God says in Psalm 17, “You are the apple of my eye,” and in Isaiah 44:2, “This is what the LORD says– he who made you, who formed you in the womb, and who will help you:” Perhaps the best passage for understanding the hand of God upon the life of every individual is Psalm 139. The message in these verses is that God made you the way you are, and you glorify Him when you accept this truth.
Ask God.
Allow Others.
Accept Yourself.
Remember this pyramid with God at the pinnacle. “I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength.” Philippians 4:13.
A Little Reality, Please
Most of us realize the food ads we see in magazines and on television are created by highly skilled photographers, and the food has been artfully manipulated to make it appear irresistible. A few years ago, I saw an article that described what happened when a professional photographer took pictures of the real thing and placed it alongside an appealing ad for the same product. The results were humorous, though not too surprising.
In God’s Word, He’s presented us a “photograph” of the best, His Son. Placed alongside Him, we fare badly, never able to fully measure up to His beauty, His holiness, and His lovingkindness. Just like fast food in the real world isn’t exactly like the fast food presented by the advertising world, we live in the real world and have the scars to prove it. However, one day an expert photographer will appear and airbrush away all our flaws. Then, we’ll look our best. We’ll live in the best world, and most importantly, we’ll live with The Best.
“Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.” 1 John 3:2
Why Was He Born?
Born to be cursed, not to curse.
Born for sinners, not to sin.
Born to love, not to hate.
Born to accept, not to reject.
Born for failure, not for success.
Born to poverty, not to wealth.
Born for hope, not despair.
Born for healing, not for affliction.
Born to set free, not to bind up.
Born to reveal, not to conceal.
Born for laughter, not tears.
Born for compassion, not anger.
Born to die, not to live.
Blurry Around The Edges?
One of the great things about most cameras today is the automatic focusing feature. I’m old enough to remember using a camera that required fiddling with a bunch of dials before snapping the picture. Most of the time, those waiting to be photographed weren’t very patient about this process, and, oftentimes, after all that effort, the photo turned out to be out of focus after all.
As children of God, it would be nice to have this automatic focusing mechanism built into our daily lives, so that the moment our lives became blurry around the edges—from taking part in all the world has to offer, from neglecting Bible study, from participating in non-glorifying activities—then our focus would automatically be returned to our Father and to living out Christ in us, “the hope of Glory” (Colossians 1:27).
However, none of us have an automatic focusing mechanism. What we have is something even better—the Word of God. While having a device to automatically redirect one’s focus towards God sounds good, in reality, such a device would ultimately lead to taking God for granted, and it would not adhere to the command to “work out your salvation with fear and trembling” (Philippians 2:12).
God’s Word directs us to focus on Him in numerous passages of Scripture throughout the Old and New Testament. One of my favorites is 2 Thessalonians 3:5: “May the Lord direct your hearts to the love of God and to the steadfastness of Christ.”
Have you lost your focus? Direct your heart today to the love of God. “The love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him” (1 John 4:9).
Direct your heart to the steadfastness of Christ. “He who calls you is faithful; he will surely do it” (1 Thessalonians 5:24).
Spending time with the Lord in daily Bible study brings clarity to our lives and sharpens an otherwise blurry picture.
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.
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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 
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