On my website called Lura’s Bookcase, I have a devotional called The Frog In The Pot. It’s a story about two pots of water, one a boiling pot, the other is a pot of cold water. In the first, a pot of boiling water, the frog is put in and quickly jumps because it is so uncomfortable that he cannot stay put. In the pot of cold water, the frog is content to stay because the water is just fine. But, when the water begins to get warm, you would think that the frog would jump but since it’s still feeling great, he does not do anything. In the end, the frog becomes someone’s supper because he simply did not notice his predicament.
Is that what’s happening to you? Are you in a predicament that you are not even paying attention to let alone getting out of? Things are happening in the world right now that are causing a lot of concern yet many…most people pay little to no attention to it. For instance, when Homeland Security was first announced, how many of you thought about the book of Revelation in the Bible first? I did. Why? Because it is written the book of Revelation about things coming that will look a lot like the Homeland Security act.
Now is the time that we must be diligent about our seeking the Lord and staying extremely close to Him because if we do not, we will find ourselves very surprised when things happen unexpectedly. There are so many things that seem to be in line with God’s Word concerning this time of human existence. If we are not currently in the last days of the age, it is extremely close. We need to look to the hills from whence our help comes.
Take the time to be with your Lord today. Enjoy Him. Allow Him to comfort you and teach you. If you have not given your life to the Lord or have not asked forgiveness for your sins, now is a great time to do that. Jesus, Who is your Savior and Lord, will come into your heart and live with you. The peace of God is there for you right now, if you will allow Him in.
Psalm 121:1 I will lift up my eyes to the hills. Where shall my help come from? My help comes from Jehovah, who made Heaven and earth.
When it looks really dark and gloomy and nothing seems to be working out right, it’s really hard to make it through the night. The darkest hours are early in the AM hours. Things that didn’t hurt during the day are excruciating now. Maybe you have physical problems that always wake you up. Perhaps it’s because of a loss or financial difficulties. But the night is so very long and you are so alone, no matter how many people are there with you.
There IS hope. Yet, it was gloomy the night Jesus died. It was horrible for a couple of nights after that, so long and hopeless. His followers had begun to disperse, trying to hide from officials. It was like the rug had been pulled out from under the whole group, so many suffering and mourning. So many who’s hope had gone with the death of their leader.
Then came the morning……the stone was rolled away and Jesus had risen. The tomb was empty! An angel told the ladies that He is gone!
And in your life, too, there might be darkness in the night but….then comes the morning. Things are brighter and there is joy. It is truly a new day.
(Psa 30:5) For His anger is only a moment; in His favor is life. Weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning.
Each day, people get up and get ready for whatever endeavor they have…go to work, get the kids ready for school, go to meetings, whatever it may be. The day is usually quite busy. Then they go home and collapse from the tough day. Some greet the kids, find out what they were up to or, in the case of a household with teens, usually find out nothing. Supper gets ready. Some families even sit down together for that meal. A lot do not. Family members go off on their own because each has something different to do. There is little connection as the kids grow older. What’s wrong with this picture?
In all of that activity, which things are being done to honor God? You know what’s exciting? That we can do everything to honor God if we simply think to do it that way!! Why is that so exciting? you might ask. Because God, through Jesus Christ, is our Lord Who sacrificed His Son on a cross so that we do not have to wallow in sin. We are forgiven! If we can accept that fact, then we should realize that God should be honored. After we have asked Jesus to forgive our sins and asked Him into our hearts, we simply ask God to be with us each day. We ask Him to take care of everything!! Everything? YES! Even if it’s just a silly question like…what beans should I buy today?
The fun part of all this is that we can honor Him in everything we do if we just think about it and ask Him to guide us. Now, what do I mean by that? For instance, I had a job a few years go at a factory that made car parts. The particular part that I was helping to make was a safety part that attached to the steering of the car so that the steering shaft didn’t break off in a collision. Very important that the part be done right. The company had been having some real problems with quality right before I got there. The whole line had been replaced.
My job was to work a couple of the welders, automatic machines, and an inspection station. If you didn’t watch the machine closely, it would go off the lines and the part was ruined costing the company a bundle over time. From the first, I wanted to dedicate what I did to God. I love the Lord and I felt that it was necessary to do that. Bring Him into all that I was doing.
At first, the young people around me didn’t want to talk to me. I was in my forties. They were in their low twenties. Apparently, we had little in common. But, I talked to God at my station every day. The young man after my station asked me what it was that made me so happy all the time. I told him that it was my dedicating my work to the Lord. He gave his life to Jesus not long after that conversation.
When we put all of what we do in God’s hands, the day is simply brighter. The job is just that much easier. The kids don’t act up quite as much but even if they do, it doesn’t seem nearly the difficulty it was the day before. The meetings go faster and easier. Going to the grocery store isn’t the chore it usually is because God is willing to guide even the small things like what to buy there. All of what we do seems to just work better even if the world is crashing down around us. Why? Because we have given it all over to the Lord to take care of instead of hauling around the burdens ourselves. We have teamed up with God and it is such a blessing!!!!!
Most days, it seems that there is no reason to feel happy. The bills are due. The family needs something. People don’t feel well. The car needs work. Everything is pressing in and robbing us of the happiness or even being content. The world is intruding to the point that it would be better to just sit down and take a nap. Maybe it will all go away while you sleep. But it doesn’t. It’s still there everyday.
But it does not have to be that way. When I started to experience the joy of the Lord, it was amazing. The day was always brighter, fresher. I wanted to dance and celebrate…often. Nothing could make me sad and nothing could make me mad. NOTHING! And when I first learned this, I had an ex-husband who was bound and determined to make someone sad or angry. But the joy of the Lord prevailed and it even made my ex wonder what was going on. He changed his mind about trying to get anyone upset. It was such a blessing then and it’s a blessing now even though I no longer have that problem.
God says:
Neh 8:10 Then he said unto them, Go your way, eat the fat, and drink the sweet, and send portions unto them for whom nothing is prepared: for this day is holy unto our Lord: neither be ye sorry; for the joy of the LORD is your strength.
Did you catch that? He says that “the joy of the LORD isyour strength“. Does that make you feel happy? It should. It’s time to dance and celebrate when you see this. That says that the JOY of the Lord, who is your Father, gives you your strength. This is spiritual, mental and physical strength we are talking about!! That was one thing that I had doubts about when I first heard about this scripture since I had been having so much trouble in my life. But when I felt the love of the Lord come into my life, I could not help rejoicing! It was so awesome. It was like all the cares of the world lifted off my back and I was so light on my feet. It was a feeling that I had not ever had.
So, what brings on the joy of the Lord that is our strength? I have found that if I study my Bible and ask God what things mean, He not only gives me the answers…sometimes months later on some questions….this knowing that He is in charge and taking care of things brings on a joy and contentment that I used to rarely have in my life. Joy was something that I could see in others but not inside me. It was so illusive for me before. God changed all that.
Now, the joy of the Lord happens more often. One of the times that I feel the joy of God in my heart is when I’m writing these posts on Topshelf. It is such a joy to be able to write these things down so that others can find the same things I have found in the Lord…to seek His Face and to abide in His love under His feathers (Psalm 91).
How about it? You up for having the joy of the Lord in your heart every day? Grab hold of that joy and never let go. By the way, it does not mean that you are bouncy happy all the time. Sometimes sad things come in but when that happens, you can apply the joy of the Lord to the situation and be free to have the Peace of God that passes all understanding come into your life because the joy of the Lord resides in you. (Phil 4:7 And the peace of God, which passes all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.)
For those who have not yet asked Jesus into your hearts, please consider that now. He will forgive you of all your sins, yes, ALL of your sins regardless of how bad they may be. He died on the cross so that you would not have to. When Jesus comes into your heart, the joy of the Lord has come. If there are days that it does not feel like it, please do not go by feelings which are fickle but by the knowledge and assurance that Jesus is inside you and that God has things under control.
If you have asked Jesus into your heart but you are not living the way you should, please take the time now and talk to Him, ask forgiveness for your sins and begin again. God will bring you to where you should be when you do that.
Information on this and other questions can be found at Lura’s Bookcase. If you would like to know more about asking Jesus into your heart, please click on God’s Greatest Gift. Thank you for coming here and reading today.
For several days last week and this week, God has been keeping the words “do not be deceived” rattling through my mind. When that happens, I need to study the phrase more. I have obviously not finished writing about it.
One of the more famous scriptures or at least one that I know fairly well and have for years is:
(James 1:22) But become doers of the Word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.
God tells us that we could be deceived if we only listen to the Word and do not apply it to our lives. That gives me a picture of large numbers of people who go to church, sit and listen every week to the pastor’s sermon and, when asked what they liked about it, could not even remember what the most basic point was. Or the people who do not attend a brick and mortar building but watch the television preachers who, for the most part, do a great job of preaching the Gospel but if no one applies what they hear, it is of no account.
It is vitally important that we actually apply what we hear. So, when you attend church this week or you listen to a TV or radio preacher, see how you can apply the scriptures and lesson to your life.
God also impressed on me about not only hearing but doing the Word by bringing up another scripture:
(Mark 16:15-18) And He said to them, Go into all the world, proclaim the gospel to all the creation. He who believes and is baptized will be saved, but he who does not believe will be condemned. And miraculous signs will follow to those believing these things: in My name they will cast out demons; they will speak new tongues; they will take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it will not hurt them. They will lay hands on the sick, and they will be well.
We are given a mission, go into all the world and preach the gospel. I can hear it now..”I can’t do that. I’m not a preacher. I haven’t been to school for this!! No way!!” Or how about “I want to but I’m too nervous and scared to try to talk somebody into that.”
God gave us a way to be a doer instead of simply hearing and doing nothing. We can ask Jesus into our hearts. When that happens, usually, there is a need to tell others what happened. Jesus died so that we would have life. We should be so grateful that we want to let everyone know what He did for us. The joy of the Lord wells up inside and it feels almost like we could just burst if we don’t tell someone about this!!!
On the other hand, God says that He is not mocked, what we sow is what we reap. That scripture was always kind of ominous to me. It was a warning that if I do not sow the stuff I was told to sow, I would end up reaping some stuff I didn’t want. Well, guess what? That is so true. We do end up sowing and reaping things we didn’t want because we did not pay attention to the scripture about being a doer of the Word.
Is this a punishment? NO WAY! It simply means that when we do not do the will of God, we leave ourselves wide open for being deceived and going down paths that were not meant for us to go. We lose the protection of God because we have wandered off away from where His protection is. His protection is where He has asked us to be. If we choose to walk another way, His protection is no longer there. Then we reap the benefits of disobeying God. I’ve had about enough of those benefits, thank you very much!!!
Today is the best day to start to follow Jesus. Today is the best day to begin the task of being a doer of the Word, not just a hearer. Today is the best day to witness of what the Lord has done for you! Because of your grateful heart, you will find it easy to tell someone else about how Jesus died on the cross to save you from your sins. It will be easy to tell them how they can have the joy of the Lord like you have and that Jesus will come dwell in their hearts just like He is dwelling in yours. God is not mocked!!! But He is a wonderful, giving Lord and Father who wants the best for His children. What a blessed day this is!!
For more information on how to become a Christian or learning to grow in the Lord, please come to Lura’s Bookcase and read the many articles. Thank you for coming to read my blog.
Usually, I post a devotional here or, as of last night, a music video that I love, but today we need to observe the passing of time and the horrendous occurrence on September 11th, 2001. We watched in horror as the second plane plummeted into the second tower, the first already smoking from a 747 hitting it. It was obvious by that time that it was a terrorist attack, very deliberate.
When the news came out that a third plane had hit the Pentagon, we were all thinking that we were not only under attack but that it was possible that hundreds of other places could have the same problems. A fourth plane had crashed in Pennsylvania. Would this nightmare ever end. Then the unthinkable…the first tower collapsed. The second followed soon after. My tears would not stop that day and I am having trouble writing this right now.
Through it all, I was praying and, with confidence and a knowledge of God I knew that thousands of Christians all over the world, as they heard the news, were also praying for the families, for the survivors, for those who would commit this awful act. Yes, we must pray for those people too. They have no idea what they are doing, led by fanatics and maniacs, totally deceived in their beliefs.
Today, on the anniversary of this horrifying event, we must do what we did then, pray for those who are hurting, the families of those who lost their lives and for those who still wish to hurt us. This day, six years ago, was the saddest day I think I have had except when my Dad, Grandfather and Grandmothers died (separately in different years). Even then, it was not horrifying, simply sad and hurting. I cannot imagine the hurt and pain that was felt by those who lost loved ones in the planes, at the Pentagon or at the World Trade Center.
Please join now with me in prayer for those who are hurting:
Father, I come to You today in pain and hurting for others who are hurting even more than I. Please touch them with Your Peace and healing hands that they may feel the Peace of God that passes all understanding. Please show them who You are, their Creator, their life, the Love of their life. We honor You this day with our prayers of thanksgiving even in the tough times. We thank You that You are here for us. We pray that all who ask for You will receive You into their hearts. Thank You, Lord, for Your sacrifice for us. In Your Name, Amen.
This day is the day the Lord has made. We will rejoice and be glad in it! (Psalm 118:24)
Ξ September 10th, 2007 | → Comments Off | ∇ Music|
I put these videos on another blog that I write on but it did not occur to me to do the same thing on here until tonight. I hope no one is disappointed that I did not put up a devotional today. Things simply got in the way. No excuses. I have most of a lesson. I hope to put it up tomorrow but in the meantime, I have decided to share some of the music I love with you. What a blessing these folks are. The Gaither Vocal Band singing “Why Me, Lord?”.
If you have any requests, I will try to find them and put them up. No guarantees that it will be available but I will try.
While I would love to put a new devotional here today, I will be taking my niece back to college and won’t have the time to put up a new post. I’m here for a brief few moments.
This would be a good time to think about some of the things that have already been brought up, like…can Christians be deceived? The answer, sadly, is yes they can. In fact, I can give you a scripture that proves it.
(2Th 2:1-4) Now we beseech you, my brothers, with regard to the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to Him, that you should not be soon shaken in mind or troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word or letter, as through us, as if the Day of Christ is at hand. Let not anyone deceive you by any means. For that Day shall not come unless there first comes a falling away, and the man of sin shall be revealed, the son of perdition, who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God, or that is worshiped, so that he sits as God in the temple of God, setting himself forth, that he is God.
Notice in the part where it says “Let not anyone deceive you by any means. For that Day shall not come unless there first comes a falling away,”? The words “deceive” and “falling away” pop out very boldly to me. I went to God and asked Him what those meant. He taught me that those who love the Lord can, indeed, be deceived if they are not grounded in the Word.
But what about “falling away”? Those two words bugged me because it implied that some who do believe in God and Jesus Christ will decide that the belief is no longer true. Whoa! Wait a minute there. Seems to me that the ones falling away would be those who just THOUGHT they were Christians, not real Christians. But that didn’t fly because you have to actually have a belief before you can turn your back on it, which is the meaning of falling away from God.
So, before I go, I want to leave you with this thought. We need to be grounded so far into the Word that we do not miss the obvious. When we do miss God on something, we need to run back to Him so He can continue to protect us like Dads do. It is very possible for a Christian to buy into something that sounds so very much like Christianity because the deceiver is so good at what he does, deceive. So, God says that if we are willing to be grounded in the Word and we spend time in prayer with Him, then you will not be deceived because you will be seeking Him and looking at Him instead of what the world provides.
Tomorrow’s Topshelf will be a little later than usual. Enjoy your day with the Lord!!!
After yesterday, I was wondering if this particular subject would actually be written today. During my Bible study time yesterday and this morning, the words “do not be deceived” kept running through my head. Usually when that happens, God wants me to pay particular attention to where that’s written.
I have been writing here about the Book of James for the last few days and God will not allow me to leave the first chapter yet. There are three notations about being deceived in James 1.
The first one comes when he says that we are not to be deceived, that only God is the giver of the good gifts. That reminds me of a person who is able to buy a pretty expensive car with a loan. Then, when they get it home, they call their Christian friends and tell them what a blessing God has given them. That’s a self-deception. God does not give a person debt which is what happens when you sign for a car loan. God gives GOOD gifts. Now if that same person had gotten a gift of a car, that would be God’s good gift.
The second instance of deceive is found in James 1:22 where it says that we are to be doers of the word not hearers only because if you only hear, you deceive yourself. That brought to mind a person who goes and sits in church every week. They are quite faithful in that. They love everything in the preacher’s sermon, nothing bothers them in the least. It’s all a joy every week.
But the problem is that they simply sit and listen. When they go home, do they do anything all week to help anyone? Do they teach someone about the Lord? Usually the answer is no. I call them Pew Potatoes (couch potatoes? Yeah.). They love everything about church. However, if they were truly listening and the preacher was speaking God’s word, something should have been uncomfortable at times. That would be God teaching. When God teaches, it isn’t always comfortable but it sure is going to change your life!
Then a person would want to share with friends and family what they have learned. Some of my most enjoyable times have been after a church service when we could sit and talk about what we learned from the sermon. It is absolutely amazing to find out that although each had heard the same sermon, each one has learned a different lesson. That never ceases to amaze me!!
The third time deceived is mentioned, is when God says that if a person thinks they are religious and do not stop their tongue, they deceive themselves. I can picture the one person who is sitting in church that believes they have not sinned all week but do look around at all the sin that’s running rampant in the church. The person decides to tell someone about it trying to get support in their thinking. Pretty soon the tongues of others are wagging just like the first person’s did. That’s called “gossip”. God is so against that. He says that if a person feels righteous and religious but does not watch what they say, it means nothing and that person is deceived.
You know, I used to think that I was not going to be deceived because I read the scriptures a few times. HA! That in itself is a deception. I used to think that I could spot the anti-christ with no sweat at all. Not really. As long as we are deficient in any part of the scriptures and getting to know God, then we are open to a deceptive spirit who will convince us that what we are doing is right, no matter what happens, no matter who it might hurt in the process.
Today is the first day of the rest of your life. Do you believe that? Good saying. Perhaps we need to feel that way since God says that we are renewed each day (Eph. 4:22-24)and by the washing of the water of the Word! I praise God that He is so faithful to us even when we are not faithful to Him. We need to learn to be DOERS of the Word and not just hearers. Hearers are everywhere. Doers are few and far between. We need the doers for our army of God! It’s time to march!
For more information about getting to know the Lord better, please come to Lura’s Bookcase where you will find many articles on learning to grow in the Lord Jesus! Thank you for reading.
It is absolutely amazing the pressure I feel to post something every single day. That ought not to be so but it is. In fact, I had the lesson ready to go but things sort of stacked up here at home and it didn’t get published. It will tomorrow.
Frankly, I think I let the “cares of this world” get to me. (Mar 4:19 and the cares of this world, and the deceit of riches, and the lust about other things entering in, choke the Word, and it becomes unfruitful.) There were things going on at a webplace that I get income from that has gotten into an uproar. It’s very shaky right now. (deceit of riches) The phone rings and I “have” to answer it. The thing calls to me. It cannot be ignored. (lust about other things) Do you have that problem?
God says that we are to stop dealing with the cares of this world because they will eventually choke the Word that you are studying and it becomes unfruitful to you. Believe me, I understand that one! There are times when I study that the interruptions happen right after I got this incredible insight into something from a scripture. But the interruptions happen. Then I get back to the study and it’s gone! The whole insight is completely gone because I did not either write it down or remember it the way God gave it to me. It became unfruitful to me. ACK!
If you allow the cares of this world to come in and derail your time with the Lord, you will find yourself in a deficit spiritually. No one wants that! Get that Bible out and take the time to read and ask God about what you read. He is faithful to give you the answers.
