Boo Boos, Broken Toys, & Mosquitos
1 John 3:1 states, "Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God!"
I love the fact that I am a child of God. This awesome privilege gives us the "go ahead" to have a relationship that a father/child should have. What kind of relationship is this? Well, in this house our kids love to talk to us and we love to listen to them. We, as parents smile over every little unique thing about each one of our children. Our kids let us know about every little boo boo, itch, or bump on their bodies. They scream for mommy and daddy when there are bugs that get in the house (which they are terrified of). If something needs fixed, they run quickly to daddy. They have such amazing faith in our love for them. They are confident we'll kiss those boo boos, scratch those itches, catch those bugs, fix their broken toys, and just shower them with love.
It has been a picture to us of how much God wants to take care of all of our needs, hurts, and desires. We continue to learn that He wants to be a part of every little circumstance in our lives... even if it is as little as helping us find a mosquito that is flying around our room when we are ready to turn out the lights and go to bed. No, I'm not joking! God knows my heart when it comes to
mosquitos. He knows I hate them. As my husband prayed with me for God to reveal where this mosquito was hiding so he could kill it before it ate me up all night, I truly believed God was going to help my husband accomplish this mission. As he searched for about 30 minutes, he couldn't find it. I just stayed on the bed and kept praying. I also made the statement, "Just start turning out the lights and come to bed. God can show you that mosquito before the last light goes out." Sure enough, after turning off about 5 other lights, he comes to turn the last light out and happens to see the mosquito just sitting still on the ceiling. Now no one can even begin to get me to believe that God does not care about every detail of my life. If he cares about my feelings on mosquitos, then He certainly cares about EVERYTHING... and I mean EVERYTHING that happens to each one of His children.
Let us be encouraged today that we have the honor to be God's children. Enjoy this privilege and be thankful. He wants to bless us. He LOVES to bless us.
Be patient and don't ever stop talking to your Father. He sees, He hears, He cares, He LOVES!
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Bringing The Father Joy
3 John 4 states, "I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth." As my mom quoted this verse to me today, it encouraged me and I wanted to share it with the team. John wrote this to someone that he fathered spiritually. It gave John an unsurpassed feeling of joy just to hear that those he had discipled were actually LIVING in the truth that he had taught them.
I can relate to this because I have children of my own. Every day I do my best to teach them the things of the Lord. When they express the truths that I have taught them in their daily WALK, I am overjoyed. For example, one truth that we have been working on and will continue to have to work on is that God wants us to put others first. This is a very difficult truth for a small child to practice. When I saw my 6 year old say to my 3 year old, "Okay, you can carry the pink float to the swimming pool," when I knew that she wanted to be the one to carry it to the swimming pool, I was thrilled! Yes, such a little thing to get excited about... but she was PRACTICING THE TRUTH we had taught her in front of my very own eyes... there is NO GREATER JOY!!!!
If humans get excited about their children (physical and/or spiritual) walking in the truth, how much more do you think God joys in watching us, His children, walk in truth. Every little thing that we are learning and actually PUTTING INTO PRACTICE, we cannot even imagine the joy it brings our Heavenly Father. So, the encouragement today is to KEEP WALKING IN TRUTH. No, God won't love us any less if we don't and He won't love us any more if we do... BUT, what encouragement to think that we can bring our Father joy! I think that is pretty awesome.
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By the Grace of God
1 Corinthians 15:10a and 15:56-58 state, "But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me was not in vain...The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law, but thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord."
Each of us is a product of the grace of God. We would not be who we are if it were not for His grace alone. Because of the grace we have accepted as His child, we have the capability to find victory in overcoming sin and death. I thought it was interesting that the word in the original Greek for "thanks" used in the above verses was the same word used for the word "grace" in the above verses. The word is "charis" in Greek meaning "graciousness, (the divine influence upon the heart, and its reflection in the life; including gratitude), acceptable, benefit, favour, gift, grace, joy, liberality, pleasure, thanks."
This definition alone is worth meditating on...
We could say from looking at the definition that "But by the GRACE of God I am what I am" could be translated "But by the GIFT, JOY, or PLEASURE of God I am what I am." Yes, it's a gift of God that He made us His. Yes, we are His joy and made for His good pleasure. Truly, amazing GRACE!!!!
We could also translate "and His GRACE toward me was not in vain" to "and His BENEFIT, FAVOUR, GIFT, PLEASURE toward me was not in vain." In other words, our life will not turn out useless because God chose us and finds pleasure in using us. He gives us the power we need to do what He has ordained for us to do from before we were even conceived.
In the phrase, "but thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ," let us consider the the word "thanks" as graciousness and its reflection in the life as suggested by the definition. This "thanks" should be reflected in our life by acts of gratitude because of the divine influence
Christ has had on our hearts. True thankfulness is demonstrated by the way we respond to His grace.
Finally... or "THEREFORE"...those of us who recognize this amazing GRACE and are truly THANKFUL for it should be "steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord." If we
understand that because of this grace our life indeed has purpose, then we will BE STEADFAST AND IMMOVABLE in this grace. "Always abounding" means "to superabound, be in excess, to excel, to be more abundant, to exceed, to increase." In other words, we should always strive to excel in the work of the Lord.
May we continue to abound in the work of the Lord knowing that our service to the most high God is not in vain.We pray blessings upon you all as we prepare our students and our hearts for the grade level transition.
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Coming Forth as Gold
We all know the story of Job. God allowed Satan to take his possessions, children, and health from him because God knew that Job would remain loyal to God. Even when Job's own wife told him to curse God and die, he remained faithful. Through this testing and God's silence Job did question God's sovereignty, but He clung to God's truths through it all. Let's take a look at this man's heart and some of the things He said BEFORE God answered him:
· "The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; Blessed be the name of the Lord." (1:21b)
· "Shall we indeed accept good from God, and shall we not accept adversity?" (2:10b)
· "God is wise in heart and mighty in strength." (9:4a)
· "If he takes away, who can hinder Him? Who can say to Him, 'What are You doing?'"
· "Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him... he also shall be my salvation,..." (13:15-16)
· "For I know that my Redeemer lives, And He shall stand at last on the earth;" (19:25)
· "When He works on the left hand, I cannot behold Him; When He turns to the right hand, I cannot see Him. But He knows the way that I take; When He has tested me, I shall come forth as gold. My foot has held fast to His steps; I have kept His way and not turned aside, I have not departed from the commandment of His lips; I have treasured the word of His mouth more than my necessary food. But He is unique, and who can make Him change? And whatever His soul desires, that He does, For He performs what is appointed for me, and many such things are with Him." (23:9-14)
Do we say these things in our heart when trials come our way? I know I need to improve. Let us remember that our perspective is sooooooo different from God's. Be filled with God's Spirit so that you can say like Job, "When He has tested me, I shall come forth as gold."
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Confessing Sin
Have you ever committed a sin that you wish you never did? Have you ever had a thought that you wish you never thought? Have you ever said something that you wish you never said? Did this sinful act, thought, or word break your heart?
All of our sin truly should make us sick. Why? Because it brings God sorrow, it hurts others, and it separates us from God.
In Psalm 32 we see how David was disgusted with his sin. In verses 3 and 4 he states, "When I kept silent, my bones grew old through my groaning all the day long. For day and night Your hand was heavy upon me; my vitality was turned into the drought of summer." David's broken spirit was exactly what God wanted so that He could revive him. "Revive" in the original Hebrew means "to live, to keep alive, to preserve, recover, to repair, to restore, and to save." Isaiah
57:15 states, "For thus says the High and Lofty One who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy; 'I dwell in the high and holy place, with him who has a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones.'"
So once we have recognized the ugliness of our sin, let us remember to confess our sin so that the Lord may revive us as He desires to do. If we do not humble ourselves and confess, then we will stay dead in our sins. Allow God to keep you alive and to restore your relationship with Him by doing what David did...confess. We see this in the following verse of Psalm 32. Verse 5 states, "I acknowledged my sin to You, and my iniquity I have not hidden. I said, 'I will confess my transgressions to the Lord,' and You forgave the iniquity of my sin.'"