God's Plan for the Resurrection..... Dr. Charles Stanley

 God's Plan for the Resurrection

Dr. Charles Stanley

John 16:16-20

"A little while, and you will no longer see Me." Jesus repeated these words to His disciples several times. But He could tell by the blank stares on their faces that they did not understand what He had said.   

At one point, He even overheard them debating what He meant by "You will not see me" (John 16:19). These men had been with the Lord for three years. They had laughed with Him, cried with Him, eaten with Him, and were willing to die with Him, or so they thought.   

They had just entered the city of Jerusalem. And instead of being met by an angry legion of guards and protestors, they were met by palm-waving supporters shouting: "Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord." Yet as soon as they had settled into the upper room, Jesus broached the subject of His forthcoming death. Immediately, the mood of His followers went from one of celebration to shock and sorrow.   

Often in difficult times, we cannot see beyond that moment. The resurrection was a few days away, but they could not fathom its wondrous coming.   

God always provides the encouragement we need to stay the course, and Jesus did this for His disciples when He told them, "Your sorrow will be turned to joy" (v. 20). This also is God's message of hope and love for us today. Blessed be the name of the Lord!

Streams in the Desert.....

 Streams in the Desert

Many came to him and began to say, “John performed no miraculous sign, but everything John said about this man was true!” (John 10:41)

You may be very discontented with yourself. You are no genius, have no brilliant gifts, and are inconspicuous for any special faculty. Mediocrity is the law of your existence. Your days are remarkable for nothing but sameness and insipidity. Yet you may live a great life.

John did no miracle, but Jesus said that among those born of women there had not appeared a greater than he.

John’s main business was to bear witness to the Light, and this may be yours and mine. John was content to be only a voice, if men would think of Christ.

Be willing to be only a voice, heard but not seen; a mirror whose surface is lost to view, because it reflects the dazzling glory of the sun; a breeze that springs up just before daylight, and says, “The dawn! the dawn!” and then dies away.

Do the commonest and smallest things as beneath His eye. If you must live with uncongenial people, set to their conquest by love. If you have made a great mistake in your life, do not let it becloud all of it; but, locking the secret in your breast, compel it to yield strength and sweetness.

We are doing more good than we know, sowing seeds, starting streamlets, giving men true thoughts of Christ, to which they will refer one day as the first things that started them thinking of Him; and, of my part, I shall be satisfied if no great mausoleum is raised over my grave, but that simple souls shall gather there when I am gone, and say,

“He was a good man; he wrought no miracles, but he spake words about Christ, which led me to know Him for myself.”
—George Matheson

“THY HIDDEN ONES” (Psa. 83:3)

“Thick green leaves from the soft brown earth,
Happy springtime hath called them forth;
First faint promise of summer bloom
Breathes from the fragrant, sweet perfume,
Under the leaves.

“Lift them! what marvelous beauty lies
Hidden beneath, from our thoughtless eyes!
Mayflowers, rosy or purest white,
Lift their cups to the sudden light,
Under the leaves.

“Are there no lives whose holy deeds—
Seen by no eye save His who reads
Motive and action—in silence grow
Into rare beauty, and bud and blow
Under the leaves?

“Fair white flowers of faith and trust,
Springing from spirits bruised and crushed;
Blossoms of love, rose-tinted and bright,
Touched and painted with Heaven’s own light
Under the leaves.

“Full fresh clusters of duty borne,
Fairest of all in that shadow grown;
Wondrous the fragrance that sweet and rare
Comes from the flower-cups hidden there
Under the leaves.

“Though unseen by our vision dim,
Bud and blossom are known to Him;
Wait we content for His heavenly ray—
Wait till our Master Himself one day
Lifteth the leaves."

“God calls many of His most valued workers from the unknown multitude” (Luke 14:23).

Wounded Parents Wounded Children..... Dr. Charles Stanley

Wounded Parents Wounded Children

Dr. Charles Stanley

Jeremiah 32:17-19

So often when we deal with difficult people, it's easy to form judgments about them based on their behavior or attitudes. But have you ever stopped to wonder what has made that person so disagreeable or foolish? When the Bible says God "repays the iniquity of fathers into the bosom of their children" (v. 18), it is speaking about generational cycles of sin. Unless someone in the family line makes a deliberate choice to change, sinful and dysfunctional behavior will be passed from parent to child for many generations.

This is really just a confirmation of the principle of sowing and reaping. We pass down standards for conduct and character traits that we received from our parents. If we are unwilling to change our sinful habits and attitudes, they will very likely find their way into our children's lives.

What is true for sin is also true for wounding. When a child is emotionally bruised in the home, his behavior and character may be negatively affected. With this in mind, think about a difficult person that you know. What hurts do you think shaped his or her life? A heart of compassion originates from a willingness to empathize with those who have been wounded. This doesn't excuse someone's sin, but it does aid in opening our hearts toward the individual.

What about you? Have childhood wounds contributed to who you are today? How have they affected your life? If you haven't dealt with them, you'll probably pass similar hurts down to your children. But with God's help, you can break this cycle and begin a new one that will benefit future generations.

The Joy of Living From God Rather Than For Him..... CHRISTY NOCKELS

 The Joy of Living From God Rather Than For Him

CHRISTY NOCKELS

“Commit your way to the LORD; trust in him and he will do this: He will make your righteous reward shine like the dawn, your vindication like the noonday sun.” Psalm 37:5-6 (NIV)

Often, our enemy’s fiercest strategy against us as the beloved is keeping us consumed with living for God rather than living from God.

I know this to be true because I’ve lived it! There was a time in my life that I would often yes myself into exhaustion, determined to prove to God and others my worth and devotion. In this outside-in way of living, I hit the ground running every morning. The to-do list took precedence over my soul needs as I focused tenaciously on doing everything I thought I was supposed to be doing for God and even for myself so life would go as planned.

I had assumed I couldn’t afford the luxury of spending time with God, thinking I had far too many important responsibilities to be still before Him. When I did make time for Him, sadly, my priority was to ask Him to help me with everything: motherhood, home keeping, career-building. With a twinge of shame always lingering in my gut, I’d ask His forgiveness for failing to give Him more. Yet I had no more to give because my own strength was gone.

Don’t get me wrong. I longed to simply be still. I craved margin and rest and the capacity to put my family first. But I felt trapped, fearful if I said no to anything, I might miss out on the Next. Big. Thing.

This way of thinking not only set an unsustainable pace for my life, but it kept me self-focused, so much that I didn’t have the capacity to truly see others around me. I was usually in such a frazzled state that I valued community primarily for what it could do for me. For lack of a better word, this is hustling, and I’ve learned that God doesn’t always intervene right away when we strive at this kind of pace. Sometimes He gives us what we think we want so that we will finally discover what we truly need.

All in all, I believe this is God’s way of fighting for places in our hearts that we’ve either given up on or don’t even know need rescuing! In His mercy, God began to show me that my hustling was actually holding me back from living from my God-given identity as His beloved. An identity that offers rest, which propels us to trust Him wholeheartedly and to live from His strength rather than our own.

We see this propelling trust and rest in Psalm 37:5-6, “Commit your way to the LORD; trust him and he will do this: He will make your righteous reward shine like the dawn, your vindication like the noonday sun.” This is our invitation to live as the beloved of God! How beautiful, that as we surrender and trust in Him, He shows up on our behalf and does what only He can do in us, through us and for us!

Beloved, living from God lifts the burden, the stress, and the striving, and restores to us the joy of knowing God and loving Him. This joy is contagious! After all, He said if we would commit everything we do to Him, He would help us! If we will find our joy in Him, He will be the one to fulfill our deepest desires.

When we find our worth and joy in God again, we become available to Him and others in a way we never have before. Taking our place as the beloved of God, we come back to the center of it all — Jesus — the one who has already overcome this world we’re trying so desperately to survive in!

Heavenly Father, I’m so grateful You invite me to place my hopes, dreams and responsibilities in Your hands. You are faithful. Help me to rest in Your strength and draw closer to You today. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

TRUTH FOR TODAY:
Psalm 55:22, “Cast your cares on the LORD and he will sustain you; he will never let the righteous be shaken. (NIV)

Can We Still Worship God if We Aren’t Musical?..... By Jennifer Waddle

 Can We Still Worship God if We Aren’t Musical?

By Jennifer Waddle

But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him. - John 4:23

A few years ago, my youngest son said one of the most impacting things I’ve ever heard.

We were talking about being musical, and he insisted he didn’t want to sing or play an instrument–-or take music lessons of any kind!

Reluctantly, I realized his interests and talents were different than mine, and in the end, I accepted his decision. But then, in the same conversation, he added something so profound, I still think about it all these years later.

He said, “Mom, I don’t like to sing or play an instrument, but I love worship.”

His statement took me by surprise and really challenged me. Can we really love worship without singing or playing an instrument? Perhaps, Jesus answered this question best the day He sat down by a well and began a conversation with a Samaritan woman.

The woman said to Him, “Sir, I perceive that You are a prophet. Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, and you Jews say that in Jerusalem is the place where one ought to worship.”

Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe Me, the hour is coming when you will neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem, worship the Father. You worship what you do not know; we know what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews. But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him. God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.” (John 4:19-24 NKJV)

With or without music, it is God’s desire that we worship in spirit and in truth. Although singing songs of praise, to the King of Kings, is a beautiful act of worship, so is giving a cup of cold water to someone who is thirsty or choosing to forgive someone in Jesus’ name.

Worship is more than music.

Romans 12:1 reminds us, “I appeal to you, therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.

Our entire beings, from head to toe, are presented to God holy and acceptable through the blood of Jesus Christ. And because we are holy and acceptable through Him, we present ourselves back to Him as living sacrifices. Our spiritual acts of worship, which include prayer, Bible reading, and communion with the Lord, may or may not include singing or instruments.

I learned a valuable lesson that day, from a little boy who didn’t want to take music lessons of any kind, but who loved worship just the same! And, more importantly, I’ve learned beautiful lessons from Jesus, the Messiah, who revealed Himself to me, just as He revealed who He was to the woman at the well.

For the woman said, “I know that Messiah” (called Christ) “is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.” Then Jesus declared, “I, the one speaking to you—I am he.”

Starved for Faith and Vision..... by John UpChurch

 Starved for Faith and Vision

by John UpChurch

"Son of man, what is this proverb you have in the land of Israel: 'The days go by and every vision comes to nothing'? Say to them, 'This is what the Sovereign LORD says: I am going to put an end to this proverb, and they will no longer quote it in Israel.' Say to them, 'The days are near when every vision will be fulfilled.” Ezekiel 12:22-23

For me, Dave was that boss. The guy could make every triumph into misery, every completed project into a diatribe for what didn’t go right. Not chewing you out was his way of complimenting a job well done. And, no, I’m not joking. The guy would fire someone I worked with and then come to me the next day to say, “I fired your little friend.”

And yet, for some reason I never understood, Dave liked me from the beginning. He would never have said that, of course, never admitted to not hating someone. But he did. Even as a lackey intern, he put me in charge of projects way above my pay grade. Even as the newbie, he’d let me in on the big stuff we’d be working on in a few months. My position was only supposed to last 30 days, but Dave kept me there for months by making excuses to his bosses about why I should stay.

To be honest, I hated the work. Here I was an English major who was supposed to be editing and writing and changing the world through prose. But I was afraid of trying for that world-changing job. Instead, I got pushed into IT project management for hospitals, which is really just a nice way of saying that I moved computers and loaded software. Over and over.

But it’s funny what happens between a boss and a peon when you’re wearing scrubs and snatching computers from the ICU. For Dave, those moments brought clarity. In a place where alarms signal dying, he’d tell me about his one-time plans to be an architect and the reasons why it couldn’t happen. His rage would disappear with the code blues and rushing nurses. He dreamed for just a moment.

And then we’d be pushing our carts of equipment to a new wing of the hospital, and the sarcasm flooded in to cover the regret. He’d snap back to the snappiness as if the ICU never happened.

Maybe that’s why Dave liked me. He knew I didn’t want to be in those sterile halls either. He knew this detour felt more like a dead end. I was his earlier self.

When I finally quit, Dave didn’t say goodbye. In fact, he avoided me for much of my two-week notice period. His only words about me were to berate the rest of the team with how the “only competent worker” was leaving.

With him, that meant he approved.

Intersecting Faith and Life: Dave was that boss—a curmudgeon God used to show me how important vision is, how necessary risk can be to following where God leads. He’d stayed in the safety of a career he despised because excuses were easier than fear and faith.

Part of what it means for Christians to let our lights shine is for us to live by faith. We know God can build bridges over chasms—even if we have no idea how. (Sometimes it’s as if He purposefully waits until we’re right on the edge.)

Vision and faith refresh and refill and renew. Those who have lost both need you to show them how to get them back once again.

For Further Reading
Ezekiel 37:1
Hebrews 11:1

A Prayer for Grieving Mothers..... By: Emily Rose Massey

 A Prayer for Grieving Mothers

By: Emily Rose Massey

Brothers and sisters, we do not want you to be uninformed about those who sleep in death, so that you do not grieve like the rest of mankind, who have no hope. 14 For we believe that Jesus died and rose again, and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him” (1 Thessalonians 4:13-18, NIV).

Although it has been almost seven years since my husband and I experienced the loss of the  first child in my womb, my heart has recently been stirred to mourn with those who have walked through and are walking through the pain of losing a little one... no mattered the age.

Recently, I gave birth to our third child. When I was being admitted to the hospital, the nurse was asking me a variety of routine questions, one of which was “How many pregnancies have you had?”

When I answered off the cuff, “This is my fourth...my first one was a miscarriage,” she turned around from her computer, looked at me with the most compassionate eyes and said, “Oh, I am so sorry for your loss.” Her response moved me, and I realized that time in my life mattered then and it still matters today.

So much time has passed, and life continues on that I don’t think about it much, but I believe it is important to remember that was my first child.

I don’t know why women don’t speak about loss or miscarriage much or why we may feel like we don’t have to mention it, but that kind response from my nurse really made me reflect and remember and want to talk about it and share that time in my life.

I believe it is important to remind your heart that the life that was inside of you greatly mattered to God, and for whatever reason that we do not have to know, He needed them in heaven with Him instead of on Earth. We must trust His sovereign plan is for our good and for His glory, even when it hurts so deeply. It has been said that grief comes in waves and you need to give yourself permission to experience each wave as it comes, as you walk through the process. Yet, we must remember that when it comes to grief, as believers, we stand apart from those without Christ.

1 Thessalonians 4:13-14 encourages those who may have experienced the temporal sting of death to fix our gaze upon the life that is to come. As believers, we have a hope in Jesus that a resurrection of our bodies awaits us for eternity.

“Brothers and sisters, we do not want you to be uninformed about those who sleep in death, so that you do not grieve like the rest of mankind, who have no hope. For we believe that Jesus died and rose again, and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him” (NIV).

I remind my heart of this great hope that one day, I will meet that precious babe that the Lord knit in my womb. So I pray for each woman who has experienced the kind of painful loss of a child for the Lord to not only bring them healing and peace if the wound is fresh on their heart but to encourage them to not be afraid to tell others about all their babies... both earth-side and in heaven.

Father,

We pray for all the mothers who have felt the deep pain of miscarriage, stillbirth, and infant loss of their precious babes that were formed in their wombs all for Your glory. No matter how long their tiny hearts were beating, Your plan for their precious lives had meaning and purpose.

Letting go and trusting You during these times of mourning and great questions can be difficult, so we ask that you strengthen and renew their faith that You will carry them through this trial.

As the waves of grief come crashing in on them, remind their heart of the hope that they have in Christ. Holy Spirit, help these grieving mothers to fix their gaze upon heaven where the promise of eternal life awaits them. Give them a voice to share their story of Your goodness and faithfulness during this difficult time.

Thank You for bringing peace that passes all understanding and healing broken hearts in Your timing.

In Jesus’ Name, Amen.