Forget the Former Things.....By Heather Riggleman

 Forget the Former Things (Isaiah 43:18-19)

By Heather Riggleman

“Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland.” - (Isaiah 43:18-19)

The world is full of coyotes. We are one and the same with these little creatures. In fact, when I was a child, my family had one for a pet. My dad found her wandering and alone; then he discovered her mother had been killed. Chances were slim for her to survive on her own. So, we named her Gypsy.

The downside of having a wild animal as a family member was the distractions. It was in her DNA, she would chew through roots, vines, and her own leash because she wanted to chase what was in front of her. Squirrels, rabbits, birds, snakes, and even semi-trucks. 

Like Gypsy, I found myself chasing things I thought would make me whole. I got caught up in being a mom, wife, employee, and cared about what others thought about me more than I cared about the thoughts of God. 

How easy is it to fall down the rabbit hole of perfectly filtered Instagram posts or Facebook? Why do we say ‘yes’ to something we know is going to take us away from God? Why do we overpack our schedules? Before too long, we’re lost and wandering in the desert. We’re thirsty and parched and in need of finding our way home. 

We all have distractions in our lives. Those little pests waiting to wreak havoc the moment our eyes settle on it. God knows that too. That’s why He reminded us in Isaiah 43:19 that He will rescue us. Today’s key verse reminds us no matter how far we wander, no matter the distractions or detours, God is making a way back for us.

The prophet Isaiah spoke these words to Israel during a time when they were in captivity. They assumed God wanted nothing to do them anymore because their hearts had wandered so far from him. The Israelites thought they didn’t deserve anything from God. Yet God doesn’t condemn His children; instead, He made a way back to Him. A way out of the mess. A way out of the desert. 

God responded to their wandering hearts: Forget the past. Whatever you’ve done or how far you’ve strayed, I’m doing a new thing. I am making a way in the desert.

Wherever you find yourself today, know that God is doing a new thing in your life. Our key verse from Isaiah teaches us how to embrace all He is doing. Forget the former things. Focus on the here and now, and commit to the way God is making for you. Will you focus your sights on Him?

Continual Transformation.....Denison Ministries

 Continual Transformation

Denison Ministries

Weekly Overview:

We serve a God of powerful transformations. All throughout Scripture God takes those whom the world deemed the lowest, the hopeless, and the helpless and uses them to change the world. You are not beyond transformation. God longs to break off that which inhibits you from experiencing fullness of life. He longs to heal you, deliver you, and set you free. May your life be forever changed as we spend time discovering God’s heart for transformation.

Scripture:

“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.” Romans 12:1

Devotional:

Oftentimes we see transformation as a one-time act. We find a problem and work on it until it gets better, then we go back to living life as normal. But the heart of God is for continual transformation. God longs that we would be so open and aware of the desire of the Spirit that we allow him to transform us every moment of every day.

Too often we just accept that we are who we are as if the God we serve didn’t have the power to continually set us free. We live as if the Holy Spirit is a God who only shows up every now and then to shake things up then retreats back into the heavens. But God is both loving and present. He is always there for us. He is always filled with desire for us. And the Holy Spirit is constantly ready to lead us, in love, out of the darkness and into the marvelous light of abundant life.

So what does continual transformation look like? How do we live in sync with the Spirit who can constantly change us from the inside out? Romans 12:1 says, “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.” Continual transformation will come when we decide to stop living for ourselves and instead become a living sacrifice to God as our “holy, acceptable” act of “spiritual worship.”

You see, when we live for ourselves we naturally take control of our own lives and therefore subjugate God and his desire to transform us. When our limited perspective on what’s good in life guides us rather than the perfect, transcendent perspective of God, we will only receive transformation from God when we desperately need it. But, when we seek to be a living sacrifice to God at all times our hearts become open to all the Spirit is doing, saying, and feeling in every moment. If you want to be continually transformed by the powerful, life-changing love of God, you have to choose every day to center your life around the will and desires of God.

Psalm 139:23-24 says, “Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! And see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting!” May David’s prayer be our prayer today as we enter into a time of guided prayer.

Guided Prayer:

1. Meditate on God’s heart to continually transform you. Reflect on his nearness and his desire to heal you, deliver you, and empower you.

“The Lord your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save.” Zephaniah 3:17

“Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.” Isaiah 41:10

2. Take a moment to assess your heart. Are you seeking to be a living sacrifice to God in all you do? Or are you living with your own desires and will as the foundation of your life?

3. Decide to be a living sacrifice today. Decide to live with the desires and will of God as your foundation. Center your life around the goodness, nearness, and power of your loving Father.

“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.” Romans 12:1

Choosing to be a living sacrifice is a daily decision. Without spending consistent time in God’s presence there is no hope for continual transformation. It’s only when we encounter the kindness of God that we are able to respond with surrender. It’s only upon meeting with God that we live with his power and love as our foundation. Living sacrificially is not something you do in your own strength. Rather, it is the natural response of those who see God for who he truly is. May you commit yourself to experience the reality of God’s presence today. And may your life be an act of worship in response to the great love you’ve been shown.

Extended Reading: Psalm 139

Living a Life of Holy Fulfillment.....KATE CROCCO

 Living a Life of Holy Fulfillment

KATE CROCCO 

“The LORD is my chosen portion and my cup; you hold my lot. The lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; indeed, I have a beautiful inheritance.” Psalm 16:5-6 (ESV)

A few years ago, as the December days grew colder and shorter, I found myself becoming unanchored.

You might know the feeling: I was slowly slipping back into old behaviors that, in the past, had led to burnout. Exciting opportunities arose that I didn’t want to pass up. Past perfectionistic patterns began to resurface, and I began working more than ever before.

As I rocked my 16-month-old to sleep, I caught a glimpse of the swaddle hanging above her bookcase, imprinted with an interpretation of Esther 4:14 that said, “Perhaps, this is the moment for which you have been created.”

Right then, the pressure that had been building felt as though it might swallow me whole. I had no choice: I couldn’t fail.

At the time, I felt immensely blessed. But I was tired. I was running on adrenaline. And I had no idea how out of alignment I was about to become. I prayed that I could find a way to rest, disconnect from the pressures of work and be more present for my family.

Maybe you’re there today, too, barely hanging on by a thread. Not only are you striving to nail that opportunity and make the next right decision, but you’re also flooded with the pressure to impress your boss, be the best partner to your spouse, keep your kids’ juice cups filled and diapers changed, provide top-notch services to your clients, remember not to lock the dog outside in the rain, keep in touch with your high school bestie, serve at church and text your mom back.

What if I told you it’s possible? You can begin living a life of peace, simplicity, freedom and abundance. Free from the pressure of missing the mark, passing over opportunity, failing the first time or feeling the dreaded FOMO (fear of missing out). What if life could just feel like that four-letter “E” word no one ever talks about? You know, “easy”?

It all begins by drawing the line — setting boundaries and limits in any and every crevice of our lives. Alignment is born from knowing our own boundary lines and fiercely guarding them. Allowing anything to cross those boundary lines will inhibit you from living the life God has available for you, a life of holy fulfillment.

As I held my sleeping child, I closed my eyes to breathe in this passage and slow my pounding heart:

“The LORD is my chosen portion and my cup; you hold my lot. The lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; indeed, I have a beautiful inheritance.

I bless the LORD who gives me counsel; in the night also my heart instructs me. I have set the LORD always before me; because he is at my right hand, I shall not be shaken. 

Therefore my heart is glad, and my whole being rejoices; my flesh also dwells secure. For you will not abandon my soul to Sheol, or let your holy one see corruption. 

You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore” (Psalm 16:5-11, ESV).

I believe this is God’s definition of drawing the line: standing firm in our limits and stepping into the aligned lives He has available for us.

It looks like this: our lines or boundaries are set in pleasant places, and we trust God’s great provision. A spiritual line connects our hearts to God’s Truth in unshakable faith, secure in His plan and the path He has placed before us — in fullness, joy and even more than we can ever fathom.

How beautiful is that? Is this not the best depiction of God’s promise for you when you seek it?

If, like me, you wonder when you’ll know you’re in alignment with God’s purpose for you, here’s the secret, friend: You will 100% know you are in alignment when, even if life is hard or devastating, your hope in Jesus is not shaken. You know, despite the grief, loss, uncertainty or whatever you are facing, He hasn’t left your side for one minute.

You may want to throw in the towel and doubt His plan, but you know you will be OK in time. And if you’re not OK … God is not done working.

Dear heavenly Father, I come to You today seeking discernment. Help me to prioritize quiet time with You throughout my day. Help me to turn off the noise when it’s tempting to occupy my time with another podcast, another song or another opinion. Help me to find peace in the stillness to become more sensitive to Your direction and what You see as best for me. I trust You will help me discern what next steps are most aligned in my career, family and friendships. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

What Does It Mean to Be Saved..... Dr. Charles Stanley

 What Does It Mean to Be Saved

Dr. Charles Stanley

Psalms 25:12

What makes a person acceptable to God? The path to redemption begins not with the decision to live a better life or to stop doing something wrong, but with the realization that we cannot correct our sinful nature. To find favor with the Lord, we must grasp that it's impossible to make ourselves righteous; instead, we need to depend on the sacrifice Jesus made on our behalf. When we trust in Christ as our Savior, God the Father applies the benefit of Jesus' atoning sacrifice to our sin debt, thereby making us "saved," or acceptable in His eyes.

Your good works and righteous acts are of absolutely no value in the mind of God. Compared to others' actions, your generosity and good works might seem like enough to bring favor with the Lord, but Jesus said, "Not as a result of works, so that no one may boast" (Eph. 2:9). When you stand before God, the only way you can be forgiven of your sins is through Jesus Christ and His sacrificial, substitutionary atoning death at Calvary. Jesus came to give His life as a ransom for many (Mark 10:45).

Jesus' public crucifixion was a demonstration of God's hatred for sin and immense love for mankind. He who was blameless bore the penalty for all in order that wicked, corrupt people could be made righteous.

No matter what you've done, you can be cleansed of the stain left by sin. Confess any known transgressions and turn from them; then Jesus will forgive you and write your name in the Lamb's Book of Life (1 John 1:9; Rev. 21:27). By trusting in Him, you are assured of eternity in His presence.

A Springtime Mystery.....by Katherine Britton

 A Springtime Mystery

by Katherine Britton

"For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse."- Romans 1:20

When was the last time you wondered if spring would ever come? Not in the ironic sense - really wondered if winter might last forever, something like the 100 years of winter in Narnia. My guess is never. Most of America lives in the reality of four seasons, and we expect the Earth to naturally cycle from winter to spring to summer to fall. We expect trees to unfurl new leaves this time of year because they're supposed to.

But what if they didn't? What if the trees bloomed in winter when their new leaves would freeze, or what if their flowers matured into hornets' nests instead of apples? What if they didn't bloom at all?

In his autobiographical work, Orthodoxy, G. K. Chesterton remembers his journey from agnosticism to faith including such nonsensical questions. Before he became the great 20th-century apologist, he was a man confined to the world of determinism, where the natural world was governed by impersonal laws or nothing. But observing spring outside his window, he was struck by the wonderful fact that for some reason, trees do indeed bloom into fruit.

"They [materialists/determinists] talked as if the fact that trees bear fruit were just as necessary as the fact that two and one trees make three. But it is not… You cannot imagine two and one not making three. But you can easily imagine trees not growing fruit…"

"I had always vaguely felt facts to be miracles in the sense that they were wonderful: now I began to think them miracles in the stricter sense that they were willful. I mean that they were, or might be, repeated exercises of some will. In short, I had always believed that the world involved magic: now I thought that perhaps it involved a magician." (Orthodoxy)

I owe Chesterton a great debt, because he taught me to be amazed at everyday grace. After all, how often do we marvel that the sky is blue (or grey) instead of orange or electric pink? Yet again, familiarity breeds contempt, and we forget what incredible world this "magician" made and keeps in order. Like children who see the same magic trick one too many times, we stop wondering "how did he do that?" and are bored until we see something new.

I use the term "magician" loosely - God is no mere conjurer of tricks, and Jesus didn't feed the 5,000 just to wow the crowd. But I wonder that we lose our wonder of this world, even in its fallen state. As Paul writes in Romans, the evidence of God's incredible, "eternal power" and transcendent, "divine nature" is right in front of our eyes. How do we forget a God so great that He makes trees bloom?

As Virginia turns to spring again, I can't help but look outside and be amazed. To paraphrase Chesterton, the fact that grass is really green - and so perfectly suited for springtime sports - truly is a miracle, a supernaturally guided fact. What an awesome God.

Intersecting Faith & Life: When was the last time you took a look outside? Consider that "the heavens declare the glory of God" (Psalm 8:1) and the Earth is the work of his hands. Are you properly inspired to worship their Creator?

Further Reading:

Psalms 8:1
Psalms 33:5
Genesis 8:22

 

A Prayer to Stand Firm and Let Nothing Move You.....By Meg Bucher

 A Prayer to Stand Firm and Let Nothing Move You

By Meg Bucher

“Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.” 1 Corinthians 15:58 NLT

“How do you do that?!”

It’s become a common question for my daughter since she was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes. As she replaced the continuous glucose monitor, which tracks and traces her blood sugar every few minutes, her friends gathered around in awe as she held the applicator up to her arm and readied to pull the trigger.

“SNAP!”

Many of the girls jumped, but my daughter was strong and immovable. I think of her journey with her disease when I read verses like the one today. Perhaps you can relate. Every day, we go through experiences which tempt us to flinch, shy away, or run away in fear. But when we are brave enough to face challenges head on, the Lord blesses our obedience, and our bravery.

Perhaps no one knew what it meant to be strong and immovable in faith more than Paul. He endured a tumultuous amount of torture on account of the gospel, but he also dished out his share of it before he encountered Christ and his life whip-lashed around! To be strong and immovable sometimes means having the strength to forgive ourselves and walk away from the sins and waywardness of our past lives. In Christ, we are a new creation. There is no reason we need to remain in the guilt and shame of our past before we surrendered to Him. When we are strong and immovable, we can walk into new life with and in Christ, never turning back!

Let’s pray, today, for the strength we need from the strengthener in us.

Father,

Teach us what it means to be strong and immovable in our faith. Let us live our lives to the full capacity You have purposed for them to be. Yahweh, Abba, Jireh; Jesus, Messiah, and Savior; Holy Spirit, Strengthener, Comforter, and Helper, One True, Triune God: glory to You in the highest. Thank you for the life You have given us to live this, and every day. Thank You for the breath we are breathing, and the fulfilling joy we experience in Jesus Christ.

When life is difficult, Father, it gets hard to remember all of these truths. Realign our hearts, today, God. Remind us who You are, and Whose we are. Foster in us a focused, forgiving, and obedient spirit ready to get up and go share the love of Jesus with the people You have placed around us.

Lord, make us strong and immovable, helps us to grow today into a more godly person. Let the lies and distractions of the enemy fall dead at our feet and fly over our heads, never taking root in our thoughts or hearts. Father, amplify Your voice and Your Truth above all other voices in our lives. Help us to be laser-focused on You, Father, so we are able to withstand the arrow of distraction inevitably pointed in our directions.

Father, we pray the words of Paul’s letter to the Corinthians over our lives: Let nothing move us! Let us always give ourselves fully to Your work, Lord, because we know that our labor in You is not in vain.

Fill our lives with blessing, favor, strength, and confident hope in You.

In Jesus’ Name, 

Amen.

Why Did an Angel Roll Away the Stone?.....Matthew Henry

 Why Did an Angel Roll Away the Stone?

Matthew Henry

The angels frequently attended our Lord Jesus: at His birth, in His temptation, in His agony. But upon the cross we find no angel attending him. When His Father forsook Him, the angels withdrew from Him, but now that He is resuming the glory he had before the foundation of the world, the angels of God worship him.

The angel came, rolled back the stone from the door, and sat upon it. Our Lord Jesus could have rolled back the stone Himself by His own power, but He chose to have it done by an angel to signify that having undertaken to make satisfaction for our sin, He did not break prison, but had a fair and legal discharge, obtained from heaven. He did not break prison, but an officer was sent on purpose to roll away the stone and open the prison door, which would never have been done if He had not made a full satisfaction.

But being delivered for our offences, He was raised again for our justification. He died to pay our debt, and rose again to gain our acquittal. The stone of our sins was rolled to the door of the grave of our Lord Jesus (and we find the rolling of a great stone to signify the contracting of guilt - 1 Samuel 14:33), but to demonstrate that divine justice was satisfied, an angel was commissioned to roll back the stone. The angel did not raise Him from the dead, any more than those that took away the stone from Lazarus’s grave raised him, but by this he intimated the consent of Heaven to Christ's release, and the joy of Heaven in it.

The enemies of Christ had sealed the stone, since this was their hour, but all the powers of death and darkness are under the control of the God of light and life. An angel from heaven has power to break the seal and roll away the stone, though ever so great. Thus, the captives of the mighty are taken away.

The angel’s sitting upon the stone, after he had rolled it away, is very observable and shows a secure triumph over all the obstructions of Christ’s resurrection. There he sat, defying all the powers of hell to roll the stone to the grave again. The angel sat as a guard to the grave, having frightened away the enemies’ guard; he sat, expecting the women, and ready to give them an account of Jesus's resurrection.