1 Peter 4:12 (NIV)
Dear friends, do not be surprised at the painful trial you are
suffering, as though something strange were happening to you.
I have been keeping a journal for years now. In fact, I use a special devotional called Streams in the Desert and I often will note the year I am reading a specific devotion which touches me. Recently I realized that so many of my notations were from 2008. I was curious to see what was going on in my life that year to have so many margin notes referencing it specifically.
One of the benefits of journaling is the ability to go back in time and remember or relive some of those precious times by reading my own words. It is also a gift to be able to see what God has done in my life over the years. It turns out, 2008 was a turning point for me spiritually. It all began in the year 2000 when I attended Renewal, a Spiritual Retreat for Women. God began a new work in me and he used 17 other women to speak into my life.
So, when I saw that Broken was the theme for our preaching series these next four weeks, I was excited. You might wonder why anyone would anticipate a series of this type, but I have discovered over many years, it is that very brokenness that drew me to God. I didn't know it at the time when I was crying out to Him with fists raised, that His plan was in the making. That he would heal my broken heart and use me; use my testimony, to point to Him.
I have sensed God reminding me of late, to live one day at a time. When I finally dug out one of my journals from 2008, One Day at a Time was the theme. It makes sense, as I was two years into our Celebrate Recovery Program and God was doing a mighty work in me and others around me.
1 Peter 4:19 (NIV)
So then,
those who suffer according to God's will should commit themselves to their
faithful Creator and continue to do good.
1 Peter 4:12-19
Showing posts with label broken. Show all posts
Showing posts with label broken. Show all posts
Monday, February 6, 2017
Saturday, September 17, 2016
Outsider
(The Holy Spirit falls on Gentiles.)
Acts 10:34-45
Have
you ever felt like an outsider? As I considered this devotional I remembered a
man who came to our church for awhile. I haven’t seen him lately. He usually
sat in the same pew as my wife and I. During the sermon he would knit. I have
to confess that I judged him. Maybe that’s why he hasn’t been around.
It’s
easy to judge others; to put them next to an artificial standard that we have
created in order to make ourselves look and feel good. You know the one I’m
talking about. You have to dress a certain way; act and talk a certain way; look
a certain way. Otherwise, you just don’t fit in.
The
backstory to today’s passage is that Peter, a Jew, and Cornelius, a Gentile,
have been brought together by supernatural means orchestrated by God.
Normally,
the culture they live in would not permit this meeting to occur. It was a
social and religious culture that put the Gentiles on the outside and the Jews
on the inside. In case of point, look at the reaction of the good Jewish people
when the Gentiles received the Holy Spirit.
While Peter was still
speaking these words, the Holy Spirit came on all who heard the message. The
circumcised believers who had come with Peter were astonished that the
gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out even on Gentiles. Acts 10:44-45 NIV
The
disdain that the Jews had for the Gentiles was impeding the spread of the Gospel.
God’s word, His love, His grace and forgiveness and even His Holy Spirit - were
being held captive. Peter had a change of heart that not only changed him, but
changed the world around him.
Then Peter began to speak:
“I now realize how true it is that God does not show favoritism but accepts
from every nation the one who fears him and does what is
right. Acts 10:34-35NIV
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Acts%2010%3A34-45%2CActs%2015%3A14&version=NIV;NLT
https://www.biblegateway.com/audio/mclean/niv/Acts.10.34-Acts.10.45
Who
do you judge and keep in a box? Someone who looks different or acts different
from you? Maybe they knit during the sermon. Let the Holy Spirit open your
heart so that all might have access to the Gospel of Jesus.
https://www.biblegateway.com/audio/mclean/niv/Acts.10.34-Acts.10.45
Wednesday, November 18, 2015
Broken in
Have you ever taken a new baseball glove straight
from the store to the field? If so, you
know the frustration of using the unusable!
Stiff. Inflexible. Awkward.
The hand knows what it wants to do, but the new equipment doesn’t
cooperate! Balls bounce off the outside
of the mitt we cannot open and they pop out of the inside of the one we cannot
close!
It was my brother who taught me how to break in a new glove. We would coat ours – inside and out – with vegetable oil. Then we would place a ball inside and wrap the entire glove tightly in twine so the softening leather would form around the ball. The next day, we’d unwrap the glove and put it to use. It wasn’t long before our new purchase was “broken in” – now a help and not a hindrance. Better than new!
We celebrate the new believer in Christ. High fives all around! Yet over the years, I’ve noticed God’s people, too, are a bit stiff and inflexible ... that is, until we’re broken (in).
Take Judah, for instance. Even though he saved Joseph from family conspiracy, it was he who convinced his brothers to sell into slavery this favorite son of their father. But the aftereffects of sin turned out worse than Judah had foreseen – they always do! – so what followed was life lived in guilty silence as his father, Jacob, needlessly mourned the loss of his precious son. Judah had given into peer pressure, discarded Joseph’s freedom, protected his own good standing ... and all at the expense of his father’s grief. Who can possibly carry that load of guilt?
So it was a broken Judah now standing before the second-in-command over all of Egypt. It was this broken Judah who could not bear the thought of his father mourning the loss of another son. And it was the broken Judah who offered himself to captivity in place of brother Benjamin. “Now then,” offered Judah to the Egyptian ruler, “please let your servant remain here as my lord’s slave in place of the boy, and let the boy return with his brothers. How can I go back to my father if the boy is not with me? No! Do not let me see the misery that would come upon my father” (Genesis 44:18, 33, 34).
How far Judah had come! From slave trader to substitute ... that’s brokenness! From apathy to empathy ... that’s brokenness! From me-first to me-last ... that’s brokenness! From comfort to sacrifice … that’s brokenness!
And no matter how we get there, "Broken" is a suprisingly wonderful place to be. For broken people are free people. They are no longer constrained by the cares of this world, liberated, instead, in the love of God.
No matter what trials we encounter, God goes with us. And when we trust him and follow him, we come out the other side at a place called, "Broken." There, God can use us – a flexible, pliable, dependable us – softened and conformed to his image.
And ready to “play ball!”
[Click here to see the daily reading in Genesis 41:1 – 44:34.]
It was my brother who taught me how to break in a new glove. We would coat ours – inside and out – with vegetable oil. Then we would place a ball inside and wrap the entire glove tightly in twine so the softening leather would form around the ball. The next day, we’d unwrap the glove and put it to use. It wasn’t long before our new purchase was “broken in” – now a help and not a hindrance. Better than new!
We celebrate the new believer in Christ. High fives all around! Yet over the years, I’ve noticed God’s people, too, are a bit stiff and inflexible ... that is, until we’re broken (in).
Take Judah, for instance. Even though he saved Joseph from family conspiracy, it was he who convinced his brothers to sell into slavery this favorite son of their father. But the aftereffects of sin turned out worse than Judah had foreseen – they always do! – so what followed was life lived in guilty silence as his father, Jacob, needlessly mourned the loss of his precious son. Judah had given into peer pressure, discarded Joseph’s freedom, protected his own good standing ... and all at the expense of his father’s grief. Who can possibly carry that load of guilt?
So it was a broken Judah now standing before the second-in-command over all of Egypt. It was this broken Judah who could not bear the thought of his father mourning the loss of another son. And it was the broken Judah who offered himself to captivity in place of brother Benjamin. “Now then,” offered Judah to the Egyptian ruler, “please let your servant remain here as my lord’s slave in place of the boy, and let the boy return with his brothers. How can I go back to my father if the boy is not with me? No! Do not let me see the misery that would come upon my father” (Genesis 44:18, 33, 34).
How far Judah had come! From slave trader to substitute ... that’s brokenness! From apathy to empathy ... that’s brokenness! From me-first to me-last ... that’s brokenness! From comfort to sacrifice … that’s brokenness!
And no matter how we get there, "Broken" is a suprisingly wonderful place to be. For broken people are free people. They are no longer constrained by the cares of this world, liberated, instead, in the love of God.
No matter what trials we encounter, God goes with us. And when we trust him and follow him, we come out the other side at a place called, "Broken." There, God can use us – a flexible, pliable, dependable us – softened and conformed to his image.
And ready to “play ball!”
[Click here to see the daily reading in Genesis 41:1 – 44:34.]
Tuesday, May 12, 2015
The Heart Knows
Posted by Diane Ward
Jeremiah 17:9 (NIV)
The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?
At times, I have wondered why we speak of the heart in many different contexts such as sweetheart, broken heart, hard heart and deceitful heart. The word “heart” is found 725 times in the King James Version of the Old Testament, and 105 times in the New Testament. Clearly it is the focus and desire of our hearts the Word speaks to, and what God looks upon.
The Biblical word “heart,” references three parts of our inner being.
Mind, (where action & reaction take place), to guide and navigate us through life. It is with our minds that we focus our attention and choose to obey God, and what he holds us accountable for.
Emotions, (feelings that arise spontaneously rather than through conscious effort.) While emotions are a blessing of God, both in negative and positive aspects of sensation; they are not meant as the sole device of discretion.
Will, (discretionary decision-making), between the rational mind and emotions. We are to focus on God’s Word and His Will, as our will determines the direction we take.
Proverbs 4:23, (NIV) - Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it. We are to set our compass for true north by diligently guarding our hearts and staying on heaven’s course.
The Old Testament prophet Jeremiah writes that there is no cure for the deceitful heart, while Jesus calls out the cure as recorded in the Gospel of Luke 27:10. "'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind'; and, 'Love your neighbor as yourself.'"
The Biblical word “heart,” references three parts of our inner being.
Mind, (where action & reaction take place), to guide and navigate us through life. It is with our minds that we focus our attention and choose to obey God, and what he holds us accountable for.
Emotions, (feelings that arise spontaneously rather than through conscious effort.) While emotions are a blessing of God, both in negative and positive aspects of sensation; they are not meant as the sole device of discretion.
Will, (discretionary decision-making), between the rational mind and emotions. We are to focus on God’s Word and His Will, as our will determines the direction we take.
Proverbs 4:23, (NIV) - Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it. We are to set our compass for true north by diligently guarding our hearts and staying on heaven’s course.
The Old Testament prophet Jeremiah writes that there is no cure for the deceitful heart, while Jesus calls out the cure as recorded in the Gospel of Luke 27:10. "'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind'; and, 'Love your neighbor as yourself.'"
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