Our words should be tempered with the love of Christ…our actions showing His character and love. We should be ever grateful and continually honoring our Lord in everything we do and say… everyday…and to everyone we come in contact with.
Tag: religion
Judges 4:9 ” Very well, Deborah said, I will go with you. But because of the way you are going about this, the honor will not be yours, for the Lord will hand Sisera over to a woman.”
Deborah had the distinction of being both a Judge and a Prophetess over Israel when she called Barak and gave him a command from the Lord. ‘Go, take 10,000 troops with you and I will lure your enemy Sisera and his troops into your hands.’ Barak was willing to go, but only if Deborah went with him. She agreed, but told him in the end it would be a woman getting the praise for the death of Sisera not him. As all of his troops fell around him, Sisera fled to a tent where Jael, a Kenite woman stood. He asked her to hide him, so she covered him inside the tent and stood at the entrance watching. But after Sisera fell asleep, she quietly slipped to him with a tent-peg and a hammer and drove the peg through his temple and he died at her feet. Thus the prophesy was fulfilled by her being honored rather than Barak.
Acts 17: 28 ” For in Him we live and move and have our being.”
I think Job 12:10 said it best, ” In His hand is the life of every creature and the breath of all mankind.” The Lord holds our very life in His hand…for without Him we are nothing. We can go without oxygen for about 3 minutes, without water for about 3 days, and without food for about 3 weeks…but we can’t go even 3 seconds without God giving us life.
I Kings 3:25 ” He then gave an order: Cut the living child in two and give half to one and half to the other.”
Wise King Solomon had quite a dilemma brought before him to judge…two prostitutes who lived together had just both given birth to baby boys…during the night one had smothered her infant while she slept, so she switched babies…but the mother of the live baby knew the difference, but couldn’t prove it. Now here they were in front of King Solomon arguing their case. The rather barbaric decree Solomon gave was intended to flush out the truth…It says that, “The woman whose son was alive was filled with compassion for her son and said to the King, ‘Please my Lord, give her the living baby! Don’t kill him!’ ” Hearing such a merciful and sensitive outburst coming from this woman, King Solomon then knew who the true mother of the baby was.
Habakkuk 3: 17-18 ” Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will be joyful in God my Savior.”
There comes times in everyone’s life when we feel all is lost and ruined…everywhere we look in our lives we see devastation and destruction. When we are staring at this bleak landscape called our life, we need to do what Habakkuk did. He used one tiny word to change his mindset and attitude. That word was “yet”. That little word allowed him to place his focus on and draw strength from his Lord and Savior, and in doing so was able to rejoice in the face of ruin.
James 4:1-2 ” What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you? You want something but don’t get it. You kill and covet, but you cannot have what you want. You quarrel and fight. You do not have, because you do not ask God.”
“I want, what I want, when I want it!” Anyone that’s seen a 3-year-old throwing a temper tantrum knows what this means. Most of the strife and disputes in our lives come from selfishness on our part… we crave, covet, and lust after things and want our way no matter who we have to go over to get it. We may be much older…we may not thrash around on the floor kicking and screaming…but we can still throw tantrums when we don’t get our own way. Some take a more passive/aggressive approach, while others pout and make life miserable for everyone around them until they relent…either way, a tantrum is a tantrum, whether you’re 3, 33, or 83.
Joshua 6:16 ” The seventh time around, when the Priests sounded the trumpet blast, Joshua commanded the people, ‘Shout! For the Lord has given you the city!’ “
The enemy people of Jericho were entrenched in a formidable stronghold, with walls that had held back warring nations in the past, so they must have watched with amusement as the Jews walked silently around the city for six days. But come that seventh day there was excitement and anticipation in the Jewish camp…God had promised that He would turn Jericho over to their control, and they were eager to see how He would accomplish this feat. The destruction of those massive walls started with “trumpet blasts” from the Priests… those words also meaning thrusting a sword or a spear. Those sounds were used like a weapon in God’s hand to initiate the destruction of the walls. But it was when Joshua ordered the once silent people to give a mighty war cry, that the deafening sound reverberated off those walls, and they came tumbling down.
Job 5:17 ” Blessed is the man whom God corrects; so do not despise the discipline of the Almighty.”
Spankings are never fun… and when it’s the Lord wielding the switch, it can be down right miserable. As mere mortals in all our weaknesses and frailties, we stray often, and like unruly calves, need to be roped in…but hopefully this correction will result in education on our part. But it all hinges on whether we accept the reprove, or reject it and turn away from God. Spankings hurt for a little bit, but we must always keep in mind…”The Lord disciplines those He loves and punishes everyone He accepts as a son.” (Proverbs 3:11)
Matthew 10: 42 ” And if anyone gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones because he is My disciple, I tell you the truth, he will certainly not lose his reward.”
Simple acts of kindness done for a stranger…opening a door, offering a friendly smile and a greeting, getting a glass of water, helping someone across a busy street…all things that only take a minute of our time, but may have lasting impact on the person receiving it. “Whoever is kind to the needy honors God.” (Proverbs 14:31) If we call ourselves His children, these gestures of kindness are showing Jesus in a real and tangible way to the world around us. As it says so beautifully in Hebrews 6:10, “God remembers your work and love you have shown Him as you help His people.” Those simple acts of kindness you do are far from simple, and far from unimportant in The Lord’s sight.
Isaiah 65:1 ” I revealed Myself to those who did not ask for Me; I was found by those who did not seek Me.”
We all have someone in our lives that we’ve been praying for…some for a very long time, that they would come to the Lord, or return back to relationship with Him. This Scripture should give you unbelievable hope, for it says that the Lord will actually make Himself known and disclose His Glory to them who have not even asked or sought after Him. He will establish Himself in those who haven’t even pursed Him. The Lord says “everyone who is called by My Name, whom I created for My glory, whom I formed and made.” Everyone is just that…everyone, so don’t be discouraged when you think your prayers aren’t being answered…God can move and orchestrate in people’s lives far beyond what we can imagine or see. He’s at work at this very moment manifesting Himself to them as only He can do.
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