Week 5 Day 5 - Going For the Gold!

TIES OF GRACE DAILY DEVOTIONS

Week 5 - Going for the Gold!

Day 5:  2 Corinthians 12:9

⁹ But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness. ” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.

This week has really been a week of deep thoughts and processing.  God’s word always moves me when I am in it with the right heart, but this week is one of those weeks where I have just felt a flood of awareness.  I haven’t even been able to sit and write normally because I just felt like I was coming up with unfinished thoughts.  Therefore, I chose to bank on things a couple of days.  My timetable is not God’s and though I wanted to write our daily devotion this week every day, like all the other weeks, I also realize if God wants me to wait a day or two, I better do just that.  So I did!  How refreshing to know that even the timetables are His.  What a load off of us for pressure!  We need goals and commitments, but even more we need to allow God to adjust things His way.  I suspect, mostly, He will allow me to write every day.  But, as this week has shown, times may arise when He says for me to be still AND be quiet.  J  Now back to where we left off….As I wrote of Paul Tuesday in our daily devotion, it led me back into spending more time really digging into his life again. One day wasn’t enough, since I reconnected with him again this week.  He is like a familiar friend to me, as I have spent a lot of time over the years learning more about him and his amazing actions of faith.  As I was led down this path of the theme of perseverance this week, I can’t get past Paul.  He is just one of those men from the bible that bring me encouragement in a way that feels like I can almost just sit in the room and talk of my joys and my sorrows with him, as we share our love of Jesus.  And for some reason this week, I just really wished I could.   Paul is so wise and so real.  He realized that He knows grace on a personal level so he wasn’t the type to sit in a place of legalism or harsh judgment, but instead he sits in a place of “You just have to know what I know!  You need to experience what I am!  It’s too great not to share!” (my idea of what he might say to me if I could sit with him…)  I am captivated by his determination to help others understand the true love of Jesus. He was so blessed in his own redemption that he was willing to go to his death trying to persuade whoever would listen of the availability for their own opportunity for redemption as well.  And because of his authenticity in the matter, he is so contagious.  I want to love Jesus like Paul did!  I believe one of the greatest keys in living out the love in the authentic way Paul did no matter his circumstances  is the truth in the verse today.  Paul persisted with joy because he no longer had a need to have it altogether.  He was free to boast of his own weakness because that is when God could really get it going FOR Him.  I don’t know about you, but for me in the season I am in (okay, any season I am in)… I do not have it altogether.  And I am so very thankful His grace is sufficient and that I am being made strong in Him!   What are you holding back, trying to be strong on your own?  What is preventing your perseverance in the freedom of His grace?

Week 5 Day 2 - Going For the Gold!

TIES OF GRACE DAILY DEVOTIONS

Week 5 – Going For the Gold!

Day 2:  Acts 14: 19-21

¹⁹ Then some Jews came from Antioch and Iconium and won the crowd over. They stoned Paul and dragged him outside the city, thinking he was dead. ²⁰ But after the disciples had gathered around him, he got up and went back into the city. The next day he and Barnabas left for Derbe. ²¹ They preached the gospel in that city and won a large number of disciples.

Paul is one of my favorite people to study in the bible.  He was so remarkable!  He came from being the very one hating and persecuting Christians, to being the very one spreading the beautiful message of hope while enduring deep persecution.  I am always drawn to know more of those that have come from such darkness into the light.  The testimony of their salvation is always overwhelming to me, as evidence of the transforming power Christ really has if we let Him.  I love to celebrate it.  And because of powerful testimonies of that nature, I have heard many people that didn’t experience such darkness before they found Jesus claim, “I have nothing big to share, I don’t have a story like that!” and I can see where they are coming from.  Sometimes we are initially most captivated by the “big stories”.  But I think , when I look at Paul, though I am amazed by His transformation, what is most drawing to me, is not the initial change that took place.  What is most addicting to me about Paul is how he lived his life from salvation on until the end.  How he finished his race is what grabs my heart and convicts me to look closely at my own journey! Yes, I am amazed that God grabbed him on that road to Damascus.  It thrills me to see the radical change because it does give hope for those that seem so far from salvation that we pray for.  But that story is just the start.  Once it’s told, it is known.  What is truly contagious is the way Paul lived after.  He endured great difficulty and ultimately death for his faith in Jesus Christ.  The testimony that comes out of how he walked with Christ is far more humbling to me than how God found him.  No matter how we have come to Christ, no matter how easy or how difficult, the real story unfolds starting from the moment we choose Him to be our Lord and Savior. And I want to be like Paul.  I want to be able to face anything and keep my faith.  I want to be able to trust that God has me and loves me and I want to sing His praises under all circumstances.  Paul was a spiritual giant!  I can sometimes sit right down here in Houston, Texas and find myself wallowing in my circumstances and find praise absent from my lips…But not Paul.  Just as these scriptures tell us, along with the rest of scripture that documents his life and ministry on earth, Paul would get up in the middle of the most horrendous circumstances and get right back to the business of sharing the good news to as many as would listen, with praise on his lips for the One that had saved him.  Paul ran his race until the very end where he ultimately met his Maker, with what I am certain was with praise still yet on his lips!  Some would say Paul was defeated because he was beheaded.  Paul knew better.  He knew to keep his eyes up and press on… and he made it Home!  I don’t know about you, but even when things are really bad, I can’t honestly say I have ever been stoned or the such.  I certainly have never faced jail for my Jesus.  So if Paul, in the worst of circumstances, finds praise, how much more can we? 

Week 5 Day 1 - Going For the Gold!

TIES OF GRACE DAILY DEVOTIONS

Week 5 – Going For the Gold!

Day 1:   2 Timothy 4:7 ⁷ I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.

Philippians 4:13  ¹³ I can do all this through him who gives me strength.

As most of the world, I have been watching the Olympics off and on.  I celebrate the wins and I feel so sad with the losses.  It is hard to watch those athletes get so close and fall short.  They represent the finest in all the countries and it is evident the deep dedication they have to their sport.  I was particularly moved watching Jordyn Weiber, the USA gymnast who currently holds the world title and came in at the top of the “fabulous five” gymnastics team.  She had a couple of slip ups that cost her 10ths of a point and landed her in 3^rd place for her team.  The rule is only 2 from one team can advance to the individual all-around, therefore ending her dream of competing individually for the gold.  She was broken hearted.  It was hard to watch her struggle with her disappointment with all the cameras in her face.  Bless her heart.  But as I watch her and the others that succeed or fall just short, the word that keeps coming to my mind is perseverance.  They Olympics are not these athletes first time for hard competition.  I am sure we could look back through all of their careers and find many highs and lows.  The gold medalist swimmer, Dana Vollmer, who broke a record in her 100 meter swim just a day back, had disastrous Olympic trials in 2008 and didn’t even qualify in any event.  I am sure it was a crushing blow.  She could have chosen to walk away.  Instead, it is quite obvious that she dug down inside of herself, determined towards perseverance, and ended up not only qualifying for the games, but sweeping the gold with ease and a world record to really seal the deal sweetly!  So as I watch and feel the joys with the victories and the sadness with the losses, the resonating word remains perseverance.  So as we start another week of daily devotions together, I want to take some time and really look at some of the spiritual giants in the bible that exhibited deep perseverance.  I am always amazed when I read of some of their journeys and all they endured and still yet, persevered.  My prayer is that we will see the things in them that led to their perseverance and apply those same attributes into our own lives, so that we can finish our race well… not matter how many hurdles are in the way or how “uphill” the journey seems to be.  We have been set on a course, as we studied last week, since before we were knit in our mother’s womb.  That is a course destined for success through Christ who strengthens us!  We just have to dig down, dig in, and run the race home.  This week, as we look at perseverance, my prayer is that we will look deep into ourselves and identify the things that most concerns us about the race God has us running.  Identify the costs and identify the gain if we persist and determine that nothing is more valuable that God’s plan. This week, let’s face our obstacles with courage and faith, knowing that with Christ, we really can do anything the God should ask!   What is stopping you from running your race with determination and the perseverance God desires? 

Week 4 Day 5 - Psalms 139 - He REALLY Knows Us!

TIES OF GRACE DAILY DEVOTIONS

Week 4 – He REALLY Knows Us!

Day 5: Psalms 139:19-24

¹⁹ If only you, God, would slay the wicked!
Away from me, you who are bloodthirsty!
²⁰ They speak of you with evil intent;
your adversaries misuse your name.
²¹ Do I not hate those who hate you, Lord,
and abhor those who are in rebellion against you?
²² I have nothing but hatred for them;
I count them my enemies.
²³ Search me, God, and know my heart;
test me and know my anxious thoughts.
²⁴ See if there is any offensive way in me,
and lead me in the way everlasting.

We are treading on some sticky ground tonight, if we don’t tread in a heart for Christ and His view of what is meant in these verses.  I believe verses like these tonight, when viewed from a flesh way of thinking and not a God way of thinking, are the very thing that breeds legalism in Christianity.  We must remember God… who He is.  God is LOVE.  We must keep that at the forefront of our mind and heart when we read of scripture that could be interpreted to allow hatred and judgment.  It isn’t optional or we become the very ones that become guilty of sin!  When I read these verses, I can feel David’s feelings when he cried out to God.  I can feel them in the Spirit, but let me be clear, I can feel them in my flesh. Do we not all have situations in our life where we would just like to say, “Excuse me Jesus, could you just step out of the room for 5 minutes?”  Many people wouldn’t admit that maybe, but I am telling you, I am here to be real, and I admit it.  There are times, especially when my children are being hurt, that this flesh thing rises up and I feel my blood boil before I even hardly have time to know what hit.  And if I weren’t in the relationship where I am seeking Christ as best I know how, I can assure you my flesh would be so quick that I would react before I know what hit as well.  But I truly want to try to live in the way God wants and I know the only way I can is to depend on Him to control that flesh in me.  So I pray… and pray… and pray.  I confess and confess and confess.  And He is faithful in those blood-boiling  moments, to send a prick in my spirit that lets me know, “Robin, you are walking a very dangerous rope!  Step back!  Let me lead.”  It isn’t easy and I don’t always obey as I wish I would, but when I do, these scriptures ring ever so more true and clear to me, of what David is actually saying.  David is grieving anyone that is opposing God because David loves God so much it hurts his soul!  That is where our anger should come from.  The hate is not of the person, but of the offense and disrespect of what they are causing to God.  It really shouldn’t be about us at all.  And when we realize that, we are humbled into remembering we grieve God too and suddenly, we are looking inward instead of around, just as David did in these verses.  He is so angry at the way those offenders are enemies of God, but it leads him back to begging God to reveal his own faults so that he is not guilty of the very same thing.  And David knows, by backing off and letting God take care of the judgment and dealing with his own heart, he is set free to continue to live in that beautiful plan God created when He knit him together in his mother’s womb.  Don’t we all have offenders?  Do we all see people that are purposefully going against the very things we cherish most, especially our Heavenly Father?  But don’t we all then look in the mirror and see things in ourselves well?  My prayer is this, “Oh God, I can’t stand outward hate of you.  It really hurts me in a way I can’t explain because of how much You have shown me Your deep love!  I have experienced it so personally through so many highs and lows that I know, that I know that I know how real it is!  So when I see that hate towards you and when that same hate of you causes harm to someone I care about, or even to myself, I feel the flesh in me so strong and I want to get even.  But Oh God, I want to stay tender to You.  I want to find the balance in standing firm in what You have given me conviction for, but I want to realize I am to do that in love because I am absolutely just as undeserving of Your grace.  Search me!  And then please, help me where I can’t help myself.  I need you in order to be like you.  Forgive me and then help me find the way to forgive others…. Even when they don’t want it, don’t care about it, and don’t appreciate it.  Free me and then Father, use me! In Jesus name!”  What has the enemy done to hurt you or to attack God so much in front of you that you are entrapped?  What is stopping you from crying out to God about it all? 

Week 4 Day 3/4 - Psalms 139 - He REALLY Knows Us!

TIES OF GRACE DAILY DEVOTIONS

Week 4 – He REALLY Knows Us!

Day 3&4:  Psalms 139:13-18

¹³ For you created my inmost being;
you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
¹⁴ I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
your works are wonderful,
I know that full well.
¹⁵ My frame was not hidden from you
when I was made in the secret place,
when I was woven together in the depths of the earth.
¹⁶ Your eyes saw my unformed body;
all the days ordained for me were written in your book
before one of them came to be.
¹⁷ How precious to me are your thoughts,^[a] God!
How vast is the sum of them!
¹⁸ Were I to count them,
they would outnumber the grains of sand —
when I awake, I am still with you.

My little girl loves to paint.  She draws and scribbles a lot, but her true gift with artistry becomes evident when she holds a paint brush.  One of my favorite things to do is to sit and observe her create, when she doesn’t realize I am watching.  She is always humming or singing while she carefully moves the brush across the paper, adding color and detail one stroke after another.  I never know when she begins, where she will take her painting, and it is never what I expected when she is complete, yet always a delight.  She puts such love into her work and when she is done, one of her most favorite parts about her painting is being able to display it for anyone willing to look.  She smiles with such pure joy when we “ooh and ahhh” over it, and when some of them make frames for display in the house, she almost bursts with excitement.  It is hard not to frame every single one.  The pen doodles aren’t the same.  She messes around and plays with them.  She enjoys it, but I don’t see her passion in them.  But with the paintbrush in hand, the creativity within her lights up and takes off and it is clear with every painting, that she is proud of what she has done, though in such a humble way.  She isn’t proud because she thinks she is great.  She is proud because someone else realizes how special something is that she made with her own hands.  She is proud because they are done with a love of the created.  When I read these verses, I grasp that same image in my head of God as He intricately designed us within our mother’s womb.  I can just see His artistry in every detail from the tendons and veins so perfectly placed, to the color of every hair on our head.  I see Him splashing the color of our path into being as He plans our life from before we were even in the womb all the way into eternity!  I see Him looking at every single person, whether the world thinks of them as flawed by world standards or not, and absolutely glowing with joy over who He created each one to be.  And I can only imagine how much that joy grows when we begin to flourish in the plan and His glory is shown.  I see Him spilling over with joy, much like my daughter looking at her framed art!  And I can imagine the devastation when we refuse to allow the majesty of His beauty display through our lives that were touched by His perfection.  If I were to take my sweet daughter’s art and cast it off as useless or treat it with cruel neglect, how her heart would break.  The master creator cherishes the very work of their hands.  Dear friends, God loves us like that! He knit us together in the secret place because He loves us so.  We live in a very ugly world, when we see from man’s eyes.  When we focus on the tragedies and hardships around us, and especially the evil, it is so easy to forget the beauty of the Master’s hand.  Today, remember who you are…. Who you REALLY are!  Remember who knew you before you were even formed in your Mother’s womb.  Remember this about those around you.  Watch beauty unfold in ways you never expected, when you look at yourself and others in this light.  If I didn’t watch the magical way my daughter approaches her painting, I might never see the true beauty of every peace.  So it is with our Heavenly Creator.  It’s not always easy, but we must run back to the beginning…. And we must remember the Master’s hand, especially when we are struggling with ourselves.  Oh how He loves us!  What is stopping you from celebrating His majestic handiwork in your life? 

Week 4 Day 2 - Psalms 139 - He REALLY Knows Us!

TIES OF GRACE DAILY DEVOTIONS

Week 4 – He REALLY Knows Us!

Day 2:  Psalms 139:7-12

⁷ Where can I go from your Spirit?
Where can I flee from your presence?
⁸ If I go up to the heavens, you are there;
if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.
⁹ If I rise on the wings of the dawn,
if I settle on the far side of the sea,
¹⁰ even there your hand will guide me,
your right hand will hold me fast.
¹¹ If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me
and the light become night around me,”
¹² even the darkness will not be dark to you;
the night will shine like the day,
for darkness is as light to you.

Can you imagine how behaviors would change if we constantly had our most admired role model watching our every move? And yet, how many of us live forgetting the fact that ultimately, the truest role model really is with us all the time, wherever we are? These verses in the Psalms, are speaking of the character of God that is always, always present. When I really focus in on this, many things come to my mind.  First and foremost, my sin is revealed quite easily.  Somehow, I have a deeper need to want to obey Him, when I really realize He is always there, always seeing.  But it isn’t so much because of guilt, but rather because of my love for Him for how He loves me.  How much more of a reaction do I feel inside at the reality of my sin, when I really grasp these verses and remember that my Heavenly Father, who sacrificed His one and only Son for me to pay for my sin, is watching in broken heartedness when I rebel against Him?  It changes my entire perception! But, even more than the realization that my desire to obey increases when I focus on how ever present God is, I find deep comfort in the assurance that even the darkness is not hidden from God.  Who better to trust my entire life with that the One that sees all because He is never absent… not from anything, for even a second.  Our lives are filled with scary things on this earth, as we all remembered again last Friday when a simple movie premiere turned so deadly.  All around us evil resides in one form or another: Drugs in schools, violence in men, danger in darkness.  But God is here… and there… no matter where “that” is.  He goes with us.  He goes before us. He remains behind us.  And it is in those moments of sheer terror, that I find Him to be most in the role of Daddy.  Just knowing He is around, I feel safe.  When I was little, I was so scared of the dark.  I would check my closet, under my bed, all around the room in every crack and corner, before I was willing to turn the lights out.  My parents tucked me in every night, but being the wise parents they are, they began to force me to face my fear and would send me up without them and would follow behind a few minutes later to say goodnight.  I would do my ritual check, and then I would stand at that light switch building up the strength to hit the light and leap towards the bed.  Every single night I would go through this and when I finally made it to the covers and piled under them, my heart would be beating half out of my chest!  I would lay there almost paralyzed, peeking over the covers, staring down the hall where the hall light shown in, waiting to hear their steps on the stairs.  Just hearing their steps set me at ease again.  They would tuck me in and my dad would head down the hall to the TV room or to bed and my mom would set about her nightly business (she was a night owl like I am now!).  Once I knew they were just down the hall (instead of ALL the way downstairs, Haha!), the darkness wasn’t so dark anymore and I could settle in and sleep.  That’s how it is with God.  Yes, we need to be aware of His presence so that we obey Him and show His glory, but I believe even more than that, God is ever-present because He wants us to know we are never, ever alone. No matter what is happening in our lives or the world around us, God is near.  He goes with us.  He goes before us.  And He lingers behind.  He has us.  He knows all and He never leaves.  How does that change what you will do tonight or tomorrow?  How does that comfort you in your current circumstances?

Week 4 Day 1 - Psalms 139 - He REALLY Knows Us!

TIES OF GRACE DAILY DEVOTIONS

Week 4 – He REALLY Knows Us!

Day 1:  Psalms 139:1-6

You have searched me, Lord,
and you know me.
² You know when I sit and when I rise;
you perceive my thoughts from afar.
³ You discern my going out and my lying down;
you are familiar with all my ways.
⁴ Before a word is on my tongue
you, Lord, know it completely.
⁵ You hem me in behind and before,
and you lay your hand upon me.
⁶ Such knowledge is too wonderful for me,
too lofty for me to attain.

This summer has been a season of deep reflection for me.  I have been reflective both inside my own heart, as well as things occurring around me and in the world.  It has been one of those seasons where the distractions of schedules and a lot of people around have been lessened and the quietness of the heart is more available for dissection.  It is amazing to me what I can learn when I am readily available to the Lord for “clean-out”.  I rarely choose these seasons and yet they usually end up being the most refreshing, even though it hurts.  And I don’t find it the least bit coincidental that this is the season, both I and my family have been in, as the recent Aurora, CO tragedy took place.  I find it difficult to watch the daily news in Houston where a murder of some sort seems to occur every day.  The evil involved in those daily crimes really eats at me.  But when something of the magnitude occurs, such as Friday night’s horrendous tragedy, it opens me up to this vulnerable place of deep searching.  Though all of these type tragedies haunt me, the two that have impacted me the most, 9-11 and now Aurora, have occurred at a time where God has me in a deep, deep place of raw awareness of my personal need for Him.  I will share more in my blog, http://tiesofgrace.blogspot.com/, in the days ahead.  Tonight, I just want that to preface for you what has led me to this beautiful Psalm this week.  As we process through the events that we are just starting to put faces to the innocent lives lost, people have begun the usual bantering and political arguments on both sides of the fence.  I find no solace in any of it.  I think of those that are suffering so and my remembrance of losing my own child surfaces and I can hardly stomach that anyone could really think of anything more than all of the hurts.  Of course we have opinions. Or course we want to lay blame and accusation. Grief is angering and disturbing and uncontrollable.  But as a Mom that has hurt in that place of just trying to remember to breathe through the pain, I have to say, those things have no value right now.  It is in times like this that we must return to the only thing that can help…. the place where hope is found… the unchanging word of God.  In these scriptures of Psalms 139, in the midst of total chaos in our world, I find comfort, for I realize that I don’t have to figure anything out.  I don’t have to know what that deranged man had in his heart.  I don’t have to try to understand something that will never be understood.  I just have to trust God is who He says He is and He knows.  And even sweeter, He knows me.  He knows not just what my actions are, but from where they came in my inner most thoughts!  And because I am His, He hems me in.  In chaos, rage, and unimaginable sadness in this world, my God loves me (and you and all of us) that much.  He is omniscient and omnipresent.  He knows the steps we take both good and bad.  I will never understand the wonderful gift this really is!  And He knows the evil and He is more than it.  Tonight, I am comforted again through the scariness of the world we live in, by the reminder that God knows.  God knows.  Because of that, I can stop trying to understand and I can just cling to the hope that brings me.  Arguments, fear, anger… they won’t fix what has occurred, nor will they be the guarantee to prevent it again.  But my omniscient, omnipresent Father is my guarantee… and He knows my thoughts and actions…. And motives… even before I do.  So I will lean in and let Him lead.  It truly is the only way.  What gives you the most comfort in these first 6 verses of this Psalms?

Week 3 Day 5 - Holy! Holy! Holy!

WEEK 3:  Holy, Holy, Holy

Day 5:  Psalms 46:10

10 He says, “Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations I will be exalted in the earth.”

In the wake of the horrific tragedies from the shooting spree in Aurora, Colorado tonight, I am not going to write a devotion.  Instead I am going to cling to a verse that will remind us of truth, in a time when, every one of us can feel the effects of this tragedy.  It could have been any theater.  This is something that could have happened anywhere.  And because of that commonality, we all feel so connected to the shock and sadness that is sweeping across that normally quiet city.  The tragedy is evidence of unexplained evil.  It is in times such as this that we truly must truly just be still and KNOW that He IS God!  Hold fast to the Holy One.  Please pray with me!

Father, we come before you tonight with little to offer in words.  As the images and news unfolded today of this tragedy in Colorado, our hearts grow heavy for those we don’t even know, as we try to process and fathom just a shred of what they must be experiencing.  It is truly evil Father that has hit their community and the devastation will last for years and years.  In the madness and senselessness of it all, it is natural to begin to try to find meaning in a meaningless pain, but none can be found.  This seems to hold no value from our view.  So God, though I write from a place that doesn’t know a single person in that tragedy personally in any way, I feel grief for them as if I do.  Evil is in this world, and Father it has hit hard in Aurora.  Those that have lost loved ones haven’t even begun to process, Father.  Their shock has taken over and it will be some time before their reality sinks in.  Those that are victims that have survived have only just begun the healing that will take probably a lifetime, well beyond the physical wounds.  So when I don’t know what else to say or what else to do, I hold tightly to Psalms 46:10.   Tonight Father, we fall on our knees together to be still and KNOW that You ARE God.  Your name will be exalted among the nations and in the earth… even when evil is trying in vicious fury to say otherwise…. God we still cry out knowing, even in the midst of the deepest tragedies, You ARE Holy.  Hold them Father!  Comfort them Jesus as only You can.  And we will be still and wait to see that even in such as this, You CAN be found.

Amen.

Week 3 Day 4 - Holy! Holy! Holy!

WEEK 3:  Holy, Holy, Holy!

Day 4:  Acts 16:25-26

²⁵ About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them. ²⁶ Suddenly there was such a violent earthquake that the foundations of the prison were shaken. At once all the prison doors flew open, and everyone’s chains came loose.

These scriptures pick up in a time where Paul and Silas had just received a terrible beating.  They were locked up in a jail cell and no doubt in pain. They knew suffering and probably, if they listened only to their bodies, they probably didn’t much feel like singing praise.  Their bodies must have been screaming at them and no telling what their thoughts were replaying back to them over and over.  Traumatic events are real and the responses of our physical, emotional, and mental bodies are real too.  But Paul and Silas made the choice to turn to God.  In spite of the prison walls holding them and the suffering of their physical bodies, they prayed and sang songs of hymn, even in spite of what they must have been feeling.  And what was the result?  Miraculous power.  The doors flew open, simply because they prayed and praised!  I don’t know about you, but sometimes, even when I know God is Holy, my flesh is pretty strong and I sometimes  feel bogged down and beaten up in my own circumstances.  Sometimes it just isn’t automatically easy to fill my heart with praise.  Paul and Silas are such an encouragement to me in those times because I realize that their circumstances were horrendous.  They had every right to want to take some time to lick their cruel and unjust wounds.  But, even when they probably didn’t fleshy feel like it, they made the choice to praise God anyway and because of that freedom came!  FREEDOM came!  Most of us are not in an actual jail.  Most of us experience a different kind of prison.  It may be illness, a rebellious child,  broken relationships, failed dreams, but whatever it is, the beating is real on the inside as much as Paul’s was real on the outside and we can almost hear the echoes of the doors that have slammed shut cramming us into our tiny cell of struggle.  But if we can just look past it, and if we can do nothing else but say, ” Holy, Holy, Holy” with the faith that we know it to be true, like Paul and Silas, the doors will start flying open and we will be loosed.  We may not be free of the circumstances, but we will be free within those circumstances.  The key is to realize that God is bigger than our feelings and even if we can’t find strength to even go to church or share our pain openly with others, we can cry out with the faith of a mustard seed saying “Holy, Holy, Holy!” and God will move within us where most of our prison cells reside and will throw open the doors of our heart and refresh our beaten soul until our praise because more than our pain.  What keeps you from praise?  What prison cell is too big for God? 

Week 3 Day 3 - Holy! Holy! Holy!

WEEK 3:  Holy, Holy, Holy! Day 3: Psalms 146

Praise the Lord.^[a]

Praise the Lord, my soul.

² I will praise the Lord all my life;
I will sing praise to my God as long as I live.
³ Do not put your trust in princes,
in human beings, who cannot save.
⁴ When their spirit departs, they return to the ground;
on that very day their plans come to nothing.
⁵ Blessed are those whose help is the God of Jacob,
whose hope is in the Lord their God.

⁶ He is the Maker of heaven and earth,
the sea, and everything in them—
he remains faithful forever.
⁷ He upholds the cause of the oppressed
and gives food to the hungry.
The Lord sets prisoners free,
⁸ the Lord gives sight to the blind,
the Lord lifts up those who are bowed down,
the Lord loves the righteous.
⁹ The Lord watches over the foreigner
and sustains the fatherless and the widow,
but he frustrates the ways of the wicked.

¹⁰ The Lord reigns forever,
your God, O Zion, for all generations

Praise the Lord.

My heart cry tonight!  Yours?

Week 3 Day 2 - Holy! Holy! Holy!

TIES OF GRACE DAILY DEVOTIONS

WEEK 3: Holy, Holy, Holy! 

Day 2:  1 Peter 1:16

¹⁶ for it is written: “Be holy, because I am holy.”



This week we are spending time totally on praising our God.  Our title for the devotions this week is “Holy, Holy, Holy!” How many times in praise song, do we cry out these very words?  Yet, how much do we really understand about the Holiness of God?  How critical it is when we praise God, to understand who it is we praise.  Sometimes, I think in our limited understanding, without even meaning to, we limit God.  It’s kind of like when we are dating the love of our life.  I remember how much I thought I knew my main squeeze.  We were the best of friends before we ever even went on a date.  We spent hours and hours talking and sharing our hearts and dreams.  When we began to date, that just went to an even deeper level.  I began to observe him very closely.  How did he treat his mother?  How did he treat strangers?  How was he with kids?  What did he do towards me when we argued?  When I walked down the isle of the church to that handsome man that day, I had no doubt I knew him and knew him well.  And then we were married.  During that first year I began to realize how many things I didn’t know about him.  I didn’t know it annoyed him for me to squeeze the toothpaste tube in the middle.  I didn’t know how annoyed I would be when he left the toilet seat up constantly.  I didn’t know how loud he could snore.  But I also didn’t know how he would grow stronger and more beautiful to me when we faced tragedy together.  I never realized how deep his quiet walk truly was with the Lord until he stayed steady in the midst of burying our precious 3 year old son.  I never knew the amount of deep integrity until I saw him maintain it, even as an employee was caught embezzling money from our company, through hiding accounts and stealing the money, which put Todd out of business.  So many more levels to him than I could have imagined 19 years ago when I said, “I do!” and meant it forever at the young age of just 21.  It has taken time and experience to continue to understand the depth of the man I love.  And he is just a man!  How much more is God!  So tonight, as we begin to dig into our praise of our Father, we have to start with Holy.  We are called to holy, because He is holy! Sometimes I think we try to make holy a simple attribute, much like God is love or God is power.  But holy, as it is used in the bible is really a reflection of His complete separateness transcending all other things.  To me, that tells me that even as I praise Him, and cry out Holy, Holy, Holy, I don’t even begin to grasp the magnitude of who He really is!  It is exciting to me that as much as I love Him, there is so much more to love than I even can begin to comprehend this side of heaven!  How much more will our praises increase when we are there, with His Holiness, face to face?  I get chills thinking about it!  So tonight, I praise Him for what I do know and understand.  And like this verse commands, I will attempt, through His help alone, to become more like Him as this scripture commands.  And all the while, I will cry out, “Holy, Holy, Holy” with the praise of a bride truly awaiting her bridegroom, knowing that now is good, but the future is going to boggle my mind!   What is your most favorite way to praise?  How often do you feel you truly surrender and praise completely?  When you think of how little we really understand, and yet how blessed we already are, does it make you want to fall face down?  If not, what do you think is stopping you? 

Week 3 - Day 1 - Holy! Holy! Holy!

TIES OF GRACE DAILY DEVOTIONS

WEEK 3: Holy, Holy, Holy! 

Day 1: 

Exodus 19:5-6

⁵ Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession. Although the whole earth is mine, ⁶ you^[a] will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’ These are the words you are to speak to the Israelites.”

1 Peter 2:9

⁹ But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.



We have spent time the last couple of weeks realizing just what it is God can and does do for us.  He helps us in our time of sorrow, struggle, and deep needs.  He provides a way to peace that only He can bring.  He truly is our help!  This week, I feel led just to spend some time in praise.  The verses above cross reference one another as examples of whom we are (God’s treasured possession, a chosen people, a royal priesthood!) and why we are here (to declare His praises because He has called us out of darkness!)  It’s amazing to me really, how easily we lose focus of our sole purpose on this earth.  We get caught up and bogged down by the circumstances and even just the day to day living this side of heaven and we flat forget that none of it matters if praise isn’t on our lips and in our hearts.  I have spent a lot of time crying out to God.  My husband and I have really had a lot of reasons over the course of our marriage in circumstances beyond our control.  But my goodness, if nothing else goes right, we have a reason to praise for we have been called out of darkness into His marvelous light and He treasures us!  The God who created the glorious oceans, the spectacular sunsets, the majestic mountains… my children and yours… from the most amazing animals to the tiniest bugs, that God calls us  His treasured possession!  Satan is constantly whispering… or shouting… in our ears to look at the things we can see only from our view.  But God, in His precious love, is constantly whispering, “No child!  Just look at me!”  So this week, we will look at Him.  We will spend time praising Him from His own word and then my prayer is all who feel led, will leave a message of praise in the comments.  It doesn’t have to be big.  It doesn’t have to be fancy.  It may be as simple as praising Him for the breath you are taking.  But each of us, no matter what our circumstances, were created for the purpose to praise the One true God who is mightier and more worthy of our attention than any one circumstance.  I know sometimes it is tough.  I know that sometimes the circumstances are so heavy that we can barely breath, much less feel the need to praise.  But the thing is praise isn’t about feelings.  It is about realizing that God is who He says He is and we are here for the soul purpose of knowing that.  Tonight, many things make me not “feel” like praising.  Many things are trying to steal my desire to worship.  But no matter all of that, He, the One who is Holy, has loved me right out of the darkness and into the light so He can call me His treasured possession.  So I am going to tell Satan to shut up and I am going to claim my inheritance and I am going to say, “Holy! Holy! Holy!”  What about you?

Week 2 Day 5 - It's Time For a Makeover!

Week 2 – It’s Time for A Makeover!

Day 5 – John 13:13-17

¹³ “You call me ‘Teacher’ and ‘Lord,’ and rightly so, for that is what I am. ¹⁴ Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet. ¹⁵ I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you. ¹⁶ Very truly I tell you, no servant is greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. ¹⁷ Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them.

I love that we serve a God who loves us so much that He sent His son to dwell among us and be our perfect example.  It shows His mercy and love so clearly.  As a parent, I can assure you, I don’t know that I could ever send any of my children into the darkness to a people that would ultimately kill them, so that they could have the opportunity to see how to better live.  I am far too selfish.  But God loves us so much that He sent His one and only Son (John 3:16) in that exact way.  Amazingly selfless… beyond comprehension! His life and that perfect example has been documented in the Holy Bible, through words inspired by God Himself, for those of us, all these years later, to still know.  As we finish looking at the makeover in our lives to escape chaos and return to peace, the final step we see in Colossians 3:15-17 is that we are to live like Jesus.  One of the greatest examples of this I have ever witnessed was a few years ago when my husband and I were organizing Mexico Mission teams and traveling down to work with some of the poorest people I have ever known.  We worked closely with a couple of men that helped us organize things on the other side of the border.  Both were phenomenal men.  From our very first trip, however, I was overwhelmed with Saule.  He was our translator and the man that lived our mission out every day to those people.  To us, we would go for a week, build, do a VBS, and provide as much donations as we could get across the border, which was never easy and always dependent on God providing us a Mexican officer that loved the Lord enough to let us through.  Though we served and did so with a deep love for Jesus, it was Saule that truly became my ultimate witness of a man being the very hands and feet of Jesus. He was not rich, but spent every single day in the trenches giving all he had.  I would cry many times each trip we took, and many of those tears were from witnessing the humble servant Saule was.  He never complained, he never stopped, and he never wanted recognition.  Those people loved him because he first loved them.  Saule impacted me every time I talked with him or served with him.  I often wonder as I walk through the day to day, what life would be like if each of us were as Saule… truly living out the scriptures by living like Jesus.  Saule had medical issues, he served.  Saule would run low on money, he served.  Saule would face adversity from the border crossing, he served.  I want to be like Saule because Saule was seeking to be like Jesus. I can tell you, every time we went to Mexico, where we were in the poorest of conditions, I never wanted to return.  It was in those times, in the most tragic of circumstances, that I found the deepest joy.  Tonight, as we seek peace, my prayer is we will understand that if we are living like Christ, nothing… NOTHING… will be able to steal our joy.  The world wants us to take care of ourselves first.  God wants us to take care of His people and let Him take care of us.  What is stopping us today? 

Week 2 Day 4 - It's Time For a Makeover!

Week 2 – It’s Time for a Makeover!

Day 4:  Romans 15:14

¹⁴ I myself am convinced, my brothers and sisters, that you yourselves are full of goodness, filled with knowledge and competent to instruct one another.

Matthew 7:3-5

³ “Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? ⁴ How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? ⁵ You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.

How many of us have been somewhere and witnessed a child totally controlling the parent.  The behavior isn’t just that of a child that is tired or young, but truly a disrespectful child that doesn’t hold any value in the authority or guidance of their parents.  It makes me crazy.  Not because I think my children are so perfect, far from my thinking actually, but rather because I feel so bad for the child.  Their behavior is a direct result of someone thinking that correction in the child’s life was less valuable than either giving in to their every want and demand, or less valuable to invest the time it takes to correct appropriately over what they instead give their time to.  Either way, the end result is a child that is almost unbearable to be around.  Sometimes, I just want to walk up and recommend the word NO.  It does wonders, especially when followed through.  I have always tried to raise my kids in a way that they were able to be who they are meant to be as individual people that think for themselves, but also in a way that recognizes there are many other people in the world.  It makes for a more peaceful existence for everyone.  When I see them out of line, I correct them.  Always it is done in love for them and the opportunity to become the best they can be.  It seems so clear to me.  We guard their minds, their hearts, and their behavior because we want them to grow into amazing people that God can use however He chooses for His Kingdom.  I think we as believers are the very same way.  No one has this Christian thing down, do we?  I know for me, God has work to do every single day.  And sometimes the greatest lessons that have stung in the moment, but brought beautiful praise in song to God afterwards, was when a Christian with great wisdom, admonished me, like step 3 in our Makeover to peace discusses in Colossians. (See Week 2 Day 1) The gift of their willingness to hold me to the standards of the word of God, has produced fruit in my life that otherwise, might never have grown.  It is never fun to realize you are out of line, but man is it fun to find yourself back in line and free of the thorns the wrong path can bring.  But what makes us be able to receive that admonishing?  And what prepares us to do the same for someone else as Romans 15:14 states?  There are two vital points:  1) we must be filled with goodness.  In other words our heart must be filled with Jesus or we can’t be good.  Our flesh alone is never good.  We are naturally sinners.  So to be able to be prepared, we must have Jesus, who is good.  2) we must have knowledge.  That means we need to be in the Word so that we know God’s ways.  Only God is an expert on God, but if we read the inspired word He left us, and ask Him to use the Spirit to guide us, He will open our minds to understanding we never knew we could have.  If a Christian friend is holding us accountable, we will be most likely to respect them if we know this of them, would we not?  And the same is true, should we want to help someone we love avoid the wrong path as well.  Finally, and most importantly, in order for things to end in praise for everyone, do as Matt.7:3-5.  Never, ever deal with a brother’s speck when you have planks in your own eye.  If we look inward first, God will take care of the rest and we will find ourselves in healthy relationships with other believers praising God for even the times we were corrected or have to correct.  God is the judge… not us.  We are only here to love and serve God.  Should He use us to show someone a way back, praise Him, but never, ever if we are looking inward first, we will find ourselves in a place of feeling above anyone for any reason.  It just isn’t how it works.  It takes effort, but oh so much more peace is found in living this out!  What makes it most difficult for you to look inward first?  What is most difficult when someone you really admire, helps you see that you are struggling? 

Week 2 Day 3 - It's Time for a Makeover!

Week 2 – It’s Time for a Makeover!

Day 3 - Colossians 1:21-22

Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior. 22 But now he has reconciled you by Christ's physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation.

2 Corinthians 4:15

¹⁵ All this is for your benefit, so that the grace that is reaching more and more people may cause thanksgiving to overflow to the glory of God.

 I grew up in a loving, protective home, where curfew was heavily enforced for my own good.  My parents had expectations of honoring that time given to the minute.  It used to drive me crazy because I always misinterpreted it as a lack of trust. I always thought, “Being five minutes late doesn’t make me a bad kid!”  But then I went to college and I was free!  I could come and go whenever I so chose and it was awesome…. Or so I thought!  I remember a time in college, when I had gone to see a friend that was at another college.  I didn’t tell my roommate to wait up on me and I didn’t have my friend I was visiting wait to hear from me.  And of course, OF COURSE, I didn’t tell my parents I wasn’t leaving her college town until after 1:00 in the morning to drive back to mine.  No way!  I was FREE… right?  About an hour into the trip, my engine blew up and caught on fire.  I was stranded on the side of one of the darkest stretches of highway and no one was waiting on me and I had no way to reach them (Yes, it was before I had a cell phone!  GASP!).  It was right then that I understood the gift of my parents’ curfew.  It was in those horrid couple of hours of total fear and helplessness on that eerie stretch of road, that I understood it was their love and grace for me that caused them to require curfew.  If I would have had a curfew I missed that night, my parents would have been on the road searching within 30 minutes.  I would have had the assurance my safe rescue was on the way.  I wouldn’t have stood there next to my burning engine, praying for someone to come, and then fearing if that someone would actually be some ax murderer.  I learned a big lesson about my parents that night and even more, about my Heavenly Father.  You see, much like my parents, God has given us some very specific guidelines for our lives and they are given BECAUSE of His grace and mercy on our lives.   And because of that grace, we have the joy of reconciliation back to our God, through the reconciliation Christ has brought to us, if we chose to accept it.  But our gratitude for his grace, much like the verses above share, is not only for the amazing benefit of assurance it brings to our own lives, but even more so that others will be affected by it, thus bringing glory to God which is our purpose on this earth.  When we learn to understand the depth of the grace that is given, we embrace the life that grace brings, and peace flows out of it for us and for others that see it in us, and ultimately, His grace then comes full circle into glory for who He alone really is.  Isn’t that exciting?  Sometimes we chase after peace our own way.  We think it is for our benefit alone, but ultimately, when we exercise things in God’s way, the grace that gives us abundant peace, then brings such a higher purpose to our Father.  How then, can we NOT remember to seek peace through Him?  What has been your “car on fire, helpless on the highway, ah-ha moment?  What is stopping you today from truly finding gratitude, in spite of circumstances, for the grace that is abundantly clear?

Week 2 Day 2 - It's Time For a Makeover!

Week 2 – It’s Time for a Make over

Day 2 - 2 Corinthians 5: 16-21

¹⁶ So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. ¹⁷ Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come:^[a] The old has gone, the new is here! ¹⁸ All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: ¹⁹ that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. ²⁰ We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. ²¹ God made him who had no sin to be sin^[b] for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

Yesterday in Colossians 3:15-17, we saw a simple design to lead us to peace that God laid out for us through the letters of Paul in those verses.  I think it is so important to remember that Paul was imprisoned for his ministry during the time he wrote this letter to the churches he had ministered to.  I don’t think it is by coincidence God would inspire Paul’s words that would affect us hundreds of years later, from within the walls of prison.  Because God knows our flesh, along with the world we live in, I feel like He knew we would listen more carefully to inspired words coming from a man, while not even sure he would escape with his life.  Paul was much oppressed when he petitioned the churches… and yet he wrote of peace.  That brings me hope in my struggles!  Today, as we look at 2 Corinthians, the foundation of this letter was to prepare the church for a 3^rd visit from him, as his second visit was painful for Paul, due to false teachers.  Paul, a devoted servant, experienced deep hurt by the very people he was trying to love and minister to most.  Somehow, when we look at reconciliation with God, it is difficult because we seem so unworthy of His perfect love in our imperfectness.  But when we look at reconciliation with others, it can seem so difficult because of deep hurt we have experienced because of them.  These verses are begging the people of Corinth, to reconcile to God.  Paul is urging us to remember who we are now in Christ.  Because of the cross, because of He who knew no sin, and did not become a sinner but became sin, so that we could be called righteous, the old is gone!  And because of experiencing the reconciliation to God given to us so perfectly through Christ, we now also have that same Spirit of reconciliation for the world.  When I look at these verses, I feel such deep conviction and even confusion.  I can’t truly explain the humbleness that I feel, when I think of who I would be without Christ.  How, even with Christ dwelling in me and my having been reconciled from that sin nature that would destroy me without Christ, I still see that flesh side try to rear its ugly head.  It is almost too much to think of how bad off I would truly be, were I without Christ in me.  And yet, even as glorious as it is to know that and celebrate that, I often struggle with reconciliation with others.  Not the lost, I yearn to be used somehow to reconcile them to my Savior!  But the struggle is within the body of those that are believers.  How hurtful it is when someone within our own camp, betrays our heart.  I think of it like I do with my children.  When I haven’t taught them, they can’t be held to that level of accountability.  The hurt I feel when they stumble due to lack of knowledge hurts me FOR them.  But when they rebel or act in a way that they knew was wrong, I am hurt BY them.  It is the same comparison with those that are lost, and those that are saved.  But these verses are commanding me to remember I know longer look from the world view.  No matter what has occurred, what hurt has been inflicted; I must remember that I am reconciled with Christ and therefore, have a ministry of reconciliation. I do not have to put myself in a place to continually be abused in my emotions (or any other way for that matter) because I am called to reconcile.  Christ was not a wimp and always stood against the sin, but he loved the sinner.  We simply must do the same.  We can place healthy boundaries for our heart sake, but we must remember above all to love others the way Jesus loved us… even if from a distance and only through prayer.  And thank God we have Him reconciled to us, to be the Spirit within guiding us to it.  And there, peace begins!  What is your biggest struggle when you think of the Spirit of reconciliation?