Blessings and love in Jesus name!
Robin
January 2013
Day 1: Luke
5:27-39 – Read the scriptures
As I read this, I was immediately convicted. I am a Christian. The Lord rescued me at a young age… and He
has been rescuing me every day since then.
I know that He called me out to follow Him just as He called Levi. Though I am not seen as many saw Levi in His
day, I can honestly say, without Him in my life, I probably could have been
seen much worse. It is only through His
grace that I have any favor this side of heaven at all. I am humbled by the reminder of how Jesus
calls. I am humbled that He chooses to
be with this sick… not the physically sick, though He is beautiful with that as
well, but my deepest humility arises when I reflect on the trueness of His love
for choosing, in all His splendor and perfection, to be among those most
unrighteous in order to draw them into righteousness. May I never choose to try to be in the swamps
of my flesh on purpose, but may I never, ever forget that without Jesus that is
where I would remain for eternity. And
may I always, always approach my opinion of sin in others only through first
remembering how Christ Himself approaches it, and in remembering how He
approaches me. Graces is a wondrous gift.
Day 2: Luke
6:26-27 – Read Scriptures
The Sabbath and how we should live will forever
remain a source of argument among even the most well intended Christians and
modern day Pharisees alike. It is a day
that we water down, justify, or condemn others about. God speaks to me hear, realizing even while
my Savior was on earth in flesh on God’s Sabbath, the debate and accusatory
tone was present. What does it say to
me? It’s a heart thing. If I want to know what God alone desires for
me on His Sabbath, then I need to be in touch with Him. I need to seek Him and trust that if He calls
me to something on His day, I best be doing it, but if I am putting anything
ahead of Him on His day, I best be recognizing it. Only God is righteous enough to
determine. And if that leaves any
question, the rest of the scripture goes on to confirm, my enemy will be near
to bring condemnation and confusion. I
will only be blessed if I am clinging to the gospel truths and in communion
with my Father. I cannot afford to be
without His word, His presence, and even His convictions. The enemy, the world, they are always near
ready to confuse my focus. So quickly I
can be sucked into the things of the world and drift from the things of
God. When I do, suddenly that is the
only blessing I have. But my eternal
blessing that then enriches my blessings on earth, comes only when I truly
desire God more than anything else.
Then, treasures beyond my wildest imagination are offered up for
eternity. Oh thank you God. Lead the way… on your Sabbath and every other
day.
Day 3: Luke
6:27-49 – Read Scriptures
These scriptures always convict. I have never read these passages and not
realized I have a lot of work to do. It
is not easy to do well to those who do harm and wish bad for me or those I
love. And just when I think, “But Lord,
this is too much!” I am struck with the remembrance of Jesus when the soldiers
came to lead Him to His death. Peter, in
justified anger, struck the soldier, cutting off his ear. Jesus, without any anger at all, stopped
Peter and healed the soldier. That soldier,
without a doubt, because of the good Jesus did in spite of the evil coming upon
Him, knew instantly He was in the presence of someone far greater than any man
could ever be. Sometimes we just want to
get even. I think one of the hardest
things on earth is turning the other cheek.
But when I read these scriptures, I realize the truth. It is so easy to love those that love back,
but the true blessing is loving someone that seems near impossible. Then and only then does our tree flourish
fully with fruit. Loving the unlovable
is how Jesus ministered many into His following while on earth. And loving the unlovable, forgiving the
wrongs, and looking into our own sin first, is how Jesus draws many into His
following through us. It isn’t easy and
it takes very intentional work. I am
amazed at the cruelty on social media, especially with teens. The way people tear down and attack, even
their own friends, is beyond my understanding, always, but especially when I
see it happening among Christians. I get
so upset and these verses of bearing good fruit come to mind. Suddenly, no matter how much a person has
loved the Lord, if they are behaving in an enemy fashion, the thing that sticks
out is no longer the love, but the hate.
But when the light shines, the fruit is so rich and evident and it
becomes easy to recognize those in an authentic walk. They make it through hard times, painful
times, and even hurtful times, with a grace that is unshakable. I yearn to be like this always. Sometimes I make it; sometimes it is sadly
clear that I haven’t been ensuring my roots are deep in the word and
prayer. The Lord loves me. May that be the motivation of everything I
then do, even when I am wronged. It isn’t
easy. I fail, but the more I seek Him,
the more His ways become mine. Praise
God, there is hope!
Day 4: Luke 7:1-17 – Read Scriptures
Stories of Christ’s merciful miracles always give me
goose bumps! I love how many times we
are shown of His mercy, not just for our soul, but for our earthly hurts as
well. I am overwhelmed in the story of
the Centurion, the humbleness was so great he didn’t even feel worthy of Christ
coming to his house. He had so much
faith in Christ; he knew that even without seeing Christ, without witnessing a
touch from Christ, his servant could be healed. I am even more overwhelmed that
Christ did it… just that simple. And I love, love, love the example of the
master loving his servant, how much that servant must have loved his master, and
how that led to the ultimate Master, pouring out His love as well. Chills course down my spine to think of that
beautiful transaction! He rewarded the
faith with a miracle. But the story of
the widow, whose son Jesus raised from the dead, brings me to such a tender
place. That story hits a deep, deep
chord with me. Oh how I cried out for my
son. I can envision the widow’s grief so personally as I too watched as my son
was carried out in his casket, so tiny for a 3 year old body. And I remember
holding him for 4 hours that night he died, his little lifeless body growing
cold as my tears poured down on him. And
even as I held him, begging God, doctors, nurses, respiratory therapists, and
even my precious husband to do something, I felt deep in my soul, God already
had. Our faithful prayers for my son
were answered. Not the way I wanted, but
in a way that was perfect for my child who was so, so very sick. A miracle had happened that night and I had
been there. But sometimes, I can close
my eyes and imagine what I might have felt, should God have decided to bring
him back suddenly. Do I shout the joy of
his miracle as much in his earthly death as I would have if I had been granted
a physical healing for my child? And then I go even deeper. Do any of us, rise up in our new life in
Christ, and truly walk in the miracle we have been given in our new, healed
soul? So much more to these stories that
just the miracle. We must love our
Master and know that His love will come back ten-fold. And we must rise up, no matter how our
miracles look, and glorify Him in faith.
That is our daily challenge.
But ma
Day 5: Luke
7:18-50 – Read Scriptures
It is all about the heart transformation. All other things are nothing, without the
heart transformation! It never has been, nor ever will be about what we have to
offer or how good we look doing it. And it
is those that forget this that begin to miss out on the truth of things and
begin to tear down the beautiful grace of God.
Those who had not received understanding from John the Baptist, when he
came preparing the way for the One that was coming, were the very ones that did
not understand Jesus Himself. They were
dealing in what they thought looked right according to law and not grace. But those that listened and did the heart
work, wisdom was attained. We are no
different. We will either dig into the
word to understand and search our heart condition in order to continue to
receive what God has for us both now and for eternity, or we risk full
destruction! It is that simple
really. It was then, it is now. It is us, in our ego and refusal, which
complicates it all. But man, when I am
truly leaning into God, searching His word, my desire to think less of myself
and to want to wash His feet with my tears, becomes a longing. Tonight, as I read this scripture, the
question that surfaced is “Where do I fall?
Am I blessed with wisdom to the point that I weep at the feet of Jesus
or am I playing Christian and missing the transformation. My prayer is when that Pharisee attitude
creeps in, I will remember this tender woman, so overwhelmed that Christ
forgave her in spite of her sin, and may I right then, desire nothing more than
to humbly worship Him for saving me the same way!
Day 6: Luke
8:1-25 – Read Scriptures
These scriptures give us very clear understanding that
our faith is an action. It is not in
what we say but in how we live. The
parable of the sower, the example made through the lamp stand, the commanding
of the winds to be still… and they were, just from the sound of His voice to
the amazement of those with him on the boat that day, all remind us that our
faith is an action. We must seek the One
from whom our faith comes from or we will never find ourselves deeply rooted in
the faith that breeds evidence both within ourselves and in the life we
lead. But my favorite part of this scripture
is how Jesus treats us when we dive into Him with all we have. There was His earthly family, trying to come
to Him, but He was under such crowd demand they couldn’t get to Him so they
sent word they were outside. What was Jesus’ response when He was told His
family was outside? He said His family was any of us who choose to
believe in Him and live out that belief in faith. He gives me grace. He gives me mercy. He gives me salvation. And then… and THEN… He calls me family. He levels the playing field and makes me one
if HIS OWN. I can’t even write more on
that. It’s just too much!
Day 7: Luke 8:26-56 – Read Scriptures
I love the New Testament and especially the
gospels. I am so encouraged by the hope
that is provided my sometimes deeply burdened soul through them! Does it not give you kind of an adrenaline
rush to realize that even the demons are afraid of Jesus? I fear demons. Not in a debilitating way, but in a way that
I know they are real, ruthless, and they hate me. They hate me because what they see when they
see me, is Jesus. And oh how they hate
Jesus. But here we see that even as they
try to ravage this man they possess, just the presence of Jesus makes them beg
out of fear of Him. This man didn’t have
Jesus, but Jesus was bigger than what had the man. Man that is powerful to grasp. No matter our demons… health battles, broken
relationships, money issues, pain that we wouldn’t share with anyone…. No matter
what it is and in our fallen world, there is much….those situations are
rendered instantly afraid at the mention of His name! He proves it in driving the demon out, then
He goes on to solidify for anyone still questioning, by instant healing due to
one simple touch of His garment, and even through again defeating death when He
raises the girl. He is just powerful. When I read of His miraculous works and I envision
this horrid demon becoming such a baby instantly in the presence of Jesus, the
adrenaline flows and I really start to feel what God means when He says that
when we are weak, He is strong. He is
made strong through what I can’t do and He overcomes all the things we never
could alone. Just flat cool. I love God… and I am thankful I am for Him
and not against Him.
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