Mar
18
Who do you say I am?
By Julie B Cosgrove | Leave a Comment
Peter had dropped everything to follow this man. He had walked with Jesus, seen His miracles, listened to His teachings. Peter had even been given the authority to heal and cast out demons himself along with the other disciples as they went into villages two by two. How could Peter get it so right and so wrong at the same time?
Because he was thinking in human terms. He was trying to make Christ do and be who he wanted Him to be. Don’t we do the same? In our own way of thinking and our narrow vision, we an be like a someone looking through a telescope. We only see what is looming in front of us. Our peripheral vision is cut off. Our humanness blocks us from seeing the whole picture.
It is tempting when things are not going smoothly, or something horrific happens to ask “How can God allow this? Isn’t He a loving, caring God?” How could He allow a child to be taken way too early, or cancer eat away at a mother of five or a church to be burned to the ground in an act of arson? Why would He let a Christian, deeply involved in the church and an obedient tither, lose their livelihood or a teenager with so much promise become paralyzed in a wreck due to a drunk driver?
As a mother with a child who was born with multiple birth defects and had to undergo so many surgeries in his childhood, if I had asked “How?” or “Why?”, I’d have gone nuts. My heart would have become so embittered and my clenched fist too weary from shaking it at Heaven. But somehow, in His grace, the Lord let me see Him there in each hospital room, in each milestone towards normalcy my son achieved. He let me witness tiny miracles right when I needed to see them, and brought people into our lives that would support, pray and comfort us. I can honestly say, each time I was tempted to ask why our son, Christ thwarted that question with yet another example that He was right there with us through it all- and that was what mattered most. He told us plainly.
Jesus had told Peter what he didn’t want to hear. Things were going to unfold in a way Peter found horrifying. But in the end, Jesus triumphed, death was defeated and His Holy Spirit given. No matter what we go through, God has a purpose in each situation in our lives, even if it is just to hold us close to Him through the bad stuff. Who do you say Christ is? He is the one with the Master plan who know what is and what will be.
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Mar
18
On Guard!
By Jan Ross | Leave a Comment
“Look both ways before you cross the street!”
We’ve all both heard and issued that warning during our lifetimes—a warning to keep us safe from possible injury while crossing the road. There’s another warning that is just as critical to our safety as the first:
“Be sober, be vigilant …”
We’ve possibly heard or read that warning … issued to alert us to our “… adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about seeking whom he may devour” (1 Peter 5:8).
We must remain constantly aware of the enemy’s schemes and tricks to not only deceive us, but to wound us spiritually. We must watch carefully, as you would when you know you are in danger. We have to be on guard against the schemes of our enemy.
The enemy is opposed to us; he resists our efforts to do good and all our efforts to obey God. He attempts to alarm us by his roar; he would have us believe that he can overpower us like a crouching lion creeping toward his prey. He represents himself to us as the great and raging king of the jungle who by his roar would intimidate us so we might become an easy kill. He is sneaky, silent, and misrepresenting himself to us as an angel of light. The enemy is not a common adversary but one that aims at our very souls. He is an accuser and a devourer, malicious in every way.
But, here’s the good news … as strong as our enemy appears, as loud as his roar seems, as malicious and seductive as his ways become, he is a defeated foe. He would like for us to be in constant fear of what he can do, or he would like for us to totally ignore him. But we’re instructed to be wise, to be watchful, to be aware … NOT to live in constant fear.
We have this promise that the victory is ours through Jesus Christ our Lord. “But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ” (I Corinthians 15:57). We serve THE omnipotent God, who reigns over ALL! Nothing can ever separate us from His love. Hallelujah, what a mighty God we serve!
Omnipotent Father, Lord of all, thank you for your Word. Thank you for your warning to be sober and to be vigilant when it concerns the schemes of the enemy. Help me to be strong when I feel like I’m being stalked. Give me strength to resist him and to refuse to allow him to put fear into my heart. You are my Strength. You along are my Defense. Who can be against me when You are for me? Nothing … thanks to the precious blood of Jesus shed from Calvary purchasing my eternal redemption from the enemy. I put my confidence in You knowing “no weapon formed against [me] shall prosper” as this is my heritage as Your servant. Amen!
“No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper; and every tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment thou shalt condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the LORD, and their righteousness is of me, saith the LORD” (Isaiah 54:17).
© Jan Ross
All Rights Reserved
Mar
17
Grit Your Teeth and Bear It
By Jan Ross | Leave a Comment
The Lord continues to impress on me the fact that life’s hardships have a purpose … a Holy and Divine purpose. When difficult days challenge us, it is so easy to fall into feeling sorry for ourselves because of the set-backs we experience in life. We face disillusionments, disappointments, heartache, physical and emotional pain, sorrow … the list could go on forever. But when we realize that there is a reason, a Holy and Divine purpose for these things, we can submit to the work of the Master Refiner with determination to allow the “good work” which He has begun in us to be completed, regardless of the personal cost!
When we walk through the valley of life’s sorrows, the Lord is doing a REFINING work in us. He’s decided it’s time (once again) to burn out some of the impurities and to take another step toward making us into that pure vessel He has purposed us to be. But, this process is painful … the fire burns, it hurts to the point it’s nearly unbearable, and it gets VERY tiring after just a short while. We lose patience with the Master Refiner as He’s doing His work in our lives. We want it over … and we want it over NOW! The sad thing is (at least for us) that if He stopped the process when we begged Him to, we would actually be worse off than before He started.
“But he knoweth the way that I take: when he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold.” (Job 23:10)
Can you see it? A piece of gold, roughly shaped, yet somewhat usable. The Master Refiner decides it’s time to make this piece of gold into something He had been planning for a long time. He then puts this gold in the fire and it starts melting down to a liquid. The fire gets hotter and hotter, the gold becomes softer and softer as the heat continues to rise. The gold begins to scream out … “STOP! It’s too much! I can’t stand anymore!” If the Master Refiner listened to the gold, He would have to just let it set in its melted state. It would be totally useless, not only to Him, but to anyone else. So, the gold has to endure the Refiner’s Fire to completion of the Master’s plan. If only the gold itself knew the magnificent outcome—the vision the Master Refiner had for it, submitting to the fire might be a bit easier. But, because of the impurities in the gold, it is unable to see the finished product forever etched in the unsearchable mind of the Master Refiner.
We wonder when it’s all going to end or have the never-ending question in our minds: “Why do I have to go through all this?” But we just have to know, be convinced in our hearts, that God has us right in the palm of His hand. He knows our frailties, He knows our pain. He knows our disillusionments, He knows our weakness. He knows … He knows … He knows! So, He has gone to work on us to further perfect us to be a vessel of honor unto Him. After all, that’s what it’s all about, isn’t it? We ALL want to be a vessel of honor unto Him, suitable, pleasing, and glorifying to the Master Refiner.
Be blessed, my dear friends … God isn’t through with us yet. Submit to His work in your life. Go ahead and grit your teeth and bear the pain for soon it will have produced its work in you to make you pleasing and acceptable … a marvelous glory unto Him!
Father, Master Refiner, have your way with me! There, I’ve said it, Lord! It was hard to say, but I really mean it … do in my life what needs to be done to make me, mold me, and shape me into the vessel of honor You have purposed for me to be. Lord, I submit to Your refining fire, to Your strong hand that molds me and shapes me for Your glory. Father, help me to remember that the fire I walk through now has a Holy and Divine purpose in Your mind. Have Your way in me, Lord, so when anyone looks at me they will see only a reflection of You, amen!
“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” (Jeremiah 29:11)
© Jan Ross
All Rights Reserved
Mar
16
The Covenant Keeper
By Jan Ross | Leave a Comment
There is no doubt we are living in the last days. One only needs to read the headlines and look around to see prophecies being fulfilled all around us.
Who would ever have thought that legislation would legalize same-sex marriage and so openly attack the God-ordained structure and purpose of a family? One can no longer block out the heart-wrenching cry of unconcerned mothers demanding the right to abort their babies. Wars and rumors of wars, nation against nation—world powers rallying for control, unprecedented earthquakes shaking the earth, floods and mudslides claiming the lives of so many along with other drastic weather changes…all undeniable indicators of one thing…the soon appearing of our Lord.
Jesus said, “I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty” (Revelation 1:8).
Consider the definition of the word Almighty: The sovereign, the omnipotent, the absolute and all-ruling one.
Ah, yes! He is the Sovereign of the Universe and in He alone possesses the supreme right and power to do as He wills. Yet even in His absolute sovereignty, He wills to keep covenant with those who call upon His name, to be our God throughout all the generations…our Almighty, our Omnipotent, our Absolute and All-Ruling One.
The wonderful news is that even in the midst of all that is wrong in this world, we have no need to fear or dread for we are exhorted in this particular passage that as He was in the beginning, as He is with us today, so shall He be with us in the end. His promise is that He will never leave us nor forsake us.
Cling to His promises today and be assured of His presence in the midst of all life’s circumstances in these troublesome days. Keep watching for Him…“your redemption draweth nigh.”
Almighty God, I admit that there are many times when fear tries to steal my heart away from the assurances I have found in You. You, O Lord, are truly my Alpha and Omega and everything in between. Help me keep my eyes fixed on You as I walk hand in hand with You in these last days. Lord, no matter how difficult things become, my heart belongs to You, my gaze is fixed on You, my desire is only toward You. Come quickly, Lord Jesus, amen!
“And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh.” (Luke 21:28)
© Jan Ross
All Rights Reserved
Mar
15
Father Knows Best
By Julie B Cosgrove | 1 Comment
All these are the twelve tribes of Israel. This is what their father (Jacob) said to them as he blessed them, blessing each with the blessing suitable to him. Genesis 49:28
I want the best for my family. I think we all do. Yet, I cannot mold them into what I think is right, nor shape their lives to go a certain way, no matter how hard I try. I can influence, or at least make that effort, but where the seed falls is beyond my control. How much easier it is to turn over a stranger’s life or an acquaintance’s circumstances to God. But when it comes to our own family and the path they are walking, it is much harder, isn’t it?
Recently in Church we read the familiar story of the Prodigal. The loving Father gave unconditionally, even when he knew his son would go off and make mistakes. Yet the father remained steadfast, hopefully watching the horizon each day, believing one day that son would come back around, saving back the fatted calf, polishing the ring and stashing a set of dry clothes aside. It reminds me of the nursery rhyme, “Leave him alone and he’ll come home. . .”
Jacob knew his sons better than perhaps they knew themselves. He knew their traits, their tendencies and loved them all anyway. So did the father to the prodigal son. So does our Father in Heaven. Yes, I will keep on my knees. Yes, I will keep watching. I so much want the people in my family to each receive the abundance of blessings God has for them. I want them free of illness, free of pain, free of the consequences of their life choices.
But, Father knows best and He has it all under control. Just as He has for me and my life. Because, I know there those in my family who feel the same way about me.
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