Aug

17

Eye Lifts

By Julie B Cosgrove | Comments Off


  To you I lift up my eyes, O you who are enthroned in the heavens! Psalm 123:1

There are commercials in magazines, on TV and bannered on the web that tell us we can look younger - get a facial lift in a bottle. Wrinkles disappear in a few uses,  puffiness and dark circles vanish – limited time offer.  But, there is an eternal eye lift that can lift your whole spirit. That is when you lift your eyes to God.

There are two stances before God – praise and prayer. In prayer, we squeeze our eyes shut, bow our heads and open our hearts. We shut out all around us and concentrate on the still small voice that can move mountains and change lives. We come with a contrite heart knowing we can’t do it all on our own.

But when we praise, we lift our hands and our heads upwards. Why?  Same reason. We realize we can’t do it all on our own.  We stop looking at the world in front of us and stop seeing what we think lies ahead. We raise our eyes to the vastness of the sky - a symbol for eternity, for majesty and power, and for the unknown.  We take our eyes off ourselves and our finite view of things. It makes us realize how much bigger the whole picture is and who is in charge.

If you need an eye lift, lift them to the One who loves you more than anything else, Christ the Lord. The One who created your world, knows your circumstances and understands you better than you understand yourself. He is the one who stilled storms, defeated death and continues to touch souls. Have a good long talk with Him today- in prayer and praise. It is the best eye exercise you can do.

 I lift up my eyes to the hills. From where does my help come? My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth.
Psalm 121:1-2

 

for more devos from the Psalms, dedicted to this webite and the women who find wisdom and strength here, please consider my new book,
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Aug

16

Dead Folk Walking

By Julie B Cosgrove | Comments Off


“Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming, and is now here, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live.  John 5:25

I went to the grocery store on the way home from a meeting. It was about 5:30 and the place was packed with commuters grabbing things on their list before they headed home after a long day. Some were dressed in business attire and seemed “all business”. Some had kids in tow. None seemed particularly happy to be there. Long faces, hurried looks, no smiles. Dead folk walking through a store that to many in the world would seem like Heaven with so many variety of foods and such an overabundance of them.

I thought- that is the way many people go through life, oblivious to to the blessings they really have. They are stressed, tired and on auto-pilot. Going through the motions. Doing what has to be done. I ‘ve felt that way more often than I care to admit. Have you?

But God’s word says we should rejoice in all things. Christ’s light shines on everything equally, illuminating the mundane and making it holy. God brings life to our existence and purpose to our lives. I have a passage from Isaiah posted on my computer monitor that Paul told the Corinthians -

No eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him.

What is dead in you that needs Christ’s light shining on it to revive it? Where do you need to hear the voice of God in your life?

Jul

20

Full of Battles

By Julie B Cosgrove | 1 Comment


I hear people say all the time , “The Old Testament is just full of wars and battles. I don’t read that stuff. Jesus came and made a New Testament. One of love and peace.”  I understand. My husband is an old Army guy. He loves war movies. My eyes glaze over and I pick up a good book to read instead.  Blood and guts being spilled out into my living room is not my idea of entertainment.

 When Joshua and the Israelites entered the Promised Land, other God-less people lived there. People who, for over a thousand years, had heard about God yet turned their backs and worshipped idols. Peoples who delved in immortality and wickedness. We know not all of them were that way. Jethro, Moses’ father in law, was God fearing.  The Old Testament tells us of others in this Promised Land as well. Some converted to worship the one true God, although they were few and far between. Yes, there are battles in the Old Testament.  Messy, bloody ones. But, isn’t that true of life?

 The world is God-less in it’s view.  It is a “me first, get what I can” place without God in it. Yet, this is where we must dwell, just as Joshua and the Israelites were to dwell where God was leading them. We’ll all have earthly battles against corruptness and evil during our life and, as Christians, will be called to wield the sword of righteousness. Just as then, along our journey, some will choose to follow us and turn to God. But also, a great deal of our battles in life will not be in this realm.  2 Corinthians 10:3-5 speaks to this.

 For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh,  for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses.  We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ.

What I see, if I look beyond all the battle plans and violence, is that God systematically helped Joshua and the Israelitles fight each of their battles. Joshua relied on God’s wisdom and guidance and did as God told him. One by one, as each enemy emerged ahead, God and Joshua together went in to defeat them. 

So it can be for us. Often times, the battles of this life can seem overwhelming. But if we obey God and follow Him, His Holy Spirit will guide us into war against the things not of this world – greed, lust, envy, selfishness, hate, etc. – that want to dwell in us as well as battles against physical things such as cancer, violence, destruction, joblessness, chronic illness, and the like. One by one, battle after battle, we’ll be victorious. Because Christ has already conquered the big battle – sin and death.  Our promised land is eternal life in God’s presence, which starts here and now on earth. 

So, put on your spiritual armor as described in Ephesians and sing, “Onward Christian Soldiers.” Prepare for battle. Just make sure it is the battle God is leading you to fight. Obey His commands, as Joshua did, and victory is assured.

Jul

6

In His lap

By Julie B Cosgrove | Comments Off


in Psalm 5, David pleads with God to “lead me in thy righteousness.”  What is the righteousness of God? And why does David have to be led into it?

Righteousness in the Bible is always being just, no matter what. God does not possess any prejudice, partiality or preference when dealing with His children.  He loves us each equally and judges us by the same law, His law of unconditional love and justice. To God, there are no grey areas.  If there were, there would be wiggle room for judgement.  Like human attorneys, He would be citing exceptions to the rules and trying to justify the if’s and but’s. But He doesn’t. What is law for you is law for me.

Why does David ask to be led into God’s righteousness?  Because we humans don’t know how to be just, do we? Our viewpoints are tainted by emotions, experiences, teachings and dsiappointments. We “interpret” the laws and see the world the through skewed lens of self. We need God to guide us, to be the God He has promised to be – totally unbiased, fair and just. The God who forgives our sins and shortcomings through the sacrifice of His own Son on the cross because He know we all have fallen short. If God was not a totally just God, His mercy would be meaningless and His grace diluted. 

David was asking God to judge him fairly, to seek out his heart.  To come to His aid, even if he had done wrong. That is a pretty bold statement. But David had faith. David was hardly perfect. He knew he had sinned big time, but He never stopped loving God and wanting to do His will.

How about you? Are you that bold to come before God and say “judge me fairly”? If you believe that Jesus died so you could be forgiven and that nothing can separate you from God’s love, not even your own negativity, then yes, you can be so bold.  How awesome that we can kneel before the Creator of the Universe and have Him look our way, with tenderness in His eyes. That we can say, “I’m sorry, Dad. I really, really am,” and be beckoned to crawl up in His lap to receive His love and protection.  How wonderful His lap is big enough for all who want to come. All we have to do is say we are sorry, that we need His mercy and believe that through Christ it is made available to us. Meet ya there.

May

27

It’s All Good

By Julie B Cosgrove | Comments Off


For everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving,  for it is made holy by the word of  God and prayer.  I Timothy4:4-5

Paul may have been talking about food restrictions in this passage and how they were not necessary for salvation.  His churches battled whether to uphold the Hebrew food restrictions in Leviticus and whether or not to eat foods offered to the Graeco-Roman gods.  But, I see a deeper wisdom in his words to Timothy.

Everything created by God is good. It is made holy through prayer and His Word.  When God created the heavens and the earth, he claimed by Word that it was good. We are to receive everything with thanksgiving, knowing from whence it comes.  Everything.  That’s a tall order to fill, isn’t it?  How can we possibly do that when there is so much evil in the world?  This isn’t Paradise down here. Mankind is not good. We are all sinners and we continue to sin against each other and against God.

The key is to give it all to God through prayer. Put every situation, every joy, every hurt and every blessing back in His hands.  God makes good because God is good. It is His nature.  Through prayer, we can see good come even from evil.

Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. Romans 12:21

Evil spelled backwards is live. Live in Christ, and let Him live in you and whatever evil crosses your path, have faith that even that can be turned to good through prayer.  Turning evil around.  Sounds simple, but it isn’t easy.  It can only be done through Him. He is in the miracle business, one act at a time.

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