​29 July 2021
Make it Known
Psalm 30:4-5
Sing to the Lord, all you godly ones!
    Praise his holy name.
For his anger lasts only a moment,
    but his favor lasts a lifetime!

My husband has been teaching through the Book of Revelation on Wednesday nights, and going through chapter 15 last night, he reminded us that right before the bowls of wrath are poured out we have this great reminder of God’s character as sung by the “victorious” Believers...
Great and marvelous are your works, O Lord God, the Almighty. Just and true are your ways, O King of the nations. Who will not fear you, Lord, and glorify your name? For you alone are holy. All nations will come and worship before you, for your righteous deeds have been revealed. (Revelation 15:3-4)

People with a view of an angry God are mistaken. His wrath is certain but also measured, short, and once. However, his mercy and love have been going on for thousands of years. Let’s wrap our brains around that! We don’t need to explain God’s coming wrath for him, like it’s a flaw in his character. Rather, we should be making his merciful character known to everyone in the meantime. 

Psalm 103:8-11
The Lord is compassionate and merciful,
    slow to get angry and filled with unfailing love.
He will not constantly accuse us,
    nor remain angry forever.
He does not punish us for all our sins;
    he does not deal harshly with us, as we deserve.
For his unfailing love toward those who fear him
    is as great as the height of the heavens above the earth.

Dear God,
Thank you for your kindness and mercy that has drawn me to you. Thank you for making it available to everyone right now. I pray for my unbelieving friends and family who seem indifferent or mistaken about your character at this time. May their hearts be tugging at them right now even as I pray for them. I am so grateful for your character; help me make it known in Jesus name, amen.

28 July 2021
Only Jesus all the Time
Genesis 8:1
But God remembered Noah and all the wild animals and livestock with him in the boat. He sent a wind to blow across the earth, and the floodwaters began to recede. 

The only ones who survived the Flood are the ones who wholly trusted God & added nothing else to their obedience. Everyone in the world with an alternate opinion perished in the Flood.

In no way does it mean Noah and his family were sinless. They’re human like everyone else. And God addresses the state of all human hearts 20 verses later.  I will never again curse the ground because of the human race, even though everything they think or imagine is bent toward evil from childhood. I will never again destroy all living things. (Genesis 8:21) 

But they also have free will like everyone else. And using our free will to trust in God and obey him gives all of us, with a heart bent toward evil from childhood, options.

Everyone with an alternate opinion perished in the flood. Similarly, going along to get a long is serving world group-thought that is only bent towards evil. Only Jesus gives us options. Even those saved by believing in him (see Romans 3:22) continue to have options. We can confidently NOT do what everyone else is doing just because there’s so many people doing it. His ways prevent our destruction – not just eternally but right now in my parenting, my marriage, all my relationships, my job, my finances & everything.

The only way to be delivered by only evil all the time is only looking to Jesus every day all the time.

Hebrews 12:1-2
Let us run with endurance the race God has set before us. We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, the champion who initiates and perfects our faith.

Dear God,
It is easier and easier to see these days what only evil all the time will look like. Thank you for preserving, protecting, teaching & equipping the ones who trust in your Son, in whose name I pray, amen.

​27 July 2021
30 Years and Counting...
Hebrews 11:7
It was by faith that Noah built a large boat to save his family from the flood. He obeyed God, who warned him about things that had never happened before. By his faith Noah condemned the rest of the world, and he received the righteousness that comes by faith.

It wasn’t Noah’s idea to build a boat; it was God’s. Noah simply believed and obeyed. The fact that God allowed the ark to be built over a very long period of time is proof that Noah was not the only man on earth God was seeking out. There were plenty of witnesses, plenty of time & plenty of room on the ark for more than just Noah and his family. But Noah is the only person out of all mankind to listen & obey.

What is even more interesting to me is Noah’s sons. Did they too obey God, or were they obeying their dad? Either way they were rescued and saved from destruction by obeying their parents just as God’s Word prescribes. 

Genesis 7:5-7
So Noah did everything as the Lord commanded him. Noah was 600 years old when the flood covered the earth. He went on board the boat to escape the flood—he and his wife and his sons and their wives.

Children are a blessing from the Lord (see Psalm 127), AND children can receive blessing from the Lord (see Ephesians 6) . Obeying our parents (the ones in authority over us) is how we learn to obey the One with ALL authority. It turned out well for Noah’s kids.

Ephesians 6 has instructions for children in the home (6:1) and grown children (6:2) and the promise that follows (6:3). Children, obey your parents because you belong to the Lord, for this is the right thing to do.  “Honor your father and mother.” This is the first commandment with a promise:  If you honor your father and mother, “things will go well for you, and you will have a long life on the earth.” Ephesians 6:1-3

I’d like to mention specifically today, July 27, 2021 – our 30th wedding anniversary, that I have never regretted my husband’s leadership in our marriage requiring that we honor our parents, and it began even before our wedding day. My dad asked Rob to make sure I finished my degree, and my amazing husband worked his butt of in several jobs over the first two year of our marriage till I completed my bachelor's & teaching credential program. I’m thinking there were much better ways we could have used that time, energy and money in those early days, but my husband simply did what my dad asked him to do even though it was hard. Really hard. It was the product of a lifetime of practice obeying his own dad that lead him to honor mine. And there is only one outcome: God has richly blessed our marriage for 30 years. We have a beautiful family & home, jobs that pay the bills, health, ministry, cars that work, and dinner together every night. And those student loans literally were miraculously paid off with tv game show money. That just doesn’t happen. But GOD made sure it happened because he takes care of those he loves, those who trust him, those who obey him, those who don’t do what everyone else in the world is doing, those who know God’s Word and apply it to their lives. 

I’m very thankful to my beautiful husband and our loving and gracious Heavenly Father for proving that his way is the best way.

Dear God,
I just can’t thank you enough for your blessings in our life together. Even the hard times have turned into blessings because we keep our eyes on Jesus who started this and keeps making it good until it is perfect. Thank you that your system is right and may our own children and their families and their family’s families honor you and follow you all the days of their lives. AMEN.

​26 July 2021
Faith is Evidence
Hebrews 11:1
Faith shows the reality of what we hope for; it is the evidence of things we cannot see.

The one major knock on Christianity over the centuries is that what we believe can’t be proven. But faith is evidence according to scripture AND everywhere else in life!

Physics, Thermodynamics, and Natural Order are so reliable and structured that scientists put the words “Laws of” in front of each of them. But the ones who labeled them did not create them, so who did? It takes a lot of faith to believe there is no one responsible for the intricate structure and order in the universe.

Faith involves hope & is used as evidence. Godless people don’t consider faith in God as evidence for his existence because HE is not what they hope for.

The godless hope God doesn’t exist, so their faith they use as evidence for what they believe is based on their hopes & how they want things to be. Ironically, their “facts” about how the world began can be dismantled simply by the idea of God’s existence. God’s existence can’t be dismantled by their evidence at all. Isn’t that interesting?

Hebrews 11:3
By faith we understand that the entire universe was formed at God’s command, that what we now see did not come from anything that can be seen.

We know how the world began because faith is evidence. And even the ungodly have to admit that because they use their faith as evidence it all the time.

Dear God,
Thank you for plaining telling us in your Word how the world began. Thank you that it is simple to understand and trustworthy & provides confident hope for me to trust in you in all things. I love you and pray in your Son’s name, according to your good will. Amen.