"The word of our God stands forever" - Isaiah 40:8

I know I am not the only one who wonders where our world is headed...so much unrest, so much anger, no little value to others.  We have no peace, I believe, because we have rejected the Word of God.  He created all things with so much thought - read Genesis 1 to see how every detail was done so carefully and in such order.  He gave us His precious word to help us live. Eve began the ball rolling toward unrest (sin) when she chose to follow her feelings instead of the facts of what God had actually said.  Isaiah 26:3 (picture in our bathroom) tells us how to find peace and that is by keeping our minds set on the Lord God.

Our President, during the funeral of one of the Dallas police offers, suggested that "...we need to forge consensus, fight cynicism and find the will to make change".  With all due respect to him, I believe unless we go back to obeying God's word - which is as relevant today as it was when it was written on paper - we will never find policies that work.

Romans 2:8-11 tells us that those who "reject the truth" will find wrath, anger, trouble and distress.  I believe that's what we are seeing today.  Somewhere along the way, people decided they didn't have to follow the rules...they made their own...and we are reaping the consequences.  That passage says there will "...honor and peace for everyone who does good".

Condoleezza Rice prayed at a recent memorial service: "Dear heavenly Father...we know there are no easy answers, but the answers will come through You."

Will you be praying with me that those in authority will seek God and His word as they try to make sense of a world filled with hatred and violence?  2 Chronicles 7:14 says if we will, "He will heal our land".  Are you studying God's word?  Even if you never have, go to a Christian book store and find an inductive Bible study...join a BSF or Precept Bible study in your area...volunteer to teach children's Sunday School...that's how I learned much of the Bible!
May we not be one of the ones who God sees "rejecting the truth".

For further study: Deu. 11:18-21, 2 Sam. 22:31, Isaiah 55:10-11, Jer. 1:16, Matthew 24:35, John 1:1-5, John 15:1-8, 2 Tim. 3:16, Hebrews 4:12, James 1:22.

May you be blessed in your understanding of God's word.

Love,
Holly

God can do far more than you can ask or imagine - Eph 3:20

Our family is waiting on God for a particular "desire of the heart".  I believe it is only when we are desperate for Him that He gives us the desires of our hearts (Ps. 37:4) or that we recognize His voice..  However, I also believe there are things in our lives that will ONLY EVER be answered by Him for His glory...things that no mortal man or organization can do.  I do believe and truly trust in His perfect will.  I also believe He teaches us as we wait upon Him.

Jen Wilkin has recently written a book entitled NONE LIKE HIM: 10 Ways God is Different from Us.  In it she says:

God is infinite; unbound by limits.

He defies measurement of any kind.

His limitlessness underlies all of his

attributes; his power, knowledge, love

and mercy are not merely great, but they

are infinitely so, measurelessly so.  No one

can place any aspect of who God is on a

scale or against a yardstick. 

This one true God, the Creator of the universe, wants to know you and wants to give you the desires of your heart.  He wants you to live in peace and joy with Him giving Him the glory and not taking it for yourself.  He has given you His word that you might know Him and He has given you work to do.  

Are you waiting on Him today...or waiting for a word from a friend, or a text or an email?  I'm not going to give you the 10 ways that Wilkin gives for how God is different from us, but I will give you 10 scriptures for further study...see if you can find out what they are (and stop trying to do those things yourself - or myself!).  My fleshly desires pale in comparison to what He wants to give...it's why His word is so important for me to know...rather than for my emotions to rule what I desire.

Stay tuned:  I believe God will answer our family's prayers, but in His perfect time and perfect way.

For further study:  Exodus 15:11, Job 26:14, Job 42:2, Psalm 90:1-4, Psalm 145:3, Malachi 3:6, Acts 17:24-25, Acts 17:27, Romans 8:38-39, Rev. 4:11.

Be blessed in your understanding of God's word.

Love,

Holly

 

To God be the glory, great things He has done

So loved He the world that He gave us His Son.

Who yielded His life an atonement for sin

and opened the lifegate that all may go in.

Praise the Lord, praise the Lord

Let the earth hear His voice

Praise the Lord, praise the Lord Let the people rejoice.

Oh come to the Father through Jesus His Son

And give Him the glory great things He hath done.

Fanny Crosby wrote this hymn which originally was published in l875.  It wasn't until a 1954 Billy Graham crusade - which was highly criticized by the British Press - that this hymn helped spark a sense of revival in Great Britain.  It has been an important hymn to us in the church ever since.

The truth is in the world today most individuals tend to seek their own glory...their own success...their own acclaim,  rather than live for the glory of God.  I recently attended a wonderful Gospel Coalition women's conference in which Tim and Kathy Keller spoke - among other great teachers.  Kathy said "We can choose to glorify (God) or self-indulge in ourselves." Do you recognize you make choices every day to whom you will seek to glorify? She went on to say that too many of us operate - even in the church - out of our giftedness rather than God's grace.  In times of trouble, our gifts may fail, but grace never does.  If it's His grace, then it is certainly not our glory.

I think it's good to ask the question:  To whose glory am I working toward?  If it's not His, then we must be prepared for His power to "readust" our thinking...His purposes will not be thwarted. (Job 42:2)

I must confess in my zeal to embroider, I got the wording wrong in this verse.  It actually reads "To God be the glory and power forever."  Hope you'll give me grace for the error...I do recognize His glory must always come first!

For further study: Gen. 1:26, 1 Sam. 4:21-22, 1 Chron. 16:24, Psalm 19:1, Psalm 34:2-3, Isaiah 6:3, Isaiah 43:6-7,  Luke 2:14, Romans 1:21-25, Col. 3:23-24.

Be blesssed in your understanding of God's word.

Love,

Holly