The Ride of Your Life

The Ride of Your Life by Gail Rodgers God’s strong hands will hold you on the ride of your life! The picture is worth a thousand words! The tiny boy sits on the quad. Grandpa knows the thrill of the ride and is eager for the Little One to experience it. Yet the Little One is frightened.  Oblivious to Grandpa’s strong hands holding him, covering him; he doesn’t see the loving face turned down to sooth him. He doesn’t know he is completely safe, completely held securely by his delighted Grandpa. Each day God invites you to embark on an adventure with Him; to trust Him when you are fearful; to feel the wind of His Spirit in your hair as you go. It may only be a ride around the block to bring loving care; it may be an off-road ride where you trust His loving hands to hold you over the wild hurtles of life. God’s delight in you is more than sentimental softness. It is God with you! He is so much bigger than you! So stay for the ride; give your fears to the Mighty One and enjoy the adventure. You are safe in God’s hands! “The LORD your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save; he will rejoice over you with gladness; he will quiet you by his love; he will exult over you with loud singing.” Zephaniah 3:17 Father God, So often I feel like the Little One, afraid of new ventures, loud noises, and unfamiliar places. It is easy to let fear push me back to what is comfortable. Please give me faith today to trust You with my fears; to know You hold me securely and lovingly and that You delight in sharing the adventure with me. Thank you that You are right with me, so mighty and yet so tenderly loving. Give me joy in the journey as I rest in Your hands. In Jesus’ name I pray, amen. Challenge: Look for some way today to step out in your faith adventure and trust God as you carry His love to someone in your circle of influence

Guttermost to Uttermost

Guttermost to Uttermost

by Vonette Bright

“Remember those in prison as if you were their fellow prisoners, and those who are mistreated as if you yourselves were suffering.” Hebrews 13:3

Margaret English is a Chaplain at a Female Detention Center.
As such, she has shared Christ with many inmates.
Charity was one who’d been imprisoned as a cocaine addict.
She began coming to the chaplain’s office as if she was going to a coffee klatch.
The two women soon became friends.
Charity’s life changed because others took time to get to know her and to pray for her.
Eventually, she prayed to receive Christ and went through treatment for her addiction.

Upon release from prison, Charity wanted to attend Margaret’s church.
And God gave her a beautiful little house to rent nearby.
Now Charity is involved in local ministry.
The Bible says in Hebrews chapter 13, “remember those in prison, as if you were there yourself.”

Welcome Mat

Welcome Mat by John Fischer ‘When he finally came to his senses, he said to himself, “At home even the hired men have food enough to spare, and here I am, dying of hunger! I will go home to my father….” (Luke 15:17-18) Most of us can identify in some way with the story of the Prodigal Son. He had spent all his father’s money on wild living and “came to his senses” when he ended up working on a pig farm just to survive and noticed that what the pigs were eating suddenly looked good to him. That’s when he decided to go back to his father, admit his bad decisions and offer to work as a hired hand on his father’s estate. But something else happened when he arrived. Going home was a good practical move for his situation. He was willing to settle on being a hired hand. The surprise was that he wasn’t given even a chance to apply for the job. He was welcomed as a son. Before he could get a word in edgewise he was smothered in his father’s love and a welcome-home party began. What can you do in the face of this? Fall on your knees and worship. God the Father’s great big hands are open to us and we are embraced without judgment. This is like no love we have ever known before or will ever know. We crawled back home ready for the worst – ready to eat crow. We were prepared for the taunts from the others in the family – even from the servants. We weighed the cost and decided the embarrassment was worth it. We calculated all that. We left bragging and return in humiliation. We left triumphant and return a failure. And yet there is no “I told you so” speech. There is just joy and acceptance. Worship? It’s all we can do to hold ourselves together. We know what we deserve, and this isn’t it. This is a party! God has done it all for us. One day we were sucking up to pigs, the next we are escorted into our father’s house and in the process, we discover the wonderfully good news that we’ve always had a home here. We never lost our place. This is where we belong.

Lord, Speak with Power, Comfort & Clarity

Lord, Speak with Power, Comfort & Clarity

by Roy Lessin

Lord, no one speaks with the power of Your voice-
You said “Come forth” and the dead lived again; You said, “Rise, take up your bed and walk” and the feeble could stand to their feet; You said, “Go wash in the Pool of Siloam” and clear images flooded darkened eyes.

Lord, no one speaks with the comfort of Your voice-
it calls me as a shepherd to its lost lamb; it soothes me as a mother to her hurting child; it woos me as a bridegroom to his bride; it reassures me as a friend to his companion.

Lord, no one speaks with the clarity of Your voice-
You speak words of light to shine upon my path; You speak words of nourishment to feed my soul; You speak words of truth to make me wise; You speak words of vitality to make me whole.

Lord, speak, for your servant hears.
You who speak love, my heart is listening;
You who speak hope, my heart is trusting,
You who speak life, my heart is receiving.

“Never has a man spoken the way this man speaks.” John 7:46

Cast All Your Cares

Cast All Your Cares

by Alec Niemi

Down, dejected, depressed, determined to carry the weight of the world upon himself, he expressed how everything was coming apart and that so many things were wrong in his life.

Listening for a time as he anguished over his list of woes I finally asked him if he had considered giving it to God and letting Him sort it out. He said that he hadn’t prayed in years.

Is there a correlation here?

My prayer for you this week:

I pray that you are “casting all your cares on the Lord because he will sustain you; he will never let the righteous fall. Amen.” Psalm 55:22

Have a great week.

Comforts Primal Call

Comforts Primal Call

by Kristi Huseby

I decided this summer to read The Hiding Place (by Corrie Ten Boom) again.  I’d read this book a couple of times before but this time in reading it I found precious gems of Truth that I had never seen before.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with the Hiding Place, it is the story of Corrie Ten Boom and her family who were taken captive during World War II in Holland for sheltering Jews.

As I perused this book again new truths came to light that caught me by surprise and took my breath away.

. . . As the rest of the world grew stranger, one thing became increasingly clear.  And that was the reason the two of us (Corrie and Betsie, her sister) were here.  As for us, from morning until lights-out, whenever we were not in ranks for roll call, our Bible was the center of an ever-widening circle of help and hope.  Like waifs clustered around a blazing fire, we gathered about it, holding out our hearts to its warmth and light.  The blacker the night around us grew, the brighter and truer and more beautiful burned the word of God.

“Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?  Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? . . . Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.” Romans 8:35

I would look about us as Betsie read, watching the light leap from face to face.  More than conquerors . . . It was not a wish.  It was a fact.  We knew it, we experienced it minute by minute – poor, hated, hungry.  We are more than conquerors.  Not “we shall be.”  We are!  Life in Ravensbruck took place on two separate levels, mutually impossible.  One, the observable, external life, grew every day more horrible.  The other, the life we lived with God, grew daily better, truth upon truth, glory upon glory.

Did you catch it? . . . We ARE more than conquerors.  Not “we shall be.”  We ARE!

The LORD rescues the godly; He is their fortress in times of trouble.  The LORD helps them, rescuing them from the wicked.  He saves them, and they find shelter in Him.  Psalm 37.39-40

As I look at these verses through Corrie’s lens I realize that my understanding has been incredibly distorted due to my overwhelming need for comfort.

Corrie and Betsie’s life in the prison camp was filled with unspeakable horror.  And there is something deep within me that cries, “Why God, Why?  Why do you allow such godly people to suffer and die in such revolting conditions?  They followed you.  They gave you everything and yet look how You rewarded them!”

And it’s almost as if I can hear Corrie saying . . . “God was with me every step of the way.  He WAS my fortress in times of tribulation.  He WAS saving me and I DID find shelter in Him.”

I’m ashamed at how easily I slide into a faith that is only concerned about my comfort and not God’s ways.

LORD, rescue and save me from myself!  From my foolish desires, from my own need for comfort.  Teach me to follow you with my WHOLE heart.  Your love is never conditional – may my love for You never be conditional either.

Beware of Deception

Beware of Deception By Darren Hewer “You are reasonable people. Decide for yourselves if what I am saying is true.”   1 Corinthians 10:15 Opening your email inbox, you notice a new email: From “Chief Oyinbolowo Eko” with the subject “REQUEST FOR AN URGENT BUSINESS RELATIONSHIP”. “Strange,” you think to yourself, knowingly rolling your eyes, “I don’t know a Chief Oyinbolowo Eko … or any Chief at all, for that matter.” Out of pure curiosity you open the email and read: Greetings friend! I got your contact address through your country business directory and feel you will serve as a reliable source to be used to achieve our goal of transferring the estate of Miss Leslie Mushasha, by trusting under your care the total sum of Thirty million US dollars (US $30M). Recognizing an obvious attempt at deception, you wisely delete the email and don’t give it a second thought. If it’s so easy to recognize scams, why are people so often led astray by unbiblical and therefore Christ-dishonoring teaching? Jesus warned us many would try to deceive us: “Jesus said to them: “Watch out that no one deceives you. Many will come in my name, claiming, ‘I am he,’ and will deceive many. … if anyone says to you, ‘Look, here is the Christ!’ or, ‘Look, there he is!’ do not believe it.”” (Mark 13:5-6,21) Likewise, Paul warns us that many will try to deceive us, attempting to portray themselves as righteous: “Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light. It is not surprising, then, if his servants masquerade as servants of righteousness. Their end will be what their actions deserve … Even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let him be eternally condemned!” (2 Corinthians 11:14-15, Galatians 1:8) How can we guard against being deceived? Continually read God’s Word, hold tightly to the central truths of the faith, and do not uncritically trust the interpretations of any one person. There are many peripheral faith issues that Christians are free to disagree with, so we should not be too quick to dismiss other Christians whose views on certain issues differ from ours. But salvation issues (the core gospel) cannot be compromised. Keep your mind sharp so that you can calmly walk away from teaching that dishonors God by rejecting His revealed truth in His Word. Question: Have you been tricked or deceived in the past, and if so what did you learn from the experience?