I’m sure most of us lost our patience over the past two years because of the virus. Does it seem easy to snap at others in the house at the first sound out of their mouth? Or are you frustrated with yourself for being snappy? Maybe the coffee maker isn’t fast enough and you need your coffee now, not a couple of minutes later.
We have become use to instant gratification. We want our demands to be met now and our way. With my recent injury to my hands, I still run into a reminder to take it slow and let them heal. I expected to get my range of motion back in a couple of days with my left hand. When it took longer, I grew impatient and my hope died. Then one day when I stopped stressing about the range of motion was back. Not completely, but I could move my thumb across my hand. This renewed my hope. Soon I could touch each finger to my thumb. Some were awkwardly. Through this experience, I learned there is a relationship between hope and patience. Like the sunflowers we need to keep turning to God. As you go through the verses, also check on other connections to patience.
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“May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit, you may abound in hope.” Romans 15:13 (ESV)
Last month, when I lost use of my left hand after kneading pizza dough, fear immediately took over my heart. Then when the bursa swelled up, I lost hope I could write anymore. Then I saw how swollen the cyst, that’s been a problem over ten years. I knew I needed to ice it and hit the anti-inflammatories. Once the swelling went down, I had some control in movement the next morning. It was as I was looking at a hand that belonged to someone else. No matter how hard I tried to make my thumb do what I wanted it to, it would not do so. It was my thumb and brain had disconnected. My hope died. Then, after a week of therapy, I could make a slight movement of my thumb. A glimmer of hope lit up the dark gloom and doom that took hold of my heart. Each day, as the mobility improved, hope took over more and more. As my hope filled my heart and mind, so did peace. Now I’m still working on strength in my hand and have to be careful not to overwork it as it is healing. The cyst is almost down. So this month I am giving you the link to verse on hope from the Open Bible website. Please go through this link and write out a verse a day, what you get from the verse and how to apply it to your life. HOPE A couple of weeks ago in working with yeast dough my hands were servely overworked. The cyst in my left wrist swelled up to the point I lost the use of my thumb and first finger. A couple days later a large bump showed up on the middle joint on the middle finger of my right hand. The doctor said it was the bursa that was inflamed. I have to rest my right hand and do physical therapy on my left hand. Where it stands right now I have full range of motion, but little strength. The antiinflamatory is shrinking the bursa.
Since my friend and mentor, Andy Lee, has wrote a post on joy, I asked her if I can share it. She has agreed to it. Just click on the picture or her name and the link will take you to her page. Last month we worked on building up our faith. Yet without love everything else is useless. It is God's love that fuels our faith and inflates our hope. See God loved us before we were ever conceived. Read Psalm 139, to see exactly how much you are in his thoughts. It is his love for all humans we read in John 3:16, that cause him to send his son, Jesus, to die on the cross to be the sacrifice for our sins. It is his death that paid the penalty for our sins. There's nothing of value when you take a look at sin. It easy very easy to spot it when you look at the shape this world is in. Sin is a true focus on self. But love is a focus on others. Not on what they have done wrong but on showing them love not matter what they have done. Think about it. Jesus to on the past, current, and future sins of this world not because we deserved it but because he loved us. God didn't love just certain people that thought like he does, he loves the whole world, even those that hate him. We are called to walk like him and love like him. forgiving the hurts of the past, current day, and the ones that will come in the future. We can't hold on to the past because it is done and over with. Holding on to today's hurt is only hurting ourselves. Worrying about who's going to hurt who in the future is not a healthy life to live. It is when we forgive others like Jesus forgave us can we show love and love's heart beat can return us to being more and more like Jesus each time. If everything that we do is wrapped in the love God has given us then we can change the world just by starting doing everything in love. When can only do this when we see others as God sees us. Someone that he loves. Back in 1966, not truer song was played on the radio. I loved Dionne Waseick's voice back then and it is better now than then. Let's start singing this song again. Does your faith feel smaller than a mustard seed? You don’t even have enough faith to move you out of bed. Through the past couple of years, our faith withered and took down other areas of our emotion.
How do you heal your faith? In Romans 10:7, we find faith when we hear the word of Christ. There are many ways to hear the Word of God daily. From CDs to apps on your phone, you can listen to someone reading through the Bible. Even you can read it out loud. You can find all kinds of pastors on tv, YouTube, and the internet. The things that have been going on in the world over the past couple of years overtook us. Crushing our faith as a steamroller ran it over. Yet, in 1 John 5:4, we hear, yes, read the verse out loud several times, “For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith.” Did you catch that? It is our faith that overcomes the world. Do you feel stronger? Even if your faith is as small as the tiny mustard seed, you have the strength to move mountains. For more click on the printable button. Many of us are walking around like zombies. The thief attacked us emotionally and spiritually, and left us numb, even dead, in various areas of our lives. I even became a zombie, going to through the motions of daily life. I couldn’t write or study. Yes, watching TV didn’t bring comfort or enjoyment. It was a major case of the blahs. I felt numb and dead inside. Ready to give up on what God had called me to do. In 2020, a thief ravaged the world. We can find the reason I say thief instead of disease in John 10:10a (NKJV), “The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy.” Not only did many people die over the past eighteen months, others had the physical health stolen or destroyed. Many of us have also been left wounded, numb, and even dead inside. You might be able to identify to the sunflower with many areas in your life dried up and barely hanging on to life. A couple of weeks ago, Pastor Robert Morris of Gateway Church, in his series “The Seven Churches of Revelation” he came to the church of Sardis in Revelation chapter three. As he had done throughout the series, he applied it to our daily lives. When he read Revelation 3:1b (NKJV), “I know your works, that you have a name that you are alive, but you are dead.” Yes, that was me I felt dead and just getting from one day to the other. Then God told me this is what I'm to write on next year. By covering various areas in our lives, such as faith, hope, love, trust, relationships, and the list goes on, we will strengthen the areas that are weak and revive the ones that are dead. Following God’s instructions in Revelation 3:2a (NKJV) “Be watchful, and strengthen the things which remain, that are ready to die.” There are two instructions in this verse, be watchful and strengthen. Why be watchful? A thief comes in the middle of the night when most people are asleep. Under the cloak of darkness, this he sneaks in using fear, panic, and life no longer in our control to attack us mentally and emotionally. How can that be? We weren’t watching. The physical and negative news we were listening to daily, threw us off our guard in our spiritual life. Because we were isolated, we went through left us without a support group and caused us to focus on the physical danger. There is strength in numbers. As we are on the watch together we can encourage each other in the wave of attacks. Now it is time to be watchful and alert for the thief. Stop his attacked on our emotional and spiritual life when we weren’t looking. I'm sure you've seen a movie where the bad guys go over a blueprint of the building they want to rob. The samething happens again only now it is the S.W.A.T. team going over the blueprints to find a way in to resue the hostages. That is what we need to do. By studying the Bible we learn about the thief, our adversary. We become aware of his tatics and how to stop them. What to strengthen? There are emotional and spiritual areas in our lives that are severely weakened or on their deathbeds. The thief during the darkness has stolen our faith, robbed our joy, has placed love on the deathbed and much more. In the first part of John 10:10, we saw what the plans of the thief are. In the last part of the verse is the good news. Jesus stated, “I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.” We can find life in Jesus. If you have noticed the theme of sunflowers, I chose them because the follow the movement of the sun. We need to be like the sunflower and follow the Son as we heal these wounds left by the thief. Author Eva Marie Everson, in her blog post "Dipping The Quill Deeper: Light (And Victory) In The Darkness" made a very true statment we can all be encouraged by. "Our lives get like that sometimes—they turn dark and ugly, lonely and frightening. But the Light has come and when we call upon Him, our greatest Friend, He will show off in ways we can hardly begin to expect. When we writers write—no matter what genre we have chosen—we must keep that in mind. To show off the Light, we explain the darkness it shines into. Sometimes that is death, sometimes fear, sometimes the unknown. But always, always, the Light." Grab a journal or notebook so you can write the verse, what you found out in it, and how you can apply it to your life.
Week 1 Revelation 3:1-6 1 Peter 5:8 1 Corinthians 16:13 Colossians 4:2-6 Luke 21:34 Matthew 26:38-44 Ezekiel 3:17 Week 2 Isaiah 41:10 Philippians 4:13 Isaiah 40:31 Exodus 15:2 Ephesians 6:10 1 Chronicles 16:11 Isaiah 40:29 Week 3 John 1:5 John 8:12 Psalm 119:105 Ephesians 5:8 1 Peter 2:9 1 John 1:5 Luke 11:34 Week 4 John 14:6 Romans 6:23 John 11:25-26 Romans 5:10 Proverbs 14:27 James 1:12 Psalm 27:1 Back in the mid-80s the television show "Cover Up" theme song was "Holding Out for a Hero". The start of the chorus is, "I need a hero", followed by a list of qualifications this hero needs to have, with the last one being, "Larger than life". In Psalm 90:1-2, we find that Hero.
The ESV puts the verses this way. "Lord, you have been our dwelling place in all generations. Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever you had formed the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God." I don't know how much "Larger the life", can God be than He exisited before time as we know began at the creation of the world. Buzz Lightyear best put it “To infinity…and beyond!”, that is God. There is no time and space God has not been. What about the other qualifications of a hero in the song? Let's look at the same verses but in the Amlified Bible. "Lord, You have been our dwelling place [our refuge, our sanctuary, our stability] in all generations.Before the mountains were born Or before You had given birth to the earth and the world, Even from everlasting to everlasting, You are [the eternal] God." Matthew Henry has this to say about verse one: "That all those who live a life of communion with God are constantly safe under his protection, and may therefore preserve a holy serenity and security of mind at all times." When we are abiding with Him, we are under his protection, save in peace and our mind/thoughts are secured. Did you notice the [ ]'s after dwelling place? Let's look into these words a little deaper. Refuge: Merriam-Webster defines it as, "1: shelter or protection from danger or distress 2: a place that provides shelter or protection" Like when it is raining and you have to venture out, you use your umbrella to protect you, shelter you from the raindrops. God is our shelter and our protection from the evil in this world. Like in my first book I'm writing, the hero shelters the heroine for falling glass, bullets, and other dangers that are lurking. Sanctuary: Is defined as, "1: a consecrated place: such as a: the ancient Hebrew temple at Jerusalem or its holy of holies b(1): the most sacred part of a religious building (such as the part of a Christian church in which the altar is placed) (2): the room in which general worship services are held (3): a place (such as a church or a temple) for worship 2a(1): a place of refuge and protection" (2): a refuge for wildlife where predators are controlled and hunting is illegal We know we have an enemy that is seeking us as a lion/predator, he likes to attack our minds and destroy our peace. I don't know how many times I've found peace in the old hymns and contempoary Christian music. Let alone a Bible verse would pop in my mind and help me find sanctuary in God. Stability: I love this definition, "the quality, state, or degree of being stable: such as a: the strength to stand or endure : FIRMNESS b: the property of a body that causes it when disturbed from a condition of equilibrium or steady motion to develop forces or moments that restore the original condition" I recently did the study "Get Out of Your Head - Stopping the Spiral of Toxic Thoughts" by Jennis Allen, and I highly reccommend it. He is our stability as long as we keep our minds on him. However, we get hit with a wave like Peter and start a downward spiral in our thoughts. The faster we stop the spiral and get our focus back on God, we are able to get stable. He is our Hero that we can run to in a time of trouble. I have placed links to Websters 1828 dictonary in the three word we looked at. Check it and and the verses that are included for the words. "Wait, I thought David wrote Psalm?" "I've read Exodus and haven't seen any Psalm in it." "With all that was on his plate, when did Moses find time to write?"
We know that David wrote at least seventy-three of the Psalms it could be more because there are fifty orphans that have not been assigned to any author. Asaph, David's worship leader, and his sons, the sons of Korah (you might remember him as the one who rebelled against Moses and the ground swalloed him up in Numbers 26), Salomon the son of David who became king when David died, Moses, Ethan and Heman the Ezramites, are all the know authors of the book of Psalms. Some say Moses may have more than Psalm 90 and 91. As for now we will be looking in deapth at these two. Read them several times this week, and take notes. Next week we will dig deep in to chapter ninety and verses one and two Which is easier? I’m going to say water from a rock. I’m going with water from a rock. Why? When God has a plan, it will not fail. Here is Exodus 17:1-7 Bonnie Sue’s version. The children of Israel loved to complain and grumble more than anything else. Not too long ago they were going to die of starvation. God provided them with quail and manna to eat. Now they are complaining they’re going to die of thirst. Some are going as far to blame Moses. Saying it was his plan to kill them. Here God had provided in the past and their lack of trust has them complaining against God and the man He has chosen to work through. Now Moses at this point has trust issues too. All he has seen and done with God leading the way, his fear of the people wanted to stone him kept him from trusting in God having a plan. God knew the plan long ago and filled Moses in on it. “Moses, I want you to listen up because here is my plan. I want you to go before the people and have the elders of Israel go with you. I want them to see this, they need to see this. Make sure you have your staff. You know the one you struck the Nile with and turned it to blood. Yeah, that is the staff you need to have with you. Do you see that rock over there at Herob? I’ll be on it waiting for you and the elders to get there. Once you get there, make sure the elders are watching. You know how some of them are they just talk, talk, talk. I want them to be paying attention to what is going to happen. Remember, while you go to get the elders I will stand on the rock, so when you get the rock, play a round of golf and strike the rock that I will stand on. Now go.” Moses did as God told him. He made sure they were paying attention when he struck the rock and water flowed out of it. He named the place Massah (test) and Meribah (contention) because of the people fighting and testing God’s patience. Now the elders saw for themselves that God is with them. Things I’ve learned from this.
Gripe. Grumble. Complain. It appears that is all the Israelites know how to do. Minus the one rare time after they crossed the Red Sea and Miriam lead them in parise to God foe what he did in leading them out of the bondage they were in Egypt. That was short lived. Just over two months since they crossed the Red Sea, they were ready to turn around and go back to Egypt for they could have meat to eat there. We will see this is repeated through out Exodus they complained about everything. Yet, God in his infinate grace would take care of their complaint. He sent quail that night and the next morning bread from heaven. They were to gather two pounds per person a day except the day before the Sabbath, then they were to get four pounds per person. That was the only day they were allowed to gather extra food. Not everyone listen to the warning. Some decided to save some for the next morning. The next day they found it moldy, smelly, and full of maggots. Don't know about them but that would've ruined my appitite for the rest of the day. Read John chapter six. This is the breadiest chapter I have found. Jesus calls himself Bread of Life and Bread from Heaven. You will also see the Jews grumble about Jesus claiming he was the Bread from Heaven. In Matthew 4:4, Jesus explains it is not physical bread that we need to live but the Word of God. How many of us are taking what we got on Sunday and living on the spoiled and maggot swaming bite until the next Sunday? I know I'm guilty of doing that at times. But that is not what the Bible teaches, even in Exodus they had to gather their bread daily. Here is a challenge for the week: Read Matthew 6:9-13. In verse eleven is Jesus talking about physical or spiritual bread? Look at verses twelve to thirteen and what bread would best help us to do what we are told to pary to do? Photo by Maciej Karoń on Unsplash
The Israelites did not stay at the place where bitter waters were made sweet. It was just a pit stop their complaining. A reminder that God was in control of their needs. He lead them to the place Elim. His resort he had planned for them. With twelve spings of water and seventy palm trees, it was the perfect place for them to rest. A retreat from the stress of all they had gone through in Egypt and since they left. They could draw near to God at this oasis.
Do you need an oasis, a place to go and find rest today? Jesus offers us that rest many of us so long for in Matthew ll:28-30 (ESV), "Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light." Let's break down what Jesus is saying here in finding rest. First, we are to come to him when we are over worked. How manny of us keep pushing ourselves to keep going when we have nothing more to give? I know I have. Wehn we come to him, come to the cross and lay our burdens down, we need to leave them there and not pick up those burdens again. What is a burden? A burden is when we take on someing that God has not given us, therfore we are carrying something under our own strength. Something we weren't given the means to deal with in the first place. Many of us who have the gift of service will see something that needs to be done and will take on the job because someone has got to do it, why not us? I'm speaking from experience. It has taken me a long time, and physical suffering to learn just because the need is there, as the gift of service it is not mine to pick up and do. It eventually becomes a burden and ends up feel like it is back breaking. It is by laying that burden down are we able to enter his rest. It may take awhile for us to be in his rest before. The Israelites were there at the oasis for over two months before God told the to move on. His yoke. When we are ready to put on his yoke he will take the time to teach us how to use it. To find that teaching we need to be in the Bible, in prayer, and most important sitting in quiet to listen to him. As we do that we will not be over burdened and he will give us the rest that we need for our souls. It was three days after they had crossed the Red Sea, in Exodus 15:22-25, the people started complaining about the lack of water to drink. Then when they came to some water it was bitter and they couldn't drink it. God instructed Moses to throw a certain tree into the water and the water became sweet and they were able to drink it.
Let's take a look at the bitter water and how it applies to our life. What makes water bitter? It is when there is no inflow and outlet to a body of water. It becomes stagnant and the minerals in the ground leach into it. Over time the water grows so heavy with the minerals it is undrinkable and is called bitter. We become bitter in the same matter. When someone hurts us, we don't forgive them, the pain of the hurt won't go away but keeps digging deeper into our heart. It gets to a point the bandage of bitterness is applied over and over again. We become numb to it until someone unknowingly peels a little corner of the bandage of and the puss of that hurt starts to ooze out. It may be anger, wrath, a meltdown, depression, physical illness, and many other ways it is manifested. Bitterness is in our lives leads us to acting out in sin. When we ignore the warning of sin that is when it becomes an illness. In Isaiah 38:17 (ESV) we see that King Hezekiah was almost to the point of death when he confessed to the Lord about is bitterness. "Behold, it was for my welfare that I had great bitterness; but in love you have delivered my life from the pit of destruction, for you have cast all my sins behind your back." (AMP) "Indeed, it was for my own well-being that I had such bitterness; But You have loved back my life from the pit of nothingness (destruction), For You have cast all my sins behind Your back." King Hezekiah states that it was for his own well-being, protection he built up the bitterness. It was God's love that brought him back from the pit of nothingness. In other words, he was drowning in his own bitterness that only the love of God was the lifeline he grabbed to be pulled out of the pit he was in. I'm sure we all know John 3:16, but the Amplified Bible shows a little more of the depth of his love, "For God so [greatly] loved and dearly prized the world, that He [even] gave His [One and] only begotten Son, so that whoever believes and trusts in Him [as Savior] shall not perish, but have eternal life." But how does that verse has to do with a tree like Moses threw into the water get rid of bitterness? First, it was God's love that healed King Hezekiah. Second, still looking for a tree? It can be found in 1 Peter 2:24 (ESV), talks about Jesus and what he did for us, "He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed." By dying on the cross for our sins we can find healing. He could have gotten of the cross anytime but it was his love for us and the Son of God that kept him there. He is the one that can pull us out of the pit of nothingness. Once the Red Sea closed and killed the Pharaoh's army, Miriam broke out and lead everyone in a song of worship to God for what he did for them. Worship in song is very important part of drawing close to the Lord. There are Many verses in the Bible that talk about singing to Lord. They cover who is to sing, when, what to sing about, even if you can't sing in tune God doesn't care as long as it is joyful. There is a book in the Bilbe that is nothing but songs to God, Psalm, square dab in the middle of the Bible and the largest book. Let's do something new and look at the picture of Jesus in Exodus 15:13 NLT; "With your unfailing love you lead the people you have redeemed. In your might, you guide them to your sacred home." First, we see Jesus has redeemed us and direct our paths because of his unfailing love. The love that kept him to the cross to pay the price of our redemption. This past year has been hard with the world being shutdown, friends and family dying, and people deciding that they don't like something it needs to be gotten rid of thinking only of what they want and that their opinion is the only thing that matters. It is enough to zap every bit of strength out of a person. However, it is not on our own strength that we have to walk through this world but that of the Lord's. He is our strength we turn to guide us through our daily lives. This is something to sing about. What has God done recently that you can sing about? Make a new song like the Bible says, to praise him with. Sing it to him even if it is in the shower. Let him hear your joyful noise. Photo by Kristina Wagner on Unsplash
The Hebrews were stuck between the Red Sea in front of the and the Egyptian army coming after them from behind them. The pillar of fire and smoke which brought them to the Red Sea, move to where it was behind them blocking the Egyptians. Then Moses stretched out his hands and the water seperated and the ground was dry. They were able to make it to the other side safe and sound. This scene all to well etched in out minds that have watched The Ten Commandments, is found in Exodus 13:17-14:31. One of the many days that God did something showing them he is in control and is protecting the. Yet as we will see they all to often forget, many times what he has done for them. Sometimes in a matter of days.
We are just as guilty. How many times has God done something to prove he has his hands on what is going on in our lives? Only to have somethingelse come along and we totally foregt what he did for us before. We sit there like this dog wondering what in the world are we going to do, on our own. to get out of this. When we really need to remember it is God that will do the work when we turn over the control over to him. Keep a small notebook and any time God proves himself to you, write it down so that you can go back and remember exactly what he did for you. We know the Hebrews were being mistreated by Pharaoh. God heard their cry for deliverance and sent Moses. They were expecting to get out of Egypt like yesterday. But God said, "Wait." The thing about waiting their lives got harder. Pharaoh put more demands on them and made it harder for them to do their work. He demanded for the same amount of bricks to be made without straw. Again the Hebrews complained but this time it was to Moses. In turn, Moses complained to God. Look at Exodus 5:22-23 AMP, "Then Moses turned again to the Lord and said, “O Lord, why have You brought harm and oppression to this people? Why did You ever send me? [I cannot understand Your purpose!] Ever since I came to Pharaoh to speak in Your name, he has harmed and oppressed this people, and You have done nothing at all to rescue Your people." First we see Moses ask God they ago old question we've all have asked in hard times, "Why?" "Why have you allow this to happen?" "Why me?" Then he blamed God for sending him to make life harder. He also blamed God for not doing something about it. We all have followed in Moses' footsteps when something bad has happened. During this Covid-19 virus, I'm sure we have all asked God, "Why are you allowing this virus?" By now we've switched to, "God, You can stop this virus, when are you going to do something about it?" Read Exodus 6:1-13, to find God's answer. Remember God has a bigger picture than what we see. Photo by Simon Berger on Unsplash
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