Tag: MadeRightWithGod

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With Us

I woke up several times during the night with these two words “with” and “among” going through my mind.

Last night we had been at a game night, and we were among a large group of people but we were sitting with only two of them. We could hear the conversations of those around us but we could personally interact with the two sitting across the table from us.

Do you know where I’m going with this?

“ All right then, the Lord himself will give you the sign. Look! The virgin will conceive a child! She will give birth to a son and will call him Immanuel (which means ‘God is with us’).” Isaiah 7:14 NLT

God is with us.

For thousands of years, God had been among His people revealing His character and His holiness. The occasions when He was with individuals is noteworthy. He was with the three young men who were thrown into the fiery furnace, He was with Daniel in the lions’ den and He was with David as he faced Goliath. He was with Joseph, Abraham, Noah and others.

And now, according to Isaiah’s prophecy, God was making Himself available to be with us through His Son.

“ All of this occurred to fulfill the Lord’s message through his prophet:

23 ‘Look! The virgin will conceive a child! She will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel, which means ‘God is with us.’

24 When Joseph woke up, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded and took Mary as his wife.” Matthew 1:22-24 NLT

We have all been given a personal invitation to be with God. He chose us before the foundation of the world. Christ’s mission was to reconcile us with God.

“For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard. 24 Yet God, in his grace, freely makes us right in his sight. He did this through Christ Jesus when he freed us from the penalty for our sins.” Romans 3:23-24 NLT

“Yet now he has reconciled you to himself through the death of Christ in his physical body. As a result, he has brought you into his own presence, and you are holy and blameless as you stand before him without a single fault.” Colossians 1:22 NLT

“Anyone who belongs to Christ is a new person. The past is forgotten, and everything is new. 18 God has done it all! He sent Christ to make peace between himself and us, and he has given us the work of making peace between himself and others.” II Corinthians 5:17-18 CEV

Our heavenly Father knew that human efforts were not good enough to bring about reconciliation with Him. In His unconditional love for us He sent Jesus to provide the way for restored relationship.

Every day I am thankful for Immanuel – God with us. He will never leave us alone!

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No Greater Love

Last evening I joined a few friends for prayer. I am always blessed to join a prayer gathering.

“ I promise that when any two of you on earth agree about something you are praying for, my Father in heaven will do it for you. 20 Whenever two or three of you come together in my name, I am there with you.” Matthew 18:19-20 CEV

Knowing the Father is right there with us when we pray is hard to imagine but He said it so it must be true!

Why would He involve Himself in our little prayer meeting? The answer is two-fold. He loves us and He is concerned about those things that concern us.

He cares!

We have been a part of God’s heart since the beginning of time. Once again, that is a hard statement to comprehend but it’s true because God, the Father, told us it is.

“Praise the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ for the spiritual blessings that Christ has brought us from heaven! 4 Before the world was created, God had Christ choose us to live with him and to be his holy and innocent and loving people. 5 God was kind and decided that Christ would choose us to be God’s own adopted children. 6 God treated us with undeserved grace because of the Son he dearly loves, and so we should praise God.” Ephesians 1:3-6 CEV

God is kind and He had Christ choose us before the world began. Before “let there be light” God chose us to be His children. As His children He invites us to come to Him with everything, we have an open-door policy into His throne room.

“ So whenever we are in need, we should come bravely before the throne of our merciful God. There we will be treated with undeserved grace, and we will find help.” Hebrews 4:16 CEV

That’s what prayer is – coming bravely with our concerns and needs. He is trustworthy and He will help.

Why?

Because of Jesus – his life, his death, his resurrection. He chose us from heaven, and then He came to earth to bring us to Father. It cost Him His life, but He was willing to lay it down for us all.

“Christ died once for our sins. An innocent person died for those who are guilty. Christ did this to bring you to God, when his body was put to death and his spirit was made alive.” I Peter 3:18 CEV

“ No one can have greater love than to give his life for his friends.” John 15:13 NLV

No greater love!

What more does God need to do to prove His love for us? We were chosen before the foundation of the world to be His children and then He sent His Son to earth to pay the price for our salvation.

No greater love!

Father God, I pray for those reading this short message. Fill their hearts with the wisdom to understand Your great love. Fill them with hope; fill them with peace. Give them confidence to know that we can all come boldly to Your throne and find help in our time of need. We need You every day. We bring our families, our health, our finances, our nation to You. We trust You. In the name of Jesus, Amen.

There is no greater love than this and I am grateful to be a recipient of that love!

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Time for an “I” Exam

Just last week Dave went to the optometrist. He was able to pick up his new glasses on Friday. It’s interesting how just a little adjustment can make such a big difference in clearer vision.

Jesus is still teaching on the mountain and in today’s verses He’s called us all in for an “I” exam.

“ Don’t condemn others, and God won’t condemn you. 2  God will be as hard on you as you are on others! He will treat you exactly as you treat them.

3 You can see the speck in your friend’s eye, but you don’t notice the log in your own eye. 4 How can you say, “My friend, let me take the speck out of your eye,” when you don’t see the log in your own eye? 5 You’re nothing but show-offs! First, take the log out of your own eye; then you can see how to take the speck out of your friend’s eye.” Matthew 7:1-5 CEV

We have to remember that all of these verses from the last few days flow together from one teaching. Although little segments can be pulled out for study, they must stay in context with the whole message.

Jesus has already taught us on having a proper attitude, not being a showoff and being light and salt in a world that has spent so much time in darkness. He’s emphasized that we are to love as the Father loves. It only follows that He would instruct more thoroughly on how to treat and deal with others.

Don’t judge unless we would like to be judged. (I didn’t say it, Jesus did.)

Yikes, that one hits pretty close to home. I think we all can fall into that dangerous ditch of judging. That’s why we need to have our eyes examined. It’s easy to see the faults in others; sometimes we even magnify them, and then we overlook our own faults.

But Christ saw that we all need a Saviour.

“Christ had no sin, but God made him become sin so that in Christ we could be right with God.” II Corinthians 5:21 ERV

“Honor God by accepting each other, as Christ has accepted you.” Romans 15:7 CEV

” But I am giving you a new command. You must love each other, just as I have loved you. 35 If you love each other, everyone will know that you are my disciples.” John 13:34-35 CEV

“ If you think you are better than others, when you really aren’t, you are wrong. 4 Do your own work well, and then you will have something to be proud of. But don’t compare yourself with others.” Galatians 6:3-4 CEV

“God treats everyone alike. He accepts people only because they have faith in Jesus Christ. 23 All of us have sinned and fallen short of God’s glory. 24 But God treats us much better than we deserve, and because of Christ Jesus, he freely accepts us and sets us free from our sins.” Romans 3:22-24 CEV

Now, don’t choke on your coffee when you read “He treats everyone alike”. God’s grace and mercy is extended to all of us. “God loved the WORLD, so He gave his only Son”.

We don’t have to agree with what everyone says or does. God forbid, because then we would be agreeing with sin and that’s what God has delivered us from.

But, we do need to see through His eyes and love the sinner as He did for us without judging and condemning them. In God’s eyes, sin is sin. No big, no little – just sin that stops us all from having a personal relationship with Him. All sin is forgivable and once forgiven gives us a relationship with the Father.

Let’s have the Father give us an “I” exam and fit us with proper lens so that we see the world through His eyes!

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