Category: God's Presence

What Size Is Your God?

12/3/2016

We tend to romanticize the whole Christmas story, after all, who doesn’t love a little baby and pulling for “the underdog,” the lowly and downtrodden. Isn’t that how we sometimes look at Jesus this time of year? We view Him as the sweet little baby Jesus laying in a manger who was born to a poor, common woman.

Think about this for a moment . . . Is your God too small? Is He still lying there as a baby in a manger, or do you see know Him as the Everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the universe?

How limited our view of God can sometimes be. That tiny baby we see in the manger is Emmanuel–God with us….always with us. In all reality, we can not truly grasp how big God is…His greatness, love, justice, mercy, strength….His grace, and yes, even His forgiveness. He is boundless.

“Do you not know? Have you not heard? The Everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth does not become weary or tired. His understanding is inscrutable. He gives strength to the weary, and to him who lacks might He increases power. “ Isaiah 40:28,29

Isaiah characterizes God as the Everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator. He’s inscrutable. He gives strength to the weary and gives us what we need to go on. He’s the Judge. He’s the Comforter. He’s the Redeemer.

These truths are proclaimed throughout the Old Testament to His chosen people as a reminder to them, because they kept forgetting and would take their eyes off of Him, they failed to follow Him and sometimes they even hardened their hearts towards Him.

Are we guilty of doing the same thing? Do we fail to know who He is and His unchanging character? Is our God too small?

He sees you. He’s holding on to you and won’t let go. He is Emmanuel, God with us. No matter what you are going through today, He is not surprised by it and He will not loosen His grip on you.

Be of good cheer dear ones, Our God is a BIG God. Our Lord God is with us!

PRAYER:
Lord, You are awesome in power and majesty. You do not grow weary, even when we do. You are the sustainer and lifter of our heads when we think we can’t put one foot in front of the other or even take the next breath. Lord God, You are big and great and wonderful. And I am small and weak of heart. Thank You for sustaining me yet another day.

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Evidence of Our Father's Tender Mercies

7/3/2016

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Coming forth from our pain will emerge a deeper trust in God. . . a beauty we can not even imagine. Even though we can't see Him or at times even understand what we're going through, we can always look around us and see His beautiful handiwork. His creation speaks and gives confirmation that He sees us, knows our hearts, and is aware of our pain.

"For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes,
His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse."
Romans 1:20

No matter where we are or how we feel, He is there. We are never out of the tender reach of His hand. It brings comfort to me knowing I'm never out of His reach and always on His mind and in His heart. As His child, I can never be removed from His strength, support, and the comfort of His presence. Thank You, Father, for Your tender mercies. They are new every morning.

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Seeking the God Who Is

6/2/2016

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There I stood at the Turkey Creek Overlook on the Cherohala Skyway, awestruck by God's magnificent message painted across the sky in shades of orange, red, and yellow. The setting sun was tucking in the hills and valley below for the night with a variegated blanket of velvet. How could anyone doubt the existence of God? I began to ponder words my husband, Mike, read at church Sunday from Romans 1. When I got back to our home I decided to look the passage up in multiple translations and The Message said it so well in modern language:

Romans 1:20-23The Message (MSG)
Ignoring God Leads to a Downward Spiral

"But God’s angry displeasure erupts as acts of human mistrust and wrongdoing and lying accumulate, as people try to put a shroud over truth. But the basic reality of God is plain enough. Open your eyes and there it is! By taking a long and thoughtful look at what God has created, people have always been able to see what their eyes as such can’t see: eternal power, for instance, and the mystery of his divine being. So nobody has a good excuse. What happened was this: People knew God perfectly well, but when they didn’t treat him like God, refusing to worship him, they trivialized themselves into silliness and confusion so that there was neither sense nor direction left in their lives. They pretended to know it all, but were illiterate regarding life. They traded the glory of God who holds the whole world in his hands for cheap figurines you can buy at any roadside stand."

Lord, may I seek only You, the One True and Living God.

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Finding Hope Along the Journey Called Life

5/11/2016

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Every moment is a unique place we’ve never been. The familiar becomes the unfamiliar. Trusting our unchanging God when we’re traveling uncharted territory is vital to finding hope. Sorrow, suffering, brokenness, are all an inevitable part of our journey. We could not know love without loss and sorrow, joy without suffering, and peace (wholeness) without brokenness.

When you're trying to find your way through the messy road of hurt, cling to what you know is true—-we have an unchanging God. That doesn’t mean the road of hurt to healing and hope is going to be easy; it will more than likely be a messy journey full of detours. And your journey is not going to be like someone else’s—-it’s a personal journey with a personal, loving God traveling the road with you. I wish there were five easy steps to no longer feel your pain, but there’s no such thing. What you do have are cross-shaped blazes marking the way to finding hope, reminding you of the truths found in God’s Word. Christ is your hope of glory, your hope for healing and peace. Based upon the truths found in God’s GPS system (His Word), I can promise you, you will get through this. He is with you because He doesn't leave you to walk this journey alone.

Grief tempts us to walk alone because it’s raw and messy and we don’t want to be seen as weak. Fight against that temptation to walk the trail alone. Walk knowing He is with you and ask Him to bring godly friends to walk beside you on this path to healing. They will be “Jesus with skin on’ as you journey through the messy paths of life.

“For in hope we have been saved, but hope that is seen is not hope; f
or why does one also hope for what he sees?
But if we hope for what we do not see, with perseverance, we wait eagerly for it.”
Romans 8:24,25

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When You Walk Away With Empty Arms

2/9/2016

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Babies aren’t supposed to die. They’re supposed to be born, grow up, and die when they’re old and gray adults. But we live in a fallen world and sometimes the fallout lands on us.

Lucie would be 5 years old today had she lived. It's hard to believe that much time has passed, and yet in some ways, it feels like yesterday.

Her then 16-year-old Mom was one of my clients. We knew early on Lucie would die shortly after being born, so we had time to prepare. . . if you can ever prepare for holding life and death in your hands within minutes of each other. Together we clung to God’s rope of hope and experienced the presence of God in the midst of great sorrow and suffering. It was a presence that empowered the young Mom, “T”, to survive the scars and planted seeds of hope that eventually blossomed. Today she is a thriving young woman in her junior year of college with dreams of going into the medical field.

"T" called me this morning, as she has every February 9th. We spent a few minutes catching up with each other, but mostly, we shared tears yet again. Five years ago our tears intermingled on the most heartbreaking day of her life; the day baby Lucie breathed her first and last breaths. The following day she walked away from the hospital with empty arms and a broken heart. Today, her aching arms are still empty, but her broken heart is mending, knowing God is using this in her life; and knowing one day she will see Lucie again in heaven--strong, healed, and whole.

Tears are a strange sort of gift God uses as a conduit to fill the broken hearted with His other gifts.

The rest of this post is from my journal dated February 9, 2011. May it bring someone with empty arms a gentle hug filled with comfort and hope.

“Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.” Matthew 5:4

"In some ways life has flown by this week, and yet in other ways, life stood still. It’s been a week of savoring both the sacredness and the sorrows of life. I’ve seen grace abound, yet I’ve also pleaded for more in the dark hours of grief, fumbling to make sense of how life and death come from the same Hand at nearly the same moment.

I’ve witnessed first hand an umbilical cord cut, ushering in new life; only to watch that life silently pass. Like a butterfly’s dance in the wind, so has life been this week; a thing of beauty and grace, fluttering about and then suddenly it is no more.

The grace of God has trained us for this moment. Forced to feel the burn of pain in order to benefit from the fruit of His grace both now and later. We knew life and death would come partnered together.

But it’s hard.

It’s hard to listen to a mother’s sweet voice singing tender lullabies to her child and minutes later hear the guttural tones of a mother’s heart being ripped from her chest.

I sat helpless by her side holding them both in my arms. Were the bitter tears I tasted my own or hers? I could not tell for they were mingled together.

“God, shower your grace upon us! Help us see You through this pelting storm!” My heart cried silently – I think. Maybe I whispered it aloud. Maybe that’s why I tasted the salty, bitter tears.

I may have been the teacher, the mentor, the life coach through all of this, but He has taught me life lessons as well. Lessons I need to write down as reminders of these gifts He’s given me this week, gifts cloaked in sadness and pain as well as some with great joy."

Processing Life's Gifts
(More from my journal entry from February 9, 2011)

"When I look only for blessings through the conduit of happy times and prayers answered ‘my way’ as an assurance of His love, I’m limiting my experience of God. All things come to me through His hand. Dare I only select the tastiest seeds to dine on and ignore the seeds that don’t taste as sweet? Are they not both meant for my good?

His gift to me is the full vocabulary of life’s poetry and sometimes there are words and stanzas of sorrow and grief.

As I listened to this young mother’s songs of lullabies and laments, I’ve realized His gift is all the music, even the discordant phrases and movements that are sometimes difficult and tragic. There is beauty to behold in His singing over me.

I can be as enthralled by life and it’s stony and sometimes thorny paths as I can be with its sunshine and flowers.

The full measure of life’s gifts include brokenness and trials, the kinds that transform me for His glory.

Those hard things that surround me can not destroy or harm me. Sometimes that hard place is actually God Himself standing up against that which seeks to destroy my faith. He’s my rock, my refuge, my fortress, a sheltering strong tower.

More than having life my way, He is what I want.

He is Life’s Gift."

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Gray Skies and Groanings

1/26/2016

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It's a gray, rainy day here in East Tennessee. When the skies are clear, I can see the Great Smoky Mountains from my front windows; but today, they are hidden behind the clouds, obscured from my sight, along with the sun that usually radiates through. The raw chill in the air is penetrating into my bones, making them ache. On days like today, I feel like everything about me is groaning.

Gray skies are a part of life. Our countenance changes, our mental, physical, and spiritual health can deteriorate rapidly when our face is not kissed by the sun.

The stresses of this world and our personal shortcomings can also feel like a thick, dark, gray veil has clouded our view. Corrie Ten Boom once said, "If you look at the world you'll be distressed. If you look within you'll be depressed. If you look at GOD, you'll be at rest."

Turn your face towards the Son and find hope.

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Jehovah Nissi - The Lord is My Banner

6/27/2015

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He is still Jehovah Nissi today. He fights battles on our behalf and provides the victories. What are you battling today? Drugs, sex, abuse, anger, unforgiveness, fear, a false sense of identity? Whatever it is, God will fight this battle with you and give you victory. Do you trust Him? Are you willing to surrender control of your out-of-control life, and place your battle into His hands?

I'm writing about the game Capture the Flag, Sgt. York, and Moses over at Laced With Grace. I invite you to join the conversation over there.

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Taking Inventory of Life

5/30/2015

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Great wealth is not related to money. It is an attitude of satisfaction coupled with inner peace, day-by-day, moment-by-moment walk and talk with God that declares, ‘Lord, You are enough.’ To summarize this in a word…Contentment.

Contentment isn’t something we’re born with. In fact, we’re born with the desire for more…more food, more stuff, more of whatever makes me happy…that craving for more is actually an inner craving for more about the Who and not about the what. And so we must learn to seek contentment, to seek the Who of the craving rather than the abundance of having more. Now don’t get me wrong, having “stuff” isn’t wrong unless we desire it more than we desire God Himself.

I love my collection of books and teacups, and my home. But lately I’ve been looking around and asking myself, what would be my bear necessities? What could I subtract from my life and still be content. I entered this world empty-handed; and I’ll leave the same way. I don’t plan on getting rid of everything while I’m alive barring a catastrophic storm. I want to enjoy those things that bring me pleasure, but not at the expense of being controlled by them. And so I've asked myself:

If I strip life down to only the essentials, simplify my lifestyle;
something to eat, something to wear, and a roof over my head, could I be content? WOULD I be content?

Everything beyond the essentials I’m considering as non-essential. No matter how I classify it, it’s all given by His gracious hand. It goes without saying, my husband, children and grandchildren are important to me, they're my heartbeat. I don't even want to think about life without them. But I know many who have lost a part - even all - of their "heart." As I’ve learned from the life of Job, the Lord gives and He takes away. Blessed be the name of the Lord. It’s foolish for me to trust in any abundance I may have for security. Ultimately, my loved ones and all my possessions could be gone in the blink of an eye. That leaves me with this truth:
The only lasting satisfaction is being content with God alone.

I’m thankful for my family. I'm thankful He has chosen to supply me with things to enjoy. I’m content. But should I ever lose a part of my heart or have to pare down and live with less, I pray I will remember this conversation I’m having with myself and anyone reading this. My life is blessed not because of things. My life is blessed because I know the Giver, and that possession, that Gift, can never be taken from me.

Verses to Ponder:
Psalm 63
1 Timothy 6:6-19

Have you taken inventory of your life lately?
What are your essentials and non-essentials?
What could life be stripped down to and you'd still be able to say,
Blessed be Your name.

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Are You "Bearly" Making It Through Your Day?

5/23/2015

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For those times in your life when you feel like you can "bearly" make it through the day... remember you can trust Him to see you through. Cry out before Him and He will answer. Like a parent lifting the head of a weeping child, He will lift your head and look you in the eyes and say, "It's gonna be alright. I got this. Now just calm down and catch your breath. Trust me." Salvation belongs to the LORD.

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Hope Amidst the Rubble

5/3/2015

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Two and a half year old sister protected by four year old brother in Nepal. Perhaps one of the most divine picture of the century !!!!
Posted by Vishal Jaju on Thursday, April 30, 2015

Heart Wrenching Rubble....

We've watched as shockwaves of devastation continue to shake the world.... Nepal and Baltimore are the epicenter of conversation. Pictures of both are heart and gut wrenching evoking tears, fears, anger, frustration. And then there's images of hope - babies pulled from the rubble, a little brother sheltering his baby sister, a lone black child giving out water bottles to riot weary police.

Spiritual Defibrillation

We see images, our hearts race. The media frenzy dies and our hearts stop beating with hope and compassion.... a life-threatening dysrthymia of the heart... we shut down, our heart stops beating with compassion for the lost, the downtrodden, the hurting, those treated unjustly. We stop looking around us and seeing the hopeless and hurting around us because we feel there's nothing we can do, or it's not my rubble so I don't need to deal with it. When our hearts stop beating and we have a flat line pulse, that's when we need spiritual defibrillation so our hearts will beat again with hope and compassion.

But what if you're the one whose life is laying in ruins leaving you with a heart that's skipping beats and racing out of rhythm? He wants to restart your heart, too. Stay with me... hopefully He will breathe Hope into you.

If God is good, why do people have to suffer ?

Theologians have discussed this question for years. And this side of eternity I don't know we'll ever know the complete answer. But from what I read in Scripture and from things I've gone through in my life, I keep coming back to God allows these things to happen so we will seek Him. We read about it in Paul's sermon on Mars Hill in Acts 17:24-27. He's appointed our times and boundaries so we would seek Him.

Are you hurting? Feeling hopelessly lost in the rubble of life?
There's Hope.

My heart hurts for the hurting, but I can't even begin to fathom the pain and despair you are feeling. But this I know, whatever your earthquake may be, this is true of God:

He is Faithful.
He is Good.
He is Just.
He is the Giver of Hope.
He loves you.

Don't see signs of life? Feeling hopeless?
Wait for it.
Long for it.
There is Hope for the hopeless.
Our Deliverer is coming.

Hear His words of Hope for you today.

I understand, My child, when you are uncertain about My will,
when you cry out in the lonely moments of your despair for the life of a loved one,
for physical healing, healing of relationships that have gone awry like sprung coils;
cries in the midst of a storm; Dear one, do not lose heart, do not lose hope.

I Am Hope.
I give you more than future glory, I am your present glory.
I do hear you;
I do answer you.

My ears are not closed to your requests and your fervent prayers,
but you must have hope. Trust Me!
I know your heart, I hear you,
but My will cannot be flopped like a fish on the sand.
I cannot change because you fast, or plead,
or because you insist you know more than I.

Allow My written Word, which throbs with the Power of Hope,
to enter your mind and body like fresh blood in your veins,
new life in your thoughts.

Your hope of glory is in My Son,
the One who intercedes for you daily.
He ransomed and redeemed you,
and provided the hope of eternal life that I promised ages ago (and I cannot lie)?

And how will your soul relax in the trials of life
if you do not perceive in the far reaches of your mind
that I give you more than miracles?

When you have My mind, My wisdom, My knowledge, My understanding,
you will not panic at the threat of death.
Instead, you will march through it
as if it were only a valley, because I am with you.
Do not be afraid, My child.
Caress the sister of love, which is your gift of hope,
and bravely come through the darkness.

(These words were compiled from meditating on the following passages: Romans 15:4; Colossians 1:27; John 14:2,6; Romans 8:34; Colossians 1:5,23; Romans 5:2; 1 Thessalonians 5:8; Titus 1:2; Psalm 23:4)

How may I pray for you? Please send me a message through the Contact page.

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What Size Is Your God?

Evidence of Our Father's Tender Mercies

"For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes,
His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse."
Romans 1:20

Seeking the God Who Is

Finding Hope Along the Journey Called Life

When You Walk Away With Empty Arms

Tears are a strange sort of gift God uses as a conduit to fill the broken hearted with His other gifts.

“Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.” Matthew 5:4

Processing Life's Gifts
(More from my journal entry from February 9, 2011)

Gray Skies and Groanings

Jehovah Nissi - The Lord is My Banner

Taking Inventory of Life

Are You "Bearly" Making It Through Your Day?

Hope Amidst the Rubble

Heart Wrenching Rubble....

Spiritual Defibrillation

If God is good, why do people have to suffer ?

Are you hurting? Feeling hopelessly lost in the rubble of life?
There's Hope.

Hear His words of Hope for you today.

The Muser

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Please Respect the Muser's Work

"For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse." Romans 1:20

Tears are a strange sort of gift God uses as a conduit to fill the broken hearted with His other gifts.

“Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.” Matthew 5:4

Processing Life's Gifts (​More from my journal entry from February 9, 2011)

Heart Wrenching Rubble....

Spiritual Defibrillation

If God is good, why do people have to suffer ?

Are you hurting? Feeling hopelessly lost in the rubble of life? There's Hope.

Hear His words of Hope for you today.

The Muser

Categories

Archives

Have each new post to this specific blog page emailed to you, or use your own RSS Feed Reader.

Please Respect the Muser's Work

"For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes,
His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse."
Romans 1:20

Processing Life's Gifts
(More from my journal entry from February 9, 2011)

Are you hurting? Feeling hopelessly lost in the rubble of life?
There's Hope.