The Gift of Encouragement – Devotion for Week of May 27, 2012

May 28, 2012 in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

In the Book of Acts, speaks of Pentecost and the power that came because the Holy Spirit came.  Mighty and strange occurrences took place.  Holy acts took place.  That same Spirit of Holiness is with you and me today.  Odd as it looks, grief is a time when the Holy Spirit will intervene to make a tremendous difference for our benefit.

Life in Christ assures the presence of the Holy Spirit.  Even though losses in life do hurt, Jesus said He would not leave us comfortless.  He would send the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, to help us through difficult emotional times and challenges.  When we ask the Spirit to move in our hearts and in our circumstances, He will.  It may mean answers that we did not expect.  But everything the Holy Spirit does is done by God’s decree.  Therefore, inherent in an answer is love.  God’s unchanging love.

Lord, Thank You for Your promise to send to us the Holy Spirit to help us.  Lord, we are never without comfort and care–all because of You and Your perfect promises.  Thank You, Lord, for Thy blessed assurance in all we face in life.  In Thee, Amen.

 

 

The Gift of Encouragement – Devotion for Week of May 13, 2012

May 13, 2012 in Devotion of the Week | Leave a comment

Believing in the future is an act of the will.  Trials come.  Tears come.  Life comes.  We can expect that we will know times of sorrow and pain in this walk of life.  Some of it will be unwanted.  But God will use it all to grow us more into the image of His beloved Son, Jesus.

Jesus is with us in the challenges of life.  Jesus cries with us and rejoices with us when we know times of joy.  But the seasons of sorrow have their purpose, too.  By faith we are let the Spirit of God speak and guide so that all we do in life is a reflection of His loving hand with us, even when life hurts.  The Lord promises to be with us always.  Trust His promise to be personal to you for it is.

Lord, never will you leave us.  Even when life is so very painful and disappointing.  Thank You, Lord, for Thy steady presence at all times and in all places.  You do indeed stick closer than a brother as You dearly promised in Your Word.  In Thee, Lord Jesus, Amen.

 

 

Transitions – May 2012

May 11, 2012 in Transitions of the Month | Leave a comment

A MOTHER’S LOSS 

Gather up the fragments that remain, so that nothing is lost.                                                                                       John 6:12

            Natural or tragic deaths.  Miscarriage.  Divorce and custody concerns.  Wayward sons and daughters.  Addicted sons and daughters.  Empty nest.  Infertility.  Estrangement.  Gang membership.  Incarcerated sons and daughters.  Ill sons and daughters.  These are some reasons, you can name others, that a mother or mother-of-longing experiences.  The losses known to women who face these transitions because of connections to children—physical or emotional connections—are deep and cutting.  Women who bear the strains of love for children or who desire to be a mother to children, are strains Jesus understands fully.  They are reflections of the power of God’s love toward people and the unique endowment of love that God places inside of women. 

            Today’s culture is a cauldron of  temptation.  This is true young people especially but for all who are alive in this era.  Drugs, alcohol, suicide, sex, bullying, cyber sins, and preoccupation with physical appearance are among the distractions in the mainstream.  These entice and threaten those who delve into these areas unadvisedly.  The emotional and physical ramifications of entering into these kinds of actions and lifestyles are great.  Sometimes they end in deep grief.  Many bear the sorrows of choices self-destructive as well as painful for others to bear.

             The Lord’s treasure of love inside of a woman is a treasure that has within it something new to give.  Losses hurt.  Losses require time and attention.  However, in God’s restorative power comes the enablement to love again and again.  In new ways and sometimes with new people.  In the process, He takes the pains of suffering and weaves it into wisdom and strength for new love to rise.  This is only possible through the power of the Holy Spirit.  He truly enables women to love again.  He gives to mother’s a depth of love that cannot be denied.  This is evidence of His love that is unending and unfailing.

             Whatever losses you have known as a mother or an onlooker to someone you love who suffers as a result of motherhood or a desire for it, is a loss that can be healed by Jesus the Healer.  Jesus has a way of getting inside of a heart such that fresh hope comes and possibilities present themselves.  This is not immediate for that would not allow for personal growth and deeper faith in Christ.  But over time and over time spent in His Word and in prayer, reason comes and purpose returns.  All He asks is that you give to Him the fragments of your love.  When you do, He in His power and abiding love will see that nothing is lost.  The Redeemer will redeem.  Trust Him. 

             Loving Christ, You know the heart of a woman and the pains suffered due to loving a child and desiring to love a child.  Lord, help those who bear emotional and physical pains as mothers to know that You are with them and with their children.  Lord God of Israel, You create children and bring them forward.  Help those who grieve to know that Your love for those You create is greatest.   All is in Your heart and Your sight.

In Christ Jesus the Redeemer, Amen.

Transitions – April 2012

April 1, 2012 in Transitions of the Month | Leave a comment

THE CLEANSING BLOOD OF JESUS  

 

My hope is built on nothing less
Than Jesus blood and righteousness
I dare not trust the sweetest frame
But solely lean on Jesus’ Name.
On Christ the solid rock I stand,
All other ground is sinking sand,
All other ground is sinking sand.

…than Jesus blood and righteousness.  Many know this familiar hymn by heart.  But that one line so impresses for it is emphasizes the foundation on which Christian hope is built—the blood and righteousness of Jesus.  Holy Week and Easter bring thoughts to Jesus’ suffering, death on the cross atCalvary, and resurrection celebrated worldwide on Easter morning.  The intense pain Jesus endured proves the intense love Jesus has for you and for me.  The blood Jesus shed during His beating and when He later hung on the cross was holy blood that secured our days in this world and our tomorrows in Eternity.

To read the Bible’s telling of that dark day on Good Friday, to read other commentaries, and to have seen the movie of recent years, The Passion of the Christ, is to learn details of the ordeal Jesus endured for the forgiveness of my sins and your sins.  The blood that flowed from Him was sacrificial blood that would cleanse us from sin and keep us righteous when we one day stand before God.  What Jesus did for you and for me onCalvary was an act of love unparalleled and costly.  Jesus accepted excruciating physical pain, shame, and emotional separation from God so that one day we could be acceptable before God.  Jesus suffered and sacrificed Himself all because of love.   

To say I love you to someone is to come to learn that what follows is what we possess in our hearts in order to live out the love we declare for someone.   Jubilant expressions of love require no thought; they come easily and gladly.  Challenges in love beg more of one’s will and define a character such that love either deepens or ebbs.  However, suffering in love and for love’s sake is the ultimate expression of love for it alone measures endurance and tests our depth of faith and commitment.  When goodbyes reach us because we love someone, grief strikes.  We suffer.  Our heart tells us how much we emotionally invested while we could or grief tells us what we did not give of ourselves while we had the opportunity.  Either expression reveals the degree to which our hearts were involved and tears will flow.

Faith in Jesus Christ ennobles us.  But it does not happen in grand ways; most often in quiet and even sad ways.  There is something about being broken in love and for love that allows us nearness to Jesus’ heart and to gives us access into the fellowship of His suffering (Philippians 3:10).  This is how we realize that love is precious and it depletes us in some measure.  Jesus emptied Himself to give of His love and cleanse us by His blood in the interest of our forgiveness for sins.  When we grieve due to losses in love, we experience a small fraction of the personal cost to Jesus for love’s sake.    Human experiences in loss and love bring us to places of brokenness and vulnerability that allow the Holy Spirit to bring us closer to Jesus. 

For the Christian who grieves this season, it is a time to remember that the Lord availed Himself to death so that we could live and survive the sufferings of life with hope.  This Easter, and each day of our earthly pilgrimage, may we be mindful of the risen Christ who laid down His life and shed His cleaning blood so that we would have a reason to believe that we could rise above grief and life’s losses for love’s sake. 

Jesus, the Holy Week and Easter season  will be more trying for those who have experienced loss.  Lord, You made a way for us through shattered dreams and unexpected losses.  You are the way.  We go through Your heart of forgiveness and compassion to reach the other side of a season of sorrow.  May Thy Spirit serve as a warm and steady reminder that we are not alone in our sorrow but that You accompany us to hope that does not disappoint.  In Thy beloved and risen Christ, Amen.  

The Gift of Encouragement – Week of April 1, 2011 – Holy Week

April 1, 2012 in Devotion of the Week | Leave a comment

As a believer in Christ, the capacity to give is not measured by what we give but by how much of Jesus is inside of us to give to others.  Jesus makes us givers.  His love, His heart, His compassion, His desire to care are reflected in our reach to others.  Christians measure their giving based on a dying to self so Christ can live and be the fullness from which we give.
Grief is a severe yet honest barometer as to how much of Jesus one truly possesses.  When we lose someone or something dear to us, how deep we go in faith to reach for Jesus’ comfort indicates how much of Him lives inside of us.  When we watch someone we know live with sorrow and pain, the degree to which we enter into that pain to help them is an indication of how much of self lives in a heart or how much of Jesus lives in a heart.
Holy Week begins with Palm Sunday.  Each day reveals the provocative and deep emotions the Saviour experienced in order to love you and to love me completely and eternally.  The cost of Christ’s expression of love is too dear for words.  It is an expression each of us feels in our hearts as we read His Word and meditate on the details that brought Him to Calvary.  Love is the reason why He did it.  Pain is truly part of love.
As we live with losses in our lives of people, places, dreams, and possibilities, we are to remember the Jesus who carried His death-cross for love,and then died on the cross to prove His commitment and His desire to keep us with Him forevermore.  Those who grieve can take comfort in the fact that Jesus is alive, and that all who know sorrow still have His love on which to lean and on which to hope.  Those who grieve can look to Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who gave all so that we could draw from His heart to be givers beyond grief and even because of it.
Lord Jesus, You gave everything of Yourself in love and for love.  You suffered an excruciating death that did not look like an act of love, but it was.  Lord, may we remember Your sacrifice on the cross as we walk throughout our lives.  Grant us Your Spirit to remember that love always involves pain and sacrifice.  But because You love us, You will carry us in our times of sorrow and You will teach us more deeply the cost of love.  In Thee, Lord Jesus, our Redeemer, our all.  Amen. 

The Gift of Encouragement – Week of March 25, 2011

March 25, 2012 in Devotion of the Week | Leave a comment

Life is the place where we learn about love.  Grief is one of life’s purest yet hardest experiences that brings forth understanding about love, its power, and why grief can be so penetrating.  When loss occurs in our lives, it is associated with the loss of love of some kind or the loss of the potential expression of love.  When someone or something in our life dies, we grieve not only that which has been but we grieve for that which will not be.

In the Bible, Isaiah 53 tells us that Jesus was a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.  In the Book of John (11:35) we know that Jesus wept over the death of his special friend, Lazarus.  Jesus was God and man as He walked this earth, and He knew then as He knows today what it means to suffer loss.  As you and I go through our seasons of loss and sorrows that can be devestating and occur without warning, we are assured that Jesus Himself will go through this with us.  Jesus Himself will suffer every pain we know and cry with us as we cry.  But Jesus will stay.  He will stay with those who believe in Him, no matter what.  His love is dependable and His love is pure.  His love will never end.

Jesus, You promised to be with us for the course of our lives.  Lord, love can be so very painful, for its various facets reveal much that is telling and instructive about You, about life, and about ourselves.  In all of the losses our lives know, knowing You will always be the strength and the healing that will bring us to new tomorrows of hope.  Jesus, You alone are the reason for hope and for continuance in life’s painful sorrows.  In Thee, we reside.  Amen.

The Gift of Encouragement – Week of March 18, 2012

March 18, 2012 in Devotion of the Week | Leave a comment

Hope is elusive when grief comes. Because hope indicates optimism, when loss enters our lives, it can seem as though there is nothing optimistic about the future. But hope in Jesus makes the difference between hope that is certain and the world’s hope. Jesus does indeed keep fervent and alive His complete hope.

Losses in life come in unexpected ways. However loss meet us, the Christian has the promise of Christ that He will be with us and He will help us navigate through those times in life that are so deeply painful. Jesus will usher us along and guide us by His Word and Spirit to pathways in His grace that we have yet to see but His hope is certain to eventually reveal.

Lord Christ, life hurts at times and losses do break our hearts. But You remain steadfast and strong, mighty to uphold those who grieve with Your love, Your tenderness, and Your perfect hope. Thank You, Lord Jesus, for Thy sustaining loving care. In Thee, Lord Christ, Amen.

The Gift of Encouragement – Week of March 11, 2012

March 11, 2012 in Devotion of the Week | Leave a comment

A full moon when cloud-covered is a compelling view.  The moonlight that emanates from the moon filters through the clouds, and while the contours of the moon cannot be seen, one is certain of the light behind it.  In much the same way, when grief covers our lives, we can be sure that the light of Christ shines behind our grief.

When grief impacts our lives, a secondary loss of hope can also enter in to cloud possibilities and dim the future.  But Jesus–Jesus Himself–is the hope that stays, the hope that does not disappoint.  When one believes in Jesus as Saviour, a life is infused with the Holy Spirit to uphold a spirit. This does not mean that we will not feel loss and sorrow.  We will.  But what it assures is that Jesus will accompany us when life hurts, and Jesus will carry us through a season of sadness–by His light.  Eventually we shall see the light again with our own eyes because Jesus stays and He guides our way.

Lord Jesus, You see the pains we suffer in this life and You stay through the times of passing clouds and dull light.  You make possible–even in night seasons–that which is purposeful.   By Thy light and vision, we trust You to be with those who grieve.  Lord, the Maker of the moon and the moonlight, help us to keep our eyes on You to bring light and hope to our lives.  In Thee, Lord Jesus, Amen.

The Gift of Encouragement – Week of March 4, 2012

March 4, 2012 in Devotion of the Week | Leave a comment

We cross paths with all kinds of people in life.  Spme are with us for a season.  Others for many seasons.  Sometimes there are persons we believe we will share lilfe with for many years, for all the years, but then life changes.  Death and unforeseen circumstances come and the framework of those relationships shifts and grief enters.  We grieve not only what was but grieve the loss of what shall never be. 
 
Jesus understands grief.  Isaiah 53 states that Jesus is a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.  Jesus knows fully and personally those things that sear our hearts and the reasons why.  Yet, He is never the One to cause grief but will carry the sorrows for us.  His love is so deep for people.  He takes every hurt, every wound, as though it were His own.  When He breathes on it, healing begins. 
 
Breathe on us, Lord Jesus, in our times of grief.  You know every tear and why it falls from the heart through the eyes.  Breathe on us, Lord Jesus, to make meaning out of grief; a meaning defined only by Your love.  In Thee, Lord Christ, Amen.

Transitions – March 2012

March 1, 2012 in Transitions of the Month | Leave a comment

    LOVE AND THE CROSS   

 

And he said unto Jesus, Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom. And Jesus said unto him, verily I say unto thee, today shalt thou be with me in paradise.     Luke 23:43

As Jesus hung on the cross at Calvary, two thieves hung on their crosses to the right and left of Jesus.  One thief was filled with contempt; the other with compassion and faith.  The one with compassion knew he was wrong, and that Jesus was righteous.  This thief declared belief; a declaration that moved Jesus to state and the Bible to record that today this man will be with me in paradise. 

For those who make Jesus their Saviour,Paradiseis a destination after life in this world but paradise is also a positioning throughout life.  What the Lord does is place Himself in the heart of a person who receives Jesus first and then the gift of Salvation Jesus gives.  One must be touched by the love of Christ to know He is and be moved by Him in order to take from Him.  This is paradise.  To know the love of Jesus is to have it alive in a heart all days of one’s life that lead to the great day of joining Him inParadise.

Love is costly.  Very costly.  The price is self.  One must give up one’s perspective, ambition, opinions, preference, and will, to love.  To love purely.  The truest test is of the presence of love is less of self and forgiveness.  The cross stands for love because it is the place where the deepest love came to include all and to pardon the unlovely.  The unlovely that is present in all of us at different times.  The cross stands as the beacon of forgiveness for all who will receive Jesus and His forgiveness.  Then, only then, is forgiveness possible.  The price of loving someone—a family member, spouse, friend, pastor, colleague, child, and one’s self—is whether or not forgiveness is given freely and received graciously.  If it is not, the love of Jesus is not alive in a heart.  Self is.  The patience of Jesus is great to wait for self to ebb. 

Losses in life, disappointments, and abrupt sadness can cause hearts to become hard and love to cease from flowing.  It is human and universal for people to be hurt and to hurt others, knowingly and unknowingly. The sure sign Jesus in a heart is one’s desire to make all things right and unified, even if that means things not turning out as one expected.  The peace and unity is what is most important; it is the love of reconciliation that Jesus so honors.  But when someone holds a grudge and will not be kind or forgiving, Jesus still forgives.  When one has been intentionally hurtful, Jesus still forgives.  Although the Lord understands fully the heart that so cold that it will not forgive, each day that passes when one does not attempt to make peace with himself or others, is a day further from fellowship and love with Jesus.  Relationship with Jesus suffers the most.  Whatever breaks one’s heart, breaks the Lord’s heart far more deeply.

The two thieves on the cross where separated by the state of their hearts.  One thief was filled with self and wanted his own way, and got it.  That meant not getting Jesus and being the recipient of His love, nor the love of others.  The other thief wanted Jesus and, got Jesus.  In the process he forgave himself, opened his heart to God’s love, and became the inheritor of an eternal home with Jesus.  When we love Jesus and are filled with Him, we always get more than we ever thought possible.  With God all things are possible (Matthew 19:26).

The act of love atCalvarycontinues to flow with power today; a today that invites everyone to receive Jesus and His love into the heart.  If you have done that, you can be encouraged and warmed as you meditate on the love and peace you and Jesus share together and that flows forth to others.  If you have not, the Jesus of Calvary stands at the door of your heart and knocks, wanting you to open the door and let Him in.  May your heart be made and kept through the love of Jesus.  His love is the most trusted love of all.  The love of Jesus is a foretaste of paradise, and a relationship that shall last and endure all the tests and seasons of life in this world.  May you share this incomparable love with Jesus—today.

Lord Jesus, life hurts at times.  But the warmth and strength of Your love and presence abound with assurance and peace.  Lord, You know the hearts of people.  You know when life hurts and that which dwells in a heart to make it difficult for people to reach out to love and be loved.  Love is hard for some to give, and hard for some to receive.  Jesus, Your love always has the potential to soften hearts and to bring people to new dawns of forgiveness, grace, and unity that make for paradise.  Lord, thank You each day for the power of Your love and the cross that continues to prove all that is indeed possible because of You.  In Thee, Lord Christ, Amen.