Month: July 2023

“We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies.”

2 Corinthians 4:8-10 (RSV)

When I was around 13 years old, my best friend and I used to enjoy ice skating as a pastime. As giddy, silly pre-teens, we laughed at almost everything. If we fell on the ice, we usually laughed at ourselves before getting back up.

One day I fell, and as I remained sitting on the ice giggling, a skater, who was skating backwards, ran into me. We both apologized and then she skated off. 

I started to get up, but felt intense pain and weakness in my left leg. I managed to limp to the restroom, even as we continued giggling, while 

neither one of us bothered to look at my leg. I just assumed I would have a large bruise from the person who ran into me, but when I looked down, I was shocked to see a deep bloody hole in my left thigh, right through my green stretch pants, about an inch and a half in diameter.  I was brought to the nearest emergency room, received stitches, and survived just fine.  

We often hear stories of people who’ve been injured but don’t realize the severity of it, until afterward. It could be attributed to a combination of adrenaline and determination to complete a task. Soldiers, firemen and paramedics make heroic rescues, sometimes unaware of their own injuries. People are capable of heroism, especially when adrenaline energizes them. In my case, heroism didn’t factor in, just silly youthful ignorance.

In the spiritual realm, we all face different forms of adversity, which will test our faith. We have all been through hardships that leave us feeling wounded in some way, but somehow we managed to continue our walk of faith. Jesus said that we would receive power when the Holy Spirit fills us. We may feel ourselves attacked physically, spiritually, or emotionally, but the Spirit of God is in us, and upholding us.

Our spiritual adrenaline is the Holy Spirit. He gives us the resilience to rise from adversity, assuring us that we can do all things through Christ.

(Philippians 4:13)

Occasionally, we may limp or bleed, but we are never forsaken or destroyed, because the resurrection power of Jesus is always within us. 

We are afflicted, but we are not crushed, we may be perplexed, but never driven to despair. Every affliction makes us more resilient, because spiritual adrenaline has given us spiritual stamina.

We aren’t going to walk around giggling, but there is a deep and lasting joy from the Holy Spirit, that strengthens us. Peter tells us that the God of all grace will restore us and make us strong, firm and steadfast, after we have suffered a while. 

(1 Peter 5:10)

It’s difficult to fully comprehend the magnitude of God’s love when we are suffering, but He loves us more than we can imagine, and will keep raising us up, through a lifetime of mini resurrections. 

Holy Spirit, empower us with the adrenaline of your resurrection power, and fill us with deep joy and the resilience to rise above all adversity, today and always. Amen

“So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.”

“And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good…”

Genesis 1:27, 31 (RSV)

After God made each part of creation He looked at it and said that it was good, but after creating the first man and woman, He found it to be, not just good, but very good. 

One might conclude that by adding  human beings to His creation, it made Him happier, since we are the only part of creation that is made in His image. There is a divine part of God within each of us, placed there from the beginning. 

God sees something in us, that we cannot always see in ourselves or in each other. Because of original sin, His divine image isn’t apparent or obvious at first.  It is sometimes hidden deep within a person, but God can always see His divine image in everyone, and He pursues each one of us until we link it up with Him. 

God is invisible, a Spirit, so how is man created in His image?

Humanity is the only part of creation that was made with the capability to know and love their creator. We’ve all been given a free will to choose for ourselves whether we will love God or not. Within our freedom is our ability to image God’s love, in giving ourself to others. His image in us makes us capable of this, and it’s done by entering into relationships with other persons. Every human individual already possesses the dignity of these divine given traits. It’s not within us only by virtue of what we believe, although faith enhances it, but it’s within all of us because of creation. 

Living without faith or a relationship with God, leaves that divine part in us, unfulfilled. Until we recognize that only God can fill that void, we journey through life as broken people. We search for love in all the wrong places, and expect to receive it from other broken people, which only results in restlessness and frustration. 

God modeled divine perfect love, by giving Himself to us. Through the second person of the divine Trinity, He became incarnated as a human being. He took the physical form of a man, so that He could reach out to us, express affection, touch people, hug people, laugh and cry with them, and look into their eyes and speak to all who He met. What a privilege that generation of people had to see, hear and be touched by Jesus. 

(I’m a little jealous, to be honest.)

While He was here, Jesus asked all of us to yield to Him, saying it in several ways, throughout the gospels, “Come unto Me…Abide in Me…Follow Me…Receive Me.”

Those are words that require a response, and when we respond to Him, He restores the original beauty within us, and brings out that self giving nature that He placed in us from the start. There is a precious piece of the divine in all of us. We are all redeemable, and were meant to find our link with the divine, through an intimate relationship with the God who took the first step to come to us. 

This is why, after God looked at the first human couple He made, He called them “very good.” 

Even today, He looks at each person seeing His divine part in us, and how “very good” our life can be, as we yield ourselves to Him. 

Lord, help us to uncover more of the divine nature you have placed within us, so that we can love as you love, in a free and self giving way. I pray you bless and restore all broken relationships today in Jesus’ name. Amen

“The grace of the Lord Jesus be with all.”

Revelation 22:21 (NASB)

The birth of our nation is a David and Goliath story. Goliath was Great Britain, the most powerful military  superpower in the world, and young David armed with nothing but a slingshot, was the thirteen young colonies of America, fighting for their independence. 

The fight for our freedom took courage like David’s, but America’s battle wasn’t won with a single shot to the head, from a stone and a slingshot. 

Our independence was won after more than eight years, from 1775 to 1783, at the cost of over 25,000 lives, before a peace agreement was finally signed, and the thirteen colonies became the United States of America.

Some sad outcomes of our new nation were that the native Indians were displaced and pushed out of their lands. Slavery was a gross injustice, motivated by greed, and to top it off, our country became divided against itself during the Civil war. 

The birth of a nation is like the birth of a human being. As a person can become lost and broken, but is still redeemable, so it is with a nation. 

A person learns from their mistakes as they grow, and so does a new nation. Both are capable of making bad choices, struggling with vices, and falling into sin, but both can also recognize and overcome their faults. Both need to be willing to continually change, and with God’s grace and patience, they will succeed. 

God put courage in the hearts of all those who started this nation, and He isn’t finished with us yet. We can overcome any unfruitfulness and become fruitful again. 

The gifts and calling of God are irrevocable (Roman’s 11:29) 

America was called to be a light to the world and we have also been called to be a light to our world. Our gifts and our calling stay with us, and they’re irrevocable. 

America is not perfect and neither are we, but as the song says, 

“God shed His grace on thee”, 

and we are certainly lost without His grace.

Lord, thank you for protecting this country, and we pray you continue to shed your grace upon it as well as on each one of us. Amen

Happy 4th of July tomorrow!

“As the horns blew, the people began to shout. When they heard the sound of the horn, they raised a tremendous shout. The wall collapsed, and the people attacked the city straight ahead and took it.”

Joshua 6:20 

A heavenly being appeared to Joshua one day, giving him specific instructions. Those instructions involved marching silently around the city of Jericho, after positioning the priests and the ark of the covenant, protected by his best military men at the front and back of the crowd. They were to march around Jericho for six days, but on the seventh day, they were told to  march seven times and then blow the rams horns while shouting loudly. The walls of Jericho collapsed into the ground, and they conquered the city.

That involved a lot of ritual, and it shows that worship has several forms, and God should not be put in a box. 

God does not get nervous, and no sincere worship is too silent, too ritualistic or too loud with music and shouts of praise. He welcomes it all.

Worship brings victory, so let’s give God all the praise through all the forms that He deserves, as the Spirit leads, and march on in victory today, glorifying the name Jesus. Amen