FEARFULLY AND WONDERFULLY MADE

by Hallie Gipson

God’s Word tells us in Psalm 139:14 that we are “fearfully and wonderfully made.” But as my body ages, I find myself struggling to believe that and hesitant to even admit I am not acting as if I believe it! Can I get a show of hands if this is your struggle, too? Don’t worry – I won’t tell!

The psalmist also gives thanks to God because he is “fearfully and wonderfully made.” WOW – now there’s a humbling prayer! Can I really thank God for how I am made – how I look – how I’m ‘put together’ physically? Jokingly I might say I could if given enough hours of self-esteem counseling and cosmetic surgery! In reality, however, I have not been giving thanks for how God made me. I have been looking to diet, exercise, or some really cute outfit in an attempt to look like I think I should look.

Don’t get me wrong! I’m not saying we shouldn't eat healthy, exercise, or dress in an attractive and God-honoring way. But what is our motivation and where is our focus?

You may be wondering as you read this just how I arrived at this train of thought. It began during my quiet time the other morning. Although I’m typically an early riser, this particular morning I was awake and sitting on the sun porch even before the sun began to peek over the trees. I was a first-hand observer – and hearer – as the world around me began to waken. The birds began to chirp and light on the feeders in search of their first meal of the day. Almost every flowering plant in the back yard was in bloom. Everywhere I looked there was a burst of color. Each flower was unique and individually beautiful. Yes, all of creation was definitely praising God!

“I will give thanks to You for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.”

(Psalm 139:14 NASB)

 “ . . . fearfully and wonderfully made.”  Each person is God’s creation and that makes everyone unique and beautiful to God! God has not made a mistake in ‘crafting’ my body or yours to be what it is. He created me for His purpose and only when I have right-thinking about God, can I have right-thinking about myself.

God’s Word has some very specific things to say on the subject of our body:

·         “God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. (Genesis 1:27 NASB)

·         “Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship.” (Romans 12:1 NASB)

·         “Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body.”

(1 Corinthians 6:19-20 NASB)

·         “Now you are Christ’s body, and individually members of it.”

(1 Corinthians 12:27 NASB)

·         “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, so that we would walk in them.”

(Ephesians 2:10 NASB)

So, do I offend God when I say I dislike how my body looks as it ages? I believe the answer is ‘yes’. His Word says I am “fearfully and wonderfully made”! God the Creator made me to glorify Him with my physical body. He didn't say, “If you feel good about how you look, glorify Me” or “If you are young and healthy, serve Me”. He says I am “His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works” and that “your (my) body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you (me)”.

There will certainly be days when my earthly ‘tent’ groans with the aches and pains of aging, when I struggle to fit into my favorite jeans, and when all the wrinkle cream in the world won’t undo the life-wrinkles I see etched on my face. But praise God, there will be a day when I will be given a new body.

As a child of God, My Sovereign Creator, I will one day have a resurrection body.         I Corinthians 15:40-49 (NIV) assures me of that:

V. 40 -- “There are also heavenly bodies and there are earthly bodies; but the splendor of the heavenly bodies is one kind, and the splendor of the earthly bodies is another.

Vs. 42- 49 – “So it will be with the resurrection of the dead. The body that is sown is perishable, it is raised imperishable; it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body. So it is written: “The first man Adam became a living being”, the last Adam, a life-giving spirit. The spiritual did not come first, but the natural, and after that the spiritual. The first man was of the dust of the earth, the second man from heaven. As was the earthly man, so are those who are of the earth, and as is the man from heaven, so also are those who are of heaven. And just as we have borne the likeness of the earthly man, so shall we bear the likeness of the man from heaven.”

I look forward to that day, but while here on earth I will give thanks to Him for I am “fearfully and wonderfully made”!

BROKEN

by Hallie Gipson

It seems everywhere we turn we see lives that are broken as a result of abuse, divorce, relational difficulties . . . the list seems endless.

Do you have situations or relationships in your life that are ‘broken’? Do you get discouraged when you think those same situations or relationships might never be made whole or reconciled? Who are you depending on to be the glue that mends what is broken?

All too often I forget that I am not meant to be anyone’s solution or to try to accomplish what only God can do. My God is the absolute miracle worker! It is only by His grace, mercy, and transforming power that broken people and situations become mended and whole again.

§         I am weak –- He is strong:

“The name of the Lord is a strong tower; The righteous runs into it and is safe.”  Proverbs 18:10 NASB

§         I am hopeless –- He is the God of hope:

“Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you will abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.”  Romans 15:13 NASB

§         I am without love –- God is love:

“We have come to know and have believed the love which God has for us. God is love, and the one who abides in love abides in God.” 1 John 4:16 NASB

§         I lack compassion –- God is compassionate:

“The Lord’s lovingkindnesses indeed never cease, For His compassions never fail.”  Lamentations3:22 NASB

§         I look at circumstances and see no way –- God is the God of the impossible:

“But He (Jesus) said, “The things that are impossible with people are possible with God.”  Luke 18:26 NASB

§         My sight is limited –- God sees all and knows the beginning from the end:

“Then she called the name of the LORD who spoke to her, “You are a God who sees.”  Genesis 16:13 NASB

“I am God, and there is no one like Me, Declaring the end from the beginning.”  Isaiah 46:9b, 10 NASB

Because “He brought me up out of the pit of destruction, out of the miry clay, And He set my feet upon a rock, making my footsteps firm” (Psalm 40:2 NASB), I know He has the power to transform lives! I must be about the work of intercessory prayer for those whose lives are broken and who need to know of the transforming power of Jesus Christ.

God’s precious Word reminds me that He is the One who bears our burdens, delivers, and saves.

“Blessed be the Lord, who daily bears our burden, The God who is our salvation.

God is to us a God of deliverances; And to God the Lord belong escapes from death.”  Psalm 68:19-20 NASB

Holy Father, I praise you that You are strong; You are the God of hope; You are compassionate; You are the God of the impossible; You are the God who sees all; and You know the beginning from the end! 

HARD KNOT TANGLES

By Shirley Wiggins

I can hold in one hand all I will ever need to “do” life well, and when the appointed time of my death arrives, it will usher me securely into the forever part of my existence (Hebrews 9:27-28).

It is The Holy Bible.  God’s written record of Who, What, When, Where, Why, -- and How.

All you and I ever needed to know bound in one volume!  Awesome!

Or, as Henry Hugglemonster would say, “Roarsome!”  ( If you don’t know who Henry is, you don’t have a toddler in your home who loves cartoons!)

Seriously, there is a written prescription for every ill encountered in life, and it is in The Book.  A plan for life – a Master plan; a list of detailed instructions, and most importantly, for every time we get our insides tangled into a “hard knot,” there are myriads of reminders generously and lavishly thrown in to remind us that everything will one day be straightened out and cleared up.  Moreover, the end of this truth-telling story is that all ends well for all who have believed in the Book’s originating Author, Who is God. 

I used to have a delicate gold chain necklace that I loved to wear with different charms strung on it.   Just about every time I pulled it out to wear, that fragile chain had gotten tangled together into a knot.  When it was especially tangled, we called it a “hard knot” as compared to a “soft, loose knot” that could easily be untangled.

Finally it became too much of a nuisance to  have to pick out the knot, so I stopped wearing the chain rather than taking the time to properly put it away and avoid the tangles.

Many people, including me, have too often in our busy lives chosen to look at life that way, too. 

Too busy, too rushed to deal properly and patiently  with the seemingly unending string of difficulties and disappointments that can wear us out, and we have given up on some tangled things and relationships just to avoid the intense work of untangling them.

Jesus said we “ought always to pray and not lose heart.”  Luke 18:1 (ESV).

 Praying is hard work, but losing heart is a very serious matter that affects every area of life.

Various Bible translations refer to losing heart as quitting, becoming faint, turning coward and giving up, becoming discouraged. 

Ouch.

God’s Word grows more and more precious to me with each passing year.  I’ve never loved it and treasured it more than I do now.  It is absolutely my life-line as I grow more and more dependent upon its assurances and promises.

It is only when I neglect the reading and studying of it that I begin to “lose heart,” and  focus on “the morass of {my} mistakes.” 

Sarah Young, in Jesus Calling, has written this:  “Thinking that you should live an error-free life is symptomatic of pride. … failure highlights your dependence on {Jesus},  {Who is} able to bring beauty out of the morass of your mistakes.”

Merriam Webster’s definition of “morass:  1) marsh, swamp; 2a) a situation that traps, confuses, or impedes; b) an overwhelming or confusing mass or mixture.  Synonyms:  “entanglement…web…net…quagmire…quicksand…snare…trap.””

Entrapments that entangle with intent to drown like wading off into a quagmire of quicksand… 

Sounds just like what the Adversary might have ordered for his ongoing strategy to deceive many into becoming like him, by believing his lies, and being led astray from belief in God.

“Jesus said to them, ‘If God were your Father, you would love Me, for I proceeded forth and came from God; nor have I come of Myself, but He sent Me. … You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do.  He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth,  because there is no truth in him.  When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it.  But because I tell the truth, you do not believe Me.”                   John 8:42,44-45.

  “Be sober-minded; be watchful.  Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour.  Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experience by your brotherhood throughout the world.”  1 Peter 5:8-9.

  “…correcting his opponents with gentleness.  God may perhaps grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth, and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, after being captured by him to do his will.”  2 Timothy 2:25-26; please see verses 22-26.

Deception is his game, with death as his aim:  “And the great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent,  who is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world—he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him.”  Revelation 12:9.

“Therefore submit to God.  Resist the devil and he will flee from you.”  James 4:7.

The deceiving devil is a defeated foe. 

“A lion on a leash.”-Ann Voskamp.

  “And I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying, ‘Now the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of His Christ have come, for the accuser of our brothers has been thrown down, who accuses them day and night before our God.  And they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, for they loved not their lives even unto death.  Therefore, rejoice, O heavens and you who dwell in them!  But woe to you, O earth and sea, for the devil has come down to you in great wrath, because he knows his time is short!’ ”  Revelation 12:10-12.

He is conquered, defeated and doomed – yet he fights on, and so must we! We fight the good fight of faith, we do not grow faint and fear and turn coward.  We do not quit or give up. We must not give in to discouragement!  See the apostle Paul’s testimonial in  2 Timothy 4:7:  “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.”

  “You then, my child, be strengthened by the grace that is in Christ Jesus, and what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses entrust to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.  Share in suffering as a good soldier of Christ Jesus. No soldier gets entangled n civilian pursuits, since his aim is to please the One who enlisted him.   … Remember Jesus Christ, risen from the dead,…”  2 Timothy 2:1-4, 8a.

Jesus Christ is our Leader, our Commander, and King.  He is the Founder of our faith,  … “the Author and finisher of our faith”…  He is the “champion Who initiates and perfects our faith…” 

The Witness Who came first, and we have many who have lived and died before us who have been faithful to untangle the tangles in their own lives:  see Hebrews 11.

“Therefore then, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses [who have borne testimony to the Truth], let us strip off and throw aside every encumbrance (unnecessary weight) and that sin which so readily (deftly and cleverly) clings to and entangles us, and let us run with patient endurance and steady and active persistence the appointed course of the race that is set before us,
Looking away [from all that will distract] to Jesus, Who is the Leader and the Source of our faith [giving the first incentive for our belief] and is also its Finisher [bringing it to maturity and perfection]. He, for the joy [of obtaining the prize] that was set before Him, endured the cross, despising and ignoring the shame, and is now seated at the right hand of the throne of God.
 Just think of Him Who endured from sinners such grievous opposition and bitter hostility against Himself [reckon up and consider it all in comparison with your trials], so that you may not grow weary or exhausted, losing heart and relaxing and fainting in your minds.  Hebrews 12:1-3 (AMP).
 “For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world.  And this is the victory that has overcome the world – our faith.  Who is it that overcomes the world except the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?  … –Jesus Christ; ….  And the Spirit is the One Who testifies, because the Spirit is the truth.”  Please read 1 John 5:1-12.

We are more than conquerors (Romans 8:31-39), because of our Redeemer. ¹

 “Let the redeemed of the Lord say so, whom He has redeemed from trouble and gathered from the lands, from the east and from the west, from the north and from the south.”  Psalm 107:2-3.

Let us say so – again and again;  let us never be silenced!  “… You who make mention of the LORD, do not keep silent,”  Isaiah 62:6.

The race of life can feel like a long distance over rough terrain.  But, there is a way to win, and not give up, nor give in, but to finish it well.  One Way:  Jesus Christ.   See John 14:1-6.   Because of Him, we finish well.  He is coming back to claim His own.  Let us be found faithful in Him.

“Hebrews 12:1-3  The Message (MSG)  Discipline in a Long-Distance Race”

“Do you see what this means—all  these  pioneers who blazed the way, all these veterans cheering us on?   It  means  we’d better get on with it.   Strip down, start running—and never quit!  No  extra  spiritual  fat,  no parasitic sins.  Keep your eyes on Jesus, who both began and finished this  race we’re  in. Study how he did it.  Because he never lost sight of where he was headed—that exhilarating finish in and with God—he could put up with anything along the way:  Cross, shame, whatever.  And  now he’s there, in the place of honor, right alongside God.  When you find yourselves flagging in your faith,  go over that story again, item by item, that long litany of hostility he plowed through.  That will shoot adrenaline into your souls!”

 

 

¹ To be a child of God, you must first have a relationship with Christ. 

John 3:16-18 (ESV):    “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.  For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through Him.  Whoever believes in Him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.”

If you repent and turn from your sin, to Christ, and “confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead; you will be saved," according to God's Word, the Holy Bible, in Romans 10:9.