Who is She?

By Shirley Wiggins

“Since you were precious in My sight, you have been honored, and I have loved you; …”  Isaiah 43.4

There she is – the blind woman. 

You’ve seen her before and wondered that she had no seeing loved one or even a friend to come alongside her on her way.

How did she get here?  She can’t see to walk so she certainly didn’t drive herself here.

Who could just drop her off and leave her alone to make her own way through crowded aisles, making her selections without being able to read the labels?

Surely her conglomeration of things she’s gathered into her basket can never be combined to be useful!  Why does no one offer to help her?

People, especially other women, walking all around her, making their own selections with eyes that see while she gropes to find by feeling for her needs.

Why will no one help her?  Why do we pretend not to see what we see?

Women of all ages in all stages of their lives surround us every day.  We see their plight – and turn away. We close our own eyes and pretend not to see what we do see, nor to understand what we do hear.

The spiritually deaf and blind and mute abound on Planet Earth.  We see them every day.  Some of them we know personally.

What will become of our children and grandchildren in the coming generations if the seeing refuse to see and say,  and if the hearing ear blocks access to our hearts,  and if the mouth remains mute refusing to share the good news of Jesus Christ? 

To keep to ourselves the divine truth that the Messiah has come is a sin too grievous to contemplate!  He has come and died and been resurrected in all power to save all those with eyes to see and ears to hear, hearts to care, minds to believe -- souls in need of a Savior.

Who is she, the unknown (or perhaps known) woman, young or old, who  continually crosses your line of vision, whether your physical eyes or the spiritual eyes of your heart, with her bundle of needs she doesn’t yet know how to meet as God intended? 

That woman who deals with life’s difficulties in ways you know are destined to bring only misery and pain resulting in heartache and grief? 

Do we think that God doesn’t notice or care about those who have never known Him or perhaps who have just wandered far away from Him by missing the mile markers blowing past them in their desperate flight through life? 

The Lord does notice and He does care about all to whom He has given the breath of life.  Moreover, He wants His own children to care about all  people:  those who’ve seen the Light and run toward it,  those who’ve seen it yet ran away from it, and those who’ve never seen it. (See John 1:1-51.)

God’s desire is that all people would see the Light of His Gospel Truth and run to Jesus!  God’s desire is that all His people would be bearers of the message:  His message.  Time will run out before we’re ready, don’t wait to get involved with the folks who can’t yet see the Light and hear His voice calling them into relationship with Himself and His children.

Isaiah 42:18-25 The Message (MSG) 

You’ve Seen a Lot, but Looked at Nothing:

^18-25 Pay attention! Are you deaf?
    Open your eyes! Are you blind?
You’re my servant, and you’re not looking!
    You’re my messenger, and you’re not listening!
The very people I depended upon, servants of God,
    blind as a bat—willfully blind!
You’ve seen a lot, but looked at nothing.
    You’ve heard everything, but listened to nothing.
God intended, out of the goodness of his heart,
    to be lavish in his revelation.
But this is a people battered and cowed,
    shut up in attics and closets,
Victims licking their wounds,
    feeling ignored, abandoned.
But is anyone out there listening?
    Is anyone paying attention to what’s coming?
Who do you think turned Jacob over to the thugs,
    let loose the robbers on Israel?
Wasn’t it God himself, this God against whom we’ve sinned—
    not doing what he commanded,
    not listening to what he said?
Isn’t it God’s anger that’s behind all this,
    God’s punishing power?
Their whole world collapsed but they still didn’t get it;
    their life is in ruins but they don’t take it to heart.

The Message (MSG)  Copyright © 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002 by Eugene H. Peterson

 

Psalm 145 Speaks of Who God Is

by Hallie Gipson

As I was meditating on this particular Psalm recently, I began jotting down what this Psalm says about who God is. The more I read, the longer the list became, and it is in no way an exhaustive list. In fact, I can never know or understand all there is to know about God. My mind is so finite that I can’t possibly comprehend the depths of the triune God. BUT, I do have His beautiful Word that speaks of who He is from beginning to end.

I would encourage you to get your Bible and turn to Psalm 145 and read the Psalm as you read the list. Your translation may differ slightly, but no matter the translation the message is clear – our God is great and good!

GOD:

• King
• Great
• Highly to be praised
• Has unsearchable greatness
• Worker of mighty acts
• Majestic
• Does wonderful works
• Does awesome acts in power
• Abundant in goodness
• Righteous
• Gracious
• Merciful
• Slow to anger
• Great in lovingkindness
• Good to all 
• Merciful over all His works
• His Kingdom is glorious and everlasting
• Sustains those who fall
• Raises up the bowed down
• Gives food
• Satisfies desires (fulfills)
• Kind in His deeds
• Near to those who call on Him in truth
• Hears
• Saves
• Keeps
• Destroys the wicked
• Has a holy name
• IS HOLY

You are indeed great and highly to be praised, Father! What a comfort to know that you are beyond our comprehension and Your greatness is without end. Grant us spiritual eyes and ears to see more of You 
as we feast on the richness of Your Word! Amen.

God's Attributes and Names

by Hallie Gipson

Creator

Genesis 1:1 “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.”

Genesis 1:27 “So God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.”

Isaiah 40:28 “Have you not known? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not grow weary; His understanding is unsearchable.”

Compassionate

Nehemiah 9:17 “. . . But you are a God of forgiveness, Gracious and compassionate, Slow to anger and abounding in lovingkindness; And You did not forsake them.”

Psalm 103:13-14 “As a father shows compassion to his children, so the Lord shows compassion to those who fear Him. For He knows our frame; He remembers that we are dust.”

Lamentations 3:22-23 “The Lord’s lovingkindnesses indeed never cease; For his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; Great is Your faithfulness.”

Counselor

Isaiah 9:6 “For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon His shoulder, and His name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.”

Cornerstone

Isaiah 28:16 “therefore thus says the Lord God, “Behold, I am the one who has laid as a foundation in Zion, a stone, a tested stone, a precious cornerstone, of a sure foundation.”

Ephesians 2:19, 20 “. . . but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the cornerstone.”

Thank you, Holy Father, that Your word stands alone. It needs no introduction, no explanation, no preface to explain the content. It is a masterpiece all its own and shouts of Your Name from beginning to end! I love You!!

TO HUG A CACTUS

By Shirley Wiggins

Even if you’ve never actually hugged a cactus, you can imagine what fun it would be, can’t you?    I’m not talking about a light, barely touching hug, but, a pull up tight and close cause I love you kind of hug.  Think about that:  how much love would it take to hug a cactus up close and personal?!  I’m thinking a lot of love – what about you?!

If life is anything, I’ve found it to be full of multi-colored experiences:  some large and small, fun and pretty, some scary and ugly, a really mixed up bag of tricks and treats, for sure.

Life experiences can range all the way from the reasonably expected, through the totally out-of-the-blue and extraordinarily unimaginable.

One of the reasons for that, I think, is due to the uniqueness of people.  “Unique” is the polite word for quirky, strange, peculiar, different, or just downright difficult  personalities that come encased in human skin.

God is delightful, isn’t He?  The Bible says He fashioned each heart “individually.”  That surely means that while we humans share many characteristics, we each remain our own individual and “unique” self.

Now, I don’t know about you, but in my lifetime, I have encountered some very unique individuals!  And, let me hasten to add (before someone who knows me does it!), that all these folks I have encountered have encountered the queen of unique:  me! J

So, having said that, may I ask you a question?  Do you now know, or have you ever been associated with, or perhaps even related to, one of these folks that are so unique that just to be in relationship with them is a bit like trying to hug a cactus?

You have to be very careful how you approach them, what you say and how you say it, or else they break out in thorns!  And, when the cacti spines are in full bloom you know you are walking on egg shells!

And, isn’t God delightful?  He actually expects us to love these folks!  To be kind and patient and loving with them even when their thorns puncture our own sensitive, yet cacti-spine-filled skins too!

Of course, the great thing about this is that He also expects them to be kind, patient, and loving with us, too!

So, why don’t we humans try to have a little more love in our hearts for those of us who are as unique as me?

Please forgive me for hurting you, and I will work at forgiving you for hurting me.  You probably only accidently hurt me when I accidently bumped into you and pricked you with one of the million little cacti-spines protruding from my sensitive little sting-ray-type skin.

Let’s all just love one another because God loves each and every one of us!

Isn’t God delightful?  He is God.  He is the God of love.  He invented love and then He just poured it all out all over all of us.  “…God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.”  (Romans 5:5b.)

God demonstrated His own love toward us in such a personal and proof-positive way:

“You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. …  But God demonstrates His own love for us in this:  while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”  (Romans 5:6,8.)

This was no easy death.  Not for Christ, nor for God, His Father.  It was unimaginably painful in every way.  The anguish of the cross is soaked in blood.  The blood that was required to be poured out (shed) for the payment of sins:  death-blood.  The penalty for sin is death and not one sacrifice would do except the shed blood of the sinless One:  Jesus Christ.

He paid the price, He died the death that we might go free from the penalty of our sins. 

There was no other way, there was no other One, and so, when Jesus asked if there could be another way, He knew the answer was no, and so He told His Father:  “Father, if You are willing, take this cup from Me; yet not My will, but Yours be done. An angel from heaven appeared to Him and strengthened Him.”  (Luke 22:42-43.)

The death was a death of love, a death of penalty-paying of the price.  He came to die and die He did:  His mission fulfilled, He died with a prayer on His lips for those for whom He died – for us, for the humans whom God has fashioned with individual hearts, with a capacity to know and love each other, to know Him and love Him, if one would only choose to do so.

“Jesus said, ‘Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.”  (Luke 23:34.)

“It was now about noon, and darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon, for the sun stopped shining.  And the curtain of the temple was torn in two. Jesus called out with a loud voice, “Father, into Your hands, I commit My spirit.” When He had said this, He breathed His last.” (Luke 23:44-46.)

He breathed His last breath on earth.  He was buried, the sacrifice was finished.  So was death.

“On the first day of the week, very early in the morning, the women took the spices they had prepared and went to the tomb.  They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, but when they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus.”  (Luke 24:1-3.)

No, the women did not find the dead body of Jesus Christ, for He had risen from the dead. 

Read the beautiful and fact-filled account of all that happened on earth as Jesus sent word by the women to His disciples of what to do next and where to meet Him when.  For, He was going back into heaven until the time when He will come back to earth and gather the redeemed ones home to heaven to be with Him once for all time.

Read the Bible.  Don’t rely on someone else’s account of the glorious story of God:  Read the Bible for yourself and encounter the Living God of the Living Son of Man, the Savior of all who will receive Him as such¹. (See John 1:1-18.)

The Bible is the story of the Word God has sent to us to tell us what to do now, what to do next and where to meet Him when.  You won’t know what to do, how to do it, or where to meet Him, if you don’t know Him and read His Word.

 “Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God.  Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.  Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.  This is how God showed His love among us:  He sent His one and only Son into the world that we might live through Him.  This is love:  not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.  Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.  No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and His love is made complete in us.”  (1 John 4:7-12.)

“Therefore, dear friends, since you have been forewarned, be on your guard so that you may not be carried away by the error of the lawless and fall from your secure position. 

But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.  To Him be glory both now and forever!  Amen.”  (2 Peter 3:17-18.)

Love is the story.  We are the cacti.  God is the God of love and He hugs us closely and tightly and still whispers into eternity, “I love you.”

  

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

John 3:16 says:

            “God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever

            believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.”

If you have never accepted Jesus Christ as your Savior and Lord of your life, you are  invited to pray a simple prayer confessing your sin and asking Jesus to cleanse you of that sin.   If  you repent and turn from your sin to Christ, and “confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord and believe that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved”. (Romans 10:9)

 If you have just prayed to receive Christ, tell someone and go to church!

 

God's Attributes and Names

By Hallie Gipson

“ . . . even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You . . . ”  John 17:21 (NASB)

It is important how we view God and what we believe about God. It is essential that we have right-thinking about God and that we reserve our highest praise and adoration for Him alone.

As we focus on more of God’s attributes and names, God’s word comes alive as we hear:

• Who Jesus tells us He is
• how the Psalmist describes the Lord
• how the crowds refer to Jesus as He enters Jerusalem before His crucifixion
• what the Apostle John tells us from his eyewitness account and his close relationship with the Lord
• the name Moses calls the Lord after the Lord empowered the Israelites to defeat the Amalekites.

Beginning

Revelation 22:13 “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End.”

John 1:1-2 “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word as with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning.”

1 John 1:1 “That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched --- this we proclaim concerning the Word of life.”

Beauty

Psalm 27:4 “One thing I ask of the Lord, this is what I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord.”

Blessed

John 12:12-13 “The next day the great crowd that had come for the Feast heard that Jesus was on his way to Jerusalem. They took palm branches and went out to meet him, shouting, “Hosanna!” “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!” Blessed is the King of Israel!”

Banner

Exodus 17:15 “Moses built an altar and called it The Lord is my Banner.”

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

There is strength attributed to His name and protection. His name is the place where we can rest in the knowledge that God is who He says He is. Who do you say that He is?

Father, Your name alone is great and worthy to be praised! Thank You for the precious gift of Your word that speaks of who You are. Amen.

God's Attributes and Names

By Hallie Gipson

It’s hard to believe that we have passed the mid-point of January 2015 and are well into the New Year! But for some of us who can get a bit behind at times, I’m still thinking about the ‘new-ness’ of the year and what that means in my life.

The New Year is definitely about new starts, new resolutions, and new projects. It can also be about new ways to approach ‘routines’ that have become lifeless and without the same energy and passion we once had for them.

My quiet time is definitely in need of a new start and a fresh approach! I know God is always near, but my problem is approaching Him in a focused and Christ-centered way --- dwelling on who He is in order to prepare myself to approach His throne.

This is not a new problem for me, but one I have struggled with more than once in my journey with the Lord. In the past, I found it helpful to use the alphabet to jump-start my alone time with the Lord. And that’s what I will be doing through the blog in the next several weeks. I will be taking the letters of the alphabet in sequential order and listing some of God’s attributes or names along with Scripture that corresponds.

I hope you will join me in this fresh approach and that God will use it in a powerful way in your life!

My prayer as we approach God in this New Year comes straight from His word:

“Establish your word to your servant, As that which produces reverence for you.”  Psalm 119:38 (NASB)

Alpha

Revelation 21:5, 6  “And He who sits on the throne said . . . “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give to the one who thirsts from the spring of the water of life without cost.” (NIV)

Revelation 22:13  “I am the Alpha and Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End.”  (NIV)

Awesome

Psalm 47:2  “How awesome is the Lord Most High, the great King over all the earth!” (NIV)

Psalm 66:5  “Come and see what God has done, how awesome His works on man’s behalf.” (NIV)

Psalm 68:35  “You are awesome, O God, in your sanctuary.”  (NIV)

Psalm 111:9  “He provided redemption for his people; he ordained His covenant forever –- holy and awesome is his name.” (NIV)

COME, SEE FOR YOURSELF

By Shirley Wiggins

“…But Philip said, ‘Come, see for yourself.’” John 1:46 (The Message Bible)

Today is the first day of the New Year 2015.   I’ve been blessed to see many of these new years’ days - an ordinary woman, but one who has been extraordinarily blessed by the awesome God, the Giver of all Life.

This day dawns crisp:  clean, smooth, and a bit “stiff” in its newness, it is clear and cold:  33⁰ outside.  In its first light, everything is still, quiet and serene, with no signs of anyone stirring yet.

I love being the first one up at my house!  I sit wrapped in a warm robe, holding a hot cup of coffee, while the fire gently warms the room.  My devotional books wait on the table beside me, two Bibles nearby and pen in hand, I wait once again for the Word that will speak to my heart.  I will write it down, with its Scripture reference recorded in my journal, so I can find it again and receive from it all the richness that I know it will add to my thoughts for today.

What would my life be like if the Living Word was dead to me?  If He did not talk to me, how lonely and dreary my existence here on this earth that is not heaven would be! 

But God does speak to me!  He hears me, too, as I talk with Him throughout my day and sometimes during those odd hours of the night when I wake up for no apparent reason.  His peace-filled Presence comes to me and stays with me because He is always near.

So close:  His Word abides in me, and I remain in Him because I am in Jesus, Jesus is in me, and Jesus is in God because God abides in Jesus.

Beautiful plan!  God is grand!

I read earlier this week in the Bible (which has been preserved for the unfolding of Truth),  about Philip, who when he had discovered the identity of the long awaited One written about by Moses and the Prophets in the Old Testament of The Holy Bible, looked until he found Nathaniel to tell him the good news of his discovery.

As amazing as it sounded, Philip had found out that He was actually “Jesus of Nazareth, the “legal” son of Joseph, the carpenter!”

Nathaniel was skeptical and surprised and replied, “Nazareth!  Can anything good come out of Nazareth?”

Philip made this reply, and though I had read it before, this time it spoke to my heart:  “Come, see for yourself!”

That is my desire for each individual:  the opportunity to discover Jesus.  That we would stop forming our opinions of Jesus Christ based on what others are saying about Him, but that each of us would personally discover the truth about Him.

He is real, literally alive.  He actually came to the earth born as a Baby, lived for 33 years and died as a Man, on a cross, and was buried.  Astoundingly, He did not remain dead in the grave.  Because His father was not Joseph – His Father was the God of the Bible, Who raised Him from the dead in great resurrection power.

 Not everything written and orally declared about Jesus is actually true; but everything written about Him in The Holy Bible is real; it is Truth: absolute Truth.

 Come!  See for yourself!

Let this be the year of the Bible:  The year when each one of us will explore Truth.  The year when millions of us will come into its pages in the multitudes of its languages and its translations; in spite of the fact that Newsweek magazine has an article coming out in the January 2, 2015 issue that implies, among other things, that no one can read the “real” Bible, because it has been so changed. 

 Come!  See for yourself!

Discover what countless others have found:  Truth!

Truth, like priceless treasure hidden deeply, yet clearly available in The Holy Bible.

  What a paradox!  What an open secret, just waiting for us to find it and be:

·       As astounded as Nathaniel,

·       As delighted as Philip,

·       As convinced as Peter,

·       As willingly obedient as Mary, mother of Jesus,

·       As eager to know it in its details as Apollos,

·       As dedicated to teaching it as Aquila and Priscilla,

·       As hungry for it as Cornelius and his family,

·       As determined to tell it as Paul, and

·       As ready and willing to die for it as Stephen.

God’s truth, once embraced, ensures that we will never be the same again.  Because the Truth of God is Jesus Christ and God has hidden all of Truth’s knowledge and Wisdom in Him. 

Oh, that we might be willing today to know the Truth!   That all would be willing to truly come to know Jesus Christ this year that no one would die without Him!

Oh, that no one would doubt His existence when He has so willingly proven Himself for each of us.  Oh, that we would no longer deny His love since He died to prove it by demonstrating God’s love publicly on the cross of shame.

Oh, that not one of us would deny ourselves a lifetime of joy and peace on this earth, and afterwards an eternity of alive “time” in  His glorious Presence forever in the new Heaven – Zion, that Holy City which has been prepared for those who love Him.

Every person (man, woman, boy, and girl) who desires to know the truth may know the Truth.  Would you open the Bible and discover truth for yourself and your loved ones?  You truly can read the Bible and understand it with the help of the Holy Spirit of God Himself.

 “The secret things belong unto the Lord our God, but the things which are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law.”  Deuteronomy 29:29 Amp. Bible.

“But it is from Him (God) that you have your life in Christ Jesus, Whom God made our Wisdom from God – revealed to us a knowledge of the divine salvation previously hidden, manifesting itself as our Righteousness – thus making us upright and putting us in right  standing with God, and our Consecration making us pure and holy, and our Redemption providing our ransom from eternal penalty for sin.”  1 Corinthians 1:30 Amp.

The Apostle Paul wrote these words: 

“As for myself, brethren, when I came to you, I did not come proclaiming to you the testimony and evidence or mystery and secret of God [concerning what He has done through Christ for the salvation of people] in lofty words of eloquence or human philosophy and wisdom; For I resolved to know nothing (to be acquainted with nothing, to make a display of the knowledge of nothing, and to be conscious of nothing) among you except Jesus Christ (the Messiah) and Him crucified. …. So that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men (human philosophy) but in the power of God. … Yet… it is indeed not a wisdom of this present age or of this world nor of the leaders and rulers of this age, who are being brought to nothing and are doomed to pass away..  but rather what we are setting forth is a wisdom of God once hidden from the human understanding and now revealed to us by God – that wisdom which God devised and decreed before the ages…. To lift us into the glory of His Presence.

None of the rulers of this age or world perceived and recognized and understood this, for if they had, they would never have crucified the Lord of glory. 

But on the contrary, as the Scripture says, What eye has not seen and ear has not heard and has not entered into the heart of man, all that God has prepared (made and keeps ready) for those who love Him – who hold Him in affectionate reverence, promptly obeying Him and gratefully recognizing the benefits He has bestowed,

Yet to us God has unveiled and revealed them by and through His Spirit, for the Holy Spirit searches diligently, exploring and examining everything, even sounding the profound and bottomless things of God (the divine counsels and things hidden and beyond man’s scrutiny). …  Now we have not received the spirit that belongs to the world, but the Holy Spirit Who is from God, given to us that we might realize and comprehend and appreciate the gifts of divine favor and blessing so freely and lavishly bestowed on us by God, … …For who has known or understood the mind (the counsels and purposes) of the Lord so as to guide and instruct Him and give Him knowledge?  But we have the mind of Christ (the Messiah) and do hold the thoughts (feelings and purposes) of His heart.” 

How awesome is this Gospel of Jesus Christ, the good news of truth!? 

 In the interest of space, I  have left out much of what Paul has written between First Corinthians 1:1 and 2:16  (in The Amplified Bible), so I urge you, open up the preciously preserved Word of God (The Holy Bible) and explore it to discover the life-saving Truth of God Himself for yourself!

Happy New Year!