A Charge, A Challenge, and A Reminder

by Hallie Gipson

Before Joshua’s death, he brings the elders and leaders of Israel together and gives them a ‘charge’ –- an instruction, an exhortation with authority -- that is found in Joshua chapters 23 and 24.  In doing so, he reminds them of all that God is and what He has done for them.

God, the covenant-keeping One, has:

• kept His promises – Joshua 23:14
• fought their battles – Joshua 23:9-10
• given them land, cities, and fruit to eat –- none of which they had worked for. Joshua 24:13 tells us they had not labored, built, or planted.

In his charge to the leaders, Joshua also challenges them to:

• “ . . . cling to the Lord your God.” (Joshua 23:8)
• “Be very careful, therefore, to love the Lord your God.”         (Joshua 23:11)

And to remember:

• “ . . . that not one word has failed of all the good things that the Lord your God promised concerning you. (Joshua 23:14b)

Finally, Joshua reminds them that following God is a choice they have to willingly make.  In Egypt, their fathers had served other gods (Joshua 24:14), but they must decide for themselves whom they would follow and serve – “choose this day whom you will serve . . .” (Joshua 24:15)

The words of Joshua ring true for us today. God is a covenant-keeper, promise-keeper, defender, and blesser of those who choose to follow Him.

Who will you follow today?

John 3:16 says that “God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” If you have never made a commitment to follow Christ, I pray that today would be the day. The choice is yours! Will you confess Him as your Savior and follow Him as your Master and Lord? He’s waiting with open arms!

Father, thank You for always keeping your promises, for fighting our battles, and for blessing us even when we’ve done nothing to deserve it. Most of all, thank You for granting us salvation through your Son, Jesus Christ.

DAISY CHAINS

“Then the Lord replied: ‘Write down the revelation and make it plain on tablets so that a herald may run with it.  For the revelation awaits an appointed time; it speaks of the end and will not prove false.  Though it linger, wait for it; it will certainly come and not delay’...”  Habakkuk 2:1-3

By Shirley Wiggins

 If you’re given a vision, you will be given words with which to verbalize it.

Your words will sometimes be misunderstood, under -appreciated, and perhaps angrily rejected.

Use them anyway.  What you see today may be for tomorrow’s world. See it, say it, share it:  write it, record it.

Amy Carmichael envisioned, by God’s Holy Spirit, a world where blind people were falling off a cliff into a bottomless ravine to their deaths with no warning.¹ 

Unseeing mothers with babies in their arms and little children clinging to their skirts, one by one perishing as they blindly stumbled off cliffs with too few people guarding the wide gaps.

All this needless perishing of people while those who could see were busy in their little groups – making daisy chains.

Daisy Chains! 

Amy tells how some of the sighted among them in their little groups would occasionally become so upset at the piercing screams of these poor unseeing people as they fell, that they would leap to their feet desperate to warn them of the danger.

Young and old, one by one they would stand up to try to cry out a warning, but each time they stood, one of their group would place a restraining hand on their arm, urging them to sit back down offering one excuse after another for not intervening.

She particularly describes one little boy who having stumbled (along with his mother?) over the edge grabbed desperately at a tuft of grass only to have it tear from the ground by its roots while he screamed and fell, still clutching tightly to the grassy clump. 

What he held onto for dear life could not save him.

When we see the world crumbling around us, we may cry and sometimes despair because we can clearly see that many people today are clinging to things that cannot save them.

When we see danger approaching the doorway of our own homes, we begin to pray as best we know how. We may desperately wish we knew how to pray more effectively.

Better had we been prepared for the day of calamity when it struck if we had taken advantage of the days of opportunity. 

Is there the sound of the Shepherd weeping over the sins of this world, as Jesus wept over the City of Jerusalem? 

Jerusalem, who had failed to recognize her days of opportunity for deliverance.  (Luke 19:41-44.)

Do we weep over the sins of our world, our place of impact?

Are we standing in the gap to pray for those who are seemingly unaware of the danger they and their entire families may be living in today?

Or, is our place left unattended while we are distracted by the cares of the world?  Are we busy making pretty, but useless daisy chains in these days of opportunity?

The Lord gives eyes to see and ears to hear His divine truth, with mouths to warn, and tongues to tell about the way, the truth, and the life.  (John 14:6).

When once we know the Truth, we have the responsibility to share the truth.  (2 Corinthians 5:17-21.)

The Lord Jesus Christ fully equips His people to be His messengers in this world.  Let us use all that He has entrusted to us.  Let us use the gifts His Holy Spirit has distributed to each one in the service of the world that God loves.  (1 Corinthians 12:4-11; John 3:16-21). 

God loves all the people living in the world, and those living in the Land of the Un’s:  unaware, untold, unguarded, unconverted, uncontrolled, unredeemed, unrepentant, untaught, unheard, unsanctified, unsafe, and unsaved… 
 

 “But the day of the Lord will come like a thief.  The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed  by fire, and the earth and everything in it will be laid bare.  Since everything will be destroyed in this way, what kind of people ought you to be?  You ought to live holy and godly lives as you look forward to the day of God and speed its coming.  That day will bring about the destruction of the heavens by fire, and the elements will melt in the heat.  But in keeping with His promise we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, where righteousness dwells. 

So then, dear friends, since you are looking forward to this, make every effort to be found spotless, blameless and at peace with Him.  Bear in mind that the Lord’s patience means salvation, just as our dear brother Paul also wrote you with the wisdom that God gave him.  He writes the same way in all His letters, speaking in them of these matters.  His letters contain some things that are hard to understand, which ignorant and unstable people distort, as they do the other Scriptures, to their own destruction.

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 3:9-18.

“Look, I am coming soon!  My reward is with Me, and I will give to each person according to what they have done.”  Revelation 22:12.

 

 ¹ http://www.4himnet.com/bnyberg/carmichael.html  “Thy Brother’s Blood Crieth” – by Amy Carmichael.

 

GOD'S ATTRIBUTES AND NAMES

by Hallie Gipson

WOW -- I have hardly scratched the surface of God’s attributes and names since I first committed to do it, nor have I made much progress in working through the alphabet! However, one of God’s attributes listed below has been especially meaningful to me these past weeks –- Deliverer.

Isn’t it precious to think about how personal God is in His deliverance? Our cries to Him do not fall on deaf ears! He delivers each of us in the midst of our circumstance in exactly the way best suited to us at that time and in that place. He is never late but always on time.

So whatever circumstance you are in as you read this, know that God longs to deliver you! He longs to be your shield and stronghold and your salvation.

Deliverer

Psalm 18:2 “The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer, my God, my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.”

Psalm 70:5 “But I am poor and needy; hasten to help me, O God! You are my help and my deliverer; O Lord, do not delay!”

2 Samuel 22:1-2 “And David spoke to the Lord the words of this song on the day when the Lord delivered him from the hand of all his enemies, and from the hand of Saul. He said, “The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer.”

Romans 11:26 “And in this way all Israel will be saved, as it is written, “The Deliverer will come from Zion, He will banish ungodliness from Jacob.”

Galatians 1:3-4 “Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for our sins to deliver us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father.”

Deity

Colossians 2:9 “For in Him all the fullness of Deity dwells in bodily form.”

Dwelling

Deuteronomy 33:27 “The eternal God is a dwelling place, And underneath are the everlasting arms.”

Psalm 90:1 “Lord, You have been our dwelling place in all generations.”

John 1:15 “The Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us. We have seen His glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.”

Revelation 21:3 “And I heard a loud voice from the throne, saying, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is among men, and He will dwell among them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself will be among them.”

Door

John 10:7-9 “So Jesus said to them again, “Truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep. All who came before Me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not hear them.   I am the door; if anyone enters through Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture.”

Father, thank you that even though You are far beyond our capacity to understand, You graciously reveal Yourself to us through Your word. Thank You for sending Your Son to be the ‘Door’ through which we receive Your salvation and rest in Your pasture.

“Delight yourself in the Lord; and He will give you the desires of your heart.”  Psalm 37:4

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!