This blog is designed to create community for believers and provide support for seekers. I encourage all readers to share their faith in an effort to lift and encourage one another.
“If Christ is not all to you He is nothing to you. He will never go into partnership as a part Saviour of men. If He be something He must be everything, and if He be not everything He is nothing to you.”
― Charles H. Spurgeon
Definitely a thought-provoking quote.
The poet Robert Burns said, “the best laid plans of mice and men often go astray.” From the wisdom of Proverbs, it seems we shouldn’t be upset when then happens. Instead, we should rejoice in God’s plan for us.
Lord, remind me to consult you before I make all my “wonderful” plans for my future. I’m so grateful that you do have a plan for me, one that will give me a hope and a future. See Jeremiah 29:11
Do you remember how the Pharisees tested Jesus by asking Him which was the greatest commandment in the law? You know, the one where He passed the test with this basic reply: Love God and love your neighbor. As I’ve been meditating on these verses, I realize Jesus spent much of His ministry showing us who our neighbors are and showing us how to love them.
In Jesus’ time on earth, people believed illnesses occurred because of sin, either the person’s or his parents’. Jesus healed people from all kinds of maladies. Many were blind, crippled, deaf, paralyzed. Some were even untouchable lepers. Yet He healed them; He had compassion for them all. Even though they were sick and “unclean,” Jesus loved His neighbors.
He taught about the good Samaritan, the man who stopped to help an Israelite who’d been robbed and beaten. Other Jewish men had chosen to ignore the wounded man and walk on the other side of the road, but the foreigner, the hated Samaritan, stopped to help. Even though the Jews hated him, the Samaritan loved his neighbor.
When with his disciples, Jesus walked through Samaria rather than skirting around it as others did, for they wanted nothing to do with the despised Samarian people. In Samaria, Jesus stopped to talk with the woman at the well, a Samaritan who had had five husbands and then lived with a man she hadn’t married. Jesus looked past a hated Samaritan living in sin and saw a woman who needed a Savior. Jesus loved His neighbor.
He talked Zacchaeus, a cheating, hated tax collector, out of that tree. He went into his home, ate with him, and talked with him. No respectful man would even have thought of doing this, but Jesus loved that cheater.
Jesus even had a despised tax collector as one of his 12 apostles and Mary Magdalen, a former prostitute, as part of his larger group of followers.
The Pharisees criticized him for eating and drinking with sinners. They didn’t look below the surface, didn’t take a deeper look. They didn’t see individual people. They saw groups of people: impure Samaritans, sin-filled diseased people, cheating tax collectors, and immoral women, nothing more.
But Jesus took a deeper look. He looked with holy eyes, deep into their souls. He saw unique individuals created in His Father’s image. He saw beloved neighbors, and He loved them, with words and deeds.
I have always viewed myself as caring and compassionate toward others. But when I look again at the scriptures, when I look again at His loving actions, I hang my head in shame. How far short I fall from loving my neighbors the way Jesus loves them.
Lord, you know there are times I have stereotyped people rather than seeing individuals created and loved by God. I have seen and judged their sin, not the beloved neighbor. And I realize I’ve sinned. I ask You for forgiveness. I seek Your wisdom so I can view others through Jesus’ eyes. I long to learn how to love them.
What about you? Are you ready to take a deeper look?
Matt. 22:37-39 NIV. “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’”
“He remembers our frame and knows that we are dust. He may sometimes chasten us, it is true, but even this He does with a smile, the proud, tender smile of a Father who is bursting with pleasure over an imperfect but promising son who is coming every day to look more and more like the One whose child he is.”― A.W. Tozer
Oh, Lord, you know that sometimes I want to mete out justice. “This person deserves this punishment, and those people deserve that,” I think in my arrogance. The words of Your Son, my Savior, humble me. “Do not judge, or you too will be judged.” Mt. 7:1. In Your time and Your way, Lord, “Let justice run on like a river.”
“Patience is more than endurance. A saint’s life is in the hands of God like a bow and arrow in the hands of an archer. God is aiming at something the saint cannot see, and He stretches and strains, and every now and again the saint says–‘I cannot stand anymore.’ God does not heed, He goes on stretching till His purpose is in sight, then He lets fly. Trust yourself in God’s hands. Maintain your relationship to Jesus Christ by the patience of faith. ‘Though He slay me, yet will I trust in Him.”
― Oswald Chambers
Lord, I pray for peace among your people, and I pray that peace will begin with me. Teach me to be kind and loving, and to offer grace to others, especially those who do not treat me well or who disagree with me. Teach me to love them as your beloved creations.
Frost has kissed the forest. Leaves and grasses have succumbed to its deadly touch. Yellow and brown leaves flutter from the trees. The stream is littered with autumn’s golden snowfall. As I wander off the soft, sandy trail, my feet crunch noisily through the leafy debris. Looking up, I see trees lifting dark, barren branches skyward. Others sport a few green and yellow leaves, but these too are destined to drop to the forest floor.
It’s silent here. No birds call. No animals chatter to their mates. High above in the treetops the wind blows, rustling the remaining leaves. This rustling soon grows to a roar as the wind rushes past barren branches. So much around me seems dead, lifeless. Yet, I know the forest lives. As I walk, I hear crackling in the dead leaves and know small animals run and hide from this human invading their territory. I stop a moment at the stream, listening to the rushing waters bouncing over the rocks. The sound soothes my soul. I look at the brown grass and the barren trees around the stream and I imagine their roots digging deep into the soil. Above the soil they appear dead, yet their roots continue to draw nourishment into the living plants.
So it is with my soul. At times it becomes brown and looks lifeless. Life is difficult, and I struggle from an unresponsive spirit and lack of enthusiasm. But then I go to a still place and listen. Just like the wind rushes through the trees, God’s voice rushes through my soul, giving me peace. I listen. I learn. I allow the roots of my soul to draw up spiritual nourishment. I rejoice, waiting patiently for that first green blush of spring to sprout in my soul.
Thank you, Father, for giving reassurance of Your soul-lifting presence, even when life appears drab, dreary, and lifeless.
Psalm 30:5b NIV “Weeping may remain for a night, but rejoicing comes in the morning.”
“The point is not to completely understand God but to worship Him. Let the very fact that you cannot know Him fully lead you to praise Him for His infiniteness and grandeur.”
— Francis Chan
God, you are love and wisdom, creator and justice, all-knowing and all-powerful. I will never understand the depths of your grace. I don’t understand, but I worship all your amazing qualities. Thank you for loving me and redeeming me.
Growing Our Faith Together 