{Doodlebug}

Saturday, April 26, 2014

Faithful Fridays ~ Hope.

Hey, eveyone! I want to start out today by asking for prayer for my aunt Missy. She was admitted into the hospital on Tuesday with a small bleed on her brain--but it ended up being worse than they thought. My aunt's in critical condition, and she really needs prayers--for her and for her family. This is pretty rough and really scary for all of us. We're all in Alabama and we went to see her yesterday--she already seems to be doing better, thank the Lord! He's already answered a lot of prayers. She's been in an induced coma to get rest for her brain and her body, but tonight they started bringing her out of the coma, and she woke up and has her eyes open! They're unsure if she'll regain speech/motor skills--but we know God is a miracle-working God. So would you guys join us in praying for complete healing for my aunt and peace for the family? We appreciate it so much! :)

Faithful Fridays is a weekly linky party hosted on my blog. I made it so that Christians could have one special day out of the week (Friday) to share something from their walk with Jesus on their blog. If you'd like to participate, write your post, grab the button from the Faithful Fridays page on my blog (so that it will link back here), and come link up at the bottom of this post! :)

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I think the idea of hope is sometimes twisted a little bit; undermined, underestimated, underrated. I think when most people think of it, they consider hope to be something you do against the circumstances, or a wish, or something that's slightly possible and keeps you going through hard times. I know that I'm guilty of thinking that way at times. One definition of hope reads: "to want something to happen or be true and think that it could happen or be true." But that's not what hope is as God defines it.

"Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful." -Hebrews 10:23

"Rejoice in our confident hope. Be patient in trouble, and keep on praying." -Romans 12:12

"Paul, a servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ to further the faith of God's elect and their knowledge of the truth that leads to godliness--in the hope of eternal life, which God, who does not lie, promised before the beginning of time," -Titus 1:1-2

"Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope: Because of the Lord's great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness." -Lamentations 2:21-23

"And hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us." -Romans 5:5

"So God has given us both his promise and his oath. These two things are unchangeable because it is impossible for God to lie. Therefore, we who have fled to him for refuge can have great confidence as we hold to the hope that lies before us." -Hebrews 6:18

"And if Christ had not been raised, then your faith is useless and you are still guilty of your sins. In that case, all who have died believing in Christ are lost! And if our hope in Christ is only for this life, we are more to be pitied than anyone in the world. But in fact, Christ has been raised from the dead. He is the first of a great harvest of all who have died." -1 Corinthians 15:17-20

"He will not crush the weakest reed or put out a flickering candle. Finally he will cause justice to be victorious. And his name will be the hope of the world." -Matthew 12:20-21

"Don't put your confidence in powerful people; there is no hope for you there. When they breathe their last, they return to the earth, and all their plans die with them. But joyful are those who have the God of Israel as their helper, whose hope is in the Lord their God. He made heaven and earth, the sea, and everything in them. He keeps every promise forever." -Psalm 146:3-6

The hope God talks about and gives is not a wish, or a whim, or a distant possibility. It's a concrete, solid, promise. It's something we can proclaim with confidence, something we can stand on expectantly, something for which we can give thanks, something in which we can worship.

The hope God gives comes directly from Him; it's His word, His promise. And His word has proved itself trustworthy and true so many times, in so many ways.

The hope God gives was brought to life in Jesus; it was made touchable and seeable in Him. He didn't die; He lived! He worked miracles! And He paid the price for our ransom, forever. He conquered the separation between us and God; He brought that hope!

The hope God gives is a reality. It's real. His love is for real; His promises are for real; His word is for real. Stand on it. Live in it. Take joy in it.
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God bless you guys and have a great weekend! Joy :)

Friday, April 18, 2014

Faithful Fridays ~ Good Friday.

Hi, everyone! I hope you're having a good Easter weekend! :)

Faithful Fridays is a weekly linky party hosted on my blog. I made it so that Christians could have one special day out of the week (Friday) to share something from their walk with Jesus on their blog. If you'd like to participate, write your post, grab the button from the Faithful Fridays page on my blog (so that it will link back here), and come link up at the bottom of this post! :)
************************************************************** "Good Friday was the worst Friday until Sunday." -Mike Donehey

This really struck a chord with me today. Because on this day about 2,000 years ago, a group of disciples and followers of Jesus, people who loved Him and trusted Him dearly, were in the depths of despair. It seemed as if all was lost. It seemed as if God had failed them. I imagine they felt let down, and immensely disappointed. They probably felt like the ground had been snatched up from under them. Their Jesus, the one they believed to be the Son of God, had been brutally tortured. He had been beaten bloody, executed, mocked, betrayed, forsaken. He had been killed, and buried, cold and dead, in a tomb, a heavy bolder rolled in front. So seemingly final, and permanent. It must have seemed like all their hope was buried with it. "The thief's purpose is to steal and kill and destroy. My purpose is to give them a rich and satisfying life. I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd sacrifices his life for the sheep. A hired hand will run when he sees a wolf coming. He will abandon the sheep because they don't belong to him and he isn't their shepherd. And so the wolf attacks them and scatters the flock. The hired hand runs away because he's working only for the money and doesn't really care about the sheep. I am the good shepherd; I know my own sheep, and they know me, just as my Father knows me and I know the Father. So I sacrifice my life for the sheep. I have other sheep, too, that are not in this sheepfold. I must bring them also. They will listen to my voice, and there will be one flock with one shepherd. The father loves me because I sacrifice my life so I may take it back again. No one can take my life from me. I sacrifice it voluntarily. For I have the authority to lay it down when I want to and also to take it up again. For this is what my Father has commanded." -John 10:10-18

But little did those around know that in just three days, their doubts would be wiped away, their faith in this great Jesus confirmed. They didn't realize then that God was about to show His mighty power clearly in His Son, by raising Him from that cold, dark finality of death that sin brought on. They didn't realize that when Jesus cried out, "It is finished," He meant it. He meant that in Him, sin and death no longer hold power over us--He meant that with His resurrection, He had conquered it, and in Him, we are free, and we are conquers ourselves, through Him who loved us! And when that temple curtain split in two--the curtain that divided people from the inner presence of God--He was showing us that separation from God no longer exists. We're face-to-face with Love Himself! He will give His Spirit to us, God alive in us, living and moving and working in us! He was showing us that the chasm between God and sin-stained man had been bridged--forever. From that moment on we no longer had to worry about being fit for God. By simply placing our trust in Jesus and laying ourselves at His feet, with all our sins and shortcomings and weaknesses and doubts and failures, we were made fit for Him. Because He loved us. He didn't need us. He didn't have to sacrifice Himself, but He did. He chose to. He chose us. He knew us, long before we were born. He wanted us. He loved us. He pursued us. He had a crazy love for us.
"You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit--fruit that will last--and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you." -John 15:16 No, the disciples didn't know all of this then, but they soon would find out. They would find out that despite their doubts and their despair and the darkness that had seemed to overcome, God would show His power. He wouldn't leave them in the darkness. He wouldn't go back on His word. He would keep His promises. He would restore. He would show that He always does what He says He'll do. God is love, and "Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance." (1 Corinthians 13:7.)

When Jesus cried out, "It is finished," He was also showing that yes, sin and death are finished. They're conquered. He's brought life--real, lasting, eternal life, for anyone to take up in Him. And He was showing that yes, separation from God and being at odds with Him was finished. Completely. We can now boldly approach His throne to receive His mercy and find grace to help us when we need it most. And I'm so very, very thankful for that. And when Jesus said, "It is finished," He was also showing me that He's not finished with me yet. I am not my own; I have been made new! I am a new creation in Jesus, and He is always doing a new thing. Whatever I'm facing or struggling with, whatever storm or trial or doubt or weakness or test--He's not finished with me yet!

No surrender, no retreat
We are free and we're redeemed
We will declare, over despair
You are the hope!

"'I have loved you even as the Father has loved me. Remain in my love. When you obey my commandments, you remain in my love, just as I obey my Father’s commandments and remain in his love. I have told you these things so that you will be filled with my joy. Yes, your joy will overflow!" -John 15:9-11 You bled Your heart out, Now I feel love beat in my chest. How wonderful! You gave Your beauty In exchange for my ugliness. How wonderful! You left Your perfection, And embraced our rejection! You put on our chains, Sent us out through the open door. How wonderful! You took our sadness,
Crowned us with joy and real peace, How wonderful! You left Your perfection, And fought for our redemption! How marvelous, how boundless Is Your love, is Your love for me! How wonderful, sacrifical is Your love for me! Yes, Jesus loves me! Yes, Jesus loves me! How wonderful! Yes, Jesus loves me! This is love, You gave Yourself! How marvelous, how boundless Is Your love, is Your love for me! How wonderful, sacrificial is Your love for me! -"You Bled," Rend Collective Jesus left His perfection, His spotlessness and joy in perfect purity in Heaven with the Father, and came down to be humbled as a man, a mere human, born to a poor family in a stable, amongst the animals, in an animal's food trough, a manger. Because He. Loved. Us. He grew up, ordinary, passed over, human. He faced temptation just as the rest of us did. But He never sinned; He was perfect. Because He. Loved. Us. He embraced the deepest "sinners," the ones that the religious ones scoffed at and looked down on and rejected. He washed dirty feet. He came not to be served, but to serve, even though He was the Son of God and should have been served and worshiped completely. He endured brutal torture and death and mockery and being betrayed and forsaken and executed, crucified, so that He could rip that curtain between us and God, because He. Loved. Us. He exchanged the life He had for the death that was ingrained in us, because He. Loved. Us. He freed us to live in Him, Because He. Loved. Us. He left His perfection and embraced our rejection--our rejection of Him, and the rejection that He should have had for us. Because He. Loved. Us. And He rose and conquered sin and death once and for all, because He. Loved. Us.

"The servant grew up before God—a scrawny seedling,

a scrubby plant in a parched field.

There was nothing attractive about him,

nothing to cause us to take a second look.

He was looked down on and passed over,

a man who suffered, who knew pain firsthand.

One look at him and people turned away.

We looked down on him, thought he was scum.

But the fact is, it was our pains he carried—

our disfigurements, all the things wrong with us.

We thought he brought it on himself,

that God was punishing him for his own failures.

But it was our sins that did that to him,

that ripped and tore and crushed him—our sins!

He took the punishment, and that made us whole.

Through his bruises we get healed.

We’re all like sheep who’ve wandered off and gotten lost.

We’ve all done our own thing, gone our own way.

And God has piled all our sins, everything we’ve done wrong,

on him, on him.

He was beaten, he was tortured,

but he didn’t say a word.

Like a lamb taken to be slaughtered

and like a sheep being sheared,

he took it all in silence.

Justice miscarried, and he was led off—

and did anyone really know what was happening?

He died without a thought for his own welfare,

beaten bloody for the sins of my people.

They buried him with the wicked,

threw him in a grave with a rich man,

Even though he’d never hurt a soul

or said one word that wasn’t true.

Still, it’s what God had in mind all along,

to crush him with pain.

The plan was that he give himself as an offering for sin

so that he’d see life come from it—life, life, and more life.

And God’s plan will deeply prosper through him.

Out of that terrible travail of soul,

he’ll see that it’s worth it and be glad he did it.

Through what he experienced, my righteous one, my servant,

will make many “righteous ones,”

as he himself carries the burden of their sins.

Therefore I’ll reward him extravagantly—

the best of everything, the highest honors—

Because he looked death in the face and didn’t flinch,

because he embraced the company of the lowest.

He took on his own shoulders the sin of the many,

he took up the cause of all the black sheep."

-Isaiah 53

This Easter, Lord, thank you. *******************************************************************

Friday, April 11, 2014

Faithful Fridays ~ It's an Invitation.

Hi, everyone, and happy Friday! :) I'm really sorry I left you guys hanging last week. It was a busy weekend for me, and when I got on to write my post, our internet wasn't working, so I couldn't. :( But I'm back into the swing of things this week! :)

"One day as Jesus was walking along the shore of the sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers--Simon, also called Peter, and Andrew--throwing a net into the water, for they fished for a living. Jesus called out to them, 'Come, follow me, and I will show you how to fish for people!' And they left their nets at once and followed him. A little farther up the shore he saw two other brothers, James and John, sitting in a boat with their father, Zebedee, repairing their nets. And he called them to come, too. They immediately followed him, leaving their boat and their father behind." -Matthew 4:18-22

"When the apostles returned, they told Jesus everything they had done. Then he slipped quietly away with them toward the town of Bethsaida. But the crowds found out where he was going, and they followed him. He welcomed them and taught them about the Kingdom of God, and he healed those who were sick." -Luke 9:10-11

"Then Jesus went out to the lakeshore again and taught the crowds that were coming to him. As he walked along, he saw Levi son of Alphaeus sitting at his tax collector's booth. 'Follow me and be my disciple,' Jesus said to him. So Levi got up and followed him. Later, Levi invited Jesus and his disciples to his home as dinner guests, along with many tax collectors and other disreputable sinners. (There were many people of this kind among Jesus' followers.)" -Mark 2:13-15

I can see Him, just standing there in front of the people, with that simple invitation. You know, there had to be something about Him when He spoke, something in His manner, or His words, or His eyes, maybe, that just penetrated people, the way His words do now. "Come, follow me!" He said it to people everywhere: those who seemed important, like the Jewish religious leaders, and those who seemed common. He invited those who seemed to be all cleaned up, and those whom society looked down on as scum, the "sinners." In fact, He seemed to like most to invite those kinds of people--the ones that you'd least expect to take Him up on it. And He didn't shame them, or force them, or scare them into it--He simply told them God's truth, offered real, lasting, eternal life, and the real, unfailing love and forgiveness of God, and then left them with the choice to take Him at His word and follow Him, or not.

And He still offers the same invitation today.

He offers the invitation to not only believe in Him, but believe Him. Romans 4 talks over and over again about how it wasn't anything that Abraham did that caused God to move and work in His life, to reveal Himself to him and guide Abraham in His plan for his life--it was because Abraham believed God. He took God at His word and trusted His promise. He is God, after all! He doesn't lie, and His word is the most trustworthy, solid foundation we could stand on. It's proven itself time after time. He never breaks His promises. He's faithful. And when we believe Him, and trust His promises and stand on His word, He starts moving in us and in our lives.

He invites us to try Him. He invites us to take a risk of faith, to give ourselves completely up to Him and watch what happens. When we embrace God, when we throw ourselves all in and take up our crosses and follow Him, surrendering ourselves completely to Him, embracing the life He has for us, we really experience Him and His kind of life to the fullest, like it says in John 10:10. And once you do experience it, you're never the same. Following Jesus is not easy. It's hard. It can be a struggle. Sometimes you don't think you're going to make it. But it's so, so worth it. And once you experience it, the old things will never be enough. A mundane life of holding back, settling for less, or sin, isn't enough. It won't satisfy. It won't do.

"Jesus said to her, 'Daughter, you took a risk of faith, and now you're healed and whole. Live well, live blessed! Be healed of your plague." -Mark 5:34
But one thing that I've learned lately is that Jesus invites us in another way. He invites us into an intimate, loving, close relationship with Him, the God of the universe, the Creator, the King! He promises His presence. He promises to meet with us. He promises to draw near when we draw near to Him, to come when we seek Him, to show us marvelous and wondrous things that we could never figure out on our own (Jeremiah 33:3). That in itself is amazing--knowing God in that way produces pure joy!
He also invites us to the throne of God. Sometimes it seems like despite what God says about faith and freeing us from our sin, we're never going to be able to make it out. It feels like we're never going to be able to conquer the struggles. It feels hopeless. It feels scary. It feels like we're lost. It feels like we aren't going to be able to do what we have to do to keep following Him.

And that's where His mercy comes in. One thing that I've personally struggled with a lot, constantly, has been doubt. I doubt God a lot, and it's hard for me to just believe and take Him at His word and have faith. But I was reminded of something--Peter, one of Jesus' own disciples, is one of the biggest doubters I can think of in the Bible. I think a lot of people look at Peter and think he was just stupid--I mean, Jesus was right there, in person, in front of him, revealing Himself and God's mighty power to Peter and the rest of the disciples! Peter walked with Jesus! And yet he still doubted Him. I guess I can relate to Peter, because I can do the same thing--no matter how many times I see God work, and I see His word and promises prove true and solid and trustworthy, I still doubt Him. I don't know or understand why I do it, and it frustrates me to no end. But God understands me--He understands my doubts, and my thoughts, and my struggles, and He loves me the same--He still sacrificed His Son for me. In fact, just after Peter deliberately denied Jesus, though he knew the truth of who He was, and Jesus knew it all along. He knew that Peter would doubt Him and deny Him, but He loved Him still. And He walked straight on from Peter's doubt, denial, and spiritual weakness to the crucifixion, where He died for Peter's struggles--He suffered in anguish, died a gruesome death of being slowly, dryly drowned alive--literally! How amazing is His love for us?

I've been reading Isaiah 53, and it just wows me.

"But the fact is, it was our pains He carried-our disfigurements, all the things wrong with us. We thought he brought it on himself, that God was punishing him for his own failures. But it was our sin that did that to him, that ripped and tore and crushed Him--our sins! He took the punishment, and that made us whole. Through his bruises we get healed. We're all like sheep who've wandered off and gotten lost. We've all done our own thing, gone our own way. And God has piled all our sins, everything we've done wrong, on Him, on Him." -Isaiah 53:4-6

This almost brings me to tears. Because it gives me relief. You and I don't have to worry about our fears, failures, struggling, doubts, sin, and wrestling. We don't have to feel hopeless. We don't have to hang it on ourselves, despairing that we might not make it to God because we're unable to have faith, or conquer temptation, or overcome a struggle in our life, or a spiritual weakness. Jesus already paid the price for our failures, and our struggles, and our pain, doubts, and wrestling, so that you and I could boldly approach His throne, not fearing or being in guilt, not stuck in hopeless circumstances or our own failures--that in coming to Him with our all, our best, our brokenness, we could receive grace and mercy and love and help and His power--His power that raised Jesus from the dead! We don't have to worry--Jesus already paid the price. Come to Him right in the middle of your struggles. Come to Him right in the middle of your trials and weaknesses and tests. Come to Him right in the middle of your doubts and wrestling. Come to Him right in the middle of your fears and uncertainty. He has set you free to come to Him for help! That's a reason to celebrate, right there.

"So the Lord must wait for you to come to him so he can show you his love and compassion. For the Lord is a faithful God. Blessed are those who wait for his help." -Isaiah 30:18

He won't turn you away.
He won't fail you.
He wants you.
He loves you.
He wants to give you life.
He invites you.
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God bless you guys and have a great weekend! :) Joy :)