Devos: {Biblical} Musings of an English Teacher

While bringing us a challenging message about Moses and his surrender to God's will, my pastor mentioned a verse in passing. "...I am that I am..." {Ex 3:14}  When Moses asked the Lord under whose authority he should tell the children of Israel he had come, God simply says to tell them I AM had sent him.

My English teacher brain began to dissect this verse, and I noticed something I hadn't before.  The section of the verse "that I am" is a noun clause. I is the subject, is is the linking verb linking the subject to the noun clause.  This noun clause is acting as the predicate nominative that has the job of renaming the subject.  So I am is being renamed by I am. How interesting.

This noun clause is the equivalent of the word God in the statement, "I am God" or the word Creator in "I am the Creator." The Lord makes a strikingly clear description of Himself when He says that HE IS!

"Who are You, Lord?"
"I am."
"What are You, Lord?"
"I am."

Wow! Only the Lord could come up with a description like that.  It's somewhat of a writer's dream to be able to characterize something so strongly in such a few number of words.

All that is holy, good, strong, righteous, just, kind, loving, and so much more, GOD IS!!

Hope this blesses your heart like it blessed mine.

Let Me Introduce You: author Marshele Waddell {Hope for the Homefront}

A few years ago, the Lord laid on my sister-in-law's heart to start a Bible study with some of her friends. It was neat how the Lord worked things out.  When Dawnielle began planning it, we realized it was all military wives who would be coming.  We had a time of fellowship as well as a time of study and really enjoyed chatting about the trials and joys experienced as military wives (and as wives in general).

In addition to another study source, Dawnielle introduced to us Hope for the Homefront by Marshele Waddell.  We read it together "book club" style and laughed about how much we could relate to the Marshele's experiences.  As cliche as it sounds, I laughed and cried while reading that book.  I have to confess that I had never read any military "help" books before although there are so many great resources out there.  I just didn't think I'd read anything that wouldn't be something I'd already heard or experienced myself.  Marshele's stories WEREN'T new, and that's what was so great...I could relate!

A couple of summers ago, I lent my copy to a fellow military wife whose husband was deployed.  She was having a pretty tough time, and I thought that Hope for the Homefront would show her the more lighthearted side of a deployment.  It did! She finished it in just a couple of days and told me that it was an incredible blessing.

This book is not exclusively for military wives but for anyone who has to be separated from a loved one for any amount of time.  It is tremendously difficult to stay positive when you can't be with someone you love.

The Lord and His Word are my number one source of comfort when my husband is away, but books like these are a refreshment and a blessing.

Visit Hope for the Homefront to read information about the book Hope for the Homefront and other books written by Marshele.

Jesus Had Unanswered Prayer?

Our Lord Jesus was 100% God and 100% man.  Although that isn't easy for our minds to wrap around, it is truth.  Being 100% man made Jesus a perfect candidate for every type of trial and temptation that we face today.  They may not have come in the same package, but they were just as difficult and real as trials and temptations are to us.

Hebrews 4:15
"For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin."

While reading through the Gospels over the last few months, there has been something that keeps jumping out at me that I had never noticed before.  Jesus actually had a prayer that was UNANSWERED!! He was 100% God, yet as a man, he experienced a definite NO from His heavenly Father.

Matthew 26:39
"And he went a little farther, and fell on his face, and prayed, saying, O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt."

Jesus begged the Lord that the cup of death and sin would pass from Him.  He did not want to face and become sin.  What was God's answer to this prayer? It was, "No." Our Savior, the all-powerful, all-knowing Son of the Most High received a NO from His Father.

If Jesus' prayer had been answered by a "yes," we would have no hope for Heaven today.  Because of that "no," we can now experience salvation and saving grace.

Have you ever been through an experience that only made sense to those who had also been through the same thing? But think about this...when you pray, the Lord hears your prayers and knows just how you feel whether the answer is "yes" or "no."

Hebrews 4:16
"Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need."

The Shadow of the {Almighty}

I can't count the number of times these verses have been a great comfort.  What a wonderful place to be...under the shadow of the Almighty. But there's a stipulation...to dwell in the secret place of the most High.  Draw nigh to God and He will draw nigh to you!!


Psalm 91:1-16
1 He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.


2 I will say of the LORD, He is my refuge and my fortress: my God; in him will I trust. 


3Surely he shall deliver thee from the snare of the fowler, and from the noisome pestilence. 


4 He shall cover thee with his feathers, and under his wings shalt thou trust: his truth shall be thy shield and buckler. 


5 Thou shalt not be afraid for the terror by night; nor for the arrow that flieth by day;


6 Nor for the pestilence that walketh in darkness; nor for the destruction that wasteth at noonday.


7 A thousand shall fall at thy side, and ten thousand at thy right hand; but it shall not come nigh thee.


8 Only with thine eyes shalt thou behold and see the reward of the wicked. 


9 Because thou hast made the LORD, which is my refuge, even the most High, thy habitation; 


10 There shall no evil befall thee, neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling. 


11 For he shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways. 


12 They shall bear thee up in their hands, lest thou dash thy foot against a stone. 


13 Thou shalt tread upon the lion and adder: the young lion and the dragon shalt thou trample under feet . 


14 Because he hath set his love upon me, therefore will I deliver him: I will set him on high , because he hath known my name. 


15 He shall call upon me, and I will answer him: I will be with him in trouble; I will deliver him, and honour him. 


16 With long life will I satisfy him, and shew him my salvation.

A Wonderful Thing To Know {Devos}

"For he that is mighty hath done to me great things; and holy is his name." Luke 1:49

Every time I sit down to read my Bible, I ask the Lord to reveal something to me that I can take with me throughout my day.  Did He ever answer that prayer this morning! 

It is human nature to focus on those things that are negative in our lives.  Dwelling on small things like early mornings and grocery shopping {I don't enjoy either} can really put us in a bad mood. As Christians and particularly women, we know how our thoughts are the driving force behind our words and actions.  Negative thoughts = negative words and actions.  So these negative thoughts have NO rightful place in our minds...or do they. 

This verse above was spoken by Mary the mother of Jesus. At this point in time, she has just found out that she is with child.  She is visiting her cousin Elisabeth who also has experienced a miracle in that the Lord has allowed her to conceive in her old age.  The women begin to rejoice together over what the Lord has done for them.   

Let's look at Mary's situation for a moment.  She has found out she is with child, yet she has never known a man.  Imagine yourself in this position.  What do YOU suppose others would think about this? Is this a negative in her life?  She could look at it in that way.  But in such a greater way, it is a positive.  

As an example, I'm going to address my "negatives" in this light for.  Waking up early in the morning.  I DO NOT enjoy this.  I'm not a morning person and never have been.  If I wake up and all I can do is dwell on the fact that it's early and I'm tired, that's going to affect my attitude and my day.  So I'll just forget about the fact that I'm up early, right? Wrong! Instead, let me think about the fact that I was ABLE to get out of bed this morning, that I have warm water for a shower, that the birds are waking up and singing a song, that I woke up with my husband beside me, that I have the ability to move, that I have a roof over my head..... I could go on with an endless list of POSITIVES.  

Don't just push your negatives out the window.  Dwell on them but in a positive light.  Mary said that "he hath done to me great things;"   One of those great things was at the same time a negative.  Only God could pull that one off! Holy is his name!!

Our Own Freewill {Devo}

If anyone else out there is reading their Bible through in a year, you probably started at the same spot I did...Genesis.  Yup, January 1st = Genesis 1.  If you've kept up with it {which should be the case. Come on, people, it's only Feb}, then you are somewhere between Leviticus and Numbers.  {BTW: for those of you who don't read the Bible, try it! It will change your life!!!} If you are anything like me, you struggled a bit through Leviticus.  It if full of detailed commandments that the Lord gave the children of Israel. {Side note: Aren't you glad we have a detail-oriented God? How would you like it if God forgot to give you fingerprints on your fingers and toes or eyelashes on your eyelids???} I cringe when I hear people say, "I just skim through those Old Testament books. They were written to the Jews not us Gentiles."  Yikes!! There is a REASON God included those books in His complete and utterly perfect Word.  Don't you think He might have put them there to help teach and guide us?
So there I was, reading about the physical condition in which an animal must be in order to be sacrificed, what food the Jews could or could not eat, and the qualifications of a priest, none of which literally apply to me.  Then I came across this verse, "And if ye offer a sacrifice of peace offerings unto the Lord, ye shall offer it at your own will." {Lev 19:5} Leviticus explains in full detail the offering up of sacrifices to the Lord.  There were several types of sacrifices:

• Burnt offering: an atonement for sin in general, enabling an unholy people to approach a holy God 
• Meat {Grain} offering: an expression of thanksgiving and dedication to God; 
• Sin offering: an atonement for unintentional sins of weakness or carelessness;
• Trespass {Guilt} offering: an atonement for specific sins, injured persons compensated for their losses; 
• and lastly Peace {Fellowship} offering: an expression of gratitude and desire for fellowship with God. 

That last offering is the type that is mentioned in this Leviticus 19:5.  God said to His children that if anyone would offer a peace offering to Him symbolizing a desire for fellowship, it must be of their own free will.  Many of the other offerings offered to the Lord were for forgiveness of sins and were commanded to be given.  But for this "fellowship" offering, the Lord was essentially saying, "You must WANT to fellowship with me or your offering is of no use."
Example: Imagine that you are looking forward to spending time with a certain loved one, but you soon find out that they don't really WANT to spend time with you.  They feel forced to out of obligation or are being "made" to by some third party.  What would the fellowship time with that loved one mean to you?  Not much! In fact, you would probably come to the point where it saddened you to spend time with that person.  This must be the way God feels when we come to Him out of obligation or guilt. He desires our fellowship more than we'll ever know, yet He also desires that WE desire the fellowship.
Just as important as a desire to fellowship is the way in which we fellowship.  Following Leviticus 19:5 are three verses dealing with the way in which a peace offering must be presented.  There is a practical application here.  God does not want us to go find ourselves a living animal and offer it up. NO! We are to "present our bodies a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable..." When we fellowship with the Lord, we should take great care to do so in a holy and acceptable manner.  Not what "feels good" to us but what is pleasing to the Lord.
Fellowship with the Lord is such a precious and sacred aspect of being a child of God.  If we would only take Him up on His offer and desire that fellowship, we would find that little this world has to offer can compare to a close walk with Him.

The Ultimate Love

This Valentine season, it's easy to get caught up in candy hearts, chocolate boxes, and red balloons. But I don't want to forget where love began, Who makes our love possible, and Who deserves our love.  We love because God first loved us.  Even if you don't know Him as your Savior, you still are only able to love others because God created love and loves you.  I hope that you will realize that the depth of God's love is immeasurable and that you can know His love. These Bible verses are awesome reminders to me that God loves me. 

"The Lord hath appeared of old unto me, saying, Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee."

Jeremiah 31:3

"Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins."

I John 4:16

"We love him, because he first loved us."

I John 4:19

"Now our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and God, even our Father, which hath loved us, and hath given us everlasting consolation and good hope through grace Comfort your hearts, and stablish you in every good word and work."

II Thessalonians 2:16, 17

I hope these verses are as much of a blessing to you as they are to me. 

Thought for the Day

"Renew your mind so that you can tell the difference between the Holy Spirit leading and your emotions leading."

-Bobby Bryant (from last night's message)

And for me, those emotions really get in the way.  I definitely needed this bit of wisdom.

Eyeballs! and Pay Attention!

Anyone who has ever taught knows that if your student's eyes are not on you, then they probably aren't listening. Yet a pair of peepers could be staring right at you while the brain behind it is only thinking about a cheeseburger.  Such are the ways of learning.  It takes a great deal of hard work and discipline from the teacher AND the listener.  I always hated saying to my students, "Pay attention!" or "Listen while I'm talking."  I began to tell them, "Eyes on me" which eventually evolved to, "Eyeballs!"  I always get a smile or laugh from my piano students when I say this, but they definitely know that it's time to LISTEN UP.

I'm going to do a little confessing here.  I found myself guilty of the pair-of-peepers-but-cheeseburgers-in-the-brain kind of listening the other night at church.  Now that I think of it, I'm not even sure if I was looking at Pastor or not.  My mind was wandering...I mean REALLY wandering.  I was actually worrying and fretting over something that hadn't even happened yet.  I'm very talented in the area of borrowing trouble from tomorrow. I had just finished with, "What's going to happen?" and I was moving on to, "What are we going to do about it?" when I realized I had no clue what Pastor was talking about. "Eyeballs, Jane! Pay attention!"

When I think of how often I let my mind slip into another dimension when I should really be listening and learning, I'm reminded of Romans 10:17. "So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God."  If I had approached that church service with the attitude of gleaning all that I possibly could from God's Word that night, just maybe God would have given me the exact answer I needed for my problem.

God doesn't like to fight for our attention.  He doesn't want to have to keep saying, "Eyeballs, eyeballs!"  The only way our faith will increase is by hearing God's Word.  How can we hear his Word if we are not paying attention?

Smile When It Rains

"This is the day which the Lord hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it." Psalm 118:24

As I sat on my couch this week, trying to force-feed myself teaspoon sized sips of grape flavored pedialyte, while each tiny gulp felt like little, nasty, razorblade-fingered elves were rock climbing down my throat, I was a far cry from, "This is the day the Lord has made, I think I'll rejoice!"  Instead, I felt VERY sorry for myself, complained a good bit and wanted a cheeseburger.  If I had stopped to realize that this really WAS a day that the Lord had made, just maybe I would have discovered, or rather been reminded, of some things. 

I might have first remembered that there are many in this world who live day to day with pain, poor health, or who are uncomfortable is some way.  Who am I to complain about three days with a soar throat?
 Psalm 118:29 "O give thanks unto the Lord; for he is good: for his mercy endureth for ever." If I had thought of this, I might have also thought to stop and pray for those I knew who are sick or have loved ones who are ill. 

If I had canceled my pity party, I just maybe would have been reminded of the other 360ish days throughout the past year that I've been in PERFECT health! What about those days?  I very much took them for granted.  Thank you, Lord, for all of those healthy days!! Psalm 34:1 "I will bless the Lord at all times: his praise shall continually be in my mouth."   I'll say one thing, the day my throat began to feel better, I felt like a new woman.  I wanted to go do things, and finish projects, and drive downtown, and.....I was all smiles.  Yet, how many days (healthy days) have I sat around the house in a stupor just waiting to be inspired to get something done?  Shame on me!

Did I pray for the Lord to make me well?....You better believe it!! I was praying that prayer about a dozen times an hour.  "Lord, just please, please heal me!!"  It should have been  at those moments when I remembered how LITTLE I prayed for good health when I was welll.  Pray for rain even when it's raining.  Philippians 4:6 "Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God."

And lastly, If I would have stopped to think between cups of applesauce, I would and SHOULD have remembered Jesus Christ.  He had no home on this earth, He had no country, He had no family. My sore throat now seems.....hmmm....like a lame excuse to complain.  Matthew 8:20 "And Jesus saith unto him, The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests; but the Son of man hath no where to lay his head."   2 Corinthians 8:9 "For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich."

Among the many other things that should have probably crossed my mind during this interesting week, these last four thoughts DID NOT cross it.  But as a result, I've learned some valuable lessons.  Let's rejoice!

Why should I wait?

Have you ever been in a situation where ALL you could do is wait?  JUST WAIT! Well, I'll tell you, that is very difficutl for me. It's human nature to want to fix things or make things happen all on your own.  But what about those times when the outcome is completely out of yourcontrol?  What happens then?.....well, you just have to wait. 
Now, it's one thing to wait a few days, maybe a couple of weeks.  However, the true quality of our paitence is tested and revealed when that waiting turns into months and years. 
The last eight months has been a waiting game for me. The desired outcome of my circumstances is about as much out of my control as the weather.  My hopes are up....and then they are dashed.....they are up....and then dashed again.  "What is God trying to do to me?!!!", I've often thought.  "He can't possibly know what this is like to have to wait and trust and wait some more." For a few days I would be optimistic and then I would begin to doubt if God even wanted this certain situation to work out.  Maybe he was totally against it in the first place.  But no, He would have closed a door long before this time. My husband would reassure me and try to encourage me to trust the Lord. "All things work together for good." he would say.  "Hmmm, okay, well that makes it easy, right?  WRONG!
My mind would be filled with worrisome thoughts.  Thoughts I knew I had to reject but thoughts that sometimes consumed me.  There were days when I couldn't concentrate on anything I did because worry and doubt would creep right in and distract me.  I was allowing this situation (and the Devil) to rob me of my joy.
One day, the Lord put in my mind a Scripture verse that really changed my whole attitude toward this difficulty and how it was affecting me.  "Wait on the Lord: be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the Lord." Psalm 27:14  POW, it hit me!  Why should I wait?  Because God promises that while I'm waiting, He is strengthening my heart.  Honestly, I had read this verse many times and always knew that I should wait on the Lord, but never before had I realized that He was strengthening me the whole time I was waiting on Him. 
So the product of waiting on the Lord to answer your prayer is not just an answered prayer at the end of that long, dark tunnel.  It is Him doing a work in you.  Your heart is being strengthened!  Maybe in order for you to be able to endure trials to come.  Maybe so that you will know what it is to fully rely on God for everything in your life.  There is another verse with much the same message: "But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint." Isaiah 40:31.  How would you like to run in life and not get weary? And how about walking through life and never fainting? Well, learn to wait.  JUST WAIT!  When you look at it in that light, you realize that you aren't just "waiting it out" until God sees fit to answer your prayer, but you are actually growing stronger throughout the process.  It makes the outcome seem so much more certain when you know the Lord has a plan for you. 
That's why I should wait!