“So Judas threw the money into the Temple and left. Then he went away and hanged himself.” (Matthew 27:5 NIV) Every time I read of Judas, my heart hurts for him. In the hot flush of shame and regret, Judas took his own life. He…
Author: Anna
“At that time the kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom. Five of them were foolish and five were wise. The foolish ones took their lamps but did not take any oil with…
Self-reliance consults no one and blazes forward with little or no regard for God. Wealth boosts our willingness to engage in such risky living.
David refused to let shame shut up his testimony. He told his story for the sake of sinners. Shame had lost it’s grip on him and heaven took hold of his voice.
It seems to me that Jesus was endlessly uncomfortable and frequently filthy. Somehow amidst all this dirt and difficulty, He maintained spiritual purity so strong that He could reach out and make the unclean clean again.
The truth is; I am seeing through a glass darkly. I’m trying to make sense of the shadows, but the whole image is dingy and difficult to distinguish.
It occurs to me today that if we can trust the Sovereign Lord’s strength on the heights, then we can trust his strength to tread through the bottoms, too. At all altitudes, He is faithful.
The Lord disciplines because He loves. He can see so much farther than we can; He sees where our sin will take us. He knows how rebellion and selfishness will permeate a person and lead us down path of death. He loves us too much to leave us entirely to our own devices. He refuses to take His hand off us, even when His hand is heavy with repercussion. He will not abandon us to our arrogant ignorance. He intervenes. He corrects. He issues consequence as any truly loving parent would.
Just as the woodpecker was especially designed to drill into hardwood for it’s daily meals, we are designed to praise God. Our DNA is assembled to bring Him glory.
We fail to recall how the job we hold is an answer to prayer, the roof over our head, the car we drive, the spouse we come home to. We forget about the healing we’ve prayed for, the wayward child who’s found God again, the doctor’s report that came back benign, the happenstance meeting that was truly divine appointment. How many times we do our love ones get back safe, despite deer and storms and drunk drivers? God answers prayers but we suffer soul amnesia.