A Glimpse into God's Heart

I'm not a Bible scholar; what I'm about to share is not an exposition of this passage, just some thoughts that God gave me as I read from my Bible this morning. Quite some time ago, I embarked on a new Bible-reading journey. I know certain parts of the Bible quite well, so I didn't want to just read it in a year; I wanted to go deeper and really "glean" the important truths from it.

I wanted my reading of God's Word to become a search for treasures that I could hide in my heart and which would strengthen and encourage me in my relationship with Him. So I decided to start reading through the Bible, only reading one or two chapters at a time, meditating on them and journalling my thoughts and the things that God revealed to me as I did so. I have made many new discoveries and even in the stories most familiar to me, I have learned new things. God's Word is indeed "living and active," and has the power to change willing hearts.

But I have been stuck for the last little while in the book of Isaiah - especially chapters 15 and 16. This morning I read these chapters again, for probably the 4th time, and all of a sudden I saw what it was that God wanted me to understand from this passage!

Chapter 15 is mainly about the desolation that will come to the nation of Moab (judgment from Almighty God, I believe). It follows a chapter describing how God will have mercy on His people and how He deals with them according to His character, and I wondered initially why it was placed here. Verse 5 especially caught my attention when God says - through the prophet Isaiah - "My heart shall cry out for Moab..."

Why would God cry out for Moab? They were a neighboring nation to Israel, but not one that honored the Lord God, and their relations with God's chosen people were not exemplary. So I continued reading ... verse 4 of chapter 16 is interesting: God says, "Let mine outcasts dwell with thee, Moab; be thou a covert to them from the face of the spoiler..." Why would God task Moab with being a refuge for His chosen people?

He goes on to talk about the one who will sit on the throne of David and judge in righteousness, and in verse 6 makes a bold statement about the pride and haughtiness of Moab. In verse 7 God declares that Moab will cry out for itself (which is to be expected - we humans are good at feeling sorry for ourselves), but the statement in verse 9 is what REALLY caught my attention.
"Therefore I will bewail with the weeping of Jazer the vine of Sibmah: I will water thee with my tears, O Heshbon, and Elealeh: for the shouting for thy summer fruits and for thy harvest is fallen."
Verse 10 describes how the gladness is taken away by God's judgment, and then again in verse 11, God says: "Wherefore my bowels shall sound like an harp for Moab, and mine inward parts for Kirharesh."

The prophet Isaiah concludes the chapter by saying that God had spoken this previously about Moab, but now has a new message that soon Moab's glory will be completely gone and the remnant left will be very small and weak. As I meditated on this Scripture, God brought to mind a situation from my past that profoundly reveals the difference between my heart and his - which is what I believe He wanted me to understand in a fresh and new way today.

Although I know it is true, I often forget that love is part of judgment. When I was a child I was disciplined for the things I did wrong and it wasn't pleasant or painless, but I knew that my parents did it because they loved me and they wanted me to develop character. If they only ever punished me for wrongdoing, I would perhaps have viewed it more negatively, but they always affirmed that they were doing it because of their love for me. I also remember as a child sometimes being quite happy when my brothers were punished for their wrongdoing. What an awful attitude to have! I should have been saddened that they made that choice and should not have thought more highly of myself simply because I didn't.

I confess that I sometimes translate that thought process to God's judgment on wickedness: "Yay, they're getting what they deserve!" But from what I read in the Scriptures, that's not what God is like. In 2 Peter 3:9, the apostle Peter writes that "the Lord is not slow in keeping His promise, as some understand slowness. Instead He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but all to come to repentance."

We know as believers and followers of Christ that we are loved in a way that we cannot fully comprehend - but I think we often forget (at least I do) that God loved us WHILE WE WERE STILL SINNERS, just as much as He does now that we have chosen to follow Him. So why do we think that people in the world around us - yes, even the ones who do dreadful things - are any less valuable than we are to the One who created them?

In Isaiah 16 God declares through Isaiah the prophet that He is weeping and mourning over Moab's desolation. He HAD to punish them for their wickedness and the way they treated His chosen people, but I think I see now why this is here. It is to show me that God loves each person equally and would rejoice over the repentance of a wicked nation just as much as He rejoices over me when I choose to do what honours Him. What a compassionate, gracious, loving God!!

And we are commanded to be holy as He is holy. That means we must hate sin - ESPECIALLY our own sin - just as much as God does, but we must also seek to have a heart like His that looks upon people as a precious creation and loves them for their intrinsic worth in God's sight. We should rejoice when they follow God's will for their lives and mourn when they turn away, because we should desire as God does that "no one should perish, but that all should come to repentance."

I got a little glimpse into my heart - and God's - this morning, and it literally brought me to tears. Tears of joy that God loves me - and you - SO much that He would crucify His own son to make it possible for us to have a relationship with Him, but also SO much that He will weep over the punishment that is inevitable when we choose to sin against Him!

How high and how wide, how deep and how long,

how sweet and how strong is Your love!

How lavish Your grace, how faithful Your ways,

how great is Your love, O Lord!

ADVENT MEDITATIONS - Part 4

DEC. 8 - WORSHIP (Поклонение)
What do we meditate most on at Christmas? The appearance of angels or a miraculous star that we cannot understand? Our focus should be on Jesus Christ and giving Him the worship He deserves. Today's meditation emphasized that the purpose for the Bethlehem star was to bring the magi to Jesus in order to worship Him.

I chose a verse and a short passage today - John 4:24 -- "God is Spirit, and His worshippers must worship Him in spirit and in truth," and Philippians 2:9-11 -- "Therefore God exalted Him to the highest place and gave Him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee shall bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father."

Anything miraculous that happens in our lives should bring us to the place of worship, because that is God's desire for us. God is worthy of our worship and He can use anything or anyone He has created to achieve that purpose - a star, a natural disaster, a godless leader, or pagan astrologers. Let us not get so caught up in the wonders of Christmas that we forget to worship the One who is called "Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace."

DEC. 9 - PERSEVERANCE (Упорство)
Today's devotional meditation continued with yesterday's theme, in light of the opposition that true worshippers of Jesus face. Since Jesus faced opposition, we will too if we declare our faith in Him, and we must make a decision about what we will do when opposition comes.

I chose two familiar verses about this - Hebrews 12:2-3 -- "...fixing our eyes on Jesus, the Author and Perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, scorning its shame and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider Him who endured such opposition from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart."

In Christ we have the victory! Therefore we must persevere in our faith especially when we face trials and suffering, because the One we trust in and worship is worthy.

The Master's "GRAND DESIGN"

The vision of Isaiah the son of Amoz, which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah ... (Isaiah 1:1)

Ah sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evildoers, children that are corrupters: they have forsaken the LORD, they have provoked the Holy One of Israel unto anger, they are gone away backward. Why should ye be stricken any more? ye will revolt more and more: the whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint. From the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no soundness in it; but wounds, and bruises, and putrifying sores: they have not been closed, neither bound up, neither mollified with ointment. Your country is desolate, your cities are burned with fire: your land, strangers devour it in your presence, and it is desolate, as overthrown by strangers. And the daughter of Zion is left as a cottage in a vineyard, as a lodge in a garden of cucumbers, as a besieged city. Except the LORD of hosts had left unto us a very small remnant, we should have been as Sodom, and we should have been like unto Gomorrah. Hear the word of the LORD, ye rulers of Sodom; give ear unto the law of our God, ye people of Gomorrah ... (1:4-10)

"Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes; cease to do evil; learn to do well; seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow. Come now and let us reason together," saith the LORD: "though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the land: but if ye refuse and rebel, ye shall be devoured with the sword:" for the mouth of the LORD hath spoken it. (1:16-20)

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Yesterday I watched a particularly interesting episode of a British television show called "GRAND DESIGNS," which features ordinary British people on a quest to restore, to its original grandeur and even more, an historic old building that is currently derelict, decrepit and desolate because of years of neglect. Here's a few pics:

A British couple with 2 children bought this old, abandoned church in Ireland and their plan was to restore the building and transform the inside into a home where they could live. The church - built in 1835 - was struck by lightning and burned down in 1902, and had been left to rot and fall apart for more than 100 years.

This real-life restoration project gave me a visual illustration of what God was saying to the Israelites through the prophet Isaiah, and I want to share that with you.

1. We live in a "sinful nation," among a people "laden with iniquity" who have "forsaken the LORD" and "are gone away backward." It was somewhat surprising to me how so many people in the community loved the historicity of the old church in Ireland, but over 100 years there had been no one who was willing to work at fixing or maintaining it. It would have been a lot easier to fix the problems had the work begun years earlier. Yet, how much more saddening it is to realize that so many people have simply forsaken God and let their spiritual lives go to rot. We must be careful not to think that this cannot happen to us -- and if in some area we discover that we have forsaken what we know God wants for us, then we must deal with that before it becomes a monumental desolation in our spiritual lives.

2. A solid foundation (soundness) is crucial, but the structure will fall apart if the rest of it is not cared for properly. Since this is true for a building, how much more so is this true for us spiritually, since we are "the temple of the Holy Spirit and the Spirit of God dwelleth in [us]?" (1 Corinthians 3:16) There was soundness in the stone used to construct the old church building in Ireland, but it definitely looked bruised and sore, and there were gaps and holes that had not been closed up or tended to. Storms of trial and temptation sweep through our lives, and there will be circumstances that cause sores, bruises and wounds, even though our faith is founded on the solid truth of God's Word and His love for us. These wounds must be "bound up" and "mollified with ointment" so that they can heal -- so that our faith does not fall apart like an abandoned building that has been beaten by the storms of life.

3. If one finds him/herself in this state, what are we to do then? Isaiah 1:16-20 has the answer. God invites us to "come and reason with Him," and He tells us that if we wash and cleanse ourselves (repentance) and cease from doing evil, that He will cleanse us from our sins -- "though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool." And I love verse 19: "If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the land." The cleansing and preparation of the old, decrepit church took much time and hard work -- especially the repairing of the massive amount of stonework -- but in order to transform it into a grand and beautiful building again, the cleansing and repair was required. So it is in our spiritual lives ... if we desire to be a beautiful "temple" and to reflect the character of our God who lives within us, we must put in the time and effort required for repentance and cleansing, so that God can do His purifying and rebuilding work.

And when we do this - when we 1) acknowledge our sins, 2) allow God to bind up and heal our wounds, and 3) repent and submit ourselves willingly and obediently to His restorative work - then we will eat the good of the land.

As we carefully maintain our outward appearance, even more so we must care for our spiritual condition so that we will be fit to reflect and display the glory of the One who has saved us and dwells within, because God has a GRAND DESIGN for us:

• We are chosen and predestined in love to be His children, pure and holy in His sight, to the praise of His glory and grace. (Ephesians 1:4-12)
• We are saved by His grace, reconciled through the cross, made fellow-citizens with the household of God; to be built as a holy temple to the Lord, with a firm foundation of faith and Jesus Christ as the cornerstone, a habitation of God through His Holy Spirit. (Ephesians 2:4-22)

May we, as Christ's church, continually strengthen our foundation in the Word of God, stay committed to His work of sanctification in us through the Holy Spirit, and seek His will in our lives so that we will be a reflection of His glory, a beautiful dwelling-place for the one true God and a testament to everyone around us of the marvelous love and grace that redeems sinners and reconciles them to Himself.

Learning to Listen...

I chose the title "Learning to Listen" for this post because it is the process of learning how to listen to and meditate on God's Word that has helped me to gain the insights I want to share with you.

I am familiar with the Bible - having grown up in a pastor's home with parents who not only read the Bible to us, but taught us how to study it, how to memorize it and how to apply it to our lives, has given me a great appreciation for the value of God's Word.

But sometimes familiarity can be a less-than-positive thing. For example, I can read a passage of Scripture that I know well and not take the time to hear what God wants to say to me through it because I may think I already know what it's about.

I've been working on a read-through-the-Bible project, but completely unlike any other. I've done the "Bible In A Year" a couple of times in my life, and this time I wanted to read the whole Bible not for the accomplishment of reading through it, but for what I could learn and glean from it. So I set out to thoughtfully read and study God's Word, recording in a journal what God is saying to me and what I'm learning. And in the process so far (I'm FAR from being done), I'm learning so much more than what I anticipated!

Right now, I'm in Ecclesiastes - which is a difficult book for me, because I'm a very joyful, optimistic person and the author of this book seems to be constantly expressing negative views on life. I don't like being around negative people or hearing negative thoughts, so it's been challenging for me, but I KNOW that God has included truth in this particular book that I need to discover and apply to my life, so I'm disciplining myself to stick with it.

At our recent Ukraine missionary conference, Daryl Porter talked about meditating on God's Word - this is something that I haven't had a lot of teaching on, but I know is important. I've been doing quite a bit of it myself, too, on this journey through the Bible.

I just finished journalling through Ecclesiastes 8 & 9, but the very interesting thing to me was that I had to read and re-read these chapters at least 3 times in order to let the words sink in and to allow God's Holy Spirit to show me the truth He wanted me to discover through it.

Meditating on who God is as I read through these verses again helped me to look at them in a different light, and what I saw was the sovereignty of God. I was able to read the author's thoughts and see how God was revealing Himself even through the parts of life that we are unable to understand.

I heard in a new way an affirmation of God's sovereignty over life and death, and I was reminded again that my responsibility is to seek and follow God, not strive to understand the "why" and "how" of His ways.

To my results-oriented mind, it seems less productive to take a week to study 2 chapters of the Bible - but the words of this book have become even more precious to me as I have taken the time to listen for God's voice instead of my own thoughts, and it no longer matters to me how much time it takes for me to finish. My desire to just sit and meditate on God's Word is growing and I know my life is richer for it.

CELEBRATING ADVENT: Peace

PROCLAMATION

Beginning in Genesis, and through to Revelation,

The Bible is one incredible proclamation.
Messengers don't need great power or even to be well-known; 
They simply have to share the truth they've been shown.
If we will proclaim God's true message of peace,
He will touch people's hearts and cause faith to increase.
 ~ Darlene Koop, Dec. 24-2012 ~

"Therefore My people shall know My name; therefore they shall know in that day that I am He who speaks: 'Behold, it is I.' How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news, who proclaims peace, who brings glad tidings of good things, who proclaims salvation, to Zion who says to Zion, 'Your God reigns!' " ~ Isaiah 52:6-7 ~

"The Spirit of the Lord God is upon Me, because the Lord has anointed Me to preach good tidings to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound; to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord...that He may be glorified." ~ Isaiah 61:1-2a, 3b ~

There are all kinds of proclamations made in our world today, and especially during holidays like Christmas...but it may not necessarily be the truth that is proclaimed.

At Christmas we celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ, but in essence, we are celebrating more than just that one glorious event -- we are celebrating Him and the reason WHY He came to earth as a baby, as a human. Yet that truth is not universally proclaimed and it is often tagged on at the end of the rest of the activities that we seem to think are so important.

I am thankful for my family, for the abundant blessings God has given me, and for all the things that make Christmas such a special time -- beautiful songs that proclaim His truth, lights and beauty, events that bring friends and family together to make memories -- but I feel the most joy when I celebrate Jesus and all that He is and what He has done for us.

The peace He came to bring is more than just a feeling -- it is a radically different way to live, to think, to love. And it can only be realized in our hearts and lives when we allow Jesus Christ to be at the center, to lead us in His way and to learn His truth and share that with others around us.

So what are we are going to proclaim this Christmas? And let us not just proclaim the message of Jesus Christ because we should, but because of what it says in Isaiah 61:3 -- in order that God may be glorified. Because,  it doesn't stop at the end of December, when our celebrations are finished and we return to the regular routines of life.

Through Jesus Christ, God has brought peace and joy to us who believe -- but His plan is not yet complete. There is still sin, evil and pain in our broken world, and He longs to set everyone free, to bring hope, freedom, life and joy to every person. And one day, every single person in the world will know and acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, and in the new heaven and new earth there will be perfect peace and harmony like never before for all those who believe in Him.

But some may never know unless we speak the truth, unless we proclaim what God has made known to us and what we see when we recall how Christ was born and why He came...

Sing to the Lord, bless His name; proclaim the good news of His salvation from day to day. Declare His glory among the nations, His wonders among all peoples. For the Lord is great and greatly to be praised... honor and majesty are before Him; strength and beauty are in His sanctuary. Oh, worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness! Tremble before Him, all the earth. Say among the nations, "The Lord reigns...For He is coming, for He is coming to judge the earth. He shall judge the world with righteousness and the peoples with His truth."
~ Psalm 96:2-4a, 6a, 9-10a, 13 ~

ALL FOR A PURPOSE

Romans 8:28 says this:

"And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose."

Once this truth is firmly fixed in our hearts and we trust God to guide us in His wisdom, we will begin to see how the details of our lives are fitting into a specific plan that only a sovereign God could have designed. Even though we may not yet understand exactly what that plan is.

Yet along the way some circumstances don't make sense and we wonder, "Just how exactly does this fit into the big picture?" We don't always have the privilege of discovering the purpose of these events and we simply have to walk by faith, knowing that God will use them in some way. But sometimes a long while afterwards we can look back and see in reflection at least part of the reason why certain things happened in our lives.

Today I had two of those moments. The first came when I was reading email responses to my latest ministry update, and a special friend wrote these words to me:

"Remember once when you and I were talking,

and you said that you wished you had met the right man so that you could be married and have children because you love children so much? God always has a better plan,

better because He finds a way for Himself to be glorified and as a result we receive blessings too. 

Now you will have MANY children to love and care for, not just the one or two

that you could have naturally."

I still pray and believe that God has someone special for me someday, but what my friend shared is true. Had I been involved in a relationship, or perhaps married with a family, I probably would not be where I am today, preparing for full-time ministry to needy children in a country halfway around the world from where I was born. God knew that and He lovingly and carefully kept me for a special purpose that I could never have dreamed of and that now fills me with an inexplicable joy and hope!

The other moment came as I was doing my supper dishes. I have discovered that in Ukraine, things are done a little differently than what I'm used to -- here we use a sponge with a little bit of dish soap and some running water to wash the dishes. We don't fill up a sink with water, and there's no second sink to rinse in. And I have to wash up the dishes after each meal, because of the size of the kitchen and the relatively few dishes we have. Once the dishes are washed, they are put away in the cupboard - still wet - and left to air-dry. (I dry them sometimes anyway, because I prefer to do that.) Well, it occurred to me that God had prepared me for even this interesting change...

Back in 2005 when I moved to Cambridge, Ontario, I shared a 3-bedroom apartment with 2 other young women. I'm once again sharing an apartment with 2 other women, but that's not where the comparison stops. In that apartment in Cambridge, I quickly found out that my room-mates expected me to wash up my dishes and put them away after each time I used them, rather than letting them pile up on the counter or in the sink. At first that was a bone of contention with me because I was used to doing dishes only once a day. But it was her home, and I realized that I needed to accommodate her wishes.

I did not carry on that tradition over the past 5 years, but learning to do dishes in this way again has been a relatively easy adjustment -- in part because I had already developed the skill years ago. I used to think that was just for that time, but I realized today that even that living experience was preparation for what I would need to do 7 years down the road in another country! (Interestingly, back in 2005 I lived with a young woman named Tanya, and again, one of my apartment-mates is named Tanya!)

Psalm 139:16 says this:

"All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be."

None of these circumstances are a surprise to God, and let me tell you...it is a pure delight to be able to look back and realize how God has lovingly and carefully arranged the details of my life that most of the time I would deem inconsequential. Not only is nothing hidden from His sight, but He has planned it all before I was even born -- now that's amazing!

I hope this encourages you today that ALL that happens in your life is FOR A PURPOSE. Embrace it with faith and hope, looking to the Lord God, and you will be able to rejoice and give thanks "in everything."

GLEANINGS

So...I've been reading in Proverbs lately for my devotions and in case you haven't read them recently, just one chapter gives a person enough to chew on for a while.

I've been reading only a chapter at a time and meditating on it, asking God to speak to my heart through His Word...and He has!! (Really, I shouldn't be surprised, because He said that He would.) There are so many wonderful nuggets of truth in the Proverbs - I think sometimes we read too quickly and miss taking these precepts to heart.

So here's a few of my reflections from Proverbs 19 and 20...

Proverbs 19:3 says that the foolishness of man causes his heart to fret against the Lord. I believe God is saying through this verse that when we worry, we're not fretting over circumstances, but rather against Him, who is sovereign over every aspect of our lives. Puts a different spin on worry and reminds me of the other Biblical commandments regarding anxiety...

Proverbs 19:8 is a profound verse...stating that the pursuit of wisdom is not merely an intellectual act, but a spiritual one also. And also that keeping understanding - especially the understanding and insight that God gives us by His Word and His Holy Spirit - will help us find good.

Proverbs 19:11 cut me to the quick because this is so opposite to our natural human inclination. We would rather judge a transgression than "pass over it," but to practice this is to reflect a little of what God is like -- because He is patient with us, deferring His anger, and passes over our transgressions with His divine grace.

Proverbs 19:17 - it truly is important to God how we treat the poor...Jesus declared in Matthew 25 that whatever we do to those who are considered "the least" we are doing unto Him. I think this applies to everyone -- if we call ourselves disciples of Jesus and we follow Him, then whatever we do for anyone, ultimately we are doing for Him. And God is the One who will repay us out of His bountiful grace if we do good to others for His sake.

Proverbs 19:21 struck me...it doesn't matter what we plan for in our hearts, God's purposes will stand. So because of this - if we choose to surrender our plans to His purposes, ultimately we will find great joy and fulfilment.

Proverbs 20:3 -- it's true that it pleases God when we choose not to fight or argue or cause strife, but if I truly believed it to be an "honour" to cease from strife, it would change my attitude greatly, because I want to live an honourable life.

Proverbs 20:6 is a simple but challenging admonition - rather than talking to everyone about ourselves (our good deeds, character, etc), we need to just be faithful with what God gives us to do.

Proverbs 20:12 - at first glance, this verse seems to be a reminder to give thanks to God for our hearing and sight, but I believe it goes deeper than that. Since the Lord has made both our ears with hearing and our eyes with sight, we should seek to only listen to and look at the things that please Him...as that would bring Him honour for the great gift that He gave us.

Proverbs 20:22 - it is not for us to get revenge and ensure that judgment is meted out for evil...we are to wait on the Lord and He will save us. This is hard to do when we see so much injustice and wrong around us, but if we truly know in our hearts that our God "is mighty to save," then we can wait on and trust in Him.

Proverbs 20:24 is very profound - basically, God has laid out our days and our steps for us, so we should never think that we are in control of our lives, but daily ask God to show us His way and what His will is for our lives.

And finally, verse 29 -- Scripture makes it very clear that gray hair is beautiful. Why then do we fight so against it? If a gray head is beautiful on an older man, wouldn't it be the same for a woman also? Can we not believe God's Word and thank Him for the beauty of growing older? We can choose to be frustrated by the aging process and what we no longer have, or we can be thankful for the days that God has given us. 

Lord, please remind me to always walk in integrity, no matter what I do.

Help me to seek wisdom and keep the understanding You have given me, to use discretion both in words and actions and to forgive transgressions.

May I not become lazy or complacent - as this does not reflect well on a servant of the Lord - but to do everything as unto You. Help me to have pity and compassion on the poor, to accept counsel and instruction and to discard advice that does not match Your truth.

I want to trust You, to wait for Your salvation and to seek You in everything I do.

May I always be thankful for the days You have given me, rather than wishing for something else. And most of all Lord, help me to continually surrender the plans in my own heart to You so that You can truly lead me in the way you would have me go. In Jesus' name, amen.

AN ADVENT POEM

I've decided that one of the ways I'm going to celebrate Christmas - which really deserves to be celebrated all year long - is by meditating on the real meaning of the season, especially during Advent.

So, since I absolutely LOVE to write and express my thoughts and feelings through words, here is an acrostic lyric poem...

Amazed at how God chose to come;
Awestruck by the magnitude of love;
Anticipating His return with hope.

Delighted by the miracle;
Discovering God's wonderful plan;
Declaring His truth to all;

Viewing Christmas through eyes of faith.

Exulting in God's glorious plan;
Enthralled by His tender love;
Eager to share with everyone the salvation He brings.

Nobility robed in human form;
Never-ending grace of God given freely;
New life is mine through Jesus Christ.

Truth that transforms the believing heart.

THANKFULNESS

Yesterday morning I had an epiphany of sorts as I prepared for the day ahead...God spoke to my heart about having a thankful heart.

Circumstances in life are rarely what we want them to be, and if my heart is not in the right place I will not respond in the way that I should as a child of God.

This is not a new truth, but one that I continually be reminded of so that I remain humble and open to the Word of God and His work in my life.

So, in a brief synopsis, this is what occurred to me during my quiet meditation:

Thankfulness does not equal happiness, but...
Thankfulness and trust together brings joy and hope.

I may not be happy in or about my situation all the time, but if I choose to be thankful and to trust that God is "working all things out for good in my life" because I love Him and have been called according to His purpose, then I will be able to go forth in joy and have hope for the future.