Dark days come into our lives and cast a shadow over hopes and dreams and plans and happiness and life in general. We continue on and on and cry out to Jesus for answers and for a ray of hope to find it's way through the darkness. Even though we continue to pray and keep our eyes on Jesus, some days are hard and we might find ourselves leaning toward giving up completely and saying, "I don't know what I am going to do." Last night as I went to the ER with my son I said, " I don't know what I am going to do." He said- "You can do nothing. You have to quit depending on yourself and depend on God completely. This is, and everything is, in His hands. You cannot let anything, even this, stop you from doing what God has called you to do. God is still with you no matter how dark everything seems. When Jesus was on the cross it seemed really dark to everyone who was there watching. He could have said I don't know what I am going to do when the darkness fell, but He didn't. He cried out to God. He could have given up and got off the cross and said this isn't worth all this pain. I have done nothing to deserve this, but He didn't. He remained on the cross doing what He had been called to do long before the foundation of the world, even on the darkest day the world had ever known." My son went on to remind me of a sermon I heard Sunday. The sermon was about storms, which right now seem never-ending in my life. My son reminded me the sermon spoke of Jesus always being in the boat with us even during great storms. And He is. My son asked, "Were you not listening?"
We must go through, through a lot of things, through storms and shadows of sickness and confusion, of devastation and brokenness, of deception and hypocrisy, of frustration and powerful fury of forces fighting against us, even though the shadow of death itself, as Jesus did.
Though all these ofs Jesus is there walking through the shadows with us always. Even though we have all read the 23rd Psalm over and over, when the shadows of come, and attempt to block our vision, it may take someone else to speak the words to us to remind us the words are more than words. The words are as faithful and true today, as they were when they were written. Are we listening? Jesus is as faithful and true today as He was when He hung on the cross and went through the shadows, through the darkness of death. The words are alive. Jesus is alive, and with us through all shadows of everything.
Maybe this is the day you need to remind someone in your life of these faithful and true words.
You can let God's light shine through their shadows of darkness through you.
Psalm 23
The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters. He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me. Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the LORD for ever.
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As Deep As The Ocean
As High As The Sky
I love you with my heart
I love you with my spirit I love you with my soul
As deep as the ocean as high as the sky
Surely this is a love that will never die.
A simple little poem says a lot. Can love die? Surely not? Maybe? Certainly?
How many loves that were proclaimed and shouted from the mountain tops for all the
world to hear and see have died? Several. Millions. Trillions. Gazillionbillions.
Young love doesn't always last. Old love doesn't always last.
Love, or what we think to be love, especially when we are young, does fade away and eventually die.
It has been said true love is the one thing we all hope to experience before we die
Sadly many who search for love and acceptance of man their whole lives, never find the true love that is deeper than the ocean, higher than the sky. This great love created love. He is love. He created the ocean and sky.
He loves our heart. He loves our very soul. His love for us did not and will never die, but He died loving us.
Love died on a cross loving you and me.
Love is not a feeling of butterflies in your stomach and your heart racing. Love is not the feeling of total complete happiness just to be in the same room with someone who you think of every second of every minute of every hour of every day. Love is not feeling tongued tied, unable to speak.
Love is not the feeling of wanting more for another person than you want for yourself.
Love is not even feeling you love someone so much that you feel you must let them go
Love is not a feeling at all.
Love is God.
He sent His Son Jesus
Jesus died on a cross.
Love died.
BUT
He rose. Love rose again, to live forever and ever.
The next time you feel love is dying remember, Love lives forever.
Love is always with us loving us unconditionally.
He loves us as deep as the ocean- as high as the sky that He created.
We know how much God loves us, and we have put our trust in him. God is love,
and all who live in love live in God, and God lives in them. John 4:16 NLT
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Lame Sacrifice
I remember a story of sacrifice my mother told me of her childhood. When she was young she went to town every Saturday with her cousin. They had to walk several miles. My mother loved her mother with a great love, so much she didn't like to leave her and always brought her something home. She told of a compact with a broken mirror she found under an oak tree. It was beautiful on the outside but was flawed by the broken mirror. Despite the brokenness, she still carried it home to her mother. My mother told another story of a half-eaten apple from school carefully wrapped in a handkerchief. I think my favorite story of all is the one she told of the melted ice cream cone. When she was about eight years old, my mother found a quarter, just enough to buy an ice cream cone at the drugstore fountain. She ate a little but thought of her mother. With miles to go, before she reached home, she wrapped the cone in a paper bag and got home with it as quickly as she could. Needless to say, all that was left was a soggy cone. Of course, it was the thought that counted and I am sure her mother thought the soggy cone was delicious.
A sacrifice is defined as to surrender or give up, or permit injury or disadvantage to, for the sake of something or someone else. So even though the cone was damaged, the apple was half-eaten and the mirror was broken, my mother indeed did sacrifice these things, give them up for her mother.
We are all called to give sacrificially to God. If it is something that we don't really want in the first place that we give to Him, it isn't much of a sacrifice. Our praise, our offerings, our very lives should be presented to God whole and unblemished. Of course, some people's best doesn't appear as good as other people's best, but if it is our best it looks perfect to God. Just as the broken mirror, melted cone, and half-eaten apple might not have looked to be the best to someone else, I am sure my Grandmother thought the sacrificial gifts were just perfect, because they were given from the heart and were the very best my mother had to offer her.
Lame is defined as weak, inadequate, unsatisfactory, clumsy. God specifically speaks against lame sacrifices to Him.
And if there be any blemish therein, as if it be lame or blind, or have any ill blemish, thou shalt not sacrifice it unto the LORD thy God.
And if ye offer the blind for sacrifice, is it not evil? and if ye offer the lame and sick, is it not evil? offer it now unto thy governor; will he be pleased with thee, or accept thy person? saith the LORD of hosts
If the gift isn't something you would gladly, unashamedly give someone else, why in the world would you present it to the God of the whole universe? Even so, God doesn't call only for sacrifices coming from great wealth but calls for sacrifices coming from our hearts. Even if your best is not of great worth in man's eyes, it is of great worth to God and He will see it as whole and unblemished.
Also, we must remember when we present our bodies, ourselves as living sacrifices to God, the first thing we need to do, even before we try to live holy lives, is to see ourselves as God sees us. We are His children and He sees us as beautiful. Every little blemish and fault we see when we look at ourselves in the mirror isn't what God sees. We must see ourselves as strong, whole and healthy worthy sacrifices, not weak, inadequate, unsatisfactory, sick and lame.
When my mother saw the compact, apple, and ice cream cone as perfect, she presented it to her mother as perfect. Because she had such great love for her child, she saw the sacrifices as beautiful also.
Our praise, our sacrifices, our very lives should be sincere, not lame. If we give sincerely sacrificially straight from our heart, God sees all these as beautiful.