“Don’t rejoice when your enemies fall; don’t be happy when they stumble. For the Lord will be displeased with you and will turn His anger away from them.” Proverbs 24:17-18 NLT
The Word
He is I AM
Jesus said to His disciples, “Before Abraham was, I Am.” (John 8:58)
I’m sure you’ve heard someone, at some point, refer to a Scripture as having leapt off the page while they were reading. This is one of those verses for me. There I was, reading along, when suddenly I SAW Jesus say, “Before Abraham was, I AM.”
I’ve heard this verse used to support Jesus’ divinity, as it hearkens back to God’s declaration to Moses, but the revelation I gained in that moment was entirely different.
Picture me sitting there, stunned expression on my face, realizing that He’s saying “I AM before Abraham,” that even though He was standing there talking to them He was also, at the same time, before Abraham was born!
The revelation hit me in a moment, but it took my brain weeks to process it. Throughout my days, I kept going back to the thought the way you keep returning to a pot that’s simmering on the stove. I even pulled out my concordance and sought out similar times when God made such references to Himself.
You see, I’d always heard it taught that God was saying, “I am _________ (insert your need in the blank,” meaning He is whatever you need.
I am your Savior.
I am your deliverer.
I am your healer.
I am your provider.
This is all true, and lines up with the very names of God. The challenge is that Scripture isn’t two-dimensional. You can look at it one way today and see that it means one thing, and realize tomorrow that it means that and much more. The challenge is to keep from getting locked into only one view.
As I meditated on Jesus’ declaration, God lifted another verse from the page. “Be still and know that I am God…” (Psalm 46:10) It was as if He were writing me a personal message.
Be still and know that I AM
~God
It’s a fact: Time is meaningless to God. Yes, we find it hard to comprehend this truth, because it’s almost everything to us, but I’m convinced that its only use to God is that it helps us keep our own lives in order. Well, perhaps that’s an oversimplification, but you get my point.
Through the weeks, I slowly gained an understanding that GOD IS, that even as God IS with me as I type this, He IS also with Moses in the desert and Adam in the garden. At first, it was almost like a mental exercise. I’d been given a new piece of information and was slowly grasping what it meant, what its significance would be in my life. Like watching the sun slowly creep up over mountains, I knew something was coming. And I was actively watching for it.
And then the day dawned.
We’d been dealing with CPS (Child Protective Services). The report was completely bogus but, like everyone else who has ever been accused, we had been doing our part to prove wrong the accusations made against us. On “that” day, I walked out my front door, heading to the mailbox, and I suddenly GOT IT. Even as I took those steps, I prayed something along the lines of, “Daddy, you’re in all times at once, so I ask that you do whatever you have to do three days ago for there to be a letter in the mailbox today saying, ‘We’re so sorry. We’ve found nothing wrong. We’re dropping the whole thing.’”
The letter was there. It didn’t say, “We’re so sorry,” but I really didn’t care. That was the day my prayer life radically changed, the day I realized that what I call retroactive prayers are a thing.
Have you ever received a prayer request at noon for a surgery that was taking place at seven, and felt terrible because the surgery was surely over and all you could pray for was a swift healing? But you can still pray in such situations! God, who is with you when you get the request, is – at that same moment – with the person before they go into surgery, in surgery, and as they come out. Truly, since God isn’t bound by time, there’s almost no such thing as “too late” for Him. (Almost. There are definite spots in Scripture where God declares to man that time is up.) I mean that literally.
We’ve heard it said that when a man is dead he’s dead, that you might as well stop praying for him. As a Protestant who doesn’t believe in Purgatory, I understand where that teaching comes from, but I don’t entirely agree. Not anymore.
The fact is that the same God who is with me now is – even now – with a specific young lady I’m thinking of who died in a car wreck, and He is capable of reaching out to her in those last few moments and saving her soul. Yes, I asked Him to as I learned about her. It is true that, even at the end, she might have resisted Him, but I still have the ability, the right, to ask Him to try. He told me so Himself.
Be still and know that I AM.
~God
Celebrating Jesus!
Tammy C
What You Have
You can tell I wasn’t preparing to share this, because my handwriting is terrible, but I HAD to share. See, SEE what God is telling Gideon in Judges 6:14 (NLT)
Then the Lord turned to him and said, “Go with the strength you have, and rescue Israel from the Midianites. I am sending you!”
The emphasis, of course, is mine.
How many times do we want to ignore God’s call because we’re not good enough, talented enough, outgoing enough, strong enough…? We feel like someone else would be better because THEY have what’s needed. But that’s not the way God does things.
He wants us to bring Him what WE have. Yes, the strength Gideon had was minimal, but his strength wasn’t the point – God’s was. It was Gideon’s weakness that made room for God’s glory.
Go. Go with the strength YOU have!
Celebrating Jesus!
Tammy C
A Satisfied Soul
There are two times I particularly don’t want to go grocery shopping – when I’m hungry and when I’m overly full. When I’m hungry, it seems like everything tries to jump in the cart. When I’m overly full, nothing looks good and I don’t buy it unless it’s already on the list (which often isn’t complete).
This is a simple illustration of what Proverbs 27:7 is saying. When my soul is satisfied IN HIM, even the seemingly sweet things of the world lose their appeal. When I’ve not been spending time with Him, when my soul is unsatisfied because I’ve slipped away from eating at His table, even the bitter things of the world start looking good.
Celebrating Jesus!
Tammy C
The One Year Bible for Women
I’ve shared before about the great value I find in reading through the Bible, and I’m currently reading it through again. This time God had me pull out The One Year Bible for Women in the New Living Translation.
I’ve never even considered reading this format before. I felt it would make for too choppy a read, that it would interrupt the flow of the text to such an extent that I would get little out of it. I was mistaken.
This Bible offers itself up in daily readings that include passages from the Old Testament, the New Testament, Psalms, and Proverbs. I’ve discovered that this works quite well as no one section is so long that it gets boring, and having Psalms and Proverbs broken up into such small bites really gives them the attention they deserve.
I still believe it’s vitally important to read through the Bible chronologically at least once, preferably two or three times, but I had to come confess that I find this to be an exceptionally good reading plan as well.
Celebrating Jesus!
Tammy C
Store My Commands
“Store my commands,” he says, and “Write them deep in your heart.”
God’s Word isn’t just a book meant to sit on a shelf between church services. It is the very Word of God, words from God that He gave us for a reason. We aren’t just to look at them, or simply read them. We are to learn them, to interact with them, to use them. Yes, we are to KNOW them, to have them be so truly part of who we are that it is as if they were physically written in our hearts.
God’s Word is THAT important.
Celebrating Jesus!
Tammy C
A Timely Word
Here’s a good Word for a new year.
My Child, listen to what I say, and treasure my commands. Tune your ears to wisdom, and concentrate on understanding. Cry out for insight, and ask for understanding. Search for them as you would for silver; seek them like hidden treasures. Then you will understand what it means to fear the Lord, and you will gain knowledge of God.
Proverbs 2:1-5 NLT
Years ago, I realized how often the book of Proverbs commands us to seek out three things: Wisdom, Understanding, and Knowledge. I made it a practice to ask for them, and as I did I learned how they build on each other. For instance, knowledge is great, but without wisdom and understanding there is only so much you can do with it.
There is much to be gained by listening to the wisdom in the book of Proverbs. It really is a great place to go when starting a new year.
Celebrating Jesus!
Tammy C
They Began to Worship?
There’s a verse that bothers me every time I read it, and I’d like some input.
Adam and Eve, and clearly Cain and Abel, had fellowship with God even after being kicked out of the Garden. So why, in Genesis 4:26, do we see that, “At that time people first began to worship the Lord by name.”?
I’ve thought of several possibilities myself, and I may share them later, but I’m honestly looking for input and others’ thoughts. Has someone, somewhere, studied this verse?
Thoughts?
Celebrating Jesus!
Tammy C
Meditations: Psalm 84:10a
Psalm 84:10a
AMP
For a day in Your courts is better than a thousand [anywhere else]
Psalm 84:10a (AMP)
I’m over fifty, and I turned my life over to God when I was twelve. I’ve had some truly joyous days in those years, and I’ve had days so devastating that I would never wish them on my worst human enemy. (The devil is a different story!) One thing I can say from experience is that Psalm 84:10 speaks truth…great truth.
In earlier years, church attendance was an act of discipline. I made myself get up on Sunday mornings and forced myself to ignore weariness on Wednesday evenings. Eventually, though I began to see a pattern.
Any time I truly entered into a service, taking an active part in it rather than merely letting it happen around me, I came away energized – no matter how tired I’d been when I arrived. Any time I’ve gone to church and consciously set aside my worries, fears, or pain, spending time focusing on God instead of me and my issues, I have come away with more peace, clearer vision, and often even supernatural release from even crippling pain.
I speak of emotional pain, but the same applies to physical pain. For years, I suffered from three-day, hormone-induced migraines that hit every fourteen days. Day one I usually spent in bed, sure I was going to die. On day two, I knew I was going to live, but wanted to die. By day three, the pain was still devastating, but so much lessened in comparison that I could push through it. During this time, I was first in the band and then in the choir, yet I missed very few services.
By then, I truly understood the importance of, and many of the reasons for, God’s command to assemble together (Hebrews 10:25) and simply (though not always easily) refused to let my body dictate my actions. And God honored my choices.
In the band, I played small percussion. Percussion and migraines obviously don’t mix; neither do singing and migraines. Even so, almost without fail, as soon as praise and worship began I would be totally pain free and I would stay free from pain until I stepped down and sat in my pew. Sometimes the pain stayed away and sometimes, usually, it only eased up, but continually God reminded me that He had called me to serve in the music ministry and as long as I stayed right with Him He would make me able.
So… Today there is no “I don’t feel like going to church.” Or, perhaps I should rephrase. There are days when my body would rather not go to church. I, though, have realized that I always benefit from being in service. I want to be there on the good days, when all is right with my world, but I especially want to be there – desperately want to be there – when fear, doubt, pain, or heartache are hounding me, because it is there that I find solace and strength. It IS better to spend one day in His house than a thousand anywhere else!
And as strongly as I feel this now, oh how I look forward to Heaven!
Celebrating Jesus!
Tammy C
Meditations: Revelation 3:20
Revelation 3:20
NKJV
Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door,
I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me.
It astounds me when I consider that these words were written to a church – to Christians. Specifically, they were written to the Laodiceans, the ones God rebuked for being lukewarm. Still, they were written to a church and He refers to Himself as being outside the door! He is saying to these Christians, “I stand at your doors and knock. If any one of you hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to you and dine with you and you with Me.” Why does He say this? Why is He standing outside the door?
Who can underestimate the rewards of letting Christ live in us? How many times has a Christian said, “Oh, I would love to step back in time for just a little while, to sit down to dinner with Jesus and really spend time with Him”? But we don’t have to step back in time; He offers us this option right now, today! Yet…
How many of us, complacently thinking ourselves right with God, go to church every Sunday, sing our songs, perhaps even tithe on our income…but leave Jesus standing outside the door? How many of us have refused to hear the knock, to open our selves up to Him and let Him come in? Admittedly, it can be a frightening thing, to consider allowing the Most Holy One to truly maintain residence within us. For Christ to be present flesh must be absent – must die – and flesh has a serious problem with being put to death. It seems far easier to ignore Jesus until that fateful moment when we wake up and realize what we have done – that He is on the outside, begging to be let in, and we are locked up within walls…all alone.
Yet He is a God of mercy. Even to those who have lost the fire, the ones He says are neither hot nor cold, the ones He threatens to vomit out of His mouth, He offers hope. Though He has been pushed to the wrong side of the door of their hearts and had that door closed in His face, He waits. In His loving mercy He knocks, trying to attract their attention. He even calls out to them, for He says, “If anyone hears My voice…” He is a gentleman. He will never force His way into a place where He is unwanted, not even into a church or a so-called Christian’s heart, but He will stand, wait, knock and call for an astoundingly long time…far longer than any of us would stand outside someone’s door.
And to the one who has shown Him the wrong side of the door, He makes a promise. If that one hears His voice and opens the door, He will come in to them and dine with them, and they will dine with Him. Rather than holding in contempt the one who has pushed Him outside, He will forgive them for all the wrong they’ve done Him and honor them with His presence as if they’d never wronged Him at all. What a love this is!
Celebrating Jesus!
Tammy C