Jesus

Opening Up the Best Known Verse in the Bible

For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
John 3:16

The following diagram of John 3:16 was shared by James Montgomery Boice in a devotional called How Great Thou Art. It gives perspective to the simple and familiar words of the best known of all Bible verses. It takes a black and white truth and paints it with vivid color.

You might want to read through it a few times over.

God ~ the greatest Lover
so loved ~ the greatest degree
the world ~ the greatest company
that He gave ~ the greatest act
His only begotten Son ~ the greatest gift
that whosoever ~ the greatest opportunity
believes ~ the greatest simplicity
in Him ~ the greatest attraction
should not perish ~ the greatest promise
but ~ the greatest difference
have ~ the greatest certainty
everlasting life ~ the greatest possession

Do you find yourself responding to one of the ‘greatest’ more than the others? Why do you think that one resonates with you?

For you visual people—I tried, I really tried to make the ‘the’s line up, but like Ariel in The Little Mermaid it was hopeless, completely hopeless!!!

My NYR List For A Better 2016!

By Kelly Grace

Is it possible you can make 2016 a better year by creating a list of New Year’s Resolutions?

I don’t know, but I’m gonna try.

Whether you see it as motivation, inspiration, or an exercise in futility—The New Year’s Resolutions List has made its annual appearance here there and everywhere. That’s a Beatles reference for those of you who don’t have an AARP membership.

Right up front I want to let you know that there’s an official opt-out day if you decide you don’t want to play anymore.
National Ditch Your Resolutions Day is January 17th.

I could find zilch about the origins of the day, but we all know its origins are in our general lameness at keeping resolutions. By day 17 discipline-fatigue sets in and so some wise soul knew we needed an official day to get out from under the blame and shame.

Like Google analytics, I love lists, but I opted instead for poetry form in my personal version of The Ubiquitous 2016 New Year’s Resolutions List.

Like the best lists of this kind it’s aspirational and improbable.
It’s a blend of high-minded goals and low-brow ambition, it’s a veritable latte of fun and faith, and it’s the best I can manage and still get the sheets changed.
*This is important because my whole self-worth is strangely attached to the regular changing of linens ;). I know better than to waste countless $$$$ and hours trying to discover in psychotherapy the source of this attachment or try to affect a detachment.
Who knows what my fickle self-worth would glom onto if I was ever successful???

Without further preamble, ceremony, or ado, here are my 2016 New Year’s Resolutions.

To stop and smell the roses
To do my very best
To work as hard as I can
To finally get some rest

To eat more greens
To take more steps
To brush and floss
To tidy and toss

To sort and file
To read and think
To eat less sugar
To more water drink

To write more letters
To see more friends
To turn off the TV
To make amends

To curb my temper
To hold my tongue
To tone up my abs
To work till it’s done

To talk to Jesus every day
To listen when He speaks
To give Him every burden
To first His Kingdom seek

To count up all His blessings
To write them down in ink
To pray for little children
To recall that in a blink

I’ll one day change completely
Mystery in a moment of time
A heavenly body will clothe me
Immortal by Jesus’ design

Then I’ll live with God forever
And with all on His name who believe
In a place He is now preparing
His children to Himself He’ll receive

I’ll see Him as He is, as we say, face to face
All my sin, my weakness, and disgrace
Blessedly gone and forgotten
Thankfully and at last

And New Year’s Resolutions definitely a thing of the past!

Happy New Year 🙂

As always I’d love to hear from you.
Have you made your list? Do you feel having goals written down has helped you to make desired changes?
If you could change just one thing in 2016 what would it be?

And if you liked this, feel free to share with friends on FB or Twitter.

photo by Michael Hull
unsplash.com

Lessons From A Child On Sharing Your Faith

By Kelly Grace

Embed from Getty Images

We all have flaws. His was that he was a leper.
But this story isn’t about him, it’s about her.
About a little girl child, part of the spoils of war, who without hostility or bitterness, without meanness or vengeful spite wanted to see him healed.

How does a child, abducted from her family and taken hostage, cling to God in faith and care one bit about the health or well-being of her captor?
There is more than one miracle in this old story.
Whatever she knew of the God of Israel she remembered it even in her captivity. She carried it away with her to Syria and right into the house of a military commander and his wife.
Compassion flowed out from her child-heart.

Naaman, commander of the army of the king of Syria, was a great man with his master and in high favor, because by him the Lord had given victory to Syria. He was a mighty man of valor, but he was a leper. Now the Syrians on one of their raids had carried off a little girl from the land of Israel, and she worked in the service of Naaman’s wife. She said to her mistress, “Would that my lord were with the prophet who is in Samaria! He would cure him of his leprosy.”
2 Kings 5:1-3

I can’t imagine how this child, this little girl, can want something good, something redemptive, something whole-making for this man.
But she does.
That’s Christlikeness.
It’s godly to want good for others. To care about people and want blessings and a touch from God to come into their lives.

In the circumstances of her life, she finds the intersection of compassion and faith.

Compassion and faith.
That dynamic combination made her an evangelist.
She knew her master’s need and she knew that the prophet, the man of God, could cure him of his leprosy. She actually cares, has love, for this man and his wife.
She cares enough to share what she knows.

Do You Care Enough to Share What You Know?

We’re talking about evangelism at church.
We’re talking about talking about it in January.
I can’t wait that long because I know people with needs.
Picture someone you know who doesn’t know Christ, they’re not a believer, not a Christian.

What do you think is that person’s greatest need?
How would believing on Christ as Savior meet that need?
How would coming to know God in a personal way heal that soul, mend that life, meet that need?

That’s the lesson we learn from this child.
Look for the need in a person’s life and you’ll find the place where they can meet God.

*Read through 2 Kings 5:15 to see Naaman’s confession of faith in God.

The Jesus Style
Take any of the gospel accounts and examine how Jesus interacts with people.
In Capernaum He heals a man in the synagogue who is demon possessed and then He goes to Peter’s house for dinner, but first heals Peter’s mother-in-law of a fever. In another city He healed a man with leprosy and on another day a paralytic whose friends let him down through the roof. First he forgave the man’s sins, but went on to heal his physical malady to demonstrate to the religious leaders that He had authority to pronounce sins forgiven.

Jesus saw needs.

Spiritual needs, physical needs, emotional needs, the sins that mar us and the wounds that scar us!
He sees them all. He wants us to care enough to see the needs of people. Then He’ll give us the opportunity to evangelize. To bring good tidings of great joy to people. The deepest most divinely beautiful aspect of the gospel message is that God loves and has demonstrated His love in sending His Son.

~ A relationship with God can meet every need of the human heart.

Do you believe that?

~ God loves every single person.

Do you believe that?
If you do it will make you an evangelist.

Jesus mentions the story of Naaman the leper when He visited Nazareth, the village where He was brought up.

“. . . And there were many lepers in Israel in the time of the prophet Elisha, and none of them was cleansed, but only Naaman the Syrian.”
Luke 4:27

He includes it as part of a rebuke for their lack of faith and their scorn for Him.
They became furious with Him and tried to throw Him off the edge of a cliff.
But look at the first part of His message that morning in the synagogue:

And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up. And as was his custom, he went to the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and he stood up to read. And the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written,

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
    because he has anointed me
    to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives
    and recovering of sight to the blind,
    to set at liberty those who are oppressed,
to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”
Luke 4:16-19

A Spirit filled messenger with a message of good news from God for the poor.
A message of liberty for the captives.
A message that gives sight to the blind and freedom.
A message of deliverance for the oppressed.

The example we should follow, if we are serious about winning souls for the kingdom of God, is the example given us by Jesus as He walked among us.

See people in their need.
Let God’s love be the anointing that commissions you.
Let God’s Spirit be the power that animates your message.
Proclaim with assurance God’s love and favor toward all.
Share with clarity and simplicity the heart of the gospel:
For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
Declare with conviction the person of Jesus Christ as God and Savior.
And then ask if they want to come and have their need met in Him.

I have a friend who went with a group on a short-term missions trip. She said most people she talked with prayed to receive Christ as Savior. Others on that trip shared the same truth, but didn’t find the same response from the ones they spoke to. As the group members talked about their experiences at the end of the day my friend realized that she had actually asked people to make a decision.
Others shared the gospel, but didn’t invite a decision.
They hesitated and the moment passed.

Again, Jesus is our example. Look at what He says to Martha in this passage from John 11:25-27.

Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?” She said to him, “Yes, Lord; I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who is coming into the world.”

“Do you believe this?”
Jesus is asking Martha for a decision.

Don’t hesitate to ask for a decision.
Don’t sow the seed and walk on as the Enemy snatches it away.
Make sure the person you’re sharing with understands the truth and the importance of responding to it.
Ask if they believe what the Bible says about Jesus?
Ask if they want a friendship with God?
Do they want forgiveness of sin?
Do they want deliverance from bondage?
Do they desire spiritual life and union with God?
Would they like their life to count for eternity?

“Hear then the parable of the sower: When anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what has been sown in his heart. This is what was sown along the path.
Matthew 13:18-19

I received Christ without anyone asking me if I wanted to pray a sinner’s prayer.
I heard the gospel and believed it that very moment. But a few days later the friend who had invited me to the Bible Study asked me if I was a Christian. I told her I hadn’t been, but that I was when I left her home after the study. I didn’t know I was suppose to say something. It never occurred to me. I had heard the good news and my heart couldn’t wait to say Yes!

We’re not alone in this!!!
In fact we’re just a mouthpiece.
It’s the Holy Spirit Who does the real work in a human heart and mind.

But there is Romans10:9-10

because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.

That passage encourages me to give a person the opportunity to say it out loud.
To respond in the moment.
To pray a prayer that’s witnessed by another.
Remember that little girl.
Open your eyes to the people around you. Let God show you their need and fill your heart with love and compassion. Pray for them. Pray for an opportunity to be used by God in their life, to bring healing and whole-ness, to bring truth and salvation through the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Does Your Bible Reading Kindle a Fire in Your Heart?

By Kelly Grace

What would it be like if Jesus led your personal Bible reading/study time?

In a word—awesome!
When it happened to a couple of bummed out disciples walking along a dusty road to Emmaus, they said “. . .our hearts burned within us while he talked to us on the road, while He opened the to us the Scriptures.”

That’s the experience we all want.
We want a burning heart that’s fully alive, fully engaged because of an encounter with Jesus.

Instead we feel a little disappointed or ashamed that sometimes the Scriptures seem closed to us when we read them ourselves.
It happens to us all.
For some people it’s just too discouraging. It’s enough to make them give up on the whole process entirely.

God says we are to search for Him, to seek Him out.

The Lord looks down from heaven upon the children of men,
To see if there are any who understand, who seek God.
Psalm 14:2

But the Bible is a long book, a big book with lots of characters with confusing names. It’s full of old stories that take place in ancient cities and countries. A lot of it seems so far removed from our lives, our experiences. We get lost in the tall grass 😉

Secretly we ask, “Is any of this even relevant to my life?”
“How can I wade through all of it to find the parts that apply to me, to my life, my family, my journey?”
What does God want from me? For me? Through me?
What is He trying to tell me?

Jesus said, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God.” Luke 4:4
Everything God says is pure; He’s a shield for those who take refuge in Him. Proverbs 30:5

It’s all good!!!
All of it.
But I don’t think it was random that Jesus focused on the truth about Himself when He met those two guys on that road to Emmaus.

And beginning at Moses and all the Prophets, He expounded to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself.
Luke 24:27

Jesus is without doubt the center of God’s message to us.
In Jesus we see the fulness of God. We see the incarnation of God’s love, His mercy, and His grace in Jesus the man.
Every story that is told reveals something about God’s own nature, His working in the world, His heart toward us, His plans, and His eternal purposes, and our part in those plans and purposes.

What’s the meaning of the burning heart response?

It says Jesus began with Moses, those first five books of our Bible, and expounded, or unfolded the meaning by explanation and interpretation.
Then He moved on to the prophets and did the same.

Jesus opened their eyes to see Him in the Scriptures.
That’s what caused their hearts to burn.

Our hearts are looking for Jesus!
I found an old post-it-note with this phrase on it: There’s a message in every miracle.

I’ve been thinking about that as I read the gospels.
I’m not sure what messages I was looking for, but I thought they might be about the others in the stories, like the little boy who offered his 5 loaves and two fish to Jesus, or a lesson in faith for Martha and Mary grieving their dead brother Lazarus.

But, it was right there all along: the message is about Jesus.
It’s always about Him.
What He can do if we just offer Him what we have.
How the trials in our lives bring Him glory.

Our tendency is to start with ourselves.
We read our Bibles for ourselves.
We want to figure out how to end our trials, conquer our weaknesses, relieve our stresses.
We want happy marriages, successful children, and fruitful spiritual lives.

Nothing wrong with those things.
God wants those too, but Jesus began by expounding, unfolding truth about Himself, to His followers.

If we start with Jesus the rest will follow.

But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.
2 Corinthians 3:18

Our hearts burn when we see Jesus.
Start looking for Him when you read your Bible.

Can I share with you my prayer, the one I pray before I read from my Bible?

Holy Spirit show me Jesus, lead me into the truth—His truth, as I read today. Kindle a fire in my heart with the knowledge of Jesus and with a clear vision of Him. Then change me, transform me into that same image for His glory.
Amen.

In My Father’s House Are Many Mansions

By Kelly Grace

Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me.
In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.
And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.
John 14:1-3

Do you ever wonder what Jesus is doing?

I admit sometimes I wonder, just what is taking Him so long??? I know He’s coming back for us. But when?
My trials make me impatient for it.
The ickiness and evil in the world make my soul cry out, ‘Come quickly Lord Jesus!’

I’ve found two passages in the Bible that give us clues about how He is occupied while we’re waiting for Him.

The first is this promise in John’s gospel.

“I go to prepare a place for you.”

He knows just what we’re gonna need for our forever stay.
He’s on it. He’s thought of everything. And it will all be perfect.
That lifts me when I feel ‘not at home’ in this world. I remember that this isn’t my real home, it’s like being on a long trip and longing to get home.
Home, where you belong, where your family is, and where you feel their love and acceptance.

Yep, even the things we don’t know we’ll need.
Like the knowledge of God that will heal our ‘soul holes’ as Ann Voskamp call them, even that will be ours.
To know God fully. There’s deep wonder in that promise.
The Grand Tetons are majestic, but God is Majesty, divine Majesty. He is brilliant in glory, immeasurable in love, overflowing in mercy, unmatched in power, and without equal in wisdom.
Don’t you want to know Him?
I can’t wait!

For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.
1 Corinthians 13:12

The second thing Jesus is doing is praying for us. Constantly. Faithfully. Wisely. Effectively.

Therefore he is able, once and forever, to save those who come to God through him. He lives forever to intercede with God on their behalf.
Hebrews 7:25 NLT

He intercedes with God on my behalf and on your behalf.
We forget to pray for ourselves and others, but Jesus lives for it!

We’re at the forefront of His thoughts. Don’t let the enemy tell you that Jesus has forgotten you—it’s not true. He numbers the hairs of your head. No detail is too small, no care too mundane, and no need too great for Him.

Jesus is waiting for that coming moment, that appointed time when He’ll return for His us and we’ll never be separated from His presence again.

We’ll see and enter into everything He’s prepared for us.
We’ll know all the prayers He prayed for us.
We’ll be all He has planned for us to be.
We’ll know as we are known.

The old song says, I’ve got a mansion just over the hilltop, in that bright land where we’ll never grow old.
I don’t know what kind of dwelling Jesus is preparing, but I know it’ll be perfect.

While in France we toured some of the great French Chateaux. This one is Chateau de Villandry. Beautiful, but a maintenance nightmare 😉

I said I’d blog about France, but instead I ate croissant, lots of French pastry and traipsed all over soaking up art, architecture, and the bucolic French countryside.
It’s all as beautiful as you’ve heard, but I’m sorry to report that there is still too much smoking in France.

A Love That Endures

By Kelly Grace

We forgot to take a padlock to Paris!

TripAdvisor never said a word about it. Ditto Rick Steves. Same for Fodor’s France.

I don’t know when this became a thing, but the bridges in Paris are slowly being overtaken by padlocks.
The newest symbol of a couple’s enduring love.

Seeing all that gleaming colorful hardware reflecting the sunshine of a bright Paris afternoon, I had to wonder how many of those couples are still— well, you know, still a couple.

Or is the padlock a symbol of a love that no longer exists?

Christians hold the Cross of Christ as the greatest symbol of God’s love for mankind.
For on it Jesus offered Himself as a sacrifice for our sins.

But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
Romans 5:8

But among the sites and relics of the Holy Land you won’t see the one that most definitively and beautifully symbolizes God’s love for us.

The Cross no longer stands on the hill called Golgotha, but the love demonstrated there is as deep as ever it was.

Maybe you’ve been distracted by life’s busyness and haven’t been thinking of God.
He’s been thinking of you.

In Psalm 139 David captures the depth and intensity of the love God has for you.

Let it refresh your heart with a new awareness of His constant abiding love.

O Lord, you have searched me and known me!
You know when I sit down and when I rise up;
    you discern my thoughts from afar.
You search out my path and my lying down
    and are acquainted with all my ways.
Even before a word is on my tongue,
    behold, O Lord, you know it altogether.
You hem me in, behind and before,
    and lay your hand upon me.
Such knowledge is too wonderful for me;
    it is high; I cannot attain it. . .

How precious to me are your thoughts, O God!
How vast is the sum of them!
If I would count them, they are more than the sand.
I awake, and I am still with you.
Psalm 139:1-6 & 17-18

There’s no one, no one, who knows you as God knows you.
Every hurt and regret, every habit and character trait. Your thoughts and motivations, your hopes and disappointments—He knows them all.
David says this truth is just too lofty, too marvelous to comprehend.
He can’t really wrap his mind around the way God knows and loves him.
He’s written on this theme before.
In Psalm 40:5 he put it like this:

You have multiplied, O Lord my God,
    your wondrous deeds and your thoughts toward us;
    none can compare with you!
I will proclaim and tell of them,
    yet they are more than can be told.

More than can be told.

How do you respond to that kind of love?

Respond by returning it in kind.

Take some time today to think about God. List a few of the things you know about Him. How would you describe His ways, the things He does and how He does them. Proclaim it! Tell somebody about it!
What do you think is God’s greatest desire? What fills Him with joy and delight?
The more you discover Him, the more you’ll love Him.

. . .the Lord’s delight is in those who fear him,
those who put their hope in his unfailing love.
Psalm 147:11

Jesus Has A Knack For Repurposing

By Kelly Grace

These old jars weren’t manufactured as fence decorations.
Nope.
They had a whole different life before they became fence decorations. But someone had a new purpose in mind for each one.

That is just what God does with some of us, He repurposes us.
Today I was thinking about Moses and Samuel.

Moses didn’t start out as a prophet.
He was semi-royalty and presumably living a life of privilege in a palace. He easily could have been a brick maker or a mason except God had a different ‘ultimate plan’ for his life. It involved him being raised as the son of Pharoah’s daughter. The repurposing came along a little later. Moses sensed God was doing something in Egypt with the Hebrews, so he showed some initiative, and got busy trying to right some wrongs.
He jumped the gun and had to run for his life. That was OK because he had to learn to listen to God before he was really gonna be useful.
That part took about 40 years.

Some of us are slow learners when it comes to discerning God’s voice.

Samuel on the other hand began his life’s work at a very early age. Probably 3-4 years old. He always knew the role God designed for him. He grew into it as he grew up. Hearing from God and being used by God to guide and minister to Israel were part of his everyday experience.

How about you?
Which man’s experience more closely resembles yours?

I’ve always envied those girls who knew by 7 years of age that they were gonna be a nurse or a teacher, or write code and develop websites.
My life experience resembles a game of Twister. Or the way the Garmin screen looked when we were driving switchbacks in the Italian Alps. All squiggly lines and no apparent rhyme or reason to any of it.

But when God introduced Himself to me at the Avon lady’s home Bible Study one night—I got repurposed.
Walking home afterwards along the wooden sidewalk of that Mill town I was embraced by a knowing. Not of the what, but of Who. I knew that by knowing Him my life would have real and lasting purpose. Completely enveloped by a confidence, I felt a restfulness settle deep into my heart. Only for a brief time, when I took my eyes off the Who and focused on the what, has that ever been disturbed.

I read somewhere that within 50 years no one will remember us.

For the most renown or notorious among us some record will endure, but for you and me there is little likelihood of even a footnote of mention. That somehow doesn’t bug me in the least.

I’m so incredibly grateful that God came and found me. His purposes for us are the only ones that merit mention, the only ones that have any power to endure. Knowing Him has answered the big questions I hadn’t realized I was asking.

Have you been repurposed?

If you’re a Samuel then I’m happy for you.
Most of us aren’t. Most of us are like those bottles decorating the fence.
Finally fulfilling a glorious purpose reflecting the light and hopefully bringing a smile to the face of those passing by.

Photo Rula Sibai unsplash.com

Why You’re Not In Heaven Yet.

By Kelly Grace

To that one thief on the cross next to Him Jesus said, “Today you’ll be with Me in Paradise.”

Why aren’t we?
In Paradise I mean.

If we’ve believed at, say, 7 years old, then why don’t we just blink and find ourselves in heaven.
Or maybe 17 like I was when I first heard that God loved me and I dumped all my sin and yuckiness right into Jesus’ nail pierced-hands and said, “Can You, would You take this from me? It’s gotten too heavy and I can’t seem to get rid of it myself.”

What’s the point of the rest of this life after a person has come to Christ?

It’s them.
Those people in the crosswalk with you on the way to work.
The gal ahead of you in line at Starbucks—it’s about her.
Or maybe your own kids.

They’re the point.

Jesus told that rag tag group of disciples that He was going to make them fishers of men.
And later He said, “You guys are the salt of the earth—the light of the world.”

We have a job to do, little by little, day by day.
A job for God.
And that’s why you’re not in heaven yet;)

“So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view.
Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer.
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!
All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation:
that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them.

And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation.
We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us.
We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God.”
2 Corinthians 5:16-20

A worldly perspective makes us discount others and focus our energies and attention on our own lives.
But God isn’t into our ‘selfie mindset’.

He’s given us both a ministry and a message of reconciliation.

Today look at someone in a new way—not from a worldly perspective, but as someone God has put in your path.
How will that change your interaction?

Photo by David Marcu https://unsplash.com

Opening Up the Best Known Verse in the Bible

Like this:

My NYR List For A Better 2016!

Is it possible you can make 2016 a better year by creating a list of New Year’s Resolutions?

Like this:

Lessons From A Child On Sharing Your Faith

Like this:

Does Your Bible Reading Kindle a Fire in Your Heart?

What would it be like if Jesus led your personal Bible reading/study time?

Like this: