Nameless But Not Lessonless

Our ladies study book just had a chapter on "Lot's Wife" for us study.

She had no name....just "Lot's Wife".

The story of Sodom and Gomorrah is a tragic one.

In brief God could find no righteous person in Sodom and was going to destroy the city with fire. 

Abraham pleaded on behalf of his nephew Lot...

So two angels went to the city to get Lot and his family out.  His sons-in-law refused to leave.

The two angels  basically grabbed Lot's hand and dragged him from the city...with wife and two daughters in tow.

You can read the fill account here.

📖  Genesis 19

God had said "flee and do not turn back"

📖  As soon as they had brought them out, one of them said, “Flee for your lives! Don’t look back, and don’t stop anywhere in the plain! Flee to the mountains or you will be swept away!” Genesis 19:17

Now it doesn't say why she turned back; regret for having to leave?  fear?  sadness over the loss? Desire to go back? But obviously the reason doesn't matter...what matters is obedience and our focus.  Because

📖 But Lot’s wife looked back, and she became a pillar of salt. Genesis 19:26

To me the lesson is we are to always keep our eyes forward ...Christ has us by the hand pulling us to Him, to what He has for us.  Looking back we see what we needed to be distanced from, we see pain, suffering..the things we can not change. 

God intends our focus to be on Him and Him alone. If He wants to use our past for lessons, for good even...He can only do that IF we are focused on Him....not on what we have walked away from.

Another thing that stands out to me with Lot's Wife..is she was turned into a pillar of salt.  If you have ever seen a block of salt, not of granite or marble or even lead...it eventually washes away...in the rain, animals licking it etc...it does not stand the test of time.

She wasn't even going to remain a monument of warning.

Her legacy is a cautionary one...do not set your heart and eyes on the past. We can carry fond memories with us....but let God bring the lessons forward as we focus on HIM...There is no need to look back. 

📖  fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God Hebrew 12:2

You know who is behind you?...whispering over your shoulder...."oh come on..look..this was far better than where you are going" or "You can't get away from this, look you made these choices and you can not change your direction." "You don't deserve to go that way, look back, here is where you belong." 

📖 Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. 1Peter 5:8

DON'T listen, don't look back...

📖 But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Matthew 6:33

🙏 praying today your eyes are fixed on Jesus and not on the things behind you❤

Words to Live By

"Beautiful words, wonderful words, wonderful words of life"!!! The old hymn comes to mind when I look at the blankets I keep over the back of my couch...actually two, one over each couch (Thank you Bobby Jo).  I leave them there all year round.

Words like, 

grace 

📖 But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved, Ephesians 2:4-5 

redemption 

📖 In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace Ephesians 1:7

risen 

📖 The angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. He is not here; he has risen, just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay. .Matthew 28:5-6

sacrifice

📖 Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship.  Romans 12:1

righteousness 

📖 God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement, through the shedding of his blood—to be received by faith. He did this to demonstrate his righteousness, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished— he did it to demonstrate his righteousness at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus. Romans 3:25-26

resurrection  

📖 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives by believing in me will never die. Do you believe this?”  Matthew 11:25

salvation 

📖 Jesus is  “‘the stone you builders rejected, which has become the cornerstone.’

Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved.” Acts 4:11-12

peace  

📖 Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid. John 14:27

crown 

📖 Blessed is the one who perseveres under trial because, having stood the test, that person will receive the crown of life that the Lord has promised to those who love him. James 1:12

savior

📖 Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord. Luke 2:11

favor

📖 As God’s co-workers we urge you not to receive God’s grace in vain.  For he says,

“In the time of my favor I heard you,

and in the day of salvation I helped you.”

I tell you, now is the time of God’s favor, now is the day of salvation. 2 Corinthians 6:1-2

power

📖 For the Spirit God gave us does not make us timid, but gives us power, love and self-discipline.  So do not be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord or of me his prisoner. Rather, join with me in suffering for the gospel, by the power of God. 2 Timothy 1:7-8

king

📖 In the sight of God, who gives life to everything, and of Christ Jesus, who while testifying before Pontius Pilate made the good confession, I charge you to keep this command without spot or blame until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ, which God will bring about in his own time—God, the blessed and only Ruler, the King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone is immortal and who lives in unapproachable light, whom no one has seen or can see. To him be honor and might forever. Amen. 1 Timothy 6:13-16

blessed 

📖 He said: “Blessed are the poor in spirit 

for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn,

for they will be comforted. Blessed are the meek,

for they will inherit the earth. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,

for they will be filled. Blessed are the merciful,

for they will be shown mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart,

for they will see God. Blessed are the peacemakers,

for they will be called children of God. Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness,

for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. “Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Matthew 5:3-11

chosen 

📖 But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. 1 Peter 2:9

redeemed

📖  Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written: “Cursed is everyone who is hung on a pole.”  He redeemed us in order that the blessing given to Abraham might come to the Gentiles through Christ Jesus, so that by faith we might receive the promise of the Spirit. Galatians 3:13-14

🙏My prayer is that today, you sing, say, shout His wonderful words!❤

🎵Wonderful Words Of Life

White Flag 🏳

Raising the white flag ...surrender.

The imagery brings up the idea of defeat, giving up, even weaknesses and failure.

📖 Surrender to God! Resist the devil, and he will run from you. James 4:7 CEV

Weakness it is NOT!

We are called to surrender, called to give up all to follow Him

📖 Then he said to them all: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will save it. Luke 9:23-24

It is what He did

He surrendered all to His Father

📖 “Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done.”  Luke 22:42

everything; His dignity, His position, His life

📖 rather, he made himself nothing

by taking the very nature of a servant,
    being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man,
    he humbled himself
    by becoming obedient to death—even death on a cross! Philippians 2:7-8

If there is no surrender then we are an enemy of God!

📖 Therefore, anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God. Or do you think Scripture says without reason that he jealously longs for the spirit he has caused to dwell in us? But he gives us more grace. That is why Scripture says:  

“God opposes the proud

 but shows favor to the humble.” James 4:5-6

surrender = Humility = freedom

📖 Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up. James 4:10

The only way to live our lives is to live a life of surrender, to Him and to all those around us.   To live a life of freedom we need to follow His example and live a Surrendered Life!

🙏

📖 Therefore if you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any common sharing in the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and of one mind. Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.  In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus:  Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing

    by taking the very nature of a servant,
    being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man,
    he humbled himself   

 by becoming obedient to death—

even death on a cross! 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 should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. Philippians 2:1-11 ❤amen!

🎵 White Flag - Chris Tomlin

GOD MOMENT:  The idea for this blog came to  me a couple weeks ago, I began jotting notes down last week.  As I was preparing worship songs for this past Sunday....I "came across" this song!!

AMAZING how God is in the details!

The Strength of a Woman

 📖Proverbs 31

A wife of noble character who can find?
She is worth far more than rubies.

Her husband has full confidence in her
and lacks nothing of value.

She brings him good, not harm,
all the days of her life.

She selects wool and flax

and works with eager hands.

She is like the merchant ships,
bringing her food from afar.

She gets up while it is still night;

she provides food for her family

and portions for her female servants.

She considers a field and buys it;

out of her earnings she plants a vineyard.

She sets about her work vigorously;

her arms are strong for her tasks.

She sees that her trading is profitable,

and her lamp does not go out at night.

In her hand she holds the distaf

and grasps the spindle with her fingers.

She opens her arms to the poor

and extends her hands to the needy.

When it snows, she has no fear for her household

for all of them are clothed in scarlet.

She makes coverings for her bed;

she is clothed in fine linen and purple.

Her husband is respected at the city gate,

where he takes his seat among the elders of the land

She makes linen garments and sells them,

and supplies the merchants with sashes.

She is clothed with strength and dignity;

she can laugh at the days to come.

She speaks with wisdom,

and faithful instruction is on her tongue.

She watches over the affairs of her household

and does not eat the bread of idleness.

Her children arise and call her blessed;

her husband also, and he praises her:

“Many women do noble things,

but you surpass them all.”

Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting;

but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised.

Honor her for all that her hands have done

and let her works bring her praise at the city gate.

📖Galatians 5:22-26

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other.

📖1 Corinthians 13

If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing. Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me.For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known. And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

For me to be at my strongest I need to know who I am...

📖 Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God— John 11:12

And Who the source of my strength is;

📖 The Lord is my strength and my shield;
    my heart trusts in him, and he helps me.
My heart leaps for joy,
    and with my song I praise him. Psalm 28:7

And with Him I can conquer anything!

📖 I can do all this through him who gives me strength Philippians 4:14

🙏I pray you feel His strength in you today❤

Verse of the Day

Proverbs 17:9

On BibleGateway  (https://www.biblegateway.com/) the "Verse of the Day"....popped out at me last Sunday.  It seemed profound, so I took a screen shot and had to wait until I had time to dig into it a bit more

NKJV (New King James Version)

📖 He who covers a transgression seeks love, But he who repeats a matter separates friends.

I liked what it said, but instead of dissecting the verse bit by bit I decided to look up different bible translations of the verse;

NIV (New International Version)

📖 Whoever would foster love covers over an offense, but whoever repeats the matter separates close friends.

KJV (King James Version)

📖 He that covereth a transgression seeketh love; but he that repeateth a matter separateth very friends.

ASV (American Standard Version)

📖 He that covereth a transgression seeketh love; But he that harpeth on a matter separateth chief friends.

Alright, so even with all the "eths" it seems fairly clear. But I don't think it means we are to "hide" or "ignore" an offense, a transgression?

MSG (The Message)

📖 Overlook an offense and bond a friendship;

    fasten on to a slight and—good-bye, friend.

Maybe not to hang on to it?...not keep remembering or bringing it up?

VOICE (The Voice)

📖 Those who forgive faults foster love,

    but those who repeatedly recall them ruin relationships.

BAM!   We are to FORGIVE an offense, transgressions, faults because in doing so we grow LOVE and friendship.  If we can't do that we will surely hurt, even destroy the relationships we have. 

We "cover" them so that we no longer "see" them and we won't continue to bring them up.

Isn't that what Christ has done for us?!  Forgives and covers all our sin, and it is gone, "as far as the east is from the west" (Psalm 103:12)

🙏Praying that today, if you have someone who has offended you, forgive, put it behind you, seek love and restore the relationship❤

AMP (Amplified Bible)

📖 He who covers and forgives an offense seeks love,
But he who repeats or gossips about a matter separates intimate friends.

Spot Of Paint

What if we wore our sin like a big spot of paint?

I was helping my daughter with a project and inadvertently got white paint on my face...I was worried about getting it in my hair...but she made the comment "it won't be noticed there, with all the white hair!"😉😆

Later as I washed trying to scrub paint off my face...it wasn't coming off....everyone would be able to tell I was working on some sort of painting project!

The thought occurred to me; what if we wore our sin like this paint?  Right out there for everyone to see, it couldn't be hidden or covered up.

We all sin, and mostly we repent and seek forgiveness.

But sometimes we aren't ready or don't want to give up our sin, we want to hang on to it, continue in it.  So we try to bury it or hide it...but what if it was right there splattered on our face?!

Would we be so inclined to want to hang on to it if EVERYONE could see it?  Would we be wanting to walk around proudly with it?

The longer that sin sits the harder it will be to "scrub" away!  It becomes dried and set, more difficult to remove.

It is even like the paint in my hair...we believe that it just "blends in with my good choices, no one will notice." We can try to make it look like "good".

The thing with our sin is it is just like brightly colored paint....ALL over us, because our sin is visable to God.  

📖 Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account. Hebrews 4:13

He sees and knows all!

So why try and hang on to it? Work so hard at trying to conceal it?

Many reasons, and they are personal to us; bitterness, envy, greed, pride, hurt, jealousy, lust, gluttony and the list goes on. 

📖 If we claim to have fellowship with him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live out the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin. If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word is not in us. 1 John 1:6-10

We can justify it many times, but in God's eyes sin is sin, and we have to repent and turn from it.

📖Jesus answered them, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.”  Luke 5:31

📖  "I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish.” Luke 13:5

When we do that the blood of Christ washes our sin and God sees us clean, no spots or smudges!

📖But this is how God fulfilled what he had foretold through all the prophets, saying that his Messiah would suffer. Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord, Acts 3:18-19

🙏I pray today we all let God clean up all those spots we are trying to hide.  Let's make the angels sing!❤

📖  In the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.” Luke 15:10

It's All About the Love

There is a song I like by The Ball Brothers; "It's About the Cross"

🎵 It's About the Cross Ball Brothers (Power Point by Tracey Thompson)

It got me thinking...it's about the LOVE ...ALL about the love..the LOVE ❤ that put Him on that cross..

📖 But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Romans 5:8
The ❤ God had for His creation to give us free will

📖  And the Lord God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die.” Genesis 2:16-17

📖 But if serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.” Joshua 24:15

The ❤ He had for us to give us a way out from the sin we chose, by giving His Son.

📖 He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world. 1 John 2:2

That ❤ carried from Him 
through Christ

📖 This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. 1 John 4:10
Christ LOVES ❤ us more than life itself

📖 Going a little farther, he fell with his face to the ground and prayed, “My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will.” Matthew 26:39

IT IS ALL ABOUT THE LOVE!

📖 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. John 3:16

🙏I pray that today you feel the LOVE!!❤