Happy New Year!

As the big ball dropped in New York, a lot of people had great resolutions for the coming 2014.  Maybe you were one of them.  And maybe you're finding it hard to keep that resolution.  And just maybe you've already become discouraged because you didn't start whatever it was that you resolved to start - exercising, Bible reading, being nicer to whoever it is that "gets your goat" ...

So I thought maybe you could use some encouragement.

Lamentations 3:23 tells us that God's mercies are NEW EVERY MORNING!  To me, this means that with God, it doesn't matter if it's January 1 or July 1.  So He's in his big God-sized kitchen, making up a new batch of mercy EVERY MORNING!  So whatever's in your tomorrow, He's already seen it, and has already baked up just the right amount of mercy for you.  (Remember the Israelites & the manna in the desert - there was just enough for each person, each day.)  He has enough mercy for whatever you need today, and He will have enough tomorrow, and the next day, and the next day, and forever.

Isaiah 42:3 and Matthew 12:20 both tell us that Jesus will not extinguish a DIMLY burning wick.  Maybe you feel like your "little light" is VERY little, almost out, that it doesn't amount to anything.  Maybe you believe it's all the way out.  Not so.  I believe that everyone has the spark of God, and if there's only a spark, that's all you need.  Let Him fan it and do the rest.

And finally, Jesus said in John 14:27, "Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you.  Do not let your heart be troubled, nor let it be afraid."  And in Matthew 6 He tells us how He takes care of birds and flowers.  Will He not MUCH MORE take care of you?  (This point may have very little to do with New Year's Resolutions, but it's a good one anyway!)  Don't worry!  Be Happy :)

Peace,


Davina

Where the Eyes Go ...

… The body will follow.

Meet Garfield.

I can always tell when he’s getting ready to jump up on my kitchen countertops by his eyes.  At first it’s just a glance.  Then he LOOKS.  And he keeps on LOOKING.  Soon his body begins to crouch down in preparation for the long jump.  Then it’s done.

So it is with you and I.

Whether it’s a new car, or a shiny toy, or an ungodly relationship.  At first it’s just a glance – maybe something on the internet, or a billboard, or a new face at work.  Then we begin to notice it more often, then even begin to seek it out.  Soon the gaze is fixed, and then the body gets engaged.  Very soon, the action will follow.

“When the woman SAW that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was desirable to make one wise, she TOOK from its fruit and ATE; and she GAVE also to her husband with her, and he ate” (Gen. 3:6 NASB).

She did four things:

1.    She SAW.

2.    She TOOK.

3.    She ATE.

4.    She GAVE. 

It all begins with the eyes.  The Psalmist clearly understood this:

I will LIFT UP MY EYES to the mountains;
From where shall my help come?
My help comes from the Lord,
Who made heaven and earth.
He will not allow your foot to slip;
He who keeps you will not slumber.
Behold, He who keeps Israel
Will neither slumber nor sleep.

The Lord is your keeper;
The Lord is your shade on your right hand.
The sun will not smite you by day,
Nor the moon by night.
The Lord will protect you from all evil;
He will keep your soul.
The Lord will guard your going out and your coming in
From this time forth and forever.

(Psalm 121 NASB)

 

Peace.

Davina

Something New

I've heard quite a bit of reference to Isaiah 43:18,19 over the past few days:

"Do not call to mind the former things, or ponder things of the past.  Behold, I will do something new, Now it will spring forth; Will you not be aware of it?  I will even make a roadway in the wilderness, Rivers in the desert."

I'm reminded of the famous Woman at the Well (John 4).  Jesus told her that He could give her living water.  To which she replied, "Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us this well?"  Jesus, the promised Messiah, was right there in front of her, but her mind was so entrenched in the past that she couldn't even recognize Him.  Why?

I've heard it said that she was deliberately changing the subject because of her shameful past.  She didn't want Him to get too personal. 

Or maybe it was because she had made a memorial of Father Jacob's Well.  Father Jacob had dug the well; now here was someone claiming that He could give her LIVING water?!  How could anything be better than what had already been done?
Whatever is in our past, whether it's a memorial of shame or of glory - The Lord is saying to us that we need to let it go so that we can embrace what He is getting ready to do in this new season.

Before we can see what's ahead, we must stop looking behind.

Peace,


Davina