Category: Devotionals

“I think we’ve had enough rain now, Lord. Send the rain down to West Texas where they really need it.” I know quite a few Midwesterners who will agree with me.

 The ground was saturated with water until no more rain could soak in. Hardened ground can’t absorb water so the run-off goes to ditches, creeks, and flooding causes damage instead of benefit.

Our hearts can become like that hardened ground, crusted over, where the only thing sprouting is a few stubborn weeds. Stick a shovel in this ground and it only goes down 2 inches.

Fallow ground has been allowed to sit uncultivated. It might not have been tilled and planted because of lack of nutrients or lack of water. Perhaps no one showed any interest in this acreage. It is laying “fallow” until the farmer recognizes that it is time for this plot of ground to be planted. Working this ground is hard work, so there aren’t many farmers who are willing to put in the time or effort, but it will pay off.

What makes the difference? Tilling the ground. Hosea 10:12, “Break up your fallow ground, for it is time to seek the Lord, till He comes and rains righteousness upon you.”

In Isaiah 55:10, God’s Word is compared to rain. “For as the rain comes down, and the snow from heaven, and do not return there, but water the earth and make it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower and bread to the eater, So shall My Word be that goes forth from My Mouth; It shall not return to Me void, but it shall accomplish what I please and it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it.”

Perhaps your heart has been “laying fallow,” because cares of this life and other things have kept you from joining with fellow believers in worshiping the Lord. It is time to sit under the teaching and preaching of the precious Word of God, letting it soak into your heart, like the precious rain from heaven.

It’s time to find yourself a church where you can hear the Word of God.

It is time to seek the Lord.

 

Little kids love to sing loudly, heartily, putting their whole body, soul, and spirit into it. They just can’t stand still so they do a little jig as they sing. Teach a child the song Jesus Loves Me and he will know it till the day he dies.

When they grow up, they might sing along with the music in the car or sing in the shower, but sometimes the only opportunity some people have to sing is in a Karaoke bar, where they can sing along to a recording of the latest hit song.

Most people seem to favor the type of music they grew up with. I grew up in the early rock and roll years, when you could actually hear the words and recognize the chords of the music and clap the beat of the song.

God who created us with the capability to sing put a song into our hearts. Every race on earth sings, from Africa to New Guinea to Alaska. Their style of song varies, but the note on the music scale does not.

Musical notes or frequencies are a scientific law of God, just like gravity. They can be demonstrated with a machine called an oscilloscope, which measures frequencies or musical notes.

Music came from God. He gave man the vocal cords and lungs to be able to physically sing and He gave us the mind to write and compose music. He gave us the spirit, heart, and emotions to feel and dream the music. Altogether, God allowed us to make music with our body, our soul, and our spirit. When could worship Him with all our being,  we  everything we have within us into our music.

God’s kingdom choir can sing every style of music, from chanting psalms, gospel hymns, high church hymns, every type of hymn, and songs of the Spirit of God given to us in these last days. The secret to worship is not the style of music.

“Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.” Jesus said in Matthew 18:3KJV.

 When you worship God, do it like a little child does: put everything you’ve got into it.

 

Every little girl loves to get into her mom’s closet, dress up in her mom’s clothes and high heels, and walk around with the dress trailing behind her, a huge purse hanging over her arm. And what child doesn’t like to step into Daddy’s work boots and stomp around, pretending to go work carrying Daddy’s lunch bucket.

Paul uses this same example to inspire us to live the life of love. He told the Christians who lived in Ephesus, to imitate God, just like dearly loved children, and live a life of love just as Jesus Christ lived when He was on earth and gave Himself as a sacrifice for us on the cross of Calvary.

The King James Version of Ephesians 5:2 says “walk in love.”  I like that, “walk in love,” but I also like the saying, “live a life of love,” or “ live a love lifestyle.”

“By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.” John 13:35.  This is how people will know you are a Christian. Not by the church you attend; not by the Bible you carry; not by the slogans you spout; not by the clothes you wear or the style of your hair; not by the title of the denomination or lack of denomination you belong to or don’t belong to.

You might be known by all those things but you won’t be known as a real Jesus-person. You will be known as a ___________(fill-in-the-blank denomination) Christian. 

I’d like to be known as the one who loved everybody. Some day when people stand over my casket looking down at my empty shell of a body, I want them to say, “She was a real Christian who loved everybody.”

They will know we are Christians by our love.

I tried to argue with my mother when I was a child, but she would say, “Are you disputing my word?” Her word was the final authority and there was no need to discuss it or argue about it any further.

A person might ask you, “What faith are you?” meaning “Are you Baptist or Catholic?” Or “What religion are you? Hindu? Muslim?” Others talk about faith as a virtue. “Just have faith, sister. It will turn out all right.”

Discussions abound on the subject of what faith is, drawing on the famous Bible definition of faith in Hebrews 11:1, which says, “faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”

Consider the woman mentioned in Hebrews 11–Sarah, wife of Abraham, mother of the Jewish race. The scriptures say she was given strength to conceive when she was 90 years old because she considered Who had made the promise and determined Him to be true to His word.

She looked down at her 90-year-old body, which had been barren even when she was young, and she realized it was impossible for her to have a baby. Then she looked up into the stars, and tried to number them, as God had told her husband to do.

She thought about the One who gave the promise–God Almighty, the Creator of the universe–and determined that He was reliable, trustworthy, faithful, and true to His word. Simply put, she decided that if God said it, He would do it, no matter how it looked to her natural mind.

At that moment, Sarah stopped doubting His word. That is faith. Anything less is sin, because it is the same as calling God a liar.

“God is not a man that He should lie,” Num. 23:19. If God has said He will do it.

The Psalmist said, “Forever, O Lord, Thy word is settled in heaven,” Ps. 119:89.

There is no place for doubting or disputing His word. Faith is simply taking God at His word.

 

I wish I could have been there when Jesus fed the 5000. I can only imagine how it happened. Did the bread grow out and the fish enlarge? Maybe He broke the bread and fish into 12 pieces each, then give each disciple one piece each and then as they give the pieces to a person, there was still some there.

I have always wished I could have been there when he spit in the blind man’s eye. Did he neatly let the saliva drip from his tongue and politely wipe it on the guy’s eye? Or maybe he reared back like a tobacco-chewing Okie and let ‘er fly. Either way, the blind man received his sight.

I wish I could have seen him with the children. I think he probably rough-housed with them. Maybe he got down on all fours and let them ride his back like a horse. Maybe he drew pictures and wrote words in the dirt with them like he did with the Pharisees.

I wish I could have been there when Jesus rose from the grave. Just exactly how did he get the stone rolled back? Did he speak a word to it and it rolled by itself? Or did He touch it with his little pinkie and the sheer force of His touch propelled it back?

What about the time he suddenly appeared to the disciples in the room without coming through the door? Did he stick one hand through the wall first, then his shoulder, then his body? Or did He suddenly appear whole in a flash of light? Maybe he slid through like smoke.

But how exciting would it have been to be standing with the 500 disciples on the mountain, talking to Him, hearing His voice, and all of a sudden He started to rise up in the air.  Evidently He rose very slowly. It must have taken a while for him to get up so high the people couldn’t see Him anymore.

 “And while they were gazing intently into heaven as He went, behold two men [dressed] in white robes suddenly stood beside them, who said, Men of Galilee, why do you stand gazing into heaven? This same Jesus, Who was caught away and lifted up from among you into heaven, will return in [just] the same way in which you saw Him go into heaven.” Acts 1:10-11 Amplified Bible.

 I may not have been there and seen all that happened during Jesus’ time on earth, but one day I will see Him return–not another Jesus, not another Messiah, not Mohammed, not Buddha, not Sun Yong Moon, not someone claiming to be Jesus.

 Yes, this same Jesus is going to appear in the clouds just like He left.

When I was a kid, we always visited the cemeteries on Memorial Day, or as we called it Decoration Day, to decorate graves of our relatives. Mama even decorated graves of old family friends and lonely graves that didn’t have any flowers.

 We spent the day driving to the cemetery, decorating the graves with Mama’s roses and snowballs in Mason jars, eating a picnic, and visiting with relatives we seldom saw. While the grown-ups talked, we cousins ran and played in the grave-yard, being careful not to step on the graves.

We always took photographs of tombstones. We still do—pictures and pictures year after year of the same tombstones.

One year probably about 1961 Uncle Cecil took Super-8 movies of us at the cemetery. Mom and three of my aunts were standing by the car when Aunt Irene, the staunch Pentecostal Holiness lady, decided to show us how to do the Charleston (dance). My cousin Donnie who was my age about 12 danced by in front of the camera making clown faces, then his brother Larry who was about 10 at the time started doing cartwheels. In the cemetery. On Memorial Day.

My dad is buried in that cemetery, as well as my mom’s parents, and my great grandparents. As much as I hate to think about it, if Jesus doesn’t return soon, I’ll be buried there too.

The ideal place to be buried is on top of a hill, with the body facing east, because Jesus Christ will appear in the eastern sky.  

If you travel to Jerusalem to visit the grave of Jesus, you’ll find any empty tomb. The cave door  is open and anyone can look in to see there are  no bones in Jesus’ grave. His body is not there.

When Joseph of Arimathea laid Jesus’ dead body in the cave tomb he donated for Jesus’ burial, a large stone was placed over the entrance. The angels didn’t have to move the stone for Jesus to get out; they moved it to let the women in on Sunday morning.

“Why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here but is risen.” Luke 24:5-6

Jesus is alive!