Monthly Archives: February 2024

Slave to Sin… Caught in Anxieties Grip — WOW Devotion February 29, 2024

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“I am using an example from everyday life because of your human limitations. Just as you used to offer yourselves as slaves to impurity and to ever-increasing wickedness, so now offer yourselves as slaves to righteousness leading to holiness. When you were slaves to sin, you were free from the control of righteousness. What benefit did you reap at that time from the things you are now ashamed of? Those things result in death! But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves to God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life.”  
Romans‬ ‭6‬:‭19‬-‭22‬ ‭NIV‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬

For several years, I lived my life subjected to the cruel taskmaster of anxiety. It ruled over my life. Anxiety dictated my daily routine: Get out of bed. Take your first anxiety pill of the day: Do your daily exercise of Eastern Meditation on Headspace. Now start your day. Throughout the day anxiety would exercise its control over my feelings and emotions. Time to do breathing techniques, practice mindfulness, engage in the 5,4,3,2,1 method, then repeat. Often, I could not shake the feelings of a tight throat and a tight chest. Then it was time for my evening anxiety pill. I crawled into bed. I hoped for a night free of an anxious awakening at 2 am, lying awake for hours, and experiencing what I did in the day. This scenario was repeated day after day, night after night. I was a slave to my sin of anxiety. I was subject to its control, and it was producing death, darkness, and destruction inside of me.

Our verses this week are once again about holiness. This holiness is a benefit as we live our lives as “slaves to righteousness.” It is a life of freedom from sin as we live our lives set apart for His sacred use – a life of love, faith, holiness, and prayer. In this life, we are “slaves to God,” under His control and His rule. This submission to Him is always for our benefit, because He is a good Lord and Master. Being His slave results in more than holiness. Through it we experience “eternal life.”

Three years ago, I learned that we were created to serve someone. The words of this verse were proved true in my life. I came to understand that I had a choice. I could continue to “offer the parts of my body in slavery to impurity and ever-increasing wickedness” that the sin of anxiety was producing, or I could become a “slave to God.” I would either serve an evil master of sin or our loving and Holy God. I could not serve them both. I had to choose. This is the truth for each and every one of us. To not choose God is to choose the enemy.

God is holy. He is perfectly and impeccably pure, completely immaculate, and uncompromisingly righteous and just. He desires for us to be in relationship with Him, but in order for us to be close to Him, we must be holy as He is holy. To do so, we must “offer ourselves as slaves to righteousness.” The benefit we receive is a pure heart and freedom from sin and sinful affections, conformed to the image of God. We will be holy and the “result will be eternal life” with Him.

As you have read the words above, have you become aware that you are a “slave to impurity?”  Is there an addiction or a sin that keeps you from experiencing a close relationship with God and the freedom from sin that He alone gives? God desires for us to live our lives surrendered to Him as a “slave to righteousness” that will lead to holiness. He desires us to be close to Him in a relationship of intimacy filled with His goodness, joy, peace, and love. We can only experience this when we live our lives fully surrendered to Him!

Our song this week is once again by Charity Gayle, “Because of Jesus.” Because of what Jesus has done, we can know that we are finally free of the sin that destroys! He has redeemed us and made us holy as He is holy. May our hearts desire to serve Him in complete obedience to His Word. May we live as His “slaves to righteousness” which leads to holiness – holiness in heart and in everything we do!

Love,

Janet

https://www.wowjcmo.com/

https://mailchi.mp/wowjcmo/wow-devotion-john-6219253?e=6c56f70e45

His Beautiful Bride — Holy to the Lord (WOW Devotion February 15, 2024)

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“…be holy to me because I, the Lord, am holy, and I have set you apart… to be my own.” 
Leviticus 20:26 NIV

On a cold and icy day thirty-one years ago, my husband and I were married. The ceremony for our wedding holds so many wonderful memories for me. Among them is our first kiss as husband and wife. Rich seemed to eagerly anticipate that moment. He was beaming from ear to ear when the pastor said, “Richard, you may now kiss your bride.” Moments later we stood facing our friends and family. We were introduced for the first time as, “Mr. and Mrs. Richard Nelson.” During those moments I gained a title and a position in our relationship, I was Rich’s bride. I did not fully understand at that moment what that would mean. I have grown in my appreciation of being his bride throughout the years of our exclusive relationship as husband and wife. Thirty-one years later my husband often calls me his “beautiful bride.” I alone hold this title because I belong to him.

A holy man is pure in heart and free from sin and sinful affections; he has a heart conformed to the image of God and is set apart for His sacred use or to the service or worship of God. Our verse this week speaks of this exclusive relationship. It is a relationship of belonging to God for His sacred use. To belong to God is to be strictly His, fully possessed by Him. In this relationship of belonging, God tells us that we must be holy to Him. Nothing else should compete for our affections. Our verse this week tells us it is God’s desire for us to “be holy to [him] because [He is] holy.”

As we come to Him, desiring to be His alone, set apart for His sacred and exclusive use, He will begin the process of purifying our hearts. If we totally submit our heart to Him, He will set us apart. He will declare and make us holy. He will separate us from sin, our flesh, the world, and the devil. We will be His alone. It is very much like the day that I became exclusively the bride of Rich Nelson. My affections, my desires, and my relationship were focused on him alone as my husband. I was no longer available to pursue others, only him.

The beauty of a relationship of holiness to God is a realization of closeness to God. As we allow the ways of the world and the sin in our hearts to be circumcised, we will be more and more conformed to His image. The more we are like Him, the closer we will come to God. We will know Him intimately. We will be one with Him.

As you read the words I have written, do you feel a longing in your heart to be close to God? Do you desire to leave behind the competing affections that you have held in your heart and to pursue God alone? Do you long to be holy to Him? This is God’s greatest desire for us. He longs for us much like my groom 31 years ago longed for me. He wanted me to belong to him as his beautiful bride for the rest of our lives. God longs for us to “be holy … because [He is] holy, and [He has] set us apart to be his own.”

The first steps in being holy is to be totally submitted to God and be purified through the circumcision of our hearts. Our song this week is “Purify My Heart” by Brian Doerksen. As you listen or even sing along, may you renew or start anew in submitting your heart to God’s circumcision so that you may be holy as He is holy.

Love,

Janet Nelson, Devoted and Determined

https://www.wowjcmo.com/

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My Father’s Girl– Reflecting His Holiness (WOW Devotion February 22, 2024)

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As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance. But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do;” 
1 Peter 1:14-15 NIV

Back in my college days a group of my friends and I went to Olive Garden for dinner. As we were waiting to be seated, we stood in a small circle laughing, joking, and enjoying each other’s company. A woman that I did not know walked up to our group and asked me a question: “Are you Jim’s daughter?” At first, I thought, “uh oh… what have I done wrong? My dad lives two hours away from Columbia. How does she know whose daughter I am?” I must have looked shocked. She continued, “You have to be! You look just like him. Your mannerisms are just like his. It is obvious that you are his.” Then she continued, “I am your dad’s first cousin. You probably don’t even know me, but I know your dad.”

Our verses this week for WOW are once again about holiness. To be holy is to be Godlike; it is to have a will and disposition of the heart that is like His. When we are holy, our character will be like God’s. God has called us to “be holy in all you do.” He desires us to be holy as He is holy. God gives us His holiness as a gift. It is His sanctifying work in us.

A holy man is pure in heart and free from sin and sinful affections; he has a heart conformed to the image of God and is set apart for His sacred use or to the service or worship of God. We learned last week that this is an exclusive relationship. It is a relationship of belonging to God. When we belong to God, we are strictly His, fully possessed by Him. We display our belonging to God as His holy, set apart, people by our obedience. Obedience is evidence of a heart that is holy. When we have a holy heart, we will not live like we used to, conforming to evil desires, or our fleshly self-life. Instead, we will obey God. We will display to all of those we are around everything that God is: His love, His joy, His peace, His holiness and more.

As I am writing these words, they challenge me. Perhaps they challenge you too? I wonder, am I displaying not only God’s love, joy, and peace in my life, but His holiness? Is His holiness evidenced within my life by my obedience to Him, or am I still living my life conformed to the evil desires I had when I lived in ignorance of God and His ways?

Jesus came as our invitation to be holy. He lived, died, was buried, and rose again so that we could know and experience Him fully in a relationship of oneness. He provides all that we need to live connected to God, united with Him. When we accept Him as the Lord of our lives and totally submit our heart to Him, He works in us to produce a loving obedience to God’s Word. As we allow God to circumcise our hearts, the holy heart God has given us will be revealed more and more.  

May our hearts long for His holiness, and may we pursue His holiness by submitting our hearts to be transformed into His likeness. As we live our lives for God, we will maintain our holiness moment by moment through active love for, faith in, and obedience to Him. We will fully realize how wonderful it is to be His “obedient children.” We will be in a close and intimate relationship with our Heavenly Father, and we will display Him to everyone we encounter. They will find themselves asking us, “Are you God’s daughter? You have to be! Your mannerisms are just like His. It is obvious that you belong to Him.”

Our song this week is by Charity Gayle, “Because of Jesus.” Because He came, because we believe in Him as the Son of God, our Redeemer, we have been redeemed and made holy, as God is holy. Because of Jesus, and His work in us, we may be holy in all we do.

Love,

Janet Nelson, Devoted and Determined

https://www.wowjcmo.com

https://mailchi.mp/wowjcmo/wow-devotion-john-6218677?e=6c56f70e45

Everything We Need to Know Him Part 2 — Jesus

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Have you ever thought about how much easier it would be to trust God and to live for Him if you could just see Him, listen to Him talk, touch His hand, and experience His embrace?

God desires for us to experience Him this way. This is why Jesus came. He came to us 2000 years ago as a baby born in humble circumstances. This baby grew to a man, who walked where we walk, experienced what we experience, and yet He displayed God, the Father everywhere He went. Colossians puts it this way:

“The Son is the image of the invisible God…” Colossians 1:15

Jesus came to show us exactly what the Father is like.

Philip, one of Jesus’s disciples told Jesus that it would be enough for them if He would show them the Father. Philip wanted to know what His Heavenly Father was like. Jesus told Him:

”… “Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you I do not speak on my own authority. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work.“
‭‭John‬ ‭14‬:‭9‬-‭10‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Simply put, when we see Jesus, we see exactly what our Heavenly Father is like. The accounts, in the Bible, of Jesus loving the unloveable, touching the untouchable, and healing the broken are an exact representation of our Heavenly Father. He loves us, touches us, and heals the brokenness of our past.

Every action of Jesus recorded in the Gospels, ever word He spoke, are an exact image of the God. When we look at Jesus, we are looking at God.

God deeply desires for us to know Him not just know about Him. Jesus, our Emmanuel — God with us, is evidence of this fact. Jesus is the same today as He was in Bible times. He is approachable. Even the little children were invited to come and sit on His lap. He is speaking. His words are alive and powerful. He is touchable. He still offers the skeptic and the doubting the opportunity to reach out their hand and touch and examine His nail pierced hands so they can believe.

He longs for us to experience Him! The reason for that longing is when we experience and come to know Him, we experience and come to know the Heavenly Father that He came to make known.

Do you desire to KNOW God in an intimate way? Come to Jesus! He will show you exactly what His Father is like.

Everything We Need to Know Him Part 1 — Creation is Speaking

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God wants us to know Him. He wants to be close to us. He wants to have an intimate relationship with us. These statements may seem incredible or maybe even impossible when we look around us. How can this God who is so infinitely big desire to know me, one of eight billion people who occupy the planet we live upon? The truth is this God who desires a one on one personal relationship with us has given us everything we could possibly need to know Him, His character, and His love.

Have you taken a few moments to consider creation? King David did thousands of years ago. 

”The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they reveal knowledge. They have no speech, they use no words; no sound is heard from them. Yet their voice goes out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world. In the heavens God has pitched a tent for the sun,” Psalms‬ ‭19‬:‭1‬-‭4‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Creation is speaking.

Long ago, God desired to have the perfect home for the people He created. With the most intricate of handiwork He made it for them.

Have you stood in the country and looked high at the black night sky, staring at the stars, considering its vastness? Have you watched the sunrise and been amazed at the explosion of colors as the sky changes from darkness to the clear blue color of the light of day? That is what David did, and he concluded that “the heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands.” God did not create all the wonders of our world on a whim. He created them to “proclaim”. He made them to “reveal knowledge”. But what knowledge do they reveal? Himself.

Go to a mirror and look deeply at the intricacy of your eye. The colors, the function, the different parts. If we could explore it more deeply the cells of your eyes are amazing and they function individually as well as together to make up you! The God of details created you and your eye. He also created the skies we look at using this very eye, and we should stand in wonder. All these tell a story to us.

They tell of a God who is so powerful. We could not stand before Him on our own. The words of His mouth create and have power to destroy as well. They tell of a God so personal that He created, with detail, the tiniest parts of us and knows them well.

God gave us creation so we could know Him. He wants us to stand in awe of how great and wonderful He is. Yet He longs for us to know He has thought of every minute detail of our lives and we are not just one in eight billion, we are His delight.

Creation is proof that He wants us to know Him. In a very small way, creation is like a billboard on a highway declaring a fact about an upcoming attraction. It speaks of what we can encounter if we decide to pursue that course. Creation tells us that God is there, and perhaps if we turn our thoughts toward Him and speak to Him, He will indeed speak back to us!

God wants us to know Him. He’s given us all we need to experience Him. Creation is just one thing that “pours forth speech.” Stop for a moment and listen. He is calling out to you!

Knowing God — Experiencing Him

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”Taste and see that the Lord is good; blessed is the one who takes refuge in him.“ Psalms 34:8 NIV

God wants us to experience Him!

For some of us, the thought of hearing God speak, seeing Him move, feeling Him touch, and tasting His goodness is foreign. It seems to be impossible. But God stands with His arms wide open giving us the invitation to do just that. He wants us to taste — to feel, to enjoy, and He wants us to see — to know, to experience Him.

How do we know and experience God? We do this the same way we know and experience our dearest friend. We talk to Him, spend time with Him, participate in what He is doing, we have first hand experiences with Him.

Knowing God this way is very personal. It is not good enough that your mom or your dad knows God. It is not enough that your Grandma and Grandpa knew Him. It has to be your experience! God wants YOU to know Him. He wants YOU to “taste and see.”

Ask yourself, am I experiencing God in a personal, one on one way? Do I hear Him speak to me? Do I feel His touch on my life? Is He my closest friend?

He desires for you to be able to answer yes to each and every one of these questions.

He longs for us to experience Him!

You Alone are Holy — Devotion Written for Women on Wednesday’s Ministry (WOW)

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This is the Latest devotion that God has blessed me with. This is truthfully one of my favorite ones. Have you ever stood before God and been amazed of who He really is? Writing this and contemplating this section of scripture has been one of those times for me. ❤️

“…the song of God’s servant Moses and of the Lamb: 

‘Great and marvelous are your deeds,
Lord God Almighty. 
Just and true are your ways, 
King of the nations. 
Who will not fear you, Lord, 
and bring glory to your name? 
For you alone are holy. 
All nations will come 
and worship before you, 
for your righteous acts have been revealed.’”

Revelations 15:3-4 NIV

A little over a year ago my husband and I went to Hawaii to celebrate our 30th Anniversary. While we were there, we took a scenic drive to a lookout over the Na Pali Coast. As I approached the lookout, I stood in complete awe. This Missouri girl had never seen or experienced anything like it. The ocean view was breathtaking. The sounds of waves crashing and the sea birds squawking, the smell of the ocean, and the wind blowing against us as we stood perched high upon a cliff overlook, left me speechless. All I could say over and over was, “WOW! WOW! WOW!” I wanted to stand there for as long as I could and take it all in. The vast ocean was intricate and grand at the same time. It was beauty and power combined. It demanded the utmost respect, because if I were to be dropped into the middle of it, I would not survive. Yet, I had the feeling that it was inviting me to come and explore. That moment is marked in my memories for a lifetime.

This month our verses at WOW will be focusing on the word, holy. To be holy is to be perfectly and impeccably pure, immaculate, complete in moral character, sinless, uncompromisingly righteous, and just. Our verses this week tell us that God “alone is holy.”As I have contemplated what this means, I have been left with the same awe that I felt the day I stood on that lookout. God’s holiness is beyond my human ability to comprehend, yet God is inviting me to come and know Him as holy. God’s holiness is intricate, and it is grand. It is beauty and power combined. I am filled with reverential awe of God as I think about it. God cannot be separated from His holiness just as He cannot be separated from His love. It is who He is. God alone is holy. He is absolute perfection. His holiness pervades His entire being and shapes all His attributes. His love is holy love, His goodness is holy goodness, His life is holy life. The more I gaze at His holiness, the more I see Him rightly. The more I see Him rightly, the more I love Him, trust Him, and desire to obey Him.

The verses this week are a “song of God’s servant Moses and of the Lamb.”They are a song of worship and relationship that expresses the worthiness of our God. Those who sing this song see God rightly, they have experienced the fear of the Lord — a reverential awe of Him. They see God’s “great and marvelous… deeds.” They know God as “just and true” in His ways. They know God alone is holy so the only response to such an awesome God is to simply say “WOW! WOW! WOW!” or as they proclaim in heaven, “HOLY! HOLY! HOLY! is the Lord God Almighty!” over and over again (Revelation 4:8).  

As you read these words, do you feel this sense of amazement and awe as you stand looking at the characteristics of a Holy God? Does it fill your heart with worship as the song in our verses proclaim? God desires for us to experience this very thing. This is where a true relationship with God is formed. When we see Him for who He is, holy, and we understand He has invited us to come and experience His holiness, we will see the only appropriate response to God is: “Yes, Lord! Anything for my Holy God, ‘for you alone are holy.’”May our hearts be marked by the beauty and power of His holiness for the entirety of our lifetime!

Our song this week is “What Do I Know of Holy?” sung by Addison Road. My prayer is that as you meditate on the verses of Scripture above and listen to the song below that you will hunger and thirst to know Him rightly and experience the genuine and reverential awe of our Holy God. To know God is to love God, is to trust God, is to obey God. Amen

Love, Janet Nelson, Devoted and Determined

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Created For More

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”Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.“ John 17:3 NIV

You and I were created for more. We know it. There is a longing within us all. We long for love, joy, and peace. We desire to be fulfilled in our lives.

Often this results in us chasing after things that really don’t fulfill. We chase money, things, beauty, health, earthly relationships, our selfish ways, etc… When our focus is fixed on these things, we will surely find ourselves empty.

Chasing them is similar to chasing the wind. Even when we may catch them for awhile we will find them to not fulfill the longing of our hearts.

That is because we were created by a Creator for relationship with Him. This relationship of knowing Him, God, is where true life is found.

A relationship of “knowing” requires connection to what we know. We cannot know someone unless we experience them. We must experience the sound of their voice, their touch, their closeness. If we are not experiencing this, we are not living a life of “knowing” them.

Our verse above is Jesus speaking about the life He offers to each of us. This life is not a temporary experience, but a relationship that goes on and on throughout eternity. It is a life of fulfillment that no other can bring. It is knowing God in intimate relationship.

As you read these words today, I would encourage you to ask: What is the longing I am experiencing inside? Are the thoughts I have about God, just that … thoughts? Do I have knowledge of Him like I have knowledge of a subject I studied in high school? Or do I KNOW Him? Do I have first hand experiences with Him? Do I have a relationship of sharing where He speaks to me and I speak to Him? He desires for us to know Him this way! It is what we were created for our purpose.

As I stated before, you and I were created for more. We were created to experience God’s eternal life knowing Him in an intimate relationship. Does this create a stirring within you longing for that more?

A Woman Who Fears the Lord- Reflections on Proverbs 31

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”“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.“.       Proverbs 31:29-30 NIV

A wife of Noble character… Who would not want to be a woman that is distinguished and honored? Today’s chapter speaks of the characteristics of that woman: hard working, generous, strong, etc…. It all culminates with the verses above and the phrase, “a woman who fears the Lord.”

To fear the Lord is to see Him rightly and have a reverential awe of Him. This leads us to love Him. When we see Him as He is: holy- impeccably pure and uncompromisingly righteous, just, true, etc., we understand that He is worthy of our complete obedience, complete submission, and complete dependence. We desire to hate or shun sin that will destroy us. We desire to live after God’s ways. The woman who lives desiring to follow God with all of her heart, soul, and mind is to be praised, or in the Hebrew it says “to shine.” A Godly woman will display His glory and beauty everywhere.

When we, as women, put God first in our lives and live our lives filled with His love. His love will naturally flow out of us onto all those around us. We will live our lives with His characteristics flowing out of us. We will be the women that God created us to be. We will reflect His image to everyone around.

True beauty is not found in all the make up and hair products at Ulta or perfectly toned bodies from a gym. True beauty is found in a woman who fears the Lord and lives only for Him and His glory!

Give Me Only My Daily Bread – Reflections on Proverbs 30

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”Keep falsehood and lies far from me; give me neither poverty nor riches, but give me only my daily bread.“ Proverbs 30:8 NIV

Agur was a wise teacher of long ago. He wrote the words above as a prayer. He knew of his own sinful nature and its propensity to believe lies and falsehoods. He knew his propensity to do life his way and not God’s. So Agur prayed. He prayed that he wouldn’t be so consumed with selfishly pursuing wealth so that he would forget God saying, “Who is the Lord?”. He also prayed that he wouldn’t lack so that he would feel compelled to selfishly steal and get things his own way. He simply wanted God to be his “daily bread,” His everything! He wanted God to be what satisfied him day in and day out.

There is much wisdom in that prayer. We can learn much from this prayer of Agur. We can come to God asking of Him to be our daily bread and the satisfier of our soul as well.

We are invited to experience God as our “daily bread.” We can “taste and see that the Lord is good.” (Psalm 34:8). We do this by a daily, moment by moment, intake of His Word! His Word is the Bread of Life.

We can know His Word as the Truth that will keep us far from lies. As we know the Word, we know God. Because He is His Word and His Word is God (John 1:1).

Agur was wise to pray his prayer and find delight in God’s provision of His daily bread, His Word. May we delight in His Word as well! God is the only One who will satisfy us!