Today is Mark 2:1-17 ❤️🙌🔥 for the “Bible Book of the Month Club — The Gospel of Mark”
I love verse 17, “On hearing this Jesus said to them, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.” Jesus spoke these words in response to criticism He was receiving from the religious leaders of His time. They didn’t like that Jesus was eating with the “tax collectors and sinners.” Jesus came to give new life and new hearts to those who would simply respond to His call and be willing to leave it all behind to follow Him. Jesus is still the same! It does not matter what mess we have chosen to become entangled by… our sins… Jesus came to set us free and give us relationship with Him. He has come to call sinners to come and to sit with Him at His table. He has come to forgive us and give us new life and a new heart so we can obey Him and live close to Him!! I am so thankful Jesus calls out to sinners (i.e. me) with the same call He gave Matthew the tax collector, “Follow Me!”
What did God show you in today’s reading? Post it below 👇 👇👇
Today is the big day, the launch or the “Bible Book of the Month Club — The Gospel of Mark” Let’s read Mark 1:1-20 ❤️🔥🙌 Here’s what I got out of today’s reading:
What sticks out to me in what we are reading is the lengths God has gone to in order for us to know Him. First He sends a messenger to announce Jesus’s arrival, John the Baptist. John the Baptist talks about Jesus coming. He describes Jesus as being more powerful than him and able to Baptize with the Holy Spirit. Then God the Father speaks about who Jesus is in front of everyone when Jesus is baptized. Plus Jesus, Himself, tells the ones He is calling to follow Him that He wants to teach them how to fish for people so they will come and follow Him too. God wants us to know Him! That is awesome news! What is God showing you? Post it below 👇👇👇
Today is Mark 1:21-45 ❤️🙌🔥 for the “Bible Book of the Month Club — The Gospel of Mark”
I love verse 22. The people who heard Jesus were amazed because He didn’t teach like their teachers of the law did. He had authority. He testified about what He KNEW! It reminds me of the account of a Jesus explaining the scriptures to a couple of disciples shortly after He had resurrected from the dead as they walked along on the road to Emmaus. The Word says ““They asked each other, “Were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?”” Luke 24:32 NIV
There is NOTHING like the voice of God! When God speaks it is authority, it is fire, it is beautiful! We have the Holy Spirit dwelling in us now, speaking to us. Our role is to LISTEN, accept what He says, BELIEVE it and OBEY His Word. That is good stuff!! 🔥🔥🔥 Happy Sunday! Enjoy church today 🤩
What did God show you today in our reading? Share it below 👇👇👇
“He said: ‘The Lord is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer; my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield and the horn of my salvation. He is my stronghold, my refuge and my savior— from violent people you save me.’” 2 Samuel 22:2-3 NIV
My childhood home did not have a basement. I can remember being afraid because we had no place to go if a tornado came. That was until our family became acquainted with our neighbors who had a cellar. They told us that we were always welcome to seek shelter there during a storm.
One day a severe storm rolled in. The skies suddenly became black, and the tornado warning sirens went off. Mom told us to run for the neighbor’s cellar. As we darted across our yard, the wind began to blow, and the rain started to pour. As we quickly entered the safety of that small room, large hail began to fall. After our neighbor closed the door, I breathed a huge sigh of relief knowing I was safe from everything that was going on outside that place of refuge.
Our focus verses this month are on the word “refuge.” A refuge is defined as a place that shelters and protects from danger, distress, or calamity. It is a place of security and safety. It is a place that is inaccessible to an enemy.
It is a fact that each of us will experience many storms as we journey through this life. Jesus assured us of this when He said, “In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world” (John 16:33). Storms will come. The enemy will attack and assault again and again. However, just like the cellar I ran to, believers always have a shelter to run to in the midst of the storms and/or the attacks. We have a place of protection that is always safe and secure, inaccessible to the enemy of our souls. Who and where is that place? God’s Word tells us plainly that God is our refuge. It is when we dwell in Him that we are protected from the dangers, the distresses, and the destruction. It is when we remain in Him that we are safe and secure.
When God is our refuge, we do not have to fear the possibility of danger, distress, or calamity. We do not have to fear the enemy who “comes only to steal, kill, and destroy” (John 10:10). We do not have to believe the lies that our circumstances will blow us away. When we dwell in God, who is our refuge, we can be assured that there is no circumstance, danger, or distress that can ever harm us. We can say as David did in our verses above, God is “my stronghold, my refuge, and my savior.”
As I write the words above, the winds are blowing, and the rain is pouring down in my life. I am sitting here at the University of Missouri Medical Center next to my Dad who has multiple fractures in his back. We are waiting to hear what will happen next. The storm of uncertainty rages all around us. The lies of the enemy are falling like hail. However, my dad and I have decided to run to our God and take refuge in Him. Years ago, I experienced the safety and security of our neighbor’s cellar, a physical refuge; and today Dad and I are experiencing the safety and security of God, our spiritual refuge. The door through which we have entered our refuge is faith. We are determined to believe that no matter what God is for us, and we will trust in Him entirely and completely. We know our God will never fail.
Do you find yourself in a storm today? May I encourage you to run to and dwell in the same refuge my dad and I have found. Like us, you will say with assurance that “God is my rock, in whom I take refuge….” No plan of the enemy to harm you will succeed. Rest safe and secure in your God who is your stronghold, your refuge, and your Savior.
Our song this week is “Praise You in the Storm” by Natalie Grant.
“The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it? “I the Lord search the heart and examine the mind, to reward each person according to their conduct, according to what their deeds deserve.”” Jeremiah 17:9-10 NIV
“Listen to your heart”, “Follow your heart”, “Be true to your heart”… in our society, we hear messages like these almost every day. There is a problem with the common thought of our culture regarding our hearts…it is wrong. We are encouraged to follow our own truth and to see if what we are thinking about “feels true” to us. However, when we are left to our own devices we cannot even know the truth. This is because we have a “heart problem.”
Each and every one of us have been created with a spiritual heart. Our hearts are the most important aspect of us. It is in our spiritual heart that we are connected to God and experience relationship with Him. However, we are also born with spiritual hearts that are disconnected from God. Our hearts are sinful and full of sin. The spiritual heart we are born with is “deceitful and beyond cure.” Jesus described the condition of our spiritual hearts:
“He went on: “What comes out of a person is what defiles them. For it is from within, out of a person’s heart, that evil thoughts come—sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly. All these evils come from inside and defile a person.”” Mark 7:20-23 NIV
Each and every one of us needs heart transformation. We need a new heart. It is the only cure for our spiritual hearts that are far from God. God speaks of this new heart He longs for us to receive in His Word:
“I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws.” Ezekiel 36:26-27 NIV
The message of “our culture” other wise known at “the world” is contradictory to what the Word says regarding our hearts. The results of lives lived “following our hearts” instead of following God and His Word are evidenced all around us. For those of us who are living with a spiritual heart that has not been made new by Jesus…the evidence is within us.
Look deep within yourself. Are you living with peace, joy, love, kindness, and true life? Or does your heart reflect the words of Jesus above, and is it filled with death, darkness, and destruction? If so, you have a “heart problem.”
There is only one cure… Jesus. Take your heart problem to Him. He alone can perform the transformation that our hearts need!
“Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.”
1 Corinthians 15:58 NIV
My youngest son, Andy, played tackle football when he was in the sixth grade. He played an offensive position of defending the quarterback. At one of his first games, he walked out onto the field and came face to face with what seemed to be a giant-sized sixth grade boy. This player was about a foot taller and a foot wider than Andy. He made my son look small. In fact, after seeing the player from the bleachers, I thought, “That kid is going to squash my baby!” However, when the play began, Andy gave himself fully to playing his position. He braced himself and pushed back against the force of that player. He was unwavering and immovable. He did not allow anyone to touch the quarterback he was guarding. Much to my amazement and relief, Andy stood firm in his purpose of keeping the player from advancing, and his team won!
The focus word of our WOW verses this month is steadfast. The definition of steadfast is to have firmness of mind or purpose, to be constant in pursuing a purpose, unwavering, fixed, and steady. In our verse this week, Paul instructs believers to “stand firm” and “let nothing move you.” Our enemies – the flesh, the world, and the devil – are ruthless giants constantly coming against us to move us away from our relationship of oneness with God. They work relentlessly to get us to waver in our thoughts and purpose, to lose our sure footing in truth and righteousness, and fall into sin. Their aim and goal is to “squash” us with death, darkness, and destruction!
Just like Andy, we need to remain fixed and immovable against what many times appears to be a bigger foe. We must remain steadfast against our spiritual enemies who want to take us down. To remain steadfast, we must know God and maintain the relationship of oneness with Him. We must know the Word of God and allow its truth to penetrate our minds and hearts so that when a lie comes in, we detect it immediately and stand firmly against it. We must be constant in pursuing communication with God. We must pray “at all times and on every occasion” (Ephesians 6:18). And we must suit up! As Andy put on his helmet and pads, we, too, must put on our spiritual armor and take our “stand against the devil’s schemes.” We must not let our enemies move us from trusting in God and giving ourselves “fully to the work of the Lord” being fully assured that our “labor in the Lord is not in vain.”
Do you find yourself standing toe to toe with a giant? Has your enemy come to you using his playbook of schemes and temptations that include unbelief, selfishness, worry, fear, anxiety, and/or anger? The enemy of your soul wants to render you useless in the work of the Lord. If he can accomplish this, he knows that you will never be and do what God created you to be and do – be His image bearer and go forth into the world and make Him known. The Word of God says, “let nothing move you” from the work God created in advance for you to do in Christ Jesus. It requires a steadfast spirit!
This week’s song is “In Christ Alone” by Passion Kristian Stanfill. May the lyrics be a reminder to stand steadfastly with our faith in Jesus and His Word alone! He alone is our victory!
“And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people.” Ephesians 6:18 NIV
My mother-in-law, Evelyn, was a woman of prayer. Her example has left a huge mark on my life. She would tell me frequently of the hours she had spent talking to God. Her entire day was spent with her being conscience of His presence with her. She would talk to Him while she worked around her house, drove her car, or walked around her yard. She loved to talk to Him about the beautiful flowers she enjoyed. She asked Him to bless her meals as she cooked them, asking Him to help them to turn out good. She told Him about the things that made her happy. She poured out her sorrows to Him. I knew that her life revolved around her time spent with God. Several times during the week she called me. Her bright cheery voice came through my phone, “This is the day the Lord has made. I will rejoice and be glad in it. Janet, I’ve been talking to Jesus this morning. I’ve been praying for you…” At the time, I wasn’t as appreciative of her sunshiny optimism. But now I can see how blessed I was. She modeled to me the very thing that I needed the most, an intimate relationship with God that was cultivated in her lifestyle of prayer.
This month our verses at WOW have been about prayer. Prayer is communing with God and communicating with Him. It is our lifeline and connection to Him through faith. It is a conscious awareness of God’s presence at all times. Prayer is knowing that EVERYTHING in our lives is something we communicate with God about. Our verse this week encourages us to pray “on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests.” God loves to hear us praise Him for who He is. He loves to hear us thank Him for what He has done. He loves to hear us ask Him for guidance along our way. He desires us to tell Him the very things that cause our hearts to ache. He wants us to come to Him with everything!
The beauty of this lifestyle of prayer is that our God not only desires for us to pray, but He also helps us to pray. The Holy Spirit prompts us, enables us, and empowers us in prayer. As we “pray in the Spirit”, our prayers are moved and guided by Him. Evelyn prayed this way. Many times, she would tell me how she felt like the Holy Spirit had prompted her to pray for a loved one. She didn’t know what was going on, but she was sure that He had directed her to pray. Later she would hear testimony of how God stepped into the circumstance that person had experienced. This confirmed to her that the Holy Spirit had led her to pray.
These memories of my praying mother-in-law have stirred in me a desire. It is a desire to live my life experiencing God moment by moment in prayer. Perhaps as you read this, the desire is growing in you? God has given us this desire. He tells us to pray because He knows that a lifestyle of prayer is what is the very best for us. It ensures that our connection with God is close and intimate. This is what we were created for. He wants us to know Him through prayer and to make Him known by displaying our relationship of oneness to God with everyone we encounter.
This week’s song is “Draw Me Nearer” by Meredith Andrews. As we listen to the words, may the Holy Spirit awaken a desire within us to experience a close and intimate relationship with Him through prayer.
It seems that the world becomes alive when Spring arrives. A few of days ago I watched the sunrise from my upper deck. As I was praying and awaiting the display of colors to come, the sound of birds singing and doves cooing filled the air. It was so beautiful. I took out my phone to record a small portion of the song. The words of this verse came to my heart:
”My beloved spoke and said to me, “Arise, my darling, my beautiful one, come with me. Flowers appear on the earth; the season of singing has come, the cooing of doves is heard in our land. The fig tree forms its early fruit; the blossoming vines spread their fragrance. Arise, come, my darling; my beautiful one, come with me.”“ Song of Songs 2:10, 12-13 NIV
Life holds many seasons of winter, when all is cold, the days are short and the birds do not sing. If we are not careful we will forget to listen for the voice of our “Beloved”, Jesus. However, He is calling. His desire is for us to arise and “come.” When we come to Jesus we can leave the death and darkness of winter behind. He is life, light, and love. He wants us to come with Him to experience Him fully!
Creation is singing a chorus of praise to Him. As we embrace the relationship Jesus is calling us to, we will find that we were created to sing that song of praise as well.
”You will go out in joy and be led forth in peace; the mountains and hills will burst into song before you, and all the trees of the field will clap their hands.“ Isaiah 55:12 NIV
Our lives in Christ are a “season of singing!” The closer we are to Him the greater the song of worship becomes in our hearts. We cannot help but proclaim: Jesus is so good! Jesus is so wonderful! His power is beyond comparison! His love towards us is more than I could ever imagine!
His praises cannot be contained by the birds of spring or a heart made alive by His transforming touch!
“The end of all things is near. Therefore, be alert and of sober mind so that you may pray.” 1 Peter 4:7 NIV
When I was little, I was a daddy’s girl. There was nothing that I loved more than spending time with my dad. I have fond memories of sitting out in his garage watching him work on our family’s car while I would sit there and talk away to him telling him all about my 6-year-old life. I LOVED being with my dad. However, time went on and life changes happened. I still loved him, but I became busy with my friends, my activities, and my life. After high school, I moved to a different town. My time with my dad became less and less as well as our conversations. Truth be told I forgot what a joy it was to be with him. The past year things have been different in our relationship. Dad is now 86 and I am 53, our relationship has matured and deepened. Lately, we have engaged in the most wonderful conversations. I’ve asked him questions about his younger years and discovered things about him that I never knew. We’ve talked about memories, both good and bad. We’ve made plans for the future as well. Once again, this daddy’s girl has found what she needed, time with her dad in a close relationship.
This month the verses at WOW are about prayer. Prayer is our connection to God through faith. Prayer is our invitation from God into a deep love relationship of oneness closely attached, connected, inseparable, and indivisible with Him. Prayer develops our relationship with God demonstrating our trust and utter dependence upon Him. You and I are our heavenly Father’s “Daddy’s girl”. God longs for us to spend time with Him, lots of it. Prayer is us spending time with Him engaging in conversation not just occasionally, but throughout our entire day, month, year, and life.
Our WOW verse for this week speaks of the need to “be alert and of sober mind so that you can pray.” Our world around us holds so many distractions that pull us away from relating to God in a life of prayer. Our enemy would like nothing better for us than to focus on all these distractions so that we would not live in a close and intimate relationship with God. His desire is for us to be disconnected from our heavenly Father. He wants to render us useless and to keep us from living fully in that relationship for which we were created. This is why we must be spiritually alert and watchful as we live our daily lives. It is easy to drift away from a close and vibrant relationship with God, as I drifted from the close relationship I had with my earthly dad as a little girl. It is easy to lose focus of why God has invited us to be closely connected with Him in prayer. Especially if we come to God with our thoughts, our wants, our desires, and our ways in mind. If our lives are filled with the self-centeredness of an uncircumcised heart, we will not experience the close relationship of oneness that God desires us to have through prayer. This is why we must “be alert and of sober mind so that ‘we’ may pray.”
As you are reading these words, do you feel the pushing and pulling of the world’s influences trying to keep you from that intimate time of relationship with your heavenly Father as His “Daddy’s girl”? God’s desire is for us to focus attentively on Him and Him alone moment by moment throughout our day. He wants us to experience Him more fully in a living relationship of prayer. May we fix our hearts and our minds on Him so that we can truly be “alert and of sober mind.” May we guard our hearts from anything that would try to influence us and draw us away from God’s life-giving connection to Him, our relationship of oneness with Him through prayer.
This week’s song speaks of a deep and intimate relationship with God that is developed in a lifestyle of prayer. It is “Heart of the Father” by Ryan Ellis. May we know His closeness and love as we experience more and more of Him!
“When Jesus entered the temple courts, he began to drive out those who were selling. “It is written,” he said to them, “‘My house will be a house of prayer’; but you have made it ‘a den of robbers.’” Luke 19:45-46 NIV
Two years ago, the youngest of our four children graduated from High School. This signaled the beginning of my husband and I gradually becoming empty nesters. For 26 years, our lives had revolved around our kids. Many of those years consisted of my husband working long hours and sharing the weekends together with me and the kids. We rarely had time alone together. Suddenly, we found ourselves, alone, sitting side by side in our living room recliners with nothing to do. At times, I resented our new way of life. I liked having my time with our kids. I did things my way, after my own plans that centered around their activities. I was used to my independence and being in control. However, my husband desired for this new season in our lives to be a time that our relationship of oneness would deepen and grow. Every time he had a day off from work, he would wake up and ask me, “what are we going to do today?” I did not understand that this was his invitation to participate in a closer relationship. I didn’t realize I needed to drop my plans and my independent ways. Thankfully, I am changing and once again I am enjoying the gift that God gave to me 32 years ago when he and I were dating, our one-on-one relationship spending time together.
This month our weekly verses at WOW are about prayer. Prayer is our lifeline and connection to God through faith — totally relying on, being fully assured of, and strictly adhering to God and His Word. Faith gives birth to prayer. Prayer is absolutely dependent upon faith. Prayer is our invitation from God into a deep love relationship of oneness closely attached, connected, inseparable, and indivisible with Him. Prayer develops our relationship with God demonstrating our trust and utter dependence upon Him.
God deeply desires that we have a close and intimate relationship of oneness with Him. Jesus came to our world to make this possible. Our verses this week are an account of when Jesus came to the temple, a place of communion with God. When He arrived, He saw that the people had made the temple into a place of business instead. He began to drive out those who had turned His house into something other than its design, “a house of prayer.” Those people were used to doing things their way and after their plans, but Jesus came to introduce a “new and living way” (Hebrews 10:20) of a relationship of oneness. Jesus wanted His temple, His dwelling place, to be “a house of prayer.”
Jesus wants our lives to be one with His as well. He desires us to be “a house of prayer” or communion with Him. However, we have hindrances, sin, that need to be cleaned out in order for us to fully realize the depths of a relationship of oneness He desires. These keep us from being closely connected to God by faith through prayer. This is why we must allow God to cut the sin away through His circumcision of our hearts.
Two years ago, my husband longed for a closer relationship, and I realized I needed to repent of my independent ways. As I have, our time together is becoming beautiful. Jesus comes to us the same way. He is offering to cut away the things that separate us from Him. They leave our lives nothing more than a “den of robbers”, trapped in death, darkness, and destruction. How will we respond? May we respond, “Yes, anything that is not of You, cut away, clean it out. I want a relationship of intimacy communing with You, God, through prayer!”
Click this link to access our song this week: Kim Walker-Smith – Make Room (Lyrics) (youtube.com). May we desire to be free of all the sins that keep us from a close relationship of oneness with our Heavenly Father. Let us make room for Him. So, we may experience Him through a life of prayer.
Your Love 