"The Shack"

A few months ago, a very dear friend called me to ask if I'd read this new book, "The Shack". It is the story of a man named Mack, whose youngest daughter was brutally murdered at a shack, high up in the mountains of Oregon.
One day after a few years had passed, he found a note in his mailbox that said to meet him at the shack. It was signed, "Papa", which is what his wife Nan, called God.

After wrestling in his angry and hurt mind and heart if God communicated in such a way; if it was someone's attempt at some cruel joke, or even an attempt by the murderer of his child to lure him back to that horrid place, he decided to go back to the shack, where he did find God.

I don't want to go any further, as my friend did, by telling me some of the story line, because it made me a little leary of reading a book, because of my own preconceived ideas about God.

I read this book last night, and it has had an impact on me that has left me speechless in as far as how to describe that impact. For those of you who know me, you know that for me to be speechless is near impossible! :)

I urge you to get a copy of this book and let your heart be renewed in the knowing of God and his infinite love for each one of us.

Janelle

Softly and Tenderly Jesus is Calling

TGIF!!! Another week flown by, and it's hard to believe that next week we celebrate Thanksgiving!
I am wrapping up Chapter 8 of Jeremiah today. We'll see again, why Jeremiah was called the weeping prophet. His heart is broken for the people of Judea and Jerusalem, and he cries out to God in his sorrow.
8:18-22 - "O my Comforter in sorrow, my heart is faint within me. Listen to the cry of my people from a land far away! 'Is the Lord not in Zion? Is her King no longer there?'
'Why have they provoked me to anger with their images, with their worthless foreign idols?'
The harvest is past, the summer has ended, and we are not saved. Since my people are crushed, I am crushed; I mourn and horror grips me.
Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there? Why then is there no healing for the wound of my people?"

Oh that our hearts as believers, would weep and mourn for lost souls, as Jeremiah did. He cried out to God as his Comforter. This is the first time I've ever noticed that in the Old Testament; the New Testament refers to the Holy Spirit as our Comforter, who resides within us. In the Old Testament, the Holy Spirit had not yet been given to men as we know him; He came upon them as God led Him to. Obviously, Jeremiah was somehow acquainted with this third part of God's Trinity, to call out to Him in that way. That's just my opinion.
His question of "is there no balm in Gilead" is a passage I've heard in many sermons throughout my life, but never really understood exactly what it meant. Upon studying this a little further, I found out that the balm - a resin used for medicinal purposes, was available in Gilead, which was just a little over a day's journey for them. Though it was near, the people refused God's help.
I think this reference to help for physical difficulties they were having was used as a comparison of how close the Lord had always been to them, but they refused Him, and/or His help in delivering them from their sin.
The Lord is just a breath away - He hears the earnest cries of one who is lost, and is immediately on the scene to save and forgive. If you are one who does not yet know the Lord in a personal and intimate relationship, he's waiting for you to cry out to Him. He's given each of us a free will, and does not force himself onto anyone. He uses His Holy Spirit to woo us to receive Jesus as Lord of our life, and He will come into your life and reside within you to be to you as he was to Jeremiah, a Comforter. The Holy Spirit always points the way to Jesus.
If you are a believer and have fallen away from your relationship with the Lord, He is still there, and is still just a breath away. He can and will forgive any and all sin, so don't let Satan deceive you into thinking that you can't return to the Lord because you've been in sin. That's just one of his lies he uses all the time on believers to keep them from living a life of freedom in Christ.
I was thumbing through an old Baptist Hymnal last night, looking for the words to a particular hymn, and I ran across one of my favorite hymns that is sung at the end of services, when the invitation to receive Jesus is open. Below are the words to "Softly and Tenderly"; read carefully this beautiful old hymn, and ask the Lord to let it penetrate and minister to your heart.

1. "Softly and tenderly Jesus is calling; Calling for you and for me
See, on the portals He's waiting and watching; watching for you and for me
Refrain
Come Home.....come home....You who are weary, come home
Earnestly, tenderly Jesus is calling
Calling O sinner, Come home!
2. Why would we tarry when Jesus is pleading; pleading for you and for me?
Why should we linger and heed not His mercies; mercies for you and for me?
Refrain
Come Home....come home....You who are weary, come home
Earnestly, tenderly Jesus is calling
Calling O sinner, Come home!
3. Time is now fleeting, the moments are passing; passing from you and from me
Shadows are gathering, deathbeds are coming; coming for you and for me
Refrain
Come Home....come home...You who are weary, come home
Earnestly, tenderly Jesus is calling
Calling O sinner, Come home!
4. Oh! for the wonderful love He has promised; promised for you and for me
Tho we have sinned, He has mercy and pardon; pardon for you and for me
Refrain
Come Home.....come home....You who are weary, come home
Earnestly, tenderly Jesus is calling
Calling O sinner, Come home

That is what the Lord has been doing since the beginning of time - calling out to each one of us to come to him. He tried calling out to the people Jeremiah was weeping and mourning for, and they never responded to his call, and were now facing torment and destruction.
Don't put off today, making that decision to make Him Lord of your life, or to return to him and re-establish your relationship. Make today a new start in your life. We are never guaranteed tomorrow, and once you pass from this life into the next, you won't have that chance. Please don't take the risk of losing that chance that He is offering you now!

Have a blessed Friday...
Janelle

The End of Mercy

It's a beautiful Saturday morning, and I wanted to finish up Chapter 4 of Jeremiah before going to the funeral of one of my brothers in law father.

Yesterday I covered the devastation that was to occur to the land because of the sin of the people, and drew a comparison to The Tribulation at the end of the age.

Today's verses are 27-31:" This is what the Lord says: 'The whole land will be ruined, thought I will not destroy it completely. Therefore the earth will mourn and the heavens above grow dark, because I have spoken and will not relent. I have decided and will not turn back. At the sound of the horseman and the archers every town takes to flight. Some go into the thickets; some climb up among the rocks. All the towns are deserted; no one lives in them. What are you doing O devastated one? Why dress yourself in scarlet and put on jewels of gold? Why sahde your eyes with paint? You adorn yourself in vain. Your lovers despise you; they seek your life. I hear a cry as of a woman in labor, a groan as of one bearing her first child - the cry of the Daughter of Zion gasping for breath, stretching out her hands and saying, ' Alas! I am fainting; my life is given over to murderers".
God had given his people many chances to repent - his mercy extended to them, but their hearts were so hardened, they brought him to the end of his mercy on them. He had warned them of his coming wrath and judgement, but they paid no attention. God said the whole land would be ruined, but not destroyed completely, which goes back to his promise to Noah, when he gave the sign of the rainbow, which was that he would never again destroy the whole earth and all of mankind.

In verses 29-31, which speak of the final hour before the destruction was to occur, the people were still trying to placate their enemies by alluring them as a harlot does. One would think that they would cry out to God, even at that late hour, but instead - they tried to appease their enemy.

In this day and age, people have become cold and hard towards the Lord, and want to be thier own gods - leading their lives as they see fit. The Lord continues to plead with us, as he did with his people in Jeremiah's time. We need to heed what he says in II Chronicles 7: 14 : "If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will heal their land". If this plead of his mercy is snubbed, then we can expect the same judgements as the generations before us suffered.

Again, I refer to the scriptures of the prophecies of the end times. All throughout the Gospels, Jesus spoke about what to look for when the end of the age was approaching. He said that the end times would be like in the days of Noah - people were living without any care or regard of the Lord, they would be carrying on in all kinds of sin, mocking Noah and his family in their preparation for the promise of God, not heeding the warnings that God told Noah to tell them. He gave us specific signs to look for, that would come with more frequency, and more intensity. He tells us in Luke 12: 40: " You must also be ready because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him."

Are you ready for that? I know I am! I have put my trust in the saving grace of our Lord Jesus, and would plead with you to do the same, before it's too late. Don't let your heart be cold or hard towards the Lord because of something that has hurt you in the past, and has caused you to be angry with God about it. Don't let the ways or the cares of the world keep you from receiving the gift of God's salvation through Jesus. He told us of these things because he loves us so dearly, and wants each of us to be with him for eternity. He says in Matthew 12:30: "He who is not with me is against me, and he who does not gather with me scatters. And so I tell you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven men, but the blasphemy against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven". There is no neutral ground with Jesus - you're either for him or against him. The one sin that will not be forgiven, as he says, is the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit. That is when you make the choice to not follow the Lord. God doesn't send anyone to hell - that's the choice each of us have to make on our own - eternity in heaven, or eternity in hell. Don't make the wrong choice!

Janelle

The Cure

Yesterday I wrote about the causes and consequences of Worldliness, and today I'll cover James 4: 7 - 10 that speaks about the cure.

"Submit yourselves then, to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up".

First things first - we are to submit ourselves to God. Until we do that, we don't have the power of his Holy Spirit to take on the second step - resisting the devil. He will knock you back down every time unless you fight him with God's power. Remember, "greater is He that is within you, than he who is in the world". Satan is NOT to be feared - he wants us all to believe that, but that's a lie, which Jesus said Satan is the father of. Once a soul is saved; bought by the blood of Jesus, the Holy Spirit comes to live in that soul, and all the power of God is available; it's up to each person to draw from that power.

The next thing we are to do is to wash our hands - in other words - repent, and turn away from the world and it's standards. Grieve and mourn for those caught up in its system and its ways.

Lastly, we are to humble ourselves before God. I have a wonderful memory involving that verse. It was made into a song in the 1980's, and here's how it played out - a memory and a lesson from God I'll never forget.

When my kids were little, we were living in a nice neighborhood, in a home we'd built just a few years prior to this one Sunday afternoon. We put them in their car seats, and decided we were going to go look at some new homes in one of the upscale neighborhoods - you know, the kind of place where everyone wants that to be their address. Well Dude was always a good sleeper, and just about as soon as we'd start off on a drive, he'd fall asleep and stay asleep until we would get back home and take him out of the car.

As we were driving through this neighborhood called "Heathrow", which is up on the north end of Orlando, we were "ooohing and aaahhing" over some really nice houses and were talking about how we could really see ourselves living there, blah blah blah..... There was no need for us to be looking at any other houses or neighborhoods; the one we were in was new, it was nice, and the kids had a lot of friends there.

As we were leaving Heathrow, Dude, who had been sound asleep, popped up, and out of that little 3 year old's mouth came the song from that last verse of today's passage. "Humble thyself in the sight of the Lord"...then he was back sound to sleep immediately! Well - we looked at each other and we knew that the Lord had just shown us how we were letting pride and the desires of the world take priority in our lives. It was an eye opening experience for sure!

We headed back home, sorrowful for letting "things" get hold of us, but also thankful that God would use our sleeping toddler to show us our sin. If it had've been someone we knew telling us that we were being prideful, we probably would've brushed them off and thought they were just jealous, but it was the innocence of a child, and that child using God's word in song, that was the tool of showing us our sin so we could repent.

Today, let us all humble ourselves before God, and to put our priorities in order. There's an acronym that shows us just how to do that - JOY - Jesus, Others, You.

Blessings,
Janelle

Knowing Christ

Today I'm back in the book of Philippians, chapter 3: 8, 10.
"What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish that I may gain Christ". "I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death".
If I were to lose everything else in this world, I am so grateful and thankful that I know Jesus, and that I have a relationship with him, and that he will see me through all things.
Knowing him is so different than knowing about him. People seem to get these two things confused.
Those who study Buddhism or Islam pray to dead men. Sure, they have their books that tell them all about them and the doctrines of those faiths, but unlike them, we have a living Savior that we can not only read about, but we can, in our reading, get to know him personally. Jesus did die, but unlike the others I mentioned, he was resurrected and is seated at the right hand of God.
It is the power of that resurrected Savior that makes available to us a relationship with the Lord. He passed from death to life, and offers us the same. We are dead in our sins until we choose to take the Lord at his word and receive him into our hearts. Once we have given him control of our lives, he gives us that same power - the power of his Holy Spirit, to live a new life, knowing that when we die, we will enter the gates of Heaven and live with Him.
I pray that today, if you don't know Jesus, you will search your heart and ask him to reveal himself to you - to change you and start a loving relationship with you. He says that those who seek him with their whole hearts, will find him.

May God's richest blessings be yours today...

Janelle

The Majesty of Jesus

Today I'm beginning to read and study the book of Hebrews, found in the NT.
I'll cover verses 1 - 3 which say, " In the past God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom he made the universe. The Son is the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in Heaven".
The forefathers it refers to here were the prophets and others we are all familiar with from the Old Testament - Moses, David, Isaiah, Jeremiah....they all knew God and spoke with him, but God's Holy Spirit was not "in" them as he can be with us today. It wasn't until after Jesus came, died, and was resurrected and once again went to heaven glorified that the gift of the Holy Spirit was given to all who will receive Him.
Once we come to believe and trust in Jesus as Lord; believing what those three verses above state about who he is, we then are given the gift of having his Holy Spirit dwell in our hearts, and we can now have the same power in our lives as Jesus did when he lived here as a man.
It says in Hebrews that he is the radiance of God's glory - the exact representation of God's being. Jesus was and is God in the flesh, contrary to many's opinions. He was more than a good man, a prophet, a Nazarene carpenter - he was created by the Holy Spirit, and God's own nature was put into him from the time of his conception. He was God coming to us in human form (John chapter 1).
He had to face the same things everyone else faces on earth, but it was the power of the Holy Spirit dwelling in him that kept him as one to the Father. He says in John 17 that his desire for us is to have that same oneness. It also states that it was through Jesus that God the Father made the universe.
Think about it - the God of all the universe WANTS to know you, to give you a life that has meaning, full of joy no matter what situation life takes you through. His desire is to have a relationship with each of us - to have that father/son - father/daughter relationship that some of us might not have had the chance to have with our earthly parents. Many who haven't had the kind of relationship with their earthly parents find it hard to trust God to be a father to them, and I pray today that if you're one of them, to step out of your fear and trust God to heal the hurts that you've bottled up inside for so long - God is waiting to show you unconditional love, and not only CAN heal your broken heart, but it's his WILL to do so. He accepts us are we are - he is the only source of total peace, abounding love, and understanding. He is standing at the door and knocking, waiting for you to open the door of your heart to him. (Revelation 3:20)
Take the time today to ask Jesus to reveal himself to you and to give you a fresh start on life. What have you got to lose?

Janelle