Category: Hope

Don’t Give Up

Posted on by Dorci

Don’t give up.

Those are my words to you today. Well, those are God’s words to me, and I’m sharing them with you. Don’t give up.

That health issue you’ve been dealing with for so long? Don’t give up.

That relationship you’ve been trying to heal for so long? Don’t give up.

That person you’ve been praying about for so long? Don’t give up.

That ministry you’re in, that job you’ve worked hard at, that goal you keep trying and maybe failing… Insert your own seemingly impossible situation. 

Don’t. Give. Up.

What if Moses had given up during his 40 years before God called him, or the 40 years he wandered in the desert after He called him? What if Jeremiah had given up prophesying to God’s people because they refused to listen to him? What if Abraham and Sarah had given up on having the promised child? What if Nehemiah had given up when the walls of Jerusalem had been destroyed? What if Job had given up when his wife told him to?

What if Ruth had given up when her husband died? What if Joseph had given up while he languished in prison? What if Gideon had given up and let fear take over while hiding in the winepress? What if David had given up when he sinned so colossally? What if Peter had given up and never come back to Jesus after His resurrection? What if John had given up on the island of Patmos?

God’s Word is not a cleaned up, whitewashed story showing only the good side of mankind.  God intentionally lets us see the worst of it – the sin, the shame, the end of the road, the hopelessness that exists in all our lives at one time or another.

And then we see God. Time and time again we see a loving, gracious Heavenly Father who loves to change the story.  He loves a surprise ending. And a surprise beginning and middle.  He loves to show the greatness of His mercy at a time when no one would have expected it.

God’s Word, which continues in all His believers, is a story of a God who makes the impossible possible. He makes the wretched sinner new and free. He makes the dead alive again. He gives hope to the hopeless. He is the miracle-maker, the faith-giver, the blessed redeemer. He is the power and the glory. He is the overcomer.

Call on Him now in the confidence of who He is and confess the sin, present the problem, and then wait with great expectation.

 

“Why, my soul, are you downcast? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise Him, my Savior and my God.”  Psalm 42:5

 

If you have never put your faith in Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, let me say this – God loves you. He loves you so much that He sent His only Son to die in your place. Yes, you. It doesn’t matter what you’ve done, it doesn’t matter how you’ve failed, it doesn’t matter where you are, who you are, how old or young you are.  (Believe me, no one was as lost as I was.) God is able to save you right here, right now. 

Simply acknowledge that you have sinned –  in other words, confess you’re not perfect. None of us is. We have all sinned and fallen short of the perfection of God. Then tell God that you receive Jesus Christ’s payment on the cross for your sin, and ask Jesus to come into your life, into your heart, to make you a new person, and to fill you with the Holy Spirit. 

If you want to read more, you can click up at the top on How You Can Know God, and you can read a little snippet of my story of redemption at My Testimony. If you prayed this prayer, or if you have any questions, or would like prayer for any reason, click on A Place For Prayer Requests or you can email me by clicking on that swanky envelope to the right. May the Lord bless you and fill you anew with His hope and peace.

Saturday Song – Our God’s Alive

Posted on by Dorci

The Cross is Just the Beginning

Posted on by Dorci

“Then Jesus said to His disciples,
If anyone desires to come after Me,
let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me.”
Matthew 16:24
 

It is just into the first century.  The roads are dusty, the work is back-breaking, the nights are long.  The religious leaders are corrupt, and the Roman Empire rules the region with an iron hand.  Taxes are exorbitant and punishment is cruel.  Beheading, strangling, being buried alive, and among the worst: crucifixion.  Being hung on a cross.  The people are afraid, looking for a savior.

A man called Jesus has risen from among them and has garnered a following.  He teaches in the Temple, raises the dead, makes the blind to see, and feeds thousands from five loaves of bread and two fish.

The people begin to have hope, especially the twelve who are His constant companions, those He’s taken under His wing.

But He begins to talk of suffering.  That He “must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life.”  Luke 9:22

And then He drops a bombshell.

“Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me.”  Luke 9:23

Those with Him look around at one another with a stunned and confused look on their faces.

Take up our cross?  Daily? What is he talking about?

Jesus would predict His own death two more times. He would lead the way.

Still, His friends couldn’t grasp what He was saying.

The night comes and He is betrayed by one of them and dragged before Herod Antipas, the son of Herod of Great who was responsible for killing all the boys under the age of two when he heard that men had come to worship the one who was born King of the Jews.  Herod Antipas sends him to Pontius Pilate, and Pilate sends Him first to be flogged, and then to the cross.

 

Jesus carries His cross until near collapse from exhaustion and pain. He is nailed to it, and lifted up to a punishment reserved for the worst of criminals.  A punishment designed to not only torture and kill, but to shame and send a message to all those watching.

His friends scatter. Their minds are reeling from the events they’d just seen. They think back to the time Jesus said they must take up their cross.

Are we next?

Darkness comes over the land.  Jesus dies and is buried in a tomb.

And that is that. Hope is lost. Death is the end.

But then the morning of the third day comes.

 

It is evening now and the disciples are gathered together in a room with the doors locked for fear of facing their own torture, grieving over the death of their friend and the hope He’d given them for a better life, when suddenly they hear –

“Peace be with you!”

It’s Him! Wait..is it? Is it a ghost?  No!  It’s Jesus! And their joy comes flooding back.

And again – 

“Peace be with you!”

They laugh and hug and rejoice, and they realize death was not the end. 

It was only the beginning.

Maybe the understanding about what He meant by denying themselves, taking up their cross and following Him came as slowly to them as it does to us.  But He had given them a stark picture.

It doesn’t mean reluctantly accepting a disease, or a difficult relationship.  It doesn’t mean sacrificing any one thing.

It means dying.  To everything.

Sacrificing oneself. 

Willingly, wholeheartedly, just as He had done.

The word Jesus used when He said “deny” themselves is aparneomai – to deny utterly.  To disown.

If we want to follow Christ, to be His disciple, the only way is to follow Him all the way to the cross.  Not a literal cross, of course, but a cross for the flesh, the self will.  It is saying to the Father what He said in the garden: “Not my will, but yours be done.”

Christ might have in mind for us to go and do and say what we wouldn’t dare.  Will we follow? Will we die to our desires, let go of our fears, and go with Him?

Dying to our wishes and desires, giving up the life we had in mind, is not the end!

There is the glorious morning.  A new beginning.

It is the beginning to a bigger, better life than we had ever imagined. Infinitely bigger than a life of catching fish.

We will become fishers of men, and women and children and neighbors and family.

When we walk with the risen Christ, we are filled with Life ourselves, and all that He is and has for us.

Peace be with you!

 

The Day God’s Word Saved Me from Myself…Again

Posted on by Dorci

 

“For the Word of God is alive and active. ” Hebrews 4:12

It was a Thursday morning and I was in the middle of work when the phone rang.  It was my sister calling out of the blue. Our mother’s health had suddenly deteriorated and my sister wanted to know if I wanted to go see her.  I hadn’t talked to my mother in years.

Well, there was a brief and difficult conversation we’d had several months before.  The Holy Spirit had nudged me a number of times over the course of a couple of weeks to call my mother.  What if she didn’t want to hear from me?  What if she didn’t know who I was?  He kept nudging so I gathered up the courage one day and called her.  She knew who I was but didn’t understand everything I was saying. I was able to tell her I loved her, and she told me she loved me, too.  That was basically the extent of the conversation. But God knew I needed to both say it and hear it, and so did she.

I told my sister I’d think about it for a few minutes and call her back.

I grabbed my Bible, walked away from my desk, sat down, and prayed.

What if she didn’t want to see me?  What about work? What about the appointment I have scheduled this afternoon? And what about all those vacant years of not having her there, of not having a mother?  Do I go see her after all that?

I opened my Bible, to what I didn’t know. I wasn’t looking for anything in particular. I didn’t have time and my thoughts were swirling. I just wanted to hear from the Lord. The pages fell and I started reading.  One column…and another…and another.  I looked up, asking the Lord again, “What do I do?”

And suddenly it came to me – this is not about me.  This is about her.  All she had in the world, besides the nurses and other residents, was my sister and me.  If I were dying I’d want my sons there, and I knew our mother would want both of us there, too.

I called my sister back and we went.  I sat with my mother for hours as we looked each other in the eyes in a way we never had. Because of Jesus, I was now able to look at her through eyes of grace. Her words were harder to understand now, but I smiled at her and she smiled back. We hugged goodbye and again said “I love you.”

I was able to visit her a few more times in the month after that.  The communication became less and less until that last time when she couldn’t open her eyes or speak at all.

They say the hearing is the last thing to go.

I’m thankful that one of the last things she heard were her two daughters, talking and reminiscing and laughing. I pray that brought her joy.

I know I wouldn’t have gone to see my mother had I not taken the time to sit with Jesus and read His Word. There was nothing specific in my Bible reading that morning that had to do with what He ministered to my heart – that the visit was not about me, but about being there for my mother.  Still, reading it somehow opened a conduit for me to hear what He wanted to say to me. I don’t fully understand it, but His Word really is active and alive.

My mother died exactly one month to the day after that first call from my sister.  Because I prayed and opened His Word, God gave me the gift of one month of good memories with my mother.  I know they were good memories for her, too, and she deserved that.

We don’t have much time these days.  We’re all so busy that finding quiet time seems impossible, and it may seem like there’s just not enough time to read. The thing is, we don’t have time not to read God’s living Word. 

Reading His Word is not just about reading another book.  As Christians, it is our breath, our life.  It is the primary way God’s chosen to let us hear His heart beating and to hear His whispers of love and wisdom. With it He will give us answers to questions that come out of the blue, and make sure we don’t miss something wonderful.  He will make us a light shining for a dark world, and for someone whose days are dimming. 

He will reveal Himself, come near, and our hearts will beat as one.  

 

A New Thing

Posted on by Dorci