Month: April 2018

Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter. Isaiah 5:20

Isaiah chapter 5 refers to Israel as a vineyard. For centuries God has cared for His covenant nation. Rather than follow and obey, they became entitled, greedy and full of injustice. The rich became rich at the expense of the poor. Finally, God withdraws his protection. Israel withers, suffers and ceases to exist as a nation except as refugees, captives and exiles.

The attitude of entitlement brings us to the point of preempting God’s authority over good and evil. We want self glory, and autonomy. Money grants power……until we die….then we’re all equal in our speed of decay. Injustice follows greed. Serving others shifts to serving financial domination. Right and wrong get blurred by bias, personal agenda and passion.

With an open heart we must seek God’s Holiness. A pure heart waits for God’s provision and seeks His approval only.

Love,

Gretchen

Simon Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the Living God.” Matthew 16:16

Outgoing, impulsive Peter, who sometimes said the wrong thing, got this right. The only way Peter could have known this was his spiritual connection to God in Heaven. Jesus had not announced Himself as God’s Son publicly.

Petra is the Greek word for rock. Jesus gave Simon, son of Jonas, this name, Peter. It was on the rock of this revelation, Jesus is the Son of the living God, that our church is built. In verse 18 of this same chapter, Jesus says, the gates of Hades will not overcome ‘it’. It is Zion, the city of God, the church triumphant, the Body of Christ. Gate keepers control the city, everything from commerce to politics. They also keep enemies out and let those who will prosper them, in. The Truth that Peter confessed is that Jesus, the Way, the Truth and the Life, The Son of God, is the gate keeper of the Body of Christ.

We live in fear of being ruined, disappointed, irrelevant, rejected, but Jesus is the Messiah and the Gates of Hell will NOT overcome any us who’s hope is in the LORD.

Love,

Gretchen

By faith Abraham, when God tested him, offered Isaac as a sacrifice. He who had embraced the promises was about to sacrifice his one and only son, Hebrews 11:17

The promise God made, and the reciprocal commitments Abraham returned, define the infinite, omniscient and omnipresent character of the Creator of all things and His intimacy with mankind. Abraham and God entered into a covenant relationship. They didn’t just meet and shake hands, they did things that mattered and would always remind us of God’s mountain moving love. An exchange of first born sons is part of covenant making. So, God asked Abraham for the son He had given Sarah and her husband in their post child bearing years. 

Obedience was the promise Abraham returned to God.  When God called, Abraham answered and from that moment forward, Isaac was as good as dead to him, but it was a long walk up the mountain.  Isaac asked, “Where is the sacrifice father?” Abraham replied, “God will provide.”  God did furnish a sacrifice and it was not Isaac.  The covenant was sealed. Many thousand years later, God gave His only Son to complete this blessing to all who would believe.

Faith is not a moment in time. It is a life’s choice to never turn back. God didn’t need to know Abraham was ‘all in’, Abraham and Isaac did and we needed to know the end of the story.  Obedience, faith in action, won! And it always will. The end.

Love,

Gretchen

“No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.” Matthew 6:24

Part of the Sermon on the Mount, this verse is the concluding comment Jesus makes about storing up treasures on earth. The bigger picture is Jesus’ words on generosity, attitude toward others, intimacy with God and overwhelming worry about tomorrow.

Everything on this earth passes away, just take a look at the week old produce in your refrigerator, or the once beautiful homes decaying as long gone manicured lawns return to pasture land.  We give all our resources to things that will not matter when life gets real, because only God, through His Son Jesus can GIVE real life!

There are many things that become our master but it all comes down to money, because nothing is free………..excuse me, I misspoke! Grace and Mercy are free. Get you some! Get a lot! Share with everyone! The supply is infinite!

Throw Grace Like Confetti!

Gretchen

I am the bread of Life. John 6:48

In Old Testament Law there is a very elaborate and detailed process for making a covenant. A covenant is an all encompassing agreement between two parties, binding them together with very clear boundaries and obligations. The eighth step of this mutual promise is the sharing of a meal.  By feeding each other, the covenant participants express the act of taking one another into the each other’s life so deeply they one with the other. We see this today in wedding celebrations where the bride and groom exchange pieces of wedding cake.

Jesus’ words are being spoken to the Pharisees following His feeding of the 5000. They are the leaders of the Jewish nation, but they are spiritually dull. Offended by these misperceived insinuations of cannibalism, they become outraged. Instead of comprehending Jesus is the source of endless fulfillment, and by accepting Him, life everlasting is secured, they sought an excuse for their self-righteous indignation.

Jesus completed the Abrahamic covenant. We are all blessed because He gave His life as a sacrifice and a curse breaker. By feeding ourselves with Him we receive life and power over death and THAT begins today.

Love,

Gretchen

The duration of my entire childhood was spent wishing to be grown.  Then it happened. My first real foray into ‘adulting’ began when I enrolled in Bethany Nazarene College (presently Southern Nazarene University).  In late August of 1981 my parents drove me from our home in central Arkansas, to the campus of my dreams, in Bethany, Oklahoma, just west of Oklahoma City. I remember nothing of the drive. We carried my belongings up five flights of stairs to my dorm room and I settled in.  Very soon it came time for mom and dad to depart and leave me to freshman orientation. Mom went to the car while dad hugged me close and whispered in my ear, “Gretchen, no matter what, always give God and I and chance to love you through.” 

Rainbows and sunshine were mapped out and awaited my go ahead. I am a rule follower with plans, outlines and emergency exits.  I do not cross uncharted waters. My adventures involve a great deal of kicking and screaming!  Why did my father’s final words to me, on this momentous day, hint of adversity and personal failure?

The castle in the clouds crumbled soon enough. Amidst all my good intentions, I failed. My adult decisions weren’t all constructive, some were incredibly selfish and costly.  It was ugly and bitter. At one point I had to choose between persevering and death. The outcome is obvious, but I made that choice because I had something valuable, an earthly father who modeled a Heavenly Father’s love, so faithful and enduring I could not escape from it.

See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!

I John 3:1a

The promised love of my earthly father has been strained to its limits. Proven solid, constant and true, it led me to The Father’s love…… that love my dad asked me to cling to and trust, standing in the sunshine, in his warm embrace, as I was stepping into a world I knew very little of, but he knew would tempt and test my resolve and determination. 

Dad knew dreams don’t always come true, but love can bring you through. I Corinthians 13:8 says, “Love never fails.”  All you have to do is give it a chance. Love one another, it’s a game changer and let others love you too!

Blessings,

Gretchen

P.S. A life lived in God’s will far exceeds any hopes or aspirations I ever dared to imagine all those years ago when I just knew I would take the world by storm. Trust Him with everything!

“Look, He is coming with the clouds,” and “Every eye will see Him, even those who pierced Him”; and all peoples on earth “Will morn because of Him.“ So shall it be! Amen. Revelations 1:7

This book was written in the glow of burning martyrs.  Christianity was sixty some years old and growing fast and strong, even though suffering among believers was horrific. God sent words and visions to John to strengthen those being persecuted then and today.

It is ironic that the consummation of life is death.  When this earthly existence comes to an end for each one of us, we are defined, our history is complete, except for the retelling. For those who refuse to believe Jesus in the Resurrected Son of the One True God, death is the great equalizer. The will see very clearly who is God and who is not. Redoes won’t be an option then and they will mourn.

For the believer, physical death not our end, but a new beginning. Attempts to stop God’s victorious work proved a colossal failure in the early days of the church and it still does today. Jesus lives and so shall we.

Have a Beautiful Weekend,

Love,

Gretchen

If we claim to have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live out the truth. 1 John 1:6

At the end of the apostolic age John remained. The others who personally knew Jesus were martyred across the Roman Empire. John lived in Jerusalem caring for Jesus’ mother, but at some time after her death, he moved to Ephesus where he wrote his gospel, three epistles and Revelations. By now the Church is sixty to seventy years old.

John’s letter was addressing a wrong theology suggesting  separation between spirit and body.  Some believed that the two were completely unconnected, therefore, the body could engage in sensual activities while the spirit remained holy. Those who believed this argued that Jesus had never really become fully man, but just a aberration.

In the entire first chapter of this letter John addresses the absolute truth of the incarnate God in His Son Jesus. You can’t ‘sort of’ believe or ‘sort of’ be a Christian. Jesus brought hope and light into the world. Darkness is gone when you are facing the Son.

Happy Friday,

Gretchen

Those who want to kill me will be destroyed; they will go down to the depths of the earth. They will be given over to the sword and become food for jackals. Psalm 63:9-10

My ears and eyes are pummeled with bad news and evil words.  In fact, if I want something good I must go and seek it, because the world doesn’t have any to offer……I know this is the extreme, but there are days when everything seems helpless and hopeless. I wonder why God tarries.

Psalm 63 was written when David should have won the day, but didn’t.  He submitted to God’s authority and remained committed to God’s higher plan. (I Samuel 24) Confidence in God’s justice gave him peace and peace gave him rest. He also knew that God did not delight in the pain someone else’s sin caused. GOD DOES NOT LIKE THE CONSEQUENCE OF SIN!!! HE GAVE HIS ONLY SON TO WIN VICTORY OVER SIN!!!!  There will come a day of judgement for those who have hurt others and it will not be pretty.

My father recently reminded me of notes he took from a sermon preached by Rev. Dr. Samuel Young (General Superintendent, Church of the Nazarene) He wrote, “You can’t do the Lord’s work the Devil’s way.” (Romans 12:17-21)

Be patient. God is good, therefore, life is good and God will take care to evil.  Wait in peace, the Lord is working on a miracle for you!

Love,

Gretchen

Joseph, a Levite from Cyprus, whom the apostles called Barnabas (which means “son of encouragement’), sold a field  he owned and brought the money and put it at the apostles’ feet. Act 4:36-37

The apostles called him, “Encourager.”  An early convert to Christianity, Barnabas was a compassionate man and quickly saw that Paul’s conversion was sincere and not a farce to catch and persecute believers. He accompanied Paul on his first missionary journey, sponsored by the church at Antioch.

There is a difference in living communally with common property, and living in the bounty of a Heavenly Father with full knowledge that all we have is His. Jews, who believed Jesus was the Messiah, lost everything. Patrons refused to do business with them, families turned them out and many were persecuted, leaving widows and children destitute. Part of the mission of the early church was to give relief to these people.  The church is the Body of Christ, His hands, His feet, His HEART! Barnabas breathed this mentality.

God doesn’t ask us to give more than we have, but all we have must be His.  He, as the One that created and provided all, is a far better steward of our blessings than we can ever be. Just follow and give freely, there’s plenty more where that came from!

Love,

Gretchen