Month: February 2021

It is good to praise the Lord and make music to Your name, O Most High. Psalm 92:1

This Psalm was anonymously written but is titled, A Song for the Sabbath.  

Believers in the One True God are called to set aside labors and cares one day a week and intentionally focus on the wonder of the Creator and Lover of our soul. It brings our storm tossed lives back into a harbor of calm water. 

A Holy day is important to the emotional and spiritual well being of the community of Christ. It is a gift, but it is also mandatory maintenance for survival. This Sabbath is our little bit of Heaven on earth. For when this life is over, we will enter into an eternal day of worship. We will rest, sing praises and relish in the fellowship of those we love.

Love,

Gretchen   

Then the Lord came down in the cloud and stood there with him and proclaimed His name, the LORD. And He passed in front of Moses, proclaiming, “The Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness. Exodus 34:5-6

Moses returned from 40 days and nights in the presence of God, bringing the engraved laws of the covenant nation. While Moses was with God, the Hebrew children, under the leadership of Aaron, lust for a tangible god and orgy type worship. When Moses finds the chaos and desecration of God’s kindness and provision he throws the precious stones, written by God. Now, Moses has returned to the peak of Sinai and God’s mercy.

The people have sinned and God says He will destroy them, but Moses pled their case. God heard and extended forgiveness and restoration. The announcement from God to Moses, that He is the LORD, is a perspective builder.  Moses was carrying the burden of the people’s sin, but God exclaims that it is His character that will determine the destiny of these people, not Moses’. Everything is going to be okay, but there is some work to do.  Moses and God spend another 40 days and nights rewriting instructions for Holy and set apart living so the world may be blessed.

These people, just set free from slavery, were terribly quick to worship god’s of their own making. What an insult to God’s love!!! Still, God CHOOSES…….HE CHOOSES to be slow to anger, ABOUNDING IN LOVE AND FAITHFULNESS to mankind. Where else on earth are you going to find that?  

You are loved so very much!  

Gretchen

Hear, O Lord, and answer me, for I am poor and needy. Guard my life, for I am devoted to you. You are my God; save your servant who trusts in you. Psalms 86:1

There are times when I read vignettes of specific events in the Bible, i.e. most of Isaiah, and I think, “This is talking to a specific group of people, in a specific situation, in a specific time. It’s a lovely story, but what does it have to do with me?” Well, here’s the greatest news you’ll ever hear!  God is constant!  Perfect in perspective and judgement and completely without bias. What He did for sinful humans throughout history, desperate for, yet undeserving of mercy and grace, He will do for you!

David is not financially poor. He is spiritually bankrupt, broken, exhausted. He needs mental rest and assurance that the weight of the world doesn’t really set on his shoulders. It isn’t his physical life that needs saving, it’s his sanity! Can you relate?

Because he knows that God is good, loving, and able, David, the poet, puts his humbled and tired heart to pen, takes it to God and leaves it there.  Do you think he got a good night’s sleep after reflecting on the trustworthiness of God? I think so. 

Rest Well,

Gretchen  

The Lord will guide you always; He will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land and will strengthen your frame. You will be like a well-watered garden, like a spring whose waters never fail.  Isaiah 58:11

God chose a covenant nation who’s purpose was to bless all nations. In remaining Holy, God’s plan of redemption and complete restoration of mankind can be made full. Instead, these people, this nation, became self-centered. God’s promises became their entitlement. God’s love became their focus of abuse and exploitation.

Isaiah 58 speaks of fasting, one of the highest forms of worship and connection to God. Again, this became a self absorbed ritual centered on the whims, convenience, and lust of the people rather than the honor of God’s sovereign power and glory.  As condemning as this passage is, it is also a call to a correct relationship with God and sacrificial love for others.

God’s call to all who know Him is to show love toward one another.  To bless others is to represent God’s infinite resource and sustenance for all mankind’s needs. Follow the laws of God/love. Find the purpose of your life in Him alone. You are called to Bless others. There is more than enough for you and whoever else comes your way.  That’s just the how God works.

Love,

Gretchen

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In His great mercy He has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. I Peter 1:3

The persecution of Christians in Rome was horrific but had been somewhat contained until the Emperor encouraged enemies of Christians across the Empire to take every advantage to annihilate them. It is believed that Peter wrote this letter shortly after Paul’s martyrdom and sent it to the churches Paul established, to encourage and fortify them for the days to come. In this atmosphere of suffering Peter reminds everyone that Christ’s work of grace and salvation was through suffering.

There is nothing for Christians in looking back. We are born again, into a new living hope, a great gift from God, His love for us fulfilled. Peter, face to face, denied Christ in the very moment of Christ’s great agony. He knew the shame of sin and weakness of resolve. Three frightening, excruciating days later he was face to face with a risen Savior. He found grace, only grace. NO condemnation. He knows the joy he speaks.

Peter wasn’t special because of his time and place in history, he was merely a man, a sinner saved by grace and that is all. His words of praise must be our beacon and faith in the storms that will come our way too. 

Love, 

Gretchen