Month: April 2021

To serve as a sign among you. In the future, when your children ask you “What do theses stones mean?” Tell them that the flow of the Jordan was cut off before the Ark of the Covenant of the LORD. When it crossed the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan were cut off. These stones are to be a memorial to the people of Israel forever. Joshua 4:6-7

(Forty years earlier) The Red Sea was an ominous barrier between the pursuing army of Pharaoh, and freedom for the Hebrew children. The people were terrified, but the Creator of all things drove a strong east wind, pushed the impassable water out of the way, made a dry path on the seabed for His people and when the Egyptians pursued the waves swept over them. The man who thought he was a god, lost his army. This is what happens when the Almighty God hems you/His people, in on all sides.

Forty years later, a generation has come and gone and this young nation has learned that God is faithful and they must trust and obey Him only. It is time to enter the Promised Land, but there is another aquatic obstacle between the Hebrew children and their homeland; the Jordan River, swollen with spring snow melt.  But God was already there making a way. Several miles upstream an earthquake loosed rock that dammed the river making a dry place downstream.  Before the river banks refilled, Joshua had a representative from each of the twelve tribes retrieve river stones so an altar could be erected to remind the following generations what God had done. Why? Because we need to remember and KNOW that God will always protect and provide for those who follow Him! 

As time whisks by, the excitement and crisp edged details of the miraculous things God does for us dulls to occasional thoughts and gentle smiles.  It takes deliberate action to remember and retell so that those who come behind us will persevere.

Happy Weekend,

Gretchen

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 who’s hope is in the LORD. 

Love, 

Gretchen 

He determines the number of the stars and calls them each by name. Great is our Lord and mighty in power; His understanding has no limit. Psalm 147:4-5

When life is too hard to handle, I go to the Psalms. They are my comfort soul food.

Comfort No. 1: Looking through primitive telescopes decades ago, scientists thought they saw new, never before seen stars. Today, star gazers, with new and improved tools, recognize that they were not seeing single stars but galaxies with billions upon billions of stars. Who knew?  God did. He made them perfectly and purposely. 

Comfort No. 2:  While man is still making new breakthroughs in everything from the workings of the human brain to finding new elements and ways to recycle old ones, God is already there.  He is not a teasing, taunting God that withholds insight, but allows us the marvel of discovery and in seeking, we find greater wonder in God. His knowledge has no limit. 

Comfort No. 3:  God is not human. God is God, man is man and there is no comparison. God and man cannot be brought together except through confession, complete humility and total, exhaustive faith. God will not speak, think or act like mortal man. Man constantly fights their egocentric instinct, God ALWAYS acts in your best, loving interest.

Comfort No. 4: You can never consume too many spiritual calories, so indulge!

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 become 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

“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. They 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 is 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 Friday, 

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 an 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 Thursday,

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