Month: November 2023

Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb. Revelation 22:1

Revelation, Biblically speaking, has given me greater pause than any other scripture. I associate it with death. The magnitude and depth of its content are intimidating, but John got to look into Heaven, then tell everyone it was beyond amazing. It was beautiful and that is often lost because no one is searching TripAdvisor for the path of least resistance to get there quickly.

If you read 21:1-22:6 you will see the New Order, not a new world order, but an eternal order. All things are made new. Like so many things of Heaven, we cannot fathom something that is completely NEW! All we have on earth is what we started with. We understand reuse, recycle, restore, not NEW! But Heaven is nothing of earth. God will dwell among men in a place He has designed from His unprecedented creativity and power.

John saw a river flowing from the Throne of God watering a Tree of Life. This tree holds the power to heal every ill imagined. On earth water is necessary to sustain life, in Heaven it is life. Here is something new for me: Heaven holds life, not death.

Living, not dying,

Gretchen

We love because He first loved us. I John 4:19

John’s favorite theme was love, God is LOVE. His command is that we love one another. To love is to obey, to obey is to love.

If you read the entirety of the Bible, God’s breath, His voice, His Word, you will not find a boundary drawn for love. God’s love is boundless, therefore, to live for Him, abide in Him and share eternal life with Him means we love…….without conditions, questions, borders……just love, it’s what we do.

LOVE!

Gretchen

“How great you are, O Sovereign LORD! There is no one like you, and there is no God but you, as we have heard with our own ears. 2 Samuel 7:22

God made a covenant with Abraham. His offspring would number as the sands on the earth and bless all people. The Hebrew nation, freed from Egyptian slavery by Moses and led back to their ancestral land, The Promised Land, was this nation. Generations later David becomes King. Through the prophet Nathan, God reveals His plan to complete His promise through David’s family. There would come a King that would reign for all eternity, but have a servant’s heart and an unconditional love that truly ‘makes the world go ‘round.’

It was David’s desire to build a temple for the Ark of the Covenant but to his great disappointment God directed him otherwise. David was a warrior king. His son Solomon, a man of peace, would build the House of God. However, God revealed a great plan for David. His throne would change the world for the better. David’s response was the worship and praise above.

David praised and worshiped God because he was the one chosen to bring blessings, but we are the ‘all people’ that were/are blessed. How much more should we repeat David’s response? “You are THE ONE TRUE GOD! How unique and great You are!”

Peace to You,

Gretchen

Will you not revive us again, that your people may rejoice in you? Psalm 85:6

The gift of optimism is a priceless treasure. This Psalmist sees the good in the present and distant future. Sin is a thief. It leaves a path of destruction, but God specializes in revival and restoration. Salvation takes care of yesterday and today and makes tomorrow possible.

It is difficult to see the good when devastation’s threat is staring you in the face daily, but Verses 10-12 bear witness to the hope we find in God’s power and glory. The people of old needed the strength of a truthful, but positive outlook and so do we.

“Love and faithfulness meet together, righteousness and peace kiss each other. Faithfulness springs forth from the earth and righteousness looks down from Heaven.”

The LORD will indeed give what is good, and our land will yield its harvest.

Happy Friday,

Gretchen

He restores my soul, He guides me in paths of righteousness for His name’s sake. Psalm 23:3

We are a dependent humanity living in a hostile world. God jealously guards us, His supreme creation, from evil, and governs our moral behavior, making us righteous.

Psalm 23 is a song of trust. David wrote this Psalm while still a shepherd boy on the plains of Judea where hundreds of years later, a host of angels announced the coming of another child that would become a King, a Shepherd, the Prince of PEACE.

Each fall, millions of birds, among hundreds of species, take to the sky and make their way to warmer climates so they may live. Why? Because God made it so. He takes wonderful care of them. Only God can restore what the weariness of this world has stolen. It is not in God’s character to leave His children lost and struggling. He does not and He will not. Because we are His, He will take us where we are safe, secure and sustained and Holy.

Love,

Gretchen

Who is the King of Glory? The LORD strong and mighty, the LORD mighty in battle. Psalm 24:8

David’s greatest desire was to bring the Ark of the Covenant to Jerusalem, to a permanent home among God’s people. A chest made of acacia wood and overlaid with gold, held the Ten commandments, a pot of manna and Aaron’s Rod. Historically and symbolically there was nothing more important to Israel than this box representing God’s love, promise and presence. David’s vision for Jerusalem was that it be God’s home, a place of refuge, security, worship and praise.

This all important vessel, THE defining object of those that left slavery in Egypt and became God’s covenant nation in the wilderness had come home. You can imagine the excitement along the streets. Victory had been won! The world and everything in it belongs to God. It was a great time of worship and celebration.

Psalm 24 was thought to have been written for the processional bringing the Ark home. Today this would compare to a Sousa March on the 4th of July. If you read the entire Psalm it speaks of gates, doors and heads lifted up. Jerusalem was a walled, fortified, gated city. The gates were closed and locked but with joy and hope, a way was made clear for the presence of the King of Glory, the LORD strong and mighty to enter and stay forever.

Lift up your heads, O you gates; be lifted up, you ancient doors, that the King of Glory may come in. vs. 7 Make a way for God to enter your heart and remain forever. Make your heart the highest place of honor for the Lord Strong and Mighty.

Love,

Gretchen