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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 occasions when I read vignettes of time 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 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 those who come 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

Shout for joy to the LORD, all the earth, Worship the LORD with gladness; come before Him with joyful songs. Psalms 100:1-2

The thought of the Lord is our greatest source of joy, therefore, to worship is delight. Sing loud, sing proud! It is God we’re singing too and it is He we are singing about!

The Bible speaks frequently of singing. Moses taught the people of Israel to sing as they journeyed on their way to the Promised Land. Psalm 100 was meant for use in public worship and is still today, one of the most well known and most often sung Psalms of all.

Whatever the occasion, fear or triumph, everything drove David to the LORD in worship. Let’s follow his example and someday, our voices will rise in symphony with David’s, in eternal love and worship at the Throne of God.

Love,

Gretchen

“Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified because of them, for the LORD your God goes with you; He will never leave you nor forsake you.” Deuteronomy 31:6

Oh! The hope and promise of God’s Word! Moses, the man of miracles, has come to the end of his journey. He has led the new Hebrew nation from the slavery of Egypt to the Promised Land in Canaan.  He won’t join them as they cross the Jordan River into their new home, but God has gone before them and Joshua will lead.

God’s people are living out His promise, but in real time they are doing the most difficult thing any person can do, step into the great UNKNOWN. It is terrifying.  It’s called change and unless the present is unlivable, nobody signs up for it. God is not oblivious to this. Moses repeats what God has said and what he himself has witnessed and lived, “He will never leave you nor forsake you!”  God goes first!

Strength and courage originate from two givens: Solid preparation for the task at hand and confidence in success. God knows the future for those that put it in His care. He goes before us and prepares us for success!  It’s a win! 

Love,

Gretchen

To this they replied, “You were steeped in sin at birth; how dare you lecture us!” And they threw him out. John 9:34

The Pharisees decide to investigate a sabbath day miracle. Jesus heals a blind man, but the synagogue authorities must determine whether it was a sin for Him to do so. They seek the man out and ask him to repeat the details. Who healed you? How did he heal you? Where did he come from? They cast dispersions on Jesus. The man replies, “I was blind, now I see.”  He continues, “If this man were not from God, He could do nothing.”

In ancient times, birth defects or physical handicaps were thought to be the consequence of sin, either the parent’s or the person himself. Because of this prejudice, people cast speculation and judgement on things they knew nothing of.  Physically challenged people were marginalized, abused and cast into the furthest outskirts of society.  Jesus didn’t just give this man the ability to see a blue sky, he gave him a place in the world, the entire ‘living’ package.

Jesus extended love and compassion to a man who responded with praise and worship. Incredibly, the Pharisees felt their authority was threatened! Their adopted policy was to place blame instead of restoring a world to the beauty God intended.

This miracle shows, the sighted can be blind to truth. In stark contrast to man’s bigotry, hatred, tainted perspective, and fumbled intentions, Jesus can always bring good out of man’s suffering.

Happy Friday!

Gretchen

Your love, O LORD, reaches to the heavens, your faithfulness to the skies. Psalm 36:5

Clear night skies are magnificent. The longer you look, the more distant stars come into focus, still, there are trillions not seen.  Our sky is ever changing as the earth spins through days, seasons and years. We cannot comprehend where we are in the universe because we cannot pinpoint a reference.  Are we westerners? Northerners? In our vast world, is up, up? We cannot determine, only hypothesize.

David begins this Psalm with the total wickedness of mankind and its complete lack of fear, then turns to God’s infinite love and grace.  A sinner among sinners, David felt the power of God’s love, forgiveness and restoration in a whole and unencumbered relationship between him and his Creator.

From the air we breath to the farthest corners of outer space, these things that were created by our Father still do not contain the depths, heights, width or breadth of His love.  Pretty amazing!

Inhaling More Deeply,

Gretchen

What good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul? Or what can a man give in exchange for His soul? Matthew 16:26

Jesus begins to prepare His disciples for the end.  Peter professes the deity of Jesus. He is the Son of God, the Messiah. Jesus shares that He must return to Jerusalem to face persecution and death, then Peter rebukes Him and Jesus acknowledges Satan’s attempt to stop His sacrifice. Finally, Jesus tells these closest friends, comrades, the cost of following Him will be their lives, from their everyday comings and goings to possible martyrdom.

There is a constant push and pull between surviving life and keeping earthly gains in the proper place. I am honor bound to pay my electric bill, so I must go to work.  My natural competitive instinct drives me to achieve, thus gaining the faith and trust of my employer who in turn, depends more heavily on my ethic. I have done right, and now I am pulled from the very hearth I work to keep warm.  Where does maintaining life on earth become gaining the world? Adoration and power are great temptations, but they are of this world.

It is a matter of heart. What on earth do you love more than you love your neighbor?

Love,

Gretchen

Through Him and for His name’s sake, we received grace and apostleship to call people from among all Gentiles to the obedience that comes from faith. Romans 1:5

Paul was called to bring the message of Jesus Christ to the Gentiles. He wrote the letter we know as Romans three years before he would actually go to Rome. From Corinth, Paul was traveling to Jerusalem with benevolent funds for persecuted Jewish Christians. His personal safety was uncertain and he wanted the true, untainted Gospel to reach the faithful of Rome. 

Christians were being viciously persecuted by unbelievers, but compounding this injustice was the insistence of converted Jews that non Jewish believers adopt the orthodox traditions of circumcision and dietary restrictions. Paul preaches salvation by faith, and Holiness by obedience only. 

Opinions are the reflex of our knowledge and environment. It is impossible to exist without the perspective at the end of our own noses. The early church dealt constantly with these issues too. Paul was relentless in his mission to bring unity to all believers through a faith that accepts mercy and grace and in love, returns it to one another other.

Have a Lovely Monday,

Gretchen

Praise the LORD, O my soul; all my inmost being, praise His Holy name. Psalm 103:1

An inmost being?….The darkest, hidden places of my heart and mind no one knows about?….The empty place left when my soul mate left?….The secret fears of failing? ….Listing details of a soul can go on forever. Do all those place’s really need to take part in worship?

This Psalm by David is a reflection of God’s enduring, infinite love across a life less than perfect, but entrusted to God’s love and care.

David could out sin us all……still, grace and mercy were unlimited and sufficient. What God did for him He will do for all. Let praise come from every place in your heart, mind and soul and may it express the miracle of who you are, all because God loves you.

Have a Wonderful Week’s end,

Gretchen