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But if serving the LORD seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD. Joshua 24:15

Joshua gathered the people together to renew their covenant with God. Part of this ceremony is recounting history. Abraham was faithful and through his covenant with God a great nation was born. God brought His people from slavery, through the wilderness and into the Promised Land. All throughout this twenty-fourth chapter Joshua, in detail, reminds these people of God’s provision and warns them against allowing any other gods to distract them from the One True God who saved them.

I love this unwavering statement of faith by Joshua. God has proven Himself to be all things, redeemer, provider, protector……. there is no need to worry about the future because God is unchanging. He was, therefore He will always be faithful! This is enough for Joshua.

When we arrive at our state of “As for me, I will serve the LORD.” We have arrived. When God is simply enough, you can rest and you will never need for anything again.

Love,

Grethen

“Very truly I tell you,” Jesus answered, “before Abraham was born, I am!” John 8:58

In Exodus chapter 3 God calls to Moses from a burning bush and charges him to return to Egypt and lead the Hebrew people (The Jewish Nation) out of bondage and into the land of Canaan. Moses has some questions, the greatest of which is, “Who do I say sent me?” God’s reply is, “I am who I am. I AM has sent you.”

Jesus came to earth as a helpless baby, just like any other baby that was totally dependent on its mother’s care, except, He was Emmanuel, God with us. GOD WITH US!

You would think God in the Flesh would be the comfort a hurting world would welcome. But no! The Jewish people placed all their hope, all their interpretation of God’s loving, redeeming deeds, their entire theology in one thing: An earthly conquerer. A god that would show up, teach some people a few things and leave the Jewish nation in earthly power. The problem with this is that all things earthly are temporary and God is eternal. His justice, power and love are eternal too.

In this scripture narrative from John 8, Jesus is questioned by the Jewish hierarchy. They are doing everything possible to hang onto their wrong ideas because the truth doesn’t fit their purpose. Jesus is the Son of God, come to earth to Love. Jesus stands constant and firm in truth. His response connects Him solidly to the history His accusers cling so tightly to . He is the Son of God, the Triune God, He is the great “I AM.”

Have a Wonderful Wednesday,

Gretchen

P.S. There is a song by Nichole Nordeman titled, “I Am.” It has been a comfort to me and might be for you as well if you would like to google it or view it on YouTube. For those of you that read via Facebook I have shared the song in the comments section.

You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. Jeremiah 29:13

Jeremiah, the Old Testament prophet, spoke to an exiled people. Their predicament was a result of their refusal to follow God and trust Him in all things. Their consequence would last 70 years, but at that time they would find restoration in returning to God’s loving care.

Man’s sin will never define God’s love or His will. God is constant and true, but the receiving of God’s blessing depends on human response. The only appropriate answer to God’s redemptive presence is to acknowledge and accept Him with your entire being, withholding nothing in cautious doubt.

Seek God with complete and total transparency of heart. He doesn’t just restore things back to the way they were, He specializes in New and Improved!

Have a Terrific Tuesday!

Gretchen

And pray for us, too, that God may open a door for our message, so that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ, for which I am in chains. Colossians 4:3

While Paul was in Ephesus establishing a church, two men Epaphras and Philemon became Christians. It is believed that they carried the message of Salvation back to their hometown of Colossae. In this incredibly diverse community, a small group of believers began to worship regularly. This young church struggled to put aside traditional cultural ideas and philosophies that polluted the true Gospel of Salvation.

Mysticism was one of the greatest threats to confidence in early faith living. Jewish Mystics taught that they held elite secrets of the Kingdom, unavailable to every believer. Paul taught that there is no mystery except the love of God, manifested in His Son’s sacrifice, that surpasses all understanding.

God does not keep secrets from some and share the best of Himself with others. Neither does rule keeping grant special status. There is a bountiful fullness found in Holiness, Christ in you, and it is free to all!

Have an incredible Monday!

Gretchen

God of My Mother’s Heart

Somewhere in my young adult years I fell into ‘crisis orientation.’ I had to have a battle to wage against something or someone to get out of bed each day and be productive. My usual foe was satan so all my endeavors were not vain and I got a lot done. However, I kept myself in constant survivor mode, perpetual self-induced anxiety and panic.

Everyone is born with survival instincts. The human body has hormones and reflexes that respond, no matter what, when a threat approaches. Practiced habits take their place in this drama too, but a constant state of terror is not healthy or normal. I feared that if I quit worrying and ceased micro-managing the world as far as I could reach, my life would unravel and I would lose everything. My perpetual hyper-awareness of evil and injustice held the universe together, so I thought. Fear became stress, stress evolved into anger and anger provided the energy to go get em’! Imagine what a joy I was to live with.

One evening I was running around my house frantically telling my two young daughters to hurry and get out the door. I was grabbing fashionably coordinated coats, gloves and scarves when I became angry over a glass that didn’t make it into the dishwasher and a carefully styled coiffeur destroyed by ear muffs put on without my assistance. Suddenly my beautiful, precious, ‘I can’t believe God chose me to be her mother,’ twelve year old stopped and began crying. Through her tears she sobbed, “MOM I just want you to be happy! I’ll do anything to make you happy but you’re always mad and I can’t make you stop!”

The air left my lungs. I became very small. She was right. No power on earth could make me happy because I was controlling my world with anger and panic! My sin was destroying the relationships God had created.

I changed. I took proactive charge of learning better behavior. I was not being a wise parent, but even in the midst of the mistakes I was making, I was a praying mother. I knew then as I know now that I must daily take my children to the Throne of God. He knew my heart and loved me and mine as I put aside my immaturity and grew in wisdom.

My deepest lessons in love have been learned watching my Heavenly Father love my amazing, blue eyed beauties. He loves you and yours too. God is always good. His mercy, love and grace endure forever.

Love,

Gretchen

If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. Romans 10:9

You can argue many aspects of theology, but this one is pretty clear. Jesus, God’s Son, died on the cross, rose from the grave, reigns victorious over death.

Eternal LIFE doesn’t begin when you die, it begins when you are saved. So please, join me for a lifetime!

Love,

Gretchen

God made two great lights – the greater light to govern the day and the lesser light to govern the night. He also made the stars. Genesis 1:16

God and God alone is infinite. He always was and always will be. All other things begin with His breath and continue by His will. Scientific study and ingenuity are unraveling some of the beautiful mystery of God’s wonder filled creation, but still, we can only grasp a minuscule fraction of all that was woven together at the beginning of linear time.

Creation didn’t happen as a passing whimsical thought. Earth is the exact distance from the sun, positioned perfectly from the center of the Milky Way galaxy. Any change in this distance would create toxic radiation making earth uninhabitable. The planet Jupiter is so big that its strong gravity actually shields earth from incoming meteors and comets. Jupiter pulls some of them into itself or throws them back into the outer solar system, thus protecting the planet we call home. If any space debris does get past our massive body guard it gets burned up by earth’s perfect atmosphere. Pretty amazing!

Everything about us and our world is a perfect design. God doesn’t do things any other way.

If God can bring the cosmic order into being, then He can certainly bring to order any struggles you are having with the chaos of your world.

Love,

Gretchen

Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them. Ephesians 5:11

Upon salvation God calls us to Holiness. This means that we put away our selfish attitudes and agendas and remold our patterns of thinking and behavior. In this passage of scripture, Paul does not waste time with generalities but points out that our behavior must mirror the likeness of our Savior.

The cultural background of Ephesus, the city to which this letter Ephesians is written, was a hub of the occult, black magic, spiritism….. These people understand the concept of darkness. Paul also wrote a letter to the people of Galatia that contains a familiar passage listing nine attributes of a Christian called, The Fruit of the Spirit. (5:22-23) They are love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control and should permeate all relationships and actions of those who have experienced salvation.

Pursuing things of darkness is fruitless and leads to death. Your life is precious. Protect it against such things.

God and sin cannot….. will not coexist. You have to chose one or the other.

Chose joy, peace, love……

Gretchen

For Moses said, “The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your own people, you must listen to everything He tells you.” Acts 3:22

Peter accompanied by John had just healed a crippled man sitting by the temple gate called Beautiful. As soon as word got around, people came rushing to the three men as if they were rock stars. Peter responds by reminding the crowd of recent events. Jesus, God’s son dwelt among them only to be unjustly executed, but rose from the grave. By His power the crippled man was made strong.

Peter turns this moment of spotlight into an opportunity to spread the Gospel. He reminds those listening that Jesus fulfilled the Prophecies of their forefathers. This audience of Jews knows the ancient stories. Their traditions and daily actions are guided by the words of Moses. They must connect the promises of the past to the grace and mercy of the present.

God is constantly at work in the world today, from global issues to the most intimate details of our lives. Thousands of years before Jesus walked as a man, Moses walked by faith to deliver God’s people, a nation, from the bondage of man’s selfish ambition.

From a nation, to a nameless cripple, God sent His beloved Son. You are loved and miracles still happen.

Love,

Gretchen

If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it. 1 Corinthians 12:26

The people of the church at Corinth just couldn’t get along with each other. They argued and debated everything! Paul couldn’t return there immediately, so he pens a letter and sends it with Timothy. Chapter 12 very clearly speaks to the need for unity of heart with respect to differentiation of function.

In kindergarten the learning process goes like this: See things, define things, give or learn names of things, then sort things. The sorting is actually organizing and categorizing. It is a very efficient way to prepare and store knowledge for fluent, usable retrieval.

This process refines itself as we grow older, but sometimes it becomes perverted. For instance, a child would not say that a ‘b’ is better than a ‘d’. But, eventually sorting leads to qualifying. Students may say that athletics are better than the arts, math is more important that literacy, one gender is superior to the other. Learning has stopped, fighting has ensued and everybody loses.

Paul is very specifically teaching that assigning value to each other’s contribution is toxic! Through salvation we become One Body and we cannot survive this difficult journey without each other! Through our diversity God’s light shines brightest.

Glad my world has a ‘YOU’ in it.

Love,

Gretchen