THE CROSS

The cross. What is it really? Today it is depicted as something common. Department stores are full of merchandise that has been plastered with its symbol across it , from T-shirts to car tags. Jewelers have pounded it into all sorts of finery for us to adorn ourselves and wear. It has become big business and brought much profit to those who have reaped from its economic benefits. But it was never intended to be a lucky trinket or some type of decorative decor. The cross of Christ is not to be profaned by being used as some form of good luck. Wearing it or hanging it in our homes does not bring us good luck, nor does it make us more spiritual in the eyes of God, because we proudly display or advertise to others by our demonstrating some form spirituality with it. Before Jesus died on the cross, it represented one thing to humanity, a monstrous repulsive instrument of death. When Jesus accomplished salvation’s plan by His death on the cross and His resurrection from the grave, that old rugged, nasty cross now represents the Grace of God to all mankind. Jesus’ victory over death removed the shame of the cross and made it beautiful and glorious. Everything God wants man to know about Him comes together in those cross beams of His only Son’s suffering.

What was Jesus doing on the cross those six hours, stretched out against the sky? He was thinking about you and me. He had made His mind up in the garden the night before to go through with it, knowing that only He and the Father truly fathomed what was about to transpire over the next few days. There is much more to the death of Jesus on the cross than the visible suffering, terrible pain and private unseen suffering, and the incredible public shame and disgrace of such a horrible death for the Son of God and One who was completely innocent and underserving of what He was to endure.

In his letter to the Colossians, Paul tells us about some invisible events taking place outside of this physical realm that we see and outside of our ordinary space and time during the time that Jesus was dying on the cross, he says, …in Jesus all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross. And you, who once were estranged and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and irreproachable before him. Col. 1:19-22 He also met fully the broadside of the demonic world, fallen angels, and all the power of evil forces as well, disarming them all completely and guarantying satan’s final destruction in Revelation 5:1-7.

After the cross, the next event in eternity for humanity was Jesus’ return to reenter His body in the tomb just before dawn on Easter morning. When contemplating what the cross really represents in the divine transaction between God the Father and God the Son, in an eternal perspective, Jesus who had known no sin had to suffer the revulsion and destruction of being changed from a perfect man into a loathsome, repulsive creature loaded down with mine and your and yes, the sin of the world, so that even God could not look upon Him. Yes, that was the ultimate sacrifice that Jesus made for me and you. He was willing to go through Psalm 22 as predicted earlier in scripture to restore what satan and man had destroyed through sin. God must and had to punish that sin and the only way, was that Christ suffer our punishment as a substitute and bear the full weight of the eternal separation from God, that Divine Justice demands and we deserve. God’s kindness on the cross is meant to lead us to repentance and how great is that kindness, never to be mocked, misunderstood nor taken for granted, but it is however; all the time. Yet, John 3:16 reminds us that, For God so loved us, that He gave us His only Son.  Yes, God demonstrated his love for us that while we were yet sinners, God sent Jesus to the cross to die for us and that those who accept and receive what He did, may reap the benefits of that great sacrifice; even to those that parade its image but have no understanding or idea as to its real purpose. I hope today that the next time you see a cross, it will have a deeper meaning than it ever did before.

Loving on you,

Bren

Physicians Who Pray With Their Patients

 

Is any among you afflicted? let him pray. James 5:13 Our physicians interact with us during some of the most important moments of our lives. They start at our birth, they tend us throughout our lives and often times are even at our deathbeds. Every one of these events are bursting with spiritual significance, and yet most of us are afraid to talk about any spiritual concerns that may involve our physical health care with our physicians, much less they with us. In many cases it may be out of fear that such conversations would be inappropriate or maybe cause offense, even though many patients desire to discuss these matters with their physicians. Some physicians appear to be afraid of this topic because they themselves are not spiritually minded or that they worry that it will be misunderstood and may cross an ethical line with their patients somehow and so they too will avoid the subject. Some people may say that they do not want a physician who is concerned for their spiritual welfare and wellbeing as long as they take care of their physical needs. But come time to pass from this world into the next, everything changes. All of sudden, they will take any spiritual advice and concerns or prayers that they can get from anyone. While we want, hope and even pray for our physicians to be confident in our healthcare decisions, many of us are grateful for those rare physicians who pray with their patients and family members over those decisions, which in turn puts a certain sense of comfort in us, while other physicians may leave us with a feeling of dread and lack of confidence in them because they do not have the knack to humanize the spiritual with the scientific. Most people want more than physicians just giving us information, we want to know that they truly have our backs and may even go beyond the normal to put us at ease, even if it means to go a little out of their comfort zones to comfort us.

It only makes sense to me that our physical healing and coping psychologically with our illnesses may be compromised, if we are experiencing spiritual distress in them. While we may be seeking our peace from God, it is not up to us to say how He may bring it about. Sometimes when my heart is heavy over a matter, a precious friend only need to say, “I’m praying for you today” and peace covers over the anxiety that seems to trouble me. God never intended for us to be alone. We are a needy people, we need God foremost and we need those that believe in God and understand that they themselves are a limited and finite people; that regardless of their knowledge and standing in and of this world, there is still a Higher authority and power over us all. I am convinced that prayer is one of the best kept secrets in medicine and if for no other reason, to give us comfort and help as we bring our prayers to troubled people. While Hospital Chaplains can fulfill a crucial role in many health care settings, I can assure you from a personal standpoint that not even having a Chaplain pray over you can compare to having the hands that are about to cut into your body pray over you before he places his surgical knife on you. Physicians humanize medicine, when they infuse it with a compassionate quality that answers our inner spiritual needs as well as the needs of our physical bodies. I have had a number of physicians in my lifetime, but only one stands high above all the others, and it is because he prayed over me before he started any medical procedure on me. This morning, my granddaughter had surgery and while it was somewhat of a simply procedure because of her heart issues her parents had deeper concerns. When their physician spoke with them about their concerns, he laid his hand on our granddaughter and prayed for himself, the child and the parents. While not everyone may have share the same feelings as I do about the spiritual and the physical, I for one say to our physicians that do pray over us and our friends and loved ones, a huge thank you and God Bless you for it!

Loving on you today!

Bren

GOD IS SERIOUS ABOUT HOLINESS IN YOUR LIFE

Woe is me in even trying to describe to anyone the Holiness of God! In thinking about His Holiness, you almost have to think on another realm of understanding. God’s Word in John 4:24 teaches us that God is a spirit and those that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and truth. The more truth that we have of Him the better our worship becomes. If you have already encountered Him yourself, you need no description, because you know there are hardly words to describe Him; and yet there are so many feeble words that we could use in making the effort to do so, that you could fill a book with them. One thing is for sure, once you do encounter God, you will most certainly encounter His holiness and when that happens, your life will never be the same. In the times that I have encountered the Lord in worship, personal Bible study or hearing a certain word from God through a sermon, I get a sudden and innate awareness that I have come into the presence of the indescribable, consuming, holy, infinite, one and only, God. I am also very mindful that my relationship to Him is not a cheap one, nor is it to be taken for granted. When Ezekiel saw God in Ezekiel chapter 1, he fell on his face. What he was saying by his actions was that he suddenly encountered the holiness of God like never before and felt that he had to get as far away from His presence as he could. Because of who God was, the only way that Ezekiel could bare such a presences was, to bow down as low as he could go, making himself humble as God was exalted over him. When Ezekiel encountered God’s presence, God’s Holiness shouted separation to him, revealing the truest part of God’s nature; Holiness.

Many today that claim to be a child of God, have lost or never understood that transcendent holiness of His perfect Character, but preferring a cheaper grace and more shallow sanctification because they have departed from or never come to  the biblical picture of God’s holy and exalted nature. Instead He has become to them  by the same manner that the world perceives Him to be, “The man upstairs” or some other form of human description and believe that they have their own individual thing going on with God. Their conscience and imaginations are sired with what they want Him to be, in order to fit in with their lifestyles and current plans. At the core of every unregenerate human heart, is the desire to reduce the holiness of God so that there’s seemingly no separation between them and God and when God is humanized and man deified, holiness is lost. But when we embrace God for who He truly is and we understand who we truly are, then everything is put in its rightful place. That’s what God’s holiness does for us. It puts everything in its right place.

Before I became a Christian in 1979, I had always had a form of reverence for God. Yet it was only after I invited Christ into my heart and life and began to grow as a child of God, did I really understand the importance of knowing the truths about God and developing my personal relationship with Him. The Bible teaches us in 2 Cor. 5:21 that, if we are in Christ we are the righteousness of God. That means that He has allotted to those that has been redeemed through the shed blood of His Son Jesus,  His own righteousness which adopts those who come to Him in repentance to become the children of the living God.

In Ezekiel’s encounter with God, he quickly understood that holiness demands immediate caution and a consuming carefulness when around God’s presence. Even the Seraphim angels that serve God on His throne hide their face and cover themselves from God’s consuming presence. God’s holiness is not something to be taken lightly. There is a difference between God’s Omni prescience, verses being in the very throne room of God. God’s word tells the child of God in Hebrews 4:16,  Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need. God makes a way for us when we cannot make a way for ourselves to come boldly to Him as His child and it should never be taken for granted, but unfortunately it is taken for granted, by us all at times! I have no idea how many throne rooms represent God’s Sovereignty, but I do know this; in John’s encounter and vision of God’s Throne room, there are many, both great and small who stand outside Christ before God at the Great and final judgment in Rev.20:11. This will not be a place that you will want to be.

When Adam and Eve sinned the first thing that was effected by their sin was there awareness of holiness. When God found them in the garden, they were hiding, why? Because when God is understood as the Holy infinite Being that He is, you cannot stand around questioning Him, you simply try to run and get away from Him or you turn to Him, get as low (humble yourself) as you can and start confessing. You will either do it while you are alive and His Holy Spirit is persuading you to come, or you will stand before Him at the Great white Throne Judgment where you will be on trial for rejecting God as He was calling you to salvation and you continued to reject Him. God is serious about our lifestyles and the influence that we are having and projecting to others in His name. Should we be concerned? You better bet we should! Read Matthew 7:23, Mark 9:43-48 and Revelation 20:11-15 and find out for yourselves.

 If we are in Christ, we are made new creatures and we know that something different has taken place in our lives that sets us apart from what and we once were. The old us is gone and God has given us a new life, to start over. Have you been set apart today sweet friend? Can you say that you have a new life in Christ? If you can, are you striving to be more like Him? Or are you simply rationalizing your life by saying things like, “God understand that I am not perfect”? Did you know that God tells His children in 1 Peter 1:16 “Because it is written, Be ye holy; for I am holy”. Or has your spiritual life been cheapened because you have had no change? He is calling….waste no time, run to Him, He has the answers that you are seeking and the power you need to overcome!

Loving on you today!

Bren

WAIT FOR IT TIL IT COMES

The Bible says in Exodus 2:12, that before Moses killed the Egyptian that was beating the Hebrew, he looked "this way and that way," and then killed the Egyptian. While we may think that Moses' heart was in the right place in his defense of the Hebrew, his actions were foolish, and clearly, not been told by the Lord to do it. Instead of looking around to insure no one was looking, Moses should have been looking up. Moses acted out of impulse and being impulsive, can have its drawbacks, as did Moses' impulsiveness, as it brought some devastating results to him. While Moses might have been a leader in training, he wasn't ready at that point. He had some serious schooling ahead of him, if he were to be used of God. For what looked like the end, was actually the beginning, of a plan that God had for Moses’ life and the people that he would lead under God’s authority and leadership. There are many ways in which God’s reasoning and actions make no sense to us. Often times we will ask God for help and our enemies show up at our doorsteps. We trust in Him to provide and it appears as though He withholds. We plead for a day without pain, and yet another rolls around to bring us agony. One thing for sure is that God is never inconsistent, but simply running according to another time schedule and another set of plans and priorities.

 While Moses questioned God concerning God’s choosing him, the prophet Habakkuk questioned God’s plan to use a pagan people to discipline the Hebrew children. It made no sense to either of these men. Yet they both learned through the many years of God’s teaching and training them, through mistakes and heartbreaks that no matter what may have come their way, they would stay the course and serve God no matter what. When Moses approached the Red Sea, he acted in frustration and not faith when he hit a rock that God told him to merely speak to, a breach in faith that cost Moses getting into the Promised Land. As great a man as Moses was, God held His ground on the repercussions of consequence. While He forgave Moses, He did not allow Moses to enter the promise land that he would lead God’s people up to, but not enter in himself. Moses was only allowed to look upon the Promise Land, but not enter it. However, Moses remained faithful to God even in this. For he knew that it was his actions that brought him that consequence, not Gods choice.

 Hab 2:1 says of Habakkuk, “Like a guard who waits through his watch with eyes peeled for a sign of movement, Habakkuk waited for God. Wait for the Lord; be strong, and let your heart take courage; wait for the Lord! Ps. 27:14…and so we must, no matter what our eyes see, our ears hear, or the condemnation that our hearts want to pass on to us, we must stay the course. For God is greater than our hearts…I John 3:19-20 tells us that are in Christ, “This is how we know that we belong to the truth and how we set our hearts at rest in his presence: If our hearts condemn us, we know that God is greater than our hearts, and He knows everything".

 He may not appear to be there as of yet sweet friend; but hold on, wait for Him, He is nearer than you may think!

Loving on you!

Bren

 

RESOLVE IN 2014

It’s that time again, when we resolve to accomplish a list of goals in the coming year.  The verb tense of the word resolve means to settle or find a solution to a matter. To change or overcome it. Which reminds me of a verse in Romans 12:2, “Don not conform any longer to the patter of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind”.  For many of us, our focus on the coming new year will be to simply resolve in our hearts to do better than we did last year in certain areas of our lives, as we should. While, some of us will continue working on the same resolutions that we made last year but failed to complete, be it unhealthy habits, managing our time better, or simply resolving to overcome things that we know we need to overcome, in order to wipe the slate clean, others will make brand new ones.

With the lifestyle that most of us live today, resolving to do fewer things it pretty much at the top of most of our list. I have found that being too busy can and will lead to many of the other things that are on my list as well.  Often times getting busier can lead to neglecting or giving our best in some goals or even ignoring those goals that were once as important as all the others and we end up with cluttered lives filled with wrong things, and in the end  we are left with a vicious cycle of falling further and further behind. Amid all our disorders, a lot of bad decisions get made and the best means of escape from this cycle may very well require us to rethink our goals and narrow down our list. Sometimes having or doing a little less, can mean having much more!

If you are like me, I often feel my most productive when my work has piled up and I have deadlines to meet, so I busy myself to get them done. But that is only a feeling that I have and the reality is that something will have to be sacrificed as I am rushing to accomplish my demands. By adding something new to my list always means removing something that’s already been placed on it. Struggling over how we can rearrange our priorities can take our time and energy and can often times lead to more stress and sleepless nights. Not getting our rest from our pondering over them all night may very well be the cause for some of our bad decision that are made and in turn, will only make the problem worse. Spending too much time on things that we worry over is what causes us to stress over them. It is never that they are not important or real, but too much time worrying over them and accomplishing nothing is a problem. Fix what you can and move on. Make a plan to cut back on what you can and follow through. The smaller your list, the less you have to focus on in making changes. Once you accomplish them, then add another to your list. Don’t make decision making any harder than it has to be, even if your goals are limited to one thing that you will work on in the upcoming new year!

Happy New Year and May God Bless It!

Loving on you today,
Bren

WHAT ARE YOU ALLOWING TO FUEL YOUR FAITH?

What are you allowing to fuel your faith in God today? Obedience, trust, hope, joy or is it, past rebellion, hurtful disappointments, doubt, worry, bitterness, hard feelings, ingratitude? Maybe you are going through a tough time right now and have no idea how things will turn out. May I encourage you today sweet friend, don’t allow your current circumstances to dictate your future, unless they are bringing you to a place of trusting God in them. Those things are only meant to try and discourage and destroy you. God’s understanding in them is that everything works for the good, of those who love Him according to Romans 8:28, and that what Satan intends for harm in our lives, God intends for good, according to Genesis 50:20. His plans are for good; to prosper us and not to harm us as told to us in Jeremiah 29:11.

 

All throughout the scriptures God tells us that He works for our good and on our behalf. Sometimes, we cannot fathom how a bad thing can turn out to be a good thing, at the time. However, God knows that our suffering produces character in us, endurance, and perseverance for our future situations, and that is the only reason that He allows them to come near us. God’s loving and tender hand can smooth the turbulence that threatens our peace if we will see them from His perspective and the scars that are created by those turbulent times are only road maps of where we have been; and the cross roads that we have chosen to take, as reminders of the right and wrong choices we made.

 

While our understanding of our situations may be limited and small and mostly focused on the moment, remember that God is focused on our eternity. In realizing that, you may very well encounter the mighty hand of God and understand His purpose better. You may not can change your situation, but you can absolutely change your spiritual environment while going through them. Be sure this coming year, to choose wisely the directions that you will take in how you look at everything that touches your life. Don’t lose heart, work to see them as God sees them and fuel your faith with hope and only then will peace slip into those bear and lonely places to provide you peace as you walk through them!  

Loving on you today,

Bren

CHRISTMAS PEACE - PART 1 & 2

Christmas Peace Part 1

God used the star in the sky to lead the Magi or Wise men to where Christ was. Today, God uses His word to lead those that pursue Him for salvation, answer questions, provide a peace that passes all understanding or to meet their needs. One need that I always have during the Christmas Holidays, is the need to stay focused on what Christmas represents in my heart. And because of that need, I am constantly being drawn to the Word of God to help keep my priorities in the right order. 

When I do this, my Holidays are less stressful and much more meaningful. While Christmas is for us, it is never about us. If we are not careful, we can allow this wonderful Holiday to draw us away from God rather than closer to Him by the stresses and business that the holidays may require of us. The expense of buying gifts, the pressure of last-minute shopping and the heightened expectations of family gatherings, cooking, cleaning, decorating, can all combine together to undermine our best intentions and sidetrack us from our original purpose. Today, there is hardly room for the baby in the manger as people look forward to the stories of The Grinch, Miracle on 34^th Street, Rudolph, Frosty and the chubby man in the red suit. Many will end up disappointed and sad, because they are trying to be happy and find satisfaction in gifts, parties, employee bonuses and other things, only to find in the end that those things did not provide the joy and peace that they were hoping for. 

The personal turmoil that every human being experiences is a sign of their need for and their separation from God and where He wants them to be; at peace. For those that find the true peace that comes through the Christ child, the apostle Paul tells us this,  “Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” Romans 5:1. Even Jesus Himself told us in John 14:27, “Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world gives, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.” 

The peace that Jesus offers only comes through a heart change. The world has it all backwards. To those that think that Jesus came to bring peace on earth, Jesus said, "Do not think that I came to bring peace on the earth; I did not come to bring peace, but a sword…Matthew 10:34.  

The Bible is full of verses that refer to the peace of God. It is a great mistake, to regard this type of peace with a feeling. For our feelings change from moment to moment and from experience to experience. For those that have found it, those feelings do not overwhelm their sense of inner peace that only God can give them. 

The peace of mind and heart that God offers and virtually everyone wants, is not a feeling at all, but a state of wellbeing. It is a belief that everything is under the sovereign control of the only true God who loves us and has our best interest in mind, and we can trust Him in that. 

Paul also encourages those that put their trust in Christ with the promise of God’s presence and help during difficult times. He said, “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” (continued next week)

Merry Christmas!

-Bren
 

Christmas Peace Part 2

As I mentioned in last week’s devotion, one need that I always have during the Christmas Holidays, is the need to stay focused on what Christmas represents in my heart. And because of that need, I am constantly being drawn to the Word of God to help keep my priorities in the right order. When I do this, my Holidays are less stressful and much more meaningful. While Christmas is for us, it is never about us. If we are not careful, we can allow this wonderful Holiday to draw us away from God rather than closer to Him by the stresses and business that the holidays may require of us. Philippians 4:6-7. 

Inner peace can only come when we are in a right relation to God through our faith in Jesus Christ, His Son. You want find Him in gifts or at parties at the inn, or even in the Christmas rituals that you may be used to being a part of. He is in the stable, where you least expect Him. He had to experience Isaiah 53:3 “He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from Him; He was despised, and we esteemed Him not.” And now intercedes for us, because He personally understands everything that we go through and that touches our lives. 

The first time Jesus came to the world, He came to a manger in a lowly stable. He grew up and was despised and even rejected by many. He stood before royalty and was judged by Pilate. But when He comes again, Kings alike, Pilate included, will stand before Him. When He came the first time, He came as a baby. When He comes again, He will come as a conquering King. When He came the first time, He was rejected but when He comes again Romans 14:11 says, “As I live saith the Lord, every knee shall bow to Me and every tongue shall confess to God.”  “He came unto His own, and His own received Him not. But as many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His name: Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God” John 1:11-13.  

Gifts are fun, both to give and receive, but they are only symbolic of a much greater gift as found in John 3:16, “For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life”. It’s easy to become overwhelmed by the busyness of Christmas. That doesn’t mean we have to lose track of the significance of this time of year or miss out on the opportunities it can present. Gift giving is a wonderful way to show love to one another, as God gave us the example by giving His Son. They seem particularly true when we are giving out of our time and gifts to those in need. 

Don’t just go through the motions this Christmas. Put forth the effort to find the true meaning of Christmas. He is not so far that He cannot be found. Jesus is the reason for the season, seek Him while He may be found!

Merry Christmas!

-Bren