Archive for God encounters
Mercies in Disguise: Finding God in Your Trials
Posted by: | Comments
Seasons of trials and troubles, pain and suffering, disappointments and dying dreams can leave all of us with more questions than answers. We find ourselves unable to box our theological answers as neatly as before. We wrestle with questions like, “Where are you, God?” “Why have you deserted me?” “Are you real, God?” In our trials, we reach for our false strengths and we find that they were only illusions.
Enjoy this post? Share it with your friends by clicking the Facebook LIKE button..
Powered By Facebook Like Post Plugin
Why God Asks Questions
Posted by: | Comments
What is the last question God asked you? On first impulse, you might say, “God doesn’t ask questions; He knows everything.” And that He does, however God is a master question-asker. What kind of questions does He ask and what is the purpose of His questioning?
SOME OCCASIONS GOD ASKED QUESTIONS
God asked Adam, “Where are you? Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree?”
God asked Eve, “What have you done?”
When Cain murdered Abel, God asked, “What have you done?”
God asked Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh? Is anything too hard for the LORD?”
GOD’S PURPOSE IN ASKING A QUESTION
The questions of God are laden with purpose…targeted…cutting…they reveal our heart.
They are not simple requests for information but divide between our soul and spirit and reveal the thoughts and intents of our heart. As Hebrews 4 tells us, we are naked before God. He knows all about us.
He understands us.
Yet we often do not know our own hearts. We have difficulty sorting out the depths of our motives so God comes with His questions and lays us open before Him. This “laying open” is not done to condemn us, but to strengthen us, restore us, convict us, and heal us.
ELIJAH, WHY ARE YOU HERE?
Elijah was a great prophet of God. He was courageous and powerful. His life exemplified one who walked in signs and wonders.
Enjoy this post? Share it with your friends by clicking the Facebook LIKE button..
Powered By Facebook Like Post Plugin
Jesus, the Healer of Broken Hearts
Posted by: | Comments
If we believe that God is purposeful in His actions, then how significant is the fact that the first words of the first message Jesus preached were, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because … He has sent me to heal the brokenhearted…”? (Luke 4:18-19)
Jesus came to heal broken hearts and not only as a side benefit; it’s one of his life purposes! That’s good news because all of us who are in this world have experienced the pain of having our hearts broken in one way or another. If we look at the life of Jesus in the Gospels, we find that he moves throughout his days interacting with humanity and healing broken hearts. That healing takes many expressions. Today I want to look at how Jesus healed the heart of a woman as recorded in John 4 and what that healing means for us now.
Let’s take a look at the story.
Jesus was exhausted from his long trip. He had gone to the city well to get a drink of water. However, what followed was not a chance happening at all because we are told that Jesus “needed” to go through the region of Samaria; he was compelled to do so.
Jews did not have anything to do with Samaritans in those days. Samaritans were considered half-breeds and unclean by Jewish tradition. Yet Jesus, a Jew, chose to go through the middle of Samaria instead of making the usual trip around the area as most Jews did in order to avoid the Samaritans.
Enjoy this post? Share it with your friends by clicking the Facebook LIKE button..
Powered By Facebook Like Post Plugin
When Jesus Offers You More
Posted by: | Comments
This morning I am contemplating the passage in Luke 17 which records the story of ten men who had leprosy being healed by Jesus. I am arrested by the response of the one … “and one of them, when he saw that he was healed, returned, and with a loud voice, glorified God, and fell down on his face at Jesus’ feet, giving Him thanks. And he was a Samaritan.”
And my heart is drawn to this idea… “When he saw that he was healed…”
Sometimes our healing comes just this obviously. We look and we see. We are healed. At other times, our healing is a process; it comes piece by piece, particularly when Jesus is healing our hearts.
Today I am asking myself, and I hope you will ask yourself, how do I respond to God’s healing in my life? Can I see what He is doing in me?
All ten lepers could physically see that they were healed. Yet this one, he saw more. He saw the person of Christ. He saw His redeemer. The others were doing just what Jesus told them. They were going to the priests in order to be declared ceremonially cleansed which would allow them to reconnect with their world and their God. Yet this one…
Enjoy this post? Share it with your friends by clicking the Facebook LIKE button..
Powered By Facebook Like Post Plugin
The Power of Awakened Desire
Posted by: | Comments
What do you think of when you think of the word “desire”?
Enjoy this post? Share it with your friends by clicking the Facebook LIKE button..
Powered By Facebook Like Post Plugin
