Judgement or freedom?

His Whisperings Posted on by

GraceI’ve been reading from James with a group of friends and we have been posting our reactions to various verses on Facebook. Today I felt challenged to discuss James 2:12-13.

12 So whatever you say or whatever you do, remember that you will be judged by the law that sets you free. 13 There will be no mercy for those who have not shown mercy to others. But if you have been merciful, God will be merciful when he judges you. (NLT)

Do we have favorite sins we like to zoom in on – oh yes – sins that OTHER people do? Isn’t it so much easier to recognize other people’s faults than to see our own.

Our nation gets more and more polarized every day as it moves in anti-Christian directions. And Christians are becoming more and more vocal in resisting changes – as we should be. But there is a right way and a wrong way to go about it. Are we showing mercy as we share our beliefs? Continue reading →

“Here he is” or “He is here!”

His Whisperings Posted on by

14498367_sAt that time if anyone says to you, ‘Look, here is the Messiah!’ or, ‘Look, there he is!’ do not believe it. (Mark 13:21 NLT) Read more in Mark 13:21-27 and/or Matthew 24:23-31. Note that these are Jesus’ own words.

How many of you have heard it said that it is easy to imagine the whole world seeing Christ’s second coming because of the Internet and TV? I think this kind of thinking is audacious – as if God needed man’s help to make his prophecy come true.

Are we guilty of trying to keep Jesus confined to human limitations? Continue reading →

The Word Became Flesh

His Whisperings Posted on by

14925582_s and God said

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. (John 1:1 NIV)

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth… And God said “Let there be light,” and there was light. ( from Genesis 1 NIV)

 

How many times have I read John 1:1 and imagined the Word to be the words of the Bible? Continue reading →

The First Christmas – for teens and older children

His Whisperings Posted on by

Front cover RGB (300)You are invited to follow the posts that tell the events leading up to and following the birth of Christ on my blog Bible Bites 4 Teens. The posts are spaced a few days apart to help develop the feel of advent as well as to give the message time to settle on our hearts a little at a time as we re-experience the wonder of the birth of Jesus the Christ. A few posts are already up, so you may want to click here to find the first post. All posts are short so it won’t take long to catch up.

Most of the illustrations come from the children’s book The First Christmas by Janice D. Green and illustrated by Violet Vandor. These blog posts are written with older children and teens in mind and include additional information that was omitted from the children’s book. The extra posts may display other illustrations or may go without.

Where do I put my trust?

His Whisperings Posted on by

45022992_s-Lam3-23Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; Proverbs 3:5 (NIV)

Quite often I start my day doing a Sudoku puzzle when no one else is up. This morning as I finished my puzzle I realized that I might have better spent my time in prayer and reading my Bible. There is nothing wrong with working Sudoku puzzles – after all, puzzles of all kinds are useful in keeping one’s mind alert and possibly even warding off Alzheimer’s or dementia.

But what are my actions saying when I start my day with Sudoku? I am saying it is more important to invest in my mind (self-sufficiency) than to invest these precious first moments of the day with my God inviting him to direct my steps and my thinking.

This week happens to be the last of an eight-week Bible study on prayer that I lead with a group of ladies. We have looked up Bible verse after Bible verse that has the power to enhance and rejuvenate our prayer lives and our relationships with God. But if I don’t put those verses into action with deliberate attention to prayer, the time spent studying about prayer is meaningless. These early morning moments should be the best part of my day guiding my heart, mind, and steps as the day progresses.

With my mind searching the concept of “trust” I opened my Bible hoping God would guide me to something that would speak to my heart. My Bible fell open to Jeremiah 7. (Click on the link if you prefer to read the chapter yourself.) This passage jumped out at me immediately.

“‘Hear the word of the Lord, all you people of Judah who come through these gates to worship the Lord. This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says: Reform your ways and your actions, and I will let you live in this place. Do not trust in deceptive words and say, “This is the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord!” If you really change your ways and your actions and deal with each other justly, if you do not oppress the foreigner, the fatherless or the widow and do not shed innocent blood in this place, and if you do not follow other gods to your own harm, then I will let you live in this place, in the land I gave your ancestors for ever and ever. But look, you are trusting in deceptive words that are worthless. (Jeremiah 7:2b-8 NIV)

The passage goes on to tell of all the detestable sins the Israelites had been guilty of at that time. I know I’m not doing all those detestable things, but I also know that there are areas of my life that still need attention. God doesn’t measure the size of our sins – sin is sinful and detestable, no matter how small. The starting point for me is in praying more deliberately and giving God the opportunity to direct my paths – starting first thing in the morning.