Simple Thoughts

  I'm going to walk you through something that caught my eye the other day and the resulting Bible search that followed... My daily Bible reading was in Hebrews recently and I read this passage that I had never really paid attention to before.   Therefore, when He came into the world, He said: "Sacrifice and offering You did not desire, But a body You have prepared for Me. In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin You had no pleasure. Then I said, 'Behold, I have come--In the volume of the book it is written of Me--To do Your will, O God.' " - (Hbr 10:5-7 NKJV) This caught my attention because I did not recall a recorded instance in the Gospels when Jesus said this. I knew the writer of Hebrews was discussing Jesus though.   I love blueletterbible.com.   I looked up the commentary by David Guzik on this passage and this is what I found: "This quotation is taken from the Septuagint version of Psalm 40:6-8 (the Septuag...

I heard Misty Edwards sing a chorus one time and it has stuck with me though I have never heard her record it.   "The way of God is the wilderness. It's always been the wilderness. The way of God is weakness, voluntary weakness." The wilderness and voluntary weakness - those don't exactly sound like an easy lifestyle, does it. Yet Misty is right.   It's the way God works.   God draws us to the wilderness to test us, teach us, and encounter us.   A beautiful description of this is in Song of Solomon 8:5 which says "Who is this coming up from the wilderness, Leaning upon her beloved?" The Shulamite woman, a picture of the bride of Christ, came out of the wilderness leaning upon her Beloved, a picture of Jesus.   It is okay to have times of being in the wilderness.   As a matter of fact, God often draws us there for a purpose. John the Baptist was trained in the wilderness.   Jesus withdrew to the wilderness to fast. It is in the w...

Hophni and Phinehas ·       were priests ·       were corrupt ·       did not know the Lord ·       their sin was very great before the Lord ·       they abhorred the offering of the Lord ·       they laid with women who had assembled at the door of the tabernacle of meeting ·       did not heed the reprimand of Eli ·       per God/Samuel - made themselves vile Eli ·       very old ·       heard what his sons were doing ·       reprimanded verbally his sons ·       per man of God - kicked at God's sacrifice and offering ·       per man of God - honored his sons more than God ·       per man o...

Exodus 15:1 (NKJV) Then Moses and the children of Israel sang this song to the LORD, and spoke, saying: "I will sing to the LORD, For He has triumphed gloriously! The horse and its rider He has thrown into the sea!" This verse is resounding in my spirit today. Especially the phrase, "The horse and its rider He has thrown into the sea!" At first, I didn't understand why it was in my spirit. Then I began to contemplate on the situation. The Israelites had stepped out in faith. They had left the known and stepped out into the unknown journey of faith. But then they came to a brick wall (or at least a sea of water )that separated them from their promise of freedom. What made it worse, the army from the life they knew and left was swiftly approaching to take them back into captivity. The captivity that they knew. But God! God not only parted the sea to let the Israelites journey on dry land to reach the other side safely, but he destroyed the army ...

God has had us in a season of faith in regards to our finances. God is providing but it is keeping us in prayer.  Just to be real, I had a moment in a store today. I had gone in to buy a Christmas present for someone. As I was there, I thought back to when we had more money and how I would have been able to spend more and get a nicer gift for that someone. Right as I was having a pity party and a momentary "this really stinks!", I looked up and saw a piece of art for sale. It was decorative wall art. It obviously was to go in a beach house and it said "Paradise ain't cheap." I immediately thought of the story of the rich, young ruler (Luke 18). God told him to sell everything he had, give the money to the poor, and follow Him. The guy didn't do it and he walked away sad. Jesus wanted the guy to make an eternal investment and wanted his obedience. Costly obedience. I smiled when I saw that art. It was like a sign from heaven reminding me ...

Today God reminded me that there are things that I began praying for and never saw through.   I was in worship this morning and thought to myself, "gee, it would really be awesome if (insert old prayer request)." I felt like God replied, "Why did you stop praying?" So I immediately replied, "Nothing happened!" And then I heard it again... "Why did you stop praying?" I discussed it with Adam on the way home from church and said a phrase that didn't seem to make sense initially that just kind of jumped out of my mouth without my thinking it through.   Then I kept talking and realized the phrase made perfect sense.   I told Adam, "I have gotten tired of hearing the silence so I stopped praying. It's the kind of silence that echoes!" Silence that echoes? Did I just say that? What on earth does that mean? And then I continued.   "It's like a hall full of doors and I have been banging on them for s...

I have been doing a Bible reading plan for a little while. I have even been doing it in a version of the Bible that I do not normally read to get a different perspective.   I love it and highly recommend beginning one if you aren't on one.   Today when I read Exodus 5 in my daily reading, the heading of the chapter really stuck out to me.   The heading was "Making Bricks Without Straw." I knew I would be reading about the Israelites when Pharaoh made their work even harder after Moses and Aaron initially asked him to let the Israelites leave.   The heading jumped off the page to me though.   I think many people can relate to it.   Ever feel like you are having to make bricks... and not just your normal make bricks... Having to make bricks without straw provided?   Just when you think life couldn't get any harder or more difficult... it does.   A lot harder.   Before we get to the bricks without straw, I want to hig...