I CHOOSE JESUS

"We love Him because he first loved us."  I John 4:19

"For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life."  John 3:16


Those two statements are some of the most important verses in the Bible.  They show us that God has pursued us.  We did not come after Him.  He came after us!

He loved us first.

He sought us first.

HE CHOSE US!!

God SO LOVED us that He sacrificed His only Son for us.  And now we have a choice.  We can CHOOSE to accept that precious gift that He offers through His Son, Jesus.  Or, we can walk away.  We can CHOOSE the world, self, and to live life the way we choose.

I CHOOSE JESUS.

I choose JESUS because He first chose me.

I choose JESUS because He first loved me.


I choose JESUS because He chose the nails that held Him to that cross.

I choose JESUS because he chose to lay down his life for me.

I choose JESUS because HE chose me for all eternity.



What is YOUR choice today? 

JESUS................or the world?

GOING THROUGH THE MOTIONS

In the Old Testament we read about the series of kings who ruled over Israel, each one getting progressively worse as they did "what was evil in the sight of the Lord."  These were not nomads. These were not uneducated people.  These were the descendents of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the patriarchs of Israel. 

So what was the problem? 

It can be narrowed down to one single thing.  Bible literacy.  Although they were religious in that they made sacrifices, worshiped idols and had a "form" of religion, they were not following or obeying God. 

God had clearly defined for them in Leviticus 26 how they were to live.  He outlined the many ways He would bless them IF they would follow Him and obey His commands.  He also spelled out for them how things would go if they did NOT follow and obey Him.  

However, the children of Israel chose not to follow God and with each successive generation, the Word of God was not passed down.  God had commanded that it be read before the people every 7 years, but it had been a long time since that had happened. 

But I bet if you had stopped the average Israelite on the street, he would have told you that he was a follower, that he was, indeed, religious.  Yet, if you had asked him what the Word of the Lord was about a specific issue, he would not have had a clue. 

I know lots of people like that.  Many of them call themselves Christians.  They believe in God.  They are not opposed to the Bible. In fact they probably have a couple laying around the house somewhere.  Not that they have opened it recently, but it is there.  You could ask them "Do you believe that the Bible is the Word of God" and they would not hesitate to say Yes.  You could ask "Do you believe that Jesus is the Son of God?" and again the answer would be Yes. 

But you wouldn't have to track very far down that line of questioning, getting more and more specific, til you would have soon have them squirming.  Why?  Bible literacy.

After a number of kings passed through the nation of Israel, one came on the scene who was vastly different.  Shockingly, he was only 8 years old when he became king!!  II Chronicles 34:2 says Josiah "did what was right in the sight of the Lord and walked in the ways of his ancestor, David; he did not turn aside to the right or the left." 

You see when Josiah was 16 he "began to seek the God of his ancestor David" and when he was 20 he began to cleanse the land of all the idols, high places and images that previous generations had erected.  A few years later while they were cleaning out the Temple to rebuild it, an amazing discovery was uncovered.  The book of the Law!!!  As it was read to Josiah for the first time in his life, he tore his clothes in grief as he realized how they had failed to keep the Law of God. 

I couldn't help wonder as I read these passages this week, What is it going to take to wake people in America up?!  What will it take to turn people I know and love BACK to God, back to His Word?  

God gave us His word so that it could be a "lamp unto our feet and a light unto our path".  Yet many have chosen to walk in the darkness, blind to all that God had planned for them if they had just followed Him.  The really sad thing is that they do not realize that they are blind.  They think they are just fine.

DO I HAVE TO?

Do you remember when your kids were little and you'd tell them something to do, and they'd whine "Do I have tooooooooooo?"  or worse "I don't WANT to!!!!!!!"  Some days I feel just like that, don't you?

There are lots of things I WANT to do.  Projects that I want to work on, things I ENJOY doing like working on my scrapbook that I am SO far behind on.  Reading a good book just for pleasure.  Even sitting down and just watching a good movie. 

Yet the demands of what I NEED to be doing are ever pressing.  The tyranny of the urgent, I think someone called it.  Yes, the urgent is definitely a tyrant at my house!  I marvel at people who say "I am so bored.  I have nothing to do."  They must live in a box and eat TV dinners and have the dry cleaners pick up their laundry every day at their door.  (Seriously, do people really do that?)  I once knew a woman who would NOT change her baby's dirty diapers.  And this was during the day of cloth diapers.  She had a diaper service that picked them up and returned them all clean.  And, if it got too "fragrant" before a pick-up, she'd just toss them in the trash.  That still blows my mind!

We are currently studying the Bible chronologically at our church.  I am LOVING this study.  However, it does require taking the time to really study.  I have heard from lots of the ladies taking this study that they are just overwhelmed by it all.  Not that the homework is so much.  It's just that they are learning so much more than they ever dreamed and trying to process it all has taken them aback a little. 

I think for some, studying on a daily basis has been an adjustment.  Many have fallen into the thinking that "a little dab will do ya".  Read a little JESUS CALLING and that was enough.  Now don't get me wrong.  I truly have been blessed by JESUS CALLING and mean nothing negative by it.  But, it can NOT be your entire diet.  It was never intended to replace the Bible.  It was only meant to supplement. 

Reading the Bible on a daily, consistent basis is one of those things that start out as being a HAVE TO, but as you do it, it quickly becomes a WANT TO.  It draws you back, day after day, as it begins to speak to you right where you are.  Most people who have never done Bible study simply do not understand that.

Although there are lots of things on my TO DO list that I'd rather skip, I am thankful that Bible study has moved to the WANT TO DO list because the more I do it, the more blessed I am.

If you are not currently reading the Word on a regular basis, I urge you to find a Bible reading plan, join a Bible study group at your church or a nearby church, or even sign up for one online...there are numerous ones available FREE.  However, you do it, just DO IT!!  It may start out as a HAVE TO til you get into it, but I guarantee you, before long it will become a WANT TO!!

Now...back to my HAVE TO list ..........sigh.

I WILL TRUST YOU LORD

Life is hard.  That's a fact.  Ups and downs.  Upheavals.  Broken relationships.  Heartache and more. 

The children of Israel knew all about hardship.  They had known years of hard labor at the hands of the Egyptians.  They had trekked in the desert for 40 years.  They ate the same meal for years.  YET, God never left them nor forsook them...not for one moment.  No, rather He hovered over them in a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night.  The Shekinah glory Himself, watching over His treasured possession. 

The same God who watched over the Israelites and took them through the Red Sea and across the Jordan River....

The same God who marched them around the walls of Jericho for 7 days and on the 7th brought it all down with one shout....

The same God who promised to make them a great nation...

The same God who made promise after promise and has kept EVERY SINGLE ONE....

That God is with me today.

And even when it's hard, I will trust Him.

When my heart aches, I will trust Him.

When my prayers go unanswered, I will still trust Him.

When no one understands, I will trust Him.

When I don't understand, I will trust Him.

When there seem to be no answers, I will trust Him.

When things don't turn out the way I'd hoped, I will trust Him.

When I am disappointed, I will trust Him.

When I can't SEE Him working, I will believe that He is, and I will trust Him. 

When I fail AGAIN, I will trust Him.

When I don't know what to do, I will trust Him.

He is MY God, my refuge and my strength, my strong High Tower, the lover of my soul and I will trust Him because He has claimed me as His own and He has promised He will never leave me, He will never let me down or let me go.  And....I trust Him.

EXPOSED!

I am continually amazed at how the Word of God is new every day, how we see things we NEVER saw before even if we've read the passage a hundred times.

That happened to me this week.  We have recently begun a chronological Bible study, His Story, My Story.  We are in Genesis, which I have read many times.  I've read and studied and taught the creation story more times than I can count.      

But as I was reading it this week, there it was.  Something I had never really grasped before, at least not in the way I did as I read this week.

"Then the eyes of them were opened and they knew they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves."  Genesis 3: 7

When we read they were "naked", we naturally think of them in the buff, without clothes, suddenly trying to cover up themselves with their hands.  So that not being adequate, they grab the first thing they can find large enough....fig leaves. 

But as I read that this week, it hit me.  Yes, they were PHYSICALLY naked, but more than that, they were EXPOSED.  They had taken of the forbidden fruit and immediately sin entered the picture and their sin was exposed.  They could not hide it, even though they desperately tried.

And though they tried in their humanness to cover their sin, it was not good enough.  An innocent animal had to be slain, blood had to be spilled in order to COVER their exposed sin.  Why?  "Because without the shedding of blood, there is no remission of sin." Hebrews 9:22

But, all that the sacrifice of the animals could do was to temporarily COVER their sin.  It could not remove it.  "For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.  " Hebrews 10: 4  But when Jesus came, His sacrifice on the cross REMOVED our sin and our guilt once for all.  "By this will, we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Christ once and for all. And every priest stands daily ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices, which can NEVER TAKE AWAY SINS.  But this man [JESUS] after he had offered one sacrifice [HIMSELF] for sins FOREVER, sat down on the right hand of God."  Hebrews 10: 10-12. 

HALLELUJAH!!!  What a Savior!! Our sin is no longer covered, but it is removed once and for all, as far as the east is from the west.      Not COVERED and to be remembered and brought up to us again and again, year after year.  But totally and completely REMOVED! 

That precious royal blood did what the blood of bulls and goats never could.  It set us free.  Like the old song said "What can wash my sins away?  Nothing but the blood of Jesus."  I am so thankful for the blood, so thankful for what Jesus has done for me.  What about you?  Have your sins been REMOVED??  Fig leaves may cover, but Jesus' blood will wash you white as snow!

WHAT'S YOUR POSITION

I remember as a child, kneeling by my bed, saying the child's prayer:

Now I lay me down to sleep

I pray the Lord my soul to keep

If I should die before I wake

I pray the Lord my soul to take.

I guess that was my first experience of kneeling in prayer.  After I grew up, I continued to pray, not "canned" prayers or recited ones, but from my heart.  I can't say I was ever taught that...guess I just picked up how from listening to others at church pray.  

As an adult there have been some times that I knelt to pray.  It seems the more serious we get in prayer, the more our posture gets low.  I can remember reading Kay Arthur's testimony years ago.  She talked of lying prostrate on her face before God.  That was new to me.  I had never done that.  More recently, we have had Bible teacher, Angela Thomas, at our church.  She spoke of getting face down in the carpet quite often.  And I have learned to do that a few times myself, again, more in times of deepest need. 

It's in those times of bowing our knees or lying face down in our carpet, that we are humbled.  We are brought low before a righteous and a holy God.  It puts us in our place, if you will.  And somehow, the more on our face we are, the more humbled we become, the nearer we feel to Him.  Because then we are in a position that we have to look UP to Him.

At our church, we get on our knees every Sunday.  

Funny thing is, at our former church, they also did that, but I was not raised to do that.  It felt odd.  Sad, isn't it, that getting on my knees in God's house felt "odd", but it did.  And there, some people did and some didn't.  But where we are at church now, there is scarcely a person who does not bow, and most of them are because they can't for physical reasons.  And, you know what?  It doesn't seem odd any more.  It feels right. 

God has blessed me with an added bonus of being able to worship with our daughter and son-in-love most Sundays.  And to be able to bow with them and to see them bowing before the Lord together blesses this momma more than words can express. 

May I ask you who are reading this....when was the last time YOU bowed your knee before the Lord?  Maybe you do it on a regular basis, or maybe you never have.  That is not to say that you don't pray, but you just don't bow.  I certainly believe you can "bow" in your heart in an attitude of worship and humility.  But, I can tell you firsthand that there is something powerful and humbling by actually bending the knee before the Father.  

Maybe you don't bow because it really isn't important to you.  You acknowledge that there is a God.  Maybe you even pray occasionally when you get in a jam.  But most days, you really do not think that much about Him.  Or maybe you don't bow because you do NOT believe.  Maybe you think that any god will do as long as you believe in something or someone.  

But you need to know that one day, EVERY knee will bow to God the Father.  

"Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is none else.

 I have sworn by myself, the word is gone out of my mouth in righteousness, and shall not return, That unto me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear."  Isaiah 45: 22, 23

Did you catch that word in red?  EVERY!!

That includes every person who reads this blog.

Every person on Facebook.

Every person in the U. S.

Every person around the world.

Yes, EVERY person past, present and future.....including:

Billy Graham

Tim Tebow


Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich

President Obama

Martin Luther King

Mother Theresa

Christopher Columbus

George Washington

Abraham Lincoln

George Wilkes Booth

The list is endless because it says "EVERY" knee.  That also includes you and me.

So you see, whether we ever find time to bow now or not.  Whether we ever think it is important or not.  Whether we have ever even THOUGHT about it before or not....one day, "EVERY knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of the Father."  Romans 14:11

If you have never bowed your knee to the Father, I pray that you will today.  Personally, I want my knees to be so used to bowing that when that time before the Father comes when ALL knees are bowed, that it will not feel "odd", but it will feel more like coming home as I bow before MY Heavenly Father.

IOUS

HOW TO REALLY PRAY
by John Piper


For thoughtful people, how they pray for the soul is governed by how they believe God acts. So, for example, if they believe God changes people’s souls so that they make new and right choices, then they will ask God to make those soul-changes through evangelism and nurture. But not everybody is thoughtful about the way they pray. They don’t think about what view of God is behind their praying.

So what I suggest is that we learn first to pray for the soul from the way the Bible prays for the soul. If we do that, then our prayers will probably be good prayers, and in the process we will also learn about how God acts. Here is the way I pray for my soul. I use these prayers over and over again—for myself and my children and wife and for the staff and the elders and for all the church. This is the meat and potatoes of my prayer life.
The first thing my soul needs is an inclination to God and his word. Without that, nothing else will happen of any value in my life. I must want to know God and read his word and draw near to him. Where does that “want to” come from? It comes from God. So Psalm 119:36 teaches us to pray, “Incline my heart to Your testimonies and not to gain."
Next I need to have the eyes of my heart opened, so that when my inclination leads me to the word I see what is really there and not just my own ideas. Who opens the eyes of the heart? God does. So Psalm 119:18 teaches us to pray, “Open my eyes, that I may behold wonderful things from Your law.”
Then I need for my heart to be enlightened with these “wonders.” I need to perceive glory in them and not just interesting facts. Who enlightens the heart? God does. So Ephesians 1:18 teaches us to pray “That the eyes of your heart may be enlightened.”
Then I am concerned that my heart is fragmented and that parts of it might remain in the dark while other parts are enlightened. So I long for my heart to be united for God. Where does that wholeness and unity come from? From God. So Psalm 86:11 teaches us to pray, “O Lord, I will walk in Your truth; unite my heart to fear Your name.”
What I really want from all this engagement with the Word of God and the work of his Spirit in answer to my prayers is that my heart will be satisfied with God and not with the world. Where does that satisfaction come from? It comes from God. So Psalm 90:14 teaches us to pray, “O satisfy us in the morning with Your lovingkindness, that we may sing for joy and be glad all our days.”
But I don’t just want to be happy in my own little private world with God. I want my happiness to be as full as possible for spreading and expanding for others. I want to be strong in joy. This will make me durable in the face of threats or adversity. Where does that strength and durability come from? It comes from God. So Ephesians 3:16 teaches us to pray, “That God would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man.”
Finally, I want my strength in Christ to produce good deeds for others so that the glory of God will be seen in my life. Who produces these good deeds? God does. So Colossians 1:10 teaches us to pray, “That [we] will walk in a manner worthy of the Lord . . . bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God.”
All this I pray “in Jesus’ name,” because God gives these things to my soul only because Jesus died for me and removed the wrath of God so that the Father might “freely give me all things” (Romans 8:32).

To remember some of these prayers, I use an acronym—IOUS—almost every day in praying for those
I love, asking God to give us an inclination to his Word and not to money or fame or power (Psalm 119:36), and to open our eyes to see wonderful things when we read his Word (Psalm 119:18), and to have hearts united in the fear of God rather than fragmented over a dozen concerns (Psalm 86:11), and to be satisfied in his steadfast love (Psalm 90:14).