Devotions Anchor- 7/21/21

Posted on July 21, 2021 by wondermedia

Ugh. I need extra hobbies haha…

Is it tough to stand your ground?

In a short answer yes.

It feels like we kind of compromise all the time about what to do in life, whether it be our rebelliousness to not do His Will or if someone is stubborn about their wants and will make sure you give in because they will not have things a different way.

Parents go through this. They have a tough job of not only keeping a child or more from danger but to in a lesser but important effort keep them to know what they can and can’t do.

Yet the child may not want to listen.

That is when you have to be like an anchor! Unmovable on your stance on the matter.

If you give in they will see your weakness. They might even try and try again to get you to that stage because they know what to do now to push your buttons.

But to be standing our ground is also on the world as well.

Every day we stray further from truth in God and also in our lives if we don’t stay anchored to His word.

Matthew 7: 24-25 talks about having a “house” built on a rock, a firm foundation compared to say sandy hills or a place where storms come and and it will not stay up.

After horrid storms came other types of houses would fall from this yet with this one “it did not fall because it had been founded on the rock” (last part of 25).

Also we must think just what keeps us strong. Is it self-confidence? No.

We have great strength that doesn’t come from us or this world:

This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which enters the Presence behind the veil. Hebrews 6:19

I was a little unsure about the many aspects of this verse though to be honest.

I started breaking it down by looking up the word steadfast.

“Steadfast” means: firmly fixed in place : immovable. also : not subject to change the steadfast doctrine of original sin (Source: merriam-webster.com)

To be immovable. That sounds like the “anchor” mentioned above. It is the hope that is not from us that makes us firmly fixed in place.

Also I have some commentary on the other apsects.

Interestingly there was some info on anchors from a bible standpoint in this source too:

It is about having a sense of confidence in Christ. “the inner place behind the curtain” represents the way in which Christ precedes us

Put together these images create a powerful message of reassurance. Christ has “anchored” our hope of “refuge” in the very presence of God: the “inner place.”

The anchor was usually not in the exact place as the ship itself (was usually carried far away from the ship) our hope is not in this world. (www.bibleref.com, paraphrased)

So in all we must remember the confidence we have in Christ. Also we need to not be moved about aspects of the Christian life. Our life is built on hope and true strength. If it was built on our strength it would not last a single “storm.”

It is all through the love of God by sending His son Jesus to die for us and we in turn are revived and must reflect the living for God that He showed.

Devotion Deuteronomy- 7/20/21

Posted on July 20, 2021 by wondermedia

The blog recently passed 200 likes. Thank you guys so much!

Because things are hard, is the Lord still with us?

Should we feel the life living for Him should be some kind of “easy peasy” no problems kind of life?

It’s actually easy to feel that way especially when you are not used to living a life that is completely surrendered to Christ.

It used to be so easy here in the United States of America to do pretty much nothing to God’s Will.

But here in the bible there were people who not only were following God’s Will by going wherever He would lead but were unsure emotionally about how to go about things.

In Deuteronomy a person explaining this verse seemed a little confusing to me.

In Deut. 31:6 they said some things about the verse I felt strongly against. But at the end was talking about in the end the people in this verse (Moses and the people after spending 40 years in the desert) how they should focus on God. That the Lord is with them and will not leave or forsake them.

Be strong and of good courage, do not fear nor be afraid of them; for the LORD your God, He is the One who goes with you. He will not leave you nor forsake you.” Deuteronomy 31:6 NKJV

That there is a lot of things that will be tough and yet not to fear and be afraid of others through situations but to live for God and not reject His ways.

I’m amazed by God’s Word. I have read very little over the years so jumping into verses and finding context has become like an adventure for me!

I almost feel like people in the bible experiencing new things in their respective stories. I hope that will become exciting for you reader. To read the bible has become a wonderful choice lately, I hope that you will want to go on your own adventure reading as well.

I have been wanting to write “bible guides” for a while if you are interested in doing so.

Maybe this will be like a little nudge to wanting to know more about what He wants for your life and to live closer to His ways.

Know that spending even a moment in His word is huge to God. It is amazing to see what changes He makes in your life if you spend it as time with Him.

I hope dear reader that you won’t be like I once was, so disobedient that almost nothing had mattered to me, and want to see the purpose of your life.

If you follow God you will see just how impactful it is to live for Him through Jesus Christ. Amen.

Devotions Strength- 7/19/21

Posted on July 19, 2021 by wondermedia

Thank You Lord for Your mercies every day

To have strength, what could that mean when it comes to the bible?

Does it mean “we’ve got this” in every situation?

Or does it mean we have to draw strength and show that He is in control of our lives?

It is unreal how prideful we can be. To boast about self or to treat living for God including “I” in the statement like Moses thinking that he and God were equal is a dangerous attitude to have in life!

We are weak without and with God. To credit self in the equation is like giving partial credit to God’s glory but all great things that have happened in our lives is ALL God’s glory, it’s not us. As in it is not in us alone. Think of your sin, then think of God. We need God in order to be glorified. It is God changing us, we don’t factor in what makes God great!

He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak Isaiah 40:29

He increases our endurance, our love when we feel like hating, our joy when things get tougher, He is what gives us the strength though we are weak!

To be weary, what does that mean though?

“Weary” means- being exhausted in strength, endurance, vigor, or freshness. Source: Merriam-Webster Dictionary website (quoted online)

That is not like just working out all day and being tired. That means living out God’s will and then after a long time coming home and feeling like you can’t move anymore. Being so worn out that you feel spiritually exhausted too!

We must never give up hope. Whether we have not really lived for Christ or we feel worn out and discouraged we must not be afraid in life and live it out.

I believe God blesses so much things we do for Him. He wants us to be servants and witnesses as we have been saved, cleansed, and changed by the blood of Christ. To live after realizing Christ died for us and our old selves were on that cross, we must know how He then sees us.

We must be strong in Him. And be strong in Him and by nothing else and not to claim we were strong in our own strength by us.

God is the strength of my heart Psalms 73:26

In Him there is glory. We have nothing without Him. Thank You Lord for Your strength, Amen.

Blog Notes: When I saw the Angel

Posted on July 17, 2021 by wondermedia

Photo by Tobias Bju00f8rkli on Pexels.com

This will be very different from what people are used to about the “blog notes” I have done before, I feel. This happened six times total so I just wanted to share the moments that they happened! Each date will be mentioned.

Just a brief intro. God is amazing! He does a lot of things in our lives and sometimes He will if you are living for Him encourage you in an individual special way. Praise the Lord and His unlimited love!

6/1/21

I was going to work after spending time reading (or possibly also) writing on this blog. It was just an ordinary day and while I was working I had a customer behind my one I was ringing up. It was him. Only I didn’t know it was an angel. He was just smiling at me. I just thought, “He has such joy.” like he was maybe just some nice guy. When I was ringing him up he was talking small chat for a little while. Then he quipped, “I don’t even know your name.”

I looked down and saw I put my nametag on backwards. I usually do this when I am so caught up in the mess of the daily grind and don’t check because sometimes I am in a rush especially when I get to work and I am in the lounge later than I want to be!

I turned it around and he said my name and then remarked, “That is a beautiful name.” My name means bearer of Christ.

Then right before he walked away he shared his. He was a Hispanic looking man so when He said this I quietly responded back. He said “My name… is Jesus.” I said “Oh ‘Hay-zoo-ss.'” and then it he leaned down in a partial bow and pointed upwards to the sky with his thumb then walked out of my line.

The moment he left it dawned on me and I cried. Thank you for the encouragement Lord.

6/7/21

More to come

The Lighted Path

Posted on July 17, 2021 by wondermedia

Every path seems great

So many things explored

But they all pale to one

The straight and narrow Lord’s

Some think they have the answers

They’ll say “this is the key!”

But they don’t know the real truths

To abide them you won’t see.

As oceans wear some walkways

The intensities of life

One can simply follow

Still sharpness sure as knife

As you go on wander

Places will make you break

But the “one” path is to follow

A road opened for your sake

This road can be moved in darkness

To seek the “hidden” trail

As long as words of knowledge

Can help ones live, avail

So though deep darkness swallow you

Such trials life rough things hath

All is worth living through goodness

When you seek the lighted path

Devotion 1 John 7/16/21

Posted on July 16, 2021 by wondermedia

The angel has as of this moment shown up at least six times now. Time to write that group of blog notes soon. Was so encouraging, thank you Lord!

Anyone else getting sick of their sin? (Raises hand) Hello!

It is not just a humbling thing, it makes me think of what Paul has said about it too.

Romans 7:19 sums up well just how frustrating and seemingly hopeless sin feels. It says: For the good that I will to do, I do not do; but the evil I will not to do, that I practice.

It paints a picture of things we might do and over time we will hate it and avoid it though we seem to lose the battle to sins.

I already shared my own sin problem in an earlier month. I had shared about it being one of my biggest regrets in life.

But believe it or not, this is something that can be overcome with the help of the Lord!

We need to realize just what our hearts if we focus on things we shouldn’t are seen to God.

He doesn’t like it. It offends Him! Maybe that will help us to feel convicted about things that we do that we are better off without.

But have hope that Jesus paid for that sin already, long ago. Isn’t that also a great reason to walk away?

We must come to the “cross” in prayer, confess what we did and also ask God to revive our life to Him.

We should praise God that because of the cross and that Jesus died for our sins and rose again showing power even over death we should no longer have those sins in our lives anymore..!

If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. I John 1:9 NKJV

To be forgiven by God through Jesus is such a wonderful relief. And to live for His sake is a reason to walk in the power of the Holy Spirit until the day Christ returns. Amen.

Devotion Hebrews-7/15/21

Posted on July 15, 2021 by wondermedia

Had a restful night last night. What a relief to actually get sleep! I have an off day with work today; I guess not being stressed about having to do so much the next day helps…

Why do we always desire more? We might have a place to live, a family and/or neighbors that may care about us, things that we already own. And yet it seems like it’s not enough!

When people make a lot of money it seems to be a response to the life of a sinner: they will be happy with just a little more. To “make more money” seems to be the person’s life dream!

We should be glad of what blessings God already has for us though. Believe me, I know what it is like to keep wanting extra in life. But the ones being encouraged in the book of Hebrews are reminded of what one has can be enough:

Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.” Hebrews 13:5 NIV

“Now faith is being sure of what we hope for, and certain of what we do not see.” Those were the words of the author of the Book of Hebrews. The temptation was strong amongst the Jews that they keep their faith, that they hold on to the traditions and rituals of their fathers. .. Source: owlcation.com Quote excerpt from search engine

Mainly I learned that it wasn’t exactly they were trying to keep up with tradition, there was more to that (I kind of feel like I put up a not so reliable source above)!

The main parts of this book of the bible from the New Testament was to state the supremacy of Christ and also to persevere even in tough times (like persecution).

That again would be going on a tangent (maybe I will cover this book entirely sometime!) so I will end with these thoughts.

Living a life in general means you will have aimless goals and might even be very successful. Living a life for God might entail a lot of roads to travel and try out before knowing what really is important.

But what we must realize is to be content. Why? Because God gave us the things we have. To desire “more” as in a lot more may take our eyes off of our goals for God. We have to stay focused and keep our hearts untainted by greed to see what God truly has for us!

Devotions About Mercy 7/14/21

Posted on July 14, 2021 by wondermedia

We should almost grieve about our sins. Because God’s love is deep we don’t have to do the things from our old habits.

God’s love is deeper than what we can mostly imagine. We might have the humanistic approach and think that God can only do what we can ask forgiveness for, as if it was our power in the first place.

But God’s love is limitless. It is grand! It is beyond what we know. Read the bible and within all the countless stories you also can somehow find His mercy that was shown.

He gave lands freedom to glorify and worship Him, the peoples grieved about how bad they were and yet there is within that mercy that revealed!

He gave all sinners chance to turn away and repent and believe.

It is amazing just how much He can do. God’s love was first shown to all of us as we believed by just knowing His life He gave up on the cross through Jesus and after He rose we see His impact living in our hearts now. Amen!

We can also forgive others for their faults and mistakes towards us because not just it is a commandment but God can do great things in us that lead us to know to forgive.

It can be reflection from other believers showing mercy towards us, to help restore friendships that have been torn from selfish or other reasons, and maybe to know that we have been given great strength after we have forgiven during past times.

What a relief it is to forgive!

Therefore be merciful, just as your Father also is merciful. Luke 6:36

But we must also search our own hearts and see what we might have in our hearts that needs removing.

Are we seeing right now a potential in our lives to be moved and living within His Will? What can we take out of our lives that might be harmful to our lives and others?

The people of Israel during Nehemiah’s life early on went to seek God. They realized as a group just how bad they were and basically cried out to God, grieved about their sin.

God responded but it needed a small group to help them understand what the scriptures were then and to respond so that God would be glorified.

Nevertheless in Your great mercy You did not utterly consume them nor forsake them; For You are God, gracious and merciful. Nehemiah 9:31

Have you ever been hurt by your past so you cried out to God? Did you realize just how deep His mercy flows like water in your heart? I hope that every day you ask for forgiveness so that you can live life for real like a servant bound to choose to serve Christ.

If you ever have now lived a life worthy of a follower of God may we not forget the mercy we have been shown so we can be merciful and share His grace to others. Praise the Lord!

Devotions Be Love 7/13/21

Posted on July 13, 2021 by wondermedia

I am so humbled by this. The miracle I hinted at happening four times before? Happened again just yesterday. Praise God.

What can a Christian do besides witness, bring people to church, pray, and maybe (just maybe, haha) read the bible?

As believers whether Gentiles (that is most of us. I’m a part of that group) or ones who were from the nationality of Judaism to realize that Christ exists for real, the bible describes a lot of times that we must be showing love to one another (and the world around us).

To be love to each other in John 15:12 “This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.” 1 John 4:16 “And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them.”

I wanted to share three verses but looked up these ones. They will be mentioned.

We might learn that in the bible the greatest commandment is love. God is love! We should base all things we do if we want to draw people to church or to listen the word on love.

Because:

Let all that you do be done with love. 1 Corinthians 16:14

We must be like Christ, one who will show others love no matter what. We must honor Him in all things that we do also.

In 1 Corinthians 13, it talks a lot about love as well. It seems like a love chapter, haha. Here’s the next important verse I found:

(Love) bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. 1 Corinthians 13:7

It mentions the subject (what this article here is about) in the beginning and then also in verse 4 preceding this verse. I had to add context since it was not in the verse itself.

So if love endures all things, what might that say about our lives? Being love isn’t easy. Also in fact, doing acts for love is not what we might think either. If we have to be tough on say a brother that is not living right in the Lord, that won’t feel like love. If we confront someone about their sin, that is not going to be like “easy” love.

Sometimes we feel like we are tested when showing this love. But in all things God does good though it is difficult in circumstances.

Yet through it all He loves all of us in many ways. If we follow Him fully He will encourage us to show that He loves us. It is amazing just how sweet it is to follow Him in our hearts as passionately as possible!

And we can always be glorified in this life by His love and becoming more and more like Him every day.

We can also never say we love Christ or God more than He does us. As the word says:

We love Him because he first loved us. 1 John 4:19

He loved us first. We were loved before we were born. God’s love is amazing, and if you follow Him with all your heart you will see that love in your life, through living in the spirit, and for the people who you care about!

God loves you.

Devotion Rejoice, Pray, Give Thanks- 7/12/21

Posted on July 12, 2021 by wondermedia

Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18

We are to rejoice, pray without ceasing, and in everything give thanks. What a way to live for God! It is more than encouraging to see this as an attitude that Christians should have.

It is too easy to look at our burdens and focus on them “always,” groan about our problems without ceasing, and in everything wonder “Why is life making things so tough?”

That is the wrong type of attitude.

We should be always praising God (also being honest if you are hurting about stuff too though) and I wonder. What does the bible say in giving thanks?

I looked that up wondering myself. Is there an aspect about it we might not know?

Here’s something I found while searching:

Here’s the definition: “Acknowledging what is right about God in praise and thanksgiving” (1 Chr. 16:34). It can also mean a right acknowledgment of self before God in confessing sin (Lev. 26:40). … “To show oneself grateful, to be thankful, to give thanks.” It is used in a religious sense with or without reference to God.

Note: Excerpts from article “The Word Walk: Thanksgiving in the Bible.” Source: handfordsentinel.com

We must always acknowledge the righteousness in God in our praising. Hmm I should check out the Leviticus reference to delve deeper in that as well. But also we should be in the right way, grateful be genuinely thankful and to give thanks.

These parts to his verse seem like a key to an example of one living for Him. Praise God!