Tag: God

Categories
Christian Blog Christmas

GPS Jesus

Photo by Athena on Pexels.com

Baby Jesus theft. It’s the stealing of the newborn Christ figurine from nativity scenes, and it happens every Christmas season. Be it a teenage prank, or something more sinister, families, churches and occasionally whole communities don’t see the humor.

For instance, the citizens of Wellington, Florida had the baby Jesus stolen from their community center nativity two years in a row! But they were ready during the next Noel with a creative way to catch a crook.

For Christmas season number three, the life-size baby Jesus came with His own onboard GPS locator. Sheriff’s deputies tracked Him, when He was absconded yet again, to an apartment–where He was found lying face down on a carpet.

Tis the season once again, and the Christ child is missing. There are plenty of lights and life-size Santas and reindeer on the lawn, but where is Jesus?


Lots of people aren’t even looking for Him during this most wonderful time of the year.

But not to worry. We may not all be looking for Christmas, but Christmas is looking for us.

This is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins.

1 John 4:10 (NIV)

Remember the first thing God said to Adam and Eve after the fall? They were hiding from Him, and He called to them:

“Where are You?”

Yes, there is a GPS (God’s Positioning Device) inside of each one of us. We have been searched and are fully known (Psalm 139).

God knows EVERYTHING about us—the good, the bad and the ugly—yet He STILL sent His son to redeem us (Romans 5:8).

You did not choose me but I chose you

Jesus – John 15:16a

I’ll say it again, we may not be looking for God, but He is looking for us.

People taking Christ out of Christmas doesn’t change what God did for the world. Through the gift of His son, He showed us ALL how much he loves us (John 3:16).

Yet it is a gift we must be willing to receive

Photo by Kat Jayne on Pexels.com

The entire human race was created to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever. Sin has diverted the human race into another course, but it has not altered God’s purpose to the slightest degree.

Oswald Chambers

https://davidsdailydose.org/2020/12/12/gps-jesus/

Categories
Christian Blog Comfort Hope

God is God, Wherever You Are

Photo by Farrel Nobel on Unsplash

For many of us, these times we’re living through have brought forceful emotions to the surface. For me, this has been particularly visible through mood swings and dreams.

I’ve always been susceptible to up and down emotions, but COVID 19, and now racial tensions on a national level, have taken things up a notch. The hills, drops, and loops of my life roller coaster are larger and occur more frequently.

Hyper-vigilance is the new norm. An unexpected loud sound–FedEx guy rings the doorbell and the dogs go nuts–sends my adrenaline soaring. A typically low-grade frustration takes me from sea level to death valley in a microsecond. It’s like I’m sailing on an even keel one moment, and slipping on a banana peel the next.

Uncertainty impacts the mind.

My pre-covid emotions were driving a Toyota Prius. Currently, I’m cruising in something more like this:

Dreams: they reveal our subconscious desires, and lately mine have been most enchanting. Two nights in a row, I’ve dreamed of intense platonic interactions with others.

Dream number one involves a heart-to-heart conversation with a former colleague I haven’t seen in years. In the second dream, I’m bear-hugging a childhood friend. I’ve also dreamed I’m at some sort of adult summer camp with a bunch of strangers, hiking through the wilderness and making smores by the fire.

Obviously, I’m craving connection with others.

Isolation impacts the mind.

Uncertainty and isolation pack a one-two punch that can put you on the canvas in a heartbeat.

For me, it’s always comforting to look in the Bible for someone who faced a similar situation. Evidently, the psalmist was going through a bit of a dry spell when he wrote this:

As the deer pants for the streams of water, so my soul pants for you, my God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God, when can I go and meet with God? (Psalm 42:1-2 NIV)

Clearly, here’s a person craving connection, but with God, not man. Maybe this is the secret.

In another psalm, there’s a different deer:

It is God who arms me with strength and makes my way perfect. He makes my feet like the feet of a deer; He enables me to stand on the heights. (Psalm 18:32-33 NIV)

Thirsty for a drink, or standing on the heights, God is the one who sustains.

I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do everything through Him who gives me strength.

Philippians 4:12-13

God is God, wherever you are.

Follows your heart–no matter how far.

Sees every turn. Knows every scar.

He’s still God–wherever you are.

Categories
Hope

The Ultimate Mentor

For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. (John 3:17 NIV)

I got my first life coach when I was fourteen years old. Orville Lambert was a 70 something year old deacon at my church who willingly volunteered to teach a bunch of middle-schoolers! Every Sunday morning he stood before us, his soft grey eyes meeting our stuck-up attitudes with a smile.

No matter what we threw at him during the Sunday School lesson, Orville always landed on his feet. He had the remarkable ability to answer any question with a higher caliber query of his own. And the final outcome was always therapeutic.

Like Orville, God asks great questions. The first one in the Bible occurs in Genesis chapter three. Adam and Eve have just eaten the forbidden fruit and hide when they hear God walking in the garden, but He calls out to them:

“Where are you?”

Genesis 3:9b

Isn’t this an amazing statement? God could have said something like, “What have you done?”

Instead, with three words, He reveals the true depth of His love. God seeks connection with us AFTER we fall. He wants to be our friend, even if we don’t accept His friend request.

“For the Son of Man came to seek and save what was lost.” (Luke 19:10)

God is on a search and rescue mission, not search and destroy.

https://davidsdailydose.org/2020/05/15/the-ultimate-mentor/