March 31 - Love You Can Count On

Love You Can Count On

      

“I have loved you with an everlasting love.” Jeremiah 31:3

In his book, Future Shock, Alvin Toffler said that in a time of change

people need what he called “islands of stability.” He writes, “When the winds of change are blowing everything away, and everything’s being uprooted, we need little rocks, islands, spots of security, that we can hold onto, that we know are not going to move, so we’re not blown away by the changes that occur.” With earthquakes abounding over the last few days, we can all hold onto a sure foundation. The first spot of security on which to hold is God’s love.

You can build your life on the fact that no matter what happens, no matter what you do, no matter how you feel, God’s love for you will never change.  You say, “No matter even if I do the wrong things?” Right.  Why?  Because His love is not based on what you deserve. His love is based on His grace.  He loves you.   He loves you not because you keep up His standards…He loves you because He’s chosen to love you…that’s grace.  He loves you as much on your bad days as your good days.  He loves you as much when you don’t feel it as when you do. You can build your life on the fact that God’s love will never change.

Romans 8:31-39 tells us what it is that makes God’s love permanent.  I can realize that no matter what I do or who I am or where I go, God’s love for me will never change.   Paul writes, “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?  Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword…No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.  For I am convinced that neither death nor life nor angels nor demons nor things present, nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Philip Yancey in his book What’s so Amazing about Grace tells the story of a modern day girl prodigal.  Yancey tells the story of a daughter who grows up in Traverse City, Michigan. Disgusted with her old fashioned parents who overreact to her nose ring, the music she listens to, the length of her skirts, she chooses to run away.  She ends up in Detroit where she meets a man who drives the biggest car she’s ever seen.  The man with the big car – she calls him “Boss” – recognizes that since she’s underage, men would pay a premium for her. So she goes to work for him.  Things are good for a while. Life is good. But she gets sick for a few days, and it amazes her how quickly the boss turns mean. Before she knows it, she’s out on the street without a penny to her name. She still turns a couple of tricks a night, and all the money goes to support her drug habit.  One night while sleeping on the metal grates of the city, she began to feel less like a woman of the world and more like a little girl. She begins to whimper. “God, why did I leave? My dog back home eats better than I do now.” She knows that more than anything in the world, she wants to go home. Three straight calls home get three straight connections with the answering machine. Finally she leaves a message. “Mom, Dad, it’s me. I was wondering about maybe coming home. I’m catching a bus up your way, and it’ll get there about midnight tomorrow. If you’re not there, I‘ll understand.”

During the seven hour bus ride, she’s preparing a speech for her father. And when the bus comes to a stop in the Traverse City station, the driver announces the fifteen-minute stop. Fifteen minutes to decide her life. She walks into the terminal not knowing what to expect.  But not one of the thousand scenes that have played out in her mind prepares her for what she sees. There in the bus terminal in Traverse City, Michigan, stands a group of forty brothers and sisters and great-aunts and uncles and cousins and a grandmother and a great-grandmother to boot. They’re all wearing goofy party hats and blowing noise-makers, and taped across the entire wall of the terminal is a computer-generated banner that reads – Welcome Home! Out of the crowd of well-wishers breaks her dad.   She stares out through the tears quivering in her eyes and begins her memorized speech. He interrupts her. “Hush, child. We’ve got no time for that. No time for apologies. We’ll be late. A big party is waiting for you at home.”

In Jesus “Prodigal Son” Story in Luke 10, the response of the Father to the wayward son is very much the same. No speeches, no lengthy conversations…just pure grace.  Jeremiah 31:3 says, “I have loved you with an everlasting love.” It is permanent so you can build your life on it. God’s love will never change.  God’s love can never be taken away from you.  He says He will take care of you…He says He will never leave you…He says He will never forsake you.  You can sum it up very simply…GOD LOVES YOU!!! And that, you can always count on.

Terry Risser

Reflections:

1)  Recall a season where you were separated from God

2)  What demonstration of His love do you see most consistently?

Consider reading the Word today:

 

Copyright 2014- Terry Risser

March 30 - God’s Waiting Room

God’s Waiting Room

"Those who wait for me shall never be ashamed." Isaiah 49:23

On the road of life, detours signs await all those who truly desire to follow Christ.  No ducking it…going around it…or jumping over it.  It’s a fact of life.  It only takes a short time after knowing Christ to realize that God has a way of putting us in His waiting room.  Everyone He uses greatly will walk this road and you will too. Noah waited 120 years for it to rain.  Abraham waited 99 years for a son.  Moses waited 40 years in the desert.  Jesus waited 30 years for 3 years of ministry.  Joseph waited years in prison.  David was anointed king as a young man but he waited for years to become the actual king of Israel.  However, as Tony Evans says, “And they are always God’s way of saying something good is coming down the pipe.”

Nothing is more common in life than waiting.  We have to wait on everything and yet nothing do we hate more than waiting.  We wait on traffic.  We wait in doctor's offices.  We wait at the restaurant.    There is always a delay when God works in your life.  He gives you a dream but He does not fulfill the dream immediately.  There's always a time lapse, a waiting period, a delay. 

How do you handle the waiting rooms of life?  How you handle them determines your faith.  Waiting is an act of faith.  Time and again in Scriptures, waiting is God’s way of getting you to the right place, at the right time, for the right purposes.  You may not see it at first, but He is always working to that end. Look no further than a few days ago.

In the city of Burbank, which is the home base of the Magic Kingdom, it is a story that Disney writers could have never “imagine-eared.”  Yet it saved the life of a child.   Earlier in the day, Konrad and Jennifer Lightner of Burbank, California, were moving out of their apartment when they strangely got stuck in an elevator. An event that never happens, it took them 30 minutes to be freed seemingly delaying them from their important transport duties including transporting their mattress.  They said if that hadn't happened, they would not have been there at the right moment for what was to come…saving the life of a 3-year old boy. Shortly after being released from the elevator, they were moving their bedspring mattress to their car when they noticed a toddler throwing things out a third story apartment above them. 

But soon, they realized the toddler had now climbed out of the window and was actually hanging out on to what appeared to be a telephone line or a cable line. Realizing the baby could not get back into the window, the couple called 9-1-1, hoping to get help.  But there was no way for assistance to arrive in time.  The Lightners, who were waiting below, acted quickly and placed their mattress directly below little boy expecting the worst which was about to occur.  The baby fell off the ledge plummeting three stories.  But as events would have it,  Konrad caught the child while he was falling safely onto the mattress for the perfect rescue. "It feels like I watched a TV show, like it didn't happen to me," Konrad said. The Lightners were honored by firefighters and continued with their move. "It was very surreal afterwards. We were just moving the rest of day and every once in a while we'd look at each other and just be like, 'That happened. That was real,'" said Jennifer.

The perfect place…the perfect time…the perfect results.  But not because of their timing…but because of God’s.  How do you handle the waiting rooms of life?  How you handle them determines your faith.  Waiting is an act of faith. 

A. W. Tozer wrote the following in his classic book The Pursuit of God. He writes, “A generation of Christians reared among pushbuttons and automatic machines are impatient of slower and less direct methods of reaching their goals. We have been trying to apply machine-age methods to our relations with God. We read our chapter, have our short devotions and rush away, hoping to make up for our deep inward bankruptcy by attending another church meeting. ... The tragic results of this spirit are all about us: Shallow lives, hollow religious philosophies, the preponderance of the element of fun in gospel meetings, the glorification of men, trust in religious externalities, quasi-religious fellowships, salesmanship methods, the mistaking of dynamic personality for the power of the Spirit. These and such as these are the symptoms of an evil disease, a deep and serious malady of the soul.”

Repeatedly in Scripture, the Bible tells us that waiting is God’s way of working through us. Isaiah writes, "Those who wait for me shall never be ashamed." Isaiah 49:23 while he adds, “They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength.” Isaiah 40:31.  The results are always good:

1.  He wants us to focus on Him.

2.  He wants us to trust in Him.
3.  He wants to change our attitude.
4.  He wants to do something greater

When you stick around during the waiting season, God is up to something good.  You never know what He might drop out of the sky.

Terry Risser

Reflections:

1)    Why is waiting so difficult?

2)    Can you recall a time in your life where you waited and God brought something better than you expected?

Consider reading the Word:

 copyright Terry Risser 2014

March 29 - Something Old, Something New

Something Old, Something New

Dr. Roy Hicks Jr. was a unique preacher.  If you ever heard him speak, you know what I mean.  His words were not threaded with flowery phrases or pointed illustrations for the most part, but “velvet colored bricks” that flew from the pulpit and hit you right in the forehead.  In a  word…impacting.

            Roy, author of “Praise the Name of Jesus,” never wrote a book while he was alive, but recently one was released posthumously with sermon excerpts entitled: “A Small Book About God.”  The opening chapter is so appropriate for new beginnings.  It’s called, “I Make All Things New.” He writes:

            “God doesn’t make all things new by changing the outside.  He wants to remake the substance of our lives.  When God summons a soul, it’s not a one-time event. He calls us to something new every day.  We get all excited about self-improvement, but God doesn’t really seem to be in the improvement business.  He prefers to get to the core of the problem.  He is the God of change.  So when God says, ‘Behold, I make all things new,’ think about…You.  Think about the person you are.  Think about your character or personhood.”  So you see some room for improvement, some need for some propping up here and there?  I have tremendous news for you.  God is not a fixer.  He is a Creator!  The One who speaks out of eternity into your specific moment has a very personal message for you:  “Behold I make all things new.”

            He adds: “Many of us who have been through loss or failure, treasure Isaiah’s word about newness.  ‘Do not remember the former things, nor consider the things of old.  Behold, I will do a new thing, now it shall spring forth: shall you not know it?  I will even make a road in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert.’  (Isaiah 43:18,19) Four simple instructions out of these two verses can help you to cooperate with the thing God wants to do in your life.

1)    Let Go Of The Old:  This has a passive and active side.  The passive side has to do with surrender.  “I refuse to hang onto it.”  The active side is a renouncing of the past.  In 2 Corinthians 4:2, Paul talks about actively letting go when he writes:  “I have renounced the hidden things of shame.”

2)    Get Ready:  Peter would refer to this as “Gird up the loins of your mind.”  Get ready to run.  Get ready to move.  Get ready to change location.  Get ready to adjust…

3)    Do The Possible:  Remember the woman who thought, “If I can just touch the hem of His garment, I shall be made well.  (Luke 8:41-56).  She did the possible and received a healing.  She accepted the responsibility for the possible and left it up to Jesus to accomplish the impossible.

4)    Move With The New:  Birthings are moments of both promise and vulnerability.  God is trying to prosper and bless you.  By your words – and by your decision to move with Him – you can be a part of bringing His miracles into being.”

Allow God to work something new in you today.

Terry Risser

Consider reading the Word:

Copyright 2014- Terry Risser