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"Come follow me and I will make you fishers of men." Matthew 4:19

Category: Love (Page 3 of 5)

Trust, Me.

November 5, 2022 /
Maryellen Montville

“The Lord All-Powerful says, “Try this test. Bring one-tenth of your things to me. Put them in the treasury. Bring food to my house. Test me! If you do these things, I will surely bless you. Good things will come to you like rain falling from the sky. You will have more than enough of everything” –Malachi 3:10

If you’ve been attending church for any length of time, you’re likely familiar with today’s verse. It’s generally used in relation to tithes and offerings. And though we’ll touch on tithing today, there’s something else I’d like to share with you from this verse. A principle the Holy Spirit dropped in my spirit this morning as I was praying over this teaching concerning trust. He put His finger on two words from this familiar passage, “test Me.” And what God dropped in my spirit concerning those Words had little to do with money.

Let’s explore what He gave me, shall we?

Tithing involves obedience. It demands you meet God smack dab in the middle of His “test Me.” It means laying your tithe at His feet, walking away, and trusting God to keep His Word. Blessing you however He sees fit.

Having that level of confidence, of faith, that joy of giving back, the thrill of “I get to” is born from having experienced God’s faithfulness in the past. It springs up from a deep well of trust fed by an ever-deeper well of intimacy. An intimacy developed within your relationship with Jesus. And it’s sustained there. It’s fed, made fat by a steady diet of God loving you and your wanting, chasing after the Giver far more than His gifts. “But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you” –Matthew 6:33.

I just spoke of a relationship with Jesus. Do you have one? If not, friend, before you read on, I ask that you stop and pray. I assure you; asking Jesus into your life as Lord of all is a choice with eternal consequence. There is no more important message in the world than this. Jesus loves you. He died in your place, making way for you to be restored into right relationship with the Father. A relationship broken in the Garden of Eden when Adam and Eve sinned. “For if, because of one man’s trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ. Therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for fall men” –Romans 5:17-18.

And If you don’t know how to pray, talk to Jesus; it’s really quite simple. Just ask Jesus to come into your heart as your Lord and Savior, tell Him you’re sorry for your sins, and mean it. I’m adding His Word to help guide you. “If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved” –Romans 10:9-10.

Now, we can continue…

When you choose to believe God will do what He says He’d do, believe in the surety of His “test Me,” your measure of faith will be stretched. And over time, your faith in God as Promise Keeper will become rock solid, like that faith spoken of in the old hymn, “I Have Decided to Follow Jesus.” Though none go with me, I still will follow, no turning back, no turning back.

And yes, friend, you have the choice to obey God, to follow Him, or not.

Why? Because you have free will. Your salvation and free will are a gift from God; He has granted you the freedom, the weighty privilege, of choosing or denying Him. Life, or death.

Earlier, I spoke of the Holy Spirit, causing two Words in Malachi to stand out. I alluded the blessings you receive from God for the faithful, heartfelt surrender of your tithe aren’t invariably attached to some financial reward. And this is the truth. Because often, your blessing comes in the form of good health. It comes from having a warm, safe home or apartment or getting a new job. It’s God bringing that future husband or wife into your life. The blessings that flow from God’s “put Me to the test now in this” involves your eyes having opened this morning, Kissing your kids, your husband, wife, or parents, one more time. You can see and speak. You’re in your right mind.

Moving your limbs and having anything in your pocket to offer back to God is a blessing.

How about when your blessing is holding the child every doctor said you’d never be able to carry? Is that where God’s “test me on this” showed up in your life? Or was it in God’s answering that midnight prayer? When salvation was visited on your wild child, mom, or dad. Let’s talk about God’s greatest blessing. His having afforded you a relationship with Him through His Son, Jesus.

Beloved, God’s “test me” really equates to His asking, “Do you indeed trust Me? Trust Me enough to accept that I know what is and isn’t best for you. Trust that I know when you need whatever you think you need right now.” Do you trust God’s character? That’s the real question here. That’s what the Holy Spirit dropped in my spirit. Because when God says, “test Me,” you can bet your life He’ll deliver. “God is not man, that he should lie, or a son of man, that he should change his mind. Has he said, and will he not do it? Or has he spoken, and will he not fulfill it?” – Numbers 23:19.

Friends, nowhere in the Bible do you read God telling anyone to test Him—outside of Malachi. Actually, the very opposite is true.

Yet concerning your giving back to God a portion, a mere tenth of all you’ve been blessed to earn, here God instructs you to test Him. Actually, it’s a command; to give Him back a tenth of your earnings and watch how He’ll bless your life. In Malachi 3:10, God explicitly references money, yours, by which I mean whatever money He has afforded you. “You might say in your heart, “The power and strength of my hands have made this wealth for me.” But you shall remember [with profound respect] the LORD your God, for it is He who is giving you power to make wealth, that He may confirm His covenant which He swore (solemnly promised) to your fathers, as it is this day” –Deuteronomy 8:17-18.

A humble heart recognizes that had God not blessed you, be it with one dollar or one hundred thousand dollars, you’d have nothing. Go ahead and reread Deuteronomy 8:17-18 if you doubt that.

So let me ask you this? Do you trust God? Are you willing to lay down that dollar in your pocket, the one He afforded you, and do what He asked of you? Test Him and see that if done with a joyful, loving heart, He won’t throw open the windows of heaven and bless you—however He sees fit. I have tested God on this, and I can assure you, friend, that God has been faithful to me in ways that have both blown my mind and humbled me to my core. And neither had little to do with money. The fact that Jesus died for me, has forgiven my every sin; if His blessings had ended there, I’d have been given what I did not deserve. And yet, Love continues to give and give.

Before I close, I must clarify that I am not suggesting that if you tithe a tenth of your income, God will bless you with some significant monetary windfall. Is it possible? Indeed, it is. He is God and can bless you however He chooses. But don’t get it twisted. God is God—He’s Holy. God is not the Lotto—lay down a dollar to win back one hundred. Nor is God an investment banker. Tithing is not about; I give God a tenth and He doubles my investment. God’s “test Me” is not tied to money. It’s bound to your trust in Him.

“That religion which costs a man nothing is usually worth nothing.”― Charles H. Spurgeon.

HARVESTING HOPE: That Your Joy Maybe Fulfilled.

October 29, 2022 /
Elda Othello-Wrightington

There is time and a season for everything. The most challenging seasons bring a lot of weight, pain, and questions. Yet they also bring unforgettable moments of God’s Faithfulness. Psalm 126:5-6 reminds us, “Those who sow with tears will reap with songs of joy. Those who go out weeping, carrying seed to sow, will return with songs of joy, carrying sheaves with them.”

This has been a challenging season for me. In August, I had a miscarriage. Words cannot explain the utter emptiness I felt due to it. I actually felt numb. What made matters worse was how hard it was for me to worship. Anyone who knows me knows I love to worship and praise the Lord. Well, that first Sunday, when the worship team started playing, my hands went up, yet I felt absolutely nothing. For the very first time in my life, I couldn’t feel God. What I felt instead was numb and disconnected from my Daddy God.

Feeling disconnected from God scared me. It brought even more tears on top of that shed due to the trauma of my miscarriage. Hopelessness settled in my mind and slowly made its way into my broken heart. “Yet this I call to mind and there I have hope” –Lamentations 3:21. So one morning, I grabbed my bible, not really expecting anything but secretly hoping that maybe, just maybe, this would help me connect with God. And let me tell you, God spoke!

The Lord took me to the Book of Lamentations, Chapter Three. And did not my soul lament as the prophet Jerimiah’s did? It sure did. But the Truth of God’s faithfulness in this passage, for me, began the process of healing and gleaning. Lamentations 3:22-23 says, “Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassion never fails. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.” As believers, even during the most challenging moments in our lives, we can pull from God’s faithfulness, His Living Word, to help us cultivate hope. The passage goes on to say. “For men are not cast off by the Lord forever. Though he brings grief, he will show compassion, so great is his love” –Lamentations 3:31-32.

God is a promise keeper. Despite the Israelite’s faithlessness and obedience, God still had a plan.

Someone reading this may be experiencing some level of grief. You’ve lost someone. Maybe something you were a part of for an awfully long time has ended. Things are changing, and you, too, find yourself lamenting. If you’re that person and haven’t accepted Jesus into your heart, I want to invite you to do so now. How? As always, your help, direction, the surety of every promise God has given you is found in His Living Word.

Romans 10:9-10 are the Words you’ll need to start your walk with the Lord today. They assure you of this simple Truth: “If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved.” I encourage you to open your mouth and declare Jesus as your Lord and Savior. Believe in your heart; honestly believe, with child-like faith, that if what you just prayed was sincere, you have been saved, freed from sin and eternal death. Galatians 3:22 reads, “But Scripture has locked up everything under the control of sin, so that what was promised, being given through faith in Jesus Christ, might be given to those who believe.”

We have to have faith to have access to the promises of God. And that faith allows us to cultivate hope (and I’m not talking about faith in ourselves because, let’s be honest, sometimes faith in ourselves or others is not enough).

We must be connected to Jesus, for he is the author and finisher of our faith. “Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God” –Hebrews 12:2.

If you just decided to accept Jesus as your personal Savior, I’ll let you in on more good news!

You are now carrying something inside of you. And that something is God’s seed, His Living Word. It lives inside of you now! “Galatians 3:22 reads, “But Scripture has locked up everything under the control of sin, so that what was promised, being given through faith in Jesus Christ, might be given to those who believe.” Hold on to God’s faithfulness. It will help you have hope, even in your tears and waiting. How? By remembering what God has done for you in the past. Remembering what His Word says about you.

There is hope, even if it is as small as a mustard seed, for the Word of God says, “Though it is the smallest of all seeds, yet when it grows, it is the largest of garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds come and perch in its branches” –Matthew 13:32.

You might wonder, how can I continue cultivating hope for the harvest? To me, sowing in tears means never giving up on God, even when you want to give up on yourself, your future, or others. God’s plans are better than we can imagine simply because He is. He knows our beginning from our end, and His plan for us is good. “For I know the plans I have for you,’ says the Lord, ‘plans for well-being and not for trouble, to give you a future and a hope” –Jeremiah 29:11.

So, one of the first ways to cultivate hope is to sow God’s Word into your heart.

May your heart be the tender ground where Its seeds are sown. Then, as a result, I hope you become grounded in God’s Word and His promises.

Even in our weeping, it is possible to harvest hope. We can weep and read the Word. We can weep and trust his promises. We can weep and know that every tear will reap joy in its season.Seed time and harvest are inevitable. However, what we produce results from how much hope we have and how we choose to respond to God.

So I leave you with this love note written to me from God. I’ll share it as a word of encouragement to you all.

I’m here. Stop doubting me. I know how much you care for me, and I know so many things don’t make sense. I am working in you, and I am not punishing you for anything. No one can understand the mystery of my ways because it’s designed that way. Giving up is never the answer. There is no death in my world. Your loss is not a loss to me. I am touching you with my love even if you don’t feel my touch. Be anxious for nothing. You can’t feel me because you need to relax. I can, and I will do what is best for you. Stop doubting if I am with you or if I hear you. Things are not always what they seem. —God.

John 15:11 NLT “I have told you these things so that you will be filled with my joy. Yes, your joy will overflow!

The Compassion of Jesus

October 8, 2022 /
Kendra Santilli

What does it mean to be compassionate? Compassion is the ability to share in the sorrows of another. It is a mixed passion, composed of both love and sorrow. It starts with God the Father, and it also ends with Him. God’s reputation of mercy is reiterated several times by the Psalmists. “The Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in lovingkindness” – Psalm 103:8. It was also spoken of in Exodus after God had freed His people from their captors. The prophets Jeremiah, Hosea, and Isaiah also reference God’s compassion. It continues into the New Testament at the advent of Jesus and into the early church.

Scripture tells of God’s compassion from the beginning of time, but through Jesus, who was God incarnate, we witness the manifestation of God’s kindness. Jesus is the greatest physical example of compassion we will ever know.

Certain seasons of life can render us weak, left to our own sorrow. These agonizing times are often the best teachers of what it means to rely on something or someone greater than us; for the believer, that someone is Jesus. When we can’t make any sense of a situation or feel God’s presence with us, God often uses those moments as opportunities for the promise of His Omnipresence to be felt and experienced in very real and tangible ways. “God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam and the mountains quake with their surging” –Psalm 46:1-3.

In John Eleven, we read an account of the resurrection of Lazarus. Lazarus and his sisters were dear friends of Jesus, so when Lazarus died, Jesus felt the weight of their grief. Taking time to weep with Lazarus’ sisters, Jesus shared in their sorrow. He also felt the sting of losing a loved one. Everyone knew that if Jesus had intervened earlier, Lazarus wouldn’t have died. “Now Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died. But even now I know that whatever You ask of God, God will give You”…. Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live.” – John 11:21-22, 25.

Those gathered at Lazarus’ graveside were yet to realize they were standing face to face with Resurrection Himself.

Jesus, in obedience to the Father’s will, raised Lazarus from the dead. He did this not just for his friend’s gain but to display the Glory of God. God had a plan, and Jesus’ raising Lazarus from the dead was part of that plan. At that moment, Mary and Martha’s faith in Jesus, the Son of God, met God’s perfect will, and Jesus, so moved by compassion towards His friends, called Lazarus from his grave.

And throughout the Gospels, we see Jesus performing miracles for a twofold purpose; He moved in obedience to God and had compassion for the people He served, whether deserving or not. Jesus performed miracles so people could believe in the One True God.

We see this again in Matthew 9:36. Jesus was moved with compassion toward the crowd. Walking among them, He was healing every sickness and disease. Still, when He paused to look at the crowd, the Bible says, “When he saw the crowds, he felt compassion for them, because they were distressed and dejected, like sheep without a shepherd” – Matthew 9:36. Jesus was the Good Shepherd the people had long awaited, whether they realized it or not. He knew that He was their deepest need. Time and time again, the scriptures describe Jesus’ acts as acts of compassion towards mankind.

I remember a time when I felt incredibly lonely, as if loneliness itself was my only companion. My car’s dashboard had a front-row seat to my sorrow. A moment alone meant a moment to release my anxieties and sadness through tears as I sat with loneliness in my passenger seat. I couldn’t see, hear, or understand where God was in the midst of my pain. Loneliness would respond to my beckoning cries with more profound sorrow and reminders of my inadequacies.

I had to read His Word when I couldn’t “hear” God. I could think of nothing else to do. After all, these Words are His penned message to us! By washing my mind with His word, I began to feel the presence of Jesus once again. The Jesus that had compassion on my sick mental condition. He started getting into my passenger’s seat first, so loneliness had to find another ride. Over time, Jesus healed my mind. He was moved with compassion toward me, personally.

So, whatever you may be going through today, Jesus’ compassion for you has not run out. He prayed for you right before He went to the cross for you. “I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message.” – John 17:20. Jesus, being fully God and fully man, shared in your same sufferings, and He knows your very human struggle. He understands them. Jesus once experienced them in His humanity as deeply as we do now. “Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has ascended into heaven, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin. Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need” –Hebrews 4:14-16.

Whether you’re weeping or rejoicing, Jesus has promised never to leave nor forsake those who believe in Him. Jesus said, “Truly I tell you, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you” – Matthew 17:20. So even if you don’t have much faith right now, I invite you to ask Jesus to guide you as you navigate difficult seasons of life. “Lord, I pray I would experience your compassion and grace even when it doesn’t make sense. Help me to look to you as I walk through this life, and give me a compassionate heart, just as you have. Amen.”

One Last Twist.

October 1, 2022 /
MaryEllen Montville

“Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me” –John 15:4.

Abide in Me—remaining in perfect oneness, holding white-knuckled fast no matter what happens, staying attached and rooted. Webster defines abide this way: to remain stable or fixed in a state. God has been holding up this command to abide before me, turning it like a kaleidoscope. Abiding in Him will look the same, yet different from past seasons.God has been exposing the extent of our powerlessness. Making clear our great need for Him, now, more than ever; is that even possible?

Here’s the thought. Such shaking is upon us that if we foolishly allow ourselves the room to be lulled into thinking anything we do, have been gifted to do, can be done on autopilot, in our own power, we will quickly learn just how inept and hollow we are. Equally, in our foolish attempts at playing god, we risk being deceived, swept away by the faulty wisdom and ever-changing winds of this world.

In Ecclesiastes 3:1-2, King Solomon, the wisest man who ever lived, reminds his reader that all life is cyclical. “There’s a season for everything and a time for every matter under the heavens: a time for giving birth and a time for dying, a time for planting and a time for uprooting what was planted.” 

Everyone and everything under heaven has set times embedded within them. Every tombstone makes it blatantly clear. Even the leaves are attesting to this truth. What was once a tender bud in March turned into a rich green swatch in April—then onto a lush, green canopy. A shelter made possible by summer’s warm embrace. Now, these same leaves are changing yet again. Fiery, burnished reds and rich golds now.

Season following season, divine order, it’s how our God decided all creation would best work. One thing relies on another, with every-thing reliant on Him. Hence, today’s verse.

All of life, an ebb and flow, a holding on and a letting go of. Except that is where our relationship with God is concerned. That must be fixed, deeply rooted, unshakable. Listen to how King David describes those who abide, remain in, hold fast to God. “And he will be like a tree firmly planted by streams of water, Which yields its fruit in its season, And its leaf does not wither; And in whatever he does, he prospers” –Psalm 1:3.

In this, our most sacred, most significant relationship, there must never be a letting go. Unless that is, Jesus asks it of us.

And even then, our letting go isn’t of God; it’s of things. Of places, people, habits, jobs, relationships, thought patterns, or our worn-out, tattered way of doing things. When God impresses within us, when we get that knowing in our gut that God is asking us to let go of, move away from, change, or rid ourselves of something or someone, that is the only time a Blood-bought believer ought to let go of something which God has used to bless them. Until such time, we are to stand still. Remember, Beloved, you are no longer our own. You’ve been bought with the very highest price, Christ’s own spotless Blood.

Oh, sure, you can make decisions for yourself. You’ve been afforded that choice. You can, at will, change cities, homes, jobs, and relationships.  But here’s the thing, if it’s not God’s will for you, His timing, His “thing,” do you really want it?

My answer? Nope. No thanks. Been there, done that, and it was a total disaster!

God alone gives and takes away in every season—nothing is random. There are no accidents with God, only things we simply do not understand—yet. Job teaches us this lesson. God always, always, always has a plan. And it’s always good. “And he said, “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord” –Job 1:21. So we either trust God or decide to rebel to take over God’s role in our lives? Thinking we somehow know better than He, what’s best for us, our lives, ministries, family life, relationships, etc. Judas did this. And we can read how it eventually ended for him in Matthew’s Gospel, Chapter 24.

Today, so many are walking through a season of change and challenges. For some of you, just holding on to your faith in this present darkness is taking its toll on you. Yet just as change and changes are happening all around us in the natural, so too in the spiritual. God is up to something in that unseen realm—beyond the veil. We can feel it. We know it. God is moving, preparing, putting the finishing touches on, if you will, the place He’s gone ahead to prepare for us, his beloved children—His Bride. He’s finalizing his plans. God is removing, shaking loose, and making room for the fulfillment of His promises—every last one, the final turn of the kaleidoscope. So hold on for just a bit longer, Beloved. Trust God. He has promised to complete what He started in you. Besides, His strength, not your own, will bring you safely through these winds of change.

And so, weary one, I join my prayers to our Lords, the Apostle Paul’s, and to that great crowd of witnesses who have gone before you, having finished their race. Hang on! To your faith, your God, determinedly. Abide in Him. “So take a new grip with your tired hands and strengthen your weak knees. Mark out a straight path for your feet so that those who are weak and lame will not fall but become strong” –Hebrews 12:12-13.

What does that look like? Well, it’s more than just staying close. Abiding is obedience to Truth. And Jesus Christ is Truth.Abiding is oneness with God. Being bound to, united with, dependent on Him and His Holy Spirit for every-thing. Abiding is the embodiment of our covenant relationship with God.

I’ll end where I began, with a reminder—an S.O.S.

God is up to something in that unseen realm—beyond the veil. We can feel it. We know it. God is moving, preparing, putting the finishing touches on, if you will, the place He’s gone ahead to prepare for us, his beloved children—His Bride. He’s finalizing his plans. God is removing, shaking loose, and making room for the fulfillment of His promises—every last one, the final turn of His kaleidoscope.

Yet there is hope, friend. There’s always hope, so long as there is breath in your lungs. But this hope is found in Jesus alone. He is the only Way to the Father. The thief on the cross is your proof. “We are punished justly, for we are getting what our deeds deserve. But this man has done nothing wrong.” Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” Jesus answered him, “Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise” –Luke 23:41-43.

So, if you’re His, I encourage you to abide in Him. But if you’ve yet to ask Christ into your heart, know this, the winds of change are blowing. You don’t need to be a Christian to recognize this. Turn on the news, read the front-page headlines, buy a gallon of gas or milk. Take a look outside your window, friend. Creation attests to the fact that everything is about to change. So please, turn to Christ today. “…if you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with your heart you believe and are justified, and with your mouth you confess and are saved” –Romans 10:9.

Fixing Your Heart on God.

August 13, 2022 /
Kendra Santilli

“For my people have committed a double evil: They have abandoned me, the fountain of living water, and dug cisterns for themselves— cracked cisterns that cannot hold water.” –Jeremiah 2:13

In Jeremiah, Chapter Two, God describes Himself as the fountain of Living Water, reminiscent of how Jesus referred to Himself in John 4:13-14. Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” Could this have foreshadowed who God’s Holy Spirit would be to us?

God tells Jeremiah that He alone is the fountain of Living Water, its Source. Through Jeremiah, God asks his people, “what more can you possibly need?” Jesus’ saying that He can give anyone Living Water is groundbreaking to those who know the Scriptures. If Jesus can provide this Water, it must surely be the Spirit of God flowing from the Father Himself.

Within Jeremiah 2:13, God paints a beautiful picture of humanity seeking fulfillment in things that don’t last.

A cistern is a secondary source of water. For example, a cistern would hold water from rainfall. These cisterns could dry out quickly and wouldn’t fill again until there was an overflow from something else or another rainfall. A fountain, like a spring, is a primary source of water. A constant flow of water from which you can continually draw. God is telling Jeremiah His people have abandoned Him for a secondary source of belonging. They have abandoned the True Source for a low-quality, unfulfilling version. One that will leave them sick spiritually and, ultimately, would destroy them.

I see some of us in this picture—today’s Christians that is.

A people who too often neglect God for a lower-quality source of fulfillment, still, I invite you today to read the message found in the book of Jeremiah as a call to humble yourself and return to the Father.

The book of Jeremiah is centered around a prophet in the Old Testament by which this chapter was named. He came from a line of priests in a town called Anathoth, believed to have been about 3 miles Northeast of Jerusalem. We know that Anathoth was still part of the Israelites’ territory because the settlers there were priests from the tribe of Benjamin, one of the 12 tribes of Israel. Because of the amount of lamenting we read from him, Jeremiah is known as “the weeping prophet.” At first, I thought he was just an emotional guy, but as I dove into this book, I realized his weeping resulted from a touch from God that had given him a heart for God’s people—Jeremiah’s heart was hurt by what hurt God’s.

While judgment seems to be a theme threaded throughout the entire book of Jeremiah, we also feel the ache of God’s heart for His people.

We read of God’s desire for His people to be restored to Him before His judgment comes. While the Bible does not talk much about Jeremiah’s life before becoming a prophet, it tells us Jeremiah came from a line of priests, indicating he grew up learning the scriptures. He was not rogue when God called Him. Following the examples of the prophets in the Old Testament, Jeremiah was mentored before stepping into his calling. Jeremiah had submitted himself to the Temple’s work and to serving Anathoth’s people when God called him to be a prophet. The interesting thing about God calling Jeremiah is that his tribe was outside Jerusalem. Year’s prior, King Solomon had banished this tribe from the Temple into Anathoth because of their disloyalty to him. Their being banished tells us Jeremiah came from a line of priests who could only serve the people to a degree but could no longer offer sacrifices in the Temple.

Why would God call someone from this family instead of a priest with full access?

Asking this question of you, Christian, asking it of us all, why would God call sinful people only to banish us from His presence? I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again- God is not afraid of our past, status, or reputation. He has a way of redeeming what seems lost to fulfill His divine purpose. Jeremiah had a specific assignment: to restore the hearts of God’s people to the Lord.

Jeremiah was called to talk to God’s people about God, above interceding for them; God already knew their transgressions and hearts were callous towards Him. The funny thing about this is that we often expect God to force people to choose what’s right, but our praying usually has to be coupled with action. “Faith without works is dead” –James 2:20.

We can pray for our brothers until our dying breath, but if we never open our mouths to sharpen them or tell them about Jesus, we will have only made it halfway. Praying for someone is what prepares their heart. Actions plant the seeds the Holy Spirit will water. Excuses don’t work with God. Jeremiah was a young man who tried to use his youth as an excuse to avoid his calling, but God nipped that in the bud by telling Him that he was purposed for his calling long before he was born. “The word of the Lord came to me, saying, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations” –Jeremiah 1:4-5.

In that moment, the Bible tells us, “The Lord reached out his hand, touched my mouth, and told me: I have now filled your mouth with my words. See, I have appointed you today over nations and kingdoms to uproot and tear down, to destroy and demolish, to build and plant”– Jeremiah 1:9-10. Jeremiah is then filled with the Spirit of God and calls Israel out on their sins as a nation. He also begins to feel the sadness of Israel’s repeatedly turning away from the God who had saved them—time and again. I get the sense that God felt the betrayal by the people that He had chosen long ago to be His family. Remember, the first commandment of the Mosaic law is this: “you shall have no other god before me”– Exodus 20:3. Yet again, Israel had worshipped other gods, even making an idol of the Temple. “Do not trust in deceptive words and say, “This is the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord!” –Jeremiah 7:4.

Israel had turned the Temple into a god instead of turning to God, seeking His presence.

The Temple became Israel’s cracked cistern. What’s yours?

If turning God’s Temple from their Source into a “cistern” wasn’t grievous enough, the Israelites also turned to pagan gods. Any other source save God alone, any cracked cistern, will never sustain you and will cause a depletion of your soul’s life.

Maybe your cistern is a significant other? Perhaps it’s your children, church, pets, home, your money? Where are your attention and affections focused? If Jesus is not the first thing that comes to mind, you’ve found a cistern.

God wants your heart.

He aches for you to come Home, tapping back into the Fountain of Life, His Living Presence in you, His Holy Spirit. Jesus is rich in love and mercy, and He abounds in blessings. God wants to bless you and provide for all of your needs. God wants to fill you with the joy and peace that can only come from His Pure, Living Water.

Hebrews 13: 8 reminds us: “God is the same yesterday, today, and forever.” He wanted the hearts of His people then, and He wants them still. He wanted a family then, and He wants one now.

We were made for God, and in Him is where true peace is found.

Ask God today to expose your “cracked cisterns.” Then, ask Him to fill you with His Spirit, which will cause you never to thirst again.

And friend, if you have not asked the God who gives all who ask His Pure, Living Water, ask Him today. Drink deeply, and be satisfied. No cistern you have used to date will truly satisfy your longings as Jesus can. “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life” –John 4:13-14.

Night Vision

July 23, 2022 /
MaryEllen Montville

“He reached down from on high and took hold of me; he drew me out of deep waters” –2 Samuel 22:17.

It had always been God’s own Spirit at work in David. Wooing, shaping, molding, chiseling away, enabling David to see His God clearly, affording David a relational understanding of Himself few men possessed. It was God who had empowered David to press on amid unjust treatment, persecution, and betrayal.

David’s natural eyes failed him, as every man’s will—think Bathsheba here. Only God’s Spirit at work in David could enable him to see beyond the lusts of his own flesh and into the Spirit realm, discerning God’s will. It was God’s Spirit, His power and ability from which David drew strength, saw clearly, was given direction—enabling him to live by faith, not by sight, feelings, or faulty human judgment.

God’s Holy Spirit gave David something he did not possess in and of himself—night vision.

That ability afforded God’s children, by the power of His Holy Spirit, to see beyond their natural ability. David had it. And, if God’s Holy Spirit resides in you, so do you.

From youth through old age, David praised the faithfulness of his God. I say his God because David’s relationship with God was nothing if not personal, intimate even. Reading through the Psalms, First and Second Samuel, and various other Scriptures, makes this truth plain.

While tending his Father’s sheep, David spent days and nights serenading God with songs of love and adoration. David extolled God, glorifying God’s goodness, love, mercy, kindness, and power. He sang of God’s protection and tender care for him. David exalted God’s creative abilities and awesomeness.

David was a man who lived in awe of his God! There is much we can learn from David.

Whether we have been walking with the Lord for one year or fifty, our learning and determining to keep the flame of our love for God ablaze should be our primary focus, our number one goal in life. “You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength” Deuteronomy 6:5. David took God’s first command to heart, and God took notice of David’s heart. “After He had removed him, He raised up David to be their king, concerning whom He also testified and said, ‘I have found David the son of Jesse, a man after My heart, who will do all My will'” –Acts 13:22.

Yet nothing David accomplished for the Lord, not one thing, was done his own power, no. Hear the Word of God on this Truth: “Then he answered and spake unto me, saying, This is the word of the Lord unto Zerubbabel, saying, Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, saith the Lord of hosts” –Zechariah 4:6.

It is impossible to carry out God’s plan and will in our own power. The Lord has made this abundantly clear throughout Scripture.

David was not a perfect man by any means—none of us are, save Jesus. “You know that He appeared in order to take away sins; and in Him there is no sin” –1 John 3:5.

Yet, despite his many sins and shortcomings, God favored, protected, loved, and inclined His heart and ear towards David. God alone pulled David out of deep waters—and David knew it. He loved God for it. For saving him from his adversaries, those too powerful for David to overcome. And why did God do this for David? Love.

Yes, David undoubtedly loved God unashamedly, but never forget that it was God who first loved David. God who chose Him, anointed him, empowered David to do the work He had planned for him before the foundation of the world—and, as it was with David, so too with you and me. God has chosen us in Christ Jesus for His good pleasure, plan, and purpose—pulling us, pulling you, specifically, out from deep waters.

This mystery is far too great for this finite mind to take in fully! And yet, having been chosen in Christ, saved by Him, I am literally, eternally grateful to God. “You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last—and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you” –John 15:16.

Friends, David was God’s choice long before one song of praise or word of love had ever formed on David’s lips. “Now the Lord said to Samuel, “…Fill your horn with oil and go; I will send you to Jesse the Bethlehemite, for I have selected a king for Myself among his sons. Then Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the midst of his brothers; and the Spirit of the Lord came mightily upon David from that day forward” –1 Samuel 16:1; 13.

And, as it was with David, so too with you and I, Beloved of God.

Like David, we too have been afforded the high honor of having been chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world, sealed, eternally, in Jesus. His Spirit alive, at work in us, assures us of this Truth. “Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might break the power of him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil— and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death. For surely it is not angels he helps, but Abraham’s descendants. For this reason he had to be made like them, fully human in every way, in order that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God, and that he might make atonement for the sins of the people” –Hebrews 2:14-17.

Having purchased us with the unplumbed price of His shed Blood, He is jealous of us, His Bride, wanting our love, undivided devotion, praise, ardent worship, and adoration; just as God wanted David’s. Any devoted husband rightfully expects his wife’s undivided love and affection. How much more than does our faithful Husband desire for all of us to want all of Him?

So let me ask you, friend, when is the last time you spent time just lavishing the Lord with love? When did you last set time aside to spend with God alone?

Now I’m not talking about an hour spent in route or rushed morning devotions. I’m talking about going for a walk or drive together, speaking and listening, admiring God, His creative ability in nature, and giving Him praise for it? When was the last time your heart was so filled with love for God that you had no choice but to cry? Not in sadness, in awe. In gratitude. How about the last time you spontaneously praised God? Just sang or danced before Him, worshipped simply because He is God and deserves your praise?

Now hear me, child of God. I don’t ask these questions to shame or chide you. Know that I ask them of myself before posing them to you. Confessing firstly, I am guilty of falling far short of the above. I am sure that is why, in part, God has placed this teaching in my own heart.

Instead, I ask these questions that we might course correct, returning wholeheartedly to our first Love—seeking out our Beloved, wooing Him.

God isn’t asking us to spend our days doing more and more for Him, family. He’s asked, asks still, that we love Him fervently. Not circumcised in the flesh only, hearers of His Word, but in our hearts, being doers of God’s Word. “I know your deeds, your hard work and your perseverance. I know that you cannot tolerate wicked people, that you have tested those who claim to be apostles but are not, and have found them false. You have persevered and have endured hardships for my name, and have not grown weary. Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken the love you had at first” –Revelation 2:2-4.

Have you asked Jesus into your heart? Welcomed Him into your life as Lord and Saviour? Have you asked God to pull you out of the deep waters threatening to pull you under? If not, friend, why wait any longer? Call out to Jesus right now!

Lifeline.

May 7, 2022 /
MaryEllen Montville

“My dear brothers and sisters, if someone among you wanders away from the truth and is brought back, you can be sure that whoever brings the sinner back from wandering will save that person from death and bring about the forgiveness of many sins” –James 5:19-20.

Lifeline: support that enables people to survive or to continue doing something (often by providing an essential connection).

This message is your lifeline, Beloved. Love is an action word. So is faith. Each connects us to Truth. And what is Truth? Jesus Christ. We see this Truth splashed across every chapter of James’ Epistle. This Truth saturates every Word we read, from Genesis to Revelation. From the very beginning of his writings, James makes clear to his reader: if you simply know God’s Word, as in having head knowledge of ” I know the Bible! I’ve read it from cover to cover!” yet don’t put legs beneath what you’ve heard or read, don’t have a genuine, loving, dependent, entwined relationship with the God who wrote each Living Word you profess having read, you’re only fooling yourself into thinking your faith is genuine. This is not my opinion; it’s God’s Word. “For anyone who hears the word but does not carry it out is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror, and after observing himself goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like” –James 1:23-24.

James speaks to us of practical faith. A faith that not only sees the needs of those around us, those hurting or struggling, in need of food or shelter, clothing, those sick in body or spirit, it also compels us to act. To put legs under what we profess—more, to practically demonstrate, give away, the love we claim to carry within us—the love of Christ. James calls for us to lay down our lives and resources for the wounded brother or sister we see before us—and, truth be told, we all see at least one.

That lonely one there in the back row, in need of conversation and a cup of coffee, a hot meal, maybe even a couch to crash on for the night so they can sleep in peace and safety. “What good is it, dear brothers and sisters, if you say you have faith but don’t show it by your actions? Can that kind of faith save anyone? Suppose you see a brother or sister who has no food or clothing, and you say, “Good-bye and have a good day; stay warm and eat well”—but then you don’t give that person any food or clothing. What good does that do?” So you see, faith by itself isn’t enough. Unless it produces good deeds, it is dead and useless” –James 2: 14-17.

Now before I go on, allow me to clarify something. Your good works will not and cannot save you. Understand that. Your being a “good person” won’t save you, and neither will you just knowing about Jesus. Even Satan knows about Jesus! Good works do not save you. Only belief in Jesus Christ, a genuine relationship with Him, will save you. Not Church. Not reading your Bible from cover to cover, not a pastor, no one but the Living God can save you. “Jesus said to him, “I am the [only] Way [to God] and the [real] Truth and the [real] Life; no one comes to the Father but through Me” John 14:6.

James’s good works in his Epistle are but threads of evidence of your having been transformed, your genuine salvation, being new in Christ Jesus. In having met, been stitched together as one, with the Author and Perfector of your faith. That established, back to where we left off…

Are you guilty of ignoring that one? That lonely one, the hurting one, that one in need? I know I certainly have been. Too busy. No time. What about my privacy, my comfort? If I hadn’t already made plans, then maybe…

I thank God for second chances. I thank God for the ones He sent my way to rescue me, offering me a lifeline, a way back to my first love when I needed conversation and a cup of coffee. When I needed a friend’s couch for the night, some safe place to lay my head and rest. When I just needed to know that I was seen, I mattered to someone. Now hear me, friend, it wasn’t that I didn’t believe Jesus loves me, will never leave me nor forsake me. I had just walked away from that mirror James spoke of and had momentarily forgotten what I looked like, more, who I looked like, belonged to. I needed to be re-minded. And my beautiful, merciful Savior knew just who to send my way.

That is the only reason I can come to you today and speak boldly and confidently. I have been that one. I have been that charred branch plucked from the fire that threatened to take me out on more than one occasion.

I have experienced firsthand that God’s Word, God Himself, is Truth. God can and will and does save us, over and over and over again. And not for just a moment, but our lifetime and beyond. God truly is El Roi, the God who sees. I know this because when I felt invisible, lost, confused, and afraid I had lost Him, God knew precisely where I was. And He saved me, yet again. The Holy Spirit threw me a lifeline in the way of a sister in Christ who came and refused to leave my house until I opened my door. Depression and fear had me believing if people would just leave me alone, I’d be fine in a little while. I just needed some alone time, space to just breathe and think. But instead, God showed up in the flesh that day, and He cleared away every lie that had dared to raise itself in place of the Truth I knew. He made the way back to Himself with this very Truth, spoken in love, yet again. “keep yourselves in the love of God as you await the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you eternal life. And indeed, have mercy on those who doubt; save others by snatching them from the fire; and to still others show mercy tempered with fear, hating even the clothing stained by the flesh” –Jude 1:22-23.

And to say I am grateful, well, those are just words. I owe God my life.

So today, as I do every day, I’ve chosen to lay my life down. To ask God what it is, who it is, He’d have me reach out to this day. He led me to you, Beloved. Please, take my hand, God’s hand. Because even when a lifeline is thrown, you have to want to reach for it, decide to grab it, be desperate enough just to hang on, and trust God to do the rest, to pull you in and back to Himself! “My sheep listen to My voice; I know them, and they follow Me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish. No one can snatch them out of My hand. My Father who has given them to Me is greater than all. No one can snatch them out of My Father’s hand” –John 10:28-29.

And so, having had a lifeline thrown my way on more than one occasion, the Holy Spirit has sent me here to you, my brothers, and sisters in the faith, and those wanting to be. To you, who sit in that pew week after week, searching God’s Word, trying to believe, doing your best to remain faithful, all the while struggling to hang on to the hope you so desperately need, the strength that will keep you coming back to Christ, hungry, just one more day. Or you, who so want to feel alive again—to feel that joy and peace, that fire in your belly you felt when you first believed. You’ve been spending way too much time of late questioning your faith, asking yourself, is it really true? Everything you once held so dearly, so tightly. You hear yourself thinking, “the world around me just doesn’t align with what I’m hearing week after week when I come to church.” I get it; I do. I hear and see many of the same things in the world around me that have caused you to lose heart, question, dare I say, doubt God?

But it is all True, child of God! If you are sitting under a shepherd who teaches the undiluted Word of God, then what you are hearing is Truth. And if you’re not, ask the Holy Spirit to lead you to a church that does teach God’s Perfect Word.

Jesus is the Truth. So then, hear me, please! Be re-minded of Truth. How? By actively putting into practice, determining to heed the Apostle Paul’s instructions, taking it to heart. Applying it lavishly, a healing balm to your every wounded, doubt-filled, questioning place: “Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will” –Romans 12:2. Consider this your lifeline friend, your connection to Truth—back to Christ. The support you prayed for—the shift needed to reroute you who have wandered dangerously close to the edge of “the things of this world.” You who have lost hope. Have been laboring under your own strength. You who have forgotten you were not created to carry your burdens alone. Hear Jesus’ heart toward you, child of God. “Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me [following Me as My disciple], for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest (renewal, blessed quiet) for your souls” –Matthew 11:29.

And, dear friend, if you have read this far and have related to these words more, the Truth of this message. Know this; there is no such thing as coincidence. You are here because God led you here. God’s Truth will remain Truth, eternally, whether or not you believe it. But oh, I pray you do, believe it. More, I pray you grab it, wrapping it tightly around you, using it as the lifeline that will draw you to the saving grace of Jesus Christ, if you’ll let it. “Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up” –James 4: 7-10.

Revealed.

April 23, 2022 /
MaryEllen Montville

“God has now revealed to us his mysterious will regarding Christ—which is to fulfill his own good plan. And this is the plan: At the right time he will bring everything together under the authority of Christ—everything in heaven and on earth” –Ephesians 1:9-10.

The crowd’s thunderous, “…Hosanna to the Son of David!” “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!” “Hosanna in the highest heaven!” –silent now. Even the treacherous “…Crucify him! Crucify him!” vomited up from the mouths of the ones He had come to save, dried up. His Bloodstained Cross lay discarded, yesterday’s news. The very agent of their supposed victory abandoned now. His Cross, burned to ashes, perhaps? They didn’t want to leave behind even a trace of His Precious Blood, erase all evidence of Him, lest one of His radical followers claim this Bloodstained wood held power, leading others to believe that even in death, He lives. Has power, still. Not magic. Not some religious relic. Rather, Bloodstained wood that will never be silenced. Truth, some tried desperately to seal up in tomb-like silence, behind some weighty stone they mistakenly thought would shut up His claims of being their long-awaited Messiah—once, for all. The King of the Jews sealed neatly away, silent now, finally. Blood cleaned up. Body wrapped up. Problem solved!

But God had a plan.

Long before the Third Day Resurrection of our Lord, even before the Trinity stood over the dark void and spoke, God had a plan in place to redeem all of His children, Jew, and Gentile alike, one, in Christ Jesus. Child of God, Your Father has loved you with an everlasting love. I know, such a mystery is too great to take in. For me, it’s right up there with Jeremiah 1:5, “I knew you before I formed you in your mother’s womb. Before you were born I set you apart and appointed you as my prophet to the nations.” Wait, what? Even before I was in my mother’s womb? Wouldn’t that imply…

If you didn’t catch how purposefully loved you are after reading Jeremiah 1:5. Hand-chosen, a unique and vibrant thread intricately interwoven into a lavish tapestry far exceeding anything our finite minds and myopic vision can fully take in; all before that tapestry yet existed, then read this. Let it add some other beautiful layer of certainty as to how it is God sees you. “But now thus says the LORD, he who created you, O Jacob, he who formed you, O Israel: “Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine.

You are His. And, He has redeemed you.

To fully understand the full weight of those two statements, a more than cursory understanding of the ancient Jewish wedding ceremony is helpful here. I won’t get into it now, but I do encourage you to look up a reliable source and read the intricate and detailed process of ancient Jewish weddings. Or back click on the link I’ve provided. Times and customs may have changed, but God’s love and election haven’t.

Ancient Jewish Marriage

It has always been about Jesus—God’s redemptive plan, that is. When Adam and Eve sinned, we catch our first glimpse of “God’s plan” in Genesis. We, God’s children, being covered by the blood of something innocent—a foreshadowing, a sign. God has always given signs to those who have eyes to see. “And the LORD God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife, and clothed them” –Genesis 3:21. An innocent life had to be taken. Innocent blood was shed. The guilty, covered. That’s you. That’s me. That’s the Gospel Message. The Living proof of John 3:16 foreshadowed in Eden. Sinful man saved by the redeeming Blood of God’s Spotless, Perfect Lamb. His One and only Son, our Lord, Jesus the Christ. The Way. “Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” –John 14:6.

“God has now revealed to us his mysterious will regarding Christ—which is to fulfill his own good plan. And this is the plan: At the right time he will bring everything together under the authority of Christ—everything in heaven and on earth. Furthermore, because we are united with Christ, we have received an inheritance from God, for he chose us in advance, and he makes everything work out according to his plan. – And this is God’s plan: Both Gentiles and Jews who believe the Good News share equally in the riches inherited by God’s children. Both are part of the same body, and both enjoy the promise of blessings because they belong to Christ Jesus” –Ephesians 1:9-11;3;6.

Easter is over. The Crown of Thorns vanished, His Cross, ashes. But Jesus is still here. Still very much alive and calling “whosoever will” to Himself. And the Power of His Blood, well, that’s forever. The Blood will never lose Its power—or voice. The work of the Cross is finished. Praise God! But the plan God had for the Cross, its true purpose, continues. I know this with certainty because I’m still here, but that’s for another day. God’s plan to redeem all those chosen in Himself since before eternity past is alive and well today. “Because of Christ and our faith in him, we can now come boldly and confidently into God’s presence” –Ephesians 3:12.

Consider this your invitation from God. Accept His love for you, the plans He has just for you. “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future” –Jeremiah 29:11. Be used by Him, not as man uses you, but be used for God’s glory and honor, weaved into His lavish and beautiful tapestry so resplendent in glory you cannot take it in, yet. But in just a moment, if you’ll but believe, you’ll see as Jesus sees, and every thread will make perfect beautiful sense.

Now I hear you saying, but I have no faith; I don’t know your Jesus. Take heart, friend; Jesus knows you; that’s why He sent me. The truth remains Truth even when you don’t believe it to be Truth. That’s the beauty of Truth, of God. He is unchanging. You can rely on Him, His Truth.

So If you are here, you’re here because God’s called you here. There is no coincidence. You are being invited to join Him; you are one of those spoken of in today’s Scripture. You are part of God’s plan. One He chose in Himself, before the foundations of the world. Accept His offer and come on back home. “Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God” –John 3:3.

Set Apart for Sacred Use

March 19, 2022 /
MaryEllen Montville

“Remember that the Lord rescued you from the iron-smelting furnace of Egypt in order to make you his very own people and his special possession, which is what you are today” –1 Peter 4:20.

God has always had a plan—before He spoke night and day into being, God had a plan. And, if you are a child of God—or will be, you’ve been factored into His plan, designed to fit. Your puzzle piece fits precisely. How? God is ordered and intentional, patient, and methodical. We would each do well to re-member that the next time some “suddenly” touches our lives, when that seemingly random thing happens, changing everything—God has a plan. Proverbs 16:9 reminds us, “We can make our plans, but the LORD determines our steps.”

As it had been in the days of his Father, Abraham, so now with Isaac, another famine had touched Canaan. Genesis 26 opens by informing us that Isaac decided not to go to Egypt, unlike Abraham. Instead, he was headed to Gerar to see King Abimelech. Yet scripture doesn’t inform us whether or not Isaac sought the Lord before doing this; it simply states: “The Lord appeared to Isaac and said, “Do not go down to Egypt; live in the land where I tell you to live. Stay in this land for a while, and I will be with you and will bless you. For to you and your descendants I will give all these lands and will confirm the oath I swore to your father Abraham.” Whether in answer to prayer—or not, God had a plan—and it was very good.

Yet God will allow His chosen vessels to be kissed by the fires of affliction—but its kisses will never overtake them. “So Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego stepped out of the fire. Then the high officers, officials, governors, and advisers crowded around them and saw that the fire had not touched them. Not a hair on their heads was singed, and their clothing was not scorched. They didn’t even smell of smoke!” –Daniel 3:26-27. Isaac’s faith was being tested—refined, as by fire. A famine had struck the land.

The Lord will allow famines to touch our lives, health, family, finances, marriages, and children. Our ministries, plans, and dreams, all that He might test us, our faith in Him, our obedience, our loyalty to Him. In Scripture, Abraham’s life attests to this Truth. King David and Job’s, as well. God refines His people as He alone sees fit. He allows us to be sifted as wheat—yet not without praying we endure such siftings. He sifts some with a Saul, others with boils and a less than supportive spouse.

While others will be asked to sacrifice children on the altar of obedience. “Still another said, “I will follow You, Lord; but first let me bid farewell to my family.” Then Jesus declared, “No one who puts his hand to the plow and then looks back is fit for the kingdom of God” –Luke 6:61-62.

When faced with famine or some lack, spiritual or physical, will we opt to run to Egypt? To that place, we know we’re sure to find plenty, or at least what we want/need right now? Or will we remain in Gerar, where He has commanded us to sojourn for a season—no matter the cost, regardless of our uncertainties, disappointments, or any feelings of alienation we may experience while there? Will we choose to live in the place of God’s choosing, living by faith? Walking our faith out—being doers of what we so readily profess.

“Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God” –Hebrews 12:1-2.

Will we choose faith over fear? Will we “come out and be separate,” choosing to live as the Royal Priests we are? “Therefore, “Come out from them and be separate, says the Lord. Touch no unclean thing, and I will receive you” –2 Corinthians 6:17; Isiah 52:11.

Isaac had to learn this lesson, so did Abraham, as did every brother and sister before us. And so must we. But how?

By the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, our brother Peter points us in the right direction. This very day, and every day the Lord allows us to breathe, we are to remember who we are in Christ Jesus—by calling to mind God’s faithfulness, long-suffering, patience, grace, mercy, His unfathomable love for us. By re-membering, God chose us while we were yet covered in the filth of our sins. We must be intentional in remembering the cost our precious Lord willingly paid to save us. I pray our desire for the things of this world loses sway over us, even now, as we freely, joyfully, submit ourselves to the perfecting work of the Holy Spirit, alive in us. “As God’s co-workers we urge you not to receive God’s grace in vain. For he says, “In the time of my favor I heard you, and in the day of salvation I helped you.” I tell you, now is the time of God’s favor, now is the day of salvation” –2 Corinthians 6:1-2.

Now we could continue on in Genesis 26, witnessing the Lord blessing Isaac for his faithfulness—lavishing him with material favor, because that is Truth. It is precisely what the Lord did. Instead, I feel led to loop us back to something far greater than any material blessing. Of course, I’m talking about God’s saving grace. So, let’s head back to what our brother Peter, by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, had to say in today’s Scripture verse. “Remember that the Lord rescued you from the iron-smelting furnace of Egypt in order to make you his very own people and his special possession, which is what you are today” –1 Peter 4:20.

Instead of speaking to you of the material blessings bestowed upon Isaac, which our God lavishly provides for His children, let me focus instead on that moment when God, in His infinite mercy, removed the scales from our eyes. Let’s choose to re-member that moment when God enabled us to see that we were once dead in our sin—slaves of the “iron-smelting furnace of Egypt.” Yet, because of Jesus, because of God’s infinite mercy and grace, because of His great love and Sovereign election, we now get to call Him Abba! Father! Sovereign Lord! Merciful Savior!

We get to worship this God who so loved Abraham and Isaac, so loves us, that He gave His Only Son, our Lord, to ransom us! “By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, without knowing where he was going. By faith he dwelt in the promised land as a stranger in a foreign country. He lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise. For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God”–Hebrews 11:8-10, emphasis my own.

God has always had a plan—before He spoke night and day into being, God had a plan. And, if you are a child of God—or will be, you’ve been factored into His plan, designed to fit it. Your puzzle piece fits precisely. And this means you, too, friend. God is calling you to say yes to Him. Yes, to His plan and the purpose He has for your life. Today is the day, now is the acceptable time. “But my prayer to You, O LORD, is for a time of favor. In Your abundant loving devotion, O God, answer me with Your sure salvation” –Psalm 69:13.

Blessings, in Disguise.

March 5, 2022 /
MaryEllen Montville

“The Israelites were leaving with their arms raised in victory. But the Lord caused Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, to become brave. And Pharaoh chased the Israelites” –Exodus 14:8.

“I’ve heard it said, “nothing can stop God’s love, and God’s love stops at nothing.”

The Lord had told Abram that His chosen people would be afflicted for 400 years— “Then the Lord said to Abram, “Know for certain that your offspring will be sojourners in a land that is not theirs and will be servants there, and they will be afflicted for 400 years” –Genesis 15:13. We read of the Israelite’s first steps towards freedom from their oppressor through the lens of today’s Scripture. They were leaving behind some 430 years of affliction and subjugation in Egypt. This bloody, tyrannical chapter in the lives of God’s people coming to a seemingly implausible close; God’s Word is inerrant, All-Powerful, it cannot return to Him void. So even as God spoke to Abram, a non-rescindable promise was released over future generations. God’s people would be free. God’s promise would be fulfilled. All of this then, in God’s own time.

No seeming victory by the prince of this world can ever come to bear over the will and plans of our Sovereign King.

It is God alone who gives Satan both the power and permission to execute his thieving, murderous plots and schemes so that, in the end, all men may witness God’s glory and victory over every evil, giving glory to God for the victory. “And I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, and he will pursue them. But I will gain glory for myself through Pharaoh and all his army, and the Egyptians will know that I am the Lord.” So the Israelites did this'” –Exodus 14:4.

So how do we respond when our blessings show up disguised as trials? When the love of God feels like anything but love?

Do we take God at His Word? Do we honestly know, trust, believe that even our trials are blessings in disguise? “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose” –Romans 8:28.

Scripture reveals two vastly different responses to this question.

Yet before we read about those, I pray the Holy Spirit gives us a fresh vision, a new level of discernment, that He does what only He can in removing the scales from our eyes, every preconceived notion we have concerning God, period. Specifically, I pray this as we walk through these perilous times of wars and rumors of wars concerning how we perceive God will, or will not, can, or cannot move, in our lives and our world. I pray we trust His Omniscience. I pray He refines us, bringing us to new levels of surrender to His will. I pray we catch a fresh revelation of the Sovereignty and Power of our God—and fully surrender ourselves to Him, leaving our every fear, our unbelief, need for control, our striving, and grappling at His feet. “Father, not our will, but Yours be done.” Amen.

Hear the heart of God’s people when faced with a situation that looked nothing like the blessing they had been told was coming. “As Pharaoh approached, the Israelites looked up, and there were the Egyptians, marching after them. They were terrified and cried out to the Lord. They said to Moses, “Was it because there were no graves in Egypt that you brought us to the desert to die? What have you done to us by bringing us out of Egypt? Didn’t we say to you in Egypt, ‘Leave us alone; let us serve the Egyptians’? It would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the desert!” –Exodus 14:10-12.

And later, having walked through a seemingly impossible situation, a sea divided, walls of water standing tall, straight, and obedient as soldiers at attention. God continued to stand watch, ensuring the last Israelite stepped out from between the walls of water before commanding them to stand down. God spoke, and the water came crashing down. Exodus 12 informs us some 600,000 men plus their women and children safely crossed the Red Sea on dry ground, the walls of water God had used to deliver His people; He also used to bury their enemy. Yet their grumbling continued. “Then Moses led Israel from the Red Sea, and they went into the Desert of Shur. For three days they traveled in the desert without finding water. When they came to Marah, they could not drink its water because it was bitter. (That is why the place is called Marah. So the people grumbled against Moses, saying, “What are we to drink?” –Exodus 15:22-24.

Having endured a season of crushing, time spent in the wilderness, or the fire of affliction, how long do you walk around with your hands raised in victory and thanksgiving before dropping them, beloved? For the Israelites, it was three short days. The sea had been parted. They’d crossed over on dry land. They sang songs of thanksgiving and deliverance; then, their need for water appears to have washed away any remembrance of the miracle they’d literally walked through.

Is it any wonder that God calls us sheep? How easily we forget, go astray, want what we want, forgetting the blows the sin of rebellion once dealt us.

Until we come to a garden, that is. Not the first one; that is where all this finger-pointing, pride, and rebellion was born. It’s in the second garden, during the watches of the night—Scripture informs us it was about midnight that finger-pointing, pride, rebellion, every sin, was poured into one Life-demanding cup. Understanding fully now that accepting the cup meant death, Jesus knelt and prayed. He asked the Father if this bitter affliction might be removed from Him. But God said no. Not only did He say no, He waited as Jesus drank deeply and all, the very last drop of the sins of this world. Your sins—all of them. Mine, too, poured upon His Beloved Son. God knew the Cross awaited Jesus. Just as He knew, the Red Sea and Pharaoh’s army awaited his people.

God also knew for our sins to be removed, for us to be restored to Him, Jesus had to die. That had always been part of His plan. We catch our first glimpse of it back in that first garden when innocent animals were killed; their bloody skins used to cover Adam and Eve’s nakedness. Even in our rebellion and sin, the heart of the Father is to provide for His children. “The LORD God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them” –Genesis 3:21.

Jesus would eventually finish the work we witnessed in the garden when His Spotless Blood was shed as the final covering for all that those might accept His free gift of salvation.

So how do we respond when God’s love feels like anything but love?

Now, hear the Words of the One who said “absolutely! I’ll go” when asked to lay down His life in exchange for ours. Listen for Jesus’ pure tones of acceptance, resolve, trust, obedience, love, devotion, His wholehearted desire to do endure anything the Father asked of Him. “Then He said to them, “My soul is deeply grieved, to the point of death; remain here and keep watch with Me.” And He went a little beyond them, and fell on His face and prayed, saying, “My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; yet not as I will, but as You will” –Matthew 26:38-39.

And a while later, going back to pray, Jesus’ heart is revealed to us a second time—God always confirms His Word. This same One who took away our sin-blackened garments and, not leaving us naked, cloaks us instead with His Pure White Royal Robes of His Righteousness. “He went away again a second time and prayed, saying, “My Father, if this cup cannot pass away unless I drink from it, Your will be done” –Matthew 26:42.

Friends, God has given us the unfathomable gift of free will. Not wanting robots that love, worship, or serve Him out of fear or some false sense of obligation or duty, God affords us the privilege of serving Him.

The cup Jesus drank in the Garden of Gethsemane affords us that privilege—still. Your ability to serve God, to call Him Father, to carry His Spirit, alive, in you, is the costliest privilege afforded any man, having cost Jesus His very life.

Two examples. Two vastly different responses. Willful rebellion and self-satisfaction on one side, complete surrender, and the giving of self for another, even unto death, on the other.

So not if friend, but when your blessing comes disguised as anything but a blessing, which of these responses will be yours?

If you have not accepted Jesus into your heart, why wait? Ask Him in now, friend. He’s just waiting for your invitation. “Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in and dine with him, and he with Me. To the one who overcomes, I will grant the right to sit with Me on My throne, just as I overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne” –Revelation 3:20-21.

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