But Jesus called the children to him and said, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these” Luke 18:16

Sherry and Jimmie met at a hard rock Black Sabbath concert.
Both were serious substance abusers.
Sherry became pregnant and a few months later, they got married.  But it was awful!
A divorce ended years of abuse.
Strangely enough, God drew them back together.  He had a plan for this family!
What did God use?
Little three-year-old Jason told the pastor, “I want Jesus to bring my daddy home.”

Months later, the couple asked the pastor to marry them.
He agreed if Jimmie would receive Jesus into his life as Sherry had done previously.
So Jimmie said yes.
Now he says,
“Jesus invaded our world that night.  We got up from there and were completely different.”

Now Sherry and blues artist Jimmie Bratcher are sharing Christ’s life-changing story with others.

Friend, your experience might be less dramatic, but God WILL change your life!

By Vonette Bright
used by permission

~~~~~~~

If you don’t know God and his forgiveness and would like to start living a life where he is at your centre, you can start that journey today with a prayer:

Prayer

Lord Jesus, I want to trust you from now on. Thank You for dying on the cross for my sins. I open the door of my life and receive You as my Savior and Lord. Thank You for forgiving my sins and giving me eternal life. Take control of my life. Make me be the person You want me to be. Thank you for enabling me to trust you in these uncertain times. Amen.

~ ~ ~ ~

FURTHER READING

The Gift of Forgiveness – by John William Smith

A Moving Mountain

Searching for a Higher Purpose – Betty Lau shares her story

The post Completely Different appeared first on Thoughts About God.

“You, however, know all about my teaching, my way of life, my purpose, faith, patience, love, endurance, persecutions, sufferings…Yet the Lord rescued me from all of them. In fact, everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.” 2 Timothy 3:10,12

Are you presently going through any pain, suffering, or persecution because of your faith in Jesus? If so, I want to encourage you to not lose hope, give up, or give in. You’re not alone in it. God is with you to see you through. There are people who have gone through, and are still going through, the same thing.

In the text above, the apostle Paul shared about the things he went through in Antioch, Iconium and Lystra, and about the persecutions he had to endure. He didn’t run away from them, but persevered through them patiently. Many of his hardships were unavoidable because of his mission to spread the gospel of our Lord and Savior Jesus. In another letter, he stated, “God will not allow us to go through what we cannot bear, but He also provides a way so that we can endure it” (1 Corinthians 10:13).

The testimony in his story was that the Lord rescued him from the persecutions and was with him as he endured. God knows the best way to deliver and rescue you from any suffering or pain you might be going through. Just trust Him through it all. We can expect persecution, not necessarily because we have done something bad or wrong, but simply because we have chosen to live a godly life in Jesus. Let us rejoice though, because God is with us in it and He will see us through.

Father, give me the grace to go through whatever pain or suffering that comes my way because of my faith in Jesus. Amen.

By Folasade Oladapo
Used by Permission

FURTHER READING

Articles for Hard Times

Starting Over

Feeling Lonely or in Despair

When You Can’t Find an Answer

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The post Not Easy, But Possible appeared first on Thoughts About God.

“We want you to be quite certain, brothers, about those who have died, to make sure that you do not grieve about them, like the other people who have no hope”  1 Thessalonians 4:13 (JB)

The Thessalonian church had buried her share of loved ones. And the apostle wanted the members who remained to be at peace regarding the ones who had gone ahead. Many of you have buried loved ones as well. And just as God spoke to them, he speaks to you.

If you’ll celebrate a marriage anniversary alone this year, he speaks to you.

If your child made it to heaven before making it to kindergarten, he speaks to you.

If you lost a loved one in violence, if you learned more than you want to know about disease, if your dreams were buried as they lowered the casket, God speaks to you.

He speaks to all of us who have stood or will stand in the soft dirt near an open grave. And to us he gives this confident word: “I want you to know what happens to a Christian when he dies so that when it happens, you will not be full of sorrow, as those who have no hope. For since we believe that Jesus died and then came back to life again, we can also believe that when Jesus returns, God will bring back with him all the Christians who have died”  (1 Thessalonians 4:13-14 TLB).

God transforms our hopeless grief into hope-filled grief. How? By telling us that we will see our loved ones again.

Isn’t that what we want to believe? We long to know that our loved ones are safe in death. We long for the reassurance that the soul goes immediately to be with God. But dare we believe it? Can we believe it? According to the Bible, we can.

Scripture is surprisingly quiet about this phase of our lives. When speaking about the period between the death of the body and the resurrection of the body, the Bible doesn’t shout; it just whispers. But at the confluence of these whispers, a firm voice is heard. This authoritative voice assures us that at death the Christian immediately enters into the presence of God and enjoys conscious fellowship with the Father and with those who have gone before.

Where do I get such ideas? Listen to some of the whispers:

“For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain. If I am to go on living in the body, this will mean fruitful labor for me. Yet what shall I choose? I do not know! I am torn between the two: I desire to depart and be with Christ, which is better by far.” (Philippians 1:21-23 NIV)

We don’t like to say good-bye to those we love. But if what the Bible says about heaven is true, and I believe it is, then the ultimate prayer, the ultimate answered prayer, is heaven.

It is right for us to weep, but there is no need for us to despair. They had pain here. They have no pain there. They struggled here. They have no struggles there. You and I might wonder why God took them home. But they don’t. They understand. They are, at this very moment, at peace in the presence of God.

by Max Lucado
used by permission

From: For These Tough Times:  Reaching Toward Heaven for Hope and Healing
(Thomas Nelson Publishers, 2006)

To learn more about Max Lucado visit his website at:
https://maxlucado.com/about-max/

RELATED READING

Oh Death, Where is Your Sting?

When Death Becomes Birth

Dealing with Despair

The post From God’s Perspective appeared first on Thoughts About God.

“My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” 2 Corinthians 12:9

Mona Shriver was taken completely by surprise. Gary, her husband of 20 years confessed to a long-term affair.  She was devastated.

Mona says, “I had to totally rely on God because there were a lot of days that I didn’t think I was going to make it.”

Through those difficult months, Mona learned that whatever happens in her life, whatever her circumstance, God would–and did sustain her!

Was it painful?  Yes, it was.  And there were many times when Mona had to constantly remind herself of God’s promise in the Bible: “My grace is sufficient for you.”  She read it over and over.

It took some time and a lot of work, but Gary and Mona’s marriage was eventually healed.  And today they come alongside other couples in an adultery recovery ministry. God’s grace is sufficient for you!

Unfaithful, Rebuilding Trust after Infidelity by Mona Shriver: https://www.hopeandhealing.us

The Shriver’s have ministered to couples in adultery recovery through Hope and Healing Ministries support groups since 1998.

by Vonette Bright
used by permission

FURTHER READING

**Marital Affairs

Rebuilding After a Wife’s Affair

When Your Husband Has an Affair

Are YOU having an Affair?

Starting Over

**Marriage Problems

My Husband No Longer Loves Me and is Going to Leave

What Pornography Brings to a Relationship

My Husband isn’t Meeting my Needs!

Elma’s Story – Nothing Left To Give
“My husband didn’t know how to acknowledge my feelings and show me the support I needed.”

Why is my Marriage in a State of Conflict?

How Can my Spouse and I Get on the Same Page?

Hope for Those without Hope

In-Laws – Stress or Blessing?

**Making Your Marriage Stronger

Two Keys to a Happy Marriage

Praying for your Husband

Praying for your Wife

Building Your Husband’s Self-Esteem

Faithful to Your Man

Adhesive Qualities in a Marriage – Glue only comes in one flavor

Getting a Proper Foundation for Marriage, Family and Life by Ed Becker

The Trust Factor

Love for a Lifetime

Grace to Keep on Yielding – A story of how a couple chose to compromise and yield their wills during a simple visit to a garden centre.

God Renewed My Marriage

What’s Love Got To Do With It? by Norm Miller

The post Nothing Else But God appeared first on Thoughts About God.

I walk slowly when I pass this tree on the dirt path at the edge of the woods when walking by the creek near my home. Some of the branches overhanging the path are just a little too close for comfort and so I proceed with caution. Because I remember what it feels like to have a thorn painfully piercing the flesh of my arm when I was a little girl.

I don’t remember the specific details of an ordinary afternoon playing in some woods with neighborhood friends, but I do remember it happened when I was six years old and a sharp thorn ended up lodged in my arm, close to my elbow, and I remember my mom and dad coming at me with tweezers to pull it out. I have not forgotten how much I dreaded that pain and clearly indicated it with fierce screaming, on top of the crying I was already doing because a thorn was stuck in my arm.

They had to firmly hold me down, forcing me to be still because I didn’t make it easy for them to remove the painful object. But once it was out and the wound had been cleaned and medicated, the pain eased, and I was up and playing again in no time. The thorn was gone.

Holding onto pain is like living with a thorn lodged in your heart that needs to be removed. Sometimes that means intentionally choosing to let it go even when that seems the most difficult thing to do, and yet you know for your own well-being it has to be done.

It isn’t healthy to keep a thorn in your arm, and it isn’t healthy to hold a hurt in your heart. God wants you to heal. This is His desire for you. He doesn’t want you to go through life handicapped by a neglected wound He wants to heal.

The place where you let it go—is the place He comes in and heals you, and the deep wound becomes a place of healing. God replaces the past and present pain with present and future wholeness…and hope.

He can do that for you because God has healing in His hands.

“He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.” ~Psalm 147:3

By Kathy Cheek
Used by Permission

Are you hanging onto pain? Do you have Jesus in your life so he can bind it up and heal it?   Would you like to have a relationship with Him? If you do,  you can start today by committing and submitting your life to him. It starts with a simple heart felt prayer:

Lord, thank You for dying so we can be set free from all of guilt and sin — no matter how big or small.  Your blood has erased all of our sin. Thank You so much! Lord Jesus, I want to know you personally. Thank you for dying on the cross for my sins. I open the door of my life to you and ask you to come in as my Savior and Lord. Take control of my life. Thank you for forgiving my sins and giving me eternal life. Make me the kind of person you want me to be. Amen

The post The Thorn appeared first on Thoughts About God.

“Do not be bitter or angry or mad.  Never shout angrily or say things to hurt others.” Ephesians 4:31(NCV)

Oh, the gradual grasp of hatred.  Its damage begins like the crack in my windshield.  Thanks to a speeding truck on a gravel road, my window was chipped.  With time the nick became a crack, and the crack became a winding tributary … I couldn’t drive my car without thinking of the jerk who drove too fast. Though I’ve never seen him, I could describe him.  He is some deadbeat bum who cheats on his wife, drives with a six-pack on the seat, and keeps the television so loud the neighbors can’t sleep ….

Every heard the expression, “blind rage”?

Let me be very clear.  Hatred will sour your outlook and break your back.  The load of bitterness is simply too heavy.  Your knees will buckle under the strain, and your heart will break beneath the weight.  The mountain before you is steep enough without the heaviness of hatred on your back.  The wisest choice – the only choice – is for you to drop the anger.  You will never be called upon to give anyone more grace than God has already given you.

By Max Lucado
From: In the Grip of Grace
Used by Permission

To learn more about Max Lucado visit his website at:    
https://maxlucado.com/about/

FURTHER READING

• The Wound of Bitterness
• The Dungeon of Bitterness
• Bitterness in the Garden of Our Hearts
• A Root of Bitterness

The post A Love Too Heavy appeared first on Thoughts About God.

“When he finally came to his senses, he said to himself, “At home even the hired men have food enough to spare, and here I am, dying of hunger! I will go home to my father….”  (Luke 15:17-18)

Most of us can identify in some way with the story of the Prodigal Son. He had spent all his father’s money on wild living and “came to his senses” when he ended up working on a pig farm just to survive and noticed that what the pigs were eating suddenly looked good to him. That’s when he decided to go back to his father, admit his bad decisions and offer to work as a hired hand on his father’s estate. The surprise was that he wasn’t given even a chance to apply for the job. He was welcomed as a son. Before he could get a word in edgewise he was smothered in his father’s love and a welcome-home party began.

What can you do in the face of this other than put the welcome mat out to all other scoundrels out there like you? This is like no love we have ever known before or will ever know. God the Father’s great big hands are open to us and we are embraced without judgment. How can you ever wish for anyone else to pay for you got for nothing?

We crawled back home ready for the worst – ready to eat crow. We were prepared for the taunts from the others in the family – even from the servants. We weighed the cost and decided the embarrassment was worth it. We calculated all that. We left bragging and returned in humiliation. We left on top of the world and returned a failure. And yet there is no “I told you so” speech. There is just joy and acceptance. We come home willing to negotiate a servant’s position and receive a son’s welcome. One day we were sucking up to pigs, the next we are escorted into our father’s house and in the process, we discover the wonderfully good news that we’ve always had a home here. This is where we belong.

Okay, let’s take this one step farther. Let’s think about all the other sons and daughters who are out there ready to come home – looking for a place to belong. How are we going to treat them – like the older son who wanted the younger to pay for his sins, or like the father who forgave?

Once we’ve experienced this, you and I need to put the welcome mat out to everyone – even those we’d rather not have in our family. If there is a selection process, that’s up to the Lord, not us. As far as we know, we are in the business of welcoming sons and daughters of the King, and that includes everyone.

So put out the welcome mat and get ready to have a party!

by John Fischer
Used by Permission

FURTHER READING

• All Are Welcome
• Disciple Through Hospitality
• Welcoming Strangers

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The post Putting out the Welcome Mat appeared first on Thoughts About God.

“But thou, O Lord, art a God full of compassion and gracious, long suffering, and plenteous in mercy and truth.” Psalm 86:15

As I pushed the grocery cart out of the store, I noticed the man; he was collecting money for physically challenged people. He himself was in a wheelchair.

Should I stop and talk to him, I wondered. It was Friday night and raining outside. I just wanted to go home to our warm house.

But then I remembered my brother Frank. The last years of his life were spent in a wheelchair because of being stricken with Lou Gehrig’s disease. Near the end of his life all he could do was blink his eyes for “yes” or “no“. Without a wheelchair he would have been bedridden.

I stopped and talked to the man for a while and donated some money.

Experiencing the frustration of watching healthy people park in handicapped zones (I used to do it too), watching people avoiding meeting my brother’s eyes or not talking to him because they were intimidated changed me. The agonizing experience of watching my brother deteriorate has made me more compassionate.

Hardships do that for a person. We begin to take the time to stop and talk and laugh with hurting people. The tough times build character into our souls. The Lord uses the painful experiences to polish us so people can see Christ in us. Hardships can make us more like Jesus.

Someone once said,
“If you want to shine for Jesus, you have to be polished.“

Father, thank You for the hardships You lead us through. You use them to make us more compassionate, more loving and kind. More tender. Make us be more like Jesus. Amen.

by Katherine Kehler
used by permission

FURTHER READING

Sanding off the Rough Edges –  by Gail Rodgers

Going Deeper with God

How to Know God Personally

• How to Know God Personally

• How to Know God Personally

• Going Deeper with God
• Just for Students
• My God is…
• Making a Difference
• Forgiving Ourselves and Others
• Struggles – Despair – Depression
• Poems
• How to Know God Personally

• Going Deeper with God
• Just for Students
• My God is…
• Making a Difference
• Forgiving Ourselves and Others
• Struggles – Despair – Depression
• Poems
• How to Know God Personally

The post Getting Polished – Why Me Lord? appeared first on Thoughts About God.

“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

I write these words two days after the catastrophic earthquake that devastated the country of Haiti. Every where I turn I see images of people walking through rubble with dazed, empty eyes, women holding their dead or dying babies, children huddled on the street with only rags covering them. I hear the “I-can’t-believe-what-I’m-seeing” voices of reporters experienced with the reality of war but never before seeing anything like this.

A disturbing thought creeps into my consciousness: why is all this only information to me? I make arrangements to send money; I listen to friends who are in the midst of the adoption process and now wonder if their “children” are even alive; I pray. But why is my heart not broken? Why am I not weeping?

Bob Pierce, the founder of World Vision, visited Korea in the 1950’s and saw the devastation of war. He was tormented by the vision of suffering and dying of Korean children. And he prayed, “Break my heart with what breaks the heart of God.”

I have heard that story; I have shared those words with others, but one glaring question faces me with neon-like brilliance: “Do I want my heart broken?” Perhaps you, like I, have had your heart broken at the death of a loved one. Perhaps you have suffered the disaster of divorce, or chronic pain from an illness for which there is no cure. We know what a broken heart feels like and we’re not sure we want another one.

In his book, The Hole In Our Gospel, Richard Sterns, the current president of World Vision, writes,

“Bob knew that he could not love somebody else’s kids the way God did. No (one) can unless God breaks that individual’s heart. Only then can he or she or we care as God cares and love as He loves. That’s why we must pray constantly (emphasis mine) that God will soften our hearts so we see the world the way He sees it.”

The question remains: Do I want a broken heart?

Father, I sit at the crossroad of faith and action. I want to serve you by serving others but a broken heart hurts so much. Help me.

by Marilyn Ehle
used be permission

FURTHER READING

Answers in Times of Great Disaster

Spiritual Sunglasses

Answers in Times of Calamity

The post Do I Want a Broken Heart? appeared first on Thoughts About God.

Most real wisdom, the deep stuff, is formed in a crucible. It is shaped out of pain. We can know many things – things learned in books, things gleaned from observation or conversation, things fitted together through contemplation. All is good, and all is needed. But rarely does knowledge become wisdom without first passing through fire. It’s suffering that transmutes it. The difference between a scholar and a sage is not how much they know, but how much they’ve been broken.

But there’s a danger. Suffering also embitters. The difference between a sage and a grumbler is not how much they’ve been broken, but how much they’ve found grace in their brokenness. The wisest people I know have been through many hard things. But that’s true also of the most bitter people I know. All that’s made the difference, as far as I can tell, is that the wise keep finding grace, and the bitter keep missing it.

The Bible confirms this. “See to it that no one misses the grace of God and that no bitter root grows up to cause trouble and defile many” Hebrews 12:15.

The Bible promises that there is no suffering devoid of grace. There is no pain where grace is absent. There is no loss or mistake where grace does not abound. Grace is everywhere, though sometimes it takes deep searching to see it. I have to choose daily, and then throughout the day, to find grace, and to lay hold of it.

Are you in a crucible? Are you going through something right now that threatens to embitter you?

Just stop. Breathe. Pray. And look around. Do you see it? Some sign of God’s goodness and presence right there, within reach? A cup of hot tea. A patch of sunlight on the floor. A cupboard with food in it. A dog that doesn’t care how messed up you are or how much you’ve messed up. A grandma that loves you.

A God that keeps running to greet you.

Grace abounds.

Don’t miss it, O wise one.

By Mark Buchanan
used by permission

FURTHER READING

• Wise Men Still Seek Him –  by John Fisher

• Get Wise – by Katherine Kehler

• Being Smart or Being Wise – by Julie Cosgrove

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The post What Make the Wise, Wise? appeared first on Thoughts About God.

“We can rejoice, too, when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they help us develop endurance. And endurance develops strength of character, and character strengthens our confident hope of salvation. And this hope will not lead to disappointment.” Romans 5:3-4 (NLT)

Recently, I watched a friend bury his beloved wife. His heart is cracking apart with grief. The loss and loneliness are a crushing burden he carries every day.

It seems almost sacrilegious to read this verse about rejoicing when we face trials in respect to my friend’s circumstance. Does God really expect him to rejoice in this devastating sorrow?

Ephesians 1:5 says, “God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure.”

Do you see the joy and pain in this verse? God’s adoption plan was sending His only Son to die in our place. What pain! What sorrow!

Look what it says next, “He wanted to do it and it gave him great pleasure!”

Pain and Joy. They seem so diametrically opposed to one another and yet, their mutual presence is at the core of God’s rescue plan for us!

Why should this journey of following our Savior be any different?

Joy comes from knowing God and trusting His way. Joy comes from the deep springs of the soul. It doesn’t happen overnight, it’s developed over time as we grab hold of His hand and put one foot in front of the other. As we walk His way.

Jesus said in John 16.33 (NIV), “In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”

Thought:

– Will you choose joy in the pain of your circumstances? What blessings are there in your pain? Take some time today to focus on the good, instead of the bad and make a list of signs of God’s goodness in your life.

– Are you embracing the joy and the pain in your life?

By Kristi Huseby
Used by Permission

Further Reading

• Hope When You Can’t Fix It – by Laura Rath

• Too Much Grey! A Devotional by Allan Mitchell

• Jesus Makes Us Overcomers – by Helen Lescheid

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The post The Companionship of Joy and Pain appeared first on Thoughts About God.

“But God, who comforts the downcast, comforted us by the coming of Titus.”  2 Corinthians 7:6

Owen Shramek lived for only twenty minutes after he was born. His father, Dustin, struggled with anger. During the first months after the baby’s death, Dustin admits he felt very little comfort from God. He prayed, “God, I know You are sovereign.  I know that You are in control.  But the least You could do is draw near to us and give us comfort.”

Well, on the six month anniversary, Dustin was reading through the mail. Letters came from God’s people all over the world.  He came across the Bible verse: “But God, who comforts the downcast, comforted us by the coming of Titus.”  God was answering his prayer through fellow Christians!

Dear one, be comforted. We are part of the Body of Christ. And it’s through this Body that He ministers to us. Even in our darkest days.

by Vonette Bright
Used by Permission

Further Reading

• Trusting God in Suffering – by Karen Woodard

• God Uses Our Suffering – by Charles Stanley

• How to Respond in Suffering – A Devotional by Helen Lescheid

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The post Suffering and Sovereignty appeared first on Thoughts About God.