Availability vs. Ability
Have you ever felt God asking you to do something for which you know you’re not talented or maybe not qualified? No doubt Esther felt this way when Mordecai instructed her to speak to the king about saving her kinsman. Esther’s obvious gift was in her beauty, her speaking of political matters with the king was never a thought. In fact she hadn’t even had an audience with him in a month, and then only at his request. A person could be sentenced to death for approaching the king without his summons.
Esther’s asking the king to save the Jewish people must have seemed ludicrous. There must have been a mistake in translating Mordecai’s message or in Mordecai’s understanding of God’s will. (more…)
Alignment with God’s Promises Brings God’s Blessings
God has promised us so many blessings in His word. Many of these are conditional – that is, they require something of us in order for God’s full blessing to be released. Some of the most familiar are the “be-attitudes”: “Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God.” (Matthew 5:7-9)
There are three promises I’ve decided to make a pursuit of mine in recent years — promises of blessings that require my action. These are probably some of the most explicit promises of blessing in the Bible, yet possibly some of the most overlooked. I began pursuing these three within a few months of each other. Not too long afterward I felt showered in unexpected blessings. (more…)
Nature Displays a Picture of Psalm 91
On a recent vacation, my husband and I stayed at a house beside the Wenatchee River in Eastern Washington. There were two families of geese, one with three goslings, one with four. The cute babies were very young, their feathers still fluffy yellow. We watched them in our small yard for nine days.
It quickly became obvious how completely trusting and dependent on their parents the goslings were. The parents did all the planning and leading. The goslings were only concerned with eating, sleeping and following their parents. (more…)
The Blessing of the Sabbath
The Sabbath – we think of the Jewish day of rest, or maybe any day when we’re not working, or the day we attend church. Yeshua says of the Sabbath, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.” (Mark 2:27). The Sabbath is one of the blessings God made for mankind to enjoy. He practiced it Himself on the seventh day of creation. Was God tired? Had all the work He’d done on the first six days worn Him out? I can imagine it could, but no — God created it along with the world and its inhabitants as a gift to man, animals and the land.
A day, 24 hours, of no work — to most people that is a luxury. When I first got a hold of the concept that the Sabbath was to be a blessing for man, and decided to try it, it was difficult. (more…)
Messianic Sabbath 