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Refreshment in Refuge
by Gina Burgess
“Moses.” “Yes, LORD?” “I saw where it was written about you that you are the meekest man upon the whole of the face of the earth. Why did you write this about yourself? Isn’t that being a bit prideful?” “Well, Father, I would like to recall you to a certain time. Back to the time before the writing of these books of Law You gave us. Back to the time when You called me to a mission.” “Ah, yes. I remember that day very well. I sat upon a bush and caused it to burn. That was a great attention grabber.” “Yes,… ( Click for more )
Self-Control…
There was a man whose feet, I recall, were shod in thin leather sandals, his coat was well worn and his prayer shawl was beautiful in its simplicity. The tzit tzit on his shawl were short, unlike the priests prayers shawls with tassels that dragged behind them as they walked the street. His face was not handsome like those silly girls at home giggled over, but I have never seen a face so full of peace and kindness as this man’s face except the first time I saw it. That day, I thought no man could forget. It was almost the Passover. I hurried… ( Click for more )
I was happily in the middle of breakfast when I heard that the Supreme Court had upheld Congress and President Bush’s aversion to the practice of partial-birth abortion.
There are rarely "no opinions" on the subject of abortion and it usually draws the proverbial line in the sand along with raising blood pressures.
However, this Supreme Court ruling is probably the most significant ruling since Roe v. Wade back in 1973. It is so unusual because for the first time in eons, the Congress, the President and the Supreme Court agree on a single issue: partial-birth… ( Click for more )
Did God allow Job to be harmed past endurance? Did God share with Job that Satan was the one playing havoc in his life? Were any of us around when God laid the foundations of the world and when He hung the stars in place?
Well, if you answered "yes" to any of those questions, please email me, we need to talk.
No, God did not allow harm to Job beyond Job's endurance. Anyone else might have committed suicide. God knew the exactness of Job's strength, faith, will and mental health. God did not allow him to be pushed past a point of no return. God will do no less for… ( Click for more )
Does anyone else think our world is addicted to lust and becoming allergic to God? (That's The Message's interpretation of 2Timothy 3:4,2 Peter 2:10).
It seems that Christianity is the only "religion" that it's okay to persecute. Jesus said that would happen, and it did to the Apostles, and it continued through to today. But perhaps some of it is Christians' fault. Now hear me out before you make a raspberry.
Jesus told us that the way the world would know Him was by how we love one another. The majority of true believers exhibit that love, kindness, gentleness,… ( Click for more )
An irritated chirping sounded from the bushes behind me. Good, I thought. Better the birds should be uneasy in this hush before dawn. I had never heard the city so quite. My chest hurts from so much weeping. I think I have poured out all my tears and yet, more come. My body aches from so much lamentation.
I seek a more comfortable position on this hard rock I chose for my night’s repose… more like a vigil, though. The chill in the fibers of my being had little to do with the chill of the night, although, it truly is unusually cold this night, too. … ( Click for more )
I never really liked going fishing with my Mom. Oh, I loved the fellowship with her, but she caught all the fish while I trailed my hook in the water and fed bait to the fish. One clear day in June, she had talked me into going fishing (her job) feeding the fish (my job). We were trolling along her favorite spot on Lake Bruin and something grabbed my hook. I was so startled I nearly lost my fishing rod. I pulled back then let out the line a little. It was a very strong fish. It headed out in front of the boat then turned back and shot under the boat. That maneuver broke the… ( Click for more )
There is a time to rely on feelings and a time to ignore them. Someone said, I know there are times when I'm not saved because I don't feel saved. Pooh! John wrote the believers so that we could be assured of our salvation. There are several things that give us that assurance. 1 John 4 beginning at verse 13.
1. We don't just talk the walk but we walk the walk. We show love and compassion to our brothers and sisters. We act like a family.
2. We put action to compassion. We help those we see in need. Like James says we don't just pat them on the shoulder and say, "I'll… ( Click for more )
Usually when "one of those passages" keep coming back to my mind, I have found that God is trying to teach me something very important. I have been thinking about the Free Will question. In order to understand Free Will, we need to study what happened in the Garden.
God created Man and he created Woman. He called His creation Good. This is important to completely understand because at first everything was pristine and good and without sin.
We don't know what kind of fruit the Tree of Knowledge had on it. Someone somewhere decided that it was an apple (shrug)… ( Click for more )
Anna Nicole, Brittney Spears, Lindsey Lohan. Everybody knows them. They’re famous. One is dead and no one knew who the father was of that precious baby of hers until after she died. The other two were traveling a road that is fraught with pitfalls.
Where is their security? Brittney was raised in a Christian home, and at one time in her life knew what Christian living was like… at least that’s what she has said. Who knows about Lindsey? It is so sad what I see in their lives; the choices they have made,
Give a person a lot of money and loose any… ( Click for more )
Not one R-rated movie has made a top ten gross since 1995.
According to Numbers.com, a movie statistics website, the movies taking top dollar gross from 1995 to 2007 are PG-13 movies with a whopping $48.55 billion (yes, that is with a B) made from 1,247 movies filmed since 1995. R-rated films come next with a cumalative $34.1 billion made on 2,321 movies. Next in line are PG movies with 638 films grossing $19.9 billion and finally 207 G-rated films grossing $6.35 billion.
Doing a little math, the R-rated movies grossed 30% less than the others, yet more of them were filmed.… ( Click for more )
Ultimate Worship
It is fitting that we examine the ultimate worship in our little study of worship. Who on earth can worship God as He deserves to be worshipped? Only redeemed humans can, but this physical world puts a temporary blindfold on our eyes and other senses so that our worship falls short of God’s glory and worthiness of worship.
All failure to truly worship is rooted in a lack of seeing and understanding. Redeemed humans do have a greater understanding than the unredeemed do, but Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what… ( Click for more )
Isn't it fascinating to think about the fact that all of nature will rejoice and praise God on the Day of Judgement. In fact, all of nature points directly to God Himself every day. We see it in a bloom. We hear it in bird song and trees clapping in the wind. We smell it after the first drops of rain hit the ground on a scorching day. We see it in a rainbow and the colors of a sunset. We see it in sun kissed clouds on a clear evening, and most especially a sparkling night sky, or moonlight drenched garden.
Mankind thinks much of himself.
God knows he is nothing more than grass… ( Click for more )
Rosh Hashannah... Jewish new year... blowing of trumpets... The Gathering... makes me tingle all over.
When I lived in Baton Rouge, I had a delicious opportunity to go to a Messianic Jewish celebration of Rosh Hashannah (Feast of Trumpets). If you ever get a chance to celebrate this you are in for such a wonderful experience. I had never before heard the Shofar blow. The lights were dim and there was a hush as everyone found their seats. I looked at my friend with a, "Well, now what?" expression. There was a trembling excitement from the unknown and the known. The… ( Click for more )
Sun beating down, heat rising up, sweat rolling down and still the man chipped away at the tall stone in front of him. With each pounding of the hammer, more stone pebbles spattered down the stone face adding to the already deep pile of sand and chips. Sand had gathered in the tiny wrinkles of his skin, and his sweat only partially washed the bits of grit away. For hours and hours, perhaps for days he worked on each stone. Words formed as the grit fell away.
יהוה קרא משׁה... ... YWHW called unto Moses … ( Click for more )
Have you ever thought how God might talk to stiff-necked Christians? Have you ever thought about how we weary Him with our cries for help? We act like that servant who owed his master millions then when his debt was forgiven, he badgered all the other servants to pay him back the $10s and $20s. Do you think He might say something like this?
What? Oh you want something from Me? Let me guess. You want me to heal you, or is it you want Me to take away your pain. Ah... you always pray to Me but your prayers are like the bleating of plugged trumpets letting Me know you are in… ( Click for more )
Genesis 22:5 And Abraham said to his young men, You stay here with the ass. I and the boy will go over there that we may worship and may return to you.
Genesis 22:6 And Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it on his son Isaac; and he took the fire and the knife in his hand. And the two went together.
shâchâh (shaw-khaw') A primitive root; to depress, that is, prostrate (especially reflexively in homage to royalty or God): - bow (self) down, crouch, fall down (flat), humbly beseech, do (make) obeisance, do reverence, make to stoop, worship. … ( Click for more )
1"Shout! A full-throated shout!
Hold nothing back--a trumpet-blast shout!
Tell my people what's wrong with their lives,
face my family Jacob with their sins!
2They're busy, busy, busy at worship,
and love studying all about me.
To all appearances they're a nation of right-living people--
law-abiding, God-honoring.
They ask me, "What's the right thing to do?'
and love having me on their side.
3But they also complain,
"Why do we fast and you don't look our way?
Why do we humble ourselves and you don't even notice?'
"Well,… ( Click for more )
Romans 1:1 Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, a called apostle, separated to the gospel of God Apostle literally means "sent one, a messenger, an envoy, ambassador of the Gospel, a commissioner of Christ". Men down through the ages have given it that a real Apostle was taught by Jesus in person. Most people give the 12 disciples the title Apostle and hold back from giving that title to anyone else today because of this. Yet, Jesus was given the title in Hebrews 3:1 For this reason, holy brothers, called to be partakers of a heavenly calling, consider the Apostle… ( Click for more )
I've posted some of Alan Smith's Thought For The Day (TFTD) before, and I'm going to do it today. This one is very thought provoking because we humans have some dangerous tendencies in our frailness. Alan addresses one that could potentially be dangerous to one's faith health...
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WHEN GOD SAYS NO
I heard a story about a young girl who wrote a letter to a missionary to let him know that her class had been praying for him. But evidently she'd been told not to request a response to her letter because the missionaries were very busy. So the missionary… ( Click for more )
Lord God Almighty, our Father in Heaven, your holiness overwhelms. Your love endures forever.
Thank you for our daddies.
Thank you for giving them the wisdom when to say yes and when to say no. Thank you for their lovingkindness and their faith. Father, thank you for teaching them so they could teach us.
Thank you, Father, for helping them find a good woman to love and to bear us, the children, for guiding them, for giving them heart attitudes that nurture instead of divide. Thank you for our daddies’ obedience so they can teach us obedience.
Thank you,… ( Click for more )
What did the disciples try to do under their own strength? Sail across a lake in a storm... cast a demon from a boy... walk on water... understand Jesus' teachings... Probably a better question would be what did they not try to do under their own strength. Jesus made it very clear when He called them little-faiths: ὀλιγόπιστος oligopistos (ol-ig-op'-is-tos) From G3641 and G4102; incredulous, that is, lacking confidence (in Christ): - of little faith. We smile and shake our heads and say, 'How… ( Click for more )
Have you ever noticed in the Bible that when God "remembers" someone, things happen? God remembered Noah and all the living things in the ark... God remember Rachel and she got pregnant with Joseph... God remembered His covenant with Abraham and He brought Israel out from slavery... God remembered Hannah...
One of my favorite remember verses is Numbers 10:9 And when you go into battle in your land against the foe distressing you, then you shall blow with the trumpets, and you shall be remembered before Jehovah your God. And you shall be saved from your enemies. … ( Click for more )
Do you ever have a day like this? I probably should have posted this one last week and then last week's this week. Funny how God works, though, since He is outside time and space.
be still
I want to shout out,
but to no avail.
I work and work at trying to be what God wants me to be
and I always fail.
Help me, Lord.
Carry me over the fjord.
The chasm is deep and
I weep.
Dry my tears.
Release me from my fears.
Carry the truth to those ears
that refuse to hear
the truth.
Put back hair I've pulled out.
Rub the steel… ( Click for more )
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