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creation
Since You are God’s idea, you are a GOOD idea
God planned and packed you on purpose for His purpose. Heaven’s custom design.
At a moment before moments existed, the sovereign Star Maker resolved, “I will make _____________.” Your name goes in the blank.
Then He continued with, “And I will make him/her _________, _________ and _________ and ____________ and __________.”
Fill those blanks with your characteristics. Insightful. Clever. Detail oriented. Restless.
And since you are God’s idea, you are a GOOD idea.
What God said about Jeremiah, He said about you:
“Before I made you in your mother’s womb, I chose you. Before you were born, I set you apart for a special work.”(Jeremiah 1:5)
Set apart for a special work — Cure for the Common Life
How have your unique characteristics prepared you to do a special work for God?
From Thomas Nelson’s Grace for the Moment: Morning and Evening Devotional [2008] [Max Lucado] Learn more here
#maxlucado #graceforthemoment #grace
Reclaiming Eve: The Identity and Calling of Women in the Kingdom of God
I had the privilege of reading Reclaiming Eve:The Identity and Calling of Women in the Kingdom of God. Visit HERE to get your copy, today!
To be invited in the blog tour was a blessing, but it was only the beginning. Reading this book blessed me on so many levels. My electronic version has so many highlights in it that the whole book is nearly yellow. It unlocked so many things I already knew and encouraged me to continue searching out true freedom in becoming the woman God intended me to be when He created me: a strong power and agent of rescue. An ezer
The following is an excerpt from Reclaiming Eve Chapter 5
God of Community
The spirit of our times could be described with one word: “alienation.” Garage doors go down, people sit entranced in front of computers and televisions, while the solitary lives we lead are crushing our souls. There isn’t a person God will put in your path today who doesn’t long to be known and loved. The bank teller, the boss, the mail carrier, the child, the client, the sister, the old college roommate who just asked to be your Facebook friend.
If it’s true that God calls to us in our pain, then he calls to the isolated businesswoman who has no friend to call when she needs to visit the emergency room. With arms outstretched, he beckons the teenager who was just rejected by her boyfriend after being used. He patiently longs to comfort the fifty-year-old woman whose father abandoned her at birth, leaving a gaping emotional wound that paralyzes her in relationships.
We all long for connection. The ezers and the adams. The single and the married. Those with power and money and those with nothing. In fact, a study from the University of Chicago showed that as you age, loneliness actually raises your blood pressure just as much as obesity or a lack of exercise. The message: healing is a group activity. It’s not only unfulfilling but also physically dangerous to go it alone.
We were hardwired for community. And while you may not have thought about it in this way, you’ve known it all along. You knew it when your mother or father laid you down as an infant and you longed to be held. You may remember moments of friendship that made your heart soar, along with your confidence. And if you’re anything like me, you remember a time when your body physically ached from the ending of a relationship you held dear.
How amazing that in a world of isolated individuals, God the Creator provides the answer to our longings by pointing us back to his original plan. Remember? A God of community, dancing around in a three-in-one relationship, creates Adam. Immediately afterward, he recognizes Adam’s loneliness, highlighting Adam’s complete lack of any suitable companion. Then God dispenses a prescription with only glorious side effects: to end the loneliness of the single human, I will make an ezer who is suitable for him.
The Creator who made his ezers designed them as agents of rescue to destroy isolation. Think of it: simply by being born female, you are a dazzling testament to the beauty of community. You see, it is not good for Adam, or for anyone, to be alone. It violates God’s design and leaves us empty, depressed, and even hopeless. God created his ezers to remind us over and over again that we cannot, must not, go it alone.
How ironic that the very place in which Adam and Eve violated God’s love is the place in which he wants to restore each of us. His community. The place in which each of us are hurt the most, through our relationships, happens to be the same avenue in which God wants to bring unimaginable healing. Whether or not you like it, you are dependent on other men and women to fully experience Christ’s love for you.
There is so much more packed into this book! You must go and grab a copy for yourself and grab hold of your powerful calling in the Kingdom of God for your good and His glory. You are created in God’s image to be an ezer – a strong power and agent of rescue!
Unlock that power today!
He’ll Bring You Back
God created Adam and Eve and placed them in the Garden of Eden to rule on His behalf.
But, they chose to disobey God’s one command and through them, sin entered the world. They were banished from the Garden and their fellowship with God was broken.
Their.Fellowship.With.God.Was.Broken. This, my friends, hurts my heart. The mere thought of sweet fellowship with my beautiful Jesus being broken just grieves me. It grabs me deep and my soul screeches and pours out, “noooooo!” We’ve all felt further away from God in those times in our lives when we smother Him out and don’t keep Him a priority. But, broken?! Oh, how they must have HURT!
Take this world, the magazine articles written, the speaking engagements, the classes taught, take it all. Take this world and give me Jesus! I’ve GOT to have Jesus!
But, friends, we have an amazing God who is more addicted to fellowship with us than we are to Him. God immediately set into motion His plan to bring us back. This is the story of the whole Bible.
Everything God does is a solution.
God continually works to redeem us for Himself. He wants to lovingly bless us with good things as we seek and find our hope in Him. He is the source of all good things.
No matter what we do, or how we mess up, EVERYTHING God does is a solution to bring us back. Get us back to where we are supposed to be. Back in the game. Back on track. Back in the joy of our salvation. He meets us where we are and never leaves us there.
The story of the whole Bible is God redeeming His people and bringing them back. It also tells us who God is…it reveals His personality, His character, and His plan for us. And, it also reveals His deepest desire: To relate to and fellowship with the people He created. His deepest desire is a passionate, loving relationship with YOU.
Are you at a place today where you are desperate for God? Empty and needing a Savior? Well, guess what….He wants that even more than you do. It’s called grace. So, don’t be shy. Nothing you’ve done will make Him love you any less. He’s better than we humans about that. Go right on up and climb into Daddy’s lap. He’s running to greet you now.
See: Genesis 1: 1-2:4, Genesis 3:1-24, Luke 15:11-32, James 1:17, John 3:16
Is it ok to feel good about your accomplishments?
Then God looked over all He had made, and he saw that it was very good! Genesis 1:31
GOD saw that His work was good.
We can sometimes feel guilty for feeling good about an accomplishment. This need not be so. Just as GOD felt good about His work, we can too…..when it is well done and God is pleased with it.
What are you doing that pleases both God and you?
All Means All and That’s It: Colossians 1:15-18
We look at this Son and see the God who cannot be seen. We look at this Son and see God’s original purpose in everything created. For everything, absolutely everything, above and below, visible and invisible, rank after rank after rank of angels–everything got started in him and finds its purpose in him. He was there before any of it came into existence and holds it all together right up to this moment. And when it comes to the church, he organizes and holds it together, like a head does a body. Colossians 1:15-18 (MSG)
We look at this Son and see all we need to see. He puts everything and everyone in its place, and holds it all together.
In today’s reading Paul is telling truth after truth, point after point, about Jesus
Christ has no equal and no rival!
This Christ we serve…..
He is Lord of ALL.
All means all and that’s it.
Here the matter of the worshiping of created things instead of the Creator is dealt with as people were listening to false teaching of worshipping angels.
At one time or another haven’t we all gotten caught up and before we know it, we place more value on “stuff” than we do Him? Or what about placing more value on people than we do Him?
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That includes you, single woman, placing a desire (and obsession) for a man in your life over the desire for THE Man that’s already there.
Let’s turn this thing around (otherwise known as repenting 1John1:9)
The Greek word Prototokos is used in these verses, one meaning of this word is the preeminent authority over the resurrection of the dead. All who trust Christ will also defeat death and rise again to live eternally with Him (Jesus jigging!! Whew glory!!)!
Christ deserves first place in our hearts, all our thoughts, all our activities, the entire church. First place is His.
Lord, thank You for all You do….seen and unseen to care for me. Thank You that you reign supreme because that means all things are in the right hands. May I always keep first things first….and that’s You….upfront and in charge. In Jesus name, amen
I love you deeply. Walk in worship of the true King.