Second Cup of Coffee pt6

Sometimes it’s just good to read a list of God’s Promises to us. Check this out:

Jehovah-Rapha ---God, Our Healer

      Psalm 107:20

Jehovah-Nissi---God, Our Banner

      Exodus 17:15

Jehovah-Jireh---God, Our Provider

      Philippians 4:19

Jehovah-Mekeldishkem---The Lord Your Sabbath

      Exodus 31:13

Jehovah-Osenu---Our Maker

      Psalm 95:6

Jehovah-Tsidkeinu---God, Our Righteousness

      Jeremiah 23:6

Jehovah-Tseva’et---Our Armies

     

Jehovah-Roi---Our Shepherd

      Psalm 23:1

Jehovah-Shalom---Our Peace

      I Peter

      Judges 6:24

Jehovah-Tsuri V’goali ----Our Rock and Redeemer

      Psalm 19:4

Jehovah-Sal I---Our Rock, Hiding Place

      Psalm 18:2

Jehovah-Machseh---Fortress, Refuge, Shelter

      Psalm 91:2

Jehovah-Ma’en---Refuge, Dwelling Place

      Psalm 90:1

Second Cup of Coffee pt 5

Promises

Psa 68:4 ⁴ Sing to God, sing in praise of his name,
   extol him who rides on the clouds^[a];
   rejoice before him—his name is the LORD

Psa 68:5 A father to the fatherless, a defender of widows,
   is God in his holy dwelling.

Psa 68:6 God sets the lonely in families,^[a]
   he leads out the prisoners with singing;
   but the rebellious live in a sun-scorched land.

Psa 10:14 But you, God, see the trouble of the afflicted;
   you consider their grief and take it in hand.
The victims commit themselves to you;
   you are the helper of the fatherless.

Psalm 10:17-18
¹⁷ You, LORD, hear the desire of the afflicted;
   you encourage them, and you listen to their cry,
¹⁸ defending the fatherless and the oppressed,
   so that mere earthly mortals
   will never again strike terror.

Psa 146:9 The LORD watches over the foreigner
   and sustains the fatherless and the widow,
   but he frustrates the ways of the wicked.

      While the voices of the culture scream loudly in our ears, it’s easy to miss God’s promises. According to Psalm 68:4 – 6, we who give our lives to Jesus have every right to praise God. Single-parenthood does not exclude us. The fifth verse refers to widows. When it became clear that my dreams of marriage had to be buried, I felt like a widow. When the prince of my dreams turned out to be a ghost, grief closed in on me. God promises to look after my son and me. He promises to be my son’s father. God impressed on my heart that He will teach Ben and that He will provide for our every need. We can praise Him for it. God has promised to watch over us. We can trust him. He will never lie to us, hit us, or cheat on us. We will never have to get a blood test, or sue for support. God has got your back. God can be trusted.

Isn’t that refreshing?

Second Cup of Coffee pt4

A Woman, a Well, and a Word

John 4:7-42

New International Version (NIV)

 ⁷ When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, “Will you give me a drink?” ⁸ (His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.)

 ⁹ The Samaritan woman said to him, “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?” (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.^[a])

 ¹⁰ Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.”

 ¹¹ “Sir,” the woman said, “you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? ¹² Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his livestock?”

 ¹³ Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, ¹⁴ 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.”

 ¹⁵ The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.”

 ¹⁶ He told her, “Go, call your husband and come back.”

 ¹⁷ “I have no husband,” she replied.

   Jesus said to her, “You are right when you say you have no husband. ¹⁸ The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have just said is quite true.”

 ¹⁹ “Sir,” the woman said, “I can see that you are a prophet. ²⁰ Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.”

   ²¹ “Woman,” Jesus replied, “believe me, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. ²² You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. ²³ Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. ²⁴ God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.”

 ²⁵ The woman said, “I know that Messiah” (called Christ) “is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.”

 ²⁶ Then Jesus declared, “I, the one speaking to you—I am he.”

 ²⁷ Just then his disciples returned and were surprised to find him talking with a woman. But no one asked, “What do you want?” or “Why are you talking with her?”

 ²⁸ Then, leaving her water jar, the woman went back to the town and said to the people, ²⁹ “Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Messiah?” ³⁰ They came out of the town and made their way toward him.

 ³¹ Meanwhile his disciples urged him, “Rabbi, eat something.”

 ³² But he said to them, “I have food to eat that you know nothing about.”

This is an amazing event from Scripture.  It is long, and every word is worth the reading. Here is another adulterous woman. Jesus intentionally meets with her at the community well. It was late in the morning, long past the time when all of the ‘decent’ women had been to draw water. This sister couldn’t even go get provisions among them. But, Jesus chose to meet with her. There is nothing co-incidental about Jesus. He had a plan for this woman. She knew that she needed a savior. By the end of the encounter, the woman was a preacher to the local men who listened and went to Jesus. Many people came to believe in Jesus because of a woman of ill repute.

        Don’t ever think that Jesus can’t use you. Listen humbly to him, give Him your life, and run go tell the good news. The woman left her water pot to go tell about Jesus.  You are worth the blood, you are worth the time.

Believe it.

Second Cup of Coffee pt3

I wrote a brief manuscript back in 2003 about being a single mom, and the many challenges of raising a child on my own. The manuscript includes Scripture that god made especially precious to me during the early years. My pastor read the piece and said that it would make a nice series of blogs. So here we go. I hope that some one is blessed.

He said: The Master’s Response

This they said testing Him, that they might have something of which to accuse Him. But Jesus stooped down and wrote on the ground with His finger, as though He did not hear. So when they continued asking Him, He raised Himself up and called to them, “He who is without sin among you, let him throw a stone at her first.” And again He stooped down and wrote on the ground. Then those who heard it, being convicted by their conscience, went out one by one, beginning with the oldest even to the last. And Jesus was left alone, and the woman standing in the midst. When Jesus had raised Himself up and saw no one but the woman, He said to her, “Woman, where are those accusers of yours? Has no one condemned you?” She said, “No one. Lord.” And Jesus said to her, “Neither do I condemn you; go and sin no more.”     John 8:6-11 NKJV

      Check it out! Jesus knew the real motive behind the humiliation the people were willing to heap on this woman. They had no compassion or mercy and were ready to destroy her to prove a point. The Lord did not answer their accusations, but acted as if He didn’t hear. The Bible doesn’t tell us what He wrote on the ground. The crowd persisted so Jesus said. “Those without sin cast the first stone.” Those folks had to leave her alone starting with oldest. Notice that the oldest of the religious crowd had sense enough to know that Jesus could read their mail so they dropped their stones. If the elders, being the most respected, were dropping their stones, the wild and reckless had to drop theirs. Jesus then addresses the woman with kindness. He doesn’t condemn her. He lifts her up to go and sin no more. Our Lord does the same for you and me. If we give our lives, our bodies, and our souls to Jesus to obey Him only, there is no condemnation. Romans 8:1 says “There is no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.”

      We can live clean and free in Him Who loves us. Feel the warmth of His love and let Him set you free from the voices that keep you down in the dirt. In the words of my nephew, ‘shake it off, shake it off.’