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Gleanings From The Word

Tag: Devotional

  • Beautiful Roses

    Beautiful Roses

    A prolific bloom of roses

    These blooms are on a miniature rose bush in our backyard. It was given to us as a gift by visiting friends some years ago. We eventually moved it outside. 

    It has been moved several times, and almost died at least twice, but it keeps on growing and blooming. It is a hardy plant.

    When I took the photo yesterday, my mind wandered back many years, to a time when I was working in a bank. 

    I walked into the florist to pick up some flowers as a gift. As I stood paying for my purchase, I noticed some roses tossed into the trash can.

    I inquired about them and was informed that they had been damaged in shipping, with the outer petals frozen. They looked fine to me, and I persuaded the florist to give them to me.

    I took the roses to my office, placed them in a vase, and set them in the sunny window. They opened over the course of the next few days. The outer petals turned black, but the rest of each rose was beautiful and fragrant.

    To me, the dark outer petals framed the beautiful inner beauty of the roses. I don’t recall ever seeing roses that beautiful before or since.

    That is how the Lord sometimes sees us. We have been damaged on the outside through circumstance or bad choices, and the world seems ready to discard us.

    He rescues us and places us in a warm and safe spot. We bloom under His care. Our past imperfections provide a beautiful frame to show off our newly revealed beauty.

    His love, forgiveness, and acceptance let us bloom to our best. We slowly open and become more and more like Him.

     Paul alludes to this idea as he speaks of our becoming like Christ and God’s promise to finish His work in us.

    I thank my God in all my remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine for you all making my prayer with joy, because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now. And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ. It is right for me to feel this way about you all, because I hold you in my heart, for you are all partakers with me of grace, both in my imprisonment and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel.For God is my witness, how I yearn for you all with the affection of Christ Jesus. And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment, so that you may approve what is excellent, and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God. Philippians 1:3-11 ESV

    Until next time, may the Love of Jesus fill you with joy and allow you to blossom and become all God has created you to be.

    Be blessed

    Hallelu Yah / Praise God 

    Kevin

    What’s your favorite book of the Bible?
    A Lesson From the Lilies – no need to worry
    In Bloom – In God’s perfect timing
  • The Walking Dead

    The Walking Dead

    zombies

    Our society is fascinated with the idea of zombies, the so-called  “walking dead”. Your local bookstore probably has all kinds of zombie stories. Numerous television shows and movies feature battles against the living dead as a central theme.

    I believe that the walking dead are all around us, but they aren’t anything like the media portrays them. These people seem perfectly normal, even happy in many ways. Their faces are not grotesque masks, and their body parts are not falling off. These dead are ordinary in every way.

    All people are dead in their sin and trespass. All of us start as walking dead and continue unless God releases us.

    “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” Romans 3:23 ESV

    Our sin destines us for eternal living torment. Unless we are born again of the Spirit, we never truly experience living.

    “Nicodemus said to him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?” Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’” John 3:4-7 ESV

    It is no exaggeration to say that the vast majority of people you see around you daily are dead in their sins. They are the walking dead.

    The dead cannot seek God. The dead cannot choose God. We must take the gospel to them and allow the Spirit to do the work of bringing them back from among the vast hordes of the dead.

    The cure for the actual walking dead isn’t to shoot or stab them in the head. It is to bring Jesus to them.

    Many Christians are hesitant to share the truth of Jesus. It is often fear that holds us back. Fear of rejection or of messing up the message, and more, can inhibit us. Yet, our message is the only hope these people have. All other ways leave them on the path of destruction.

    How significant is the need? Next time you’re out and about, take a look around. Most people you encounter are walking dead in their sin and have no way to rescue themselves.

    Unlike the zombies of fiction, these people cannot bring you into their realm. They cannot undo the work of Christ. We might stumble over them for a while, but we are secure in Christ, so there is no reason to fear them.

    Death has no hold on the believer; it has lost its sting. We will physically die, but our future is a berth in glory. The devil may accuse us, and our stumbles mark us as guilty, but the righteousness of Christ Himself redeems us.

    I urge you to look around with open eyes to see how big the harvest field truly is. Then, may you share the truth of freedom and life.

    Be blessed

    Hallelu Yah / Praise God 

    Kevin

    Are you truly alive
    The Gospel – the best news you will ever hear