You are currently browsing the tag archive for the ‘second chances’ tag.
How I suffer in far-off Meshech. It pains me to live in distant Kedar. Psalms 120:5
Have you ever been far from home? You are on vacation or away at school or perhaps your job has taken you away from the familiar surroundings of family and friends.
You love what you do. You have a good life. You feel truly blessed. Yet there is an emptiness, a longing for the stable structure of the familiar?
In Old Testament times Jerusalem and the Temple was home to the Hebrews. It was there that God dwelt. It was in Jerusalem that one felt truly at home socially, ethnically, and emotionally.
But life happened. Through exile and other things the Hebrews were scattered around the Mediterranean world. A few times a year they would go ‘home’ to celebrate God’s goodness, worship His faithfulness and reconnect with family and friends.
When they were with God and His people, life was good. But then the cycle would repeat. Life called them away with a longing for ‘next time in Jerusalem’.
Have you ever felt that longing? Perhaps sin has lured you away? Maybe it’s just the busyness of life. “Weekends are the only time I have for me.” It could be a bad experience when the body of Jesus abused or failed you.
Maybe it’s time to come home. Maybe you need to return to Jerusalem. There is an emptiness when we are far from Jesus. An emptiness he never intended.
Don’t allow the failure of people or the busyness of life keep you from enjoying Jesus!
Bring all who claim me as their God, for I have made them for my glory. It was I who created them. Isaiah 43:7
What’s your story? You have one you know. We all do. They may not be on the written page, but they are written on your heart and most likely on the hearts of many around you.
Everyday you write a chapter. Some may be mundane. Some you may revisit because they are exciting. Others you wish you could erase, but you can’t.
The thing about stories is they are written to bring glory to the author. No one spends days and weeks and months writing a book they don’t want published. Every aspiring author dreams of being on the ‘New York Times Best Sellers List’. Quite honestly, stories are written for the glory of the author.
So let me ask again, what’s your story? Is it one you’d like to keep buried on the closet shelf?
What if you could rewrite the story of you? What if each word, each page, each chapter was, well, enjoyable. You know, the kind of story you can’t put down, that you can’t wait to read the ending.
Here’s the good news. Your story can be rewritten. Not by you, but by the most creative person who ever existed!
By putting your faith in Jesus, God the Father calls you to Himself. Why? Because you are a story that brings Him glory.
There’s nothing you can do to earn it. He doesn’t expect you to do anything but accept his gift of a story that’s creative and fulfilled.
Ever read a story that has a counter plot. You know the kind where the hero or heroin is well on the way to victory but the villain in the story is trying to sabotage him or her.
Yeah, that’s your story too. But wait to the end. You win! And when you win, you bring glory to the author, God the Father.
Let Him write your story!
“The name of the Lord is a strong fortress; the godly run to him and are safe.” Proverbs 18:10
I read a story awhile back about a couple who were hiking in the mountains. As they were walking through a beautiful mountain meadow a storm suddenly erupted.
The thunder was so loud it seemed to shake the mountain. Lighting crashed around them. In the midst of an unexpected storm they were vulnerable, scared, and helpless.
Then the rain and hail came. There was no place to run to. No place to take shelter. Then one of them noticed in the distance, a cave. More like a indentation in the rocks. But it offered them shelter in the storm. They ran to the spot and waited out the storm in the safety of the rock.
The Bible tells us that God is our shelter in the midst of a storm. When the enemies of worry, doubt, broken, relationships, or consequences from bad decisions attack us, He is the shelter that we can run to.
Three things I notice about this verse. First of all the shelter doesn’t take us out of the storm, it simply gives us protection during the storms.
The second thing is that we as believers in Jesus need to run to the shelter. We are not automatically protected unless we run to the shelter.
The third thing I notice, is that there is no particular place to run to. We don’t run to a place, we run to a name.
You can carry a name with you everywhere. It’s a shelter you have with you during every storm, you encounter.
Run to the shelter of the name of the Lord. He won’t take you out of the storm, but he will carry you through it.
Don’t you realize that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you and was given to you by God? You do not belong to yourself. 1 Corinthians 6:19
If money were no object what kind of house would you have? Would it be a beach home where every evening you could sit on the beach and watch the sunset?
Would it be a cabin in the mountains where you enjoyed wildlife, solitude and scenery on a daily basis?
Let your mind wander. Dream a bit. Dreaming can be good for the soul. Walk through your dream home. This is where you want to spend your time. Enjoy!
Now imagine you are God. What kind of home would you like to live in? When God formed you in your mothers womb he created you to be the man or woman he wanted to live in. The problem is, He couldn’t live in a place that sin had desecrated. His beautiful home was ravaged like a home destroyed by fire.
But when we turn our lives over to Jesus, he doesn’t reconstruct our home, he recreates it!
Through Jesus we are chosen, a new creation, a brand new temple God himself is pleased to enjoy. You are the Father’s dream home.
Of course, He’s not done yet. Even though we are a new creation there’s still some stuff from the old place. Poor choices…greed…lust…worry…anger, you get the idea. But you are new. You are chosen. With all the blemishes you have you are still His creation.
No one else is like you because he only wanted one of you. You are enough. You are chosen. You are His temple (dream home).
So now we can rejoice in our wonderful new relationship with God because our Lord Jesus Christ has made us friends of God. Romans 5:11
I am a friend of God.
Let that sink in. The creator/sustainer of the universe calls me his friend.
Friends enjoy each others company.
Friends may not talk for a season for whatever the reason. But when they reconnect it’s as if they were never apart.
Friends know each others likes and dislikes.
Friends are patient with each other and their strange quirks.
Friends defend each other.
Friends don’t measure the depth of their friendship by expectations.
I am a friend of God! I have nothing to offer Him, but through Jesus He gives me more than I can imagine.
Mike Fisk & Built with Grace 