If He Provides Salvation He Provides Everything Else

You can’t help but notice that not everyone is smiling this time of year. Of course those who have lost loved ones in 2013 are especially hard hit during the holidays. Broken families, broken dreams, broken hearts all walk around trying to find the spirit of Christmas and provide for the needs, hopes and desires of themselves or of someone they love. Often it is the loneliest time of year. Unmet ...expectations take a huge toll on people. It seems that as the lights are brighter and the decorations are huge it just makes the rejections, the heartaches, the tears and the fears bigger as well. If we’re not careful we will try to make Christmas be all we ever wanted and have the holiday itself meet our needs and it will come up lacking every time. Can you relate?

This is the season that promises the most blessings and holds the most profound encounters with God Himself. Yet if we make it about the gifts and the decorations, we’ll find our hands full of tarnished tinsel and discarded wrappings.

What is it that you need this season, beloved? What are you looking for to fulfill the longing of your heart? What are you looking for? What is your heart’s desire and your hopes and dreams? Where is your lack? What’s missing? What is threatening to steal your joy, your peace and your promises? What burden is covering the real meaning of this Holy time? How can you move past the messiness of everyday life to enjoy the extraordinary message of Christ?

God speaks to my heart: He is God. If He can provide a Savior then He can provide everything else.

Oh beloved, stop wrapping and wrangling and sorting and running. Before the day becomes a blur of busy-ness, rest for just a moment in the Father’s arms. Let Him be your Savior and Provider, your Jehovah-Jireh. He has not only provided the way to heaven and forgiveness of all your sins, in Him is provision for your entire life. Whatever you are in need of, whatever you are lacking, He has provided. Where you are empty, He wants to give you meaning and more. He can also save you from worry, fretting, depression, disappointment, discouragement, resentment and more. Whatever you take to Him and present before Him, He will provide the answer to that. Give Him all your hurts and wants and dreams for He will either fix them or replace them with something better for you. He hears your prayers and He answers each one with love and care.

Rejoice in the all that God is, in all that God has, in all that you are in Christ. It begins with an everlasting relationship that will be your mainstay for your entire life. Oh what a Savior and oh what a King! He loves you and He’s for you and that’s why all your needs are met, not just at Christmas but every day of the year.

II Peter 1:2 May grace (God’s favor) and peace (which is perfect well-being, all necessary good, all spiritual prosperity, and freedom from fears and agitating passions and moral conflicts) be multiplied to you in [the full, personal, precise, and correct] knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord. (Amplified)

Acts 17:25 and human hands can’t serve His needs—for He has no needs. He himself gives life and breath to everything, and He satisfies every need.

Romans 8:32 He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him over for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things?

Philippians 4:19 And my God will liberally supply (fill to the full) your every need according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus. Amplified

Psalm 23:1 The Lord is my shepherd; I have all that I need.

Go Ahead! Pick Every Ornament from the Lord's Tree!

Our littlest granddaughter loves to pick ornaments from our tree. She will stand and look and fidget and talk and then plop one has been taken in her sweet little hands. Of course this gets a rash of no no’s and don’t do that’s! To which she responds in her baby talk “but I want that!” Sometimes we miss the picking and find an ornament in the kitchen floor or behind a chair later when she’s gone. Just like all children, she loves the shiny baubles and unusual delights hanging. We have lots of lights on our tree as well so all the ornaments shine.

While we like our trees to be merry and bright representations of Christmas in our hearts, we really like the tree to stay full of the things we put on its boughs. Imagine people coming into our homes and going to the tree to pick an ornament and take it with them. Why we’d have nothing left. Our tree would be bare. The things we cherish the most would be gone.

Jesus is the Light and Savior of the world. He came and filled the tree of our lives full of wonderful things. Priceless treasures we can’t hope to have in our own meager means. Each facet of His life holds wonder and awe. From the cross to the grave to heaven – He made the choice to give Himself away so that we could have it all. And now He daily presents those things to us as ornaments hang on the tree.

But the difference is, He says go ahead pick. Choose each ornament. Take it home with you. Live with it. Display it. Shine it. Wear it. But not just on your sweater, wear it in y our heart. Everything God has for us is an object of the heart, for our good and for His glory. It shines, oh how it shines – each and every gifted ornament that’s supposed to be worn by a believer.

What do we see on the tree of life that Jesus has decorated so beautifully? We see Salvation – choose it first, for unless you have that, the other ornaments won’t even budge from the limbs. Choose reconciliation. That’s one of the most beautiful ornaments of the Christian – for it reconciles us to God and it reconciles us with others. Sanctification is another lovely jewel – we must pick it for that’s our key to becoming heavenly minded. Then there are the other wonders of the life in Christ: love, joy, peace, kindness, gentleness, faithfulness and more. There is mercy and forgiveness and righteousness as well! There is purpose – and oh how we all long to live a life of purpose.

No child of God ever has to live in want of any of the beautiful things God has. Even when life around you seems sorrowful, weary or lackluster, the ornaments of the Christian life will warm your heart and keep your mind on Him no matter what.

Oh beloved, go ahead! Run and pick every ornament God has from His tree of life! It’s all yours for the taking. No holding back. No waiting in line. No wondering if you’ll be scolded. Everything is freely given and never runs out.   Open up God’s book of love and see what all He has waiting for you, just for the taking to the heart that belongs fully to Him. While sorrow, sadness and pain can be a huge part of the holiday season, Christ is the reason for Christmas and Christmas can be enjoyed fully with awe and wonder as we look to the One Who loves us unconditionally and watches over us with uninterrupted care.

Jesus desires that your arms and heart are full of His wonder and His joy as you live in the light of His Word.

Romans 6:23b …the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

2 Peter 1:3 seeing that His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence.

1 Corinthians 1:30 But by His doing you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption…

Ephesians 1:3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ

Jesus is Your Key to Entrance and Favor!

Yesterday I came home from work and as I drove into the driveway I noticed a scooter in front of the garage and then I spied a pair of little boy’s sandals inside the garage.  As I got out of the car and walked up the steps to the house I saw that my front door was ajar.  Walking inside I saw some things strewn across the living room floor, a chair at the refrigerator and a tube of icing laying in front of the refrigerator.

Goldilocks came to mind as I realized my visitor had been a grandson!  He’s an icing thief! He loves to come over and eat the sweet concoction that I keep in the refrigerator for decorating cakes.  He eats it right out of the tube. I quickly cleaned up and put things away.  I was glad that the mother of this grandson lives right across the street or I’d have been fearful to walk in.

She has advised me to make sure my front door is locked from now on. Since it’s happened a couple of times I’ll probably do that. I’m not worried about robbers because she’s right here close, but they don’t need to wander in the house alone. I hate to lock it up but I am going to have to. Because the little boy loves icing the temptation is just too great.   I really don’t mind at all that he was in the house, because I love that boy and he’s one of my favorites! He knows where the food is and where the toys are and that makes me feel good that he likes to go into my house.  But for his safety we’ll have to make sure he can’t get in alone.  Still, it is cute to know that he feels welcome to come and go to his grandparents’ house, that he feels comfortable to make himself at home.

Locking our homes to keep thieves out (and to keep grandsons from eating all our icing) is the best choice. Our valuables and our keepsakes are special to us.  We wouldn’t want to come home and find our things ransacked and missing. I think of the three bears who walked into their home in the story from long ago and they knew that someone had been in there.  They probably wished they’d locked their house as well.

I’m glad this morning that although I have to lock my house for safety, God never locks us out of His home. Heaven is an open opportunity for every single person on earth. And although that would be a huge crowd of people, all are invited to freely come in.  Not only that, but all of God’s valuables and keepsakes are there for anyone to enjoy anytime they want.  No one will ransack God’s property because they’ve been granted the key by the Blood of the Lamb – the precious sacrifice made on the cross by the Owner’s Son.  The door to heaven is open to “whosoever will” and His blessings are so many and so wonderful that everyone who calls on the name of the Lord can have access to the entire banquet of blessings.

Have you been holding back? Are you unsure of your standing with God? Do you feel you’ve messed up too much, gone too far, made too many bad choices? Maybe you think you don’t measure up or have the right to enjoy God’s blessings and enter into His Kingdom. God knows all about you. He knows your mistakes, your problems, your secrets. And He’s made a way for the door to heaven to stay open for you. You can’t make it on your own.  But faith in Christ is your key! Not just to heaven either, but to all the blessings of God! You are invited, you are welcomed, you are free to enter in!

Oh beloved, Jesus is your key to a wonderful life! You are welcome to come into God’s favor and enjoy all of His blessings! You can eat from His banquet and rest in His promises. You can live like a child of the King because you are.  God holds nothing back from His own and even when you feel like you’re less than worthy, He is able to redeem you, restore you and keep you in fellowship with Him for the rest of your life.  Open the Book of Life and read about the Key to Heaven, the Way to Blessings and the Joys of Fellowship with Him! For He loves you and He’s for you and that’s all that really matters as you yield your heart to Him and make yourself at Home in your Father’s House.

John 10:9 I AM the door; if anyone enters through Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture.

Romans 5:1-2 Therefore, since we have been made right in God’s sight by faith, we have peace with God because of what Jesus Christ our Lord has done for us. Because of our faith, Christ has brought us into this place of undeserved privilege where we now stand, and we confidently and joyfully look forward to sharing God’s glory.

Psalm 65:4 What joy for those You choose to bring near, those who live in Your holy courts. What festivities await us inside Your holy Temple.

Ephesians 2:13 But now you have been united with Christ Jesus. Once you were far away from God, but now you have been brought near to Him through the blood of Christ.

Ephesians 3:12 Because of Christ and our faith in Him, we can now come boldly and confidently into God’s presence.

Psalm 23:6 Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.