Author: astherainandsnow

“Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are varieties of service, but the same Lord; and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who empowers them all in everyone. To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. For to one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom, and to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit… All these are empowered by one and the same Spirit, who apportions to each one individually as he wills. For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body… 

“But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose… God has so composed the body,.. that there may be no division in the body, that the members may have the same care for one another. If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together. Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it… Pursue love, and earnestly desire the spiritual gifts… so that the church may be built up.” 1 Corinthians 12:4-9,11-13,18,24-27;14:1,5b

Every part of the Godhead is involved in the granting and enabling of our spiritual gifts. God the Father empowers, the Lord Jesus assigns according to His grace, and the Holy Spirit inspires their excellence and use. When we identify and accept our gifts, then use them for the good of the body, we honor the Godhead. His it is to appoint and design. He is the master architect of His body, the church.

And every part of the Trinity is extolled when we exercise our spiritual gifts. Every time I, in and with God’s love, put to use the graces endowed by His Son, I sweeten the fellowship of His Spirit among the saints. O Lord, receive blessing from Your giving! (2 Corinthians 13:14)

Where do I chafe against my gifts, or compare with others in envy? Do I criticize because someone else is not pulling his weight or does not match my same zeal in a certain area or effort? What am I doing to help build up the gifts of other people, to encourage their outworking and refining? Am I prone to jump into service that is extraneous for me, but could be the very thing God is calling another to do?

I am dispensable, in that I am not so important that I need to do everything. Yet I am also indispensable, in that God has specific assignments for only me. Am I seeking His wisdom daily to know where and how He would have me contribute in His body, and when I should say no?

Lord, help me be faithful where you have called me to serve with my gifts, and may I encourage others to strengthen and exercise their gifts for Your glory also. Employ Your people to build up Your church to be a beacon in this dark world, and rise to the praise of Your glory.

“My son, if you receive my words
    and treasure up my commandments with you,
making your ear attentive to wisdom
    and inclining your heart to understanding;
yes, if you call out for insight
    and raise your voice for understanding,
if you seek it like silver
    and search for it as for hidden treasures,
then you will understand the fear of the Lord
    and find the knowledge of God.” Proverbs 2:1-5

What Job describes, Solomon echoes. To behold and extract the beauty beneath the surface, the earth must be opened and miners risk to descend and explore. True treasure must be searched for with diligence, care, and sweat. To plumb the depths of our Lord God we must risk in faith and expend energy and time, matching desire with effort, want with zeal. We will never know the wisdom of God if we do not open shafts in our hearts, inquire with our minds, and regularly go deep into His word and search out His character and ways.

Will I set aside fear of conviction and take the plunge? Will I stop my ear to the world’s banter and enticements and listen for truth from heaven? Will I surrender my hard heart and allow my loving God to break it for the things that break His, and remake it? Will I carve out time to explore and adore my Lord in the dark and quiet of each day?

Father, establish my heart, and orient my life, to seek and mine Your treasure. Strip me of cares of this world, that I value You above all else. (Luke 12:29-31)

“Then the Lord said to Moses, ‘Rise up early in the morning and present yourself before Pharaoh and say, “Thus says the Lord, the God of the Hebrews, ‘Let my people go, that they may serve me. For this time I will send all my plagues on you yourself, so that you may know that there is none like me in all the earth. For by now I could have put out my hand and struck you with pestilence, and you would have been cut off from the earth. But for this purpose I have raised you up, to show you my power, so that my name may be proclaimed in all the earth. You are still exalting yourself against my people and will not let them go. Behold, about this time tomorrow I will cause very heavy hail to fall, such as never has been in Egypt from the day it was founded until now.’ 

“Then Moses stretched out his staff toward heaven, and the Lord sent thunder and hail, and fire ran down to the earth… flashing continually in the midst of the very heavy hail, such as had never been in all the land of Egypt since it became a nation. The hail struck down everything that was in the field in all the land of Egypt, both man and beast, every plant of the field and broke every tree of the field… But when Pharaoh saw that the rain and the hail and the thunder had ceased, he sinned yet again and hardened his heart.” Exodus 9:12-18,20a,23-25,..34-35

The God of kings and servants is the God of weather and life. He who sends ruinous hail and quiet snow also gives breath to creatures and hope to man. The Lord makes the human heart– some are soft, some are hard. All the while, and through all of God’s doings, his plans will be accomplished. His ultimate purpose is to display His power that He might be known and His holy name exalted.

We may try to put fences around our lives to keep them untouched by the cruelty, the wasting viruses, the hurtful bullying of the world. We may try to order and control every aspect of our calendar and intentions and safety, but what God desires, He does, and He will complete all that He appoints for each one of us. (Job 23:13-14)

Do we scheme against His orchestration for our own interests and ends, or enter ourselves into the flow of His grand and good plans? Do we cut ourselves off in fortresses of self–protection, or make ourselves available for his kingdom work, to serve and speak for Him, that His name and attributes be known, embraced, and trusted?

When world events are testy and difficult, God opens opportunities to be His hands and feet, to spread His infectious love, to emulate His character, to tell of His grace and the power of the cross. We are His agents to help others consider the eternal, the God who reigns above the hail of violence and disunity, the plagues of indifference, resentment, and self-righteousness.

Lord, who has called me by name, mold me as your servant. May I wholeheartedly live out Your purposes for the spreading of Your name and the praise of Your glory. (Isaiah 49:1-3)

“He stretches out the north over the void
    and hangs the earth on nothing.
He binds up the waters in his thick clouds,
    and the cloud is not split open under them.
He covers the face of the full moon
    and spreads over it his cloud.
He has inscribed a circle on the face of the waters
    at the boundary between light and darkness.
The pillars of heaven tremble
    and are astounded at his rebuke.
By his power he stilled the sea;
    by his understanding he shattered Rahab.
By his wind the heavens were made fair;
    his hand pierced the fleeing serpent.
Behold, these are but the outskirts of his ways,
    and how small a whisper do we hear of him!
    But the thunder of his power who can understand?” Job 26:7-14

When days are long and trials oppressive, pain chronic and the future bleak, we need look up to be humbled by the greatness, vastness, perfection, and might of our God. He it is who reigns on high above the heavens He upholds, strewn with stars He knows by name. (Psalm 147:4; Isaiah 40:26; Colossians 1:16-17; Hebrews 1:3)

When relationships strain, communication sours, love grows tepid, we can cast ourselves on the Lover of our souls and draw from His infinite fount of love, compassion, understanding. We can learn to forgive as we have been forgiven, to love others as ourselves and live unselfishly as Jesus. (Psalm 103:8-13; Mark 12:31; Ephesians 4:32; Philippians 2:1-8)

When skills dull and strength of mind diminishes, next steps are unknown, our purpose unclear, we can draw from God’s divine storehouse of wisdom and grace, trust His counsel and guidance, and believe He unfolds His good plans for us. We can rest content in His sovereign order of our circumstances and enabling for our assignments. (Psalm 32:8; Jeremiah 29:11; 2 Corinthians 12:9; Philippians 4:11-13)

Indeed, Almighty God’s paths are beyond tracing out, His presence uncontainable! We know but the outskirts of His infinite ways, respond to whispers of His measureless wisdom and love, yet even these are enough to change us, to redirect our thinking, to fuel our motivation, to energize our efforts, to make effective and eternally fruitful our service. Imagine the transformation of heart and soul as we grow in our understanding, as we penetrate His edges and hear and heed His ever-more-audible voice! What makes us reluctant to draw nearer, go deeper, listen more intently? What causes us to settle on the fringes of knowing God as He can be known?  (1 Kings 8:27; Romans 11:33)

“Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!

For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.” Romans 11:33-36

Oh Lord, cause me to hunger to know You ever better and more! Keep me worshiping You alone. Teach me Your ways, and grant me strength to live them out. Draw me high and deep, feed me till I want no more, and mold me till I am like Thee.

“The LORD said to Moses, ‘Now you shall see what I will do to Pharaoh; for with a strong hand he will send them out, and with a strong hand he will drive them out of his land. I am the LORD. I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, as God Almighty, but by my name the LORD I did not make myself known to them. I also established my covenant with them to give them the land of Canaan, the land in which they lived as sojourners. Moreover, I have heard the groaning of the people of Israel whom the Egyptians hold as slaves, and I have remembered my covenant. Say therefore to the people of Israel, “I am the LORD, and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will deliver you from slavery to them, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great acts of judgment. I will take you to be my people, and I will be your God, and you shall know that I am the LORD your God, who has brought you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians. I will bring you into the land that I swore to give to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. I will give it to you for a possession. I am the LORD.”‘ Moses spoke thus to the people of Israel, but they did not listen to Moses, because of their broken spirit and harsh slavery.” Exodus 6:1-9

I will. I am. I appeared. I established. I have heard. I have remembered. I am the LORD. I will bring you out. I will deliver. I will redeem. I will take you to be My people and I will be your God. I am the LORD. I will bring. I will give. I am the LORD. Promise upon promise from the great I AM, the covenant God who made, called, and loved His people, were not enough to persuade them to believe and hope, because theirs was a terrible lot. The heavy misery of their oppression had broken their spirits to where no balm of benevolent promise could heal.

We tend to criticize with disbelief when observing with hindsight. Watching from up high gives a vantage point that those in the crush do not have, and it is easy to judge and referee when we have the big picture. The Israelites were so weighed down with their cruel circumstances they could not see above them. Their ears were too stopped with groaning and cries of complaint to hear the melody of promise, their vision so overwhelmed with the impossible task before them they could focus on nothing else.

And we can do the same. Hard responsibilities, ornery colleagues, physical pain, the burden of grief, can all consume our energy and deplete our ability to hear and welcome God’s good promises to us. In every circumstance, He is compassionate, enough, and working good, but we can get choked by despair and fail to take the hope He offers. (Psalm 103:8-14; Romans 8:28; 2 Corinthians 12:9; Philippians 4:19; 1 Peter 5:10)

Oh Father, no matter my circumstances, keep me clinging to Your I ams and I wills. You are worthy to be trusted and praised.

“‘Come, I will send you to Pharaoh that you may bring my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt.’ But Moses said to God, ‘Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the children of Israel out of Egypt?’ He said, ‘But I will be with you, and this shall be the sign for you, that I have sent you: when you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall serve God on this mountain.’ Then Moses said to God, ‘If I come to the people of Israel and say to them, “The God of your fathers has sent me to you,” and they ask me, “What is his name?” what shall I say to them?’ God said to Moses, ‘I am who I am.’ And he said, ‘Say this to the people of Israel: “I am has sent me to you.”’ God also said to Moses, ‘Say this to the people of Israel: “The Lord, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you.” This is my name forever, and thus I am to be remembered throughout all generations.'” Exodus 3:10-15

“The name of the Lord is a strong tower;
    the righteous man runs into it and is safe.” Proverbs 18:10

God’s name embodies God’s person. God’s call to Moses was bundled with a promise of His presence. Moses was uncertain about his worthiness and ability to accept God’s assignment, and God’s answer to his doubt was not a what, or how, but Who– Who had called him with authority and purpose, and whose presence would see him through. As he went forth to Pharaoh, to lead Israel to deliverance from Egypt, his LORD, I AM, would be with him. Always. The name above all names would be his reason, his protection, his power, his guide, his constant companion.

And He is yours and mine today. In our inadequacy, any feelings of not measuring up, or reality of gross inability or weakness, God is with us as our identity, our banner. In fearful situations, ominous threats, uncertainty about the future, God is nigh, with and about us, our palpable friend. (Psalm 3:3) When we anticipate another’s challenge to choices we have made, criticism or question about what we are doing for God’s kingdom, God is enough, all-sufficient, and good.

“Lord, you have been our dwelling place in all generations. Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever you had formed the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God.” Psalm 90:1-2

In what situations do I succumb to doubt and worry, rather than dwelling in the Almighty, resting in His strong name? Do I wear labels like ‘insufficient,’ ‘unworthy,’ ‘adrift,’ or is my life a bold proclamation of Whose I am? He who called me to be His has set His name upon me, and will never forsake His own. I am secure forever. (Deuteronomy 31:6; Isaiah 43:1)

Great I AM, keep me daily bowing before Your name, confessing Your name, and trusting in Your name. Help me live moment by moment for Your high name’s sake and glory. (Philippians 2:9-11)

“During those many days the king of Egypt died, and the people of Israel groaned because of their slavery and cried out for help. Their cry for rescue from slavery came up to God. And God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. God saw the people of Israel—and God knew.” “I sought the Lord, and he answered me and delivered me from all my fears. Those who look to him are radiant, and their faces shall never be ashamed.” Exodus 2:23-25; Psalm 34:4-5

“They cried to the Lord in their trouble, and he delivered them from their distress. He led them by a straight way till they reached a city to dwell in. He brought them out of darkness and the shadow of death, and burst their bonds apart. He sent out his word and healed them, and delivered them from their destruction. He made the storm be still, and the waves of the sea were hushed.” “On the day I called, you answered me; my strength of soul you increased.” Psalm 107:6-7,14,20,29; 138:3

A friend told me she could not believe in a God who had allowed her to suffer so much- suicide of a loved one, chronic pain, multiple surgeries. Others question how God can be God with so much poverty, violence, suffering, dissension in the world. Yet there is the deeper and contrasting thought that we would not exercise the desperation of crying out, and the bliss of knowing God hears and answers, had we not the pain that compels us to do so. When our way is fraught with danger and heartache, our impossibilities are unyielding, God brings peace and refreshment and deliverance in ways we would not have dreamed possible, showing forth His glorious mercy and love to His own.

Invisible God is very present. Unseen God hears, and comes, to palpably comfort and bathe with relief. In our angst and sorrow and burdens too heavy to bear alone, we learn the mercy and lift and embrace of the Almighty. Job suffered the devastation of indescribable loss, physical anguish, betrayal of friends, yet knew intimately in this darkness of soul the hope and intangible, very real presence of his Redeemer. (Job 19:25-27)

“Our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea,..and all ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank from the spiritual Rock that followed them, and the Rock was Christ.” The baptism in our lives of heavy cloud, roaring sea, destroying fire, are our identity with Jesus; our Rock is with us in every trial to comfort and deliver. (Isaiah 43:1-2; 1 Corinthians 10:1,3-4,13)

Where am I moaning in misery, complaining God is unjust, playing the martyr? Would I turn to the living Perfecter of my faith, and trust His word and redemptive ways? (Hebrews 12:2)

Unchangeable Lord, You know every aspect of the way I take. Fulfill Your holy purposes, refine me as gold. Help me not faint in trial, but fly to You who ordain all things. Keep me trusting You when I cannot perceive You, believing You see and hear and know me, and are always working for me and for Your glory. (Job 23:8-14)

“One of the Pharisees asked him to eat with him, and he went into the Pharisee’s house and reclined at table. And behold, a woman of the city, who was a sinner, when she learned that he was reclining at table in the Pharisee’s house, brought an alabaster flask of ointment, and standing behind him at his feet, weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears and wiped them with the hair of her head and kissed his feet and anointed them with the ointment. Now when the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to himself, ‘If this man were a prophet, he would have known who and what sort of woman this is who is touching him, for she is a sinner.’ And Jesus answering said to him, ‘Simon, I have something to say to you.’

“’A certain moneylender had two debtors. One owed five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. When they could not pay, he cancelled the debt of both. Now which of them will love him more?’ Simon answered, ‘The one, I suppose, for whom he cancelled the larger debt.’ And he said to him, ‘You have judged rightly.’ Then turning toward the woman he said to Simon, ‘Do you see this woman? I entered your house; you gave me no water for my feet, but she has wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair. You gave me no kiss, but from the time I came in she has not ceased to kiss my feet. You did not anoint my head with oil, but she has anointed my feet with ointment. Therefore I tell you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven—for she loved much. But he who is forgiven little, loves little.’” Luke 7:36-47

Simon the Pharisee was looking good, spiffed in dress and attitude, entertaining the curious, famous prophet Jesus. All was smooth and right until a street walker entered, shocking the host, puncturing the nice clean dinner party with her tawdry appearance and sin smell. Conversation halted, all eyes fixed on her as she approached Jesus, worthy only to stand behind, anoint His feet, and weep, and lavish affection on this Holy One. Ignoring the love-mercy fragrance blend of her ointment that permeated the air, all the Pharisee could do was criticize. That’s how Pharisees think and act. They look better, do better, judge better, are better.

But when Jesus enters in, all that better gets pushed aside. He knows how we think and checks our horrid pride. He values honest humility, He loves the loving, He forgives the repentant. He mercifully exposes our self-righteousness because He wants to clothe us in His righteousness, but we must be willing to undress and change our superior self-promoting garb.

What condescending attitudes toward others do we carry, and let influence how we treat those unlike us? Where are we dismissing another due to poor choices, or conditions where they had no choice at all, because we are trying to preserve face or a sense of worth in comparison? Would we allow Jesus to perform a mindset makeover?

Father, with Your mindset, by Your Spirit, and for Your sake, may I do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but everything with humility and selfless love. (Philippians 2:1-8)

“Afterward Moses and Aaron went and said to Pharaoh, ‘Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel, “Let my people go, that they may hold a feast to me in the wilderness.”’ But Pharaoh said, ‘Who is the LORD, that I should obey his voice and let Israel go? I do not know the LORD, and moreover, I will not let Israel go.’ Then they said, ‘The God of the Hebrews has met with us. Please let us go a three days’ journey into the wilderness that we may sacrifice to the LORD our God, lest he fall upon us with pestilence or with the sword.’ But the king of Egypt said to them, ‘Moses and Aaron, why do you take the people away from their work? Get back to your burdens. Behold, the people of the land are now many, and you make them rest from their burdens!’ The same day Pharaoh commanded the taskmasters of the people and their foremen, ‘You shall no longer give the people straw to make bricks, as in the past; let them go and gather straw for themselves. But the number of bricks that they made in the past you shall impose on them, you shall by no means reduce it, for they are idle. Therefore they cry, “Let us go and offer sacrifice to our God.” Let heavier work be laid on the men that they may labor at it and pay no regard to lying words.’

“Then Moses turned to the LORD and said, ‘O LORD,.. why did you ever send me?  For since I came to Pharaoh to speak in your name, he has done evil to this people, and you have not delivered your people at all.’” Exodus 5:1-9,22-23

“Jesus answered her, ‘If you knew who it is that is saying to you, “Give me a drink,” you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.’” John 4:10

All of life- how we see it and live it- hinges on whether we know the God who orchestrates it. Pharaoh knew only himself as god, so hearing the request attributed to the LORD, the God of Israel, was both a threat to his authority and a bother to his plans. Why on earth would he stop his building industry to allow his slaves to go perform some religious rite with a deity in which he did not believe? His perspective was as temporal as his domain. If only he knew… that this God was eternal, a God of His word and all power, that this God was LORD of kingdoms and history, that He would bring destructive plagues and great ruin on Pharaoh and Egypt, and indeed deliver His people.

Moses knew this God, so when Pharaoh turned cruel and unreasonable, Moses cried out to his LORD with his desperate complaint. He knew the One who issued the warning was the One who would fulfill His promise.

Do we really know God? If so, what evidence is there in the way we react to His promises, His commands, and life’s hardships?

LORD of all, tie my will, emotion, obedience, even complaint, securely to You, to Your greatness, authority, and glory. May the way I live prove I know You.

“For although there may be so-called gods in heaven or on earth—as indeed there are many ‘gods’ and many ‘lords’—  yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we exist. However, not all possess this knowledge. But some, through former association with idols, eat food as really offered to an idol, and their conscience, being weak, is defiled. Food will not commend us to God. We are no worse off if we do not eat, and no better off if we do. But take care that this right of yours does not somehow become a stumbling block to the weak. For if anyone sees you who have knowledge eating in an idol’s temple, will he not be encouraged, if his conscience is weak, to eat food offered to idols?  And so by your knowledge this weak person is destroyed, the brother for whom Christ died.  Thus, sinning against your brothers and wounding their conscience when it is weak, you sin against Christ.” 1 Corinthians 8:5-12

The Corinthians were tangled up in how to exercise their freedom in Christ, wanting to enjoy eating meat that had been offered to idols because they no longer held to idolatrous practices and superstitions. But Paul turns their yen for justifying pleasures and satisfying wants to their higher purpose: They existed for God, and through Jesus Christ. If all of life is filtered through this divine framework, their first love for Him, and ensuing love for others, would filter their decisions about indulgences.

Who is the real God of my life? How does my behavior prove what I believe? There are many little-g gods vying for my allegiance, and when I give them lip-service, I dally in their worldly wares and ways of thinking. When I serve little-l lords, my fealty is for self and life revolves around my desires, because that’s what lower-case divinities do. They invert rightful reverence and elevate man and his feelings above holy God and truth. But to love God first, I turn from the meat market, from selecting my tasty treats, to considering how I can best honor and build up others. I am happily willing to forego my preference for another’s good.

“The most important is, ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.” Mark 12:29-31

In truth, there is but one big-G God. Does my life give such evidence? I exist through His life and power, and for His glory. Are my daily choices so aligned and yielded? In what areas do I need reminding that I am not my own, but belong to Him? Would I do others the grace of reminding them too? (1 Corinthians 6:19-20; Colossians 1:16)

Good Father, by whom and for whom I was made, may I use my freedom never to indulge self, but always and only to honor You, and to serve and encourage others for Your sake. (Galatians 5:16)