Faith | Heartstone Journey

On The Other Side Of “Be Still, And Know That I Am God”

One of the places I unplug in the workplace is my daily devotional reading from Streams in the Desert. Whats great about spending time with God in devotionals, reading His word or in prayer…is you never know when something will be stirred in your spirit.

Reading the devotional from January 26th, I was reminded of the time I hiked up Mt. Lafayette to escape the rough and tumble of divorce. I remembered standing on that rock on Mt. Lafayette, a place of desolation, where the call from to “go forward” echoed in my heart as the battle of my destiny moment began. I’m sure you can relate that when life gets tough our complaining gets going. Of course I wanted God to snap His fingers and make everything tight, but there is a timing to His plan.

You Won’t Find God’s Gift Under A Tree, In A Manger Or On A Cross

Ever wonder why God would become a man, to be born in such a lowly manner, and let us treat Him the way we did? Ever wonder why Jesus would, while existing “before all things” and holding “first place in everything” (Colossians 1:17,18); would agree to come to earth as a baby, suffer the abuse He suffered, and die such a painful death? If we continue reading in Colossians we read: “For it pleased the Father that in Him all the fullness should dwell, and by Him to reconcile all things to Himself, by Him, whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of His cross.”

How awesome is that?

This all happened to reconcile us to God. The tough reality is that God makes it very clear, in His word, that He is justifiably angry at humanity’s sin. All of us have sinned — and do so repeatedly. Yet He loves us sinners enough that He gave His own Son to live on earth, die on a cross, and bear sin in His own body, suffering the full weight of God’s wrath — wrath deserved by us all. Jesus paid the penalty to restore peace between God and sinners. It could not have been done any other way.

So Christmas is primarily a celebration of God’s love toward mankind. God never wanted religion (rituals, ceremony, tradition, self-righteousness, law), but an everlasting personal relationship in Truth — with us! Not emotional, time-bound, fashionable hypes, nor “visits” only in churches, but a genuine living commitment to Him. He is after our hearts!

I don’t want you to get lost in the wide scope of it all, so let me sum it up.

Some Thanksgiving Thoughts for You

Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, and into His courts with praise. Be thankful to Him, and bless His name.

—Psalm 100:4

I really like Thanksgiving, because there is not a lot of pressure to go out and buy things. You have to get food, of course. But apart from that, Thanksgiving is not about shopping. It is more about getting together with family and friends and doing what most people love to do, which is eat.

We can enjoy the food. We can enjoy our family. We can enjoy our fellowship. But the real purpose of Thanksgiving is to give thanks. It is a day to focus on giving thanks.

Of course, that is sometimes easier said than done. It is easy when things are going reasonably well, the bills are paid, we have a roof over our head and our health is good. But when times are hard, we don’t want to give thanks at all. But here is what the Bible says: “Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, his love endures forever” (Psalm 106:1 NIV).

What Willy Wonka Can Teach Us About God’s Promises

Whether you’re new to the Christian faith or have walked it out with Jesus for years, have you ever pounded your head against a tree trying to wrap yourself around versus such as:

I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. -Philippians 4:13

So Jesus said to them, “Because of your unbelief; for assuredly, I say to you, if you have faith as a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you. -Matthew 17:20

And whatever you ask in My name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. -John 14:13

We all want to believe versus like this, but many of us don’t experience the promises that these verses offer. Have you noticed that no matter how hard you try, you can’t seem do ALL things through Christ?

What Team Shirts Can Teach Us About Our Faith In God!

You’ve seen this scene before.

People gather together every week for one cause — clapping, singing, worshiping. They donate their hard-earned money and their time, knowing they wouldn’t want to be anywhere else. Heaven, they believe, surely will be something like this. Were you picturing a church? It’s actually a sports event happening in cities across America.

We have this love-affair with sports and we will pay hundreds of dollars for game tickets and sports gear with our team’s logo on it…won’t we? Without hesitation we join in an addictive rant while at games, watching games and checking on games via social media with our praise or curses concerning our teams’ play.

Now picture this. You’re a Red Sox fan and you’re visiting friends in New York and they invite you to a Yankees game (I know it’s tough, but stay with me). You’re a Patriots fan and you’re invited to an Indianapolis Colts game (even tougher to watch) with work colleagues. You so want to wear your team’s game shirt, but you’re outnumbered and want to fit in. So what do you do?

On The Other Side Of “Be Still, And Know That I Am God”

You Won’t Find God’s Gift Under A Tree, In A Manger Or On A Cross

Some Thanksgiving Thoughts for You

What Willy Wonka Can Teach Us About God’s Promises

What Team Shirts Can Teach Us About Our Faith In God!

Favorite Quotes

Cool Scripture

Never Out Of The Fight!

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