Thursday Devotional – Jesus is Worthy to Open the 5th Seal (2/27/25)

The other day I was trying to drive close to the speed limit and watch changing speed zones, but a car behind wasn’t as careful. They sped up to go around me when the road expanded to four lanes. However, the speed limit reduced right there (as we entered a small town) and a police pulled them over immediately. My first thought was in thanks to God it wasn’t me and that I saw and slowed down timely. My second thought was that the other driver would have benefited from not being so eager to pass me. 😊

Other times, when a reckless driver passes me, weaving in and out of other cars, I do wish they would be caught quickly to end the danger they are bringing to everyone around them. When someone is harmed by someone else, we often want justice served quickly and completely. Even the saints in Heaven pleaded for justice.

Revelation 6:9-11       ⁹ When he opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain because of the word of God and the testimony they had maintained.¹⁰ They called out in a loud voice, “How long, Sovereign Lord, holy and true, until you judge the inhabitants of the earth and avenge our blood?” ¹¹ Then each of them was given a white robe, and they were told to wait a little longer, until the full number of their fellow servants, their brothers and sisters, were killed just as they had been.

God is Just and will eventually avenge evil. He patiently and lovingly withholds immediate justice to give people additional opportunities to repent of their rebellion against Him and turn to follow Him.

II Peter 3:9       ⁹ The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.

In what circumstance are you and I desiring justice? Like the saints in Heaven, I think it is natural and acceptable to ask God “how long?”. The saints didn’t say “Please Judge!” or “Will you Judge?” but asked when will God Judge. Knowing God’s Holy and just character, they knew He would judge, but it was a matter of when. They asked according to His will.

Jesus is worthy to open the 5th seal and graciously gives us assurance that our Holy God will bring justice in His Sovereign time. As we await His justice, we can focus on the grace and mercy He has already extended to you and me and pray for others to respond to His opportunities to repent and turn to Him.

Thursday Devotional - All-Knowing God and His Timing (9/19/24)

"Stupid!" "Idiot!" That is what some of the teen girls were calling the other younger girls at the new equestrian center my daughter, Sarah, tried out last weekend. She loved her time with the horses, but she was quite bothered by the interactions of the teen helpers.

Job’s friends weren’t any nicer! They continued to crush and attack him with words (Job 19:2-3). Job aptly called them “miserable comforters” (Job 16:2). He continued to converse back and forth with them, only to anger each other even more. Job ended by stating in chapter 31 that he can’t think of any horrible secret sin that he committed. To that, the three friends stopped talking because “they had found no way to refute Job, and yet had condemned him” (Job 32:3b). However, a fourth younger man opened his mouth and gave a LONG discourse admonishing Job and attempting to speak for God (Job chapters 32-37).   

Enter God! I can only imagine the fearful trembling of Job and his friends!!!

Job 38:1-5 Then the Lord spoke to Job out of the storm. He said:

² “Who is this that obscures my plans
    with words without knowledge?
³ Brace yourself like a man;
    I will question you,
    and you shall answer me.

⁴ “Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundation?
    Tell me, if you understand.
⁵ Who marked off its dimensions? Surely you know!
    Who stretched a measuring line across it?
⁶ On what were its footings set,
    or who laid its cornerstone—
⁷ while the morning stars sang together
    and all the angels shouted for joy?

Job had pleaded to speak with God and God finally appeared! God’s timing is always perfect for His purposes and doesn’t always fit into our desired timetable. If God had come right away when Job first pleaded, then we would not have his example of continued trust in God, even when everyone and everything around Job was against him.

With what do you and I need to trust God’s timing?

Thursday Devotional - Jesus is Truth – as Perfect Passover Lamb (4/11/24)

John 19:30    When he had received the drink, Jesus said, “It is finished.” With that, he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.

What stood out to me this year as we studied Jesus’s death was that He chose exactly when to die when He “gave up his spirit.” He didn’t succumb to death and His life wasn’t taken from him. He died at the exact moment and time He and the Father planned. In fact, even the timing of what happened after His death continued to fulfill God’s plan.

John 19:31-37         ³¹ Now it was the day of Preparation, and the next day was to be a special Sabbath. Because the Jewish leaders did not want the bodies left on the crosses during the Sabbath, they asked Pilate to have the legs broken and the bodies taken down. ³² The soldiers therefore came and broke the legs of the first man who had been crucified with Jesus, and then those of the other. ³³ But when they came to Jesus and found that he was already dead, they did not break his legs. ³⁴ Instead, one of the soldiers pierced Jesus’ side with a spear, bringing a sudden flow of blood and water. ³⁵ The man who saw it has given testimony, and his testimony is true. He knows that he tells the truth, and he testifies so that you also may believe. ³⁶ These things happened so that the scripture would be fulfilled: “Not one of his bones will be broken,” ³⁷ and, as another scripture says, “They will look on the one they have pierced.”

The Jewish leaders were so concerned about being outwardly clean in order to celebrate the Passover. Crucified before them, though, was the only truly clean and perfect Righteous One. All their previous Passover celebrations pointed to this final Passover sacrifice.

As God had commanded Moses and the Israelites not to break the bones of the Passover lamb (Exodus 12:46), so God made sure His ultimate Passover Lamb’s bones weren’t broken.

As God had commanded Moses and the Israelites to spill the Passover lamb’s blood and take shelter under it (Exodus 12:6-7, & 13), so God made sure His ultimate Passover Lamb’s blood was spilt so you and I could take shelter under it.

Jesus was the perfect and final Passover Lamb. Have you accepted Him as your Passover Lamb who died in your place, taking the judgment you deserve? If so, you and I have shelter under His blood for forgiveness of sins, eternal life, and His robe of righteousness!  

Thursday Devotional - Faithful God through More Servants (3/9/23)

Elisha seemed unhospitable and unwelcoming to Naaman, especially after intentionally asking the king to send Naaman to him!!! However, I think Elisha was behaving this way to make sure all the glory went to God Most High!

II Kings 5:10-13 ¹⁰ Elisha sent a messenger to say to him, “Go, wash yourself seven times in the Jordan, and your flesh will be restored and you will be cleansed.”

¹¹ But Naaman went away angry and said, “I thought that he would surely come out to me and stand and call on the name of the Lord his God, wave his hand over the spot and cure me of my leprosy. ¹² Are not Abana and Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? Couldn’t I wash in them and be cleansed?” So he turned and went off in a rage.

¹³ Naaman’s servants went to him and said, “My father, if the prophet had told you to do some great thing, would you not have done it? How much more, then, when he tells you, ‘Wash and be cleansed’!” 

Our Faithful God used even more servants to accomplish His purposes and plans in this situation! He had them be bold and brave to challenge their master in his fit of rage. Maybe the servants knew the character of the Israelite servant girl and had believed what she had told them about her God.

The way God was responding to the need was certainly different than what anyone expected. I think God was using these frustrations to prepare the heart of Naaman and the hearts of those around him to receive a greater blessing than mere physical healing!

I know I can act like Naaman and get angry when prayers don’t get answered my way or in my time. However, God is still actively working! We can anticipate His greater purposes!   

Our Journey to Adoption, Part I

For a while, we thought it wasn’t God’s timing for us to have children. Then, in 2009, we were studying the book of Isaiah and I was challenged by God’s command to take care of widows and orphans.

Isaiah 1:17   Learn to do right; seek justice.

   Defend the oppressed.

Take up the cause of the fatherless;

   plead the case of the widow.

James 1:27         Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.

As we researched “orphans” in the United States, we realized there are very few orphanages anymore and few of them actually adopt out the children. However, there are thousands of children in the foster system. So, we prayed about whether God was directing us to take care of orphans by pursuing foster-to-adopt.

In God’s timing, several months later there was an “Orphan” conference in Grand Rapids. It was all about fostering-to-adopt. We attended the conference and then signed up for an official orientation class in our area through the Department of Human Services. However, we had bad traffic, were 2 minutes late and the doors were locked when we arrived. We knocked on doors and called numbers we had, but to no avail. We took that as literally a closed door, at least for a time.

God knew we didn’t need to be licensed yet. James wasn’t going to be born for over 2 years. I think God planted the idea early so He could prepare our hearts and test our willingness.

Has God planted a desire or goal or purpose in your heart that hasn’t gone anywhere or worked out, at least not yet? Will you seek and then trust His perfect timing?  

Alice

Caring for Orphans

Some of you know that Joe and I have not been able to have children. We got pregnant in our first year of marriage, but miscarried at 13 weeks. Since then, we haven’t been able to get pregnant again. For a while, we thought it just wasn’t God’s timing.

A couple years later, though, we were studying the book of Isaiah and I was challenged by God’s command to take care of widows and orphans.

Isaiah 1:17                                

Learn to do right; seek justice.
    Defend the oppressed.
Take up the cause of the fatherless;
    plead the case of the widow.

James 1:27             Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.

Joe and I prayed about whether God was directing us to take care of orphans by pursuing foster-to-adopt. We attended a conference about it and then signed up for an official orientation class in our area, but the doors were locked when we arrived (2 minutes late, because of some slow traffic). We knocked on doors and called numbers we had, but to no avail. We took that as literally a closed door, at least for a time.

Four more years past, yet another fertility doctor visited, and we continued to pray about what God wanted us to do. So, last May, Joe went ahead and scheduled another foster orientation, but this time they came to our house. After many training classes and home visits, we were finally licensed for foster-to-adopt a few weeks ago!

Who else are the orphans, widows, or oppressed around you and me?

How might God want you and me to help those around us that are troubled, oppressed, or mistreated?

Alice