Christmas Is About Love

David and I were reading our Daily Devotions this morning and I was touched about their explanation of the true meaning of Christmas.  I want to share that with you today.

Christmas is not about what we find under the tree.  It’s about giving.  God came down the stair of heaven with a baby in His arms.  It’s His gift of love given to us out of His heart of love.

I intend to focus on that during this season.  God gave of Himself because He loves us.  I think it would be good for us to think of what we have to give to others this holiday season.  If we have peace, we can give it.  If we have joy, we can give it.  If we have a listening ear, we can offer it to someone who needs to talk.  If we have wisdom or encouragement, we can share it.  If we have a smile (and who doesn’t??), we can show it.

Let’s spend this next two weeks sharing what we have—from a heart that loves!

God bless you,

Karol

My thoughts today are taken from the Daily Devotional entitled, “Love Talk—A Devotional For Couples by Les and Leslie Parrott.

Day 178  I AM Right Now

John 11:25  The Message (MSG)

“I am, right now, Resurrection and Life…. Do you believe this?"

Perhaps you have an area of your life where things seem stagnant----where there seems to be no way out or no hope of change?

Mary and Martha were experiencing that.  Lazarus had been dead for four days.  Pretty “hopeless,” wouldn’t you say?

When Lazarus became sick, Mary and Martha called for Jesus to come quickly.  Jesus was very strategic in the timing of his journey to go to them. 

John 11:6   (NIV1984)

Yet when he heard that Lazarus was sick, he stayed where he was two more days.

AAAAAHHHHH!!  “Jesus, what are You thinking??  Where are You when I need You??”  Have you ever felt like that??  “God, what is the delay?”

Jesus did not hurry because He already knew how this was going to play out.  He had consulted with God and He had the confidence of what to do in the timing He was to do it.

Let’s go back and look again:

John 11:4 (NIV1984)

When he heard this,(that Lazarus was sick) Jesus said, “This sickness will not end in death. No, it is for God’s glory so that God’s Son may be glorified through it.”

No need to rush!  In fact the timing of this miracle was going to confirm that this was God’s doing.  In the meantime, Lazarus died.  What could get more “hopeless” than that?

Upon arriving in Bethany, Jesus said to Martha, “Your brother will rise again.”  (Verse 23)

Martha answered, “I know he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.”  (Verse 24)

Jesus replied, “I AM the resurrection….” And I am right here now!  The Message Bible says:   “You don’t have to wait for the End.  I AM right now, Resurrection and Life.”

When you call to God, He sends LIFE into your situation.  He wants you to trust that what He is saying is true.

Will you look to Jesus today and invite Him into your stagnant, dead circumstance??  Will you believe that when you pray, the great “I AM” is on the way to help you??  See Him walk in the door of your home and say, “I AM right now.”

GPS  (Directions for our journey)

Take a piece of card stock (even a recipe card will do) and write on it:

            John 11: 25 MSG

          I AM right now!!

Put it in your Bible so you can see it as you begin your daily “meeting with God.”  The life of God is in your midst, answering your call.

Prayer Focus:

Father, thank You for hearing my prayer and coming to me.  Thank You that You are here right now, bringing new life into my situation, and Father, I will be quick to give You all the glory for it!  Amen!

Day 175 and 176

God said, “I AM who I AM,” (Exodus 3:14)  Tell them “I AM” is on the scene!  Okay, that’s a Karol Horken paraphrase, but you get the picture.  God is here and He wants to manifest Himself in our lives in the following ways: 

(Spend time with Him, worshipping Him that He is each of these things to you!!  EnJOY!

I AM your Shepherd.

            I watch over you.

            I go get you when you get off track.

            I bring you back.

            I hold you next to my heart to comfort you.

            I take care of you and soothe you.

            I meet all your needs.

I AM your Savior.

            I rescue you.

            I bring you into the fold.

            I go get you in your hard place.

            I save you from death and destruction.

I AM your peace.

            I calm the seas for you.

            I make straight your paths.

            I speak to you.

            I give you rest.

I AM there for you.

            I listen to you.

            I answer you.

            I comfort you.

            I provide for you.

I AM your healer.

            I made you and I know how to fix you.

            I heal your hurting heart.

            I heal your relationships.

            I heal your trauma.

            I heal your emotions.

            I heal your body.

God bless your day!  Feel free to comment if you have been blessed by this series on “I AM God.”

 Day 173     I AM Your Victory

Exodus 17:15-16 (NIV)

Moses built an altar and called it The LORD is my Banner.

He said, “Because hands were lifted up against the throne of the LORD, the LORD will be at war against the Amalekites from generation to generation.”

God fights my battles for me and always causes me to be a winner .

As long as Moses’ arms were up, he was winning.  God always wants us to be involved in the process.  That’s why He created us with a free will.  He wants us to come to Him and put our faith in Him.

2 Corinthians 2:14   (NKJV)

 Now thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and through us diffuses the fragrance of His knowledge in every place.

Wow!  Did you see that??  He “ALWAYS” causes us to triumph!  If you will notice in the previous verse, Paul had no peace.  In the midst of Paul’s unrest He knew that God would bring him through to victory.  What a wonderful promise that is!!

1 Corinthians 15:57 (NIV1984)

But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

God gives us so many things and one of those things is victory!!  Aren’t you so glad about that, and aren’t you so glad that you don’t have to do it yourself—because you can’t anyway!!

GPS  (Directions)

Today I am only going to give you one scripture to wrap around your heart.  Meditate on His love and His strength in these His words to you:

            Romans 8: 31-39

Prayer Focus:

Thank our wonderful Jesus for loving us enough to die for us and now to pray for us so that can conquer every problem that comes into our lives.

Day 173    I AM Your Sanctifier

Exodus 31:13b   (NIV1984)

….. so you may know that I am the LORD, who makes you holy.

It is Jesus who sets us apart as holy.  God is instructing the people to set aside a time to rest (a Sabbath) in order to remember Jesus and keep Him alive in our thoughts and in our lives and to teach our families to do the same.

The Bible says in…..

Hebrews 13:12  (NIV1984)

And so Jesus also suffered outside the city gate to make the people holy through His own blood.

When I think of how Jesus suffered on the cross and shed His precious blood for me ---that in all my sin, I might be sanctified (washed) clean --it makes me want to live for Him.  He gave His all for me.  I want to give my all for Him!

When the devil accuses us by bringing up our sin, Jesus walks into the “courtroom” with us and says to God, “This is Karol.  She accepted Me as her Savior so she is one of Ours.”  God looks at the devil, slams the gavel down and says, “Game over!!”  I like that picture!!

You might say, “Is that really true?” 

Yes, that is how it is.  Jesus did all the suffering for you.  All He is asking You to do is stay close to Him and follow His ways.  If you stray from Him, He will come and get you and bring you back under His covering of sanctification. 

That was always God’s plan.  He knew we were going to mess up and that we would need a Savior.  In His love for us, He provided His own Son to suffer in our place.  How could we not live our lives wholly and purposefully for Him??

GPS  (Directions)

Reinforce God’s finished work of sanctification in the following scriptures.  When you receive Christ as Your Savior, You stand with Him in the courtroom of heaven.  Jesus is at your side, explaining to God that You are one of the family!!

·         I Peter 1:2

·         I Corinthians 1:30

·         Ephesians 5:26

Prayer Focus:

Father, help me to stay away from the contamination of this world so that I can fully walk in all that Jesus did for me.

Day 172   I AM Your Refuge

Deuteronomy 33:27   (NIV1984)

The eternal God is your refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms.   He will drive out your enemy before you, saying, ‘Destroy him!’

Get a picture  of this—God picks you up as if you were a child and holds you in His arms as your enemies come after you to destroy you.  God shouts to His angels, “Destroy them!!”

Now I don’t know about you but that makes me feel safe and secure.  That’s my “Dad.”  Strong, powerful, protective and bold—and He cares for me!

There is safety in God . The Bible says:

Psalm 46:1 (NIV1984)

 God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble.

Ever been in trouble?  I think we all have.  This truth says that God is “ever present.”  He is in our airspace.  He is right there.  (See Day 164)  He is with us when trouble comes.  And as long as we live on this earth, we will have trouble.

God covers us with His great big arms and He says, “Leave him….leave her…alone!”  That makes me feel safe.

GPS  (Directions)

Take some time in each one of these personal words from God”

·         Psalms 59:16

·         II Samuel 22: 2-4

·         Psalms 9:9

Prayer Focus:

Sing praises to our wonderful God who is always there for us-- always protecting and keeping us safe from our enemies.

Day 171    I AM Your Redeemer

Psalm 111:9 (NIV1984)

 He provided redemption for his people;
he ordained his covenant forever—
holy and awesome is his name.

God is our Redeemer because He provided redemption for us.  Redemption means “recovery by payment.”  Jesus is our payment.  Our debt has been paid.  He paid off our debt.  We get a fresh start—a second chance!  How wonderful is that!!

Isaiah 59:20 (NIV1984)

 “The Redeemer will come to Zion,
to those in Jacob who repent of their sins,”
declares the LORD.

When we come to Jesus with our sins, He forgives us and wipes the slate clean.  I used to teach our children that concept using one of those little slates with the cellophane covering and the plastic stylus.  We can ask forgiveness when we sin, and God lifts the cellophane and the incident is removed.  Gone forever!  Never to be seen again!!

And here is the wonderful aspect of God’s character of Redeemer:

Jeremiah 50:34   (NIV1984)

Yet their Redeemer is strong;
the LORD Almighty is his name.
He will vigorously defend their cause
so that he may bring rest to their land,
but unrest to those who live in Babylon.

I am so glad that God is defending my cause, aren’t you??  Can you imagine---God Almighty defending your cause??  He forgives us and He defends us!  That’s our wonderful God!!

GPS  (Directions)

Let God confirm His character to you through these scriptures:

·         Psalms 130:8

·         Proverbs 23:11

·         Isaiah 41:14

Prayer Focus:

Thank your wonderful God for giving you a second chance—over and over again!

Day 170    I Am Your Peace

Judges 6:24    (NIV1984)

So Gideon built an altar to the LORD there and called it The LORD is Peace.

This is one thing we truly need….PEACE!!  And we must remember that we serve the God of peace.  He is peace and when we spend time with Him, we have peace.  Do I need to remind you what we have when we don’t spend time with God????

When I wake up in the night with too many thoughts running through my head, I can open my Bible and immediately peace comes.  It doesn’t even matter what scripture I read.

Isaiah 26:3    (NIV1984)

You will keep in perfect peace
him whose mind is steadfast,
because he trusts in you.

God’s peace keeps us steady and we find His peace in His Word.

Psalm 119:165 (NIV1984)

 Great peace  have they who love your law,
and nothing can make them stumble.

So the next time you feel yourself slipping into fretting or confusion or lack of confidence, you can find your peace in God because He is your peace!

GPS   (Directions)

Let God speak to you through His Word:

·         Isaiah 48:18

·         John 14:27

·         John 16:33

Prayer Focus:

Thank your wonderful God that you don’t have to spend one moment out of His peace.

Day 169  I Am Your Provider

Genesis 22:13-14   (NIV1984)

Abraham looked up and there in a thicket he saw a ram^[a] caught by its horns. He went over and took the ram and sacrificed it as a burnt offering instead of his son. ¹⁴ So Abraham called that place The LORD Will Provide. And to this day it is said, “On the mountain of the LORD it will be provided.”

From the very beginning, God has provided everything we need.  It’s all there!  You might say, “Where is it?”  God’s answer is “with Me.”  Come and find Me and you will find everything you need.”

If our needs would be met without a relationship with God, the provider, He could become a “sugar daddy” to us.  We would go to Him only to have our needs met and we would have no relationship with Him. 

God is all about relationships.  He sent Jesus to the cross so that our relationship with Him could be restored after Adam and Eve severed it in the garden. God’s greatest joy is to relate to us as we relate to Him. 

Matthew 6:33   (NIV1984)

 But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.

GPS  (Directions)

God promises to provide for us.  Let these scriptures be His personal message to you:

·         Philippians 4:19

·         Malachi 3:10

·         Joel 2:24

·         Matthew 14:20

·         Luke 6:38

Prayer Focus:

Thank our wonderful God that He has said, “I AM your Provider.”

Day 167 and 168

Let’s review the last five day’s blogs together:

“The Lord is my Shepherd.”  (Psalms 23:1)  He watches over me and protects me.  He brings me back when I get off track.  He leads me to where I can find nourishment. 

Go back and say out loud the declarations that I wrote in Day 162.  Now, how does that make you feel?

It makes me feel like I have a great BIG God who is on my side, willing to be everything I need Him to be.

And why not?  The Bible says:

Romans 8:32 (NIV1984)

He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?

He’s not a far off God, but One that was concerned about us before the beginning of time.  He made provision for us by sending His Son to the cross and now He wants to see to it that we have everything we need to live the kind of life that will bring glory to Him.

And why?  So that many will want to surrender their lives to Him and live for Him while on this earth.

On Day 164 we read:

Genesis 28:15b    (NIV1984)

 I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.”

Spend some time thanking Him for all the wonderful things He is to you.

God bless your day,

Karol

Day 166   I AM Your Righteousness

Jeremiah 23:6 (NIV1984)

In his days Judah will be saved and Israel will live in safety. This is the name by which he will be called:
The LORD Our Righteousness.

This verse prophesies the coming of Jesus, whose death on the cross made it possible for us to be labeled “righteous.” 

2 Corinthians 5:21 (NIV1984)

God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.

What an amazing love God had (and still has)for us when we didn’t even care.  He loved us so much and wanted us to be labeled “righteous” even when we were yet sinners.

Now we can come freely before God and ask Him to forgive us when we make mistakes.  Our motivation should be that we would not want to do anything that would put a wedge between us and God.  Because of what He did for us, we want to live our entire lives for Him!!

Here is further scriptural confirmation of being “made righteous” by Christ’s death on the cross:

1 Corinthians 6:11   Amplified Bible

And such some of you were [once]. But you were washed clean (purified by a complete atonement for sin and made free from the guilt of sin), and you were consecrated (set apart, hallowed), and you were justified [pronounced righteous, by trusting] in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the [Holy] Spirit of our God.

We could never keep the Old Testament rules and regulations, but because of the complete work of the cross,  we can come before God and talk freely to Him.  By His grace, He reveals His love to us on a daily basis.  What a relationship is available to us!!!

GPS  (Directions For Our Journey)

Meditate on God’s precious words.  Make them personal because they are!!

·         Romans 5:19

·         I Corinthians 1:30

·         Jeremiah 31:3

Prayer Focus:

Thank God for His great love towards you and His gift of righteousness.

Note:  Feel free to post a comment.  I would love to know who is reading this blog!!  God bless your day!   Karol

Day 165     Meet The Healer

Exodus 15:26 (NIV)

He said, “If you listen carefully to the LORD your God and do what is right in his eyes, if you pay attention to his commands and keep all his decrees, I will not bring on you any of the diseases I brought on the Egyptians, for I am the LORD, who heals you.”

The Bible says “I AM.”  On Day 163 we thanked Him that He was right in the middle of our personal world.  When I am not feeling well, I want to know that!!  I can turn to Him and ask Him to heal me because He is the One who said, “I AM the Lord, who heals you.”

I always figure, He better not have said it if He didn’t mean it.  I also know that if He does say it, He does means it!!

You will also note in the above scriptures that there are lots of qualifications in order to be healed.  I am very grateful for Jesus doing all the work for me so that I don’t have to “keep all His decrees,” because that would be impossible for me to do.

Our healing was prophesied in the following scripture:

Isaiah 53:5   (NIV)

But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed.

And it was fulfilled or completed by the following scripture:

Matthew 8:17 (NIV)

This was to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet Isaiah:   “He took up our infirmities and bore our diseases.”

Jesus did it all for us!!  All we have to do is receive our healing as a free gift, just like we received our salvation.  We don’t have to be good enough and we do not have to measure up---because we could never do that anyway! The love of God provided our healing through His Son, Jesus Christ. Really, I think it’s one of the best kept secrets out there!!

GPS  (Directions)

Let God reveal His truth to you regarding healing:

·         I Peter 2:24

·         Proverbs 4: 20-24

·         Mark 5: 21-34

Prayer Focus:

Thank God that He provided for your healing at the Cross.  He looked ahead and knew you would need it.  What a wonderful Father!