It’s nearly Summer when many of us will hit the road to discover new places and make new memories.
We’ve been on a road trip of sorts, all year long. It’s on The Ancient Road following the Bible as our guide.
We have read accounts of the faithful and the unfaithful. We have seen glimpses of God’s grace on display in the lives of Old Testament Israelites and even some from Pagan countries. It is awe-inspiring if we take the time to capture the moments in our hearts and ask God for understanding. He is our interpreter.
Like a souvenir of sorts, we take what we’ve discovered and hold on to it so we don’t forget.
God’s Word is like no other book ever written. It is said to be alive, like a personal tour-guide. God makes sure we read and see what we need on the day when we need it. And it’s not just a souvenir to collect dust. It continues to guide us to new discoveries. Every day if we let it.
This leads me to ask, “What has God revealed to you on your journey so far?”
Was there a scripture that caused you to pause with grateful tears?
Was there a connection you didn’t realize between people and places?
Has God given you fresh revelation producing inspired faith to keep going on a difficult road?
The God we read of between Genesis and Revelation is the same God we worship on Sundays. He is our Abba Father and as His children he loves these road trips with us.
Today is a day set aside to love, remember and bless the Mom who willing gave us life. We may not all be mothers, but we all have one.
I’m thinking today of those moms in the Bible who have inspired me. What an example of faith they are by exhibiting trust and hope in the same God we worship and love today.
Hannah
Hannah prayed in faith for something she couldn’t see. And when God heard her cries and answered her prayer, she kept her promise faithfully. Read about her in 1 Samuel 1. This story must be read to fully appreciate.
Naomi
I love the broken story of Naomi redeemed in surprising ways. She lost so much and then her daughter-in-law surprised her by her love. The best part Naomi never realized was that her story would be named in the lineage of Jesus, our Savior. Read her story in Ruth.
Mary
Finally, how can I not remember Mary’s response to what most would see as a frightening event? An angel appeared telling her impossible things. Yet her first response was, “be it to me as you say.” such faith through embarrassing and hard circumstances. My favorite account of her story is in Luke where her prayer is recorded.
Happy Mother’s Day to all of your mothers whether she is alive or remembered in the heart. What story is God writing in your family? We can be sure that the God of these mothers recorded in the Bible is the same God we worship this Mother’s Day!
This morning in my quiet time I began with a heavy heart. Have you been there recently? I read all the assigned reading and still felt discouraged. Much of what I read, especially in Leviticus, I don’t like nor understand. Honestly I skipped a couple of chapters last week.
I also lost my favorite earrings that Tom bought me for our 25th anniversary almost 20 years ago. To say I was struggling is an understatement. I went to put them on yesterday and only one was in my jewelry holder. That never has happened. I always take them off before bed and put them back on in the morning, until this morning.
I didn’t want to tell Tom until I had time to search everywhere. Once I realized it was most likely gone–I broke the news to him. He helped me look and when he found the back of my earring I had HOPE! It has to be here somewhere.
We looked together again and it was still no where to be found. We shook rugs, checked clothing and settled on the possibility it fell down the drain. I couldn’t imagine that happening and me not noticing, but then again, I was the one who lost it.
<sigh>>
Back to this morning’s devotional time. I was writing in my journal and ended by asking God to help me trust in His sovereignty in all the situations I’m carrying. Even when I can’t understand what He’s doing, I know He is sovereign and His plans won’t be thwarted. The weight lifted a bit and I began my day.
I poured another cup of tea. While waiting for it to steep, I went into our room and was sadly reminded of my missing earring. <another sigh>. This time I looked around asking God to help me find it. But alas, I didn’t.
I heard the tea timer beep, and left for the kitchen. I had no idea God was in the timing of all this…
As I was stirring my tea I happened to look down; right by my foot was my lost earring! I couldn’t believe it. I had been in the kitchen cooking for hours the night before. There is no way I wouldn’t have seen it or stepped on it. But here it was right after I had asked God to help.
I sensed Him say, “Debi, I see you. Trust Me for what you can’t see or don’t understand.”
I’m reminded of all the parts of the Bible I don’t understand up close. Yet when I look at the big picture of the Bible, I can see God’s hand clearly. I pray our faith as we read His Word this year will grow stronger in the areas of our lives we don’t understand, even if we’ve lost something precious. God sees us and He is sovereignly guiding our every step.
“Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.”
This was in my devotions this week in the You Version app—It Is Finished, by Samantha Hanni. I had to share it hoping it lifts your eyes, as it has mine, on this day between trauma and deliverance.
The older I’ve gotten, the more I’ve come to realize the gravity of Silent Saturday. The immediate trauma of Good Friday had passed, but Resurrection Sunday was still 24 hours away. And those left behind were faced with a question that we are often faced with. What do you do in the middle? In the middle of trauma and deliverance?
Those who were grieving had witnessed not only the brutal execution of Jesus, but all the other strange phenomena that accompanied Christ’s death: earthquakes, midday darkness, the tearing of the temple veil, and more. So what did they do? What do we do?
Rest.
Those who were left behind were called to rest, because it was Christ who was doing the work. Christ was at work defeating the devil in the bowels of Hell, reclaiming what was His to begin with. It was Christ with the agenda, not us. It was Christ on the warpath, not us. It was Christ who was doing, not us.
When recovering from grief and trauma, the reactions are varied to be sure, but often doing nothing (what our souls might crave) is harder to carry out. Surely there is another phone call to be made, another closet to clean out, another demand to make, another list to record. But to rest, completely?
It astounds me that God planned for the execution to take place on a Friday, knowing that the Jews, steeped in the centuries-old tradition of Sabbath would know they would have to honor this day of rest.
He planned the Great Sacrifice on our day off.
Were they relieved for a moment to catch their breath? Or did they chafe under the religious traditions, wishing they could do something, anything, to undo the horror of the past 48 hours?
Whatever your “Silent Saturday” is, whatever seemingly unanswered prayers face you, whatever traumas you are trying to heal from, know that you can rest, knowing your Father is at work.
I’ll never forget the first time Tom and I had the chance to go to the Northwest. We were in-flight when the pilot told us that we would be passing Mt. Rainier and to watch out our window for the spectacular view. There were other mountains below, and I kept thinking…is that it? Is that it? Until we actually saw it! I had no idea how large and beautiful Mt. Rainier was. What I was looking for was small and unimpressive compared to what this grand mountain was in reality.
How often do I treat God and His Word in the same way? I have expectations that are small in comparison to who God really is.
When I read through Genesis about Jacob with his two wives, Rachel and Leah. With all their jealousies, deceit and lies, I realized that God used these women – despite their ungodly competition to bring about God’s promises.
This is our God. He is bigger and more glorious than I know, and He uses us despite our sinful hearts to display His glory for a watching world. This is why we travel together on Route 66.
While we’re looking through the window of His Word we never know when His glory will fill our eyes in a way we never expected! And we will gasp in awe at how big our God is.
I recently made some bread, which is one of my favorite things to do. However, this time something was missing. The bread tasted flat. I remembered in all the cooking shows I enjoy that most likely the missing ingredient is salt. I wasn’t sure, but what could it hurt? After a few sprinkles on the warm buttered bread–Voila! Amazing difference in the taste, thus my enjoyment of the bread.
This morning after Tom and I read our Bible plan we felt we weren’t finished. Something was missing that was needed. We realized the salt we were needing was Worship!
Worship has a way of making the Bible come to life in our hearts, much like salt making the bread more enjoyable.
When was the last time you spent time alone or with your spouse worshiping God in your living room? We started with a song about the Goodness of God and His faithfulness to us. Then, continued with a song about being Gracefully Broken. Our surrender to God through worship cements the Word of God in our heart and makes us salty to a thirsty world.
Jesus said, “You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again?” Matthew 5:13 ESV
This scripture always seemed hopeless to me, but after further study I’ve discovered it’s the exact opposite. Salt preserves through all sorts of trouble. This salt is sprinkled on us for our good and for the good of all who know us.
John Piper says of this same passage, “The immediate context of ‘You are the salt of the earth’ is ‘Blessed are you when you are persecuted…Rejoice and be glad…because your reward is great in heaven.’ When someone lives like this, it is so utterly unnatural and amazing and wonderful, it tastes really good. Joyful suffering for the sake of Christ is startling, spectacular, salty.”
Is something missing from your devotional time with the Lord? Try sprinkling some personal worship on your time with Him. It may be this was what was needed all along.
In our daily plan we read today of Paul taking the part of a fool by boasting about his qualifications “as a madman”. In 2 Corinthians 11:30 he shares a revelation…
“If I must boast, I will boast of the things that show my weakness.”
ESV
This hits home to me today. Our family has been through a lot in recent years. It has left me feeling depleted and if I’m honest, discouraged. I see my weakness clearly. I am tempted to look back and wish things were as they were before life took this turn.
But God!
He faithfully reminds me where to place my focus (my word for 2023). My Father is saying He is highlighting my weaknesses in order for the power of God to be evident in any good fruit that may be produced through me.
This thought today came through reading my portion of scripture. It’s like I’m seeing my life from a different angle where God is at work.
He is our faithful God. His Word is alive and speaks to us in our weakness.
I kept reading into chapter 12 because Paul wasn’t finished making his point. in verse 9-10 he shares these well known verses…
“But he (Jesus) said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.
“For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.”
ESV
So today instead of being discouraged by the events in life, I will purpose to rejoice, in order that the testimony God is writing through hardships will result in praise and glory to our perfect God.
I hear him ask me often, “Can you trust me here?” Yes, I will because your strength in me, O Lord, makes it possible.
We are at the point where falling behind in our daily Bible reading is most likely. We are human and sticking to anything daily is difficult.
But God.
He loves to help us in our weakness to do what we can’t on our own. Talk to Him. Ask Him to help you, but more importantly—ask Him to speak to you. This is the prayer He loves to answer.
We have been facing the Covid beast for the first time. It’s been almost two weeks and I’ve been tempted to quit. Reading God’s Word is the one constant I can keep doing. Everything else is on hold, but this one thing I can choose to keep going.
We have 27 signed up this year to read God’s Word. Many I have not heard from since we began. But I continue to pray for your success.
I’m asking you to check in and let us know if you’re still pursuing this goal or if you’ve stopped. Either answer will find grace. God sees you. God knows you. And He has promised to complete the work He’s begun in you and in me. This is good news. We can’t mess it up!
I’m praying in my weakness that God will make us all strong for His glory. He chose us and He will lead us every day.
Please comment and let us know how it’s going from your view on this ancient road—Route 66.
This week I will share something God showed me through one of my daily readings.
I love that Luke repeats the genealogy of Jesus that Matthew did in his gospel. I am reminded that Christ came through many broken stories—like Tamar being treated so wrongly by her father-in-law. God gave her honor by putting her in the line of Jesus our Savior, but she did not know it. She only saw and experienced the mistreatment and abuse. How many of us will be amazed at the story God was writing through us that we can’t know now, but will one day in Heaven? God give us faith to trust you in the hard places with your eternal plan. This is what matters and how we stay true to You through all the dark valleys.
From my journal 2.17
This is my favorite part of daily reading the Bible. I never know when God will illuminate a passage with fresh application.
The story of Tamar is a sad one to be sure. But God. He makes all things beautiful in time, even if that time is in Heaven. I’m learning to wait for it with expectation not regret.
Our life has had many dark valleys in recent years, a granddaughter who nearly died from an unrecognized disease, my brother dying from Covid at 66, our grandson being born at 24 weeks and diagnosed with many physical disabilities, then fighting an aggressive cancer with this same sweet grandson. There is more but this is enough to point out that we have no idea why these things have happened as they have. It seems on a human level like too much to bear.
But if I consider Tamar and her hardship and apply God’s Word to my current struggles, it lifts my focus to eternity and the good God has stored up for those who endure.
Is it easy? No, it’s a daily battle to choose the right focus. God helps me in my weakness to do what I can’t do in my own strength.
What has God opened your eyes to see in His Word recently? Please share it with us. Let’s encourage each other.
Today I share a helpful post by my blogging friend, Michele Morin. She offers a metaphor I won’t soon forget and I hope you won’t either. Happy Sunday!
Bread dough the color of molasses yielded to the pressure of my working fist. Fold, press, turn, repeat, and soon I lost count of how many times I had kneaded the fragrant lump. With the recipe calling for three hundred repetitions, I began to wonder… Three hundred? Really?
Switching to the heel of my hand, I persevered. Eventually, I sensed a change in the texture and smooth elasticity as the gluten developed the necessary strands that would capture the gas bubbles created by the yeast, allowing the dough to stretch and expand as it rose.
Bread-makers want to create the conditions for the dough to rise, but we are completely helpless to make it happen on our own, so we trust the recipe. We follow the directions given.
Reading the Bible and kneading bread as purely physical acts could easily become sheer discipline, items on a never-ending checklist. However, viewed with an awareness of the invisible, life-giving force at work behind the scenes, I find that I am participating in something that is bigger than what I can see.
Follow the Recipe
Therefore, I will follow the teaching of God’s Word, because I am in relationship with its Author—not because I fear losing that relationship. I will persevere in the disciplines of the Christian life, because I am held in a hope that is based on strong promises—not because I am hoping that the disciplines themselves will hold me in the faith.
Needless to say, in the making of bread and in the practice of godliness, I will always be a beginner, mechanically counting the strokes as I knead (and then losing count); reading words of life at the dining room table, fitfully on some days and fervently on others.
Jesus, the Bread of Life, comes to us as we take the Living Word into our being in a way that changes us. God directed both Jeremiah and Ezekiel to eat Scripture, the Old Testament equivalent of the Bible. In the book of Revelation, John swallowed a scroll. Absorbing the truth into their cells and sinews, they imaged the necessity of assimilating God’s Words, taking them into the soul.
Propping a Bible on a couch pillow while I held a sleeping baby and cobbling together study time during naps eventually gave way to keeping a bag packed with Bible, pen, and notebook during the mini-van years. I reviewed Scripture memory projects in the middle school parking lot.
Later, I carried 3×5 cards in my pocket when I walked the dog. Today, I plant Post-it Notes in my planner and review memorized passages in the car on my way to work.
In a perfect world, a serious Bible student blocks out distractions and finds a regular time to meet with God daily. In a mother’s world, the serious student is responsible for keeping those “distractions” alive, so she perseveres in being flexible in every season.
My regular reading tends to focus on short passages read repetitively. For example, it might take me the better part of a year to make it through Proverbs, one chapter per week, but this year, I am reading through the Bible to gain an aerial view of the biblical landscape.
Study and meditation go together whenever I am preparing to teach. I read and seek to understand the words as they were received by the original audience. I consider how they relate to Jesus’s person and work, how they apply to the Captial C Church, and, finally, how to make personal application.
Immersion in Scripture is the foundation by which I resist temptation, cynicism, and passiveness. I declare that God owns my heart and create space for the Spirit of God to work in ways that are unseen and yet vital to the regular rhythm of relationship.
I long to know God, to walk in his ways and hear his voice, and he has made it clear that when I read and obey the Words of Scripture, I am obeying Him and making room for the Spirit to work in me. Therefore, I trust “the recipe.” I follow the directions given.
Route 66 Club 