How Important You Are To God

This topic came to mind reading this side note in January 7, 2016 of Haven Ministries' "Anchor Devotional":  "God's glory is above all His creation. Yet the Creator of the Universe thinks about you."

Scripture says much about how much we mean to God individually, each and every one of us.  I think just looking at the intricacies of our whole being: mind, body and soul in itself shows this!  God could have made us just a mindless blob of a thing that just sits there and been done with us - but no! Look at all the details in even a single cell of our bodies and all that it does!  He really gave special attention to making us who we are.  Our complexities go far beyond our comprehension, even today.

I love that scripture that says, "Indeed, even the hairs on your head have all been counted!" (Matthew 10:30 ISV International Standard Version)

And if you're bald, no matter.  Every cell in your scalp is counted.  Oh, how He loves us!

Jesus, in Matthew 18:10 (GNT) speaks about the importance of every child... "See that you don't despise any of these little ones. Their angels in heaven, I tell you, are always in the presence of my Father in heaven.  What do you think a man does who has one hundred sheep and one of them gets lost? He will leave the other ninety-nine grazing on the hillside and go and look for the lost sheep.  When he finds it, I tell you, he feels far happier over this one sheep than over the ninety-nine that did not get lost. In just the same way your Father in heaven does not want any of these little ones to be lost." 

 (Note how it says that children's angels in heaven are always in God's presence. Interesting! At first I thought it meant that children are angels in heaven.. Read carefully scripture and you'll find all kinds of interesting insights.)

Also, think about God allowing His Holy Spirit to dwell in us.  In the Books of Exodus and Ezekiel in the Old Testament it talks about how people and items in God's presence could not afterwards be in the presence of people without killing them because God's power is so great and so pure that anything less cannot survive in His pure presence. Even the priests garments worn in God's presence in His Holy Temple (mentioned in Ezekiel) had to be removed before the priests went out amongst the people. That is why God sent His Son to live among us and, when He rose to heaven, God gave us His Holy Spirit to dwell within us. We cannot exist in the presence of God, Himself in His pure state, as I understand it. But, back to this topic, for God to allow His Son and His Holy Spirit to live with and within us - We must be pretty darn important!

As Dr. Marcus Brody in "Raiders of the Lost Ark" tells Indiana Jones about the Ark of the Covenant, "It's not something to be taken lightly." Amen!

My little sheep, Feliz, now in heaven with Jesus.  Photo by Tommy Troudeaux

God Is In Control

"It's raining. It's pouring. The old man is snoring."  Remember that song?  Boy, yesterday, it did pour torrential rain here in Southern California. Was this the "El Nino" they said was coming?  I watched the mud begin to slide down the mountain.  Rain here means floods and mudslides that take houses down.  Isn't that silly in a sense for a place that is experiencing a big drought?  And never hardly sees rain?

But great rains shows me God's power over everything.  We go about our busy lives, yet God controls the rain. Remember the Great Flood that covered the Earth (yes, I know, you weren't there). Only Noah, his family, and the paired animals survived in his arc so God could then rebuild humanity on Earth.  Did you know that the Chumash Indians, who have lived in Southern California for thousands of years, have an ancient account of a great flood that covered the earth making it necessary to remake mankind?  And I hear that many other cultures have the great flood story told in their history too.  Makes you think, doesn't it? For everyone to know this story (however they interpret it) tells me that as man repopulated the world from Noah's generations of offsprings, they all told about it.  Perhaps?

But fear not. God is in control and He is also All Loving.  I like that rain tells me Who is in control.  Jesus said that "not one sparrow falls without to the ground without your Father's consent". (Matthew 10:29 GNT) I'm glad God is in control. I sure wouldn't want anyone else to be! (Including me).  It's the reason I can sleep at night, knowing God is in control.  It's because of Him that I exist. That I live each day and that my heart beats. That I have land to walk on and gravity to hold me safely on it. That I have food, water and all kinds of good things to live on. 

Wow! When the wind the blew sometimes, it almost appeared to blow the brush away.  One giant tree, in fact, did fall yesterday.

But rest assured, God loves us! And He does what He does for our ultimate protection from sin and death.  I once felt God tell me regarding His love for us, "I love you more than love itself."

A pastor I once knew said the overwhelming love he felt when he first saw his newborn, twin sons was the moment he also heard God tell Him, "Feel how much you love them? I love you even more than that."

The Bible has many verses on God's great love for us.  Here are just a few:

"For God loved the world so much that He gave His only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him may not die but have eternal Life." (John 3:16 GNT)

"...understand how broad and long, how high and deep, is Christ's love." (Ephesians 3:18 GNT)

"As far as the east is from the west, so far does He remove our sins from us." (Psalm 103:12 GNT)

So, my friends, "Leave all your worries with Him because He cares for you."  (1 Peter 5:7 GNT)   

Do you know who I Am?

Living in southern California, I've heard lots of stories of celebrities, in moments of confrontations, saying "Do you know who I am?". I even once heard from a woman whose child attended school with children of celebrities who was also challenged by them with, "Don't you know who I am?"

But it's not who we are that matters, it's who He Is: God Almighty alone is the Great I Am.  The one and only Great I Am.  The Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit is He.

"God said (to Moses), 'I am who I am, You must tell them: 'The one who is called I AM has sent me to you.' "  Exodus 3:14 (GNT)

Jesus, the Son of God, said to the Isrealites, "I am telling you the truth, Jesus replied, "Before Abraham was born, 'I Am'."
(This was in response to someone questioning Him, "You are not even fifty years old - and you have seen Abraham?")

In these scriptures, God calls Himself  "I AM".   We call Him the "Great I Am" - but God's greatness goes infinitely beyond any words.

What brought me to this whole thought was reading in Sarah Young's book Jesus Calling for January 5 about relying on Jesus instead of trying to do anything alone.  "But those who are successful in their own strength tend to go their own way, forgetting about Me.  It is through problems and failure, weakness and neediness that you learn to rely on Me."

I love this song "Great I AM" performed by New Life Worship...WOW! Powerful!  Lifts the Soul!  Soul therapy.

A Sweet Song (Just HOW MUCH Jesus Loves Us)

When we see just HOW MUCH Jesus loves us, it changes us forever.

Haven Today Ministries (haventoday.org) shared this message last night with a sweet story about a woman who was so depressed one morning, sitting at her kitchen table.  She often fed the mockingbirds who would come to her window.   

While she was sitting there, a mockingbird flew up to her window and started tapping on it to get her attention. 

Then he flew up into a tree just outside her window and began singing his little heart out, song after  song, as only a mockingbird can.

What a wonderful way Jesus showed His love for her in that moment.

One Little Baby

One Little Baby

One Little Baby was all it took

He came to Earth...and look!

One Little Baby, purer than gold

He gives us Life eternal - and behold!

You will live because of Him.

Imagine If You Were There!

"The Bible says the night Jesus was born, God's glorious light surrounded and terrified shepherds guarding their sheep in the fields.  Stupefied, they watched and listened as an angel appeared to announce the great event.  Then the heavens opened to reveal "a multitude of the heavenly host" - countless angels saying, 'Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom His favor rests.'  What a sight!  What a sound! What an overwhelming, matchless, indescribable experience!" 
Author Nan Anderson in the Anchor Devotional, Dec. 13, 2015 -- I highly recommend getting this devotional monthly! It's doing wonders for me.

Can you imagine?  What if you were there to experience this?  I am just in awe of it!  How I wish the world could see this today!  This is what we should celebrate!  This is what Christmas is about!  This is what the Bible says:

Luke 2:8-14 (GNT)  "There were some shepherds in that part of the country who were spending the night in the fields, taking care of their flocks.  An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone over them.  They were terribly afraid, but the angel said to them, 'Don't be afraid! I am here with good news for you, which will bring great joy to all the people.  This very day in David's town your Savior was born - Christ the Lord!  And this is what will prove it to you: you will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.'  Suddenly a great army of heaven's angels appeared with the angel, singing praises to God: 'Glory to God in the highest heaven, and peace on earth to those with whom He is pleased!' "

I AM WITH YOU IN ALL THAT YOU DO

"I AM WITH YOU IN ALL THAT YOU DO, even in the most menial task. I am always aware of you, concerned with every detail of your life. Nothing escapes My notice-not even 'the number of hairs on your head'. However, your awareness of My Presence falters and flickers; as a result, your life experience feels fragmented. When your focus is broad enough to include Me in your thoughts, you feel safe and complete. When your perception narrows so that problems or details fill your consciousness, you feel empty and incomplete.

Learn to look steadily at Me in all your moments and all your circumstances. Though the world is unstable and in flux, you can experience continuity through your uninterrupted awareness of My Presence. 'Fix your gaze on what is unseen', even as the visible world parades before your eyes." -- Jesus Calling, Sarah Young (December 7) Matthew 10:29-31; Hebrews 11:27; 2 Corinthians 4:18

Matthew 10:29-31 "For only a penny you can buy two sparrows, yet not one sparrow falls to the ground without your Father's consent. And for you, even the hairs of your head have all been counted. So do not be afraid; you are worth much more than many sparrows!"

Hebrews 11:27 "It was faith that made Moses leave Egypt without being afraid of the king's anger. As though he saw the invisible God, he refused to turn back."

2 Corinthians 4:18 "For we fix our attention, not on things that are seen, but on things that are unseen. What can be seen lasts only for a time, but what cannot be seen lasts forever."