spiritualsnippets.com

Seeing life's events in the light of God's Word.

Jul 28

You Don’t Have to Go It Alone

by Brenda Poulos

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Deuteronomy 31:6- “Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified because of them, for the Lord your God goes with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you.”

 

Lunch time and recess are viewed by most students as the best part of their school day. However, do you remember how lonely those times were when your best friend was ill?

There’s probably no worse feeling in all the world than being all alone. But, the reality is that in life

Friends argue and go their separate ways.

Relatives have a “falling out.”

Couples divorce.

Father’s leave their families.

Soldiers desert their platoons.

Even in the midst of one of those circumstances, God promises that you’ll never be completely alone if you acknowledge Christ as Savior and put your trust in Him.

He’ll never leave you or forsake you.

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Jul 22

Manna From Heaven

by Brenda Poulos

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Deuteronomy 8:3- “He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your ancestors had known, to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.”

 

As a child, I remember Sunday afternoons with Dad. Working long hours during the week, he was always sure to spend Sundays with us as a family. After church, we would eat lunch. That was followed by a drive in the family car, then a few hours at the park or swimming, Goofy golf, etc.

Dad did his best to maintain a relationship with his four children, although (as I recall) there wasn’t much time spent with us, individually.

Looking back on those days, I admire Dad’s commitment to family, even though I would like to have known him on a more personal level.

Maybe that is why daily communication with God is so important to me. Through prayer and Bible reading I can know my heavenly father—as He knows me. He provides for my needs, first, and then showers me with the blessing of a deepening relationship with Him.

God supplied the Israelites with manna (bread from heaven) daily. For what purpose? To teach them that spiritual food is more important than physical food. We need to feast on God’s Word (our daily bread).

If we only eat physical food once a week, we will perish. In the same way, if we eat from God’s Word only once a week, we cannot enjoy a full and abiding sense of his presence—a deep relationship with Him.

Human fathers are limited in time and space, but in that God is omnipresent, our Heavenly Father is able to spend time with us, individually—each and every day. 

 

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Jul 14

Nature Obeys His Voice

by Brenda Poulos

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Luke 8:25– “Where is your faith?” he asked his disciples. In fear and amazement they asked one another, “Who is this? He commands even the winds and the water, and they obey him.”

 

The gulf coast is bracing for yet another hurricane.

Disturbances such as tornadoes, tsunamis, and tropical depressions are in weather reports every day.

Heavy rainfall, hailstorms, blizzards—each are experienced somewhere in our world every hour.

Meteorologists track them.

Newscasters report them.

Citizens try to prepare for them.

But, none of us can change the weather.

That’s why the stories of Jesus calming the storms in the Bible are so miraculous. All of nature, including catastrophic occurrences, recognize and obey, His voice.

Just as the disciples cried out to Jesus for help when they were on tempest-driven waves, we can ask Him to calm the physical seas and/or the “storms” in our lives. 

The verse in Luke reminds us that if we have faith, we can take concerns of every kind to Him in prayer and trust Him to answer in accordance with His sovereign will.

 

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Jul 7

God’s Billboards

by Brenda Poulos

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Psalm 19: 1-4. ““The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they display knowledge. There is no speech or language where their voice is not heard. Their voice goes out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world.”

 

I don’t think there are as many billboards along roadways as there were years ago.

And, people tell me that with so much information coming at them all of the time, they simply tune out the occasional one they do see.

Computers, television, cell phones, iPads, tablets—even our watches keep us connected nowadays with new products and ideas.

Despite all of these changes in our lives, God is still into the visual—sunrises and sunsets, rainbows after storms, stars in the night sky…

God is spirit and so is invisible to our human eyes, so he often makes us aware of His presence and great love for us in ways we can understand and appreciate. These little gifts from God are interspersed throughout our days as gentle reminders that He is with us.

But, as wonderful as these all are, we cannot deeply know Him without prayer and the truths we read in scripture. He doesn’t just want us to be aware that He exists. He wants us to really know Him because He knows us and—even with all of our flaws—He wants a relationship with us. 

All of creation testifies to His presence.

God’s “billboards” are everywhere. 

We will see them if we routinely take our eyes off our computer screens and, instead, spend time with God.

 

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Jul 1

Pray for Our Country

by Brenda Poulos

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Proverbs 29:2- “When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice: but when the wicked rule, the people mourn.”

 

As more and more newscasts are filled with biographical information about candidates and their stands on the issues concerning citizens of our great country, need we even ask if God cares about politics?

There is a lot of talk in the Bible about Kings. There are details regarding lineage, how they came to be Kings, their performance, and so on. Scripture tells us some did what pleased God. Some did “evil in the sight of the Lord.”

As we read, we learn how certain actions led to peace, while others started wars. We learn the difference in how Godly leadership and unholy leadership affected the lives of ordinary people.

Leaders who are humble and submissive to God can bring great blessings upon citizens. If we want our nation to truly have peace and prosperity, we must seek leadership that follows Christian principles.

I cannot imagine God devoting so much of the Old Testament to this subject if it wasn’t important to Him. I think God cares immensely about leaders around the world.

It’s not that long until Americans will again exercise their right to vote. In the days and nights leading up to casting our ballots, we need to pray as never before that God will guide us and that HIS choices for all of the offices will be elected. And, afterward? We need to continue to pray that their decisions and actions will be wise and honorable.

We cannot let up. 

Our prayers are important because our leadership matters… because God will act on behalf of His people if we earnestly seek His will in every circumstance.

Complacency or defeatist attitudes have no place in the lives of Christians. (Remember God’s warning to the church of Laodicea in Revelation that He would rather they would be hot or cold than to be lukewarm? That if they didn’t change, He would spew them out of his mouth?) 

May our pillows be hard and our beds uncomfortable from this day forward if we go to bed without praying for our country. 

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