God Never Fails
If God is Love, and Love NEVER fails, then God NEVER fails. In our human condition, we doubt and fear and wonder sometimes where God is and when we’re going to hear from Him or see Him act. But the first part of 1 Corinthians 13:8 reminds us….
[8] Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will be done away with. Where there are various languages, they will cease. Where there is knowledge, it will be done away with.
https://bible.com/bible/206/1co.13.8.WEBUS
Just as I did yesterday with switching words in Genesis from God to Love, now I’m going to switch the famous verses known for defining what love should be from Love (Charity in KJV) to God. You see, God knows our form and would never ask us to do anything He would not do. So….
1 Corinthians 13:4-8a CSB
[4] God is patient, God is kind. God does not envy, is not boastful, is not arrogant, [5] is not rude, is not self-seeking, is not irritable, and does not keep a record of wrongs. [6] God finds no joy in unrighteousness but rejoices in the truth. [7] God bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. [8] God neverendsfails.
https://bible.com/bible/1713/1co.13.4-8.CSB
Line by line, we can see God’s personality in these behaviors Paul encouraged the Corinthian believers to follow. From the garden until the end of time as we know it, and into eternity, God’s whole purpose is for us to walk with Him, side by side, obeying Him by imitating the behaviors He knows will bring blessings.
When we are patient (a fruit of The Spirit, so we get it directly from God), we bring peace to our lives and even our bodies. This message is to me as much as anyone because age seems to be making that harder for me. Maybe partly because of the many things there are to become impatient or irritable with these days (like AI customer service that won’t connect you to a living human). But I know I don’t like the way I feel when I get impatient, even if I have a good reason for it.
When we are kind, we can see God in our behaviors and note how it changes people. I try to make a habit of calling managers to compliment good service because I know they are overwhelmed with complaints. Years ago, I watched a manager lumber out to my vehicle at a Sonic when his employee sent him at our request. I could tell he was bracing for the worst. After sharing my gratefulness for the attentive and friendly server we had, it literally looked like he was a foot taller as he walked back to the restaurant standing up straight and smiling with confidence. The image is forever etched in my memory as an encouragement to bring that type of kindness whenever I can.
When we refuse to envy or be jealous or rude, we stop adding to the stress and chaos of a world with too many trying to survive without God and His attributes.
When we are careful not to be boastful or arrogant, we leave room for God to shine instead of us. We know that pride goes before destruction, and a stuck up (haughty) attitude before a fall, so we save ourselves from those disasters as well. Remember the letters in EGO can stand for “Edging God Out.”
On the “not self-seeking” line, I found a lot of different wording, including that love does not seek its own way. When I switched that one to God, I was like, “Wait a minute. God does seek His own way and His will because He sees the future and knows what’s right.” So, in His case, seeking His way is not a bad thing. But also, being self-seeking is more like ONLY thinking of yourself. We all know people who don’t seem able to see how their behaviors affect others but can always see how others affect them. Without natural empathy, those are the ones whose love (Godliness) is turning cold as a result of sin.
When King David thought about God’s choice to not hold his record of sins against him, he said that God had separated his (and our) sins as far as the East is separated from the West. Real love covers a multitude of sins. It may seem like a “get out of jail free” card, but it’s definitely not a “keep on doing what got you into bondage in the first place” license. Just like we want people to be grateful enough for our forgiveness to not harm us again, God wants us to be grateful enough to keep ourselves free from the sinful entanglements He broke away from us. And all this is because God finds no joy in unrighteousness but He does rejoice in truth because truth sets us free. Let’s make God smile today.
Finally, God bears, believes, hopes, and endures because He sees a future we cannot even imagine. His Word says it hasn’t even entered into our hearts what He has prepared, but it also says He has hidden eternity in our hearts. He promised Israel that He had plans for their hope and a future. Through the blood of YahShua, we have become Abraham’s seed and heir to those great and precious promises. God (Love) NEVER fails.
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Love Created the Heavens and….
1 John 4:16 WEBUS
[16] We know and have believed the love which God has for us. God is love, and he who remains in love remains in God, and God remains in him.
https://bible.com/bible/206/1jn.4.16.WEBUS
For the month of February, I’m going to take a hint from Hallmark and do my own version of Love-uary with the focus on God’s love. To start it out right, I thought it would be interesting to see how some of the items in the first chapter of Genesis read when we substitute the word love wherever it normally has the word God. I think the message is deep and soul-stirring.
So here is Genesis 1:1-2, 4-5, 14-18, 27-28, 31 KJV with the replacements (no italics or full caps, just read it normally to catch the nuance):
[1] In the beginning Love created the heaven and the earth. [2] And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of Love moved upon the face of the waters.
[4] And Love saw the light, that it was good: and Love divided the light from the darkness. [5] And Love called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.
[14] And Love said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years: [15] and let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth: and it was so. [16] And Love made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: he made the stars also. [17] And Love set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth, [18] and to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness: and Love saw that it was good.
[27] So Love created man in his own image, in the image of Love created he him; male and female created he them. [28] And Love blessed them, and Love said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.
[31] And Love saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.
https://bible.com/bible/1/gen.1.1-31.KJV
So what do you think, readers? I really like the statements like “Love created man in His image” and “Love saw that it was good.”
Because God is Love, whenever we read anything about God, love is the descriptor even when we do not understand. And whenever we talk about love, it should be in ways that represent God fully and completely. All love is not love, as the commercial campaign once said. A mother’s love due a child is different than a friend’s love for a friend, and both are different than romantic love between a man and woman. Some forms of love are not love at all but merely mankind’s desire for how he thinks love should be defined, like a child who says a parent who won’t let them do whatever they want doesn’t love them. But true love can always be defined as God and, far more than a feeling, true love is powerful enough to design and create a universe and everything in it. Do you know LOVE?
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Beyond the Mirror (a scrolling poem)
Many years ago, I was on the phone with my sister, and she was heartbroken by the changes she saw in some of the young girls in her church. Puberty had taken hold of what used to be innocent little darlings in her Sunday School class, and pride seemed to be growing faster than their maturity. All that mattered was how they looked, who liked them (in their peer groups), and what was happening next in their busy calendars. They had become too busy and self-focused to even think about God or the lessons they were once taught.
I told her it was normal, and it didn’t mean she wasn’t a good teacher or that she had dropped the ball. It was part of learning how to let go of the apron strings and reach for the future. But, having once been teenage girls ourselves, we both knew what was happening and that it could be a dangerous time when peer pressure could lead to bad decisions that could negatively affect those futures.
As much as we want to prevent it for others, most of the time, people (especially teen people 😏) must learn on their own, and sometimes by hard lessons. But we can continue to shine a light of truth around them, so they’ll know where to look when they are confused or feel beat up by unreal expectations. In that vein, I put this poem together, and I love how it came out. It was also one of my first times using PowerPoint, so with days of trial and error, I finally created a video of the slideshow to present it. A wonderful Creative Commons soundtrack made it perfect. Enjoy the video, and/or read the words below. If you know a teen or young woman that can be inspired, please share it. And now….
Beyond the Mirror
Mirror, oh Mirror,
please tell me what you see.
Am I beautiful?
Do I need more makeup?
Am I the prettiest and best,
with shining eyes
for the whole world to see?
I want to be special.
I NEED to be special!
What are my gifts?
Can I sing? Dance?
Who am I,
and what can I do
to be wonderful
on this earth?
Oh, Mirror...
Please tell me.
~~~~~~~~
What? Look in my pocket?
Ooh, a bunch of smiles.
Thank you.
They'll be perfect
for more selfies!
Um, tissue. Why tissue?
I'm not sad.
Am I getting sick?
Hold on... What is this?
Bread?
Why do I have bread
in my pockets?
Wait! Why are my arms
suddenly looking
so muscular?
And my shoulders...
they're, they're getting
so... so wide.
Why?
What's happening to me?
This isn't what I asked for.
Mirror! Wait, Mirror...
Where are you going? Mir...
~~~~~~~~
Oh, hello, sad little girl.
I didn't see you before.
Would you like a smile?
Oh, she took it,
and ran away with it.
Oh my, where did all these
sad people come from?
Here, you can have a smile, too.
And so can you, yes.
A tissue? Of course.
Wow, I've used up
all my smiles.
Oh, no,
I see another sad child.
What do I do?
Wait,
would you like some bread?
It worked!
He was just hungry.
~~~~~~~~
Why are you crying, lady?
My shoulder?
A hug?
Sure, you can have those.
Can I help you
carry that burden,
you ask?
Yes, actually I can.
Wow, that was easier
than I thought it would be.
We worked well together.
~~~~~~~~
Whew,
that was a busy day.
I'm getting tired,
but it's not a bad tired.
It's...oh, hello, Mirror.
Where have you been?
One more smile, you say?
Oh, yes,
that looks much better on me
than more makeup.
Thank you.
I see the real beauty now.
It was always there, huh?
I just needed to look...
Beyond the mirror.
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It is No Secret, or Is It?
When I was a little girl, my mom loved her music, and she had a lot of albums by Wayne Newton. One of my favorites was his gospel album with Church in the Wildwood, The Old Rugged Cross, and other traditional hymns. I sang with each of them, but mostly with the song, It is No Secret (What God Can Do). This video sounds exactly like what I remember:
As I got older, it began to feel like the things God could do were secrets, at least from me. I wondered where He was on the nights of drunkenness and violence that eventually resulted in social workers and foster homes for my sister and I. She ended up back at home, and I ended up living with my grandparents in another city. We both watched our mom ride a rollercoaster of efforts to get life right while everyone gave her different answers for how to do it.
One day, while writing in a poetry class in the group home I was in, I recall telling God in a poem how I just didn’t understand Him, or why things had to be the way they were. I concluded by writing that I wasn’t going to try anymore. It was partly giving up and partly pleading for understanding. Thankfully, God read it as a prayer that He eventually answered when I was ready.
Proverbs 25:2 says,
[2] It is the glory of God to conceal a thing, but the glory of kings is to search out a matter.
https://bible.com/bible/206/pro.25.2.WEBUS
And then we have the Psalm in the image above reminding us that God’s wisdom is hidden from those who do not fear (respect) Him.
So, really, the secret is not one that is withheld from anyone who truly seeks Him with all their heart and soul, but it is hidden from those who don’t think it’s worth enough to dig for. Like a vein of pure gold in a rock or stream, or a cache of diamonds in the depths of a mountain of coal, God’s wisdom is an extreme value waiting to be mined. I don’t desire gold or jewels enough to take the risks associated with mining, but I do value God’s pure and holy truths enough to keep on asking, keep on seeking, and keep on knocking (see Matthew 7:7) until I find answers. Will you go mining with me?
⛏️📖⛏️
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When You Pray
I got a text from a friend tonight. She told me that all over the country (USA), people were going to pray together. At 9 PM, I was to stop what I was doing and spend 1 minute praying for our country. I’m guessing the organizers told people in different time zones what time to pray, so we could all pray together.
Apparently, during World War II, Britain did the same thing and had great success. And it can never be a bad idea to bring any facet of life to The Creator of life and then trust The Master to work well with His creations. So, hubby and I joined hands and bowed our heads, and we prayed. We were in a restaurant, so you know that’s exactly when our server brought the first part of our meal. But she was respectful and waited. I pray it lifted up The Lord in her thoughts.
The day brought a lot of activity, and the night brought temperatures cut in half from the day, but all in all, it felt like a good day. I don’t want to bore folks with all my daily doings, so I looked in my photo history with my Amazon Photos and found this image from Jan 22 of 2024. It reminded me of the 9 PM prayer and thus became tonight’s blog image.
Now, I invite you readers to join believers all over who are taking that minute to lift up our land, our people, and our leadership to The Lord.
Most of us have no idea what our leadership faces from enemies, both foreign and domestic. We live our lives, go to our jobs, have meals with friends and family, and take care of business while remaining blissfully unaware of the threats our leaders must watch for and prepare defenses against. We form our opinions and make our judgments on the little we think we know from what gets shared over the airwaves. But Yahveh Almighty sees what we cannot. He knows the threats, the credible plans, and the steps needed to protect us. So, our leaders need us to pray. And our Creator wants us to pray and wants to listen. Let’s gratefully step up to just one minute each night to raise a collective voice of prayer and praise toward Heaven and know that God is listening. In YahShua’s name.
🙏✨🤲✨🛐✨🛐✨🤲✨🙏
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Look and See How Good it Can Be
When I worshipped in a Messianic congregation, one of my favorite songs to learn was called Hineh Ma Tov. It was built on words from this verse in Psalm 133:1.
Psalms 133:1 WEBUS
[1] See how good and how pleasant it is for brothers to live together in unity!
https://bible.com/bible/206/psa.133.1.WEBUS
So what happens when people do not live together in unity? My suggested emoji after that sentence was a sad, crying emoji like this 😭. But my last word was unity, and I didn’t say anything in the sentence that could lead my keyboard to think I was talking about something sad. Right? Or is even a keyboard smarter than many humans to know the end result of refusing to look for unity?
But I digress; I was only going to talk about the not-so-pleasant and not-so-wonderful effects of division. Chaos, anger, and jealousy, are just a few of the effects that go with not being on the same page. But THAT is really the problem. No ONE page that everyone can stand on together to allow the unity. Unity without a foundation is simply an illusion.
When the psalmist speaks in this chapter, the pleasant things he describes include the oil dripping from Aaron’s beard. That is pleasant to him because that oil is from a time of anointing to do priestly works for God Almighty. The priesthood was originally created and ordained by Yahveh as part of His mercy and grace to cover the sins of mankind. And if the priest was being ordained, it meant the law was being followed.
Law is a blessing! Think of this: When you’re in a hurry to get somewhere, and you have a green light, the law that makes cross traffic stop and let you through will benefit you more than chaos at the intersection. But all it takes is one person who spurns the law and wants to do things their own way to mess up everyone’s day.
God put law in our hearts, and all it took was one evil tempter challenging God’s way of doing things to create chaos for every human for the rest of time. At least until time stops counting because we move into eternity. So what would happen if all of mankind decided to look and see how good it would be to follow God’s way? We would be in unity, and behold how wonderful and pleasant it would be.
And here’s a video and lyrics with Paul Wilbur singing Hineh Ma Tov…
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A Little Bit of Snow
(CC BY-NC-SA)
Brr 🥶! Super cold temperatures are absolutely not my favorite thing. Ice storms, snow storms, and dips below freezing (32°f) make me want to stay hidden in a warm house under cozy blankets.
My husband made the statement that “it’s not that bad” and that started a whole conversation. Why does it seem worse to me than it does to him? Simple, I was not raised with cold or snow. If my sister and I saw a little ice in a puddle, we would slide a shoe over it like our one foot was ice skating. If we found a little bit of snow, we got really excited and wanted to touch it or crunch through it the way little boys love to splash in rain puddles. But both were rare in Southern California.
My first experience with strong cold and lots of snow was when my photography company sent me to Wisconsin in the middle of an arctic cold front. The temperature was 35° below zero, and it dropped to 84° below zero with the wind chill. I was warned not to breathe the air in without a scarf over my mouth, and my co-worker had to have her car towed to a garage to warm it up just to get started. That would be harsh for anyone, but those who live in that kind of cold regularly are prepared. Some even have plugs on their cars to connect to available power sources to heat their oil. It’s not that bad where I live now in Kentuckiana, but it’s still hard on my Western-raised body, even after 35 years here.
Do you have any life changes that have been harder for you to deal with because of a lack of familiarity? For example, if you were raised in a dysfunctional family, maybe going to someone else’s family gathering is somewhat uncomfortable. Or, maybe like me, you are childless, and hearing women talk about having babies or raising children feels awkward because you cannot relate to any of it. On the other hand, I imagine women who have traditional families, pregnancies, births, etc., and then read Scriptures about the curses that often made women in the Bible barren, may feel awkward with me. They must wonder if there’s a curse involved because I wondered that for a long time myself.
See, experience breeds familiarity, and familiarity breeds confidence. My husband is far more confident about driving in the snow than I will ever be. But driving in snow, no matter how much fear it creates in me, is a little thing compared to the blinding Light of Christ to an unbeliever who was never raised around godliness or biblical Scripture. 1 Peter 2:9 speaks of God “calling us out of darkness into His marvelous light.” If you’ve ever come out of a dark room into bright light, you know what this is describing.
When we minister to those who are not familiar with the Gospel, we need to think of the way unfamiliar things make us feel. We need to remember that light can be blinding to those who have been in the dark for a long time. And we need to teach with such compassion and understanding that we are not surprised when a person we’re trying to teach feels overwhelmed by what we are used to in our walks with The Lord. If they reject the message for a time, it doesn’t mean you or I are bad teachers. Even Jesus did not convince every person He reached out to. Sometimes, someone is just set in their own ways and refuses to consider a new way. Other times, it may just take some time for their spiritual eyes to adjust to The Light. That’s when we let them play in just a little bit of snow for a bit until they’re ready for the deep stuff. ❄️
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This Day’s Prompt on Decluttering…
… Asked the question, “Where can you reduce clutter in your life?” I knew I could answer with something spiritual, or I could answer that question with the physical clutter in my life. I could go room by room, inbox by inbox, and even list Christmas movies on my DVR. But I wanted to see how a few others answered, and I’m so glad I looked because one of the blogs I found has a great article that spoke to my heart and spirit. (There are other posts I want to read there as well, so I followed and decided it was a great post to reblog.)
I hope my visitors enjoy this post by the Grace-In-Between blog, and may you feel the wonderful blessings of Yahveh Almighty as you rest with Him this Sabbath.
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Psalm 12 Written in Haiku
I love writing haiku. It’s actually how I journal my day every night. It keeps me focused on short, rhythmic bursts of thought, and the meter is relaxing to me. I have learned about the “correct” use and meaning of haiku, with its nature words and less rigorous syllable count, but for the purposes of my haiku writing, I prefer to focus on the Americanized syllable structure (5-7-5) I learned back in elementary school.
Psalm 12 was the chapter used in my current Bible study called “The Full Story_____From the Beginning to the Amen” by The Bible Project. So here it is condensed into simple haiku verses.
A Psalm of David,
To the choir director.
A song of lament.
1.
I need Your help, Lord.
The loyal have disappeared,
From the human race.
2.
They all keep lying.;
Speaking with flattering lips,
And deceptive hearts.
3.
I'm praying to God,
To cut off the boastful tongues,
And the lying lips.
4.
They claim false power.
They reject God as Master.
And claim the control.
5.
But devastation,
Has caught God's attention, and...
He hears the groanings.
The poor and needy,
Cry out, and God rises up.
He provides safety.
6.
The Lord's words are pure.
They've been refined like silver.
Extra purified.
7.
You, Lord, will guard us.
You protect us forever,
From evil attacks.
8.
Though the wicked prowl,
And the human race exalts...
The worthless wicked.
See, I read this AND listened to it. But I didn’t really hear the pain in King David’s heart until I began to write the words myself. Now, I’m seeing him cry out in verse and begging God to see what men are doing to each other and fix it. I don’t know if he was king when he wrote this, but he obviously felt powerless to change things himself. His hopes were likely dashed because, not only were there wicked and evil men doing harm to each other, but the general populace were praising the wicked instead of holding them accountable.
Sadly, it sounds like much of the world right now. People take power that was never meant for mankind, like deciding what is good or evil based on their own desires, and they reject the wisdom of The One who created all life and wrote the owner’s manual. Our Creator chose how life would form in the womb when we were fearfully and wonderfully made. He even chose that life would form sometimes in less-than-ideal situations. But He asks us to trust that He knows best and has a plan for our good no matter what it looks like at that moment.
But after that life has begun to form, some people take the position of thinking that because they can control it, they should control it. They will snuff out that life because it doesn’t line up with what they think their future desires will be. And, they will find professionals to help them kill the innocent child because somehow, that murder helps their bottom line. And all the ignorant will celebrate the “freedom” obtained by the death without realizing the deeper bondage the death will bring to all who helped make it happen.
Proverbs 14;12 (WEB) says, “There is a way which seems right to a man, but in the end, it leads to death.” And that tells us how much we need to trust the wisdom in Proverbs 3:7-8 (WEB) “Don’t be wise in your own eyes. Fear Yahweh, and depart from evil. It will be health to your body, and nourishment to your bones.” Though the words in Proverbs are not promises, they are the more likely scenarios.
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