I will share about Christian books I have read or listened to.
I will be sharing about my life before and after Christ. I will include stories about my pet and other pets I have encountered.
Patience in the Waiting
Imagine what your life would be like if you had received everything you wished and prayed for right away. What would you be like as a person if you got every gift you asked for, every relationship you hoped for, and a “yes” to every opportunity you pursued?
There’s a reason God often answers “no” when we ask Him for things. Not getting what we want teaches us patience and humility. We become more like Christ as we grow in these things.
Wanting something and then having to wait for it can be frustrating, but God makes that time fruitful as He refines our desires in the waiting. Sometimes we ask for a very different thing once we’ve had some time to think about it!
Cold winter months may seem to be a dead season, but as trees shed their leaves and “wait” out the cold, their roots go deeper and their nourishment systems are replenished. Like a tree with deep roots, time spent waiting is not wasted for those who belong to God. Waiting is a worthwhile time, if we seek to wait with Him. Even when it seems like nothing is happening on the surface, God is doing a good work.
Taking a weekly Sabbath rest might not seem “productive” in light of all the important things God has called us to do, but we can trust that He’s at work in those days of quiet, too. The Lord is good to those who wait with and for Him.
His Pain, Our Gain
Isaiah 53 is a stunning chapter in the Bible—in what is now commonly referred to as the “Old Testament.”
Approximately 700 years before Jesus walked the earth, Isaiah prophesied about a suffering servant who would also, somehow and in some way, be exalted. A coming Savior, a future Redeemer, the long-awaited Messiah—whose death would ultimately bring life.
A portion of Isaiah 53 says this:
“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.”
Isaiah 53:5 NIV
So, who was this man who would be pierced, crushed, and wounded because of someone else’s sins? Whose undeserved punishment would be the catalyst for healing? Whose life would be given as an offering—so that others might live?
Jesus Christ not only fits the description of the suffering servant who paid the ultimate price to buy His people back, redeem them, and set them free—He ...
“Go to now, ye rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you. Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are motheaten. Your gold and silver is cankered; and the rust of them shall be a witness against you, and shall eat your flesh as it were fire. Ye have heaped treasure together for the last days. Behold, the hire of the labourers who have reaped down your fields, which is of you kept back by fraud, crieth: and the cries of them which have reaped are entered into the ears of the Lord of sabaoth. Ye have lived in pleasure on the earth, and been wanton; ye have nourished your hearts, as in a day of slaughter. Ye have condemned and killed the just; and he doth not resist you. Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord. Behold, the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long patience for it, until he receive the early and latter rain. Be ye also patient; stablish your hearts: for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh. Grudge...
