Unexpected Surprises

Our sermon on Easter morning was about how we can look at life like it is a tragedy or we can live our life like it is a comedy. Comedies always show how something turns out better then expected. We often expect the worst and are therefore living as if tragedy is our life. But the comedy brings surprises, the unexpected. The Bible is a comic book if you really look at it. There are tons of examples of surprises and God doing the unexpected from blessing Abraham and Sarah with a son in their very old age to Moses and the parting of the Red Sea, to the king of all kings born in a barn. Life brought me an unexpected surprise this Easter morning. I got on the scale hoping to see that my 10lb weight gain from our family reunion cruise had decreased in the last 7 days since our return. I had to get on the scale twice and then ask my daughter to get on it just to be sure it was working right. I proclaimed it to be an Easter miracle! I lost the full 10lbs and was back at the starting weight I had before the cruise. Unbelievable. As I thought about this wonderful blessing, I realized that my sun poisoning and swollen ankles probably contributed a bit of water weight which was why it seemed like I gained so much. No matter the reasoning, it was a glorious unexpected surprise! I saw another surprise that God brought to a family in Nebraska. We went and saw the movie Heaven is for Real. 4 year old Colton Burpo had seen heaven with details that are unbelievable but our Father loves surprising us with the unexpected. Who says you have to die to go and see Heaven? There is no limit to what God can do. I pray that you will come to love the surprises and the unexpected and live for them and for God.

365 Days of Spirit-Filled Fruits Challenge-Day 154

I love how God works. I learn about certain things and than they are reinforced with a sermon at church. I liked how Pastor Graham explained how we often perceive ourselves negatively but what God thinks is we are wonderful. We have to take that negative sketch of ourselves daily and toss it in the trash and hold up the beautiful sketch that God created. Our perceptions of how others will react to us is determined by our temperament; about who God created within each of us. If we open our hearts to the Holy Spirit filling us each day, than we can see each person as a child of God. When we see others and ourselves through God’s eyes, our behavior will become that which God intended for us. Moses questioned God and his calling for him but God saw Moses for who he really was and who he would become. Moses perception of himself was negative but God only saw the inner man and knew he would lead the Israelites out of Egypt and to the promised land. Did Moses know he would become the greatest figure in all of the Old Testament? No, but God knows the plans he has for us and when we trust in him he will take us through them no matter how equipped we are for them.

Exodus 3:8-12 So I have come down to rescue them up out of the land of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey—the home of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites. And now the cry of the Israelites has reached me, and I have seen the way the Egyptians are oppressing them. So now, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt. But Moses said to God, “Who am I, that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt? And God said, “I will be with you.”

365 Days of Praise Challenge-Day 27

God's word is amazing! I have SO many times read a passage again and again and every time it is read I see something different. I think a lot of it has to do with the season of life you are in. This is a very good reason to never stop reading the Word of the Lord because He will speak to you wherever you are in your life. I am praising God for His word and how it is eternal. You can go on and on reading it and always come away with something new. In church on Sunday our prastor spoke about Matthew 2:13-23 which in a nutshell is about the escape of Mary, Joseph and Jesus to Egypt and about him coming out of Egypt and ending up in Nazzareth. I have heard this part of the story many times but our pastor brought out a very interesting thought as to why Matthew included it in the story. Jesus is living out the old testament. He is exhiled to Egypt because a certain king wants to see him dead and when that king is dead Jesus comes out of Egypt like Moses leading the Isrealites out of Egypt. We are doing the same thing! We are in exhile because of our sins. We cannot be near the Lord but Jesus like Moses leads us out of exhile into eternal life. My exhile was the sins of my past abortions and my secondary infertility issues I had brought a light onto those sins and made me face them for what they really are. I was led out of the darkness I faced every month when my period would show up again into the light and a relationship with God. I am not happy about where I was but I am very grateful and delighted with where I ended up. What drove you into exhile and how were you led out of it to Jesus?
Matthew 2:19 After Herod died, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt and said, "get up, take the child and his mother and go to the land of Isreal, for those who were trying to take the child's life are dead."