Archive for the ‘devotional’ Category

God or Mother Nature?

Posted in American culture, Anxiety & Stress, Bible Study, Christian, devotional, Faith, inspirational, Praise, Scripture, T.V. Programs, Worship on March 30, 2007| 168 Comments »

Tree Clouds

Does the phrase, “Mother Nature,” bug you as much as it does me? Who is in control anyway?  God or Mother Nature? 

I can’t believe I heard it again today on the news, “Mother Nature unleased her wrath again today!”  They were talking about the awful tornados that tore their way across the country. Every time there is some unusual weather event someone called, “Mother Nature,” gets the blame or credit.   Who is this Mother Nature anyway? 

The dictionary says:  Mother Nature, noun

“The personification of nature as a powerful and nurturing woman.”

Nature is everything that is not man-made according to the dictionary.  Therefore, nature is God made. 

Wikipedia says: 

“Mother Nature is a personification of nature.”

Every time we get tornados, hurricaines, blizzards, floods, and other weather woes the news and weather media blame it all on Mother Nature.  Not only that, but when we have wonderful weather and a beautiful day they say something like, “Mother Nature smiled on us today with this warm weather.”   She gets the credit and the glory.   So, what is the real story? 

God says in Exodus 20:3, NASB “You shall have no other gods before Me.”  This is one of the ten commandments, and is serious business.
 
God is to be praised and worshipped.  Not other gods.  We in our nation are getting very careless in this area.  When we hear the phrase, “Mother Nature”,  used over and over it becomes common.  We use it without thinking of the true meaning behind it.  Most of us wouldn’t intentionally praise another god.

Did you know that God is in control of the weather not Mother Nature?  

The Bible has a lot to say about God and how He controls the weather.

(Psalms 78:26 NASB) He caused the east wind to blow in the heavens And by His power He directed the south wind.

(Psalms 107:25 NASB) For He spoke and raised up a stormy wind, Which lifted up the waves of the sea.

(Psalms 135:7 NASB) He causes the vapors to ascend from the ends of the earth; Who makes lightnings for the rain, Who brings forth the wind from His treasuries.

(Psalms 148:8 NASB) Fire and hail, snow and clouds; Stormy wind, fulfilling His word;

(Proverbs 30:4 NASB) Who has ascended into heaven and descended? Who has gathered the wind in His fists? Who has wrapped the waters in His garment? Who has established all the ends of the earth? What is His name or His son’s name? Surely you know!

(Mark 4:39 NASB) And He got up and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, “Hush, be still.” And the wind died down and it became perfectly calm.

God created the Heavens and the Earth and He controls the weather. So, you may ask, “Why does God allow this terrible weather to cause us all kinds of problems?”  The answer is that God is Sovereign.  He can do whatever He wants.  He is in control and nothing gets by Him. 

Have you ever stopped to think that God allows bad things to happen to our nation to get our attention?  We have lost our moral footing.  In our society today anything goes.  The news certainly validates this.  There used to be sin and shame, but it has been replaced with nothing is right or wrong. 

But, God says:

(Colossians 3:5 NASB) Therefore consider the members of your earthly body as dead to immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed, which amounts to idolatry.

(Colossians 3:6 NASB) For it is because of these things that the wrath of God will come upon the sons of disobedience,

“The sovereignty of God is that golden sceptre in his hand by which he will make all bow, either by his word or by his works, by his mercies or by his judgements.”     Thomas Brooks

The world says, “You can’t fool Mother Nature.”  I say, “You can’t fool God.”  He is still there, He is in control, and He holds us in the palm of His hand.  We need to cry out for mercy!

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God Is Sovereign!

Posted in American culture, Anxiety & Stress, Bible Study, Christian, devotional, Faith, inspirational, Praise, Scripture, Worship on March 8, 2007| 3 Comments »

 

onecardinal

 Here is one of God’s beautiful creations, a cardinal, who visits my feeder daily.

God is Sovereign. We hear that statement often, but have you ever stepped back to take a look at what that means? Sovereign means King, Lord, Master over everything, in control, independent; or to boil it all down it means Supreme Authority.

God then is the Supreme Authority. He is the One and Only God who created the heavens and the earth. He created all that was created and owns it all. He is free to choose to do as he pleases with His creation.

(Psalms 103:19 NASB) The LORD has established His throne in the heavens, And His sovereignty rules over all.

(Psalms 115:3 NASB) But our God is in the heavens; He does whatever He pleases.

(Psalms 135:6 NASB) Whatever the LORD pleases, He does, In heaven and in earth, in the seas and in all deeps.

(1 Timothy 6:15 NASB) which He will bring about at the proper time–He who is the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords,

According the Bible, God is in control of everything, but how does that relate to us in our everyday lives?

We live in a society where we are taught from an early age that we must have good self-esteem. We must think highly of ourselves, and do our own thing. We learn that we can do anything we put our minds too and become anything we want to be. We need to spend a great deal of time in looking within to “find ourselves.” They tell us to grab onto life as you only go around once and to go for the gusto. Live, drink, and be merry; that’s the motto of the day. Also, we hear, “if it feels good, then do it.” Or, “it doesn’t matter what you do as long as it doesn’t hurt anyone.” There are no absolutes. It’s all about me!  We need to be entertained. We depend on ourselves. These attitudes lead to self-reliance, and pride.

As Christians we need to remember that we are in this world but not of this world. This is Satan’s world. We need to be extra careful that we are not caught up in Satan’s traps to get us to be self-indulgent and selfish.  We need to control the desires for worldly pleasures.

We fool ourselves if we think we are in control, because God rules over everything, even our best laid plans.

When we realize that God is sovereign over everything we need to submit to God and surrender our lives totally to Him. When an enemy surrenders to his captors he totally gives up. He gives himself and all he has over to the captor to do with as he pleases. That is how we are to surrender to God. This is an amazing lesson to learn.

Here is the best part.  When we realize that God is in charge of everything we no longer have to worry and fret.  I once was the world’s worse worrier.  I often say if there were an olympic event for worry, I would have won the gold metal.  That was before I learned that God is sovereign.  My worries effected my health to such a degree that I developed panic disorder and agoraphobia.  I became homebound and a slave to worry and fear!  Life doesn’t have to be that way and it shouldn’t be that way.  I leaned to trust and depend on God because he is in charge anyway.   It is a wonderful freeing thing to learn God is sovereign.  Worry can’t change anything!

 Now, whenever I have challenges in my life, I remind myself to surrender.  Just give up, and allow God to work things out in his way.  It is so wonderful to have peace in the midst of a storm. 

God wants the very best for us and will give us blessings that we’ve never dreamed about, but before he can give them we must bow the knee in submission to him. 

I read a good Christian classic recently called Absolute Surrender, by Andrew Murray. If you’ve never read this book I’d highly recommend it. This book was first published in 1895, and it’s wisdom has stood the test of time.

Andrew Murray said, “If we totally surrender ourselves to God, we never need know anything but God’s good.”

That doesn’t mean everything will be rosy all the time, but it means that when we are sold out to God it doesn’t matter to us anymore what comes our way because we have God’s good intentions on our side. Even what we think are bad things work out for good with God. God is dependable and we can trust him.

(Proverbs 3:5 NASB) Trust in the LORD with all your heart And do not lean on your own understanding.

As the Word says, we need to put our trust in the Lord. He is the Almighty One who knows the beginning from the end. He knows all about us and what our lives hold for us. We cannot figure things out on our own. We are not smart enough for that. But, he wants us to surrender to Him, put our trust in Him, and realize He is in control! Not us!

Questions for Discussion:

1. Are you having a rough time in your life right now? If so, do you need to surrender to God? 

2. Do you realize that God is sovereign? What does this realization do for your life?

3. I’m writing from the USA. I realize this blog goes throughout the whole world. I’d like to hear if your society where you live today is like mine, in the sense that people are so concerned with “self,” and “pleasures,” instead of God’s will?

Click on the word “comment ” below if you would like to take part in this discussion. What you share will be of great help to others.

Blessings, Bonnie Lord

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God Owns Everything!

Posted in Bible Study, Christian, devotional, Faith, inspirational, Praise, Scripture, Worship on March 2, 2007| 3 Comments »

TrmpetSwan 

 Psalm 24:1-2 (NASB)

 The earth is the LORD’S, and all it contains, The world, and those who dwell in it.
For He has founded it upon the seas. And established it up the rivers.

Have you ever stopped to think that God owns everything?  He created everything and it is His to do with as He pleases.  He laid the foundation of the earth.  He created mankind and owns us.  We are His possession.  He can do with us whatever He pleases.  God is sovereign.  He is universally supreme.

If He owns everything then He is in charge of everything.  When we allow God to be in charge of our lives He blesses us.  When we try to run our lives ourselves then we are actually going against God and are in rebellion.  We will not be blessed.

 When we become successful in the work place and make a good living it is only due to God allowing us to do so.  The money we make is actually His.  Do we spend it in a way that is pleasing to Him?  Whatever we have comes from His hand to ours.  Our homes, food, clothing, friends, family come from God.  We can’t think of anything that He isn’t ultimately responsible for giving us.

 I know everyone doesn’t think this way.  A lot of people think they are responsible for their own success.  They think they have worked hard and earned what they have.  It may be true that they worked hard, but God is the one who allowed it to happen. 

Psalms 50:10-11

For every beast of the forest is Mine, the cattle on a thousand hills.
I know every bird of the mountains, And everything that moves in the field is Mine.

When we look at the beauty in this earth; the birds, flowers, sunsets, sun rises, oceans, lakes, stars on a dark night, we can see the results of God’s handiwork.  He made all that, and it is His.  He shares it with us to enjoy and we can be grateful and in awe at what He has done.  Man certainly could not have made these beautiful things.  God is possessive of His creation.

 

 

 

 

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