GOD, WHO ARE YOU? | GOD IS OUR COMFORTER I’m always amazed that the God of Creation, the King of Kings, the Holy of Holies, the Lord of Lords cares about our comfort. It’s remarkable to me that He is paying that much attention to us.  He doesn’t just care about what we’re doing, He cares about how we’re doing.   The Bible tells us He is our Wonderful Counselor (Isaiah 9:6) and His Holy Spirit is our Comforter (John 16:7).   Elijah experienced being comforted by God during an

GOD, WHO ARE YOU? | GOD IS OUR EQUIPPER As often as I have asked the question, “God, who are You?”, I have just as frequently asked “God, who am I?” Especially when it comes to stepping into my calling.   Like you, I’ve been called to many things throughout my life. As a teenager, I remember being called into a few leadership opportunities, and I wondered why God would choose me for those responsibilities. When I was 21 years old, I was hired as a third-grade teacher in the m

GOD, WHO ARE YOU? | GOD IS OUR CREATOR God reveals Himself to us first as a Creator; THE Creator.  Read Genesis 1   This is likely not an unfamiliar passage of scripture to you, nor an unfamiliar characteristic of God. It may seem hard to learn something new about God from a passage and characteristic you are so familiar with. I haven’t spent much time in the 40 years of my relationship with the Lord studying Him as the Creator; this was a part of God that was very settled fo

GOD, WHO ARE YOU? We’re going to begin by asking God to reveal more of Himself to us. Who is He? What is His character? We will not come close to answering this question in seven days; we can’t even fully answer this question with a lifetime of study. He’s far more than what we’ll see in these five passages in scripture. These are a starting point of Who God is.   It is so important to God that we understand Who He is, that He sent Jesus, His Son, from being with Him in heave

Have you ever thought about what you love the MOST about God? Do you have a FAVORITE part of God? I think I do. Or at least I know today’s favorite thing about God.    Like me, you may change your mind about this. Something about being a girl makes us slightly susceptible to changing our minds about a number of things. That’s one of my favorite things about us girls, actually… how flexible we are. How much we embrace learning new things and maturing as we walk through life. H

SCRIPTURE - LUKE 6:46-48 “Why do you call me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I say?   As for everyone who comes to me and hears my words and puts them into practice, I will show you what they are like.   They are like a man building a house, who dug down deep and laid the foundation on rock. When a flood came, the torrent struck that house but could not shake it, because it was well built. OBSERVATION Jesus says that those who hear His words and put them into practice are

SCRIPTURE - GENSIS 6:9-22 Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time, and he walked faithfully with God. Noah had three sons: Shem, Ham and Japheth. Now the earth was corrupt in God’s sight and was full of violence. God saw how corrupt the earth had become, for all the people on earth had corrupted their ways. So God said to Noah, “I am going to put an end to all people, for the earth is filled with violence because of them. I am surely going to dest

SCRIPTURE - MATTHEW 14:22-23 Immediately Jesus made the disciples get into the boat and go on ahead of him to the other side, while he dismissed the crowd. After he had dismissed them, he went up on a mountainside by himself to pray. Later that night, he was there alone, and the boat was already a considerable distance from land, buffeted by the waves because the wind was against it. Shortly before dawn Jesus went out to them, walking on the lake. When the disciples saw h

SCRIPTURE - ACTS 9:10-19 In Damascus there was a disciple named Ananias. The Lord called to him in a vision, “Ananias!” “Yes, Lord,” he answered. The Lord told him, “Go to the house of Judas on Straight Street and ask for a man from Tarsus named Saul, for he is praying. In a vision he has seen a man named Ananias come and place his hands on him to restore his sight.” “Lord,” Ananias answered, “I have heard many reports about this man and all the harm he has done to your hol

SCRIPTURE - GENESIS 22:1-14 Some time later God tested Abraham. He said to him, “Abraham!” “Here I am,” he replied. Then God said, “Take your son, your only son, whom you love—Isaac—and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on a mountain I will show you.” Early the next  morning Abraham got up and loaded his donkey. He took with him two of his servants and his son Isaac. When he had cut enough wood for the burnt offering, he set out for the place

SCRIPTURE - LUKE 5:1-11 One day as Jesus was standing by the Lake of Gennesaret, the people were crowding around him and listening to the word of God. He saw at the water’s edge two boats, left there by the fishermen, who were washing their nets. He got into one of the boats, the one belonging to Simon, and asked him to put out a little from shore. Then he sat down and taught the people from the boat. When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, “Put out into deep water

SCRIPTURE - PROVERBS 3:5-6 Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight. OBSERVATION In these verses, the author of Proverbs is calling us away from half-hearted trust in God. Our trust becomes half-hearted when it only applies to certain parts of our lives. We may be willing to trust God with some things, but with others, we prefer to hold on to our own ways. There are ofte

SCRIPTURE - JOHN 14:25-27 “All this I have spoken while still with you. But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you. Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid. OBSERVATION In this passage, Jesus prepares His disciples for the moment He will no longer be physically with

SCRIPTURE - 2 CHRONICLES 20:1-6; 12; 15-17 Some people came and told Jehoshaphat, “A vast army is coming against you from Edom, from the other side of the Dead Sea. It is already in Hazezon Tamar” (that is, En Gedi). Alarmed, Jehoshaphat resolved to inquire of the LORD, and he proclaimed a fast for all Judah. The people of Judah came together to seek help from the LORD; indeed, they came from every town in Judah to seek him. Then Jehoshaphat stood up in the assembly of Judah

SCRIPTURE - LUKE 10:38-42 As Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him. She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet listening to what he said. But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to him and asked, “Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!” “Martha, Martha,” the Lord answered, “you are worried a

SCRIPTURE - JOHN 10:1-5 Very truly I tell you Pharisees, anyone who does not enter the sheep pen by the gate, but climbs in by some other way, is a thief and a robber. The one who enters by the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep listen to his voice. He calls his  own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice. But th

SCRIPTURE - 1 KINGS 19:11-18 The LORD said, “Go out and stand on the mountain in the presence of the LORD, for the LORD is about to pass by.” Then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks before the LORD, but the LORD was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the LORD was not in the earthquake. After the earthquake came a fire, but the LORD was not in the fire. And after the fire came a gentle whisper. When Elijah hea

SCRIPTURE - EZRA 3:1-6 When the seventh month came and the Israelites had settled in their towns, the people assembled together as one in Jerusalem. Then Joshua son of Jozadak and his fellow priests and Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel and his associates began to build the altar of the God of Israel to sacrifice burnt offerings on it, in accordance with what is written in the Law of Moses the man of God. Despite their fear of the peoples around them, they built the altar on its f

SCRIPTURE - DANIEL 2:17-28 Then Daniel returned to his house and explained the matter to his friends Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah. He urged them to plead for mercy from the God of heaven concerning this mystery, so that he and his friends might not be executed with the rest of the wise men of Babylon. During the night the mystery was revealed to Daniel in a vision. Then Daniel praised the God of heaven and said: “Praise be to the name of God for ever and ever; wisdom and p

SCRIPTURE - MATTHEW 4:1-11 Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. After fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. The tempter came to him and said, “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.” Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not  live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’” Then the devil took him to the holy city and had him stand on the highest point of the templ

SCRIPTURE - JOHN 4:5-14 So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about noon. When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, “Will you give me a drink?” (His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.) The Samaritan woman said to him, “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me

SCRIPTURE - MATTHEW 7:7-11 “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened. “Which of you, if your son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake?   If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give

SCRIPTURE - GALATIANS 5:16-25 So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are in conflict with each other, so that you are not to do whatever you want. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, je

SCRIPTURE - DANIEL 3:16-28 Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego replied to him, “King Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to defend ourselves before you in this matter. If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to deliver us from it, and he will deliver us from Your Majesty’s hand. But even if he does not, we want you to know, Your Majesty, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up.” Then Nebuchadnezzar was furious with Sha