Tag: Encounter

Posted in Bible study, Devotion, From the Insideout, Journey Through The Word, She, Volume 2

Anna

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Adapted from She, volume 2, p11-12

Read: Luke 2:36-38 and 2 Cor. 9:15

Anna, a prophetess, was also there in the Temple. She was the daughter of Phanuel from the tribe of Asher,1 and she was very old. Her husband died when they had been married only seven years. 37 Then she lived as a widow to the age of eighty-four.  She never left the Temple but stayed there day and night, worshiping God with fasting and prayer. 38 She came along just as Simeon was talking with Mary and Joseph, and she began praising God. She talked about the child to everyone who had been waiting expectantly for God to rescue Jerusalem.

Luke 2:36-38

I love and appreciate that God allowed Anna, who had heard prophecies about the coming Messiah for many years, not only to believe in Him but to meet Him face to face. Luke wrote that, “She came along just as Simeon was talking with Mary and Joseph, and she began praising God. She talked about the child to everyone who had been waiting expectantly for God to rescue Jerusalem.”

Anna, one of the few prophetesses mentioned in the Bible. “She never left the temple but worshiped night and day, fasting and praying” (Luke 2:37). After becoming a widow, Anna dedicated herself wholly to the Lord. She never left the temple in Jerusalem but spent her time worshiping, fasting, and praying. Her many years of sacrifice and service were worth it all when she came face-to-face with Jesus, the Messiah, the One for whom she had waited so long. I see the fingerprints of God in the timing described by Luke with these words:  “She came along just as Simeon was talking with Mary and Joseph, and she began praising God.” What stands out to me most is not only her devotion but her delight in seeing Him turned into praising Him and then to sharing Him with “everyone who had been waiting expectantly for God to rescue Jerusalem.”

Friends, may we be faithful and alert, like Anna, so that we do not miss the presence and work of Jesus in and around our lives. When we see Him, may we faithfully praise Him, and, like Anna, may we then faithfully proclaim Him to everyone.

The More We Know

Posted in Bible study, Devotion, From the Insideout, Journey Through The Word, Know These Truths, LGG Study, Prayer Starters, Quiet Time, Secure In Christ

A Servant of the Gospel

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based on the LGG Study, Secure in Christ/ w3d2

Read: Ephesians 3:7-9; SOAP: verse 8

I became a servant of this gospel according to the gift of God’s grace that was given to me by the exercise of his power. 8 To me—less than the least of all the saints—this grace was given, to proclaim to the Gentiles the unfathomable riches of Christ 9 and to enlighten everyone about God’s secret plan—the mystery that has been hidden for ages in God who has created all things.

Ephesians 3:7-9 NET or (KJV)

Oh, friends, that we might understand that we are “servants of the gospel.” Paul got it. He was well aware of His past life. He was a persecutor of Christians, not just persecuting their beliefs, but also seeking their arrest and imprisonment, and even death if they refused to deny Christ (Acts 26:10-11). That is, until he encountered Jesus on the road to Damascus1. He was radically changed from the chief of all sinners, as he defined himself, into a minister sent to take the gospel of Jesus to the Gentiles. His mission was to help them understand that God had made a way for them to be saved and numbered among the children of God. What a privilege and a challenge this must have been for Paul.

Our stories of salvation may not all be like Paul’s on the road to Damascus, with bright lights and temporary blindness. My Damascus Road was actually in a hospital room the night my first daughter was born.2 Friends, wherever we encounter Christ and put our faith in Him, we are saved by God’s grace and commissioned to “proclaim His grace and the ‘unfathomable riches of Christ'” to the world. May we be faithful, like Paul, to proclaim the message boldly, that everyone may be enlightened.

But God is greater than all of our shortcomings and failures. He can redeem anything and anyone. No one is too far gone or disqualified from His grace and service. This is why Paul writes that he is “less than the least of all the saints.” He knows what his life looked like before Christ, yet Jesus called him to His great mission. … Your resume doesn’t disqualify you. Instead, it qualifies you as a recipient of His grace to love watching world.

LGG Journal/p97

Do you remember what your life looked like before Christ? Do you understand the privilege of being called by Jesus to carry out His commission to share His message and love with others? If so, I invite you to share your story in the comments; if not, I invite you to visit the “Know these truths” link below.

https://atomic-temporary-62140760.wpcomstaging.com/2023/03/14/know-these-truths/