Bible devotionals – Page 3 – "Crucified, Hidden, Seated"

“An Acts-ive Faith” (Part 4)

CC: K Carswell 2022

Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holman Christian Standard Bible, Copyright 1999, 2000, 2002, 2003, 2009 by Holman Bible Publishers. Used by Permission. Holman Christian Standard Bible, Holman CSB and HCSB are federally registered trademarks of Holman Bible Publishers.

Acts 4:11,12 When they observed the boldness of Peter and John and realized that there were uneducated and untrained men, they were amazed and recognized that they had been with Jesus. And since they saw the man who had been healed standing with them, they had nothing to say in response.

The rulers were not used to being taught by fishermen. They had asked by what power or in what name Peter and john had healed the lame man. Peter gave them the answer: it was in the name of Jesus. The rulers then realized the men had been with Jesus. Spiritual power does not come from education level or social status. It comes from time spent with the Lord.

May I so walk in my life that people recognize that I have been with Jesus.

May I not care if they call me “uneducated and untrained “. Every job has its skill level, and Peter and John were professional fishermen — a blue collar job, but one that provided food to the population.

Another Thought: A Beggar No More:

Acts 4:14 And since they saw the man who had been healed standing with them, they had nothing to say in response.

The 40 year old man (his age is given in Acts 4:22) had been healed the previous day. When Peter took him by the hand and raised him up, his feet and ankle bones had received strength. Acts 3:8 tells us he jumped up , stood and started to walk. He entered the temple complex with them ‘walking, leaping and praising God’. The 40 year-old man was inside the temple. He was not just at its gates begging. He was no longer lame, he was not longer a beggar. What a life change!

Life changes happen to us all. We go from childhood to adulthood, from being in school, to having a job, from being single to being married, from working to retirement. How do we best deal with all these changes?

The lame man chose to stay with people who knew the Lord. Who we hang out with matters., especially as we rebuild our lives after a time of change.

I recently retired. How will I spend my time? I have many hobbies and there is always chores to do, so filling time is not a problem. But how do I best fill my time? I don’t want my time to be filled with activities that don’t matter. As I make these changes, I will be hanging out with Godly friends, who will help me further fulfill my calling. We are not to old to do what God would have us do or to have him heal us. Remember the man who was healed was 40 years old.

Thank you Lord that I am not to old to have a miracle performed over me.

cc: K Carswell 2022

“An Acts-ive Faith” (Part 3)

Acts 3:16 By faith in His name, His name has made this man strong, whom you see and know. So the faith that comes through Him has given him the perfect health in front of you all.,

The Contemporary English version of the Bible words the verse this way: “You see this man, and you know him. He put his faith in the name of Jesus and was made strong. Faith in Jesus made this man completely well while everyone was watching.

Peter and John had gone to the temple to pray, They prayed for a lame beggar, who became whole. He entered the temple with them, walking, jumping and praising God.

The man had been made strong because of faith in Jesus.

What areas of my body need healing? What areas of my life need to be made strong by the name of Jesus?

One of the areas of my life that needs strengthening is finishing projects. I am better at starting projects than completing them. In late December and early January, I made sure that I completed a few of my unfinished projects. They included doll clothes for my sister’s grandchildren. The effect on the grand scheme of things of me completing those items: zero. However, because of the Lord’s great love for me, I believe it is still important to Him. He wants me to grow in character, so that I am a ‘completer;, that I finish well what I start.

I am so happy that in the most important area of my life, my faith, I do not have finish alone. Scripture says that Jesus is the author and finisher of our faith (Hebrews 12:2).

Another Thought:

The man was strengthened in his feet and ankles. He was strengthened to walk in the presence of the Holy Spirit. He jumped for joy as he entered the temple gates.

I am an analytical introvert who tends to be serious a lot of the time. Jesus is working in my life. People who know me may be surprised as they see me beginning to leap for joy, as Jesus brings further healing into my life.

CC: K Carswell 2022

“An Acts-ive Faith” (Part 2b)

Acts 2: We Are all Witnesses

Acts 2:32 “God has resurrected this Jesus. We are all witnesses of this.

Murray and i were both part of a mission trip to Estonia and Russia in the mid-90s. Around that time we dated for awhile, but went out separate ways.

I continued to work and be active in children’s ministry.

A friend invited me to pray at a business and at one of the meetings, she said her pastor was gong to be there. She did not have to introduce us — his first name was Murray. We ended up taking a second look at each other and spending time together. We recently celebrated our twelth wedding anniversary.

As a twelve year old, one of my prayer requests was to marry a man who loved the Lord and who loved to pray. The Lord enabled me to do that. The Lord also allowed me to be a pastor in charge of children’s ministry for a short time.

Prayer is still a big part of our lives, even though my husband and I no longer have pastoral roles.

I have testimonies of God helping me breath when I was suffering a bad asthma attack, of being protected from a car accident that should have happened, of God providing friends to this introvert.

Jesus is still alive and working. Of that, I am a witness.

CC: K Carswell 2022

“An Acts-ive Faith (Part 2a)”

Acts 2: We Are all Witnesses

Acts 2:32 “God has resurrected this Jesus. We are all witnesses of this.”

This was spoken by Peter on the day of Pentecost. Standing near him were others who walked with Jesus as he ministered on earth and who had seen him alive after the crucifixion. Peter could say he was a witness of the resurrected Jesus.

Here is part of my witness of the resurrected Christ:

The snow blew toward the windshield as the car traveled toward an emergency room in the city. I was seated between my parents , struggling to breath from a severe asthma attack, as they drove me to hospital. The snow continued to swirl around the car, but we finally arrived at the hospital. I was given medication. My mother tells of the doctor thinking that I wasn’t that sick. If my asthma was not as bad as it had been at home, it was probably because of the trust I had in my parents during the car ride. I had felt safe and secure seated between my Godly parents.

I grew up on a farm and my parents took their family to church every Sunday, so I had a chance to hear about Jesus at a young age. While I was in Grade 5, the Gideons came to a small country school to give out New Testaments. My copy is falling apart now, but it still states that I received it in February of 1971. On October, 29, 1974, I signed the back of the New Testament, saying that I wanted to accept Jesus as my Savior.

I wondered if I was a successful Sunday school teacher. I was in Grade 7 or 8, teaching the four-and five-year-olds with another young lady. One of the students asked me ‘is God real?” and I felt that I had not communicated well. A wise Sunday School superintendent (who I always addressed as ‘Mom”) said that I was successful — I had succeeded in having the student ask if God was real!

In high school, I heard about Campus Life meetings. I was shy, so it took me awhile to be brave enough to join the group. In Grade 12, I made a commitment to Christ in front of the Campus Life director. (I had more understanding of what I was doing than I had had years before.) After I had made the commitment, the group was at a meeting in someone’s home and people were sharing. I prayed “I’ll testify if the lights flicker on and off.” I still do not know why those lights flickered — but my testimony of my salvation was a surprise to some. With my church background and lifestyle they thought I had been saved for years. (I probably had been saved since 1974, but again, my understanding of salvation was greater when I was older.)

God continued to bless me in my early adulthood. I moved to a larger city to attend journalism school, and for the first year was blessed to stay with a wonderful Christian couple.

“It feels like I’ve been to the dentist!” It was a weird thing to say at church — but it was exactly how I felt. I was in a prayer line at a revival meeting sponsored by the small Pentecostal church I was now a student at. I felt like I had just had a filling put in a tooth!

I had graduated from journalism school and then worked for three years at a small city newspaper. I loved reporting– and had been sent to cover revival meetings. Two or three years after I first covered a meeting, I began my training at a small Bible centre, run by a local pastor. I had felt the call of God on my life at the first meeting I attended, but it took awhile for me to decide to leave the career I had planned and trained for.

Banana trees and beautiful beaches, and even more beautiful people. Those are my memories of St. Lucia and Barbados, I was blessed to travel there as a helper to an elderly missionary.

After that experience, I returned to my home city, and attended Bible College, working my way through to earn a Bachelor of Religious Education degree. I sometimes went through hard times at my work place. “I wonder if he is an angel”, i remember thinking about one customer, whose words of encouragement were extremely appropriate. God was with me at work and at the Bible College.

At church I helped with the younger children and was active in a prayer group, It was led by a wonderful woman, who is still a friend. I got to know many, including a young man named Murray.

God has been very gracious to me. Jesus is alive and working. Of that, I am a witness.

I will continue my testimony tomorrow.

(Dear readers: I understand if you are slightly annoyed with me for spending two days on Acts 2, instead of going on to Acts 3. If you are joining me in reading the book of Acts, please feel free to reread Acts 2 or go onto Acts 3. Meditate on how they speak to your life. I would love it if you would send me part of your testimony.

CC: K Carswell 2022

“An Acts-ive Faith” (Part 1)

Acts 1: Knowing Versus Being

Acts 1: 6, 7, 8 So when they had come together, they asked HIM, “Lord are you restoring the kingdom to Israel at this time?” He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or periods that the Father has set by His own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come on you, and you will be My witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and in the ends of the earth.

There are so many things I’d like to know. If I make decision “A”, what will the future be? If i make decision “B”, will be future be better or worse than if I had made decision “A”. I’d also like a clear understanding of the situation in the world, and what steps to take to have things turn out in a way I would like.

But is ‘knowing’ what I am to concentrate on?

This scripture tells us that Jesus did not really answer the disciples question about when the kingdom would be restored. He said “it is not for you to know”. Clearly, the disciples would not need this information to live in faith. That means I don’t need the answers to some of my questions and getting answers should not necessarily be my focus.

One of my favorite scriptures is Psalm 131:1-3

Lord, my heart is not proud; my eyes are not haughty. I do not get involved with things too great or too difficult for me. Instead, I have calmed and quieted myself like a little weaned child with its mother; I am like a little child. Israel, put your hope in the LORD, both now and forever.

I can choose to trust like a weaned child, instead of being concerned about things that are beyond my control. I can, like Israel is encouraged to do in the Psalm, put my hope in the Lord.

Jesus did give the disciples something to focus on: “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come and you and you will be My witnesses . . .” They were to focus on being his witnesses.

That tells me I should focus on being a witness for Him, looking for opportunities to tell of His love for me and for others, of the need for repentance, of how close His second coming might be.

I could condemn myself so easily for not being a good enough witness for Christ. Yet that would not please the Lord, Drawing closer to HIm, spending time with Him in a deeply trusting relationship like a child spends time with his or her mother would please him much more.

copyright: K Carswell, 2020

Rahab’s Life amidst the fear

(Joshua 2: 1-24; the destruction of Jericho: Joshua 6: 1-27, Matthew 1:5)

Let’s imagine Rahab’s life in Jericho.

She was a prostitute, who lived in a house that was built into the walls of the city. Jericho had very strong walls, so she should have felt safe. She lived in the same town as her father, mother, brothers and sisters. She had access to flax. She was a fairly young woman.

However, there was an atmosphere of fear. The fear was there because of 40-year old news. The fact that Israel had left Egypt and were no longer slaves had made the news in the ancient world. The fact that the Egyptians had wanted to capture the Israelites and return them to slavery, but instead had drowned in the Red Sea, made the news. Israel wandered in the desert for 40 years. But the nations of Canaan did not forget what happened to Egypt during those 40 years.

Rahab told two Israelite spies what the Canaanites knew. She said “I know that the Lord has given you this land and that the terror of you has fallen on us, and everyone who lives in the land is panicking because of you. For we have heard how the Lord dried up the waters of the Red Sea before you when you had come out of Egypt and what you did to Sihon and Og, the two Amorite kings you completely destroyed across the Jordan. When we heard this, we lost heart, and everyone’s courage failed because of you, for the Lord your God is God in heaven above and on earth below (Josh 2:8b – 11).

Read those verses again.

The entire land of Canaan was panicking because of the Israelites and their God.

Rahab lived in a atmosphere of fear most of her adult life.

Fear has been part of the world’s atmosphere at various times in its history: during times of war or natural disasters. Beginning in 2019, the world again started to have an atmosphere of fear. A virus is a threat. It is real. It may come to where I am, to where you are at a very personal level. How do we deal with that fear?

Rahab, along with everyone else in Jericho, knew there was a God of heaven and earth and that he fought for the Israelites. Rahab’s choice of action differed greatly from the king’s of Jericho.

Unlike the leadership of Jericho, she choose to act on that knowledge. Rahab choose, at the risk of her life, to align with the Israelites. She was a traitor to Jericho.

Joshua 6:1 says: “Now Jericho was strongly fortified because of the Israelites — no one leaving or entering.” Jericho was on lockdown. It was on lockdown because of an outside threat. The city should have been safe, as long as the threat was not allowed to enter.

There was no way into the city. God did not instruct the Israelites to enter the city — He instructed them to march around it. If the people had been afraid for 40 years, seeing an army march around their city would have been over the top terrifying.

The King of Jericho had six days to send a white flag to the Israelites and try to spare his people. That did not happen. It was time for God to judge Jericho, so the plan to submit to Israel’s God never entered the heads of the leadership of the city.

Yet, amidst a time of judgement, one woman saved herself and her family. She made the choice to fear the God of the Israelites, more than the king of Jericho. She joined herself to God’s people. Matthew 1:5 states that “Salmon fathered Boaz by Rahab”. That same Boaz married Ruth, who was originally from Moab, and fathered Jesse, who then went on to father King David. Rahab’s choice to follow Israel’s God made her a fore-runner of Israel’s greatest king and a fore-runner of the world’s Messiah.

Amidst all the fear around us in society, amidst all of our own fears, let us choose to fear the Lord more. Let us chose to serve Him.

If you have never made the Lord Jesus Christ your Savior, please pray this prayer:

Lord, I acknowledge that I am a sinner (Romans 3:10). I have broken your holy laws. I cannot save myself. I know that you, Jesus, paid the price for my sin, for my rebellion against you, on the cross of Calvary. I know that you Jesus rose from the dead. Lord, I thank you for loving me enough to die for me. I believe in my heart and confess with my mouth that Jesus is Lord. Thank you God.

CC: K Carswell 2022

Gazing on Jesus

“We look away from the natural realm and we fasten our gaze onto Jesus who birthed faith within us and who leads us forward into faith’s perfection.” (Hebrews 12:2, TPT).

There is so much to look at today, so many distractions. I had a friend help me remove games from my cell phone because they were taking too much time. There is Covid 19, the fear that comes from it, the Black Lives Matter movement, people (not necessarily from BLM) looting and starting fires in the States. There is also ‘the neccessity’ of being not only politically correct, but Woke. I looked up the meaning: ‘woke’ means alert to the injustice in society, especially racism, also being aware and knowing what’s going on in the community. I am writing this is June, which is ‘pride month’ and will be watching a required webinar at work about how to become an ally of the LGBT2 community.

So much to concentrate on and get right — but right according to who?

I want to live a “crucified, hidden and seated” life with Jesus. I will be writing more about this, but feel it is so crucial to my life at this time, that I should change the name of my blog from “the 15th day and more” to “Crucified, Hidden, Seated”. How do I walk that lifestyle of closeness to Jesus in my day to day life with all that is going on in the world today?

I desparately need to look away from the natural realm — and fix my gaze on Him.

I am thankful that He also has His gaze on me.

(I will update my cover photo in the near future).

Carrying the presence of God

006 Good day friends. Welcome to my blog. I hope to encourage you as we follow the Lord Jesus Christ together.

This month I would like to discuss Deuteronomy 10:8,9. It states: “At that time the Lord set apart the tribe of Levi to carry the ark of the Lord’s covenant, to stand before Yahweh to serve him and to pronounce blessings in his name, as it is today. For this reason, Levi does not have a portion or inheritance like his brothers; the Lord is his inheritance, as the Lord your God told him.”

The tribe of Levi was to carry the ark of the Lord’s covenant, a symbol of His presence. they were to be a blessing among the nation of Israel. But how, did they become a blessing?

The Levites were the descendants of Levi, the third son of Jacob and Leah (Gen.29:34). The name Levi sounds like the Hebrew words for ‘attached to’ and in naming her son Leah expressed her wish that her husband would become more attached to her and love her more. Leah felt unloved, because her younger sister Rachel was the favorite wife.

In Genesis 34, Simeon and Levi take revenge on Shechem and the men of his city for the rape of their sister Dinah. Jacob was unhappy with his sons for they had used deceit to ensure they had the upper hand in the battle. He was afraid their actions would cause further problems for his family. At the end of his life, Jacob expressed his thoughts about his sons. He spoke of Simeon and Levi in Gen. 49:5-7. It states: ‘Simeon and Levi are brothers; their knives are vicious weapons. May I never enter their council; may I never join their assembly. For in their anger, they kill men and on a whim they hamstring oxen. Their anger is cursed, for it is strong and their fury, for it is cruel! I will disperse them throughout Judah and scatter them throughout Israel.’

Jacob was not blessing his sons when he said this. The blessing to Abraham included land for each tribe, and for these tribes not to have land meant they were not fully participating in the blessing.

Jacob’s words did not stop God from blessing the tribe of Levi. God chose them to carry the ark and to be a blessing to the rest of the nation. They were not scattered among the tribes as a curse, but sent among the tribes as a blessing, to lead them closer to God.

Let’s discuss more about how this blessing happened. They had the option to stand for God and decided to do so.

As Christians we carry the presence of God to our nation, just like the Levites did for the nation of Israel. My challenge to myself this month has been: how good am I at carrying the presence of God into the situations that I face? I admit, I have not always done a perfect job of this. Daily time with God helps me carry his presence better. May we all carry the presence of God into our world. May we be used by God to bless others, to lead them closer to God.