I read through the whole Bible every year, and every year I choose a different version of the “Bible in a Year” plan. Sometimes, I do a Genesis to Revelation plan using different versions of the Bible. Sometimes I use a chronological plan. And sometimes I do the “Old Testament, New Testament and Psalms” plan. But they are all Bible in a Year Plans.
I love baking bread. I love to try different bread recipes. I have my stand-by recipe that is tried and true, but I also love to try something new. My most recent recipe was a copycat recipe of the bread you get at the Outback restaurant. That was delicious. But it was still bread with a few additions. Bread is basically flour, water, and yeast with different flavorings added in.
Well, it is 2026 and it is time for a new version of everything. Some people make “New Year’s Resolutions”. Others set “new goals”. Whatever we call it, we are striving for a new version of ourselves.
But, God….
God created us in His own image to accomplish His goals on this earth. Gen 1:27. We grow. We change. But God can still use us as we grow and change into a new version of what He created us to be.
What new version are you striving for this year???
Lately, the Sunday sermons have been reminding me of so many miracles that have happened throughout my life. So, I thought I should record some of them for you.
Many years ago, Larry and I went to an AWANA convention. This was the international conference that drew people from all over the world. This was so well organized that each language group had their own interpreter. There were Spanish interpreters, French, Italian, Japanese, etc. Currently, AWANA is in over 140 countries worldwide.
Throughout the weekend, different cultures put on performances of local dance and traditional clothing, and music. But most of the talking was in English and all the other cultures had to wear headsets and listen to their own translators.
It was absolutely amazing when we were all asked to recite the AWANA motto, and all of the different languages could be heard at the same time. It was a truly international weekend.
The last night had built up to such a climatic way of ending the convention, and the Keynote speaker was one of the founders of AWANA. I don’t remember which one. It was either Lance Latham or Art Rorheim.
After the Keynote address was done, the emcee came back to do some last-minute announcements. He started with an apology to the Japanese speaking people. Apparently, the Japanese interpreter had gotten sick and had left before the Keynote address, so they had not been able to find another interpreter in time.
But then there was a lot of confusion in the Japanese area and finally the head of the Japanese AWANA group stood up and said that they had all had a perfect translation in their headsets. So even though there hadn’t been a human translator, the Holy Spirit had given them a perfect translation.
This had been a modern day version of Acts 2:8-12 “Then how is it that each of us hears them in our native language?…we hear them declaring the wonders of God in our own tongues!”
What do red pepper flakes have to do with Salvation??? Usually nothing, but once upon a time, when we were missionaries in Bogota, Colombia, they came together just right.
We had a teenage Colombian girl living with us and so our house became the youth center for our church. Every Saturday night we hosted the youth group and I fed them. Usually pizza, Sloppy Joes or sandwiches, along with chips and sodas.
Colombian food in very good, but never is it spicy.
So, one Saturday night I made pizza. Now I have always liked mine slice to have some red pepper flakes to spice it up. As I was sprinkling the pepper flakes, one of the boys asked what I was putting on my pizza. I told him it was a hot, spicy condiment. He wanted to try it. I sprinkled a little bit in his hand and some in my own hand. I threw the flakes into my mouth and swallowed them. He did likewise except he chewed his. He got a funny look on his face, but I offered him more and he held out his hand. The same thing happened only now his face was getting a little red.
At the time I didn’t know if it was the heat from the peppers, or that I wasn’t having a problem with the heat. (Again, I wasn’t chewing each time.)
He gingerly held out his hand a third time, so I sprinkled into his and my own hand and gulped it down. He again chewed and then ran to the kitchen, turned on the water and started drinking right from the faucet.
Needless to say, he didn’t put any on his pizza.
The next afternoon he came over and asked how I had done it. How could I not feel the heat? I told him God had given me a stomach that could handle it and over the years, I had always love hot stuff like that.
“God can give you a special thing like that? How can I get something special from God, too?”
And with that question, we started talking about Salvation and within the hour, he had accepted the Lord as his Savior.
Yes, God can use anything to bring someone to Salvation, even the tiny red pepper flake!
During my teen years, I participated in the church orchestra. There were usually only six to eight people in the orchestra, but they still called in an orchestra. One day, I complained that the music was boring when we played it that slow. I was told that church music was supposed to be slow (I thought boring) to promote a worshipful atmosphere. Worship wasn’t supposed to be “fun”.
This past weekend I was treated to three happy church services.
First, there was a Worship Circle. This is based on the original concept of the family gathered around the piano after dinner singing songs together. Of course, this being November, the songs were all thankful type songs. Some songs were slow, thought-provoking songs. Some were more spirited. The evening concluded with the song “I Thank God” by Maverick City Music. Everyone was doing the motions to the song by the end .
The next evening, I attended a Memorial Service. How could that be happy? Well, I had never even met the lady but listening to the people that did know her, was very uplifting. When I first saw the guy walk in with bagpipes, I thought about leaving because bagpipes always make me cry. But listening to her family talk about her love of her Scottish heritage and her love of the bagpipes, I didn’t cry. I enjoyed bagpipes for the first time in my life.
Then this morning at church, the music was very uplifting, the sermon was great, and then we had several baptisms at the end of the service. As each person was baptized and came up out of the water, the congregation was cheering and clapping. And I really mean cheering!!! Everyone was whooping it up and applauding the decision each person had made to be baptized.
And I looked back at what I had been taught as a young Christian and just shook my head. I had wasted so many years because I didn’t think anyone was supposed to “enjoy” being a Christian.
I know this post has been all about music, but I want to share my favorite painting. This is called The Laughing Jesus. And I know this is how I will recognize Jesus when I get there, because when he was on earth the children were always crowding around Him. Children don’t crowd around a person who doesn’t know how to have fun. And I know Jesus would have enjoyed all the music this weekend, too.
First things first: I know I dream, but I very seldom remember dreams when I wake up. Maybe a couple times a year.
Second: We adopted 4 kids – three as babies- and 3 of the 4 are in full time ministry.
But then there was this son, number three in birth order, that hasn’t set foot in a church since his dad died almost 19 years ago. I would get after him a few times that he needed to go to church, but he would always say, “Mom, stop bugging me. I accepted Jesus when I was 10 years old and I don’t need to go to some building to prove that.”
So, I had this dream. He was on an iceberg in the middle of this wide river. He was moving quickly, but there were people all along the edge of the river throwing ropes and stuff out to him, but the river was too wide, and he was moving fast. There was a waterfall coming up, so everyone was trying to help. As he was being swept down the river, his body didn’t change, but his face did. He kept looking younger.
By the time he was nearing the waterfall, a helicopter swooped in and rescued him just as the iceberg was toppling over the edge of the waterfall.
And, of course, there was a news crew waiting for him. When the news reporter asked him what he thought when the helicopter arrived, he turned to look into the camera and his face was very young looking but he reported, “That God saved me at the last minute!”
The next day, I told my older son about my dream and he said, “Mom, it’s time to stop pressuring Josh to go to church. Just let him be!”
Three weeks later, on my birthday, I didn’t get a phone call from Josh to say happy birthday. Instead, I got a message from his daughter that he had died during the night. The worst birthday gift ever!!!
A few days later, while going through some of the pictures of him to use at the Memorial Service, I came across a picture that was the face he had presented to that new reporter. It was his school picture from when he was 10 years old.
I realized then that God had given me that dream to reassure me that Josh had truly accepted Jesus when he was 10 years old and was in Heaven with Him and that I didn’t have to worry about him anymore.
Mears in Roe, 1990, pp. 359-361. Henrietta Mears Own Ten Commandments as a Sunday School Teacher
When I was just a girl in college, the Lord entrusted me with a large Sunday school class. Many times I faced what I must do as a teacher to please the Lord, but somehow I just did not carry it out. One night I awoke from a restless sleep and determined never to fail the Lord again. So I got up and wrote down what I still call “My Own Ten Commandments.” I decided to say what I would do, not just what I ought to do. There have been times when it was agony to carry these out, but by God’s grace they have been the pattern for my teaching. God has honored it.
I will win the personal allegiance of every student in my Sunday School class to the Lord and Master by talking, writing, and prayer.
I will not think my work over when my pupil has made his decision for Christ.
I will see that he finds a definite place in some specific task.
I will bring Christianity out of the unreal into everyday life.
I will seek to help each one discover the will of God, because the Master can use every talent.
I will instill a divine discontent into the mind of everyone who can do more than he is doing.
I will make it easy for anyone to come to me with the deepest experiences of his inner life.
I will keep the cross of Christ central in the Christian life.
I will pray as I have never prayed before for wisdom and power.
I will spend and be spent in this battle.
I know I am just quoting her, but it was worth the effort. I love her 10 commandments!!!
Why was this the first miracle of the ministry of Jesus? I think if it had been my choice, I would have wanted my first miracle to be something really spectacular, like raising someone from the dead or moving a mountain. But not Jesus. He was humble yet this miracle held such a powerful message for me recently.
First, let’s look at the traditions of that time. The groom basically shows off his wealth at the wedding feast. The best of everything. Running out of wine is not acceptable. This would have been grounds for the brides family to walk out with the bride and her dowry. And the groom’s family would have been supremely embarrassed.
Jesus had just returned from his temptations in the wilderness and his mother expects him to start being the King of the Kingdom but he says he isn’t ready. But she still has that special connection with Father God and tells the servants to do whatever he tells them to do.
You know the rest of the story (John 2). They fill the large wine jugs with water and it becomes the best wine possible. The groom is saved from vast embarrassment and the wedding feast continues.
So what is the reason for this to be the first miracle? The old wine (covenant) was gone and the new wine (covenant) was even better. The Law has been surpassed by the living Savior. The new wine saved the wedding feast and the New Covenant – Christ – saves our souls. Simple as that.
My word for this year is Revive. So I am here to Revive my blog. I am here to Revive my Biblically based studies. I am here to Revive my health (no, I’m not sick). I am here to Revive my ministry.
Psalm 119:107 “I am exceedingly afflicted; Revive me, Lord, according to Your Word.”
Yes, I have been afflicted with self-doubt, fear, dread, loneliness, boredom, etc. Almost daily, I think of a topic I should write about, and yet, I haven’t been doing that.
So, what does Revive mean?
verb (used without object)
revived, reviving
to return to life, consciousness, vigor, strength, or a flourishing condition.
to recover from financial depression.
to be quickened, restored, or renewed, as hope, confidence, suspicions, or memories.
to return to notice, use, or currency, as a subject, practice, or doctrine.
to become operative or valid again.
Chemistry. to recover the natural or uncombined state, as a metal.
To return to life, etc.: I guess this is my wake-up call (consciousness) to get back to writing. Also, to get back to exercising for my physical body.
God has blessed me with “enough”.
I choose renewed as in hope and confidence.
I choose practice as in starting to write again, and I will start exercising again AS OF TODAY!
I think I am valid.
To recover the natural state = I am a child of God, so I need to get back to sharing that fact with everyone.
A few examples of Revival:
“But when they told him everything Joseph had said to them, and when he saw the carts Joseph had sent to carry him back, the spirit of their father Jacob revived.” Gen 45:27
This verse tells me my spirit will be revived by the hope I find in the Word.
“Then God opened up the hollow place in Lehi, and water came out of it. When Samson drank, his strength returned, and he revived. So the spring was called En Hakkore, and it is still there in Lehi.”
Judges 15:19
This verse relates to my health (diet) that I should eat according to the Bible and I will be revived.
“They gave him part of a cake of pressed figs and two cakes of raisins. He ate and was revived, for he had not eaten any food or drunk any water for three days and three nights.” I Samuel 30:12
Again, for my health and diet.
“….. I live in a high and holy place, but also with the one who is contrite and lowly in spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly and to revive the heart of the contrite. Isaiah 57:15
God is with me when my spirit is lowly or contrite.
So, you are now witnessing my Revival! I will be writing again and renewing my health with exercise. (I already eat quite well.) I will be 78 in less than 2 months, and I need to build some strength in these old bones. Keep me in your prayers for this Revival. Thank you!
When God says He’s going to do something, He does it!!! God’s promises are generational. He doesn’t just limit His promises to the present, but He looks forward into our future. We wonder if our kids and grandkids will turn out well. We worry that the car/furnace/roof will last until we can afford to replace it. Will we lose our job or health?
In 2 Samuel 7:12-13 it says: “12For when you die and are buried with your ancestors, I will raise up one of your descendants, your own offspring, and I will make his kingdom strong. 13 He is the one who will build a house—a temple—for my name. And I will secure his royal throne forever.”
God sent Samuel with this message to King David referring to the coming arrival of Jesus to earth, but this wouldn’t happen for another 1,000 years (give or take a few years), but Jesus did finally arrive. The first chapter of Matthew gives the genealogy of Jesus from Abraham.
The Promises of God Always Challenge Impossibilities!
What is impossible with man is possible with God!!! In Isaiah 7 it says: “14All right then, the Lord himself will give you the sign. Look! The virgin will conceive a child! She will give birth to a son and will call him Immanuel (which means ‘God is with us’).” Most historians believe Mary was a very young teen when she gave birth to Jesus. In the Gospels are records of several miracles that Jesus performed while on earth: raising the dead back to life, healing the sick, walking on water, etc.
Even in the Old Testament, we see miracles: Abraham and Sarah having their first child when they were in their 80s and 90s; a bush burning, but not being consumed; water from a rock, etc.
So, many years after Isaiah prophesied; Luke 1:35 “The angel replied, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So, the baby to be born will be holy, and he will be called the Son of God.”
God’s Plans Always Come to Fruition
Even the geographical locations of Jesus’ early life were foretold hundreds of years prior to His birth. In Hosea 11: “When Israel was a child, I loved him, and I called my son out of Egypt.”
And then in Matthew 2, we read how this happened: “the wise men were gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. “Get up! Flee to Egypt with the child and his mother,” the angel said. “Stay there until I tell you to return, because Herod is going to search for the child to kill him.”
14 That night Joseph left for Egypt with the child and Mary, his mother, 15 and they stayed there until Herod’s death. This fulfilled what the Lord had spoken through the prophet: “I called my Son out of Egypt.”
The Old Testament prophesied Jesus living in Bethlehem and Nazareth and all of this is testified to in the New Testament.
Nothing Is Impossible For God!!!
God doesn’t see things the way we do. He chooses insignificant people and places to perform His miracles. In Micah 5: 2 “But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah, are only a small village among all the people of Judah. Yet a ruler of Israel, whose origins are in the distant past, will come from you on my behalf.” And the officials used that prophecy to look for Jesus in Matthew 2: 4 “He called a meeting of the leading priests and teachers of religious law and asked, “Where is the Messiah supposed to be born?” 5“In Bethlehem in Judea,” they said, “for this is what the prophet wrote: 6‘And you, O Bethlehem in the land of Judah, are not least among the ruling cities of Judah, for a ruler will come from you who will be the shepherd for my people Israel.”
30 years later Jesus chose 12 very insignificant men to be His disciples.
Conclusion
We, who know Jesus and have a personal relationship with Him, know where we will spend eternity. But in the meantime, we have a job to do. God has a plan for our lives that isn’t completed yet.
My husband died almost 16 years ago and I often wonder why I’m still here. Then God allows me to teach a Bible Study or write a devotional. And I am grateful that I still have the ability to listen to His calling.
Thank You Father God for Your promises in my life!!!
Psalm 119:50 “Your promise revives me and comforts me in times of trouble”
You may be asking, “which Mary are you talking about?” Well, I would like to talk about three Marys that are all similar and yet very different.
The first is Mary the mother of Jesus. She was a righteous teenager when the angel came to her with a message from God. She was to become the mother of the Savior of the world, and yet she remained humble. She was an unwed mother, and yet she trusted her Lord when He said it would be good. And she remained humble and dedicated to God when the Christ child was born by “pondering everything in her heart”.
Luke 1: 28Gabriel appeared to her and said, “Greetings, favored woman! The Lord is with you! 29Confused and disturbed, Mary tried to think what the angel could mean. 30“Don’t be afraid, Mary,” the angel told her, “for you have found favor with God! 31You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you will name him Jesus. 32He will be very great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his ancestor David. 33And he will reign over Israel forever; his Kingdom will never end!”
34Mary asked the angel, “But how can this happen? I am a virgin.”
35The angel replied, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the baby to be born will be holy, and he will be called the Son of God. 36What’s more, your relative Elizabeth has become pregnant in her old age! People used to say she was barren, but she has conceived a son and is now in her sixth month. 37For the word of God will never fail.38Mary responded, “I am the Lord’s servant. May everything you have said about me come true.” And then the angel left her.
Throughout the life of Jesus, she was always available to her son. She was there and encouraged His first miracle. She was there at His cross.
Another Mary was first introduced to us in a very poor light. Mary Magdalene was a lady with a bad reputation. Most believe she was the lady that was being brought to Jesus to have Him say she must be stoned to death for her sins, but instead, Jesus knelt and started writing in the sand until all of her accusers left. (What did He write in the sand???)
John 8: 3As he was speaking, the teachers of religious law and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in the act of adultery. They put her in front of the crowd.
4“Teacher,” they said to Jesus, “this woman was caught in the act of adultery. 5The law of Moses says to stone her. What do you say?”
6They were trying to trap him into saying something they could use against him, but Jesus stooped down and wrote in the dust with his finger. 7They kept demanding an answer, so he stood up again and said, “All right, but let the one who has never sinned throw the first stone!” 8Then he stooped down again and wrote in the dust.
9When the accusers heard this, they slipped away one by one, beginning with the oldest, until only Jesus was left in the middle of the crowd with the woman. 10Then Jesus stood up again and said to the woman, “Where are your accusers? Didn’t even one of them condemn you?”
11“No, Lord,” she said.
And Jesus said, “Neither do I. Go and sin no more.”
Later, she brought a bottle of expensive perfume and poured it over His head. He said she was anointing Him for His burial. She was also at His cross.
Meanwhile, Jesus was in Bethany at the home of Simon, a man who had previously had leprosy. While he was eating, a woman came in with a beautiful alabaster jar of expensive perfume made from essence of nard. She broke open the jar and poured the perfume over his head.
The third Mary was the sister of Martha and Lazarus. She sat at the feet of Jesus while Martha complained that she should be helping. Luke 10:39 (NLT)
Her sister, Mary, sat at the Lord’s feet, listening to what he taught.
There is only one thing worth being concerned about. Mary has discovered it, and it will not be taken away from her.”
But then Mary complained to Jesus that if He had come right away, Lazarus wouldn’t have died. John 11: 32When Mary arrived and saw Jesus, she fell at his feet and said, “Lord, if only you had been here, my brother would not have died.”
But then Jesus resurrected Lazarus.
All three Marys loved Jesus. All three worshiped Him. All three had reason to be at His cross. Do you identify with one of the Marys?
The Bible Whispers 