He calms the storm

In John 6, the disciples were in a boat and it was dark.  A storm blew in and they were terrified.  Then they looked out over the water and Jesus was walking towards them.  Can you imagine how scary all of that was…a storm then seeing a person walking on the water?  But the part of the story that stopped me in my tracks was that the Bible says, “then the disciples were willing to take him into the boat.”  

I love that image.  When I am scared or overwhelmed, Jesus is there walking straight towards me.  All I have to do is be willing to let him in my boat.  I have to be willing to admit that I can’t handle things and let him come into my life and take over.  The coolest part is when I allow him in, the storm ceases.

Real people just like you and me

Sometimes I forget that the Bible is filled with real people who lived real lives.  John 2:1-5 reminded me that even Jesus had a family with all the drama that comes with relationships.  

Here in John 2, Jesus and his mom are at a wedding and the worst thing that could happen, actually happened.  The hosts of the wedding didn’t calculate the number of attendees correctly and therefore ran out of wine.  Jesus’ mother realized the magnitude of this social faux pas and brought it to Jesus’ attention.  To which Jesus promptly replied, “Why do you involve me?  My time has not yet come.”  My favorite part of this story is his mom’s reply.  She totally ignored what her son said and turned to the servants and instructed, “Do whatever he tells you.”  

I love that Jesus’ mom was just being a mom.  She knew her son was special and she thought (just like most moms) that her baby could do anything, even the impossible.  I kind of wonder if Jesus rolled his eyes at her and said an exasperated “But mom,”  under his breath. Jesus probably didn’t do that…but that’s what I would’ve done.  

Thank you God for allowing us to have glimpses of your son’s life.  Thank you for filling the Bible with real people.

We weren’t meant to walk alone

Numbers 1:5  The Lord spoke to Moses, “These are the names of the men to assist you.”  

God has given Moses a huge task.  He’s supposed to take a census of all the Israelites to determine who was capable of being in the army.  But here’s the coo part…God didn’t expect Moses to handle it all by himself.  He gave him lots of other men to come along side him and carry the load.  

Good lesson for us…God never wants us to go it alone.  We need other strong Christians around us to encourage, inspire, and help us.  If you feel like you’re all alone in your walk…Ask God to bring others into your life.

Stir me up

Luke 23:5  But they insisted, “He stirs up the people all over Judea by his teaching.”

When Jesus was on trial before Pilate, this is the only allegation the chief priests had against Jesus…that he stirred people up with His teaching.  This made me think…When was the last time I was stirred up by God’s word?

Lord, I want to be on fire for you.  Stir me up into a frenzy today!

Don’t let fear paralyze you

In Luke 19, Jesus tells the parable of the king and 10 servants.  The king was leaving for a while so before he left, he gave each one of the servants money to invest wisely while he was away.  When the king returned, all but one of the servants had used the money wisely.  That one servant used fear as his reason for not doing anything.  This made me think…

What talents and gifts has the Lord given to me?  Am I using them or am I letting fear paralyze me?

Every word counts

My last day of teaching at West Dallas Community School is tomorrow.  Yesterday, I was talking to the maintenance man, Mark, at school and I wasn’t sure if he knew that I was leaving.  So I said, “You know that Friday is my last day here, don’t you?”  Mark said, “No I didn’t.”

Later in the afternoon, Mark came and found me out on the playground with the kids.  He looked down at the ground as he said, “Mrs. Kehlbeck, I want to apologize for what I said earlier.”  I was wracking my brain as to what he was talking about as I asked, “What did you say?”  He replied, “This morning I said that I didn’t know you were leaving, but that wasn’t true.  I had heard through the grapevine that you were leaving but I hadn’t been officially told for sure.  I don’t know why I said that and I apologize for not being totally honest.”  I was impressed and amazed as I told him, “You sure keep a clean slate with God.  You inspire me to make sure every word I say is completely true.”  As Mark started to walk away he said, “To God, every word matters.”

 

 

 

 

Lord, Increase my faith

Luke 17:5  The apostles said to the Lord, “Increase our faith.”

I love this verse!  It shows me that even the apostles, the guys who were right there with Jesus, had times when they needed more faith.  This verse reminds me that the people in the Bible weren’t super humans.  There were every day, ordinary people just like me.  And just like me, they knew they needed more and more of Jesus!

Breathless expectation

“To be certain of God means that we are uncertain in all our ways; we do not know what the day will bring.  This is generally said with a sign of sadness; it should rather be an expression of breathless expectation.”  Oswald Chambers

I think Oswald is dead on…Instead of looking at the day ahead and dreading it…we should look at it in breathless expectation of what God will do today.

Lord, open my eyes today to all the miracles you are doing!

Anything less than 100% won’t cut it

Exodus 32:26  Whoever is for the Lord, come to me.

Here in Exodus, Moses has just come down from the mountain and the people have gone nuts.  While Moses was gone they decided they wanted a god they could see and touch so they made a golden calf.  Moses was furious and gave them an ultimatum by saying…Decide right now who you’re going to serve.  If you want to serve God then stand next to me.  If you want to serve all those other worthless gods, stand over there.  You can’t have your feet on both sides.  Decide one way or the other and do it with all your heart.

Moses’ ultimatum is applicable to us today.  Every day I need to make this same decision.  Am I going to 100% follow the almighty God or am I going to try and live on both sides?  When you go in 100% then you’ll have peace.  You’ll never feel that peace while trying to live halfway in.  Today make the decision…who are you going to serve?

Never alone

In Exodus 31 there is this guy named Bezalel.  The Lord chose him to be one of the craftsmen in the building of the tabernacle.  What’s interesting is that God also appointed another guy to help him.  This reminded me…God never intended for us to do this Christian life by ourselves.  It’s too hard.  Therefore, He sends people into our lives to help us.

If you don’t have mature Christian friends around you, then ask God to bring them into your life.  Satan would like nothing better than for you to feel alone.  But that’s not God’s plan for you.