God's way

Let us hold fast to the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who has promised is faithful.
-Hebrews 10:23 (NRSV)


APPEARING forlorn, the little girl crouched in the corner of the ward near a woman with bandaged limbs. She was there to spend her school vacation with her mom. But her mother was no ordinary patient, and this was no ordinary ward. This was a mission to treat those with Hansen's Disease. It was not exactly a place you'd expect a little girl to spend her vacation.

During my visit there, I witnessed the impact of leprosy on people and their loved ones. I thought about the passage in 2 Kings 5, and I could imagine how desperate Naaman must have been to be cured. When he heard about Elisha, Naaman went to the prophet's door, only to have a messenger tell him to wash in the Jordan River. Despite his anger and mis-givings, Naaman acted on God's direction that came through the prophet and was rewarded with a miracle.

Like Naaman, I've found that God's directions don't always make sense to me. They may challenge my understanding of how to deal with my circumstances. But when I act in faith on what the Bible says, its promises prove true. What God has promised will surely come to pass because God is trustworthy.

by Eunice Tan (New South Wales, Australia)


Read Genesis 37

I often like to think that when God gives you a blessing or a mission or in some way jumps down into your life, great things are about to happen. You are about to go on an adventure that will be exciting and fun and filled with happy God moments. But that’s not what happened to Joseph.

I once heard a minister say that one of the most dangerous times in our lives is right after God has spoken in to them. I think that is an interesting point that could be argued using chapter 37 of Genesis. Not to crack open any deep theological discussion, but look what happened to Joseph immediately after he had his dream.

In the first half of the chapter he has a dream in which his brothers bow down to him. After hearing the dream, they decide to either kill him or sell him into slavery. How can that be? I mean God just gave him a huge dream, a vision that was wild and amazing? How can the first step towards having people bow down be landing in slavery?

I want God to make sense, but He doesn’t. All too often, He seems to choose the exact opposite of what I would choose. It’s like He tells me to move to the ocean. So I buy bathing suits and a boat and a dock and I do everything I can to get ready for water. Then He says, “OK, you’re moving to the ocean, so the first thing I want you to do is go spend a few years in the desert. I want you to go a million miles away from the ocean.”

That doesn’t make sense. That is illogical. But I swear that is how God works. When Joseph had a dream of greatness, the first step was slavery. When Christ was called forward to save mankind during the baptism with John, the next thing he did was go spend 40 days alone. When you were called to get a new job, the next thing that happened was you got a promotion at your current one. When you were called into the ministry, instead of going to seminary God asked you to study Italian for a few years.

Sometimes we get the opposite of what we expect, like Joseph getting a shackle instead of a scepter. But when it comes to God, He always gives us what we need.

by Prodigal Jon

Through Eyes of Love

1 John 4:7-21 (NRSV)
Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love. God's love was revealed among us in this way: God sent his only Son into the world so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins. Beloved, since God loved us so much, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God lives in us, and his love is perfected in us.

By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. And we have seen and do testify that the Father has sent his Son as the Savior of the world. God abides in those who confess that Jesus is the Son of God, and they abide in God. So we have known and believe the love that God has for us.

God is love, and those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them. Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness on the day of judgment, because as he is, so are we in this world. There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear; for fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not reached perfection in love. We love because he first loved us. Those who say, "I love God," and hate their brothers or sisters, are liars; for those who do not love a brother or sister whom they have seen, cannot love God whom they have not seen. The commandment we have from him is this: those who love God must love their brothers and sisters also.


WHEN my little grandson, Aidan, visits, I find joy in doing the things he enjoys. However, on one visit, I was not feeling well. Pain kept me from our usual activities, and my face was weary and worn. As Aidan and I sat reading books, he suddenly looked up at me. He put a tiny hand on each side of my face and said, "Grammie, I like your face." What a blessing! My little grandson was seeing me through eyes of love.

How wonderful it is to receive unconditional love! We are wise to pause and ask ourselves if we extend the same love to others. When interacting with people who are disagreeable or unkind, seeing them through eyes of love becomes more challenging. Yet we know that Jesus commanded God's children to "love one another, as I have loved you" (John 15:12, KJV).

Having received God's unconditional love, we can surely forgive and love one another. We have the example of Jesus on the cross saying, "Father, forgive them" (Luke 23:34). We are able to forgive those who hurt us as we allow God to transform our hearts so that we see one another as God does - through eyes of love.

by Sandra Sullivan (West Virginia, USA)