First Place

By Cheri Cowell –

“Now why didn’t I think of that?”

That is the question we ask ourselves when we see one of those new inventions that seem so logical it should have been thought of before. We know when we see them that the person who patented it is going to be financially set for life, and we wonder why we didn’t think of it first. I’m talking about things like Velcro, Wet Ones, and Post-it Notes (how did we ever get along without these things?). Secretly, we go even further by asking God if we will ever get there first. Will we ever be the one with the winning ticket, the big idea, or the first place prize? This yearning to be number one has been placed in us by our heavenly Father, not so we can achieve it here on earth, but so it will point us toward God. In Him we are never last. In Him all of us can have first place.

“The Lord will make you abound in prosperity, in the offspring of your body and in the offspring of your beast and in the produce of your ground, in the land which the Lord swore to your fathers to give you. The Lord will open for you His good storehouse, the heavens, to give rain to your land in its season and to bless all the work of your hand; and you shall lend to many nations, but you shall not borrow. The Lord will make you the head and not the tail, and you only will be above, and you will not be underneath, if you listen to the commandments of the Lord your God, which I charge you today, to observe them carefully” (Deuteronomy 28:11-13 NASB).

In this passage, Moses details for the Israelites the decision they must make when they enter Canaan: to fully obey God’s laws and be blessed, or live outside of His laws and be cursed. Verses 1–14 describe a blessed life. When we obey God’s teachings we will be first among many in God’s eyes.

PRAYER: Thank You, God, for Your promise to provide wealth when I obey Your teachings, not wealth as this world defines, but Your wealth of placing me first in Your heart. May I have the courage to give You first place in mine.

Questions

By Cheri Cowell –

In the 1940’s, a popular parlor game became a wildly successful radio quiz program. If you’ve ever played 20 Questions, you know how much fun this word game can be. The “questioners” ask the “answerer” yes or no questions with the goal of discerning the subject the answerer has in mind. Although a fun game to play, asking questions is serious business; so serious, in fact, that it is one of the primary tools God uses in communicating with us. From the beginning, God set about asking questions, not because He needed answers, but because we need to ponder our answers.

Adam and Eve had eaten the forbidden fruit, and were hiding from God in the garden. They’d clothed themselves in fig leaves, and were hiding in the bushes. God had walked with them in this garden and now they hid from Him there. But God knew where they were and what they’d done. He wasn’t asking because He needed to know, He was asking because they needed to own up to their sin. God is asking of you and me the same question so we might own up to the real state of our own souls. What fig leaves are you hiding behind? What bushes are you using to shield your true heart from the searching eyes of God? God isn’t asking the question because He doesn’t know; God is asking the question so we will ponder the answer.

“Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the LORD God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the LORD God among the trees of the garden. But the LORD God called to the man, “Where are you?” (Genesis 3: 8-9 NIV).

PRAYER: God, I hear your searching question. I invite You to remove the fig leaves and lift the branches from my hiding place. Help me to answer honestly the question You are asking so I might be honest about my own need for Your saving grace.

Christianese

By Cheri Cowell –

In the writing world there is a term we use for the “insider” language Christians toss about without much thought. It’s called Christianese, and is to be avoided because it is precisely that–insider language. If you don’t know the code then you won’t understand what’s being said. At first glance, it appears Jesus was the originator of Christianese.

Jesus just made the startling statement that He was the Bread of Life and that whoever eats of this bread will live forever. The Jews that heard this must have been startled. The eating of meat and blood was carefully guarded. Here, this man was talking about eating his flesh and blood. There is no way these followers could have possibly understood the connection He was making from the manna in Exodus to His body broken at the cross and the future act of Holy Communion. So, if they could not have understood, why did Jesus ask whether His twelve would leave as others had done? When you and I turn the question to ourselves it helps us to see that staying with Jesus means we won’t always understand what He is doing or even saying, but as Peter says in John 6:68, “Lord, to whom shall we go?” (NIV).

“Jesus said to them, ‘Very truly I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day. For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in them. Just as the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so the one who feeds on me will live because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven. Your ancestors ate manna and died, but whoever feeds on this bread will live forever.’ He said this while teaching in the synagogue in Capernaum… From this time many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him. ‘You do not want to leave too, do you?’ Jesus asked the Twelve” (John 6:53-59, 66-67 NIV).

PRAYER: God, I praise You for the great mystery of the Incarnation, and the sacrifice Jesus made on the cross. Help me understand more completely, and when understanding is evasive, to have the courage to stay by Your side.

The Accuser

By Cheri Cowell –

I don’t know about you, but I carry an invisible person around with me. No one else can see her, but I know she’s there. Most of the time she is silent, but her voice, even when not audible, is loud and clear to me. Sometimes she can go for weeks without speaking, and at times I almost forget she’s there. Then, when I least expect it, she speaks in a cruel, accusing tone, almost in a whisper, but she might as well be shouting for all the world to hear. She is my accuser. Jesus knew her.

On this day as Jesus sat in the place of authority in the Temple, she’d been brought before him. Her sins were great. Everyone knew what she’d done, but no one knew more than she. Although the men who stood ready to stone her for her sins were visible, her accusers—her memories—were always with her. When one by one the accusers left, unable to stand in Jesus’ presence with the stones of judgment in their hands, there was another less visible who was also banished. Jesus’ question, “Where are your accusers?” was meant to show the woman (and us) that in light of His forgiveness, even the accusers we carry with us have no place to hide. Their voices are silenced.

The next time your accuser rears his or her ugly head inside of your mind, remind that voice that you belong to Jesus and see how fast your accuser flees.

“Jesus straightened up and asked her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” (John 8:10 NIV).

PRAYER: Jesus, I hear you asking, “Where are your accusers?” and when I look around I see both the visible and invisible have no voice. Help me to accept that I have been truly forgiven.

Slurp!

By Cheri Cowell –

Have you walked through your garden lately and heard the slurping sounds? That’s right, slurping coming from your plants as they soak up all that wonderful rain. For weeks I was watering for at least a half-hour every night because there had been no rain. Lately, though, we have been getting those terrific steady rains. I know my plants appreciated the water I was giving, but there is magic in the water that comes from heaven. The plants show it by how strong they get, how green they become, and how much they grow. It’s as if they are saying, “Praise God!”

We are like that. We can go along for quite a while with a little watering by the water this world has to offer. Our thirst is temporarily met by lunch with friends, a walk, ice-cream, or a good movie, but after some time we begin to show how sun-scorched and parched we are. We may become irritable, easily frustrated, tired, overwhelmed, and needy. When you and I see these warning signs we need to call upon the Lord to send in the rain. The scriptures tell us He will satisfy our needs if we are willing to cry out, and do a few other things.

Isaiah tells us true faith is not just about us, but also about what we do in relation to others. We are being called to take what we learn and let it transform us so much that we stop pointing fingers, talking maliciously, and holding onto our pride. When we do this we will begin to serve others and shine like the noonday sun. When we do this God will quench our thirst in a way that only the Lord can.

“Then you will call, and the LORD will answer; you will cry for help, and God will say, “I’m here.” If you remove the yoke from among you, the finger-pointing, the wicked speech; if you open your heart to the hungry, and provide abundantly for those who are afflicted, your light will shine in the darkness, and your gloom will be like the noon. The LORD will guide you continually and provide for you, even in parched places. He will rescue your bones. You will be like a watered garden, like a spring of water that won’t run dry” (Isaiah 58:9-11 CEB).

PRAYER: Praise God for hearing my cries for help. Thank You for being the Living Water that my spirit needs. Show me the ways in which I point fingers, talk wrongly, and harbor pride. My heart’s desire is to be like a well-watered garden, watered by the Spring of Living Water that never fails.

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