Jesus' Return

by sallyjadlow

picture from http://www.endtimesprophecy.co.uk

Galatians 1:4 “Who gave Himself for our sins, that He might deliver us out of this present evil age according to the will of our God and Father.”

As the day of Jesus’ appearing in the sky draws nearer, we see a more definable difference in those who truly have Jesus as their Lord, and those who don’t.

For those who have put their faith and trust in Jesus, there is special protection in this scripture even in calamity and a promise of deliverance in the future to meet with Jesus in the air and to ever be with Him in eternity (I Thessalonians 4:17).

This is God’s will for each of us, to be with Him and enjoy Him forever.

Will you receive His sacrifice for yourself?

Prayer:
I rejoice there is a heaven to have
because You offered Yourself in our place.

(This devotional has been taken from my co-authored book, Daily Walk with Jesus, a 366 daily devotional by Sally Jadlow and Ardythe Kolb, available here from Amazon.com.)

Your Purpose

This past weekend I attended the Heart of America Christian Writers Network Conference here in Kansas City. One of the activities we enjoyed was a drama by Karen Morerod. She portrayed Queen Esther from the Bible from the book of the same name.

Queen Esther saved her Jewish people from annihilation. Her uncle told her God placed her in the palace “for such a time as this.”

I wonder if each of us are aware we too, are placed by God where we are in this time and place in history for such a time as this. Each of us has a part to play, every day, in His grand plan.

How has He made you aware of your role?

The Dead Sea Scrolls

by sallyjadlow

This cave is the first place the Dead Sea Scrolls were found.

Often I hear people doubt the authenticity of the Bible. They don’t understand the role of the Scribe in Biblical times. These men spent long hours every day copying every jot and tittle of every word of scripture on to new scrolls.

When they finished, they proof-read each line of each column. If there was one mistake in their new copy, they took a knife and sliced the new copy to pieces because it was flawed.

To prove the high quality of their work, God allowed three Bedouin shepherds to discover seven scrolls squirreled away sixty-seven years ago this month. Eventually over the next ten years, 972 texts were discovered in twelve caves about a mile northwest of the Dead Sea. Thus, they became known as the Dead Sea Scrolls.

The writings date from 408 B.C. to 318 A.D. Among them are pieces of Isaiah which are far older manuscripts than we had before. When scholars examined these passages of Isaiah, they discovered they were identical to the oldest manuscripts we had at the time.

I find great comfort in knowing that what God moved people to write so long ago has not changed. II Timothy 3:16 says, “All Scripture is inspired by God is profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness.”

What He said then, is still true for today. To paraphrase what Dr. Seuss said about an elephant, I hear God saying, “I meant what I said and said what I meant. I am faithful one hundred percent.”

God's Deliverance

Our God is a just God. He hears the cries of the afflicted and delivers those who cry out to Him. Psalm 46:1 says “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.”

After the Israelites left Egypt after 400 years of captivity, they found they had the Red Sea before them and Pharaoh’s army in chariots behind them. They were trapped. There was nowhere to go. They couldn’t outrun the army, even if there was someplace to run.

The people cried out to Moses in fear. Moses said, “Do not fear! Stand by and see the salvation of the Lord which He will accomplish for you today; for the Egyptians whom you have seen today, you will never see them again forever. The Lord will fight for you while you keep silent.”

The Lord told the people to go forward into the Red Sea. Moses lifted up his staff. The sea parted. The Israelites crossed over. Pharaoh’s army went in after them.

The account in Exodus 14:24, 25 says the Lord brought the army of the Egyptians into confusion and He caused their chariot wheels to swerve.

That word swerve in the original Hebrew is cuwr. It means “to depart; to be removed.” In other words, God made the chariot wheels to fall off!

Today we are faced with an unjust law imposed on us that would cause a person who has no health insurance to pay $400 a month for the cheapest plan that carries a $5,000 deductable if they needed to visit an emergency room. If a person making minimum wage can’t come up with $400 a month, how are they going to be able to pay the $5,000 due?

It’s an unjust law. At this point, the sign-up website isn’t functioning and people who don’t sign up will be fined.

Perhaps God has heard the cries that call to Him about the slavery of being forced to do something that puts us in bondage to an unjust government. Maybe the failed website is God’s hand saying, “Your wheels are falling off. Enough already!”