LUKE 6:47-49 A HOUSE BUILT ON THE ROCK

A House Built on the Rock

Susie Hale, October 21, 2003

When sorrow rains, and tears stream,

and winds of adversity blow;

My house will stand, I will not fall;

and this I surely know.

For I’ve dug down deep into God’s word. Christ is my firm foundation.

Though torrents of trouble flood my soul,

I know I’ll not be shaken.

Romans 14:4 BY HIS GRACE I STAND by Susie Hale

By His Grace I Stand

The Lord is able to make me stand.

He will uphold me with his own hand.

My gracious Master will not let me fall.

He has accepted me, weakness and all.

“Accept him whose faith is weak, without passing judgment on disputable matters.

One man’s faith allows him to eat everything,

but another man, whose faith is weak,

eats only vegetables.

The man who eats everything must not 

look down on him who does not,

and the man who does not eat everything

must not condemn the man who does,

for God has accepted him.

Who are you to judge someone else’s servant?

To his own master he stands or falls.

And he will stand for the Lord

is able to make him stand.”

Romans 14:1-4 (NIV)

            Christians are not here to judge each other. We tend to forget that. We tell people they are saved by grace and then expect them to follow whatever rules we have chosen to embrace. Even if we feel the guidelines are strongly based on God’s word, we are not to set ourselves up as judges over other believers. The “disputable matters” might include hairstyles, clothing, moderate drinking, movie choices, amount of television, etc.

       I am accountable for my own choices and must sincerely seek the Lord regarding the things I allow in my life so that I might choose things that enhance rather than hinder my walk with him. But even when I fail to meet the standards I believe God has shown me, his grace is still sufficient. God is able to make me stand. In fact, it is only by God’s grace that any believer stands, whether he be considered weaker or stronger in the faith compared to another believer.

       God has accepted me. I am his child. He chose to adopt me, and the adoption price was the life of Christ who died in my place. God was able to raise Jesus from the dead, and he is able to cover me with his own Son’s righteousness and enable me to stand. No matter how meticulously I live before him, I could never stand on my own merit. Praise the Lord for picking us up and providing the grace we need to stand firm!

       Father, thank you for forgiving me. Thank you that by your grace I am able to live abundantly. Give me grace to be a testimony to your love. Help me to not judge others on arguable points. Help me to encourage people to seek your whole counsel through a greater understanding of your Word, and let me trust you to show them what their actions need to be. Help me to accept those whom you have chosen even when we disagree.

John 20:31 Memory Verse #52days

LUKE 6:19 - HEALING RADIATED

HEALING RADIATED

Luke 6:19

Everyone wanted to touch Jesus

because when they did,

power emanated from Him

and they were healed.

(VOICE)

Everyone was trying to touch him—

so much energy surging from him,

so many people healed!

(MSG)

Whenever Jesus came into town

All the people gathered around.

For Jesus had a reputation

That had spread throughout the nation.

People everywhere were speaking,

“He might be the One we’re seeking,

The Messiah promised to the Jews!”

For Jesus came to preach Good News

That the Kingdom of Heaven was near

For all who would listen and hear.

As proof that He was God’s Christ,

Power radiated from Him to bring life.

People had found that even one touch

From this Jesus could do so much.

They brought the sick and demon-possessed,

Those who had long been oppressed;

And in His compassion, healing

Emanated from Him revealing

The truth that He was God’s Son,

The Messiah, the Anointed One. 

Luke 6:22–23 AN OVERCOMER’S JOY

Day 34 – AN OVERCOMER’S JOY

an excerpt from A Life's Symphony of Joy

by Susan R. Slade

Luke 6:22–23

Blessed are ye, when men shall hate you,

and when they shall separate you 

from their company,

and shall reproach you, 

and cast out your name as evil,

for the Son of man's sake.

Rejoice ye in that day, and leap for joy:

for, behold, your reward is great in heaven:

for in the like manner did their fathers 

unto the prophets.

During my senior year at Bob Hope High School, I had a firm conviction that I was to attend Oral Roberts University.  Some students and faculty members did not know quite how to take this news.  I would not be discouraged or dissuaded by their negative responses.  Students would laugh and make fun of ORU’s founder, Oral Roberts.  Even some of the faculty members snickered along with the students.  I was trying to secure scholarships and grants, so I wrote letters for more financial assistance.  They were not quick to send back information, knowing that I had some physical disabilities. These are limitations in most people’s lives.  In my eyes, these are only challenges to be overcome.  The administrators at ORU were concerned about how I could facilitate living in a dorm and getting to class each day successfully.

God was then, is now, and ever will be faithful.  The Lord provided students I trained to meet my personal needs—assistance with eating, grooming, transfers, etc.  The university provided students to transcribe my papers and assist me with taking notes on my reading assignments.  I lived successfully in the dorm for eight years while earning two degrees.  The fact that I made it through college is evidence of God’s Will prevailing against all odds. At the end of my undergraduate studies, I received the first ever “Overcomer’s Award” which was given to the student at Oral Roberts University who excelled under seemingly unsurmountable challenges.  In addition to the inherent difficulties of attending classes in a power chair, I suffered from walking pneumonia that last semester.

When naysayers try to discourage me, I rejoice in knowing that my God will enable me to fulfill the calling He gave me.  John 16:33 says, “These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace.  In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.”  You, too, can be an overcomer as you trust Jesus to be your enablement.

John 13:35 MEMORY VERSE #52days

If you walk on a treadmill, take the verse you are memorizing with you on a note card or sticky note so you can have it in front of you.  I use to keep my memorized scripture fresh by saying them in my head while swimming laps. Lap 1 would be John 1:1 or John 1:14, Lap 2 might be Galations 2:20. I would think of a verse that contained the lap number in the reference. That way I would keep up with counting laps while meditating on memorized scripture. 

JEREMIAH 31:3b - MY ROMANCE

My Romance

By Karen Sue Hale (Susie)

Susie - I have a loving husband, who is always there for me and loves me unconditionally.  He is exciting and adventurous, but tender hearted as well. He has taken me places I never dreamed I would go…England, Holland, Belgium, France, Wales, and Russia!  Every day with him is truly sweeter than the day before.

Jesus – I am with Susie always, even to the end of the world. (Matthew 28:20b)

How We Met

Susie - I first began to notice him when I was a small child.  On his birthday my parents would give me a huge orange, the largest apple of the year, and an assortment of nuts and candy. I’m sure they were praying even then that I would someday give my heart to him. My sisters became close to him, but I was still young; and when they asked me if I wanted to do the same thing, I replied, “No, you have to talk to the preacher to get close to him!”  I was afraid of our 300-pound preacher!

Jesus – I created Susie’s inmost being; I knit her together in her mother’s womb…She is fearfully and wonderfully made. (Psalm 139:13-14a)

How He Courted Me

Susie - But my Love began wooing me, usually through his love songs.  I remember at a Church of the Nazarene summer camp, he sang sweetly to me through the lyrics “Amazing love, how can it be that Thou, my God, shouldst die for me?”  I thought I knew him because he was a close friend of the family and we went to his house every week. As a fifth grader, I didn’t quite understand that I needed to know him one on one, just the two of us.

Jesus – I take great delight in Susie, I will quiet her with my love, I will rejoice over her with singing. (Zephaniah 3:17b)

Susie - All this time I was active in church.  In fact I grew to be a leader in my youth group and was considered a “really good girl”.  At camp, the summer after my freshman year in high school, we listened to a musical called “Real”.  The opening lines of the first song were, “Empty eyes stare from empty sockets, frozen lips form frozen words. Masks that hide faceless people, acting roles with lines unheard. Row on row we march in order, mouthing hymns and reading prayers…”  I realized the song was about me.  I played church well, and knew a lot about Jesus, but I didn’t really know Jesus.

Jesus -  My Father was drawing Susie to me. (John 6:44)

How He Proposed

Susie - He continued to draw me to him that summer through the testimony of friends and a hellfire- and-brimstone preacher during a revival. But it was finally his quiet, loving, insistent voice in my mind that caused me to ask my youth minister, Ray, to introduce us formally and help me to be sure that I would be his and he would be mine forever. Jesus proposed to me by having Ray read through the scriptures of the “Roman Road to Salvation.” That night Christ became my first love, and later in the service, Ray and I sang a duet of one of Christ’s love songs, “The Savior is Waiting.” I did not know the full meaning of the church being the bride of Christ or the fact the he is a “husband to the husbandless,” but I began learning.

Our Covenant Relationship

Susie:  I loved Jesus and served him actively during my youth.  Then I met and married Steve, not as quickly as that makes it sound. We were engaged five and a half years. During our engagement the church we attended suffered a split; and as people who are not as grounded in the Word as they need to be often do, we drifted out of fellowship with other believers.  Five days before our first wedding anniversary, Steve left me.  I was 23 years old and devastated.

That night I had an intense discussion with Jesus.  Honestly, I yelled, “I did it all your way.  I don’t drink, smoke, or do drugs.  I’m modest and moral. I married a man that went to church with me. I was a virgin bride! So where are you?”  He answered quietly and lovingly just like on the night he proposed, “I’ve always been here.  It’s you who have been ignoring me, but I still love you.”

On the Sunday that should have been my first wedding anniversary, I went to church for the first time in a long time.  Jesus arranged to have the pastor preach on reconciliation, and I went forward to reconcile with my first love. A loving singles group and Sunday school teacher began to teach me that daily, quiet, and time went together to form a phrase.  Over the next several years I became more and more intimate with Jesus through daily reading his word, through listening to godly teachers, through prayer, and as always through worshipping him in song.

It was a number of years before I could express the love Jesus showed me during our reconciliation.  My feelings finally emerged as a love song called, “I Am His Treasure” which begins:

When I felt rejected, abandoned, and unloved,

I felt like someone’s garbage on the curb out by the street.

Then Jesus picked me up, held me in his arms,

And whispered that he’d always treasure me.

Susie - My relationship with my first love has not always been easy.  He has led me into difficult circumstances many times, and I often want to question his motives. However, I must admit he never leaves my side during those hard times.

Jesus – I cover Susie with my feathers, and under my wings she finds refuge; my faithfulness will be her shield and rampart. (Psalm 91:4)

Susie - I’ve had many times that I longed for God to send me a human husband, but I have learned to be content with singleness and deepening my relationship with Christ. During one of those seasons that I was struggling with my singleness and childlessness, I was asked to lead worship at a singles’ retreat.  The theme of the weekend was Complete in Christ.  While preparing, I cried out to the Lord, “Jesus, how can I possibly lead worship on this theme when I am feeling so desperate for human affection right now? I don’t know how you’re going to do it, but somehow you’re going to show me how you are better than a husband.”

Immediately, I picked up my guitar and wrote Faithful.  The words and music just flowed together incredibly easily, and I knew it was my true love answering my plea for help.

You are faithful,

every moment of every hour 

of every single day.

You are near me, right beside me,

 never leaving; You will never stray.

For Your love is perfect.

Your love is true.

No one else could ever love me

the way that You do!

So I will trust You, true submission, 

complete surrender, I give to You my all.

Lead me; guide me. 

Show me how I best can serve You. 

I’m listening for Your call.

For Your love is perfect.

Your love is true.

No one else could ever love me

the way that You do!

Susie - “Your love, O LORD , reaches to the heavens, your faithfulness to the skies.” (Psalm 36:5) I will “sing to him a new song; play skillfully, and shout for joy. For the word of the LORD is right and true; he is faithful in all he does. The LORD loves righteousness and justice; the earth is full of his unfailing love.” (Psalm 33:3-5)

Susie – I look forward to spending eternity with my True Love because he loves me with an everlasting love. I am so thankful that he courted me and that once I gave my heart to him, he has never let me go.

Jesus – Susie listened to my voice and followed me. I give her eternal life, and she will never perish; no one can snatch her out of my hand. (John 10:27-28)

Mark 2:27 - ENJOY A SABBATH REST

ENJOY A SABBATH REST

Mark 2:27 (VOICE)

The Sabbath was made

for the needs of human beings,

and not the other way around.

On the Sabbath, the Jewish people were to rest. Not only the Jews but their servants, strangers visiting them, and even animals were to be given a day of rest (Exodus 20:10). God knew that people need a day to regroup, and He was making sure that no one would abuse their workers by making them work seven days a week. However, by observing the Sabbaths, the Jews were demonstrating trust in God to provide for their needs. The weekly Sabbath day was just one example of Sabbath rest. Every seven years, they were to allow their fields to rest by sowing no grain (Leviticus 25:4). They were to trust the Lord to give a large enough crop in the sixth year to sustain them through the seventh (Leviticus 25:4). After seven of these Sabbath years, in the 50^th year, they would celebrate the year of Jubilee in which debts were cancelled, lands were returned to the original owners, and indentured servants were set free. Observing the Sabbaths provided rest, protection, and freedom to people. The Pharisees of Jesus’s time had turned the Sabbath into a day to obey many traditions rather than a day to be set free to worship the Lord. The Sabbath was created for our benefit. The Sabbath is not a day to be concerned about whether specific things would be considered “work,” but a day of rest to refresh our bodies, minds, and spirits.

Luke 22:19 - Memory Verse - #52 DAYS THROUGH THE GOSPELS

Notice the matzah, the unleavened bread used for Passover, has stripes to remind us of the scourging Jesus endured and is pierced to remind us of the nails piercing His hands and feet. As you memorize this verse, meditate on what Jesus went through in your place. 

LUKE 5:18-20 EXTRAORDINARY EVENTS

Extraordinary Events

by The Roving Reporter

Capernaum, Galilee – Yesterday as soon as the Sabbath ended, I attended a meeting in a house in the town of Capernaum by the Sea of Galilee. I had traveled there with the hope of seeing Jesus of Nazareth whose fame as a teacher and healer has been spreading like wildfire. Many others had the same idea, including dignitaries from as far away as Jerusalem—Pharisees and teachers of the Law. Jesus healed many people of various diseases and spoke about the Kingdom of God.

Suddenly, dust came down on our heads, and we shielded our eyes as we looked up to see a hole appearing in the roof! Some men lowered a man right between the roof beams, landing him directly in front of Jesus. I later learned they had resorted to this plan because the crowd was too dense to bring him in through the door, but they were convinced that this Jesus could heal their friend who suffered from a paralyzing palsy. I will now share my exclusive interview with that man.

Roving Reporter: What was your reaction when your friends hatched the idea of lowering you through the roof to get to Jesus?

Paralyzed Man: I was terrified! They were planning on wrapping ropes around my mat and dangling me in the air! I could fall and have worse problems than I already have. It takes a great deal of trust to allow them to carry me in the first place, let alone, suspend me from heights!

RR: What convinced you to let them do it?

PM: I had faith in the man of miracles, Jesus, because stories of Him had been repeated to me by people who had followed His exploits. My wonderful friends thought of me when they heard He was teaching in a house nearby. I was eager to throw off the limitations of my palsied earth-suit.

RR: What was it like, being lowered through the roof?

PM: Trepidatious, exhilarating, and uncomfortable. It placed me in an extremely vulnerable position with all eyes on me.  I don’t like people staring at my crippled earth-suit.

RR: What did Jesus say when you landed at His feet?

PM: I was expecting Jesus to address the issues with my earth-suit, transforming it into soundness. However, He praised our faith, and said, “Friend, your sins are forgiven you.”

RR: That must have been disappointing!

PM: Surprisingly, it was actually liberating. I recognized that a weight had been lifted off my soul that I had not fully realized I had been carrying. I knew I had been set free from my sin which was much more vital than my physical healing could ever be. My spirit and soul were made whole in that moment.

RR: Wow! That is some testimony. However, you are standing before me as able-bodied as I am, carrying a mat. Explain how that happened.

PM: Jesus addressed the Pharisees who had apparently been thinking He did not have the authority to forgive me. Jesus directed His attention toward them and said, “Why are you turning over such thoughts in your hearts? Which is easier to say? ‘Your sins are forgiven you’? or ‘Get up and walk’?  But look! I will prove to you that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins.”

RR: Jesus had the nerve to call out the Pharisees and Scribes?!

PM: Yes, then Jesus fixed His gaze on me and commanded me, “I say to you: get up, pick up your mattress and go home!”

RR: What did you do?

PM: To my joyful amazement, I was totally empowered to do exactly what Jesus ordered me to do, with no difficulty at all and a feisty spring in my step!

RR: Unbelievable!

PM: But it is true. Even the Pharisees had to admit that I was healed.

RR: Thank you for stopping on your way home to share your good news with me and allowing me to record it for my readers.

PM: You’re welcome, sir. I plan on sharing my story with any and every one who will listen. I’m convinced Jesus of Nazareth is the Messiah promised by the Prophets.

There you have it. Extraordinary events seem to happen wherever Jesus of Nazareth teaches. Follow this column for future reports concerning this self-named “Son of Man.”

Luke 5:16 - QUIET PLACE

Quiet Place

By Susie Hale

Precious Jewels Ministries

The Lord Jesus, Himself,

Would frequently steal away,

Leaving the clamoring crowd

to find a quiet place to pray.

Yes, He had a message

He’d been sent to declare,

And yes, there were people in need

Surrounding Him everywhere.

However, even Lord Jesus

Needed hours alone

To commune with His Father,

Place Himself before God’s throne.

If Jesus Christ, the God-Man

Prioritized time to pray,

How much more should I

Steal myself away

From all the striving,

Concern of earthly things

To be quiet and still

Before the Lord, my King.

Luke 9:35 Memory Verse 52 DAYS THROUGH THE GOSPELS

Write the verse you are memorizing on a sticky note and put it on your mirror, fridge door, or wherever you will see it several times a day. Take a quick minute to read it when you pass by and say it to yourself several times. You can be memorizing scripture while stirring up dinner, waiting in line, just about anywhere and anytime you have a few minutes.