Category Archives: Judgment

So, I return things.

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So, I return things. It’s #FiveMinuteFriday! I was drawn to the word prompt today and although I will probably not stay within the five minute writing guideline, I hope it still is a blessing to someone.

So, yeah, I return things. I do it for the typical reasons most people return an item purchased:

  • It didn’t fit
  • I didn’t like it
  • It was damaged
  • It was used (i.e., the toaster oven had crumbs!)
  • Or, insert reason here ______

I am an avid online shopper. With my back issues, I have had to resort to Amazon and Kroger Click-List! Kohl’s is, of course, a favorite because, according to their policy, you can return just about anything just about anytime (watch that Kohl’s cash though!)  and so is Macy’s because they do not charge to return by mail on most things. (Kohl’s you need to return in-store or pay for shipping.) You are most welcome for my insider shopping tips. (smile)

I do seem to favor stores that have free shipping and free returns, who wouldn’t? I do not abuse the policy, I do not wear an item on purpose and return it later just to have a new outfit. (Not ethical, people.) But, they offer the service, I didn’t care for the item , so yes, I will return it if possible; tags are attached and I have my receipt.

But lately, the news has been abuzz with stories of the colossal giant, Amazon, banning faithful customers because of their many returns! Of course there are always two sides to every story but according to the customers interviewed, it was unfair. Maybe it was, maybe it wasn’t. I have to admit I went to count the number of items I had returned in comparison to items kept. Whew! Wasn’t near as bad as I had thought. Hopefully, I am still in their good graces.

Many stores are following suit, or had started to crack down long ago and with The Retail Equation tracking a customers returns, policies could change drastically in the future.

Naturally, you would guess that my entire post is not just about the number of returns I generate. My posts are always about Jesus. (mic drop!) And how does He come into the picture on this one? Hint: it doesn’t have anything to do with praying before you step up to the return counter.

He accepts returns.

I cannot even begin to count the number of times I have returned my sorry self to Jesus. I am more than a mess, more than a disaster when I come crawling back, ashamed, confused, tired, weary and beyond exhausted. But He never turns me away, He never questions me or chides me for not having my receipt, i.e., dotting all the i’s and crossing all the t’s!

Deuteronomy 4:29 “But from there you will seek the Lord your God and you will find him, if you search after him with all your heart and with all your soul.”

He knows I have worn this same sin or regret many times and here I am at His feet returning…again. But He doesn’t push me away, He doesn’t tell me I have met my quota and He doesn’t ban me from coming back time and time again. He knows I will be back and yet He welcomes me, like the prodigal son, over and over again!

What do you need to return to Him today?

  • A broken heart?
  • A bad attitude?
  • A rapidly dissolving marriage?
  • Children who have strayed from Truth?
  • A job situation that is more than desperate?
  • Insert need here ______!
  • Worried about contracting the virus or financial stress since the quarantine started.
  • Worried that you haven’t seen your grandkids in two months!
  • Anxious to get back to church but maybe apprehensive about being in a crowd again?

Jesus knows them all! He hears your worries, your cares and your prayers and He is near to your broken and anxious heart.

Psalm 37:23-24 “The steps of a man are established by the Lord, when he delights in his way; though he fall, he shall not be cast headlong, for the Lord upholds his hand.”

2 Peter 3:9 “The Lord is not slow to fulfill His promise as some understand slowness, but is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.”

Isaiah 30:18 “Therefore the LORD waits to be gracious to you, and therefore he exalts himself to show mercy to you. For the LORD is a God of justice; blessed are all those who wait for him.”

So, pack up your worries, troubles, anxieties and cares and return them to Jesus. Today. His arms are open and His mercies are new. Every morning.

For the kingdom

Fasting Together: When fasting turns ugly

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Fasting Together: When fasting turns ugly. Wow. What a title, and what in the world is ugly about fasting unless it is the hunger? Join me and we will see!  We are blogging every day this month to assist anyone participating in ANY FAST. We focus on the Daniel Fast with recipes but our devotions and encouragement are a benefit to anyone on any fast. I hope they are a blessing to you. You can catch up on any you have missed here!

Ahab, King of Samaria, was not one of the nicest people in the world…back in the day. As a matter of fact only one person was known to be WORSE than ole King Ahab and that was his wife, whose name has since become synonymous with a manipulative, controlling and even wicked individual. Maybe you have heard it said that one has a Jezebel spirit. It is not a compliment!

King Ahab married Jezebel out of the will of God and relinquished his power as king, and husband, to her. (1 Kings 1).

Their roles were reversed from the get-go and it spelled disaster.

Ahab comes home one day upset because there is a beautiful vineyard that he wants to have next to the palace but he cannot because it is owned by one named Naboth and Naboth wants to keep it in his family and does not wish to sell. Ahab offers him a very fair price but still Naboth declines. Ahab is so upset that he comes home and will not eat.

Jezebel is furious with Ahab for his weak ways and declares that the vineyard will be his, or theirs, or if we are being plain, HERS! She begins to plot her plan. She writes letters to the elders and the nobles and says, “Proclaim a fast, and set Naboth on high among the people: And set two men, sons of Belial, before him, to bear witness against him, saying, Thou didst blaspheme God and the king. And then carry him out, and stone him, that he may die.” 1 Kings 21:9-10.

So, naturally, her minions follow her instructions and Naboth is killed. But, did you catch what has happened here? Jezebel has proclaimed a fast! Obviously, religion was the furthest thing from her mind, or Ahab’s either. But in order to make it all look good, she must order the fast as if to appear that either a threat has been made on Ahab’s life or a calamity is coming upon the kingdom.

She sits Naboth “on high among the people”, not necessarily as the guilty one, according to commentaries, but because of his high honor in the community. Then, when the two men that have been planted to tell lies against him begin their stories, Naboth will be seated up where the guilty usually sit, where everyone can see him.

It worked. Just like she planned it; he was convicted, and stoned to death.

When Ahab heard that Naboth was dead, he hurried down to take possession of the vineyard. News travels fast because the Lord also told the prophet, Elijah…

“Arise, go down to meet Ahab king of Israel, which is in Samaria: behold, he is in the vineyard of Naboth, whither he is gone down to possess it. And thou shalt speak unto him, saying, Thus saith the Lord, Hast thou killed, and also taken possession? …In the place where dogs licked the blood of Naboth shall dogs lick thy blood, even thine.” 1 Kings 21:18-19.

But that wasn’t all. Elijah had much to say to Ahab that day and began to tell him of all his wicked ways and how he was about to come face to face to judgment for the evil life that he had lived. In other words, his time was up!

You just don’t play around with the things of God and get by with it forever. There are consequences for sin. Sometimes it is in this life, sometimes it is not until Judgment, but there are consequences. Fasting and prayer are effective, life-changing, powerful ways to see things happen in the spirit world! But God does not honor efforts that are used against others for harm and evil influence like we have seen here with Jezebel.

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God was letting Ahab know there were to be consequences for the actions of his wife and that Ahab was just as guilty of murder as if he had pulled the trigger.

“But there was none like unto Ahab, which did sell himself to work wickedness in the sight of the Lord, whom Jezebel his wife stirred up.” 1 Kings 21:25.

But something must have struck a chord in Ahab for the Bible tells us that he was listening to the prophet Elijah!

“And it came to pass, when Ahab heard those words, that he rent his clothes, and put sackcloth upon his flesh, and fasted, and lay in sackcloth, and went softly.”

Here he is fasting again…but not because Jezebel has told him to, not because he is trying to deceive anyone and not because he is trying to murder anyone to take something from them that isn’t his!

“And the word of the Lord came to Elijah the Tishbite, saying, Seest thou how Ahab humbleth himself before me? because he humbleth himself before me, I will not bring the evil in his days: but in his son’s days will I bring the evil upon his house.” 1 Kings 21:28-29.

He is fasting because he is broken, he is scared and he is humbled.

And the Lord said because he HUMBLED himself he spared Ahab the judgment in HIS days. Jezebel still comes to an untimely end as promised before, she doesn’t humble herself one bit as far as the scriptures tell us. But Ahab had learned his lesson for now.

There are fasts that are NOT pleasing to God. Fasts that are only to be seen of men. Fasts that make us “look good” or “holy”. Fasts that are just to make us lose weight, ahem, we call those diets! Of course we have covered in previous posts if you lose weight from fasting that is another matter entirely, and we have had testimonies of lives changed permanently through fasting for their health. Our lives SHOULD be changed from fasting!

Fasts are also not to be used against others. Sounds ridiculous to even say it, but Jezebel tried it!

The fast that works is the kind that is coupled with prayer, humility and brokenness. A fast that keeps you on your knees and searching for more time with the Savior. Cleaning out the old and letting God fill you up with more and more of His spirit. Changing the inside!!

Nothing is too hard for God, if he can humble a man like Ahab, there is hope for all of us! Let our fasting be done with humility of heart, for the right purpose, to draw closer to Him, to reach for others and to seek the perfect will of God for our lives.

Need your own copy of The Daniel Fast, A Devotional? Get it on Amazon by clicking here!

Here comes the judge!

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Here comes the Judge!

Jonah, Jonah, Jonah…we look at him and see stubbornness, disobedience, rebellion and definitely ungratefulness.

Yes, he did thank God for saving him from the belly of the great fish, and yes, he did finally obey and head for Nineveh. What he didn’t expect was for the people to believe, repent and turn from their wickedness.

Jonah arrives in Nineveh, (a city that takes three days to walk through!), and just one day inside he starts preaching the Word of the Lord. He told the people, in this wicked city, that they had 40 days to repent or the entire city, and everything in it, would be destroyed. “So the people of Nineveh believed God, and proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them even to the least of them.”

They believed God, they proclaimed a fast and put on sackcloth (a sign of repentance and humility) even down to the least of them.

Word had come from the king himself, he had taken off his robe, covered himself in sackcloth and sat in ashes! He said,

“Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste any thing: let them not feed, nor drink water: But let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and cry mightily unto God: yea, let them turn every one from his evil way, and from the violence that is in their hands. Who can tell if God will turn and repent, and turn away from his fierce anger,that we perish not?”

The desperate situation called for desperate measures. They humbled their souls with fasting and what happened?

“And God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God repented of the evil, that he had said that he would do unto them; and he did it not.” Jonah 3:3-10.

Did they change the mind of God? Of course they did!

Turning FROM sin and turning TO God will cause the Lord to reach out a hand of MERCY!

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This is what Jehovah wanted them to do!

But it is NOT what Jonah wanted them to do. At all.

This change of plans greatly upset Jonah, and he became very angry. “So he complained to the Lord about it: “Didn’t I say before I left home that you would do this, Lord? That is why I ran away to Tarshish! I knew that you are a merciful and compassionate God, slow to get angry and filled with unfailing love. You are eager to turn back from destroying people.  Just kill me now, Lord! I’d rather be dead than alive if what I predicted will not happen.” Jonah 4:1-3 NLT.

Can’t you just see Jonah complaining to God? “I told you, Lord! I told you this would happen!” He says he knew all along if they repented God would go soft. And he was mad about it! He was upset that these people that he literally despised were going to receive the forgiveness of God…just like he had.

Now here is where we think Jonah is One Selfish and Self-Righteous Dude.

But is he really any different than so many of the rest of us? Haven’t there been times in our lives where we have been a little aggravated at some of the Ninevites in our own lives? Do we think they can’t be saved, that God surely wouldn’t bother with them; His mercy couldn’t possibly extend that far?

And when they do come to the Lord? When they DO repent? We doubt and say, “They won’t stick with it, that’s just how they are.” We second guess their motives, “They aren’t really sincere, they are just coming to church to put on a show or to be seen.” We are sure there is nothing to their experience.

We reason it in our minds…and sometimes speak it with our mouths.

Worst of all? Looking deep in our hearts we might discover we just do not like them. Maybe they have hurt us in the past, done something against us that we are struggling to forgive. We actually want to see them continue in their sinful life, they are deserving of judgment!

God is no respecter of persons. And the story of Jonah and the Ninevites is a wonderful example of the mercy of a loving God. It was a wicked city, the Assyrians were bent on world domination, they didn’t care who got in their way. They even sacrificed their children and served the idol Dagon! But when they heard the warning, and their king took it seriously, they believed, they repented and they were forgiven. They were spared!

Just like God told Jonah, “And should I not pity Nineveh, that great city, in which are more than one hundred and twenty thousand persons who cannot discern between their right hand and their left—and much livestock?”

Can we just be grateful that God had mercy on us, that He loved us, in spite of ourselves, overlooked our faults, failures and sins?

Let us not be judgmental when it comes to the sins of others. Let’s not be critical of their motives when it comes to salvation.

“The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.” 2 Peter 3:9 NKJV.

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