Casey W.’s Journal

To me, this is a sign from the Lord as to how He wishes we would be. Freely giving to one another without reservation. My husband and I have a foster daughter this year, and she will be helping us plant, tend, and harvest our garden. Keep in mind we're not making her, but she wants to do this. We always plant abundantly more than we can eat so that we can give away to families in need. It's just a particular mission we feel God has laid on our heart. I am in no way comparing myself to these men and women, but if more of us were to act this way then I think we would see the poverty rate as well as so many other things go down significantly.

What a wonderful reminder of all that God is to us and yet there is so much more. I wonder what the world would be like today if we as Christians try to model these same attributes; showing compassion and grace, biting our tongues and being slow to anger, overflowing with love for God and for each other and being faithful above all to God and to our families and neighbors. I almost wonder if this won't be what it's like in Heaven.

This is a beautiful reminder of how God will always be with us even through the darkest times in our lives or the most troubling times. I have some friends who just lost their 9 year old son yesterday to a cancerous brain tumor and this verse is giving them comfort now. Our God knows we are only human and knows we are as little children, we need to be kept close to Him and we often need to rest.

This is a stark reminder of just what our sins make God feel like. In God's eyes telling that little white lie is just as bad as murder or idolatry. We need to remember to thank God every day that He sent His son to die for us so that we aren't blotted out of the book, but instead we can ask for forgiveness and repent of our actions and He will cast our sins as far as the east is from the west and remember them no more.

I think this is important, because so many of us in our fast-paced, technologically advanced lifestyles have forgotten that we are to work 6 days and rest on the 7th, we are to set aside one day per week to spend with God at HIS house. I hear of so many people not even giving the Sabbath a second thought these days. In fact, our society as a whole, like the foolish generations of Israelites, seem to have forgotten God and His instructions to us. I believe this applies as much today as it did when God said it. This is also a stark reminder that we are not put on this earth to glorify, please, worship, or have a relationship with any other God. HE is the one who makes us holy, HE is the one who is perfect, HE is the one who sent His only begotten Son to die for us, HE is the one who initiated a relationship with us at the very beginning of time, HE is the one who created us...it's so sad that people forget that.

It says a lot that God expected the exact same from the rich and the poor alike. That gives me comfort, because God sees all, poor and rich, weak and mighty, little-known and famous just the same. He does not expect the rich to do more, or the poor to do less. Just as in our Christian walk, our earthly circumstances do not matter. God will expect no more of us than He is sure we can handle with His help. This verse is also kind of sobering. I can almost see a scenario like the rich man and Lazarus..both standing before God and God telling them both, "Your soul (poor man) matters no less to me than (rich man) your soul. Both mean the same. I died for both of you."