70x7=490

"Then Peter came to Him and said, 'Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? Up to seven times?' Jesus said to him, 'I do not say to you, up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven.'"

~Matthew 18:21-22

Some versions of the Bible translate the number of times as 77, but I like this version of 70 times 7, which comes to 490 times per day! In other words, no matter how many times someone does something to hurt us, we are to forgive them. Even though forgiveness can be difficult, it is possible to forgive even the most horrendous acts against us. Especially when we keep in mind all of the things Christ forgave us for. 

When we fail to forgive, we continue to carry the pain of the offense wherever we go. It colors everything we do, and often destroys new relationships before they even get started. Unforgiveness makes us bitter, resentful, and angry. And it keeps us focused on the past. You cannot move forward in Christ if your focus is behind you.

"Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me His own.  Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus (Philippians 3:12-14)."

We must forget what lies behind us in order to reach the goal before us. No one wins a race by watching those who are behind. A race is won by concentrating on the finish line ahead. We will not attain our prize in this life, but we won't reach it at all if we hold on to the things that hurt us. Continuing to allow our past, and the people who betrayed us, to remain in our heads and hearts allows defeat. It makes us race in vain (Philippians 2:16). Forgiving those who have wronged us is not saying what they did was okay, instead, forgiveness releases the offenses to God and allows healing.

"For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses (Matthew 6:14-15)."

Read 2 Kings 6-10

©2018 Marie McGaha

Grow Up!

“Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. “Honor your father and mother” (this is the first commandment with a promise), “that it may go well with you and that you may live long in the land.”

~Ephesians 6:1-3

Yesterday was Mother’s Day and it always makes me a little sentimental as I think about how quickly the years flew by and my kids grew up. Even though it’s the order of things, as parents, we don’t realize how quickly time flies until our kids are out of the house and on their own. I miss the days when my kids were little. I miss the handprint drawings and papier mache flowers. I miss being the only woman in my sons’ lives and I miss being the only comfort for my daughters. I miss the sound of giggles and footsteps and fingerprints on the walls. I miss all of that, but I realize that I also seem to have forgotten all the fighting, screaming, yelling, arguing, and the beds that were never made, laundry never put away, garbage never taken out, and all the other things that also go with being a parent. We tend to romanticize the past once it’s actually the past and not our every day life. There’s a lot to be said for growing up too.

“When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways (1 Corinthians 13:11).”

We are all expected to grow up. Even God expects us to grow up in Him. We don’t expect our children to stay in the infancy stage, the toddler stage, or the teen stage. We want them to grow, learn and mature, and eventually, be on their own and start their own families. God wants the same type of growth in us. When we come to Him, newly saved, unsure of our first steps in Christ, He gives us His Holy Spirit as a guide, and directs us to church, to pastors, to teachers, and others who can help us grow in His word and His ways. It is our path in life to grow and spread the gospel to others, to lend a hand to help others grow in God, and to become mature Christian men and women. Just as we expect our children to grow and leave behind their youthful pursuits and immaturity, God expects us to do the same (2 Timothy 2:22). Growing up isn’t easy but that’s why there are parents and grandparents to help us along the way. Once we are grown, however, we are expected to act accordingly. We are expected to earn our own living, pay bills, raise our own kids, and to act responsibly as mature adults. God expects nothing less.

“But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil (Hebrews 5:14).”

I miss the children my kids used to be, but I am madly in love with the men and women they’ve become. They are no longer children subject to the whims and careless pursuits of youth. They no longer base decisions on what their friends do, or what they think they can get away with if mom doesn’t know about it. They have grown up and act accordingly. When we, as children of God, continue to act as though we have no direction, or pursue things contrary to God’s word, then we are not growing in Christ but are instead, hanging on to the things of the world; to the things of the past that made us feel good or gave us a sense of worth – even if that really wasn’t the case. We must put away our childish whims and grow in the Lord, becoming like Christ and being set apart from the world.

“And He gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers,  to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ,  until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ,  so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes (Ephesians 4:11-14).”

Read 2 Kings 1-5; Ephesians 4

©2018 Marie McGaha

The Season of Life

“For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven: a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted; a time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up; a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance; a time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing; a time to seek, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away; a time to tear, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak; a time to love, and a time to hate; a time for war, and a time for peace.”

~Ecclesiastes 3:1-9

Everything in the world runs in cycles; that is how God created things, including us. We see the cycles in everyday life – clocks, calendars, work schedules, the weather, and our very lives. We are conceived in our mother’s womb, we grow and develop at a certain rate and are born at a certain time. We grow as children, become adolescents, young adults, and the cycle begins again with us as we marry and have our own children. In the Disney movie, The Lion King, one of the songs is called “Circle of Life.”

“It's the circle of life
And it moves us all
Through despair and hope
Through faith and love
Till we find our place
On the path unwinding
In the circle
The circle of life…”

(©1994 Elton John)

We all live in this circle of life and there’s nothing we can do that stops it. It is what some call the “law of the universe,” but in reality, it’s the law of Almighty God. When God calls something into being, it cannot be undone. We are all the creation of His mighty hand. There is nothing created that was not created by Him, through Him, and because of Him (Colossians 1:16). All life was created by Him, and that includes the planet we live on. He created it in perfect proportion to suit the human body’s need for different elements, food, oxygen, sun, rain, and wind. Everything serves a purpose under the hand of God. For humans, our purpose is to serve Him, worship Him, and then spend eternity with Him. When we stray from that purpose, we suffer consequences just like Adam and Eve did when they disobeyed God.

“And to Adam He said, ‘Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, you shall not eat of it, cursed is the ground because of you; in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life; thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you; and you shall eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return (Genesis 3:17-19).”

Humans have been disobeying God since the beginning and we continue to do so to this day. No matter what we are told, what we experience, we continue to go back to our sins in spite of the pain it causes us. As the saying goes, the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different outcome. Why do we do it? What is the appeal of a painful life? I have theories but as a human who was caught up in the cycle of insanity, expecting different outcomes even though I was doing the same things over and over, I can’t explain why we do what we do. Some say it’s human nature to do things the hard way, and while I suppose that’s true to an extent, it’s still not an explanation, it’s just a rationale. So, what is our true purpose here on earth, our purpose under the sun?

“Know that the Lord is God. It is He who made us, and we are His; we are His people, the sheep of His pasture (Psalm 100:3).”

There may be things that we cannot control – the sun is going to come up when it comes up; the wind is going to blow where it will; the rain is going to fall upon all the earth; we are going to follow the cycle of life - birth, growth, marriage, death, just like those before us did; but we don’t have to follow a path that leads us to hell. That much is within our control. We have free will, we can choose Who to follow. We can decide the path of our souls, and as long as there is breath in our bodies, we can choose to stop living like we can’t wait to get to hell, and start living like Heaven is waiting for us.

“The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man.  For God will bring every deed into judgment, with every secret thing, whether good or evil (Ecclesiastes 12:13-14).”

Read 1 Kings 13-15

Weekend reading 1 Kings 16-22

©2018 Marie McGaha

You Gotta Forget About It

"I, I am he who blots out your transgressions for my own sake, and I will not remember your sins."

~Isaiah 43:25

I’ve had a lot of physical, emotional and mental pain. Some was of my own doing, but the worst was caused by others. As a child, I suffered sexual abuse from an uncle, which set the stage for a future of drugs, alcohol, promiscuity, domestic violence, and a host of other problems. I had no idea how to cope. I had no idea what was even wrong with me. I was an emotional wreck and tried to self-medicate in order to pretend I was “normal,” when there was nothing normal about my life. I lived in an emotional hell that kept me from even acknowledging what had happened until I was in my late 20’s. And then all that pain turned to rage and hatred. I was holding on by the proverbial thread.

I was going to church. I was saved by grace. God was working in my life. But I couldn’t let go of these feelings I had toward the man who had ruined my life. He had molested and abused me. He had stolen my virginity, my future, and my sanity. I hated him, and he had been dead for a couple of years. He was dead, and I had no one to direct my feelings toward. But then a curious thing happened. A lady who was blind came to our church. She and I became acquainted and she told me the story of how her 17-year-old son, her only child, had been murdered by the next-door neighbor for breaking a birdbath while mowing the lawn. Over the course of the next three years, while the man was in prison, she told me of the many and varied emotions she went through, the anguish, the guilt, and the hatred. Without her knowledge, the man was released from prison, but one day, while she was walking, the Lord led her to a house she didn’t know, and it happened to belong to the family of the man.

While she was standing there, wondering why God led her to that house, the man and his family came outside. The man stopped dead in his tracks when he saw her, and then he went to her, fell to his knees and begged her forgiveness. While he was in prison, he had accepted Christ as his Savior, but he had not been able to move on in life. His wife said he had horrible nightmares and often broke into a cold sweat and cried over what he had done to the boy and his family. At that moment, with the man crying at her feet, the boy’s mother said every feeling she’d had against the man, evaporated. She fell to her knees, hugging him and crying, and she forgave him. Not only that, like Christ when He forgives our sins, she also forgot. It allowed the man to move forward. He went to Bible college, became a minister, and continues to minister to young people in gangs to this day.

Forgiveness can be a tough emotion to navigate. We often hear, “I’ll forgive you, but I will never forget.” That isn’t true forgiveness. True forgiveness also includes forgetting the offense and moving forward as if it never happened.

After crying with the woman over her story, I was able to tell her mine. Then we cried some more. But through those stories, through the tears, I felt something in my spirit give way. I forgave the man who had hurt me so many years ago. I discovered that as long as I held onto the pain and unforgiveness, I was still his victim. I was set free, finally, from all the unforgiveness I had harbored, and from all of the residual emotions that went along with it. I was able to forgive and forget and pray that he did not go to hell as I had wished every day since his death. I have been able to use this part of my life to help others who have been in similar situations, who continue to hold on to their past, and be dragged down by it. Our past can either be an anchor that drags us under, or a sail that propels us forward. I have the wind of forgiveness through the Holy Spirit that propels me forward.

“For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses (Matthew 6:14-15).”

(For the rest of the story, you can buy the book, Comfort & Joy book one: forgiveness on Amazon)

Read 1 Kings 8-12

 ©2018 Marie McGaha

One Thing I Ask

"One thing have I asked of the Lord, that will I seek after: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in His temple. For He will hide me in His shelter in the day of trouble; He will conceal me under the cover of His tent; He will lift me high upon a rock."

~Psalm 27:4-5

No matter what I do for the Lord in this life, it will never be enough to repay Him for what He has done for me. My life was a wreck. I was not just in need of salvation, I was in need of complete renovation. I was like a house that looked great from the outside but when you walk inside, you could see the deterioration and knew that house would have to be gutted and completely redone before it could be habitable. My inner self was the same way. Years of childhood sexual abuse through abuse as an adult, drugs, alcohol, depression, suicidal ideation, to name a few of my ongoing list of problems, made me inhabitable. My mind was a wreck, my emotions were out of control, and I didn't know whether I was coming or going, but whichever way it was, it was the wrong way. I had no help, no hope, no future, no vision for a better life, and at that point, death would have been the perfect answer... or so I thought. What changed my life? I met someone who cared about me, who wanted better for me than I wanted for myself, and I latched on to him. No, it wasn't God, it was my late husband, Bear. The dynamics there would take way too long to explain but he was a liferaft when I was sinking. What I didn't know, and what Bear didn't know, is that God was going to use that relationship for both of our benefits. And that's exactly what He did. That was more than 30 years ago and although Bear has gone home to the Lord, I have never forgotten where I came from or, more importantly, where I would have gone had God not intervened. I was on that wide road to hell, and so was Bear. God had answered the prayers of both our praying grandmothers even though both had gone home many years earlier. 

"Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many.  For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few (Matthew 7:13-14)."

In the years since marrying Bear, since coming back to the Lord where I belonged, I have done everything I can to make sure that others know there is a better way. I have done everything I know how to do to bring the message of hope in Christ to others, and to share my life of horrors to help others see that no matter how bad your life is, Jesus is the only answer. No matter what kind of life you lead, one of hell on earth or one of palatial luxury, Jesus is still the only answer. One day this life will end and each of us will stand before God and answer for our lives. I always imagined God would ask, "Why did you do drugs? Why did you sin? Why were you such a horrible person?" But that isn't what God is going to ask. We will have to give account for our deeds and words but I think God's only question is going to be, "Why didn't you accept Jesus Christ as your Savior when you had the chance?" I think God's heart is breaking over each one that has to hear that question.

Life isn't easy, it's hard for everyone. We make mistakes, sometimes, we make huge mistakes that can't be righted by saying, "I'm sorry." Sometimes, we have to pay for our mistakes in ways we could never imagine. But no matter how big the mistakes, no matter how awful our lives may have been, or continue to be, no matter what happened to us as children that we had no control over, no matter where we came from, we can all make the determination of where we will go when this life ends. Jesus is the answer. He can heal our wounds, our minds, our bodies, and make us whole again. But we have to take the first step of accepting Him as our Lord and Savior. It doesn't mean our lives will start popping up all rosy and beautiful, but it does mean we will be on the road to healing. We may still have to answer for the deeds done prior to knowing Jesus because the laws of the universe don't change. When we choose an action, we also choose the consequences. Sometimes, society requires we pay those consequences in ways we'd rather not but regardless of how payment is garnered, Christ is still with us. 

Don't wait until it's too late. Don't wait until you stand before God and have to answer, "Why didn't you accept my Son?" Allow Jesus into your heart and life so that the healing can begin now, and when you stand in eternity before God, you will hear, "Well done, My child. Welcome to Heaven!" No matter what sins you may have committed, none are too great for God to forgive.

"For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness (sins) and to purify for Himself a people for His own possession who are zealous for good works (Titus 2:11-14)."

If you haven't accepted Christ, do it now, it's not difficult. Say, "Jesus, I know I've sinned and I need You to save me. I accept You as my Lord and Savior and ask You to live in my heart. Thank you Lord for dying for me so that I can live for You. In Jesus' Holy Name, Amen." Yes, it's that simple. You are now a child of the Most High God if you said that prayer and meant it. So, what's next? Find a Bible believing church, go to several and see which one makes you feel at home. I prefer small, independent churches over the larger ones because I don't feel like I get lost in the crowd. Buy a Bible or download one on your phone. There are many versions. I prefer the New King James Version (NKJV), and the English Standard Version (ESV), but read a few different ones to see what is easiest for you. And go to church every time the doors open. Read your Bible every day. Pray. Pray. Pray. Every day. Listen to Christian music and worship the Lord every day. Your life is about to change in ways you never thought possible because you are a new creation! Hallelujah!

"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to Himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making His appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake He made Him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God (2 Corinthians 5:17-21)."

Read 1 Kings 5-7; Psalm 27

©2018 Marie McGaha

What God Knows

"And He made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward Him and find Him. Yet He is actually not far from each one of us, for ‘In Him we live and move and have our being’; as even some of your own poets have said, ‘For we are indeed His offspring.’ Being then God's offspring, we ought not to think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of man. The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now He commands all people everywhere to repent, because He has fixed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom He has appointed; and of this He has given assurance to all by raising Him from the dead.”

~Acts 17:26-31

I love the book of Acts and especially chapter seventeen. Having begun in Thessalonica, where the gospel was not well-received, Paul had been sent to Berea, and then taken to Greece, where he preached salvation through Jesus Christ, while all around him was man-made idols and people spouting off the latest in beliefs. Paul observed that the people were religious, and even had an idol dedicated to "the unknown god." These people, unlike those in Thessalonica and Berea, were seeking someone, something, some god to worship. Not knowing who the true God was, they worshipped whatever idol someone else said was the one to worship. They were far off the mark trying to fill the God-shaped hole within them but they were looking for something real to believe in.

Looking around the world today, I see the same thing. People are still trying to fill the God-shaped hole within them, yet they are doing it with false gods instead of the only true God, Jesus Christ. We see people following after musicians, movie and television stars, athletes, philosophers, authors, and other people who have no better answer than the person next to them. We see people lusting after fame and fortune with the belief those things will make them happy and fulfilled. Yet, for all the glamor in the world, for all the riches, bright lights, and glory from adoring fans, we see more depression and unhappiness than ever before. We will never feel content, complete, or fulfilled by the things of this world because those things are temporary and only make us happy for a moment. When the moment is gone, we move on to the next thing that will cure our ills.

"Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also (Matthew 6:19-21)."

"But godliness with contentment is great gain,  for we brought nothing into the world, and we cannot take anything out of the world. But if we have food and clothing, with these we will be content. But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction (1 Timothy 6:6-9)."

I am not encouraged when I look at the world. In fact, I am pretty much disgusted by what I see. The lack of morals, respect, values, and work ethic on every level of society is abhorrent. And through my eyes, I see no hope, no future, or any way possible for things to change. However, my eyes do not see what God sees. My eyes cannot tell one thing from another, they cannot see the future, and certainly, I cannot see into the hearts of other people. But God can. He knows the deepest, most inner secrets in each of us. He knows the beginning to the end, and there is nothing hidden from Him. He knows how all of this is going to work out and which of us is on the verge of making the decision to stop following false gods, to start worshipping the one true God, and that is what I have to place my faith in. God is in control and He knows what He's doing.

"Where shall I go from Your Spirit? Or where shall I flee from Your presence? If I ascend to heaven, You are there! If I make my bed in Sheol, You are there! If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there Your hand shall lead me, and Your right hand shall hold me. If I say, 'Surely the darkness shall cover me, and the light about me be night,” even the darkness is not dark to You; the night is bright as the day, for darkness is as light with You' (Psalm 139:7-12)."

Read 1 Kings 3-4; Psalm 139

©2018 Marie McGaha

Your Choice

"I perceived that whatever God does endures forever; nothing can be added to it, nor anything taken from it. God has done it, so that people fear before Him. That which is, already has been; that which is to be, already has been; and God seeks what has been driven away."
~Ecclesiastes 3:14-15

"What's gonna happen already has. The only thing you can do is your very best, and remember, you only get one chance to make a good first impression." That's the advice I've given my kids on numerous occasions. The last time was just a couple of weeks ago when my youngest son called while on his way to the "most important interview" of his life. 

Our lives have a determined pattern; we are born, go through stages of growth, go to school, graduate, get a job, meet the right person, get married, have kids and the process starts all over again. Hopefully, along the way we have good people in our lives who show us by example how to make the most out of life, but all too often that isn't the case. We don't always get the great parents. We don't always get born into the best family. We don't get the greatest opportunities in education or jobs. We don't always meet the right person. Sometimes it seems like everything that can go wrong does. But no matter what, we always have the opportunity to make better choices. 

"When a man's ways please the Lord, He makes even his enemies to be at peace with him. Better is a little with righteousness than great revenues with injustice. The heart of man plans his way, but the Lord establishes his steps (Proverbs 16:7-9)."

No matter what left turns we have taken, or how messed up our lives become, we can make the choice to find a better direction. The way of righteousness may seem far off, but God is as close as a single prayer and He will change your life if you allow Him to.

"There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit (Romans 8:1-4)."

No matter where we are, where we've been, or what we've done, as long as there is breath in our body, we have the opportunity to change where we're going. We have choices in life, and no matter what those around us are saying or doing, we can choose to change the road we're on. We choose what to say, how to respond in any given situation, and when we make a choice, we are also choosing the consequences of life or death. When we choose to continue down the path that has already shown us nothing good, we are choosing death. When we make the choice for change, and follow the path God wants us on, we choose life. 

"Now therefore fear the Lord and serve Him in sincerity and in faithfulness. Put away the gods that your fathers served beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the Lord. And if it is evil in your eyes to serve the Lord, choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your fathers served in the region beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord (Joshua 24:14-15)."

Remember the last line of Ecclesiastes 3:15 above... "God seeks what has been driven away." If you're lost, you can be found. God will always answer those who seek Him with a right heart, and He will answer those who ask with right motives. 

My son got the job he interviewed for.

Read 1 Kings 1-2; Ecclesiastes 3; Romans 8

©2018 Marie McGaha