Category: Deliverance

15 Years!

Posted on by Dorci


Hello!

I’m doing a little bit of celebrating today. It’s been 15 years since I started God Treasure, four and half years first on Blogspot, and ten and half here.

I was encouraged to write by a couple of friends years ago. Then when my health took a dive and I wasn’t able to serve Him in other ways, I finally took the plunge into devotional writing.  I’m so thankful He’s allowed me to serve Him this way. Or maybe, (just maybe!) that was His plan all along.

Nothing takes Him by surprise. He knows the beginning from the end and vice versa.  He knew what my life held, all its craziness, before Christ and after, and I’m sure this was His plan from the beginning, and why He began planting seeds through those friends so long ago.  

And maybe that’s what this has been about, a way for Him to bring healing to my heart, a heart that’s held more pain than a heart should be able to hold, but for Him. Only He could heal a heart like that.

Even though I delve into scripture, I still sit here every time in front of a blank screen, not knowing exactly where the Lord and I are going.  But I pray, and the Holy Spirit gives me direction.

He’s always showing me things I didn’t know, having given me more “aha!” moments than I can count that have led me down a fifteen-year path of tears and joys. He teaches me first, bringing healing to my own heart, and through that, He’s equipped me with understanding and compassion to help show others how faithful our God is.  

I hope and pray the Lord’s brought hope and bit more understanding to even a few through my own discoveries, and maybe a bit of comfort that whatever you’re going through, you’re not alone. I’ve been there, in so many ways, over and over again.

So, from my healed, and healing, heart to yours, thank you for reading. I hope you’ve found something to take away for yourself. l hope you’ve grown deeper in love with Jesus, learning you can trust Him more and more, and then taken Him out into the world as salt and light for others.

It’s been my story, and maybe yours, too.

 

As always, if you ever need prayer, or you’d like me (and the Holy Spirit!) to attempt a particular subject, I’d love to hear from you. You can leave a comment here, email me, or message me on the blog’s Facebook or Twitter pages.  

His,
Dorci

 

 

Unclean Hands

Posted on by Dorci

I love court shows. Well, not all of them, but there are a couple I like to watch. Every once in a while one judge in particular will bring up the concept in the law of unclean hands. That is when a someone sues another person, but they themselves acted illegally, unethically or in bad faith. 

This judge will usually explain it by using an example like this: let’s say someone sold another person illegal drugs and the buyer didn’t pay the seller the amount they agreed so the seller is suing for the money. The judge will explain that the courts can’t do that. They can’t make fair or right something that’s illegal. 

We love justice. God built into us a sense of fairness, of right and wrong. That’s why people protest, why people speak out, why people love court shows. 

The problem, though, is sometimes we’re all too willing to overlook our own sin. 

There are times we stand in prayer before the Father, the ultimate Judge, with “unclean hands.”  We’ve chosen to repeatedly walk a sinful path, to hold onto some sinful attitude, like not forgiving someone for the sin they’ve committed against us when God’s forgiven us for a lifetime of sin, and then ask Him to bless us.

Yes, we ask for forgiveness, and in Christ we are forgiven and won’t face eternal punishment for our sins, but when we’ve chosen sin we can’t expect God to bless us or protect us from the consequences of that sin.  

Surely, LORD, you bless the righteous;
    you surround them with your favor as with a shield.
Psalm 5:12

In Christ, God’s called us to a holy life, a life different than the world, a life of death to self’s indulgence to sin, not only to glorify Him but because He desires to protect us from the consequences that sin brings – the pain and suffering, the lack of peace, sometimes even an early death. 

Our God is more gracious and merciful than any earthly judge, and for a time He may warn us to stop, but if we don’t heed His warning, He’ll give us over to sin’s consequences to teach us so we’ll stop sinning. 

Or, every day, over and over, we can choose to take up our cross, die to ourselves and follow Christ who gave up His life for us. We can choose to be transformed by the renewing of our minds by the work of the Holy Spirit in us, knowing our righteous Father will bless us with His favor – His delight and good pleasure. 

Course that doesn’t mean that by living righteously we’ll never suffer and it doesn’t mean every time there’s a trial in our lives we’ve done something wrong. It just means we live in a sin-filled world. 

Someday all sin will be judged and the new world will be perfect the way God intended it to be in the beginning.  

Until then, in the power of the Holy Spirit, we can choose to walk uprightly, glorifying our Heavenly Father, receive His blessings, and rest in His peace.

* * *

Heavenly Father, we ask not only for forgiveness for our sins, but from the heart we repent of them and turn from them. In your strength may we daily walk the narrow road and have eyes only for You. Thank you for the amazing grace and mercy we know we don’t deserve but that you’ve shown us over and over. May we never take it for granted nor abuse it. Out of our love for You and our gratitude, may we always choose to live righteously, giving our bodies to You as living sacrifices. In Jesus’ precious name, amen. 

 

 

The God Who Hears Us

Posted on by Dorci

“Now there was a man in Jerusalem called Simeon, who was righteous and devout. He was waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was on him. It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not die before he had seen the Lord’s Messiah. Moved by the Spirit, he went into the temple courts.” Luke 2:25-27a

We don’t always hear a lot about Simeon, and there’s only a small paragraph about him, but there’s a lot behind those few words. 

His name was Simeon, and names held a lot of meaning in the Hebrew culture.

The name Simeon was first used in Genesis as the name Leah gave the second son she conceived with Jacob.

“She (Leah) conceived again, and when she gave birth to a son she said, ‘Because the Lord heard that I am not loved, He gave me this one too.’ So she named him Simeon.” Genesis 29:33

So, why did Leah name him Simeon?  Because in the Hebrew Simeon means “hearing.” 

The Lord heard (same root word) that Jacob loved Rachel more than Leah. He heard Leah’s heart grieve and groan, had mercy on her, and gave her another son. 

Jesus’ birth was the end of 400 years of silence from the God of the Israelites. 

The Israelites had largely turned away from God and His ways, and they endured much persecution, the desecration of the Holy of Holies, and the capture and recapture of Israel by multiple peoples.

God might have been silent, but He was not unseeing or unhearing. 

So “when the set time had fully come, God sent His Son…” Galatians 4:4

God had heard the grieving and groaning of His people and gave the world a Son.  

As Joseph and Mary took the baby Jesus to the temple in Jerusalem to consecrate Him to the Lord, the Holy Spirit led Simeon, whose name means “to hear,” to see the Savior of the world. 

God hears. He is attentive to our cries. He is ever discerning and perceiving of the needs and concerns and trials and tribulations of one person as well as an entire people. 

We need to remember that. Deep down in our hearts we need to believe that because if we don’t we won’t pray. If we think all is lost, if we think it’s useless, that God isn’t hearing us, we’ll give up hope and we’ll stop praying.

Have hope, take courage, we have a God who hears.  

God’s Word shows us, through Leah and through Simeon, that God is a hearing, compassionate, and loving God. 

So as we start this year, let’s remember that God hears our prayers and continue to pour out our hearts to Him who hears us and will answer when the set time has fully come. 

“This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us—whatever we ask—we know that we have what we asked of Him.”  1 John 5:14-15

The Saturday Song – God’s Not Dead

Posted on by Dorci

It’s revival day! 

Today’s the day Franklin Graham is leading Prayer March 2020 in Washington D.C. for the healing of our nation, and the day Pastor and Rabbi Jonathan Cahn is leading his event, The Return, also seeking God’s forgiveness, repentance, revival, and healing of our nation. 

Heavenly Father, we come to you in humility and total dependence on You, praying that in Your mercy You would pour out the power of Your Holy Spirit throughout our country to soften hearts and open eyes to the truth of the destruction of sin, and the truth of Christ’s sacrifice on the cross that paid for our sins, that many will turn to You with repentant hearts and that there will be a great awakening and revival of our nation in the name of Jesus Christ.  We pray you would send your warrior angels to bind the hand of the enemy from stopping or disrupting any of the prayer events going on today. We look to You, LORD, for help and hope and renewal. In Jesus’ holy and precious name we pray, amen. 

This is the song the Lord put on my heart to share today.

 

 

God’s Not Dead (Like a Lion)
Newsboys

Let love explode and bring the dead to life
A love so bold
To seek a revolution somehow

Let love explode and bring the dead to life
A love so bold
To bring a revolution somehow
Now I’m lost in Your freedom
In this world I’ll overcome

My God’s not dead
He’s surely alive
He’s living on the inside
Roaring like a lion
God’s not dead
He’s surely alive
He’s living on the inside
Roaring like a lion

Roaring, He’s roaring, He’s roaring like a lion

Let hope arise and make the darkness hide
My faith is dead I need resurrection somehow
Now I’m lost in Your freedom
In this world I’ll overcome

My God’s not dead
He’s surely alive
He’s living on the inside
Roaring like a lion
God’s not dead
He’s surely alive
He’s living on the inside
Roaring like a lion

Roaring, He’s roaring, He’s roaring like a lion
He’s roaring, He’s roaring

Let heaven roar and fire fall
Come shake the ground
With the sound of revival
Let heaven roar and fire fall
Come shake the ground
With the sound of revival
Let heaven roar (Let heaven roar) and fire fall
Come shake the ground
With the sound of revival

He’s living on the inside
Roaring like a lion
God’s not dead
He’s surely alive
He’s living on the inside
Roaring like a lion
God’s not dead
He’s surely alive
He’s living on the inside
Roaring like a lion
God’s not dead
He’s surely alive
He’s living on the inside
Roaring like a lion

He’s roaring, He’s roaring, He’s roaring like a lion
He’s roaring, He’s roaring, He’s roaring like a lion (Roaring like a lion)

 

 

 

The Saturday Song – Move (Keep Walkin’)

Posted on by Dorci

There are days, months, years, when I feel like I’ve been on a 1000-mile march, uphill, carrying 500 pounds on my back.  Maybe the apostle Paul knew that feeling, too, and guessed Timothy might also, and why Paul wrote to him: 

“You therefore must endure hardship as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. No one engaged in warfare entangles himself with the affairs of this life, that he may please Him who enlisted him as a soldier.” 2 Timothy 2:3-4

That word “good” means beautiful, honest, worthy, valuable, virtuous (for appearance or use.)

Be sure we’re in a war, and maybe now more than ever. But we don’t walk alone. God is with us, strengthening us, empowering us, enabling us to finish in victory.  

So keep walking.  And look up. Cause things may seem bleak right now, but it ain’t over yet. (Spoiler Alert – God wins, and if we’re with Him, so do we.)

 

 

Heavenly Father, help us keep moving and to endure the hardship we encounter in this life, not as those who is endure alone or needlessly, but as a people who, in Christ Jesus, oppose your enemy who prowls around looking for someone to devour, and to be witnesses of your great grace and mercy and proclaimers of the power of the gospel to save.  In Jesus’ name we pray, amen. 

 

Gathering Together in His Name

Posted on by Dorci


“Truly I tell you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. Again, truly I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything they ask for, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven. For where two or three gather in my name, there am I will them.”  Matthew 18:18-20

Jesus gave His disciples this hope and confidence to prepare them to go out into the world and face trials and tribulations far above anything they had the power or understanding to deal with.

No matter what our views about all that’s taking place in our country, I think we can all agree that our nation is in serious trouble, far beyond our power to sort it out ourselves. 

We need the LORD.  

So today I want to share with you a few prayer events that are coming up where we can join with our brothers and sisters in Christ to seek the Lord and His mercy for forgiveness, repentance, healing, and revival. 

First, an event called The Return, lead by Messianic Jewish Rabbi and pastor Jonathan Cahn. A time for private prayer will be from September 18-28, which coincides with the dates for the Biblical Feast of Trumpets and ending with the Day of Atonement.

And on Saturday, September 26 there will be a gathering of God’s people at the National Mall, or wherever you are, praying for the return to God’s presence to seek repentance and healing. The website can be found here, and this is Pastor Cahn’s video explaining the event:


Also on Saturday, September 26, Franklin Graham will be leading a prayer march beginning at the Lincoln Memorial, across the National Mall, and ending in front of the U.S. Capitol.  The website and video for this corporate time of prayer is here.

And one week later, on Saturday, October 3, Anne Graham Lotz will be giving a special message on Effective Prayer for Such a Time as This. You can find the link to this streaming event here.

I believe this will be a powerful time of gathering together in person and in spirit to go before the Lord Almighty, letting our prayers rise to Him, and beseeching Him to do what only He can do. 

***

Dear Heavenly Father, we come before you and pray that you would reveal anything in us that would keep our prayers from being effective. Please forgive us for our sins, and prepare our hearts to enter into this time of prayer, to be in agreement with our brothers and sisters for the repentance, healing, and revival of the people of this country, and throughout the world.

We pray your Holy Spirit will fill these leaders with the humility and wisdom they need in order to lead us in prayer according to your will. We trust you will be in the midst of us and will do a powerful work in our own hearts and in the hearts of many who will come to know you as their own Lord and Savior.

May you have mercy on us, Lord, and may you, by your great and unending love, continually fill us with your power and boldness to keep proclaiming the Name of Jesus Christ as the only Name by which we can be saved. In His precious and holy name we pray, amen. 

 
“If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.”
2 Chronicles 7:14

Deep Calls to Deep

Posted on by Dorci

“Deep calls to deep
in the roar of your waterfalls;
All your waves and breakers
Have swept over me.”
Psalm 42:7

 

 

There is something about an 80 foot swell that can get our attention. That’s how it can feel when the trials of life come over us, one, after another, after another.  We feel almost as if we could drown under the weight of it, so we stop, lift up our hands, and call on the Lord to save us.

He calls to us in the trial, and from the depths, we call back. Spirit calls to spirit, deep calls to deep. 

On this National Day of Prayer, let’s lift up our hands to worship in spirit and in truth. Let’s come boldly before the throne, lay our hearts bare, and call to Him to is able.

Let’s let the Holy Spirit speak to our hearts, reveal our sins for confession, and intercede on behalf of our country, our leaders, our neighbors, our business owners, our pastors, our brothers and sisters in the Lord, and for those who are still lost. 

Let’s stop, and hear the calling of the Lord in the trial, in the waves of suffering, and let Him have His glorious way in and through us. 

 

Oh Heavenly Father, please forgive us for wandering so far from you and for our many sins. Thank you for sending your Son to the cross in our place to take the judgment we deserve. 

Lord, we lift up our country, and every country, and pray for your mercy. We pray you would bind the enemy, that you would allow spiritual eyes to be opened, repentance of sin granted, and that multitudes would believe on your Son as Lord and Savior for the conversion of their souls. 

We pray for revival, for salvation and the filling and power of your Holy Spirit, in and out of the church. We pray for your wisdom for our leaders, we pray for healing from this virus that has caused loss of life, inundated the healthcare system, and shut down the livelihood for so many.

We pray you would comfort those who are grieving, heal those who are sick, strengthen those who are working so hard, provide for those who are out of work, and we pray for every business to be open and fully functioning again.

We pray you would strengthen and speak through our pastors. We pray we would be mindful to be witnesses and examples of your love wherever we go, that the world would know we are your disciples by our love for one another, and that love would draw people who are thirsty for love to your fountain of grace.

We pray our trials are never wasted, Lord, and that your will is done through it all. In the midst of all the chaos that can so easily grab our attention, help us to focus on you and to be about your business, functioning in the gifts you’ve given each of us for the benefit of the Body and to bring you glory. In Jesus’ holy and precious name we pray, amen.

There Is a River

Posted on by Dorci

“God is our refuge and strength,
    an ever-present help in trouble.
Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way
    and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea,
though its waters roar and foam
    and the mountains quake with their surging.
                                                                                    Selah

There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God,
    the holy place where the Most High dwells.

He says, ‘Be still, and know that I am God;
    I will be exalted among the nations,
    I will be exalted in the earth.’
                                                                                    Selah”

Psalm 46:1-3, 4, 10

No matter what we face, God is our refuge and strength. I love that the Hebrew word for God used here is Elohiym, the plural form of God.  God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.  

The entirety of His character – His goodness, His faithfulness, His ever-presence, and more than I could ever list here – is available to us in times of trouble. 

The streams of His grace and love and peace continually and eternally flow through the kingdom of God and sustain us.

“Be still…

Stop

and know…

Acknowledge

that I am Elohiym…”

that He is the I Am, the All-Encompassing, All-Sufficient, Triune God. 

Selah.

Selah indicates a pause in the music. In the entire Psalm, there are 3 selahs.

Yes, they may be instructions for the music, instructions for the singers, but I believe they’re also instructions for us.  

Pause…   and contemplate what’s been said. 

Pause…   and let it take hold inside the heart and mind. 

Pause…   and believe. 

This is a song a dear friend introduced me to years ago, and it never fails to bring tears to my eyes. The precious Holy Spirit of our God is a joyful, quenching constant for every need we will ever have.  We can go to the river and be satisfied.  

 

 

There Is a River
by Rita Springer

 

There is a river whose streams make glad the city of our God (repeat)
And I will rejoice
I will rejoice
And be glad
There is a fountain full of grace and it flows from Emanual’s veins
It came and it healed me
It came and refreshed me
It came and it washed my sins away!
And I will rejoice
I will rejoice
And be glad
I rejoice in the Lord always
And again I say I will rejoice!
Rejoice in the Lord always
And again I say rejoice.

Don’t Give Up!

Posted on by Dorci

A lot of Christians have given up on church.  Many have been hurt by the church; many feel like it’s a waste of time, that they’re not learning anything anyway; and many believe their faith is strictly between them and God so they don’t need church.

I get it.  I get all of those. 

And I’ve read a lot of reasons why we should go to church.

But I want to tell you why we must go. Why we need to go.

When I read in Isaiah 53 that the Messiah, the Christ, the Savior of the world, Jesus, is “despised and rejected by men, A Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief,” I understand. Granted, to a far lesser degree, but I understand living a life like that. I fully understand living a life of rejection and sorrow, and I understand grief being a very close acquaintance.

By the time I came to know Jesus as my Savior when I was 26, I had already lived a lifetime, a very long and painful one. I knew Grief better than anything else, including love. 

And for the next 14 years after I was saved and going to church, I knew God loved me, but God knew much of that was head knowledge. He knew Grief was still a closer acquaintance. And, oddly enough, He was about to increase the pain.

And yes, I know that doesn’t sound very appealing, but His plan was something far greater than I could have anticipated.

So for the next 15 years, through sickness and so many things that can come with it, I became even more acquainted with Grief, yet, at the same time more acquainted with the God of love in that grief.

Because that description of the Savior in Isaiah is not of a God in the heavens, far-removed or oblivious to our human suffering. He is not a God who is unfeeling or detached. In fact, the letter to the Hebrews tells us that “we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin.”  (Hebrews 4:15)

This is a God-Man who understands my pain.

He is a God who is “near to those who have a broken heart, and saves such as have a contrite spirit.”  (Psalm 34:18)

That word contrite means “crushed (literally powder, or figuratively contrite): – contrite, destruction.” And the root word of contrite is daka which means “to crumble; to bruise, to beat to pieces, break in pieces, destroy, humble, oppress, smite.”

Brokenhearted. Reduced to powder. Crumbled, bruised, beaten to pieces.  Yeah, I understand that.  Maybe you do, too. But in my brokenness God was closer to me than I could have imagined. He was faithful to not only keep my faith in tact, but to grow it.

Still, during this 15 year period, being attacked from within and without, with no understandable cause or reason, led me to desperately need to feel God’s love. I needed it to move that impossibly long distance from my head to my heart.  I needed it to become my beloved companion in place of the old acquaintance.

Since salvation I’d settled for the belief that love was as close to me as it would ever get, and knowing Christ as my Savior, it was indeed closer than it ever was before. I had been content with the head knowledge, but the increased pain and suffering meant the head knowledge wasn’t enough anymore. I needed to feel God’s love.

So I began to pray just that – that God would let me feel His love. It wasn’t just a desire or a hope, but a need.  I needed His love to survive.  I needed Love to knock grief to the ground and live with me as my constant, Beloved Companion. 

I prayed and prayed that prayer over the course of several months. 

And gradually God began to lay on my heart “…if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed.” (John 8:36)  More and more those words filled my mind, and honestly, I didn’t connect them with my prayer at all.  I believed God was going to do something, but I thought maybe it had to do with a family member or a friend.

During this same time I started going to a women’s Bible study at our church.  I hadn’t been to one in years and I was excited to connect with women over the study of God’s Word again. 

After every Bible study I’d drive home and catch myself smiling and full of joy.  These women were so kind, so loving and accepting, and they had no idea they were being used by God to answer my prayers.  They just loved Jesus and because of that, they loved me. 

And then one day, as I stood there talking and waiting for the study to start, two of the women walked in with bunch of flowers for my birthday, and the group sang Happy Birthday.  That was the day grief (and his buddies rejection and sorrow) took a backseat to Love.  

God did a miraculous work of forgiveness in my heart, and suddenly the past was in the past. Both my mind and my heart were renewed, and I felt like a new, new creation.

Jesus used those precious women to show me how much He loved me, and bring to life in my heart those words “…if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed.”  And so I was.

That is why the letter to the Hebrews goes on to exhort all of us “And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another-and all the more as you see the Day approaching.”  (Hebrews 10:24-25)

God has built into us a need to gather together with other believers to meet spiritual needs. That’s the way He’s chosen to operate in and through our lives. But when we don’t fulfill that need in the highest, God-given way, we find a million other counterfeit ways of trying to fill that need to meet together as friends, even as friends close enough to consider themselves family – social media, causes, clubs, bars, stadiums, gangs. But they will always leave us unsatisfied and unfulfilled.

We need each other. But we need to feed our souls and our faith, not just our flesh. We need a setting with other Jesus-loving, Spirit-filled believers, our family in the faith, to love us (and us, them), to encourage one another in our daily walks with Christ, to keep us focused and moving into an even deeper walk with Him, the Savior of our souls, the one who understands our pain, and is there again and again to rescue us, to heal us, even more than we can imagine. And with our ever-renewing hearts, glorify Him with the good works He’s prepared for us to do. And the darker it gets out there, the more we need it. 

Now, does that mean my life is perfect? No. Grief doesn’t like to be knocked down, and when it’s found a comfy place to live for a long time it doesn’t give up that place easily (and satan doesn’t like it a whole lot either).

It tries to get up, again and again, and that’s why I need to keep going back, to be surrounded by my brothers and sisters in Christ, and encourage one another in love so we can then take that love on the road with good deeds, like my Jesus-loving friends did. Their love and good deeds in Christ changed a life, glorifying Him, and that’s what this life is all about.

And yes, I know it’s not always easy to find a Spirit-filled, Bible-believing/teaching church. Political correctness and a desire to be liked, among other things, don’t stop at the front door of every church.

Just pray. God knows your heart and He will answer your prayers for a body of believers who worship in Spirit and in Truth, a body that will accept you in the love of Christ.

Don’t give up.  We need you. 

* * *

Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for the body of Christ, the family you’ve given us where your love and joy can come alive, where we can join hearts and worship you in spirit and in truth. I pray for each person reading this. For those who need a good spiritual home, I pray you would lead them to one. I pray you would remove any fears, grant forgiveness for past pains, and help them to step out in faith. For those who have one, I pray you would use them in the church homes you’ve placed them to show your love in tangible, Christ-honoring ways. For churches who may be a little stuffy and not used to acts of love, oh Lord, may you fill them with your Spirit, and lead them to a better way, where giving and receiving your love is as common as breathing. May you bring revival in the Body, and throughout the world.  In Jesus’ holy and precious name I pray, amen. 

Treasure Hunting

Posted on by Dorci

This time of year we start seeing and hearing scripture about the birth of Jesus, and if we’ve been a believer long enough, or even alive long enough, they’re probably all words we’ve heard before…

 “And she brought forth her firstborn Son, and wrapped Him in swaddling cloths, and laid Him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.” Luke 2:7

“Now there were in the same country shepherds living out in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night. And behold, an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were greatly afraid. Then the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which will be to all people.  For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be the sign to you: You will find a Babe wrapped in swaddling cloths, lying in a manger.” Luke 2:8-12

As beautiful as those words are, as amazing and miraculous as those events were and what they still mean for us today, we might start thinking we’ve heard it all before and there’s nothing new to learn. 

But that’s the amazing thing about God’s Word – it is chock full of buried treasure just waiting to be uncovered. 

Rabbi Jason Sobel gives us an amazing jewel that I’d never heard before about Jesus’s birth and the significance of being wrapped in swaddling cloths.

The series Rabbi Sobel refers to – The Chosen – is an amazingly well-done show that portrays the life of Jesus and how He radically changed those who encountered Him. 

I can relate.

Life is hard and I need God’s treasure, the seen and unseen. The treasure left for me in plain sight and the deeper, buried treasure that can only be found by those who are willing to hunker down and dig deep.

More than ever I want to go treasure hunting in the coming year. I want to continue encountering Jesus in new and precious ways so He can continue molding me into the person only He can make me to be.

I hope you come with me as we seek Him and His treasure together.

 

Heavenly Father, thank you for the gift of your Son.  Please lead us in the coming year as we seek to know you on an ever-deepening level. Change us into the men and women you desire us to be, and may we bring you glory as we follow you.  In Jesus’ name, amen.