Living in Southern California, we are usually blessed with amazing weather year-round. In fact, it is not atypical to see children riding their new bicycles on Christmas day in 80-degree temperatures. Well, although Christmas was pretty warm this year, our year-end conditions are proving otherwise. December 30^th saw a cold winter storm blow through, dumping frigid rain on most of us, and snow down to pretty low elevations. The news broadcasts were replete with stories of road closures to avoid because they were impassable regardless of the type of vehicle being driven or the equipment those vehicles may have had.

Those roads to avoid came to mind as I read the last two chapters of Revelation today. Three times, God gives the “weather report” reminding us of what to avoid. Chapter 21 begins with John telling us that he saw “a new heaven and a new earth” (verse 1), in which there was “no need of the sun or of the moon to shine in it,for the gloryof God illuminated it. The Lamb is its light” (verse 23). Furthermore, “the Alpha and the Omega” told John, “He who overcomes shall inherit all things… But the cowardly, unbelieving, abominable, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death” Revelation 21:6-8 (NKJ). John repeats this same warning 19 verses later when he says of the holy city, “Nothing unclean and no one who does shameful things or tells lies will ever go into it. Only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of life will enter the city” Revelation 21:27. Finally, as if to hammer home the point, before the last words of the Revelation are written, the warning comes one more time. “Blessed are those who do His commandments, that they may have the right to the tree of life, and may enter through the gates into the city. But outside are dogs and sorcerers and sexually immoral and murderers and idolaters, and whoever loves and practices a lie” Revelation 22:14-15.

So, although the weather in the new heaven and new earth is bright and fair all the time, there are roads to avoid, and if we don’t, we won’t make it into the city. Let’s make 2015 the year we determine to avoid the following:

• Cowardice
• Refusal to believe the truth
• Participation in evil things (the unclean and the shameful)
• Murder
• Sexual sin
• Sorcery
• Worshipping idols
• Lying (the telling of lies and the participation in deceit)

Worship God for being the gracious One who warns of “road closures” to avoid.

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©2014 Sharon Norris Elliott. Feel free to forward this devotion in its entirety, including this copyright line. Leave comments, ask questions, read past devotions, or subscribe to receive these devotions daily in your e-mail at www.sanewriter.wordpress.com. Also, periodically check in at www.LifeThatMatters.net to see what’s going on in the ministry.

Pick up a copy of Sharon’s newest release,

Why I Get Into Trouble

Here’s the link to our eStore: https://www.createspace.com/5131814

Also still available:

Boomerangs to Arrows: A Godly Guide for Launching Young Adult Children

available from Judson Press (http://www.judsonpress.com/product.cfm?product_id=17387),

Video link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f2JH_gbinMk

Power Suit: The Armor of God Fit for the Feminine Frame

from New Hope Publishers (http://www.newhopedigital.com/2010/08/power-suit/)

Some years back, I had a Facebook debate with an atheist about the reality of the Biblical concepts I hold dear. Of course, he would not accept any proof I used from the Bible because he began with the premise that the Bible did not contain truth. When confronted with the fact that sources outside of the Bible proved its accuracy, he either had a comeback or would divert to a different point. Finally, I rested on the what-if-you’re-right argument. It goes like this:

• What if you’re right and the Bible, Jesus, and God are all one incredible hoax? What will happen to us when we die? Either we will stop existing altogether, or we get another chance at life by being able to come back in another form. I can actually live with both options. If I stop existing, I have lived a wonderfully deluded life that, for reasons beyond my comprehension, has seen relief from sorrow, healing from sickness, unexplainable joy when things go bad, and hope in seemingly hopeless situations. If I come back to live again, I will have a correct understanding next time around.
• But what if I’m right? What if the Bible, Jesus, God, and all the rest of Bible are true? What will happen to us when we die? Either we will go to heaven or hell. I can live with this option too because my name is written in the Lamb’s Book of Life and I am going to heaven. You, on the other hand, have been terribly deluded into believing the Bible is not true. Since you’ve never accepted Christ as your Savior, your name is not written in the Book, and upon the moment of your death, your soul will separate from your body and begin an existence of eternal torment in hell (a place you learn all about in the book you believe is not true).
• I win with both options. Do you feel lucky?

Although my atheist debater pooh-poohed this argument, I logged out of the conversation and did not enter into it any more. The Bible is true whether people believe it or not. One can argue that gravity does not exist, but if he jumps from a 20-story building without a parachute or battery pack, he will find the truth of gravity by slamming into the ground despite his disbelief. In the same way, one can argue that God and the Bible aren’t true, but if he dies without the parachute or battery pack of the saving blood of Christ applied, he will find the truth of the Bible by slamming into hell despite his disbelief.

John the Revelator told us what he plainly saw. “And I saw a great white throne and the one sitting on it… I saw the dead, both great and small, standing before God’s throne. And the books were opened, including the Book of Life. And the dead were judged according to what they had done, as recorded in the books. The sea gave up its dead, and death and the grave gave up their dead. And all were judged according to their deeds. Then death and the grave were thrown into the lake of fire. This lake of fire is the second death. And anyone whose name was not found recorded in the Book of Life was thrown into the lake of fire” Revelation 20:11-15 (NLT).

I’m excited today to know that my name is written in the Book of Life. How about you? If you’re not sure, contact me at www.LifeThatMatters.net and let’s talk about how you can know for sure. Worship God today for being the author of the Bible and writer of the list of names in the Book of Life.

____________________________

©2014 Sharon Norris Elliott. Feel free to forward this devotion in its entirety, including this copyright line. Leave comments, ask questions, read past devotions, or subscribe to receive these devotions daily in your e-mail at www.sanewriter.wordpress.com. Also, periodically check in at www.LifeThatMatters.net to see what’s going on in the ministry.

Pick up a copy of Sharon’s newest release,

Why I Get Into Trouble

Here’s the link to our eStore: https://www.createspace.com/5131814

Also still available:

Boomerangs to Arrows: A Godly Guide for Launching Young Adult Children

available from Judson Press (http://www.judsonpress.com/product.cfm?product_id=17387),

Video link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f2JH_gbinMk

Power Suit: The Armor of God Fit for the Feminine Frame

from New Hope Publishers (http://www.newhopedigital.com/2010/08/power-suit/)

At the end of every year, I sit and take inventory of my life. Did last year turn out as I expected? How have I changed, grown, and progressed? Is anything significantly different because I touched it? Did my life make a meaningful difference in anyone else’s? Did anything or anyone have a memorable impact on my life? What did I learn from the Lord? Did I do anything that was Kingdom worthy? Both great and disappointing things happened in my life last year. A passage in the book of Haggai really made me start thinking about my answers to the questions above and why my year unfolded as it did. Haggai 1:6-11 and 13; and 2:4-5 and 9 are poignant.

• “You have sown much, and bring in little; You eat, but do not have enough; You drink, but you are not filled with drink; You clothe yourselves, but no one is warm; And he who earns wages, Earns wages to put into a bag with holes.”
• Thus says the Lord of hosts: “Consider your ways! Go up to the mountains and bring wood and build the temple, that I may take pleasure in it and be glorified,” says the Lord. “You looked for much, but indeed it came to little; and when you brought it home, I blew it away. Why?” says the Lord of hosts. “Because of My house that is in ruins, while every one of you runs to his own house. Therefore the heavens above you withhold the dew, and the earth withholds its fruit. For I called for a drought on the land and the mountains, on the grain and the new wine and the oil, on whatever the ground brings forth, on men and livestock, and on all the labor of your hands.”
• Then Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, and Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, with all the remnant of the people, obeyed the voice of the Lord their God, and the words of Haggai the prophet, as the Lord their God had sent him; and the people feared the presence of the Lord… Then Haggai, the Lord’s messenger, spoke the Lord’s message to the people, saying, “I am with you, says the Lord…”
• Yet now be strong, Zerubbabel,’ says the Lord; ‘and be strong, Joshua, son of Jehozadak, the high priest; and be strong, all you people of the land,’ says the Lord, ‘and work; for I am with you,’ says the Lord of hosts. ‘According to the word that I covenanted with you when you came out of Egypt, so My Spirit remains among you; do not fear!’… ‘The glory of this latter temple shall be greater than the former,’ says the Lord of hosts. ‘And in this place I will give peace,’ says the Lord of hosts.”

Perhaps last year did not produce all we had hoped it would yield. It could have been because we were more about our own business than God’s. Like Jesus when He was found in the temple at twelve years of age, let us desire to be about our Father’s business. Let us build His house first, for don’t we know that our bodies are His temple? (See I Corinthians 6:19-20.) With our whole body, mind, and spirit, we must seek after Him and obey His voice. The great news is that regardless of what didn’t happen last year, or how we may have blown opportunities, God still says to us as He said through Haggai, “I am with you.” But He doesn’t stop there. God goes on to say that as I just keep working and obeying Him, I can be assured that “the glory of this latter temple shall be greater than the former, and in this place [He] will give peace.” Only greater things are ahead! “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, and no mind has imagined what God has prepared for those who love him” First Corinthians 2:9 (NLT). That’s good news! So my verse for the new year is Haggai 2:4 which says, “‘Yet now be strong… and work, for I am with you’ says the Lord of hosts”, making my word for the year “work.” Worship God today for being the Revealer of New Horizons. ____________________________ ©2014 Sharon Norris Elliott. Feel free to forward this devotion in its entirety, including this copyright line. Leave comments, ask questions, read past devotions, or subscribe to receive these devotions daily in your e-mail at www.sanewriter.wordpress.com. Also, periodically check in at www.LifeThatMatters.net to see what’s going on in the ministry.

Pick up a copy of Sharon’s newest release,

Why I Get Into Trouble

Here’s the link to our eStore: https://www.createspace.com/5131814

Also still available:

Boomerangs to Arrows: A Godly Guide for Launching Young Adult Children

available from Judson Press (http://www.judsonpress.com/product.cfm?product_id=17387),

Video link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f2JH_gbinMk

Power Suit: The Armor of God Fit for the Feminine Frame

from New Hope Publishers (http://www.newhopedigital.com/2010/08/power-suit/)

On October 4, 2014, I had the unparalleled privilege to witness the birth of my first grandson, Dallas Andrew. He was born in a large, beautiful, and well-equipped labor-delivery-recovery (LDR) room in the lovely, new wing of a New Orleans hospital that was not far from his parents’ home. Somewhere between 6 – 10 nurses assisted during the 41 hours of labor, and the anesthesiologist and doctor were there immediately upon every need. Dallas made his debut into the world at exactly 1:00pm. Everything he and his mom required was readily available. The room was the perfect birthplace.

The Bible speaks of another birthplace that at first may not seem like such a perfect location. First of all, it was a little place. Micah 5:2 says, “But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, Though you are little among the thousands of Judah, Yet out of you shall come forth to Me The One to be Ruler in Israel, Whose goings forth are from of old, from everlasting” (NKJ). Second, it was out of the way. The expectant couple had to travel a long way during the mother’s ninth month to reach it. “Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David” Luke 2:4. Third, it was unprepared. Luke 2:7 tells us that the poor expectant mother “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.” Finally, it was not private. Shepherds received a message to go search for the newborn and Luke 2:15-16 records their reaction. “‘Let us now go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has come to pass, which the Lord has made known to us.’ And they came with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the Babe lying in a manger.”

While the probable discomfort of Jesus’ birth makes Dallas’ birth look like a vacation to the Bahamas, at second glance, Jesus’ birthplace was more perfect than it seemed. The small place, Bethlehem, the house of bread, corresponds to one of His own self-identifications. In John 6:35, He says of Himself, “I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger.” The out of the way location matches with the fact that we must seek Him to find Him (see Acts 17:27). The unprepared setting speaks to the condition of our hearts when Christ wants to come in. We can’t do anything to get ourselves right or ready, but He arrives anyway, (much like Dallas did) ready to take up residence and run the show. The “not private” nature of the birthplace speaks to our excitement and responsibility, like that of the shepherds, to spread the word about the arrival of the Lamb, the King, and the Savior, Jesus the Christ, who is not only present in our lives, but who is available to be present in theirs. Besides, as John the Baptist declared in John 1:29, where else should the “Lamb of God” be born but in a barn?

Is your heart a Bethlehem? It is the perfect birthplace for the Savior to be born in you either anew or afresh. Determine to allow Him to really live in your life today. Worship God this Christmas and see Him today as the new born King.

____________________________

©2014 Sharon Norris Elliott. Feel free to forward this devotion in its entirety, including this copyright line. Leave comments, ask questions, read past devotions, or subscribe to receive these devotions daily in your e-mail at www.sanewriter.wordpress.com. Also, periodically check in at www.LifeThatMatters.net to see what’s going on in the ministry.

Pick up a copy of Sharon’s newest release,

Why I Get Into Trouble

Here’s the link to our eStore: https://www.createspace.com/5131814

Also still available:

Boomerangs to Arrows: A Godly Guide for Launching Young Adult Children

available from Judson Press (http://www.judsonpress.com/product.cfm?product_id=17387),

Video link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f2JH_gbinMk

Power Suit: The Armor of God Fit for the Feminine Frame

from New Hope Publishers (http://www.newhopedigital.com/2010/08/power-suit/)