Posts Categorized: devotional

What is in Your Hands?: Opening our hands to God’s great gifts

Posted November 20, 2014 | Karisa Moore

What is in your hands? A common question from parents, seeing their children clenching a object tightly in a effort to hide it. As I grieve I have to be careful not to hold on to tightly to my children, my husband, or objects of remembrance.

We are headed into seasons Jonathan has always been an intricate part of. He loved Christmas! Before Daniel and Natalie were on the scene he was the one getting all the adults up to come down for presents. In recent years …he has helped me paint a football field in the yard as part of Daniel’s present. We would come out after lunch Christmas day and play a game.

So today I reveal to my heavenly father what is in my hands. I am holding so tightly to the fact that Jonathan should be here that I’m missing out on creating new memories with Daniel and Natalie. I open my hands to the new gifts God wants to bring to my family this year.

Today we start a new Christmas tradition. Can’t tell you, its a surprise! Just know that it will be filled with love, joy, and peace, especially wrapped for you! What are you holding on to this Thanksgiving and Christmas? Can we open our hands and allow God to give us far greater than anything we hold tightly to?

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Posted November 18, 2014 | Karisa Moore

Isaiah 55:10:9-11 …9″For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways And My thoughts than your thoughts. 10″For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven, And do not return there without watering the earth And making it bear and sprout, And furnishing seed to the sower and bread to the eater; 11So will My word be which goes forth from My mouth; It will not return to Me empty, Without accomplishing what I desire, And without succeeding in the matter for which I sent it.…

You are as unique as each delicate snowflake that adorns our morning. The Lord will accomplish all that he has in mind for us!

I am struck by the amazing creative provision in all we experience each day. Our minds, our hearts, the wonder of snow laced trees. God has a storehouse that we can never come to the end of.

He also creates for our pleasure! From six to ten my family lived just outside of Chicago. Snow was our world! We bundled into snow suits and spent the day sledding, building forts, and amazing snowball fights.

Rather than starting your day, as I have, groaning at the wet frozen stuff that makes commutes a bit longer, and ensures a wet house, why not remember that God provides. What creative ways has God provided for you today or as a stone of remembrance from your past?

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Just The Right Words: Learning to Tame the Tongue

Posted November 5, 2014 | Karisa Moore

Turn the Page: James 3:7All kinds of animals, birds, reptiles and sea creatures are being tamed and have been tamed by mankind, 8but no human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison.

9With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse human beings, who have been made in God’s likeness. 10Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing.

Have you ever had guests come to the door and greeted them with the most pleasant of words when… moments earlier you were screaming at your kids? Or gossiping with a neighbor about someone that you don’t like and when the person shows up you are suddenly so happy to see them?

I confess to you that I have had these moments. I don’t like this sinful part of me! Scripture calls the tongue a rudder, directing the rest of our body. And Paul declares that I can’t tame it! “It is a restless evil filled with deadly poison.” (vs. 8) So what hope is there for us if we cannot tame our tongues?

Paul states: 17But the wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure; then peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere. 18Peacemakers who sow in peace reap a harvest of righteousness.

Just like the disciples went from using their tongue unwisely to using them for good, we can become wise with our tongues. The disciples spent three years hanging out with the God of the universe who chose to limit himself to be with us! What flowed out of the heart of Jesus was what Paul is describing in verse 17 and 18. “For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of. (Luke 6:45) Controlling the tongue does not mean that you have to stop talking; it simply means that your tongue is directed by your Christ developing character. Wisdom is gained by focusing on what is pure, loving peace, being considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere. So at this moment I take inventory of what is in my heart and I spend time with Jesus allowing him to fill me up with his love, grace, and mercy. Only Christ can tame our tongues by filling our hearts with his love for humanity.

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Questions and Doubts

Posted October 29, 2014 | Karisa Moore

Luke 7:20 And when the men had come to him, they said, “John the Baptist has sent us to you, saying, ‘Are you the one who is to come, or shall we look for another?’”

Yesterday was a particularly rough day for Daniel at home and at school. As we began trying to dig past the bad behaviors to what was going on in his heart Daniel started blurting out a series of doubts and deep questions. The same questions and doubts I still struggle with. If Jesus took all our sins away why do we still sin? If I love Jesus why can’t I seem to do good? If you and the adults in my life love me, why do you punish me. If Jesus loved Jonathan, why did Jonathan die? He concluded, “It would be easier to obey, if Jesus was here and I could see him.”

John who had been preparing the way for Jesus to come asked “Are you the one, or should we expect someone else?” He’s sitting in prison, awaiting execution because the wife of Herod wants John dead. It would be a natural question for someone who has spent his entire life preparing for Jesus. At its core, if I obey God, why am I facing death?

Many of us have these very same questions. We wonder why do bad things continue to plague us, we wonder if God and those around us really love us. If you struggle with depression, you wonder why living is so hard. I struggle every day with why Jonathan took his own life. I see it as so preventable and sometimes I too am overwhelmed by my questions and doubts. So what hope is there when we have so many doubts and questions?

Luke21-3 In that hour he healed many people of diseases and plagues and evil spirits, and on many who were blind he bestowed sight. 22And he answered them, “Go and tell John what you have seen and heard: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, the poor have good news preached to them. 23And blessed is the one who is not offended by me.” John the Baptist, took that hope and did not give in to his doubts as he faced death. Even if that path leads through dark places like Jonathan’s death, I still see him laying a foundation for me to offer healing and hope to others who are grieving. Am I going to be offended by who Jesus is? He is patient with my questions and doubts. Do not lose heart Daniel, do not lose heart dear reader!

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