Vicki's Wednesday Word

  Isaiah 43:1-2 New Living Translation 43  But now, O Jacob, listen to the Lord who created you.     O Israel, the one who formed you says, “Do not be afraid, for I have ransomed you.     I have called you by name; you are mine. 2  When you go through deep waters, I will be with you. When you go through rivers of difficulty, you will not drown. When you walk through the fire of oppression,    you will not be burned up; the flames will not consume you.” To whom do you address your prayers? I always pray to our “Heavenly Father.” I think of Him as the Creator of all things and all life; the Great I Am. But, in my heart, He will always be my Heavenly Father. It wasn’t that long ago that I began to realize what that really meant. This is what I believe, what my mind knows:   not only did God imagine the complex and incredible world we live in, He dreamt each soul into being. God laid out a path each of us was meant to follow. Then, He set the whole thing in motion, gran

  Timothy 3:12-15    New Living Translation “12 Yes, and everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution. 13 But evil people and impostors will flourish. They will deceive others and will themselves be deceived. 14 But you must remain faithful to the things you have been taught. You know they are true, for you know you can trust those who taught you. 15 You have been taught the holy Scriptures from childhood, and they have given you the wisdom to receive the salvation that comes by trusting in Christ Jesus.” This can be one of the hardest things to comprehend. Why do good people suffer and bad people succeed? I venture the guess that at some point in all our lives, every one of us has had the same thought. It can be maddening when people you know to be unscrupulous get ahead, especially if they have walked over someone you care for to get there. These are the deceivers. Paul says they, too, will be deceived. This whole premise is problematic for us

  2 Corinthians 5:18-6:2 18 And all of this is a gift from God, who brought us back to himself through Christ. And God has given us this task of reconciling people to him. 19 For God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, no longer counting people’s sins against them. And he gave us this wonderful message of reconciliation. 20 So we are Christ’s ambassadors; God is making his appeal through us. We speak for Christ when we plead, “Come back to God!” 21 For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ.6 As God’s partners, we beg you not to accept this marvelous gift of God’s kindness and then ignore it. 2 For God says, “At just the right time, I heard you. On the day of salvation, I helped you.” Indeed, the “right time” is now. Today is the day of salvation.   It is so easy to get wrapped up in the everyday comings and goings of this world. We overlook the most astounding because we are focused on

  John 3:16-21   New Living Translation 16 “For this is how God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. 17 God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through him. 18 “There is no judgment against anyone who believes in him. But anyone who does not believe in him has already been judged for not believing in God’s one and only Son. 19 And the judgment is based on this fact: God’s light came into the world, but people loved the darkness more than the light, for their actions were evil. 20 All who do evil hate the light and refuse to go near it for fear their sins will be exposed. 21 But those who do what is right come to the light so others can see that they are doing what God wants.” Light is amazing when you think about it. Genesis 1:1-4 tells us, “1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 2 The earth was formless and empty, and darkness covered the d