Why a Rainbow?

I do set my bow in the clouds and it shall be for a token of a covenant between me and the earth. Genesis 9:13

After Noah came out of the ark the first things he did was to offer a sacrifice and to worship God. In response God made a covenant promise and gave Noah the rainbow as a visible sign of His invisible promise. What strikes me is that for Noah to see God’s special sign, he had to respond immediately. Rainbows do not sit around waiting to be seen. Because rainbows appear and then disappear in a single minute we need Nosh needed to put down everything he was doing to see it. For us to see what God is up to in our life we must do the same. If we have asked God for an answer, He just might show up with a rainbow. Are you ready to drop everything you are doing to put your focus on Him? To see the beauty of the rainbow we must look up when God chooses to send it. To see the visible sign of the invisible promise of God we must be ready at a moment’s notice. The most beautiful rainbows come and go at their appointed times not when we can work them into His schedule!

Grace to Help

In the old testament a man named Jacob had a dream in which he saw a staircase leading from earth to heaven with God standing at the top of the stairs. Jacob was in the desert and on the run because his brother was plotting to kill him. Though he could have returned home and asked his father for protection he did not because his own deception and lies had estranged him from his dad. But there in the darkness of the wilderness he discovered that God still had a plan for him.

If we have been born again God also has a plan for us. There will always be a staircase of grace which our loving heavenly Father has made for us. We do not need to climb the stairs to His door like strangers showing up for handouts. God who did not even spare the life of His own Son in order to make us His own wants to bless us today. He looks forward in eager anticipation to our arrival. There grace and provision for our needs is waiting. Why should we hold back? What need is so urgently pressing that we hurry out our door without Him? All we will ever need is there in His presence at the very top of the stairs!

Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. Hebrews 4:16 NKJV

The Value of a Day

When we want to know the worth of a diamond we take it to a jeweler who takes his magnifying glass and looks at the color, counts the facets and so forth. If we need to sell a property we first call an appraiser who comes and looks carefully at it inside and out to ascertain its market value. While our practice is to value a thing according to its appearance God sees entirely differently. And a poor widow came and put in two small copper coins, which make a penny. And he called his disciples to him and said to them, “Truly, I say to you, this poor widow has put in more than all those who are contributing to the offering box. Mark 12:42-43 Consider the story of the widow who gave her two mites. The disciples were quite surprised when Jesus told them that she had given more than all the others. They had clearly seen with their own eyes the two tiny copper coins fall from her hand into the offering box. But what they had seen was nothing in comparison to what Jesus saw of the inner beauty of her love, sacrifice and faith. If we wish to walk with the invisible God we will discover that nothing in this life is as it appears to us. God takes our actions and puts them under the magnifying glass of heaven. He weighs our decisions and appraises them according to their eternal market value. This is the year God has put into our hands. It won’t matter if we give a dollar or a million, what will count with Jesus is the weight of love measured on His scales in heaven. Right now we have an amazing opportunity. God is watching our hearts. What by our invisible faith, will we sacrifice to God today?