Written by Juliet Constantine, these devotionals share thoughts and blessings from on high to give you encouragement, wisdom, and strength to face life's many challenges. Juliet has authored two sets of devotionals: "At His Feet" and "Finding Jesus In The Scriptures". Select from all the devotionals below or choose a topic from the menus.
We run the risk of our eyes being blinded and our hearts hardened when we refuse to believe God’s words. We are admonished that we should “Believe in the LORD your God; so shall ye be established. Believe His prophets; so shall ye prosper.” (2 Chronicles 20:20) When we refuse to believe God’s words, our behavior is comparable to Cain’s, Pharaoh’s, and all examples listed in the Bible. When we believe, our actions will ‘fall in line’. True belief is followed by acceptance and change. We will order our lives after God’s words.
am reminded of other instances when persons from foreign lands came to God’s people desiring to learn more about Him but were deprived. King Hezekiah had visitors from Babylon. Instead of showing them the God of Heaven, who delivered him from his enemies, he showed them the riches of Israel. Perhaps in a bragging attitude, he showed them everything in his house. He got the opportunity to introduce God to these people; but instead, he showed them material wealth.
No matter what your situation may be, our Jesus who resurrected Lazarus, will bring resurrection power to any problem in our life. We can take back our life from the enemy and share our testimonies wherever we go. Jesus will give you the strength to be His true witness. Whatever you’re going through, you are His witness. Lessons learned are not to be kept – they are to be shared. Witnessing will open the way for others to come see Jesus. You are a witness of His goodness. Be a faithful witness.
He wanted them to love him, to be identified with them. Instead, he felt like an outsider as his brothers’ hatred and anger kindled against him. The pent up anger and hatred culminated in an event which will forever be retold as long as life lasts. He cried as the carriage took him farther and farther away from his homeland, away from his brothers and yes, away from his father who loved him. “How could God allow this to happen?” he must have thought, “I did nothing wrong.”
Jesus had worked among them for three years, and still many hearts did not believe. Raising Lazarus from the dead wasn’t the only time Jesus raised someone from the dead. He had raised the widow’s son, didn’t He? Yet, it’s not recorded that the Jews sought proof of this miracle. Jesus’ work was littered with many evidences of whom He said He was; but still, many did not believe. Would seeing Lazarus awaken their belief in Jesus? Well, it did for some.
At Jesus’ going away supper, while others dined and conversed with Him, Mary, out of sheer gratitude, felt a compulsion to anoint Jesus. So she anointed His feet using a very expensive ointment, and her hair was the towel. It was nothing strange to anoint dead bodies, but it was a strange sight to behold the anointment of a living person. Some thought it was a sexual advancement and were very critical of her, others thought that she broke protocol and was being disrespectful. It would seem that no one, except Jesus, was grateful for what she did.
It’s one thing to have a death threat hanging over your head by the government or anyone else. But a death threat from within the body of believers is frightening. Such was Lazarus’ experience. He was the next best choice since he was responsible for many Jews believing in Jesus. In Jamaican Creole we say: “If yu kian catch quako yu catch im shut”, meaning if you are unable to get to the person you need, you will take the next best. Since Jesus was proving to be so ‘slippery’ to their grasp, they would take Lazarus instead and make him a public example of what will happen to all who believe in Jesus. Imagine that, the leaders of the Church, who are appointed to be the intercessors between God and man on Earth, planning to murder?
The first book of Samuel, the twenty-fifth chapter, recorded the death of Samuel the Lord’s prophet. People loved and admired him; now that he was dead, they all felt hopeless since King Saul, their other leader, was considered to be a mad man. Why? He was obsessed with killing the only person who gave him the victory over the Philistines. He spent many days chasing after David, his designated successor, because he wanted him dead.
