Author Archives: cazehner

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About cazehner

I'm a woman who loves God's Word, the Bible. And I love sharing what it is God reveals to me through his Word. I pray that everything I write is consistent with Scripture, and that everyone who reads this blog will be drawn closer to the Savior. I am praying for you.

All Of Me

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Leviticus 11-14

I was wondering why God instructed that blood be placed on a person’s right ear, thumb, and big toe during a cleansing ceremony. So I Googled it. And what I learned challenges me.

First, the blood of the sacrifice on the ear lobe. It is believed to be a symbol of holy thoughts, which also entails guarding what kinds of things I listen to.

Second, the blood on the thumb represents holy actions. The choices I make every day, from what I put in my mouth to what and who I touch is holy to the Lord. Or should be.

And last, the big toe. It represents my walk with God, my obedience. Following God means not following the world.

Now, this is certainly not an exhaustive study on the subject. It’s a synopsis of the opinions I read on the internet, so I’m not sure how accurate it is. But I am challenged today to apply the blood of Jesus to my thoughts, my actions, and my walk today.

Lord, cleanse all of me. And may I live with the visible signs of your holiness in my thoughts, my actions and obedience to You.

Living What We Believe

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Leviticus 8-11

I recently saw the phrase, “Christian Atheist,” referring to believers who live like God doesn’t exist. I think it can refer to people who believe some, but not all Scripture is true. People who go to church, maybe even preach, who are holding onto sins they refuse to surrender to God. They are Christians who believe God makes exceptions to His rules, and live like they will avoid the consequences spelled out in Scripture.

Nadab and Abihu fit that category. There have been times I have fit that category.

Are you a believer? Is Jesus your Savior? Do you read your Bible, go to church, sing in the choir or teach Sunday School? Then the question is, are you living the truth of what you know? Or are there sins you have yet to surrender to the cross?

James tells us our faith without works is dead. (2:14-26). Faith without living lives that honor God with every choice is as useful as a corpse. Having faith in God yet living like He doesn’t exist is not faith at all. It’s what Christian Atheists are made of.

Dear Christian, if we want to live what we believe, we need to stop right now and confess our sins. All of them. We need to repent, which means turn from those sins, and with the help of the Holy Spirit never repeat them again. It means to surrender to the demands of God as spelled out in His Word, and receive the grace and mercy Jesus died to give us.

Then one step, one choice at a time, we must live to glorify God and not ourselves, to point our loved ones to Jesus as He is revealed in Scripture. We must love our neighbor enough to speak truth, love God enough to stand firm.

It means living like our Holy God really does exist, and to be as serious about sin as He is. It means living what we believe so that others will see Jesus in us and want what we have in Him.

Silence is a Sin

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Leviticus 5-7

If a person sins because he does not speak up when he hears a public charge to testify regarding something he has seen or learned about he will be held responsible. (5:1)

Why do we send missionaries? Because we are responsible to tell what we know. Why do we stand up for life, deny the current belief that gender can be changed, say no to drag queens in public schools, call truth Truth? Because if we don’t, we sin.

And sin is serious. All sin is serious.

It’s easy to say, “Those sinners out there are gonna pay,” until I look in the mirror and see a believer with her mouth closed.

Big Deal

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Exodus 24

Moses, Aaron, Nadab, Abihu, and 70 elders of Israel went to a dinner party hosted by God. (24:9-11) They saw God, which would normally be a death sentence. But God was merciful. They enjoyed dinner with the God of Creation, and lived to tell about it.

Now I would think that having that experience wouldn’t be soon forgotten. I would think it would change a person, cement belief in and result in obedience to this gracious God. Many skeptics say they would believe in God if they could see Him. These guys we read about today not only saw God up close and personal, they spent time with Him up there on that mountain.

I’ve read their story before and, sadly, this encounter with God did not prevent them from later denying Him. I’m sitting here shaking my head and wondering how that could be.

I see it as a warning.

An encounter with God, a mountain-top experience doesn’t necessarily indicate a relationship with Him. We try so hard to manufacture an experience in our worship services. We aim at a mountain-top experience. But is that the same as encouraging and nurturing a relationship with God?

It is not.

All those guys got out of that encounter with God there on the mountain was a good meal. Their bellies were full. Big deal.

We can sit through a rocking worship service, emotions soaring, tear flowing, hands clapping. Our hearts are full. Big deal.

What I see here in Exodus is that you can encounter God and leave as empty and broken as when you came. The missing elements in this story are repentance, submission, commitment, and the first step toward a relationship with the God whose presence they had just enjoyed.

Oh, that our churches would understand the difference. Because it is a big deal.

Listen

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Exodus 4-7

The thing that stood out to me today is that the Israelites did not listen to what God was telling them through Moses because of their circumstances and emotions (6:9). They were discouraged because they were being treated unfairly.

Understandable because Pharaoh really wasn’t being fair. They really were being mistreated and most likely couldn’t see a way out.

But instead of going to God, trusting God, they cut Him off. Instead of being open to hearing His voice, they stopped listening.

Boy, can I relate. I haven’t gone through a fraction of what these Israelites did in Egypt. Yet when faced with my own hardships I’ve been known to give God the cold shoulder. My prayers are fewer. My expressions of love more guarded. My time in His Word is met with silence.

And when I stop listening, I fall deeper and deeper into self-pity and even despair. It’s at those times I’m discouraged, and can’t see a way out.

God, help me – help all of us – to keep the lines of communication open between us and You. I don’t even want to think about all we miss when we allow our circumstances to drown out Your voice. Help us to trust You, and submit ourselves and our circumstances into Your capable hands. Speaking for myself, I don’t want to miss anything You want to say to me.

Take Off Your Sandals

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Exodus 1-4

Moses grew up a prince in the palace of the most powerful king in the world at that time. He most likely had everything a boy could ask for. In fact, the first forty years of Moses’ life was lived in luxury, honor, and privilege. He knew he wouldn’t be king, his stepfather had an older son. But if something should happen to his brother? Maybe.

Think of all the ways God could have saved Israel if Moses had been King of Egypt! If I were writing the story, I think that’s direction I’d take. But it wasn’t until Moses left that life and took on the lowest rung of the career ladder in Egypt… shepherd!… that God called him into action.

In fact, God waited another forty years until the prince in Moses was worked out of him and only a shepherd remained. Then Moses was ready for the task at hand.

How often do we think God can only use the successful, popular, well-spoken extroverts to do great things? That’s not true. In fact often we see those kinds of people rejected by God in favor of the weak and lowly. Think the shepherd boy David. Think the recluse John the Baptist. Think the fishermen, tax collector, disciples. Think Mary Magdalene. Dozens and dozens of outcasts and “sinners” used by God in extraordinary ways.

God delights in using ordinary people like you and me who are willing to take off our sandals and stand on holy ground, to allow God to show His strength in our weakness, His power through us so He is clearly seen.

So whether you are living in a palace or sleeping under the stars with smelly sheep, God can use you. Take off your sandals. Spend time on holy ground. Stop the excuses and submit to the perfect will of God. Moses saw incredible things happen when he did that.

And so will you!

Hold On

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Job 26-31

As Job speaks his last defense to his friends, I can almost feel his pain. He’s at rock bottom, trying to make sense of it all.

He went over and over his life, the choices he’d made to see where he might have gone wrong. He remembers being successful and respected, honored by young and old alike. He remembers opening this home to strangers, feeding the hungry, caring for the needy. He remembers praying to and trusting in God. He remembers choosing right over wrong to the point he wouldn’t even look at another women so he wouldn’t sin against his wife.

He stood by his righteousness. And he was disappointed that God seemed to have turned his back on him. And yet…

Even in the midst of his pain, confusion, and sorrow Job couldn’t let go of hope. By now it was just a thread, but it prevented him from turning his back on God. Job may have felt he was speaking to the back of God’s head, but Job couldn’t let go of the hope that something bigger and greater was going on. He still had trust in God. He just couldn’t let go. Yes, even though he was hanging on by a thread.

When everything around me is falling apart, when I feel the rocky bottom getting closer, when it seems easier to curse God and die, may I hold on to hope. The truth is, God is faithful. There is something bigger and greater going on that only God knows. And God can be trusted.

Job will find all that to be true. And I have done the same.

Exactly What You Need

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Job 11-14

Who can blame Job for having a pity party? The man had been handed an incredibly hard pill to swallow. He was sad. He was sick. He had questions. But here’s what I think we can learn from Job’s example: the longer the pity party is allowed to continue, the deeper into despair you go.

Job thought about the unfairness of it all, his personal loss, the fact that he was totally alone in this consumed him. Now, in just a few chapters we will see he realizes the harm in that. But right now, the man is about as low as a man can be.

Some of you may be going through Job-like circumstances. No one is telling you not to be sad. Jesus wept when Lazarus died. No one is telling you not to question. Jesus, on the cross, asked, “Why?” However, we as Christians don’t have to stay in the sad or uncertainty.

We, like Paul, can learn to be content in whatever circumstances we find ourselves because we can trust God who does all things well, who works things out for the good for those of us who love Him.

Whatever it is that is bringing you down, the state of the world, the state of the Church, your home, your physical body, whatever it is, you can confidently surrender it to God. When you do HIs peace, peace the world cannot understand, will guard your hearts and minds now in your present circumstances and right into eternity.

When Christians are the worry-warts, the Debbie Downers, the frightened and paranoid, Satan wins! What kind of witness can you be if the only thing you’re focused on is you? How can you share God’s grace when you only talk about how bad things are? How can you express the joy of the Lord when you ignore the joy-giving Presence of God?

No matter what you are going through, God is still telling you to go and make disciples. No matter how tough life is for you, God is still telling you to be a light.

Do you remember Paul and Silas? They, bruised and bleeding and chained to prison walls, sang praises to God at midnight. And what happened? The foundation of the prison crumbled, their chains fell off, and they were free!

When we choose to fix our eyes on Jesus, God can shake the prison walls of our circumstances, break the chains that bind us to depression and anxiety or self-pity, and set us free.

Is it midnight, so to speak? Are you in the middle of hardship and loss? Have your pity party if you must. But please don’t stay there. Take your eyes off the prison walls and chains, and look into the eyes of Jesus, your advocate, your strength, a present help in times of trouble, your Savior who loves you!

He’s there. He’s listening. And He is exactly what you need.

God Is Good

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Job 5-10

I think if my picture of God was the same as Job’s, I might pray to die, too. He views God as a prowling lion ready to pounce; Big Brother always watching, hoping to catch us doing something wrong. He sees God as the ultimate bully, and says no one is safe from Him.

That’s such a sad way to look at our loving Heavenly Father.

Now, Job’s attitude might be understandable considering everything he went through. But it is not an excuse.

Job, as well as we, seem to judge God by how well we are doing. If I’m healthy, wealthy, and happy then God is a good God. But if bad things happen I question if God is truly good, and maybe wonder if He exists at all. Are we saying God is only worth worshiping in the sunshine?

No matter what our circumstances, God is good. No matter our health, our finances, our relationships, God is good.

As I was reading Job’s speech today I was reminded that it’s not my place to judge God. I can question Him. But in the end I can only surrender to Him, knowing no matter what…

God is good.

Know Your Enemy

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Genesis 36; 1 Chronicles 1:35-2:2

Reading these chapters can be tedious. Names hard to pronounce. People long gone with seemingly no relevance today. But if all Scripture is inspired by God, these chapters must be here for a reason. What does God reveal about Himself? What does He want us to learn?

First of all, I see a God who knows us by name. He knows the details of our lives like the guy who discovered hot springs, or the guy who had a sister.

Second, by listing these historical names we are reminded that Scripture is not a fairy tale. These are real people who lived real lives one real day at a time. They had hopes and dreams, and good days and bad. Some had happy homes and some had heartache. Some were rulers and some worked in the fields. The Bible is about people and their relationship with God. The Bible is true.

But here’s what struck me today. I can understand why God documented the genealogy of Israel. It was one way of proving the fulfillment of His promise to Abraham that the Savior would be his offspring. But why give equal time to Edom, the enemy of God’s children? Why should we care which evil person fathered which evil person?

Could it be God’s way of telling us we need to identify our own enemies? Someone has said, “Keep your friends close and your enemies closer.” Is that the message here?

I doubt it because God inspired Paul to tell us to run from temptation. But you’ve got to know that what tempts you is from the enemy. You’ve got to be able to recognize the enemy so you know what it is you are to be fleeing.

Thank you, God, for this reminder today. I don’t want to blow off any of my enemies. I want to look them in the eye and say, “Get behind me, Satan. Get behind me jealousy, anger, impure thoughts, selfishness. I see you. I recognize you. And I reject you in the Name of my Savior, Jesus Christ.”

I would challenge you to read God’s Word, not for the enjoyment or for the ease of it. Read it and ask God to reveal Himself, His truth, His will for your life. It’s in there on every page.