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.

January 25

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Genesis 31 & 32

What is it about guys and wrestling? When I was in high school I loved going to wrestling meets. I sat at the scorer’s table and kept stats. I eventually learned the moves and strategies of this exciting sport. But I never once was tempted to join the team.

I have two grown nephews who think their mother’s living room rug is a wrestling mat. The older even broke the nose of the younger a while back and they still wrestle when they are together.

I know some people disagree when I say there is a fundamental difference between men and women. Oh, women like to establish our superiority, too. But we tend to use less physical means to do so.

That’s why reading that Jacob wrestled all night with God isn’t something I can relate to. I’d have thrown in the towel after the first period bell.

So is there a spiritual lesson to be learned here? I’m glad you asked!

When I am convicted of a sin, God will use guilt, worry, and a host of other negative emotions to bring me to my knees. I can toss and turn all night with the weight of my sin. As God’s child, He wants me to repent so He can bless me. At those times, it’s like I’m in a wrestling match that I cannot and should not win if it means holding on to that sin.

At other times, when I am facing a life changing decision or am so burdened for a loved one I can’t sleep, I may feel in the morning as though I have wrestled all night. It’s not that God is my opponent. In fact God is on my team!  He is more like my coach on the sideline, seeing my battle from a different angle, and shouting instructions and encouragement.

In both cases, God wants me to come out a winner. He wants to help me defeat sin in my life and he wants to bless me. I just need to learn when to quit wrestling with Him! Because when He wins, I do too!

January 24

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Genesis 28:10-30:43

I think one of the sweetest verses in Scripture is 29:20. Jacob worked for Laban seven years in order to marry Rachel. But the Bible says it seemed like only a few days because of his love for her.

People who enjoy happy marriages are truly blessed. Fifty years with the one you love can seem like a few days.

God is asking… How much do you love me? Does my being in your life make the days go by quickly, even when we are busy sharing the gospel? Is the thought of spending eternity with me so sweet that it’s always before you? Is the work I’ve called you to do done out of love with a joyful heart?

Isn’t it true that when a man and woman fall in love you can see it in their faces? They talk about the other all the time. They can’t spend enough time with each other. Everything reminds them of their love.

Lord, renew my love for you. I want to love you like you deserve to be loved. May I love you so much I can’t help but talk about you and may that love be evident on my face and in my life.

January 23

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Gen 27:1-28:9, 36:1-43, I Chronicles 1:35-54

I don’t feel too sorry for Esau. Yes Jacob deceived their father and received the blessing that should have been Esau’s. But from what I read about the elder brother he wasn’t faultless, either.

Esau brought foreign wives into his father’s home and I imagine the women brought their false gods with them. He was so flippant about his birthright he sold it for a bowl of soup. It sounds like he wanted the blessing of being Abraham’s son but he didn’t feel the need to be obedient.

How serious am I about being in my Father’s family? Do I strive to live a life that honors Him or do I take for granted the blessing of being His child? Am I flippant about my salvation, about the cross?

God I am blessed as your child. Help me to live up to your expectations. May I make you proud today.

January 22

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Gen 5:1-4, I Chronicles 1:34, Gen 25:19-26, Gen 25:7-11, Gen 25:27-26:35

Did you notice when you read God’s Word today that when Abraham died both Isaac and Ishmael buried him? I wonder what the relationship between the two brothers was like at this time. Was there reconciliation? Did they learn how to be friends by then?

Noticeably absent from the funeral are the sons born to Abraham after Sarah died. Genesis 25:6 tells us he sent the boys away to live in the east, to get them away from Isaac.

But here’s what I noticed today. Verse 5 says while he was still alive Abraham gave gifts to the sons of his concubines. Abraham gave them THINGS. Maybe he gave them anything they wanted. He was wealthy enough.

But hear me out, parents. You can’t buy you children’s love. Nothing can equal the time you invest in them from day one. If you are too busy to go to a soccer game you are too busy. And if you rationalize your excessive work ethic by telling yourself you are doing it for them, so they can have the THINGS they want, you are missing the point. They want you! They need you. They need to know you are on the sidelines, cheering them on. They need to know they are more important to you than a paycheck or a promotion. They need to know they can count on you to be there for them in good times and bad.

I promise you if your children get used to life without you when they are young, they will have no problem living life without you when they are older.

Your children are in your homes for such a short time. And you can never get that time back. Ask Abraham. His sons didn’t even go to his funeral.

God I pray again today for parents. Give them the ability to balance work and home. And may the scales always tip towards home.

I hope I’ve given you some things to think about each morning. But if you get a minute, I’d love to hear what God is teaching you from his Word, too. Forgive me if I don’t respond right away. I’m new at this blog thing and am just learning my way around. I promise I’ll try to get better.

Thank you for reading my posts. I am praying for you.

January 21

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Genesis 22-24

It amazes me how often people traveled during Bible times. God tells Abraham to take his family and possessions and go somewhere and Abraham goes. God says to go somewhere else and Abraham goes somewhere else. And with him go servants, livestock, gold and silver, tents and food. Abraham tells his servant to go to Nahor to find a wife for Isaac and the servant eagerly goes to Nahor. Rebekah is invited to go back to Canaan and she goes.

And no one had four wheel drive and air conditioning.

I am once again convicted. How many times has God laid a neighbor or friend on my heart and I do nothing about it? I can’t go next door or across town to share Jesus with someone and Abraham traveled hundreds of miles in obedience. I can’t pick up the phone but Rebekah could get on a stranger’s camel and travel to a distant land.

What would God have me do today? Where does he want me to go? In which direction is he leading my life? May I be as obedient as Abraham, as eager as Abraham’s servant, and as trusting as Rebekah.

January 20

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Gen 19-21, 25:12-18 and I Chronicles 1:28-31

How perverted were the men of Sodom? Did Lot participate in their sin? We read he feared for the safety of the three travelers. But he offered his young daughters to his evil neighbors, knowing the girls would most likely die a painful and humiliating death.

We see that, while Lot and his daughters were spared when Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed, his wife disobeyed and was killed. Lot and his daughters were saved but the influence of living in Sodom went with them.

Lot’s daughters were so desensitized to sexual sin they didn’t think twice about sleeping with their own father. They even rationalized their own perversions by saying they did it in order to preserve Lot’s lineage.

We live in a sinful world where the same kind of sexual perversion is considered the new normal. We watch TV and invite violence and sex into our living rooms. Even Christians laugh at things God destroyed Sodom for. Our children have access to the internet in the palms of their hands. We are a people who are no longer easily shocked and saddened by sin. Are we raising a desensitized generation?

God, I am convicted. I know I have allowed sin to have a foot in the door of my heart. I ask that you make me aware of the things that displease you and help me to take a stand, to be set apart and to live a life that attracts others to you. I pray for parents. Give them wisdom. Help them to protect their dear children from the influences that make it seem like following you is lame.

January 19

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Job 16-18

Being visited by God Himself was nothing out of the ordinary for Abraham. So when he saw the three men standing near the trees, Abraham jumped up to greet them. I wonder what that was like. I wonder what talking with Jesus face to face, having dinner with him, seeing him in the flesh was like. Amazing.

Did Abraham change God’s mind? What lesson can we learn from Abraham’s bold pleas on behalf of the believers in Sodom?

The answer to the first question is no. Our prayers don’t change God’s mind. He is not that fickle. What Abraham’s pleas taught me today is that it’s ok to go to God boldly and repeatedly with what’s on our hearts. There is no limit to the number of requests we are allowed.

God answers prayer. But he also knows the end from the beginning.

I have a young friend who underwent open-heart surgery yesterday. I prayed for him, for surgeons and nurses, and for his wife and family. The young man came through surgery well. Was that because I prayed? Would he have died under the knife had I not prayed? Did God intend to take him home until he heard my prayers on his behalf, then decide to spare him?

God knew thousands of years ago that I and others would pray for our friend yesterday. Before my friend was born God knew he would have heart problems, surgery, that people would pray, and he would get through the surgery. Had we not prayed would God have known another outcome? I won’t know this side of heaven.

But I’m not willing to take that chance.

Yes, God knows the outcome of every prayer we pray. And he knows what happens when we don’t pray. Sometimes we get exactly what we request. Other times we don’t. But God wants us to come boldly, to put our desires into words, to lay our requests at his feet. Abraham learned from his encounter with the Lord that day that he need not be afraid to beg God with what’s on his heart.

I want my life story to unfold bathed in prayer. Abraham pleaded with God. Let that be our example today.

January 18

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Job 11:27-15:21

I remember reading about Lot’s rescue before. He and his family were living in Sodom when the city was attacked and they were taken prisoner. But it occurred to me today as though for the first time, that God was revealing Himself to Lot through this event. He provided a way out for Lot and his family.

Lot was living in a sinful city. He was surrounded by perversion… and so were his wife and daughters. When Uncle Abram came to their rescue they could have, and should have, settled somewhere else. Did Lot go to God for direction before taking his kids back to the evilness in the city? I doubt it.

This is another example of God using the events of life to draw us to Himself. In this instance Lot accepted the salvation, fled the city to safety but then went right back. Lot ignored God and the end result, as we’ll see later, is he’ll lose his wife and experience how living among the perverted effected his daughters.

Some people acknowledge Jesus as Savior, then go right back to living the same lifestyle they lived before. Before long the evidence of their conversion is lost. What God is saying to me today is that sometimes, in order to be the godly people God wants us to be, we need to make some drastic changes. If we do the same things, talk the same way, laugh at the same jokes, sooner or later we put ourselves in danger of ignoring the salvation that was ours. Lot did that. And the results were devastating.

I know that our unsaved friends need the Lord. And I know that Paul said he became all things to all men in order to win some. But I guess I want to encourage all of us to tread lightly, to go carefully into situations that might tempt us to sin. And never go without going to God first. Our friends and our neighbors need to see us different… better than we were before. Not the same.

God, let me see you in the events of today. Help me recognize the many ways you try to get my attention. May I not pass up any opportunity to do the right thing and draw closer to you. Give me the ability to recognize things that would compromise my commitment to you… and flee. And may my life be such that my friends and neighbors will see You and want to know you, too.

January 17

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Job 40-42

Job didn’t just hear God. He listened, he understood, and he repented. That’s the purpose behind everything that is written in God’s Word and everything that happens in this life. God wants us to know Him and when we do there is really only one response… to repent in dust and ashes.

I chuckled  a little when I read what happened next. God told Job’s friends to offer sacrifices for their sins and Job would pray for them. Job… who still had no wealth or position in the community, no family and who even still wore the ugly marks of sickness would pray for them.

Job didn’t put himself in a position of authority. God did that. God used Job’s obedience to minister to others.

Maybe our own friends and neighbors don’t need to hear about our accomplishments or  pedigrees. I’m thinking if we put ourselves aside (Job said after seeing himself through God’s eyes he despised himself and he repented in dust and ashes) God will exalt us to a place where He can use us to bless others.

God doesn’t need us to clean ourselves off or pull ourselves up by our own strength before He can use us. Job was still outside the city when God gave Him a job to do. God just needed Job to be humble enough to obey. He needed Job to repent so that he could serve God out of a heart made clean by God Himself.

God, may I do the same today. Create in me a clean heart and may You find me obedient for the work you want me to do.

January 16

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Job 38-39

“Then the Lord answered Job out of the storm.” The thing about reading words is that you can’t hear tone of voice. Was God angry? Was He impatient? Was there kindness and concern in His tone? When I started to read these chapters today I was reading them as though God was angry. After all, he spoke out of the storm. But half way through chapter 38 it occurred to me that maybe God was speaking to Job like a concerned Father who pulls his son up on his lap to explain things to him. So I went back and pictured that scene as I read.

I think God might get our attention with the storm, but I think He knows we do our best listening and learning when the storm is over and we can think. Job my son, God says, I’m going to explain to you who I am. You’ve survived a storm. Now listen carefully, son. You have a lot to learn.

As I was reading and thinking about Job sitting on God’s lap, leaning against God’s chest with God’s arms wrapped around him, and with God speaking lovingly in his ear I found myself a little jealous. Who wouldn’t want that for themselves? What about the answers to my questions? But I am reminded that my answers have been lovingly compiled and preserved in the pages of the Bible. God’s Word became flesh. And until I can physically see Him I can spiritually climb onto His lap through the pages of His book.

Am I being treated unfairly? Read about Joseph, Jesus, Paul. Am I grieving over the loss of a loved one? Read about Job, Jesus, Mary and Martha. Does God care about me personally? Read Paul’s letters, get to know Jesus through the gospels.

The accounts of real people in a real world are preserved in these pages and are there to guide and encourage us. The very thoughts of the Creator were transfered to paper and pencil by godly men who allowed God to speak through them. If I want to know God I need only to read what He inspired them to write about Himself.

So I’ll continue to climb up onto His lap each day as I read His Word. Sometimes I’ll be convicted. Sometimes I’ll be chastised. Sometimes I will feel complete joy. But always those arms will tighten around me as I draw closer to Him, as I learn more and more about Him and about myself, and as I allow Him to be the Father He longs to be to me.