O Blessed Sinner

IBS Application for Psalms 91:14-16 "Because he holds fast to me in love, I will deliver him; I will protect him, because he knows my name. When he calls to me, I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble; I will rescue him and honor him. With long life I will satisfy him and show him my salvation." It is a refreshing and life-giving thing to know that God is on our side like this. Honestly, I’ve been struggling lately with knowing whether or not God speaks to me through Scripture like this. But today, He showed me that He does, and this particular passage took on an entirely new meaning for me. To hear that the Father cares like this for me, after being delivered from a struggle such as the one I’ve been facing this week is just further confirmation of His work in my life. He has shown me through my studies before that He desires to show me more of His grace and His love, so that I can know Him better than I do now, and this is one such way. I’ve been wonde...

IBS Application for John 4:36-38 “Already the one who reaps is receiving wages and gathering fruit for eternal life, so that sower and reaper may rejoice together. For here the saying holds true, 'One sows and another reaps.' I sent you to reap that for which you did not labor. Others have labored, and you have entered into their labor.” I find that God has been doing a lot to try to reveal more and more of His grace to me lately. And in this case, this passage came to me at a time when I needed to start understanding that grace cannot be earned. To know that I get to reap the benefits without taking part in any of the required labor needed to have salvation and receive God’s blessings is both humbling and frustrating. It’s frustrating because I don’t like feeling like I haven’t earned it. But that’s just the thing. I haven’t earned it, nor could I ever earn it. In that way, it’s a humbling truth. But beyond this, it ought to be a source of joy for me to know t...

IBS Application for Psalms 77 “I cry aloud to God, aloud to God, and He will hear me. In the day of my trouble I seek the Lord; in the night my hand is stretched out without wearying; my soul refuses to be comforted. When I remember God, I moan; when I meditate, my spirit faints. Selah You hold my eyelids open; I am so troubled that I cannot speak. I consider the days of old, the years long ago. I said, "Let me remember my song in the night; let me meditate in my heart." Then my spirit made a diligent search: "Will the Lord spurn forever, and never again be favorable? Has His steadfast love forever ceased? Are His promises at an end for all time? Has God forgotten to be gracious? Has He in anger shut up his compassion?" Selah Then I said, "I will appeal to this, to the years of the right hand of the Most High." I will remember the deeds of the Lord; yes, I will remember Your wonders of old. I will ponder all Your work, and meditate on Your mighty de...

IBS Application for Colossians 1:13-15 “He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.” I have been seeking to deepen my relationship with Jesus this past week, because that is what He is leading me to really focus on, above all the other things I’ve been given stewardship over in this time. In seeking Him, I’ve been lead to study Colossians for the time being. And in studying the first chapter, this section struck me as a great indicator of God’s character, and as a reason as to why Christ’s incarnation is such a miraculous truth. I think that this section, and verse 15 in particular, sticks out to me particularly because of what God has been showing me in the stories of the Old Testament. I cannot help but look at the history of Israel in particular and wonder why they did not seem to understand t...

IBS Application for Hebrews 11:1-4 “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. For by it the people of old received their commendation. By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible. By faith Abel offered to God a more acceptable sacrifice than Cain, through which he was commended as righteous, God commending him by accepting his gifts. And through his faith, though he died, he still speaks.” Having a foundation for the things that we hope for in Christ and knowing that by faith alone we have evidence of the things in the heavenly places that we cannot see is unbelievably encouraging to me. In this life it is so easy to get lost in doubt and fear, particularly about God’s promises. The things that He promises to us seem so far off from us at times that it becomes a temptation to want to expedite the process of obtaining these promises. Essentially...

IBS Application for Hebrews 6:17-18 “So when God desired to show more convincingly to the heirs of the promise the unchangeable character of his purpose, he guaranteed it with an oath, so that by two unchangeable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled for refuge might have strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope set before us.” This small section of Scripture does a lot to flesh out the character of God towards His people. This shows us just how much He cares for us. This shows me just how much He cares for me. In reading through this passage as a part of our Joe Focht study sessions, I was shown just how misconstrued my view of His capacity for grace and love has been. You see, I held the belief that because God had been managing the view I had on where He had been leading me in my walk with Him that He would never show me where this path was taking me in seasons like this. I felt as though God was a crueler master than He is, and that l...

IBS Application for Habakkuk 1:5 “Look among to nations, and see; wonder and be astounded. For I am doing a work in your days that you would not believe if told.” I have found this to be a very encouraging verse. I came across it recently while looking for another one, but upon reading it, I was reminded of my last IBS that I did on Esther 4:13-14, about being brought to where we are for this time. For us here in Ignite currently, we have been brought here for the Lord’s purposes. And those purposes are sometimes unknown to us. However, one thing that I believe that God has shown me is in relation to life at home here in the field. I can’t go into specifics about it, but God has promised to transform our home life in a grand way while here in Guatemala. But I don’t see how God will do that, or how He’ll use us to accomplish this. There are times when I feel like any transformation in the home is unnecessary, especially when compared to the ministry we do outside the wa...