No doubt you are familiar with the metaphors and phrases living on the mountain top (high places) or in the valley (low places). Geographically speaking, the topography of the mountain range verses the valley provides a great tactical advantage in most military campaigns. There is also a different atmospheric impact on the body in the mountainous range than in the valley. The snow on the mountain is a purer variety than in the valley. However, when it melts and runs down into the valley it makes for great drinking water in the valley.

When it comes to the ebb and flow of life, we talk about valley or mountain experiences, days, weeks, months, years, and/or seasons. An illness, whether temporary or prolonged, may be regarded as a challenging valley experience. An aged person who has maintained excellent health over many years may be viewed as having a mountain experience. And reasonable people may view having lots of money as a mountain living experience while the lack of monetary resources is valley living. I am sure you could think of an exhausting list of things to categorize as mountain or valley experiences. We live in a fallen world where even our good experiences have laborious and challenging elements to them. Accordingly, it can be said that a sizable portion of life (in this world) is spent navigating in the valley, but we live in both the valley and mountain experiences simultaneously (at the same time).

So, what I am asking you to do is help me with part two of this article for April. Tell me why you agree or disagree with my stated premise and submit your responses to me for part two April article by March 20th.
Yes, that is the first day of Spring.

~From the desk of Pastor AZ Jones, Jr.

“Sometimes I just feel so . . . invisible.” The word hung in the air as Joanie talked to her friend. Her husband had left for another woman, leaving Joanie with young children still at home. “I gave him my best years,” she confided. “And now I don’t know if anyone would really see me or take the time to actually know me.”

“I’m so sorry,” her friend responded. “My dad walked out when I was six, and it was hard for us, especially Mom. But she said this thing when she tucked me in at night that I never forgot: ‘God never closes His eyes.’ When I was older, she explained she was trying to teach me that God loved me and watched over me always, even while I slept.”

The Bible presents words God gave Moses to share with His people during a challenging time, when they were wandering in Sinai’s desert: “The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make his face shine on you and be gracious to you; the Lord turn his face toward you and give you peace” (Numbers 6:24-26). The blessing was to be spoken by the priests over the people.

Even in life’s wildernesses—those places where we wonder if anyone sees us or truly understands—God is faithful. God’s favor—His shining face and enduring love—is always turned toward those who love Him, even when we can’t feel Him because of our pain. No one is invisible to God. ~James Banks

How does it comfort you to know that God truly sees you? Who can you share that comfort with today?

Thank You, Father, for seeing me, knowing me, and loving me. Please help me to turn my face to You always!

Source: odbm.org/devotionals/devotional category/never-overlooked-by-god

I am training you in steadiness. Too many things interrupt your awareness of Me. I know you live in a world of sight and sound, but you must not be a slave to those stimuli. Awareness of Me can continue in all circumstances, no matter what happens. This is the steadiness I desire for you.

Don't let unexpected events throw you off course. Rather, respond calmly and confidently, remembering that I am with you. As soon as something grabs your attention, talk with Me about it. Thus, I share your joys and your problems; I help you cope with whatever is before you. This is how I live in you and how I work through you. This is the way of peace.

Psalm 112: 7   Isaiah 4:10

Source: Young, Sarah. Jesus Calling. Thomas Nelson, 10 Oct. 2011.

Worry does not empty tomorrow of its sorrow; it empties today of its strength.

~Corrie Ten Boom

Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank Him for all He has done. (NLT)

Lately I’ve been captured by the story of the woman at the well from John’s gospel (John 4:1–30, 39–42). You may know her as a shameful, fallen woman—the woman of many husbands now living in adultery who visits the well in the heat of the day to avoid the villagers’ looks of judgement and stifled whispers. But the interpretation of respected theologian Elaine Storkey has opened my heart and given me a different view to ponder. She shares how in a culture where only husbands could divorce their wives (and not the other way around), this woman was likely cast off from one husband after another, perhaps from within even the same family. Maybe this Samaritan hadn’t been able to produce a male heir and was therefore seen as worthless. In a culture that depended on families for social care, she would be vulnerable and at risk of exploitation.

A Woman of Value
Jesus, in contrast, sees her worth and values her; He doesn’t want her to feel discarded, alone, and in danger. Nor does He want her to be ostracized for what might not have been her fault.

When she first spots Jesus there at the well perhaps she wants to turn around immediately and return home. But He poses a question to her, surprising her, speaking before she can flee. And what He asks is even more outrageous than Him talking to a woman: “Will you give me a drink?” (v. 7)

At that time, Jewish men simply wouldn’t converse with women who were strangers, much less with a despised race of people. But Jesus moves beyond the conventions in posing His vulnerable question to her, one that if she responds and He drinks, will render Him unclean. (Jewish teachers saw Samaritan women as unclean from birth, and thus many would have decreed that sharing water with her would have rendered Jesus ceremonially unclean as well.)

What follows includes their conversation about His identity—the Messiah, the Christ. With His revelation, she becomes one of the few people He affirms this world-changing truth to, she a so-called fallen woman. In doing so He acknowledges and affirms her dignity and worth not because of what has happened to her, or how she’s responded, but because she’s beloved of God.

Truly Seen

My heart never fails to leap at the next part of the story, when she drops her water jar, thirst forgotten, and runs back to the village as one who now knows she’s loved: “Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Messiah?” (v. 29). No longer does shame cling to her, defining her. Instead she freely and loudly proclaims her story—here’s a man who knows me and doesn’t condemn me! Surely He’s the anointed One of God!

Her testimony compels many of her people, the Samaritans, to join her: “Many of the Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, ‘He told me everything I ever did’” (v. 39). At their urging Jesus stays with them for two more days, with many more also believing: “Now we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this man really is the Savior of the world” (v. 42).

Truly Known

As I ponder this amazing story, what resides in my heart and mind, shaping my thoughts and emotions, is the truth that after the Samaritan woman receives God’s love through Jesus—after she’s seen and known—then she shares God’s love with others. Her biggest regrets and her shameful status—all that sent her into hiding—no longer define her after she’s conversed with Jesus. He sets her free from old labels and ways of being.

So too with me. I might look at the blackness in my heart and want to hide—the selfishness that rises up when a family member asks me to serve them, or how I sometimes wonder if I have enough energy to truly listen to someone, or the shame I feel when I don’t follow through on a promise, or the feeling of not being good enough when I’m passed over for something I desired. But then my gaze lifts to the not-far-off distance and I see Jesus there waiting for me, wanting to rejig my conceptions of who I am. To remind me that I’m loved.

In my daily life, in my times of praying and conversing with Jesus, I receive the life-altering truths that I’m made in God’s image (Genesis 1:27) and that God loves me (Isaiah 43:4). With the knowledge of those truths seeping into not only my head but into my heart, soul, and body, I can then proclaim to those around me, “Come and check out Jesus, who knows everything about me and who loves me still!” I too can share His freeing love with others, hoping that they will also lay down their water jar as they receive the life-changing love that will satisfy them and slake their thirst.

~Amy Boucher Pye

Source: godhearsher.org/blog/receiving-and-sharing-gods-love

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction. ~Proverbs 1:7

The phrase the fear of the Lord is the beginning of... wisdom (Proverbs 9:10) is the cornerstone of Proverbs. Fear is actually another word for reverence or worship, suggesting that wisdom begins when we properly acknowledge who God is and offer Him the worship he deserves. It reminds us that life's true significance is discovered when we approach God with an attitude of humility and awe, not dread and fright.

After introducing the fear of the Lord in this opening chapter, the remainder of Proverbs explains how we can fear God in our daily lives. Whether the topic is wealth, work or marriage, we are called to give God the honor due Him by obeying His will in each of these areas. A wise person will humbly seek God's perspective on a matter before acting, but the fool will throw caution to the wind and act on his own impulses. What's the result of ignoring God and doing it our way? There is a way that appears to be right but, in the end, it leads to death--Proverbs 14:12.

However, the person who fears God, who daily worships and honors Him, has nothing to fear in either life or death. For further reading, see Job 28: 28, Psalm 111: 10.

Source: Quest Study Bible. Grand Rapids, Mich., Zondervan, 2003.

He has told you what he wants from you: to do what is right to other people, love being kind to others, and live humbly, obeying your God. ~Micah 6:8

The gospel of Christ is simple. It is attainable. It is accessible to all. God is not a demanding master who moves the mark constantly to keep us guessing at what He wants from us. He has told you what he wants from you. You already know.

May you use Micah 6:8 as a guidepost to keep pressing into the things that matter and let go of all that doesn’t. Simply do what is right to other people, love being kind to others, and live humbly, obeying your God. It really is that simple.

Prayer: Jesus, thank you for the fellowship of your presence. Thank you for the reminder that your expectations of me are simple and your grace is sufficient for me. I will take your word to heart today and live according to your wisdom.

Source: Broad Street. Jesus First for Women. Broad Street Publishing Group LLC, 5 Apr. 2022.