Month: March 2014

The Wondrous Nature of Jesus

Isaiah 11:2
And the Spirit of the LORD shall rest upon him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the LORD.

In this passage, Isaiah was prophesying of the nature of our coming Savior.  Because we are indwelled by Jesus Christ when we accept Him as Our Savior, we inherit this wondrous nature for ourselves.  Some summarize our inheritance as the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit.

To receive the full benefits of an inheritance of any type, one must be alive at the time of the death of the one who leaves the inheritance behind.  To receive the full benefits of the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit, we must allow our old man to die and allow our new man to come alive in Christ.  

Prayer,
Heavenly Father, we thank You for the wondrous nature that You have given us in Jesus Christ, Our Lord and Savior.  We pray that the fullness of the Holy Spirit will rest upon us.  We seek Your wisdom so that we may have understanding in all matters.  We seek your counsel that we may become mighty warriors for Your kingdom.  We ask Lord that You inspire us to take the knowledge that we have of You and turn into a reverent awe that changes how we live every moment of our lives. 

Standing Before the Throne for Others

Isaiah 59:16
He saw that there was no man, and wondered that there was no one to intercede; then his own arm brought him salvation, and his righteousness upheld him.

Jesus is the perfect intercessor for all mankind.  He takes the mantle that no one else can take.  He stands before the Father in righteousness on behalf of all men.

Intercessory prayer is the perfect service for each of us to enter.  We communicate with God on behalf of others.  We go before the Father in worship and solicitation for His divine assistance.  We seek His will for those that we pray for.   Through the process, the needs of many or met and our relationship with the Father grows to be like the relationship that the Father has with The Son.

Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You that You have provided Your Son to stand before Your Throne on our behalf.  We pray that You will teach us how to stand before You on the behalf of those that You have placed around us.  May You open our eyes and hearts so that we may see their needs and prayerfully respond to them.  May You strengthen us so that we will not falter in our prayer life.  May our relationship with You become like the relationship that You have with Your Son, Jesus.

Preparation for the Kingdom Through Service on Earth

Luke 12:40
You also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him.

God’s Holy Word inspires us to turn our thoughts toward the day that Jesus will return to the earth.  This will be a great and magnificent day for which all of us should prepare ourselves.  On this day the Lord will separate those who knew Him and served Him from those that did not.  We certainly want to be in the group that inherits His Kingdom.  

But our human nature makes it difficult for us to prepare for an uncertain date and time.  We may even be uncertain about how we should prepare for the King of Kings.  The Lord in His mercy gives us simple ways to prepare.  He teaches us that those who feed Him when He is hungry, give Him drink when He is thirsty, clothe Him when He is in need and visit Him when He is sick or in prison will be the ones that inherit His Kingdom.  He adds that even though we may not see Him in these conditions that when we serve those who are in these conditions we are serving Him.  Conversely, He adds,  “Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.“

Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You that Your Holy Word prepares us to receive Our King, Jesus Christ.  Open our eyes, Lord, so that we may see the opportunities to serve Our King everyday.  Prepare our hearts, Lord, to freely give of ourselves to others just as we would if we were serving Jesus Himself.  May the presence of the Holy Spirit within us by Our Guiding Light.

The Fullness of His Love

Ephesians 3:19
May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God.

Jesus loves each one of us unconditionally.  He loves us so much that He gave up His position as Son of God to become Son of Man.  He endured the pain and shame of the Cross so that He could become the sacrificial lamb that was necessary to provide the blood to wash away our sins, to make us acceptable to the Father.  

He extended His unconditional love by sending the Holy Spirit to convict us of our sins, so that we would understand His offer of salvation and accept it.  He continues to extend His unconditional love by dwelling within each of us that have accepted Him as Our Savior, so that we may have the strength and the power to overcome the sinful nature that still tries to rule in our lives.

He continuously pours out His perfect love and forgiveness to each of us.  He places no limit on the love that He pours into us because He wants it to overflow our cups.  He wants us to become living vessels of His perfect love and forgiveness so that the world will know Him and know the fullness of His love.

Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for the perfect love and forgiveness that You have poured out into our lives.  We pray that we may become instruments of Your good work and vessels of Your perfect love and forgiveness for the world around us.

No Man is Strong Enough

Matthew 26:56
Then all the disciples left him and fled.

Imagine.  The men who had lived with Jesus for three years, sat under His teaching and witnessed all the signs and wonders of His ministry abandoned Him in His time of trial.  How could this happen?

It is the weakness of the flesh that failed the disciples.  They did not yet have the strength of the Holy Spirit to overcome their weaknesses.  What a dramatic difference the Holy Spirit made in their lives.  After their baptism of the Holy Spirit, all of the apostles boldly proclaimed the Good News of Jesus Christ.  All but one, John, died as a martyr while sharing the salvation plan.

We can be sure that in the flesh we are no stronger than the apostles.  If we try to live by the flesh without calling on the Holy Spirit to guide us and strengthen us, we will fail in following Our Savior.  Thankfully, God promises us in His Holy Word that He will perfect His strength in our weakness if we abide in Him.

Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You that You have provided Your Wonderful Counselor to be with us, to guide us and to strengthen us in our weaknesses.  We proclaim our weakness before You, Lord.  We ask forgiveness for straying from You.  We boldly claim Your promise to perfect Your strength in our weakness as we surrender to Your reign in our lives. 

Purity of Heart

Matthew 5:8
Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.

The beatitudes are often referred to as the the “be happy attitudes.”  In relationship to “Blessed are the pure in heart,” it really applies to our attitudes.  We will never be pure in heart as long as we live on this earth.  Only Jesus Christ was pure in heart.  We can, however, maintain an attitude of purity as we seek to please Our Heavenly Father.

We can submit our lives to the One that was 100% pure. We can make the desire of our hearts to be pure.  Even though we may fail from time to time, we  can turn our minds over to Him to be constantly renewed.

Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for sending Jesus to this earth as our model of purity.  We ask that You mold our hearts so that we may submit to Your Son to rule and reign in our lives.  May the power of the Holy Spirit constantly renew our minds.   May You provide the armor of protection that we need to shield us from the impurities that the world so freely throws at us.    

Extending Invitations to the Feast

John 3:29
It is the bridegroom who marries the bride, and the best man is simply glad to stand with him and hear his vows. Therefore, I am filled with joy at his success.

John the Baptist was absolutely secure in his role as the best man to introduce the Bridegroom.  He was quick to let everyone know that it was the Bridegroom that was worthy of all the praise, honor and glory.

The promises/vows of Jesus Christ are the foundation upon which we stand as Christians.  Our responsibility is to go forth and share His vows with the world.  We are not to take one iota away from His message in order to make ourselves the center of attention or perhaps to shape the message in a way that is more appealing to the masses.  We are simply to allow the joy that we have received as a result of His vows to be poured out from us on to the world around us.

Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You that You have provided a Bridegroom to come to get us to be His bride at the wedding feast of the Lamb.  We rejoice in knowing that we have the privilege of extending invitations to the eternal event.  Prepare us, O Lord, to humbly extend Jesus Christ’s invitations to those around us.  May all praise, honor and glory go to Our King.

Turning All Eyes to Jesus Christ

John 3:30
He must increase, but I must decrease.

John the Baptist had the perfect understanding of His relationship with Jesus Christ.  He knew that he was a sinful man who was created, prepared and sent to show the way to the One from Above who was coming to save the world.  He understood that he had no power.  All the power belonged to Jesus.

From John the Baptist we learn a great model for bringing others to salvation.  It is our job to bring others to Christ.  It is not our job to save them.  The saving work of the Cross will be done by Jesus through the power of the Holy Spirit.

We also learn from the words of John the Baptist the model for our spiritual maturation.  We must increase our life in Christ as we allow our life in the flesh to decrease.  We must allow our new man to rise and our old man to die.

Prayer
Heavenly Father, thank You for Your Holy Word which lays out the models for our lives through the lives of Your servants.  Help us, Lord, to understand the depth of the teachings that come from each of the servants.  Open our eyes, Lord, so that we may surrender our lives completely to Your Son, Jesus.  Help us, Lord, to live our lives in such a way that others are drawn to Your Son and we become modern models for their new lives in Christ.   

My Soul Magnifies the Lord

Psalm 34:3
Oh, magnify the LORD with me, and let us exalt his name together!  

Throughout the Psalms, we read David’s prayers of praise.  He praised God to help overcome his fears and to call on his all-sufficient Lord.  David recognized God’s faithfulness in meeting his needs and he also recognized that God was bigger than any problem or fear that he had.

It is time for us to magnify God in our lives.  He is much bigger than we allow Him to be.  We need to downsize our problems, upsize our view of who God is and rightsize our relationship with Him.

Prayer
Heavenly Father, we exalt Your name.  We lift You up above all others.  There is not a single name that approaches the majesty and power of who You are.  Teach us, Lord, to have the faith of the Virgin Mary who said, “My soul magnifies the Lord,” as she prepared to receive something that she did not believe to be possible.  Allow us, Lord, to live in reverent awe of who You are.






The Fire in Our Hearts

Luke 24:32
They said to each other, “Did not our hearts burn within us while he talked to us on the road, while he opened to us the Scriptures?”
Two men walking on the road to Emmaus were met by Jesus, who accompanied them on the journey and joined them in their discussions about the recent events surrounding the death and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth. They did not recognize Him, but marveled in His knowledge of the events.  Later Jesus revealed Himself to the men, resulting in their realization of how stirring that His words had been earlier.
We are joined each day by the Holy Spirit.  He whispers gentle urgings into our hearts.  He directs us along the path that God has created for us.  If we are obedient to the urgings, they will become stronger and stronger and will release great wonders in our lives.  If we do not tune in to the urgings of the Holy Spirit, the urgings of our flesh will become dominant.  The urgings of our flesh will always keep moving us further and further away from the fire in our hearts that the Holy Spirit is stirring.