Month: October 2015

Is It God’s Plan or Our Own Plan?

Matthew 28:19
Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
How many did you win?  How many did you sell?  How much profit did you make?  These are the clamorings of men and women who trying to measure their success against their perceived plans. 
Sometimes it pours over into the things we do in service to Our Lord.  How many attended the 11am service?  How much did we collect at the offering?  How many responded to the altar call?  How many were baptized?  Man’s desire to satisfy/gratify his own need is insatiable. 
Man’s desire to convert God’s work to his own plan is a common practice.  Our Heavenly Father has a different plan.  Almighty God does not call us to results.  Jesus did not tell His disciples to go out and win souls.   He asked them to go out and teach the people about having a relationship with Him.
Jesus did not give His disciples a quota, nor does He give us one.  He simply asks that we teach the world around us about the relationship that we have with Him.
Prayer
Heavenly Father, we rejoice in knowing that it is Your will that no man shall perish.  We thank You for providing the way, the truth and the life that is in Your Son, Jesus.  We pray, Father, that You will use us to teach the world about Your wonderful salvation plan. We ask for the grace to set aside our own personal desires and plans so that we may fully submit to the perfect will and plan that You have for our lives.  Through the presence and power of Jesus in our lives, may we make disciples of others.  We ask all these things in the name of the One who shall have dominion, Jesus Christ.

Nothing Can Stop Us

John 20:21
Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you.”
In one brief statement, Jesus gave the disciples the peace that they needed to overcome the fear that had them gathered in a hiding place and the power and authority that they needed to be successful in their calling.  So it is for us.
It is so easy to be overwhelmed by all that the world throws at us.  It is so easy to become discouraged, even fearful of the outcome ahead of us.  It is so easy to withdraw to a hiding place where doing nothing seems comfortable.  Yet the words of Jesus, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you,” are just as relevant today as they were 2000 years ago.
Are we giving back to the Lord as He has given to us?  He has given us the peace, the power and the authority to do what He has called us to do.  Much has been given to us.  Are we doing all we can do with what we have been given?  Surely we will not leave on the table the feast that He has set before us.
Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for providing all that we need to be good and faithful servants.  We rejoice in knowing that there is nothing in the world that can stop us from bringing to harvest the seeds that You have given us to plant.  Father, we pray that You give us the wisdom to see the bounty that You have planned for us.  We ask for the grace and the strength that we need to thrive under the power and authority that we have through our relationship with Your Son, Jesus Christ.  We ask all these things in the precious, holy and mighty name of Our Savior, Jesus Christ.

Marketplace, Neighborhood, Social Club Ministry

1 Corinthians 9:22
To the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some.
Paul shared with the Corinthians his passion to carry out the good work of delivering the message of salvation to all men.  He emphasized that this required him to be a servant to all men, regardless of their stature or their spiritual state.  In doing so, he was also teaching them that carrying the gospel to all men was their calling also.
God calls people to all walks of life to insure that His gospel message is spread to the world.  He calls some to full time ministry, but most are not.  Most of us are called to traditional occupations and lifestyles where the Lord wants us to let Christ be revealed by the way we live and by the way we treat others.
God wishes for our messages of love, compassion and forgiveness to be the same whether we are in a boardroom or in a maintenance shop, whether we are in a health club or in a hospital, whether we are at a church function or in the visiting room of a prison.  He wants our messaging system to be on non-stop.
All we have to do is surrender our lives to Our Savior and submit to the gentle urgings of the Holy Spirit.  The Lord will draw spiritual production from us within the structure of our natural lives.  He will direct our lives toward paths of fruitfulness.  And the glory will go to Him.
Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for the perfect love, compassion and forgiveness that You pour out onto each of us.  We praise the name of Jesus who made it possible for us to become vessels of Your grace.  We pray that the Holy Spirit will enlighten us and invigorate us to carry the salvation message with us as we walk through our daily lives.  May we bear fruit for Your kingdom wherever our paths on earth lead us.  We ask all these things in the name of the Tower of Salvation, Jesus Christ.

The Presence of the Lord

2 Corinthians 2:14
But thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and manifests through us the sweet aroma of the knowledge of Him in every place.
As believers and followers of Jesus Christ, all of our triumphs are in Him.  All of our success, especially our success in leading others to the Lord, are reasons for each of us to rejoice.  In our joy, we must go forward in life, not covered in pride, but covered in the sweet aroma of His presence.
While it is a wonderful thing for us to proclaim to the world how Our Savior atoned for our sins and made us worthy to be heirs of the kingdom of Almighty God, our living testimony should be much more.  The world should be able to see the presence of Jesus in every single action we take and in every single word that we speak.  The world should be able to savor the experience of being near Jesus Christ just by being near us.
Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for making us conquerors over all things in this world.  We rejoice in the victories that we claim through Your Son, Jesus.  We ask that we be given the grace to overcome the arrogance and the pride that naturally come with victory.  We pray that in every victory that all praise, honor and glory will go to You Father, to Your Son and to the Holy Spirit.  May the aroma of the One who brought the victory be spread around the world as we become living testimonies to His presence in our lives.  We ask these things in the name of the Rose of Sharon, Jesus Christ.

Compassion in Our Daily Lives

John 19:26-27
When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to his mother, “Woman, behold, your son!” Then he said to the disciple, “Behold, your mother!”
The compassion that Jesus Christ has for us is beyond our understanding.  His compassion goes beyond human capability.  His compassion extends to a level that only He, as the Son of Man and the Son of God, can personify.
His remarkable compassion was fully revealed to us on the Cross.  In His moments of agony and pain, as He was fulfilling all that He was called to do, as he was placed between thieves with soldiers gambling for His clothing, He called out to the Father, “Forgive them, for they know not what they do.”  In His compassion, He recognized the frailty of all men and extended His perfect love and forgiveness.
Then in the final moments before His death.  He made sure that His mother was cared for.  He took the time to model that even in our highest calling that we have day-to-day challenges in our lives that must be dealt with.  Who but Jesus, could exhibit such personal compassion at the same time that He was taking on the sins of the world?
Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for Your compassionate understanding of our frailty in the flesh.  We bless the name of Jesus who came and lived in the flesh so that we could see how to live both in our highest calling and in our day-to-day responsibilities of caring for our families, our loved ones and those placed around us.  We pray that we will be forever mindful of Our Compassionate Savior as we go through the trials of our lives.  May we extend the fullness of His compassion for us to the world.  We ask all these things in His precious, holy and mighty name.

Let Us Be Merciful

Luke 6:28
Bless those who curse you. Pray for those who hurt you.
Strike back!  Respond in defense!  Prove that I am right!  All of these are natural human responses to conflict.
As disciples of Jesus Christ, we are called to follow a different standard.  “Love thy neighbor as thyself” requires a supernatural response when we run into personal conflict.  We are called to express the love of Christ in each instance.  This may require having to forgive the person in the heat of the conflict.  Only our strength through Jesus Christ allows us to meet this standard.
We need supernatural strength to respond in crisis.  Our human nature and our pride are generally not going to be sufficient.  When it comes to facing the day-to-day conflicts in our lives, the supernatural grace of God is required.  It is through His grace and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit that we are able to consistently respond in a manner that reflects the discipline of a follower of Jesus Christ.

On the Cross, Jesus prayed that His murderers might be forgiven.  Stephen, the martyred disciple of Jesus, in his dying moments also showed us the standard to which we are called.  Let us be merciful just as Our Heavenly Father is merciful to us.
Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You loving us first so that we may love You and love those around us.  We thank You for the mercy that You extended to us through the redemptive blood of Your Son, Jesus, so that we may extend mercy to those who we come in conflict with us.  We thank You for forgiving us of our sins so that we may be able to forgive those who sin against us.  We pray, Father, for the grace and the strength to release to the world the overflow of the lovingkindness that You poured out on us. We ask all these things in the name of the Slain Lamb, Jesus Christ.

What We Did Not Earn and Certainly Do Not Deserve

1 Corinthians 6:11
And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.
Once we receive Jesus Christ as Our Savior, we are washed clean of our sins and made acceptable to take our place before the Father in heaven.  We receive what we did not earn and certainly do not deserve.  It is granted to us through the atoning work of Our Savior.  None is the result of our holiness. 
Our holiness is the holiness we receive when we are indwelled by the Holy Spirit.  Our holiness is the result of us allowing the life of Jesus to be manifested in our flesh.  Are we willing to let God do in us all that has been made possible by Our Savior?  Or are we resting content in the salvation that we have been granted without pressing into a relationship with the One who gave His life so that our salvation could be assured? 
Our salvation guarantees our place in heaven.  The relationship that we have with Our Savior will determine our position in heaven.  Both our place in heaven and our position in heaven are gifts from God.   But we must choose to receive them.
Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for the eternal resting place that You have prepared for us.  We ask that we may receive the grace to fully recognize the perfect gift that we have been given and the unimaginable sacrifice that was required for us to be able to receive it.  We pray, Father, that the Holy Spirit will inspire us to choose to accept the fullness that is ours through Your Son, Jesus.  We pray that we will never be satisfied with our salvation alone, but that we will seek the highest level of all things that You have set aside for us.  We ask all these things in the name of our Most High, Most Holy and Most Righteous Lord, Jesus Christ.

The Dominion of Christ the King

John 18:36
Jesus answered, “My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would have been fighting, that I might not be delivered over to the Jews. But my kingdom is not from the world.”
The world is all about results.  Everything we are taught by the world directs us toward endless expenditures of our energy and our activities in an effort to produce something deemed valuable by the world itself.
Jesus’ royal power and authority have no origin in this world.  His standing with the Father is in no way furnished by earthly force, fleshly ordinances, physical energies, material wealth or imperial armies.  The dominion of Christ the King springs directly from the throne of Almighty God.  Every good thing that comes to us and flows through us is a result of our relationship with One who sits at the right hand of the Father. 
The Lord is all about process, not results.  As disciples of Jesus Christ, we are called to a process of building an intimacy with Our Savior.  From the depths of the relationship that we develop with Jesus, we will produce every good thing that we engage in under His dominion. 
Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for this day.  We thank You for every day that You have given us.  We rejoice in knowing that we will serve You here on earth and in heaven for all eternity.  We bless the name of Jesus who makes it possible for us to bear fruit that has value in Your kingdom.  We pray that through our relationship with Your Son that our every activity will give You the praise and glory that is Yours alone.  We ask all these things in the name of the King of Kings, Jesus Christ.

Including Jesus in Every Task

Hosea 14:8
O Ephraim, what have I to do with idols? It is I who answer and look after you. I am like an evergreen cypress; from me comes your fruit.
The choice to focus on and follow Jesus rather than the world becomes a very practical one.  Josea clearly differentiates for us what our choices are.  He instructs that the Lord has no ties to the idols of the world.  He then points out that it is through Our Lord that that we gain the fruit of our lives.  

As we go through life, we deal with ordinary human stuff.  For most of us, the greater part of our days are filled with the labors that provide for us.  For all of us, the remainder of our days are portioned out for time with our families and loved ones, time for ourselves and perhaps time for service in our community.  All these things make up the fabric of our daily lives.
It is so natural to put all of our focus on the problems, the challenges and the opportunities in front of us each day.  It is so easy to reach out to what we think we know and what the world has to offer in order to address the issues of the day.  Jesus asks us to take nothing from the world.  He asks us to draw on Him and His indwelling Holy Spirit for our strength and our guidance.  Where we should differ from the world as disciples of Jesus Christ is in our approach to our daily tasks.  Everything that we do each day should be dominated by our devotion to Jesus under the guidance of the Holy Spirit.  Jesus should be our focus in all things.  What the world has to offer has to be considered of little value in comparison.

It is very likely that if we choose what the world has to offer that we will find ourselves fighting our way upstream with failure and sorrow as our destiny.  If we choose to focus on what Our Savior has to offer, we will benefit from the natural outpouring of His Spirit within us and the world will recognize us by our fruit.
Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for revealing Your ways to us to through Your Son, Jesus.  We praise the name of Jesus for being the way, the truth and the life…for being all that we need in our lives.  We pray, Lord, that You will set us free from leaning on our own ways and the ways of the world.  We  pray that You provide us the grace and the wisdom to walk in Your ways under the guidance of the Holy Spirit.  May we bear much fruit in the name of Your Son, Jesus Christ.  We ask all these things in His Wonderful Name.

A Special Prayer Blog for Oct 11.

Today I came across a prayer that I had saved earlier this year because I thought it was so powerful.  (Unfortunately, I did not note who wrote this prayer.  Whomever was the author surely deserves recognition for their contribution to the kingdom.)  When I read the prayer again, the Lord put it on my heart to post it because someone out there is in need of it.

Prayer Against Spiritual Warfare
Jesus, sometimes I can almost sense the heaviness of pressure mounting and the ominous presence of darkness around me. I recognize my enemy is at work again. Whether he’s trying to discourage me to get sidetracked, to fall into temptation, to give up, or to take my eyes off you, he’s always hanging around.
I need your supernatural power, Lord, to stand strong and not surrender. Physical force won’t help, because you’ve said the weapons of our warfare are different from those in this world. As believers, ours are powerful and can demolish strongholds and lies. These supernatural weapons originate from you. By your precious name and blood, Jesus, I’m asking you to confuse Satan and cancel his attempts to shut me and my influence down. Help me not to become discouraged or to give in when heavy times of testing come.
When I’m tired and weak, you are strong, Lord, and you are my only source of help. I cannot fight without you. Teach me how to pray and to trust you to pull down those strongholds that keep me or others helpless. Guard me from isolation that leaves me exposed and vulnerable. I believe you destroyed the power of my enemy by your death and resurrection. But like a bad penny, my enemy keeps showing up, whispering lies, twisting truth, and attempting to inflate my selfish pride. He never gives up.
I am declaring the devil and his demons liars today, Lord. Through the power of your precious name and blood, I agree with your Word and the truth that you are in me and that you are greater than my enemy who wants to rule the world. You, your Word, and prayer, Lord, are my secret weapons. I belong to you, and that fills me with a powerful God-confidence. I want to constantly dress in the spiritual armor you give me. Help me use it to defend others from Satan’s fiery darts as well. No one and nothing can snatch me away from your hand.
Strengthen my faith, Lord. Forgive my sins, so that I may be clean in your righteousness. Make me brave, so I can stand and fight the spiritual battles in my life and in our world. Give me your wisdom and discernment so I won’t be caught off guard. Together, Lord, we’ll win, because in truth, you already have.

In Jesus’s powerful name before which every knee shall bow, Amen!