Category: Uncategorized

In Spiritual Union with Our Savior

Galatians 2:20
I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
When we accept our salvation, we join Jesus Christ in crucifixion.  Just as He accepted death on the Cross to wash away our sins, we accept the crucifixion of our own flesh to set aside our old nature and take on the nature of the One who dwells within us.  Our new nature rises through the power of the Holy Spirit to bring us victory over our sin stained flesh.
Unfortunately, our flesh does not go without a fight.  Fortunately, we are freed from living in the flesh.  Jesus Christ put sin to death on the Cross and ushered in His endless grace for those that accept His gift of unconditional love.  Thus, we can live in dependence upon Him.  We are free to live in faith, not of ourselves, but faith in Jesus Christ.  We are able to relinquish our old lives in the flesh in exchange for our new lives in spiritual union with Our Savior. 
Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for the new lives that You have given us through the sacrifice of Your Son on the Cross.  We exalt the name of Jesus who shed His blood for all men.  We rejoice in knowing that we are conquerors over our flesh through the endless flow of grace provided by Our Savior.  We pray, Lord, that You will hold us steadfast in Your grace.  We ask, Father, that You will give us the wisdom to toss aside any claim to our own merit and the strength to take hold of and never let loose of the faith in Christ that sustains us as heirs to Your kingdom.  We ask all these things in the name of Our Lord, Our King, Our Savior, Jesus Christ.

Do You Want to Leave Me?

John 6:67
“You do not want to leave too, do you?” Jesus asked the Twelve.
After teaching a particularly difficult lesson, a number of Jesus’ early disciples turned away from following Him.  At that point Jesus inquired of His apostles, “You do not want to leave too, do you?”
In today’s world, we are challenged to answer Jesus’ question regularly.  The world is quick to create its own standards when the desired behavior is different than the Word directs.  The arguments are so eloquent and enticing as they provide a pathway that seems easier and more attuned to our fleshly desires or, at the very least, is more compliant with what we are willing to tolerate.  

Today there are many so called Christian churches teaching their own version of Scripture.  They choose not to follow God’s Holy Word as it is written.  In effect, they are walking away from Jesus because His lessons are too hard for them to follow.
Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You that You have provided Your inerrant Word for us to follow.  We pray that You enlighten us.  We ask that You open our minds so that we may understand the exact standard to which You are calling us.  We beseech You that You may perfect Your strength in our weakness so that we may be steadfast in following the way, the truth and the life that is Your Son, Jesus.  We ask all these things in the name of Jesus, the One who is the way, the truth and the life.

More than Conquerors

Romans 8:37
No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 
What challenges will life bring today?  Will they be in the form of tribulation, distress or perhaps persecution?  To think that we will not have challenges or trials because we are children of God is in direct opposition to what Jesus tells us.  Jesus specifically tells us that in this world we will have tribulation, but that we should take courage for we are more than conquerors through Our Savior.
Because Jesus Christ has paid the price in full for each of us, we can and will rise up and find joy in the midst of all of our troubles.  The undaunted presence of Jesus Christ makes the world’s challenges impotent.  No thing nor no power can put a wedge between us and the love of God that provides our resilience. Not only will we overcome but our faith and our joy will increase through the experience.
Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for liberating us from our present sufferings by providing the hope that comes from the freedom and glory that has been set aside for us through Your Son, Jesus.  We exalt His precious name for making us conquerors over evil and our own flesh.  We pray for the courage and the strength to face and defeat every trial that the enemy throws our way.  We rejoice in knowing that the victory is ours because it was first won on the Cross.  We ask all these things in the name of Our Blessed Hope and Assurance, Jesus Christ.  

The Answers We Seek

Jeremiah 33:3
Call to me and I’ll answer you, and will tell you about great and hidden things that you don’t know.
The Word of God is very specific.  He spoke the words in this passage to Jeremiah, but His promises are relevant for all men.  Wisdom and understanding concerning all matters of life are available to us.  All we have to do is ask Our Heavenly Father who loves us more than we can imagine.  

Did you notice the little detail in the passage that He will give us answers to things that we do not know?  Did you consider this works for things big and small?  Need to know how to make a certain household repair that you find challenging, ask Him.  He promises to to answer us and tell us things we do not know.  Need to know what direction to take your business or your career, ask Him.  He promises to provide answers that have been hidden from us.  He will deliver them at the time that He knows is perfect for us.
Our responsibility in receiving this awesome blessing is being persistent in asking for wisdom.  If we wait to call on Him when everything comes crashing down on us, we may not be able to handle all that God has ready for us.  It is a building process.  The Lord knows that we are not able to digest too much information at one time.  He will feed us slowly as a baby is fed liquids until it is ready to move on to more solid foods.  He will feed us in accordance to His will and plan for our lives.  His “new knowledge” for us will be dispensed at the perfect time.  
Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank you for providing the Holy Spirit to teach us all things, including secret things and inaccessible things.  We humbly ask You to provide us the wisdom that we need to get through each day.  We ask that each day You will build our understanding of who You are and what Your plan is for our lives.  We rejoice in knowing that all things are possible through Your Son, Jesus.  We ask all these things in His precious name.

The Joy of the World

Psalm 90:14
Satisfy us in the morning with your unfailing love, that we may sing for joy and be glad all our days.
There is nothing on this earth that satisfies like the love of Our Heavenly Father.  He created a void in our hearts that can only be filled by the presence of Jesus in our lives.  When we allow Jesus to be our sustenance, there is nothing that the world can offer that measures up.
Unfortunately, we chase every type of earthly pleasure in efforts to fill the void in our hearts.  We choose to live in darkness instead of in the light of the One who loves us perfectly.  May our eyes be opened so that we see what Our Savior has set aside for us.  May our hearts be prepared to receive all that Jesus holds for us.  The fullness of our joy will never be reached until we turn to Our Savior for completion.  He, and He alone, is the one who satisfies every desire of our hearts.
Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for Your unfailing love.  We rejoice in the joy in our hearts that You have provided by allowing us to receive Your Son, Jesus.  We pray, Lord, that the Holy Spirit will inspire us to fill our days with the sweet presence of Our Savior and that the Holy Spirit will provide us with the wisdom to turn away from the offerings of this world.  We ask, Father, that as we receive all that has been set aside of us that the world will be drawn to Your Son by our joyful countenance.  We ask all these things in the name of Jesus Christ, the Joy of the World.

Tending the Flock

John 21:17
He said, “Lord, you know everything. You know that I love you.” Jesus said, “Then feed my sheep”.
Peter, believing his love for Jesus was obvious to Jesus, became frustrated.  So Peter challenged Jesus, saying, “Lord, you know everything. You know that I love you.”  Jesus’ response to Peter’s challenge was essentially, “Prove it.” 

Jesus challenges each of us as well to feed His sheep.  He calls us to provide appropriate nourishment to the young lambs and encouragement to the mature members of the flock.  He calls us to go after any that leave the flock until they are found and brought back under the protection of the Good Shepherd.

Jesus calls on each of us who love Him to go out and do the work that He was doing.  He tended to all of the needs of the people, all the way to the Cross, because of His love for His Father.  Jesus expects us to take up His work, to take up our cross, because of our love for Him.
Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for sending Your Son, Jesus, to tend to our every need, especially our need to be freed from the sin that separates us from You.  In response to Your loving kindness, mercy and grace, we surrender our lives to You.  We ask that You show us the cross that You have prepared for us.  We pray, Lord, that You instruct us in the way that we should go.  May Your Holy Spirit guide us and strengthen us for the journey.  Father, we pray that You release Your power through us so that others may discover the Way of the Cross.  We ask all these things in the name of the one who went to the Cross and shed His blood for us, Jesus Christ.

Even When Our Courage Fails Us

John 21:17
A third time he asked him, “Simon son of John, do you love me?”
We can be certain that the sincerity of our love for Jesus will be tested.  We will be examined by Jesus to see if we love Him more than any thing offered by this earth.  We will be measured to see if our love for Jesus qualifies us to feed His sheep.

Jesus asked Peter three times, “Do you love me?”  Peter was not hard of hearing.  The Greek translation reveals that Jesus was referring to a different level of love with each question.  The first question asked of Peter was if he loved Jesus as friends might love one another – eros.  The second question Jesus asked Peter was if he loved Jesus like he might love a brother or sister – philos.  The third time Jesus got to the heart of the matter.  He asked Peter if he had an all-consuming love for His Lord – agape.
As we grow as Christians, Jesus will challenge us until we reach an all-consuming love for Him.  All the along the way, the Holy Spirit will guide us, strengthen us and build us up as we work our way through our own personal journey of sanctification.  Through our love for Christ, we will learn to feed His sheep even when our courage fails us.  
Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank you for the unearned, unconditional love that You have given us, so that we may have a love gift to return to You.  We exalt Your name for willingly sending Your only begotten Son to die on the Cross to cleanse us of our sins, so that we may be deemed acceptable to present our love gift to You.  May Your grace be with us so that we can experience the fullness of Your perfect love and respond with an all-consuming love for You and Your Son, Jesus.  We pray, Lord, that we will become strong enough and bold enough to feed Your sheep even when we feel to weak too care for them.  We ask all these things in the name of the Good Shepherd, Jesus Christ.

Using the Weak and The Foolish for His Glory

1 Kings 17:16
The bowl of flour was not exhausted nor did the jar of oil become empty, according to the word of the LORD which He spoke through Elijah.
Elijah, in accordance with God’s directive, went to the widow in Zarephath and requested that she make him some bread to eat.  She told Elijah that she could not feed him because she only had enough flour and oil to feed her and her son one more meal.  She then told Elijah they would die because their food supply would be exhausted.  Elijah told the woman if she made his meal first that her supply would never be exhausted.  And so it was by the word of the Lord.
When we feel the call of the Lord to fulfill a service or a charity, we should never concern ourselves with what is in our cupboard.  The Lord will always supply what we need to fulfill His work.  And when the work is done, our cupboard will overflow just as the widow’s did.

It is God’s way and it is to His glory to make use of and put honor upon the weak and foolish things of the world.  It makes perfect sense that He would want to use us to do His good work.  We certainly fit the bill of the weak and foolish.  May we stand ready to proclaim His glory through the work that we do for Him.

Prayer,
Heavenly Father, we thank You for calling us to be of service to Your kingdom.  We rejoice in knowing that You will equip us to do whatever You call us to do.  We exalt You as You bless us, knowing we will be a blessing to others.  We pray that we will never question our ability or our resources as You raise us up as instruments of Your good work.  We pray that all that we do will be praise and glory to You, to Your Son Jesus, and to the Holy Spirit.  We ask all these things in the matchless name of Jesus.

The Fullness of Abiding in the Most High Place

Psalm 91:1

He that dwells in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.

Loving faith on our part will always be met by faithful love, protection and provision on God’s part.  His covering of us is much greater than we can imagine.  If we are abiding in Him, there is no limit to His shadow that is over us.  He protects us at all times from natural and supernatural enemies.  He makes our homes secure.  He is our refuge in every storm.

There is a special nuance in this passage, however.  The blessings spoken of here in this passage can be greater for those believers who live in close fellowship with God.  Every believer may look toward the inner sanctuary and the mercy-seat, yet all do not dwell in the most holy place.  All believers surely run to the mercy seat in time of need and may enjoy occasional moments of communion with the Father, but the fullness of these most high blessings are for those who habitually abide in the shadow of Almighty God. Those who stand in continuous communion with God set themselves up to become possessors of rare and special benefits.  Let us seek the grace to be constant refugees in the fortress of Almighty God so that we cannot miss the fullness of His shadow.

Prayer
Heavenly Father, thank You for the shadow of protection and provision that You place over us when we surrender our lives to You.  We bless the name of Jesus who has made it possible for us to come to Your mercy seat.  We pray, Lord, that Your Holy Spirit will guide us and strengthen us as we seek to abide under Your shadow.  As we come to Your mercy seat in the name of Our Redeemer, may we learn to encourage others to trust in Him also.  We ask all these things in His Holy and Righteous Name.

Faithful to Meet Every Need

Psalm 56:11
In God I have put my trust, I shall not be afraid. What can man do to me?

It is amazing how often we struggle, wondering how our particular situation is going to get resolved.  How little faith we have in Almighty God through whom all things are possible.  But what may be even more amazing is how we have no faith that Almighty God is interested in the smallest needs in our lives when His Word proclaims that He knows the count of every hair on our heads.

Through the continuous and sometimes onerous trials that we have passed through in life, we should have learned to be silent and patient when our trials are light.  Yet we seem to become frustrated by the small stuff and lose patience.  More importantly we lose confidence in Almighty God who bottles all of our tears and observes them with tender love and concern.

May we all come full circle just as Paul did.  Through our trials, may we all praise God knowing that He is faithful to meet our every need.

Prayer,
Heavenly Father, we thank You for Your faithful promises to meet our every need.  We praise You for giving us sufficient grace to get through every trial.  We pray, Lord, that You will grant us the faith to trust in You for everything in our lives.  We ask that Your Holy Spirit teach us to come to You boldly with what seems impossible and also come to You confidently with the smallest things that are troubling us.  May Your grace and power in our lives never be diminished because of our lack of understanding.  We pray all these things in the name of Jesus, the Good Shepherd.