Romans 15:4 "For whatever was written in earlier times was written for our instruction, so that through perseverance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope."
Author: Thomas E Meyer Jr
Formerly Homeless Sinner
Now, Child of God, Saved by Grace.
13 If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3 If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned,[a] but have not love, I gain nothing.
4 Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant 5 or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful;[b]6 it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. 7 Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
8 Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10 but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. 11 When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. 12 For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.
13 So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.
The Word of God for the Children of God.
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost; as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen, amen.
The covenant commitment to love, honor, and cherish are words very familiar and deeply meaningful to most of us.
Too often they are simply words of a ceremony.
The meaning, weight, and importance of those words are often overlooked.
They are actual promises/vows that spouses make to each other, for a lifetime.
We say them in front of our family, friends, the preacher, each other, and God.
Yet…do we really “get” the meaning of those words and apply them to our daily lives…living them each out in the great expanse of time which is our marriage?
1 Corinthians 13:13 says, “So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.”
By God’s spoken Word, the greatest of all aspects of the Christian life is love.
Love is to be at the foundation of all we do, all we are, and all we hold on to.
If we focus on love and allow the Holy Spirit to strip everything else away, what will be left is a life of blessed simplicity rooted in face-to-face, life to life, heart to heart relationship with our heavenly Father.
As we spend time looking at the simplicity of love, I pray that all the weighty, frivolous things of the world that rob you of an abundant life fall away in light of the glorious goodness of God’s unconditional, wholly available love for you.
All God Asks of Us is to Love, Honor and Cherish
As Husband’s and Wives, we look at each other – eye to eye, face to face, life to life – we must come together in the sight of God and a whole host of witnesses to acknowledge and confess before everyone, that one of the most life-giving, transformational truths of the gospel is that of everything we have to offer God, of everything in this life we have to give to each other, He most desires our love.
To love God is all-encompassing.
Colossians 3:14 says, “And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony.”
To love God and each other is to pursue a life of wholehearted devotion to a King who is wholeheartedly devoted to us – to love God is to place ourselves in this never-ending, totally blessed cycle of giving and receiving limitless love.
The simple truth of the Gospel message is that God simply wants our love, by our love, God frees us from frivolous pursuits.
God’s love frees us all from systems and practices that are rooted in “would” “should” and “could” and might have” and “what if’s” rather than true desire.
God will take us however God can get us.
He’ll take every single one of us if all we have to give is a simple child-like belief that as husbands and wives we should both equally serve Him or be with Him.
But God never desires to keep us in that place.
He longs to love each of us to such an unbelievably miraculous level that we, as husbands and wives would live and serve Him equally out of a place of full 100% devotion as our hearts natural response to His overwhelming affections for us.
1 John 4:16 says, “So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.”
Allow 1 John 4:16 to create an image in your mind for a second.
Picture what it would be like to truly abide in God and have him abide in you.
Picture what it would be like to truly abide in God, have our spouses abide too.
Take both pictures, bring them together as one – in God, the Father Almighty.
Ask the Holy Spirit to give you a vision of what that would be like.
What would everyday life look like for you and your spouse if you were to both, individually and together, truly abide in our God and have Him abiding in you?
So great is God’s love for us, as husbands and wives, that He makes himself available for both of us, individually and together, to genuinely abide in Him.
So great are his affections for us that we could have Him abiding in us.
If we will pursue love for God above all else, we will discover a wellspring of child simplicity and life rooted in wholehearted devotion to the God of love.
Cast off all other pursuits today in light of God’s call to love.
Cast off the striving, tireless work of doing life rooted in the “what if” “could” “should” “would” and let God love us to a place of true love-based obedience.
Find rest today in the truth that God is simply after your heart.
Open up to him and receive his vast affections.
1 Corinthians 16:14 says, “Let all that you do be done in love.”
May you and your spouse abide in the heart of your heavenly Father and allow him to come in and meet with you that all you do today might be done in love.
In the name of God, the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit,
Guided Prayer:
1. Meditate on the call of God to love. Allow Scripture to fill you with a wholehearted desire to love God in all you do.
“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.” Luke 10:27
“So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.” 1 John 4:16
2. Ask the Holy Spirit to fill you with a fresh revelation of God’s love for you. Receive the love of God and allow it to cast out all fear and reservation.
“There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love.” 1 John 4:18
3. Respond to the affections of God with your own. Tell God how you feel in his presence. Thank him for all that he’s done for you. Enter into the cycle of giving and receiving affection.
“We love because he first loved us.” 1 John 4:19
This life cycle of husband and wife giving, receiving affection, is really just a picture of what it is to worship God the Father God the Son God the Holy Spirit.
As we allow God to love us, our natural response will be to love him in return because we are created for worship.
As we receive his love we will naturally love him and others.
For a long time I pictured worship as this time where I had to somehow drum up affection for God that I honestly didn’t always feel.
God never asks us to fake our worship.
God never asks us to fake our marriages.
He never wants worship that isn’t truly from our hearts.
He knows we need his love to love him in return.
If you and your spouse find yourself emptied of affection for him and others today, take time to just let him love you so you can live wholeheartedly today.
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost; as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen, amen.
7 Now, concerning the things that you wrote about: It’s good for men not to get married. 2 But in order to avoid sexual sins, each man should have his own wife, and each woman should have her own husband.
3 Husbands and wives should satisfy each other’s ⌞sexual⌟ needs. 4 A wife doesn’t have authority over her own body, but her husband does. In the same way, a husband doesn’t have authority over his own body, but his wife does.
5 Don’t withhold yourselves from each other unless you agree to do so for a set time to devote yourselves to prayer. Then you should get back together so that Satan doesn’t use your lack of self-control to tempt you. 6 What I have just said is not meant as a command but as a suggestion. 7 I would like everyone to be like me. However, each person has a special gift from God, and these gifts vary from person to person.
The Word of God for the Children of God.
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost; as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen, amen.
Marriage is a shared hard covenant to keep -there were times early on in my own marriage that I was sadly tempted to love my wife less out of fear of loss.
As time passed and my wife and I grew together, Through prayer, education, and God’s grace I reached a point where I realized how foolish this was and I made a final decision that if I was going to love, I was going to give it my ALL!
It was not that I did not give everything of myself before, but because of past wounds I had held back a little, cautiously protecting the investment of myself.
I was not giving a sincere gift of self the way God intended and in the early days it admittedly wounded my marriage.
Reflecting on my attitudes, my previous “bachelorhood at all costs” mindset I now understand how severely limited immature and selfish my thinking was.
Our Marriage is a journey of two souls bonded by a sacrament, living fully and loving intentionally.
I want nothing more than my marital journey to embrace all that God intends so when that day comes that God calls one of us 2 home, I can say with conviction that I loved fully and gave unconditionally to my spouse, “till death do us part.”
My marriage relationship with God and to my wife is of the utmost importance.
I want every single aspect of my time with my God and with my wife be of the utmost meaning and significance – no one else matters more than my bride.
We have been married thirteen and a half years now and we are both well in our retirement years – finances, health issues, hiccups, hang-ups and hurry up’s all somehow weave together and intertwine into all those things we call our habits.
There is nothing wrong with engaging in our hobbies, and playing cards, and playing our favorite board games, watching Netflix and relaxing as a way to connect with our spouses, but we can’t let that be all we choose to do together.
Intentional, deep, and purposeful conversations about issues that matter with our soul mates help to keep our marriages strong and well connected with God.
I find having gentle, sometimes even the provocative questions that help start these conversations is helpful to provoke us past the conversation focused only on the details of the day, considering the bigger picture of our lives together.
One of my biggest fears is waking up five or ten years from now beside my wife and anxiously feeling like I do not know her as well as I always thought I did!
That is perhaps a bit of a dramatic fear, but it’s pretty easy to slip into a place of marriage complacency that does not take the absolutely necessary time to look past what we saw in the past, and now see barely on the surface with each other.
The easiest way the Devil can steal time from our marriages often does not look like dramatic breaks of trust or infidelity – it’s actually just letting life consume us to the point that we slowly are becoming strangers living in the same home.
The way to avoid the slow fade out of love is open engagement, intentionality!
Its a process of God, husband wife self examination, being present with God, each other regularly, having fun “being like Jesus” together whenever possible.
It looks like staying on the same page with God and each other regarding the big things and with the little things – it’s cheering each other on and being there to encourage each other when we are stuck in a rut – it’s work, but it’s so worth it.
Here are just a few questions to help us stay connected with our spouses:
1. How do we both feel about our marriage?
My wife and I are opposites.
I should have known this from the beginning because when they did those cute things, those “let’s have you each answer the same questions separately about each other and then compare your answers games”, we almost shared none of the same responses.
Nonetheless, it has taken me nearly 15 years since our engagement to really appreciate how very different we are!
Not surprisingly, over the years, I have gradually realized that we often have very different, divergent understandings views on how our marriage is fairing.
I often project my feelings onto my wife without really asking her what she thinks about me, creating some tense problematic silent bubble interactions.
Recently I’ve trying to make a point to ask her how she feels about us before jumping straight into my very exclusive “how I have been feeling about us.”
It’s also helpful for me to gauge if my feelings are confirmed by her.
If we are both feeling “righteously” disconnected at the exact same time, then it’s probably a very good indicator that there is an issue needs to be addressed.
2. What is God speaking to our hearts in this season?
My favorite thing about the spring mother’s day season is that our wedding anniversary is right on this holiday weekend.
These two yearly celebrations always cause us to pause and consider what God is doing in the spring time of another day and year of our married lives together for our hopes and dreams of that coming year and reflect on what he has done.
We both feel that we probably should have these prayers, conversations more than once yearly, but aiming for at least that annual check-in is a good start!
Find a time to mark as when you recall, reflect, and look ahead together.
What dreams have God placed on our hearts?
What goals do we feel God is calling us to accomplish both personally and as a married couple?
Is there any one thing or several things that needs to shift in our lives to better hear what God is speaking?
Who or what do we feel led to pour into with your time, money, and heart?
How can we both be praying over the dreams God has given us?
Discuss all of this and more!
Don’t be afraid to seek the Lord boldly.
God has good, abundantly gracious blessings and plans for our wedded life.
3. Are we finding God’s joy in our daily rhythms?
Adulting is HARD.
How many times a day do we think about, do we intentionally, sneakily, look around the room for another grown-up to show up and take over, to defer to?
Sometimes we just get plain worn out.
There are so many things to worry about, responsibilities to juggle, manage, parenting chores to do, laundry to keep up with, and work emails to send!
All that to say, we need to help each other remember life is not just about work.
Life is meant to be enjoyed.
That does not mean that every last thing we are called to do will be fun or even dramatic or significant but we need to be intentional about cultivating joy and gratitude, even in the stress or most mundane things of our everyday existence.
We need to help each other avoid burnout.
Talk together about what we can do differently if we are stuck in a cycle of frustration, stress, or depression.
Be each other’s advocate for joy!
We grow old quickly if we forget about laughter, adventure, and contentment.
4. Do our behaviors and routines align with God, our family’s spiritual mission?
As Grandparents, in our experience with home schooling, getting distracted and even angered by resistance to learning, perceived missed milestones are easy.
Our thoughts can spiral from our children or grandchildren struggling with their math and reading lessons to thinking they may never be able to relate, make it as an adult and their whole lives will amount to failure pretty quickly.
A close friend of ours advised we write down the end goal when we consider what roles we can play with any homeschooling and revisit this idea frequently.
Reminding ourselves of our roles can help clear our minds from distracting, irrelevant worries – it also helps us ensure we are investing in the patterns, skills, rhythms and activities that best push us towards our primary mission.
All of this is also true in our marriages.
It’s easy to get upset, distracted, or overly invested in patterns of behaviors that don’t align with the critical generational spiritual mission of our home.
Take time to define together what we feel we are called by God to as a couple.
This could be a long-term mission or a short-term dream but write down what kind of culture God is calling you to create in your home.
Then take time to check in and evaluate if our behaviors and routines align with what we both feel God has put upon both of our hearts.
Life is short, and we are too easily distracted!
It’s important to keep each other accountable to our unique spiritual missions.
5. What are our financial goals?
Money matters in marriage.
It’s one of the biggest reasons for frustration and stress in married life.
Regularly coming together and evaluating your financial goals, spending habits, debts, income is helpful to ensure we are unified in managing our home’s finances.
There is often a spender, a saver, a money planner, and one spouse who doesn’t care about money.
It’s good to have that balance of perspective, but budgeting requires unity.
Even if money doesn’t stress you out, it’s still important that you take time to engage our spouses in this conversation.
If we’re the bill payer, spender (me!), it’s important that the saver keep tabs on us so our regular spending does not become a financial problem in our home.
Marriage is a blessing, but it’s also where God does some of his character-refining work in our lives.
We have to be disciplined in how we approach each other.
Choosing to stay engaged, invested, and open to each other.
More than anything, God placed you together for a Heaven-ordained purpose.
Don’t forget His mission for our marriage as we muddle through the details of our days.
He is our strength and portion; He establishes our boundaries, He gives us what we need and what we will require to make our married love last for a lifetime.
In the name of God, the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit,
Let us Pray,
Father, I said till Death do us part I want to mean it with all of my heart Help me to love you more than I love her Then I know I can love her more Than anyone else
And bring her in Your presence today Make her what You want her to be
I pray to hear her heart I pray she’ll love you more I pray to cherish and serve her And we’ll bring you glory today, I pray
Father, I said till Death do us part I want to mean it with all of my heart Help me to love you more than I love him Then I know I can love him more Than anyone else
And bring him in Your presence today Make him what You want him to be
Bridge Lord, help me love her As you love the church, your bride Help me submit to him As I submit to you, my life
This is my prayer Amen
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost; as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen, amen.
7-10 Because of the extravagance of those revelations, and so I wouldn’t get a big head, I was given the gift of a handicap to keep me in constant touch with my limitations. Satan’s angel did his best to get me down; what he in fact did was push me to my knees. No danger then of walking around high and mighty! At first I didn’t think of it as a gift, and begged God to remove it. Three times I did that, and then he told me,
My grace is enough; it’s all you need. My strength comes into its own in your weakness.
Once I heard that, I was glad to let it happen. I quit focusing on the handicap and began appreciating the gift. It was a case of Christ’s strength moving in on my weakness. Now I take limitations in stride, and with good cheer, these limitations that cut me down to size—abuse, accidents, opposition, bad breaks. I just let Christ take over! And so the weaker I get, the stronger I become.
The Word of God for the Children of God.
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost; as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen, amen.
“In Your Weakness I Will Strengthen You!”
Married people who are very confident in their own abilities and in what they have each achieved in their wedded life together, seldom know much of God.
Before we can genuinely discover God’s power and strength in all of its fullness, we must be brought face to face with our own inability, weakness and mortality.
We will all go through times in our lives that we’d rather avoid.
Like the apostle Paul, we will ask the Lord to remove difficulty from our lives, and we may receive the answer that, if we are brutally honest, we don’t always desire to hear: “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in [your] weakness” (2 Corinthians 12:9).
Many of us spend our lives trying to be strong for others, to press on and to hold it together at all costs for those we have each come to very deeply care about.
We may even begin to believe that we can do that—but we can’t.
Even on our best days, we discover that we have physical and spiritual limits that we cannot possibly overcome on our own “at all costs” abilities.
Yet if we will only acknowledge how desperately weak we are, we will be amazed, totally awed to see the power of God unleashed within our lives.
The way to be truly strong for our spouses and strong for others, such as our children, is to lean upon the Lord’s strength, rather than to rely on our own.
Perhaps as you read short devotional this you are physically, emotionally, or spiritually drained—and if you are not, the time for feeling that way will come.
In your moments of weakness, you will be faced with a choice: you can ask God to give you strength, or you can turn to the idols of pride and self sufficiency.
Your all too natural inclination will not be to turn to God but to rejuvenate and reassure yourself by other means—your possessions, your intellect, your own energy, your past achievements, whatever else you and your spouse think of.
Yet the prophet pursues us with these words: “Thus says the LORD: ‘Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, let not the mighty man boast in his might, let not the rich man boast in his riches, but let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me’” (Jeremiah 9:23-24).
Instead of our spouses and I trying to press on in our own strength today, allow the Holy Spirit to minister to minister to us, shouting this truth into our souls:
God supplies His limitless strength for our all too limiting weakness.
Isaiah 41:10Authorized (King James) Version
10 Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness.
He says, “I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.”
We serve a God who has eyes that quite literally see everything about us, knees that stoop to help you, and hands which reach out from heaven to embrace us.
Today, take both your spouses hands, face to face, life to life, humbly turn to Him in your weaknesses, be prepared for Him to meet you with His strength.
In the name of God, the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit,
Let us both Pray,
Psalm 23 Authorized (King James) Version
Psalm 23
A Psalm of David.
1 The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. 2 He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters. 3 He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name’s sake. 4 Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me. 5 Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over. 6 Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever.
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost; as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen, amen.
21 Place yourselves under each other’s authority out of respect for Christ.
22 Wives, place yourselves under your husbands’ authority as you have placed yourselves under the Lord’s authority. 23 The husband is the head of his wife as Christ is the head of the church. It is his body, and he is its Savior. 24 As the church is under Christ’s authority, so wives are under their husbands’ authority in everything.
25 Husbands, love your wives as Christ loved the church and gave his life for it. 26 He did this to make the church holy by cleansing it, washing it using water along with spoken words. 27 Then he could present it to himself as a glorious church, without any kind of stain or wrinkle—holy and without faults. 28 So husbands must love their wives as they love their own bodies. A man who loves his wife loves himself. 29 No one ever hated his own body. Instead, he feeds and takes care of it, as Christ takes care of the church. 30 We are parts of his body. 31 That’s why a man will leave his father and mother and be united with his wife, and the two will be one. 32 This is a great mystery. (I’m talking about Christ’s relationship to the church.) 33 But every husband must love his wife as he loves himself, and wives should respect their husbands.
The Word of God for the Children of God.
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost; as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen, amen.
My wife and I knew we were embarking on a season of intensity.
Lots of life changes, lots of expectations, and lots of unknowns awaited us.
I told her I thought life would eventually give us a tiny break here and there.
We were sure there would, inevitably, have to be a season of respite much sooner rather than much later.
Several months rolled around, then those months became years, and life was still coming at us at roller-coaster-like velocity with just about as many twists and turns as any two people thought they could keep themselves adjusting to.
We believe we are both “mature” people of faith and believe in God more so than ourselves to be able to ride out that whole host of issues on our plates.
Several (too many to count) broken plates later we learned that faith is not an abstract something that is nurtured inside a spiritual greenhouse environment.
It’s grown and stretched, sometimes uprooted too, in wild, uncharted terrains. (For further biblical references here – just look up the Parable of the Sowers)
Unquestionably, we have been so grateful for God’s faithful hand moving and through our growing our lives as husband and wife, even if we feel like that life resembles more a white-knuckle ride than a peaceful, stroll along quiet waters.
We are both mature enough, realistic enough, to know we can’t expect life on this earth to be continuously easy or even placid.
That is not the “welcome to our world” environment we each grew up in and we both welcome the thought that God is continuously after our seasons of growth!
People I know right now are going through seasons of unrelenting intensity.
Physical and financial fallout has coaxed many from cocoons of comfort out on the proverbial limb of trusting God rather than in their retirement or bankrolls.
A cascade of serious health, financial concerns weigh heavily on the hearts of many as they lift faces to God, hope for miracles that’s beyond the hand of man.
Family crisis, family crises, family struggles are a harsh, ever present reality that couples encounter and try to process and deal with (hopefully) together.
Dreams to pursue become dreams put on hold, dreams juggled, blessings given, become blessings ripped even violently stripped away, all put a stress and strain on the “for better of for worse” fabrics, blankets, tapestries of our marriages.
We shout out at and to each other rather than shout out at and unto the Lord.
Regardless of whether we find ourselves in a season of intense stress right now, the truth of the matter, is that biblically, we’ll eventually enter such intensity!
Right from the beginning Adam and Eve got married and for a time enjoyed all those seasons of health, tranquility and abundance – then things got intense!
The serpent showed up – then in the intense tranquility, intense sin entered in.
Eyes wide open, they feasted on the forbidden fruit, realized they were naked and they ran through and rushed all over the garden for any suitable fig leaves.
God showed up – and in the intensity of their moment – they ran from God and they hid from God and did not immediately respond to God’s verbal summons.
God then demanded an accounting from the both of them for their actions and immediately finger pointing entered the lexicon, the blame game was invented.
In as big a hurry as anyone can imagine, life is just something that rockets itself to the deepest heavens, inevitably full of things that add up to stress and strain.
How we handle the intensity and suddenness of the emotion of it all makes or breaks us as individuals and as a married “for better or for worse” couple.
Consider the following passage recorded the night Jesus would be led away to His crucifixion:
“Then Jesus went with his disciples to a place called Gethsemane, and he said to them, ‘Sit here while I go over there and pray.’ He took Peter and the two sons of Zebedee along with him, and he began to be sorrowful and troubled. Then he said to them, ‘My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me'” (Matthew 26:36-38).
The God of the Universe, the Creator of All Things, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords experienced emotions so powerful, deep and intense that the pressure of His grief made Him feel as if He could just keel over and die right there!
He sweated blood (Luke 22:44)!
Like uncountable numbers of fellow human beings, I have been stressed and I have been deeply intensely upset, but never been so distraught I sweat blood!
Hebrews 4:15 says, “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are — yet was without sin.”
Jesus is our High Priest who sympathizes with our weakness — even our weak, frail, human emotional stresses and issues.
He empathizes with us, sympathizes with us because He understands pressure, grief, sorrow, stress, anger, at measures of intensity no human can understand.
Yet in all the intense emotional drama that surrounded His leaving His home in heaven, being born of a human being, crucified earthly life, He never sinned.
He didn’t snap at the disciples out of impatience, like we might snap at our spouses when we are out of patience.
His blood sugar might have dropped low from hunger, but He did not get a horrid case of the “sudden lashing grumpies” like I do when that happens.
He didn’t let anxiety over mean, hurtful, destructive people eat away at His insides until He was totally immobilized for His mission — like I have done.
Yet He understands my struggle — and your struggle — with the emotions that derail and distract us from the good stuff He has planned for us.
He understands better than any human can hope to, deep, intense emotions.
And the hopeful part is this – He knows exactly, precisely what to do with them!
In our marriage husband and wife will inevitably, will even undoubtedly come to impasses where life is just plain too hot to touch, intense, too overwhelming.
In those seasons of intense stress we must proactively guard your marriage.
Practical ways we can protect our marriages from the eroding force of stress:
1. Follow Jesus’ example and pray!
Stats show that couples who pray together stay together!
Come together as simple, needy children before your Father in heaven and seek Him together with honesty and trust.
Also, pray with and for your spouse. Pray earnestly for their protection from temptation, the evil one and for their relationship with God to grow strong.
2. Be compassionate to one another.
Stress of any intensity causes us to do some weird things and we all need grace!
Ephesians 4:32 says, “Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you” (NIV).
3. Encourage your spouse to take the time they need to seek God, maintain physical health (time to sleep, exercise, eat well) positive, Christian fellowship.
I have always encouraged each other to take time for ladies lunches, retreats, enjoy “Christian” sisters who are a great source of joy and encouragement for her, fellowship, laugh, eat healthy and spend quality time deep in God’s word.
Especially when life is stressful, is intensely stressful, it seems really hard to take time to care of yourself — and that is often when you need to do it most!
Encourage your spouse to take care of him/herself.
4. Spoil ‘em a little!
Does your hubby really like foot rubs or a certain meal for dinner?
Does it bless your wife when you wash up the dishes after dinner or rub her shoulders at the end of the day?
Then go the extra mile and spoil your honey when life is stressful! (And this refers to you — it’s not for you to elbow your spouse to read — wink, wink!)
If you find yourself in a season of stress, my wife and I are praying that God’s grace would intensely surround you, that you would learn more of who God is, that your faith would grow deeper and that your marriage would grow stronger.
Committed, Covenanted, to For Better or Worse
Ephesians 5:25-33 GOD’S WORD Translation
25 Husbands, love your wives as Christ loved the church and gave his life for it. 26 He did this to make the church holy by cleansing it, washing it using water along with spoken words. 27 Then he could present it to himself as a glorious church, without any kind of stain or wrinkle—holy and without faults. 28 So husbands must love their wives as they love their own bodies. A man who loves his wife loves himself. 29 No one ever hated his own body. Instead, he feeds and takes care of it, as Christ takes care of the church. 30 We are parts of his body. 31 That’s why a man will leave his father and mother and be united with his wife, and the two will be one. 32 This is a great mystery. (I’m talking about Christ’s relationship to the church.) 33 But every husband must love his wife as he loves himself, and wives should respect their husbands.
A lack of commitment to marriage is widespread among Christians, and it is genuinely heartbreaking.
We have been mandated to set the example for godly marriages.
We have the blueprint for how to combat the fiery darts designed to test our unity, love, and faith in God.
Instead, I am convinced that we too often forget when we recited our vows.
Our thoughts and actions would differ if we comprehended the magnitude of the covenant that we make before God and the company of witnesses.
Actually, as Ecclesiastes 5:5 declares,
“It is better to say nothing than to make a promise and not keep it.”
The covenant commitment to “for better or worse” is meant to be kept.
All marriages experience trial, tribulation, calamity, and tragedy.
How awesome is it to remember God, and have God carry you through.
God rewards us when we trust and obey him through better and worse.
For better or for worse, even through better and through the worst, to stay committed, we must decide to never leave our partner behind, forgive quickly and often, commit to work through the tough stuff, and love unconditionally.
Philippians 4:10-13 GOD’S WORD Translation
Thanks for Your Gifts
10 The Lord has filled me with joy because you again showed interest in me. You were interested but did not have an opportunity to show it. 11 I’m not saying this because I’m in any need. I’ve learned to be content in whatever situation I’m in. 12 I know how to live in poverty or prosperity. No matter what the situation, I’ve learned the secret of how to live when I’m full or when I’m hungry, when I have too much or when I have too little. 13 I can do everything through Christ who strengthens me.
For better or for worse, through the help of the Lord, all things are possible.
For better, through the worse, through the strength and help of the Lord …
In the name of God, the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit,
Let us Pray,
Psalm 23Authorized (King James) Version
Psalm 23
A Psalm of David.
1 The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. 2 He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters. 3 He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name’s sake. 4 Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me. 5 Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over. 6 Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever.
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost; as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen, amen.
18 Then the Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper who is just right for him.” 19 So the Lord God formed from the ground all the wild animals and all the birds of the sky. He brought them to the man[a] to see what he would call them, and the man chose a name for each one. 20 He gave names to all the livestock, all the birds of the sky, and all the wild animals. But still there was no helper just right for him.
21 So the Lord God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep. While the man slept, the Lord God took out one of the man’s ribs[b] and closed up the opening. 22 Then the Lord God made a woman from the rib, and he brought her to the man.
23 “At last!” the man exclaimed.
“This one is bone from my bone, and flesh from my flesh! She will be called ‘woman,’ because she was taken from ‘man.’”
24 This explains why a man leaves his father and mother and is joined to his wife, and the two are united into one.
25 Now the man and his wife were both naked, but they felt no shame.
The Word of God for the Children of God.
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost; as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen, amen.
I remember watching a Larry King Live show years ago which featured several celebrity women who had formed what they chose to call an “ex-wives club.”
I remember most of them had been married more than once, yet they all agreed that marriage was not so special.
That prompted Larry King to sharply ask, “If marriage is not special, why try it for a second or third time?”
A lifelong bachelor contemplating as I was asking my current wife to become my fiancé, the brunt of the question from Mr. King swiftly caught my attention.
I do not usually watch such shows – but things were definitely changing for me.
I was seriously contemplating giving up a lifetime of dedicated bachelorhood to the only woman I would ever say I would quite literally surrender my whole life.
Reflecting on the same question now after 13 1/2 of marriage, the answer to that question I believe is found, at least in part, in Genesis 2:18, where God says, “It is not good for the man to be alone.”
Right from the very beginning, God declared that Adam needed a companion.
Without the woman’s companionship, union, Adam was destined to be lonely.
So God brought Eve into his life to make him more complete.
God brought a heavy sleep upon Adam, took one of his ribs, and gave Adam a lifelong partner with whom he could have a meaningful, intimate relationship.
Through the covenant of marriage, God gives us a companion, a soul mate, to share all of the experiences of life.
A spouse is someone who understands us, someone who is there for us every step of the way.
The gift of marriage is intended to give us a loving companion who can make us more whole, complete, and with whom we can share the deepest joys, fears, and yearnings of our souls – in addition, God intended it to be a relationship for life.
If you are now contemplating marriage, pray to God, read and study the bible, choose someone who can be that kind of companion to you on life’s journey.
And if we are married, pray to God, read and study the bible together, nurture ever so carefully your heart-to-heart relationship with the one God gave you.
What Does Spiritual Leadership in Marriage Look Like?
From the first words of Genesis we clearly learn that Our God is orderly.
He created our world, ordered the hours, days, months, and seasons.
God was intentional about His design of everything.
He left us His guidebook, so we also may come to know how to order our days.
In His design, He covenanted, ordained the beautiful thing we call a family.
Genesis 2:18-25 The Message
18-20 God said, “It’s not good for the Man to be alone; I’ll make him a helper, a companion.” So God formed from the dirt of the ground all the animals of the field and all the birds of the air. He brought them to the Man to see what he would name them. Whatever the Man called each living creature, that was its name. The Man named the cattle, named the birds of the air, named the wild animals; but he didn’t find a suitable companion.
21-22 God put the Man into a deep sleep. As he slept he removed one of his ribs and replaced it with flesh. God then used the rib that he had taken from the Man to make Woman and presented her to the Man.
23-25 The Man said, “Finally! Bone of my bone, flesh of my flesh! Name her Woman for she was made from Man.” Therefore a man leaves his father and mother and embraces his wife. They become one flesh. The two of them, the Man and his Wife, were naked, but they felt no shame.
He created order within marriage and assigned roles to family members.
In this devotional, we look at spiritual leadership’s role, why it is important.
What Does the Bible Say About Spiritual Leadership?
Let’s look at a couple of verses in the Bible to guide us on this topic.
Ephesians 5:22 states, “Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church.”
Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 11:3, “But I want you to realize that the head of every man is Christ, and head of the women is man, and the head of the Christ is God.”
Lastly, Colossians 3:18-19 says, “Wives, submit to your husbands, as is fitting in the Lord. Husbands, love your wives and do not be harsh with them.”
The Bible says the man should lead his wife.
That doesn’t mean he has more value than his wife.
Dale Partridge, Pastor and founder of Relearn church, uses the phrase, “equal value, different role.”
Men and women have equal value in God’s eyes, yet a different role to fulfill.
Marriage is a partnership.
A healthy, thriving couple seeking God values each other’s strengths and input.
A godly biblical leader seeks advice from his trusted council.
The purpose of marriage is to glorify God and have an opportunity to exhibit how Christ loves the church.
The Bible clearly states the man should be leading the house.
If we look to Jesus as our model, a true leader exhibits humility, compassion, love, forgiveness, protection, provision, gentleness, and more.
That said, no husband will lead their wife or family perfectly because we are all sinners, and they are not Jesus.
What Does Spiritual Leadership Look Like?
I believe some people have a misunderstanding of what spiritual leadership looks like.
They envision a power hungry husband bossing around his wife and kids.
This is the opposite of true spiritual leadership.
A man leading his family biblically is about being in a right relationship with the Lord.
It’s about the husband reading his Bible, humbly seeking the Lord in all he does.
Most importantly, it’s a man fearing the Lord.
“The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.” (Proverbs 9:10)
A godly man knows he is accountable for his wife and kids when he gets to heaven.
He is responsible for teaching them, guiding them, making wise decisions, serving them, and loving them well and like God loves us, with everything.
He is to protect them at all costs.
When you understand this correctly, it’s a massive responsibility God has put on the head of the house.
It’s a huge honor and a high and mighty task with great importance that men need to take seriously.
A man seeking the Lord through reading the Bible and prayer will be convicted and led by the Lord.
“I love those who love me, and those who seek me find me.” (Proverbs 8:18)
A husband who is leading his marriage strives to be a good communicator.
He values his wife’s opinion, serves her, and prays for her.
He serves her not because she deserves it but rather because that’s the role God has exclusively assigned to him.
If we will look to the Bible for an example of spiritual leadership, I think of the Patriarch Abraham, who led his wife Sarah on a lifelong journey trusting in God.
God blessed their family because of Abraham’s great faith.
Men and Their Role in Spiritual Leadership
As discussed above, husbands have an instrumental role in leading their wives.
I realize that stepping up to this role is challenging, exhausting, and does not come with many short-term rewards.
This role requires steadfastness, persistence, and God’s strength and wisdom.
Regardless of the difficulty, this world desperately needs men to step into their role as the spiritual leader of their marriage and family.
A marriage and a family need leadership.
If the husband doesn’t step up, the spouse will fill the role and remain out of order until the positions are reoriented.
This happened in our own house.
Before my wife and I truly understood our roles, we were constantly vying for “head of the household” leadership in our home.
It’s a natural fleshly desire to want to take over leadership, especially as a strong-willed, independent male bachelor long used to being in charge.
Our house has run more smoothly and peacefully as my wife and I continually seek the Lord through prayer and bible study and better understand our roles.
When you stay within God’s design for marriage, things don’t always work out perfectly, but there is an unexplainable harmony, a beautiful dance that occurs.
Men who are sitting back, letting others lead their wives and families, need to take the reins.
Yes, it will definitely mean more work, assertiveness, responsibility, but it’s a job assigned to exclusively them, covenanted to them by our Heavenly Father.
This job is of utmost importance, it’s a job they’ve been created to fulfill.
Genesis 2 defines the man’s role to work and keep.
A godly man provides stability and security that is needed in his home.
He nurtures the heart and the mind of his wife and children – if every man and dad knew just how impactful their role is, our world might be a different place.
Why Is Spiritual Leadership Important in Marriage?
A ship sails aimlessly about without a captain, a classroom turns to chaos without a teacher, and a company needs a CEO to make final decisions.
A married couple and a family need a leader.
They need a guide who is seeking the Lord’s guidance in this sinful world.
“I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go.” (Psalm 32:8)
Spiritual leaders guide and direct the ship.
They look out for potential danger ahead.
They make sure everyone aboard is safe, and their needs are met.
If trouble arises (as it always does), they develop a plan to solve the problem.
They take advice from their shipmates and constantly provide encouragement.
They develop the best route to get to their destination.
They ensure the ship remains afloat, stays on course, steers it in the GOD right DIRECTION and are responsible for everyone getting safely to their destination.
Ephesians 2:7-10 The Message
7-10 Now God has us where he wants us, with all the time in this world and the next to shower grace and kindness upon us in Christ Jesus. Saving is all his idea, and all his work. All we do is trust him enough to let him do it. It’s God’s gift from start to finish! We don’t play the major role. If we did, we’d probably go around bragging that we’d done the whole thing! No, we neither make nor save ourselves. God does both the making and saving. He creates each of us by Christ Jesus to join him in the work he does, the good work he has gotten ready for us to do, work we had better be doing.
Sally Clarkson has a quote pertinent to this topic,
“In the absence of biblical conviction, people will go the way of culture.”
Meaning, if a couple is not actively laboring, working together to have the right relationship with the Lord, their decisions will be heavily influenced by culture.
By not deciding to lead your marriage actively, and in union, you are then, by default, tragically deciding to let others to enter in, lead your house by default.
A solid biblical leader will not take their role for granted or boast about their knowledge.
Instead, they will model the ultimate servant leader Jesus and make sure He is aboard and fully present, fully utterly in total command on the bridge the ship.
They will acknowledge their shortcomings, repent, and ask for help (Psalm 32).
Psalm 32 The Message
32 Count yourself lucky, how happy you must be— you get a fresh start, your slate’s wiped clean.
2 Count yourself lucky— God holds nothing against you and you’re holding nothing back from him.
3 When I kept it all inside, my bones turned to powder, my words became daylong groans.
4 The pressure never let up; all the juices of my life dried up.
5 Then I let it all out; I said, “I’ll come clean about my failures to God.”
Suddenly the pressure was gone— my guilt dissolved, my sin disappeared.
6 These things add up. Every one of us needs to pray; when all hell breaks loose and the dam bursts we’ll be on high ground, untouched.
7 God’s my island hideaway, keeps danger far from the shore, throws garlands of hosannas around my neck.
8 Let me give you some good advice; I’m looking you in the eye and giving it to you straight:
9 “Don’t be ornery like a horse or mule that needs bit and bridle to stay on track.”
10 God-defiers are always in trouble; God-affirmers find themselves loved every time they turn around.
11 Celebrate God. Sing together—everyone! All you honest hearts, raise the roof!
How Can a Wife Support Her Husband in Spiritual Leadership?
How can a wife support her husband as he leads their family?
Or, if your husband is not stepping into this role, what can you do?
The Bible says in Proverbs 21:9, “Better to live on a corner of the roof than share a house with a quarrelsome wife.”
Based on this verse, a wife should not, cannot nag, coerce, or argue her way to force her husband to spiritually lead them.
Only God can change hearts, but there are a few things a wife can do.
The first is prayer.
The word pray is used 313 times in the King James Bible.
Psalms 37:4 tells us, “Take delight in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart.”
Pray a specific Scripture for your husband’s heart to be turned to Jesus every day – I am talking about those consistent, heart-felt prayers you say for years.
For example a wife praying Isaiah 11:2-5 for her husband for over (___) years.
Take God’s words and insert your husband’s name to personalize the prayer.
“May the Spirit of the Lord rest on (name), to give him a Spirit of wisdom and of understanding, a Spirit of counsel and of might, the Spirit of the knowledge and fear of the Lord – that he will delight in the fear of the Lord.”
Wives can encourage their husbands to be in groups and build relationships with other solid Christian men, preferably an older man who has experience and wisdom with marriage and family.
Let him speak truth into your husband.
Pray your husband’s ears and heart are open to this man’s advice.
You can model healthy habits by reading your Bible, having your prayer time.
Respect goes a long way in a marriage, especially with men.
If you are frustrated with his lack of leadership, lovingly communicate your desires, but always give your utmost, uppermost, respect him regardless.
Give him time to grow and mature into this role.
The culture doesn’t teach men how to spiritually lead; if anything, the opposite. Be patient with him, and never stop praying!
A husband seeking God and truly leading his wife and children biblically is a beautiful thing.
The house is in order.
“He rewards those who earnestly seek him.” (Hebrews 11:6)
The role of a spiritual leader is a critical one, and it’s being attacked by culture.
In today’s climate, men are backing down from the job for many good reasons, but the Christian community is paying the price.
We need husbands accepting and committed to the role God designed for them.
We need them leading their wives and children.
We need husbands fearing less in what others think of them and fearing more in the Lord.
Submission to One Another
Ephesians 5:21-33 The Message
Relationships
21 Out of respect for Christ, be courteously reverent to one another.
22-24 Wives, understand and support your husbands in ways that show your support for Christ. The husband provides leadership to his wife the way Christ does to his church, not by domineering but by cherishing. So just as the church submits to Christ as he exercises such leadership, wives should likewise submit to their husbands.
25-28 Husbands, go all out in your love for your wives, exactly as Christ did for the church—a love marked by giving, not getting. Christ’s love makes the church whole. His words evoke her beauty. Everything he does and says is designed to bring the best out of her, dressing her in dazzling white silk, radiant with holiness. And that is how husbands ought to love their wives. They’re really doing themselves a favor—since they’re already “one” in marriage.
29-33 No one abuses his own body, does he? No, he feeds and pampers it. That’s how Christ treats us, the church, since we are part of his body. And this is why a man leaves father and mother and cherishes his wife. No longer two, they become “one flesh.” This is a huge mystery, and I don’t pretend to understand it all. What is clearest to me is the way Christ treats the church. And this provides a good picture of how each husband is to treat his wife, loving himself in loving her, and how each wife is to honor her husband.
“Why don’t you throw away those old pants?” my wife said.
“They’re stained and frayed around the cuffs. They make you look sloppy.”
I bristled at her suggestion.
It pushed my “bachelor’s contrary button,” as we say in our family.
I dug in my heels and got stubborn: “Yeah, but they’re my most comfortable pants. Who cares how they look?”
I’ve found that a lot of people will not admit to having a “contrary button.”
If we don’t like someone’s idea, even if their suggestion is reasonably, politely, and mildly expressed, rebelliousness stirs in our heart.
Submission calls for humility, but we will often choose to be stubborn rather than submit.
Again, Psalm 32:9 counsels us, “Do not be like the horse or the mule, which have no understanding but must be controlled by bit and bridle.”
Why does Paul say, “Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ”?
Surely it is because Christ, though being fully God,
“made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness” (Philippians 2:7).
He served his disciples by washing their feet (John 13).
And he died the death of a criminal—for us.
As the Lord Leads, If our Lord humbled himself, submitted to death on a cross, why do I feel I should be boss all the time, always in control, getting my way?
In our marriages, Let’s learn both our unity and our submissiveness from Him.
In the name of God, the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit,
Let us Pray,
Marriage Prayer for Unity and Strength
Father, from the very beginning, your greatest command was for us to love You and to love each other as You first loved us. You’ve given marriage as a holy relationship that reflects our relationship with You. Show us how to follow your example and set aside our selfishness and pride and humbly serve each other. Help us both to be of one spirit and of one mind and value each other above ourselves, looking out for each other’s interests. In the midst of our busy lives, help us take time to love each other deeply from the heart, as you have loved us. May the love we have for each other be an example to the world of how You love them and gave Your life for them.
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost; as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen, amen.
2 1-6 Your job is to speak out on the things that make for solid doctrine. Guide older men into lives of temperance, dignity, and wisdom, into healthy faith, love, and endurance. Guide older women into lives of reverence so they end up as neither gossips nor drunks, but models of goodness. By looking at them, the younger women will know how to love their husbands and children, be virtuous and pure, keep a good house, be good wives. We don’t want anyone looking down on God’s Message because of their behavior. Also, guide the young men to live disciplined lives.
7-8 But mostly, show them all this by doing it yourself, trustworthy in your teaching, your words solid and sane. Then anyone who is dead set against us, when he finds nothing weird or misguided, might eventually come around.
9-10 Guide slaves into being loyal workers, a bonus to their masters—no back talk, no petty thievery. Then their good character will shine through their actions, adding luster to the teaching of our Savior God.
11-14 God’s readiness to give and forgive is now public. Salvation’s available for everyone! We’re being shown how to turn our backs on a godless, indulgent life, and how to take on a God-filled, God-honoring life. This new life is starting right now, and is whetting our appetites for the glorious day when our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, appears. He offered himself as a sacrifice to free us from a dark, rebellious life into this good, pure life, making us a people he can be proud of, energetic in goodness.
15 Tell them all this. Build up their courage, and discipline them if they get out of line. You’re in charge. Don’t let anyone put you down.
The Word of God for the Children of God.
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost; as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen, amen.
Today, we seek, explore, the concept of Kingdom Leadership, emphasizing the importance of our view of God, our view of the empty tomb and the place of the Holy Spirit of God in influencing our actions, decisions, and leadership styles.
Let me begin this devotional by quoting a thought from one of the most respected Christian leaders and authors, Reverend Dr. A.W. Tozer.
He said, “A low view of God is the cause of a hundred lesser evils, but a high view of God is the solution to ten thousand temporal problems.”
It’s simple, y’all! Our view of God, how we perceive and understand Him, largely influences our actions, decisions, and leadership styles.
Today, we’re going to delve deep into the concept of Kingdom Leadership as outlined in Apostle Paul’s letter to Titus, particularly this text Titus 2:1-15.
This passage speaks volumes about the call to Kingdom Leadership, the character of Kingdom leaders, and the impact of Kingdom Leadership.
And today, we will seek to unpack some of these kingdom building truths and see how, in the vast complexities of today we can try to apply them in our lives.
The Call to Kingdom Leadership
The covenant call to Kingdom Leadership is a divine invitation that every single believer receives upon their baptism.
It is not a covenant call into any single position or into any single title, but a call into a radical lifestyle of influence and impact that reflects the Kingdom of God.
This call, as Paul outlines in his letter to Titus, is not exclusive to a select few but is extended to every believer, regardless of age, gender, or social status.
Titus 2:1-6 The Message
A God-Filled Life
2 1-6 Your job is to speak out on the things that make for solid doctrine. Guide older men into lives of temperance, dignity, and wisdom, into healthy faith, love, and endurance. Guide older women into lives of reverence so they end up as neither gossips nor drunks, but models of goodness. By looking at them, the younger women will know how to love their husbands and children, be virtuous and pure, keep a good house, be good wives. We don’t want anyone looking down on God’s Message because of their behavior. Also, guide the young men to live disciplined lives.
Teach what accords with sound doctrine:
This is the first aspect of the call to Kingdom Leadership.
It is a call to align our lives and teachings with the truth of God’s Word.
As Kingdom Leaders, we are not just called to know the Word, but to live it out in our daily lives. (2 Corinthians 3:1-6 The Message)
3 1-3 Does it sound like we’re patting ourselves on the back, insisting on our credentials, asserting our authority? Well, we’re not. Neither do we need letters of endorsement, either to you or from you. You yourselves are all the endorsement we need. Your very lives are a letter that anyone can read by just looking at you. Christ himself wrote it—not with ink, but with God’s living Spirit; not chiseled into stone, but carved into human lives—and we publish it.
4-6 We couldn’t be more sure of ourselves in this—that you, written by Christ himself for God, are our letter of recommendation. We wouldn’t think of writing this kind of letter about ourselves. Only God can write such a letter. His letter authorizes us to help carry out this new plan of action. The plan wasn’t written out with ink on paper, with pages and pages of legal footnotes, killing your spirit. It’s written with Spirit on spirit, his life on our lives!
We are called to be living epistles, (2 Corinthians 3:1-6) known and read by all men meaning our lives should be a reflection of the sound doctrine we profess.
The call to mentorship and discipleship:
In Titus 2 verses 2 to 4, Paul gives specific instructions to the older men and women in the church.
They are to live lives of dignity, self-control, faith, love, and steadfastness.
But they are not just to live these lives for themselves.
They are to teach and train the younger ones in the church to do the same.
This is a call to intentional discipleship – Kingdom Leaders are called to invest in the lives of others, to mentor and disciple them in the ways of the Kingdom.
Titus 2:7-10 The Message
7-8 But mostly, show them all this by doing it yourself, trustworthy in your teaching, your words solid and sane. Then anyone who is dead set against us, when he finds nothing weird or misguided, might eventually come around.
9-10 Guide slaves into being loyal workers, a bonus to their masters—no back talk, no petty thievery. Then their good character will shine through their actions, adding luster to the teaching of our Savior God.
The call to exemplary living:
In verse 7, Paul instructs Titus to show himself in all respects to be a model of good works.
Kingdom Leaders are called to lead by example.
They are to live lives that are worthy of emulation.
Their actions, words, and attitudes should reflect the character of Christ.
The call to integrity and dignity:
In verse 8, Paul instructs Titus to show integrity, dignity, and sound speech in his teaching.
Kingdom Leaders are called to be people of integrity.
They are to be honest, trustworthy, and reliable.
They are to uphold the dignity that comes with being children of God.
Their speech should be sound, wholesome, and edifying.
The call to servanthood:
In verse 9, Paul instructs the bondservants to be submissive to their masters, to be well-pleasing, not argumentative, to embrace integrity, show all good faith.
Kingdom Leaders are called to be servant leaders and servants.
They are to lead by “getting their hands and feet dirty in the soils of God’s Kingdom,” serving others, just as Christ came not to be served, but to serve. (Matthew 13, Mark 4, Luke 8)
For Today’s Church: Models of Christian Maturity
Titus 2:1-6 GOD’S WORD Translation
Guidelines for Christian Living
2 Tell believers to live the kind of life that goes along with accurate teachings. 2 Tell older men to be sober. Tell them to be men of good character, to use good judgment, and to be well-grounded in faith, love, and endurance.
3 Tell older women to live their lives in a way that shows they are dedicated to God. Tell them not to be gossips or addicted to alcohol, but to be examples of virtue. 4 In this way they will teach young women to show love to their husbands and children, 5 to use good judgment, and to be morally pure. Also, tell them to teach young women to be homemakers, to be kind, and to place themselves under their husbands’ authority. Then no one can speak evil of God’s word.
6 Encourage young men to use good judgment.
When life gets difficult, you won’t need a three-ring binder full of notes or a self-help guide to life.
No, you’ll need an arm around your shoulder.
You’ll need the tender eyes of an older mature Christian who understands.
You’ll need compassion.
Such ministry in a church is not programmatic; it is relational.
It is as a result of knowing people.
It is a result of being able to open up to people.
This is why every church needs older men and older women who are marked by maturity, who are not “going through the motions,” or coasting but growing in faith toward God, in love toward others, in steadfastness in the face of trials.
Paul writes to all churches that Titus’s role in the congregation to which he ministered was to encourage and exhort the older men to be sober-minded, dignified, self-controlled, merciful, and forgiving and healthy in their faith.
He was to be no less concerned, but equally attentive, equally mindful, equally respectful, with the spiritual growth, and health of the church’s older women.
Just as older men have a significant role in the day to day life of a developing congregation, so too are the ministries of older women, being absolutely vital.
Churches need older men and women that have run the race and who have kept the faith to model for younger generations what it looks like to live for Christ.
The church needs older men and women because they can “teach what is good and wise and edifying” to those up and coming generations who are younger.
The teaching here is lifestyle teaching before it is any other kind of teaching.
When Paul wrote these words, he wasn’t anticipating any classroom setting with any textbooks.
This kind of lifestyle instruction takes place in the home, casual yet intentional conversations, as well as arranged meetings, and simply in rubbing shoulders with one another in our daily life, recognizing invaluable teaching opportunity.
Where are you going to go when, for example your marriage begins to struggle?
Who are you going to talk to when your teenager goes into the dreaded “I don’t ever want to talk to you again” mode?
Where will you turn when you don’t know where to turn?
You can seek out marriage professionals, You can visit and take counsel with your pastor, who can pray with you and give you some guidance, but you’ll also require an older man or woman who has walked on the same path and can say,
“Let me tell you how I lived through it. Let me tell you what I did. Let me tell you how I prayed. Let me tell you about the grace of God. Let me encourage you.”
Most of us can be such an “older man” or “older woman” to someone of a younger age and earlier stage in life than us.
Intentionally, even “unintentionally”, accidently stumble into some younger persons moment, accidently, on purpose, make yourself available in this way.
And most of us can find someone older and wiser than us and ask them to pray with us, counsel us, and be there for us – to intentionally seek out that kind of friendship, for it is one of the greatest blessings that the church of God gives us.
For the Next Generation: Giving The Gift of Hope
Titus 2:11-14 GOD’S WORD Translation
11 After all, God’s saving kindness [a] has appeared for the benefit of all people. 12 It trains us to avoid ungodly lives filled with worldly desires so that we can live self-controlled, moral, and godly lives in this present world. 13 At the same time we can expect what we hope for—the appearance of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ. 14 He gave himself for us to set us free from every sin and to cleanse us so that we can be his special people who are enthusiastic about doing good things.
In his short letter to Titus, a pastor on the island of Crete, the apostle Paul emphasizes how we are to live between Christ’s first and second comings.
Paul touches on many of the matters of living into, edifying God’s kingdom.
He says “our people must learn to devote themselves to doing what is good, in order that they may provide for daily necessities, not live unproductive lives” (Titus 3:14).
To help us stay on course in our Christian living, Paul also reminds us of a great gift we have each been given through Christ’s coming-namely, the gift of hope.
Because of this precious gift, this invaluable treasure chest of hope, we are each able to press on as God’s people, “eager to do what is right and good” in spite of the many complex obstacles and difficulties we face in our day-to-day lives.
Let us rejoice, and, as children of the resurrection of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, let us intentionally live in such a way that no generation will despise us.
May our generational lives always seek to bring utmost praise and glory to our Lord and Savior , whose coming we all look forward to with eager anticipation.
In the name of God, the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit,
16 Protect me, O God, because I take refuge in you. 2 I said to the Lord, “You are my Lord. Without you, I have nothing good.” 3 Those who lead holy lives on earth are the noble ones who fill me with joy. 4 Those who quickly chase after other gods multiply their sorrows. I will not pour out their sacrificial offerings of blood or use my lips to speak their names.
5 The Lord is my inheritance and my cup. You are the one who determines my destiny. 6 Your boundary lines mark out pleasant places for me. Indeed, my inheritance is something beautiful.
7 I will praise the Lord, who advises me. My conscience warns me at night. 8 I always keep the Lord in front of me. When he is by my side, I cannot be moved. 9 That is why my heart is glad and my soul rejoices. My body rests securely 10 because you do not abandon my soul to the grave or allow your holy one to decay. 11 You make the path of life known to me. Complete joy is in your presence. Pleasures are by your side forever.
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost; as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen, amen.
For the choir director: A psalm of David, regarding the time Nathan the prophet came to him after David had committed adultery with Bathsheba.
1 Have mercy on me, O God, because of your unfailing love. Because of your great compassion, blot out the stain of my sins. 2 Wash me clean from my guilt. Purify me from my sin. 3 For I recognize my rebellion; it haunts me day and night. 4 Against you, and you alone, have I sinned; I have done what is evil in your sight. You will be proved right in what you say, and your judgment against me is just.[a] 5 For I was born a sinner— yes, from the moment my mother conceived me. 6 But you desire honesty from the womb,[b] teaching me wisdom even there.
7 Purify me from my sins,[c] and I will be clean; wash me, and I will be whiter than snow. 8 Oh, give me back my joy again; you have broken me— now let me rejoice. 9 Don’t keep looking at my sins. Remove the stain of my guilt. 10 Create in me a clean heart, O God. Renew a loyal spirit within me. 11 Do not banish me from your presence, and don’t take your Holy Spirit[d] from me.
The Word of God for the Children of God.
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost; as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen, amen.
There’s a progressiveness In God’s Dealings with the sinfulness of His Children.
In the course of our spiritual history God deals with us in ever-deepening ways.
Down, down, down, He goes, He reaches, keeps reaching until He touches what He alone knows our “bottom,” to have our so called “true things” “revealed.”
He undercuts all of our professions, doctrines, assumptions, pretensions, all of our illusions, and customs.
There is no mere formalism about this; no mere Jewish ritual in this; no mere outward observance of rites and ceremonies in this!
No! This has got to go deep, right into our inmost beings, in the inward parts.
God works toward that.
God is ever working toward the most inward parts.
Do any of us recognize that?
Do we understand what He is doing with us?
Oh, He will happily meet with each and every one of us with blessing on a assured, sure, certain level, as we walk before Him, like the man in Psalm 1.
He will meet us with His gracious provision when we transgress and trespass and fail, and do wrong – He will meet us there in grace.
But, without hesitation, God is going to pursue this matter to the most inward place of our being, and will register there His work of grace and redemption.
“Thou desirest truth in my innermost being …”,
and David did not come to that conclusion until he reached the profoundest, the deepest place of need, of failure, of conscious weakness and his worthlessness.
Then he cried.
It is not enough to just please God in ordinary ways;
it is not enough to observe the ritual of the Law, and go to the ceremonies, and carry out all that which is external.
God is after truth in the inward parts, right down into the depths of our being.
Why? Why?
Because truth is a major feature and constituent of the Divine nature.
God is called the God of Truth; Jesus Christ, the second Person of the Godhead, called Himself the Truth – “I am… the truth”; “To this end am I come into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth”; the Holy Spirit is described as the Spirit of Truth – “when He, the Spirit of truth, is come…”.
The Godhead, God the Father, and God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, are characterized by this one feature – truth!
And God desires and has set His heart upon having people who are partakers of the Divine nature, and so He is working ever more deeply toward this end:
what is of the uppermost true of Himself shall be true of His children – those begotten of Him – that they should be true sons of the true God in this sense.
God Desires Not to Hear About Our Innermost Lies
Part of growing into mature Christian is the constant confession of sin, with both God and with others.
But in the individualistic society in which we live, people don’t always confess the the actual heights, lengths, depths and widths and breadths of their sin.
In fact, if they fall away from having their daily quiet time with God, it can be months or even years since they’ve confessed sin and been forgiven by God.
When this happens, the habitual sins which they find they are constantly repeating become even bigger (or less) than they originally thought because they deceive themselves into thinking lies about the sin.
If you find yourself stuck in habitual sin that you can’t get out of, is it possible you’re believing lies about it that is causing a foothold to stay in your life?
We believe the enemy’s lies, which can allow sin to remain, creating a hardcore hindrance between ourselves, our connection, relating, community with God.
Here are five of the many unmitigated lies sin tells you:
1. It’s No Big Deal
When we first commit a sin, such as lying, our conscience informs us we have made the wrong decision.
We feel guilt and shame, among other emotions.
That is, until we inevitably lie again.
If we continue to consciously, unconsciously commit the act, we easily deceive ourselves by telling ourselves it’s no big deal.
We may even minimize those lies into what are called white lies, which society sees as less than otherwise.
But the reality is lying is just as bad as any other sin.
It causes us to distort the truth about a situation, ourselves, or others.
It also causes people not to trust us if we get caught.
Soon, inevitably there is always going to be a big deal on everyone’s horizon, and every growing, maturing Christian needs to have a mature accountability partner with whom they can talk to and genuinely confess their sin regularly to.
This person can help them with the work of confession and repentance, to move past this particular sin.
2. No One Will Find Out
Secrets are not always a bad thing.
Matthew 6:4 says, “But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.”
In the garden, God told Adam all about the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, before he made Eve.
But in a later chapter, we quickly realized Adam told Eve all about it too.
Does that mean God kept a secret from Eve?
Secrets are bad only if the nature of them is rooted in sin.
Keeping a sinful secret, however, can be detrimental to a healthy spiritual life.
In chapter three of Genesis, God gives Adam and Eve the opportunity to confess their sin before him.
Although they didn’t take responsibility for their sin and instead blamed each other, God still wants us to openly speak to him about our sin.
As we confess our sin to God or to others, it offers us the opportunity to be forgiven and to take responsibility for our actions.
It is necessary for every person to have someone they can talk to about their sin.
By confessing it outwardly, the bondage with which Satan holds us and the shame that comes with it can be broken when we confess our sins openly.
3. God Can’t Forgive This
Some sins in our mind are so severe, we think God can’t possibly forgive us.
For example, if the sin is habitual, like some form of lust (pornography, for example) we realize that sin not only deals with lust but also with adultery, especially if the person looking at it is married.
Matthew 5:28 says, “anyone who even looks lustfully in another woman has committed adultery in his heart.”
But there is no sin God can’t forgive.
By Jesus’ death on the cross, he covered over every sin we have committed or will commit in the future.
We can be assured God forgives us when we confess our sin and repent of our behavior.
But sometimes the person we can’t forgive is ourselves.
We struggle with the process of forgiving ourselves for the difficult sins we have committed.
Don’t believe the lie that you can’t stop doing what you’re doing.
With God’s help anything is possible.
4. It’s Not as Big as Other People’s Sin
In Galatians 6:4-5, Paul encourages the church to restore someone gently, especially if they are in sin.
He then continues, “Each one should test their own actions. Then they can take pride in themselves alone, without comparing themselves to someone else, for each one should carry their own load.”
It’s easy to get into the trap of comparison and allow pride to enter your heart.
One of the most under-handed, sneakiest sins we commit is pride because it’s so easy to go unchecked, so easy to hide, so easy to lie about.
We then compare our sin to the person who needs to be restored, and believe we are somehow .01% better people because our sin is not nearly as bad as theirs.
But again, we deceive ourselves into thinking certain sinners are worse than other sinners and certain sins are worse than others.
All sin separates us from the love of God.
All sin needs to be confessed and forgiven.
All behaviors must be repented before freedom can be achieved.
The next time we hear the words of someone else’s sin, the genuine feelings behind their confession, don’t be quick to allow pride to enter your heart.
Show gentleness, meekness of heart and humility, helping that person and praying for them so they can achieve the same freedom you’ve come to know.
5. I Can’t Stop
When we are entangled in sin, and repeat the same behavior again, it becomes more difficult to break free.
This is especially true of sins still considered shameful in front of society.
We can easily lie to ourselves and lie to others, we can so easily, irreparably hurt others with our lies, saying we don’t have the willpower to be able to stop this.
But willpower is not the key to freedom; only Jesus is.
When we lie to ourselves and tell ourselves we cannot stop, we put God in a box.
We underestimate his power and presence in our lives.
If Jesus can raise people from the dead, then he can certainly stop a sin from dominating our lives.
A good place to start is confess your sin to someone.
Tell them you need help to stop.
Through a renewed reading of the word, prayer and constant accountability, freedom is possible.
It may be hard at first and you may stumble, but don’t give up.
All freedom is possible to those who believe.
We live in a society where people don’t want to be judged for their sin.
Therefore, it gets easier for us to conceal our sin and allow it to become a stronghold in our lives.
But through open confession, prayer, reading the word and renewing our minds, reliance on Jesus is key.
When we rely on Jesus and trust him to remove the sin, we can experience freedom in ways we never have before.
Confronted by the True God to Truthfully Confess
It took a special visit from the prophet Nathan to confront King David with the consequences of his sin and bring him to confession.
The story is found in 2 Samuel 11-12.
David had taken someone else’s wife, and to cover up the sin, he arranged for her husband to be killed in battle.
Then it was business as usual for David—until the prophet of the Lord, Nathan, confronted him.
That confrontation led David to write Psalm 51, a confession of his sins.
“I know my transgressions, and my sin is always before me. Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight.”
The psalm is also a plea for mercy: “Have mercy on me, O God.”
The Psalm is also David’s plea that he not be so afraid, so hesitant, of both inwardly and outwardly telling the truth – even if that truth upends him.
5 For I was born a sinner— yes, from the moment my mother conceived me. 6 But you desire honesty from the womb,[b] teaching me wisdom even there.
David also asks the Lord to create in him a pure heart and a steadfast spirit to keep him from sinning, to keep him from lying to himself, others and to God.
Sometimes it takes a special confrontation to bring us to confession.
Perhaps someone needs to confront us with what we have done.
Perhaps, like David, we have carried on as if nothing happened.
Perhaps we need to confront a relative or friend who does not realize how he or she has sinned against God.
Whatever it takes, we need to come clean, confess, and ask for a new beginning.
When we do, we will experience God’s mercy!
If that is what we genuinely, truthfully want above all other things except God.
In the name of God, the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit,
Let us Pray,
Psalm 139:23-24 New Living Translation
23 Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. 24 Point out anything in me that offends you, and lead me along the path of everlasting life.
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost; as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen, amen.
16 Then Jacob awoke from his sleep and said, “Surely the Lord is in this place, and I wasn’t even aware of it!” 17 But he was also afraid and said, “What an awesome place this is! It is none other than the house of God, the very gateway to heaven!”
The Word of God for the Children of God.
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost; as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen, amen.
Surely We Are Always Aware of the Presence of the Lord
Sometimes our most profound heart rending, soul shaking experiences of God’s presence unexpectedly occur within the most ordinary, least expected places of our lives – places and situations where we would never expect to find ourselves.
God always comes, comes amid the regular and routine, catching us unawares.
Like someone sneaking up behind you when you are so deep in thought and out of nowhere they tap you on the opposite shoulder and startled, you turn around.
You are shaken out of your own thoughts and from nowhere you were aware of, new thoughts of new things or new thoughts of old memories and old things are unceremoniously intruding into your waking, newly awakened, consciousness.
This is no truer than in the story of Jacob.
Jacob had an interesting life and truly one of the high points of his life with God is his vivid dream of a ladder upon which the angels of God ascend and descend.
Startled, afraid and wakened, now rising from his dream, before anything else is said or anything else is done, before anything or anyone else is acknowledged Jacob exults the presence of the Lord saying, “Surely the Lord is in this place!”
Immediately, He dedicates the spot to the Lord, builds an altar, and calls the place Bethel, meaning “The House of God, the very gateway to heaven!”
Bethel becomes a recurring place of divine encounter throughout the Scripture.
One has to question the particulars of this sacred moment – did Jacob simply “happen to” lie down in a “some” place, a place where heaven and earth touch?
Was his dream nothing more than blessed happenstance, a byproduct of resting near the “stairway of the heavens” which he professed acute unawareness of?
If we were all to read the scripture in this way, then we must then assume that Jacob has the dream simply because he happened to lie down in the correct spot.
The implication of this is clear; if we wish to have a similar occurrence we make our own way to our appropriate location which will be any location, anywhere.
God will then come to us if we to come to rest in the appropriate correct place.
But what does this mean?
No matter where we are at any given time, no matter why we are there in any given place at any given time, appropriate or inappropriate, what happens?
Life happens – unavoidably, unquestionably, undeniably, absolutely, Yes!
Meaning does God remain hidden behind secret doors and heavenly staircases?
Does our awareness of God, does an encounter with God simply boil down to our awareness of being in the right place at the right time – even if it’s by accident?
I believe that the vivid account of Jacob’s dream testifies to the exact opposite.
Jacob does nothing to bring about this dream, he is but a passive recipient.
At the time of this encounter, Jacob had just swindled his brother out of his inheritance and his rightful blessing.
What is more, both the divine blessing and family inheritance which Jacob stole did not lead to any measure of immediate satisfaction.
Instead, Jacob must contend with the murderous intent of his brother.
When Jacob lies down that evening, he is not desiring divine communication; he is running for his life, Jacob lies down to rest in a very ordinary and routine way.
Similarly, Scripture goes out of its way to describe the place of Jacob’s resting as “a certain place” (Genesis 28:11), not any place with special divine significance.
In fact, scripture records that the reason why Jacob lies down in that specific place is exactly because the sun had set and it was Jacob’s regular rest cycle.
The place of Jacob’s dream is a random location; it is ordinary and nondescript.
If Jacob had been quicker of thought, run more quickly or started his journey hours earlier, he’d have come to have rested in a place far from that location.
But the dream would have still happened because, in the end, the dream was not about the location where Jacob laid his head; it was about the presence of God.
The dream testified to the faithfulness of God’s presence, God’s gracious love toward Jacob, a love that is expressed despite his true duplicity and deception.
While we often title the dream “Jacob’s ladder,” we will hear “Jacob’s ladder,” preached point by point, the point of the dream isn’t about the ladder at all.
Even the angels slip into the background when Jacob awakes.
Instead, he rises with new awareness and new knowledge that God is with him.
The One who is faithful, the One who made him also faithfully will sustain him.
Faithfully, surely the Lord is in this place – surely this is the house of the Lord.
Intersecting Faith and Life
The Lord’s house is every place where the Lord lovingly dwells, and that is around us and within us.
Jesus promises to reside within the heart of those committed to him.
“Those who love me will keep my word,” Jesus says, “and my Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them” (John 14:23).
Like Jacob, the one who created us also sustains us.
There is no place in our lives where we are outside God’s gracious presence.
This means that each morning, afternoon or evening, regardless of where or when we place our heads on a “pillow,” we rest within the presence of God.
Now, this ancient picture in the Old Testament is awesome, this picture of Jacob, on the run from Esau, meeting with God, dreaming of heavenly things versus dangerous “absolutely must be avoided” worldly things and people stuff.
But do we, here and now, in this moment, in whatever locations we all now find ourselves standing in, or trying to sleep our ways through, realize that this is the privilege that is no less awesome but that is 100% available to us every day.
Available to each of us all day long because of the work of Jesus on the cross?
Like because Jesus has died on the cross, rose from the grave, made a way for you and I to be forgiven of our sins and reconciled to relationship with God, you and I have the privilege of communion with God where ever we may be found.
Like meeting with God anytime, anywhere, all day long, every single day of life.
Just let that soak in.
Any time, anywhere, all day long – right now, we have the privilege of meeting with God, awakening our spirits, raising our awareness of God, the opportunity to fearfully, reverently exalt God – surely declaring Him to be 100% available
I have the privilege of meeting with God anywhere and at anytime, all the time.
Hear these comfortable words: Surely, the Lord is in this place.
Psalm 121 New King James Version
God the Help of Those Who Seek Him
A Song of Ascents.
121 I will lift up my eyes to the hills— From whence comes my help? 2 My help comes from the Lord, Who made heaven and earth.
3 He will not allow your foot to [a]be moved; He who keeps you will not slumber. 4 Behold, He who keeps Israel Shall neither slumber nor sleep.
5 The Lord is your [b]keeper; The Lord is your shade at your right hand. 6 The sun shall not strike you by day, Nor the moon by night.
7 The Lord shall [c]preserve you from all evil; He shall preserve your soul. 8 The Lord shall preserve[d] your going out and your coming in From this time forth, and even forevermore.
Every moment of our life, we are surrounded by the gracious presence of God.
When we retire for the day or the evening, we 100% rest our body and soul in the protective arms of God, the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit.
And when we rise, we waken to a day that will be lived in the context of God’s grace and mercy.
We may not experience the same kind divine dreams such as Jacob did, but the reality of God’s faithfulness and God’s presence is 100% assured just the same.
How awesome is our awareness, unawareness, of this awesome heavenly place?
This is an awesome place – every single one of us stands at the gate of heaven.
What shall we do now to raise our awareness of this awesome heavenly place?
Raise to new heights, “Neighbors” awareness of this awesome heavenly place?
In the name of God, the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit,
Let us Pray,
God, help us to realize how awesome this is, what Jacob was so overwhelmed by in Genesis 28:16–17 is an everyday privilege for us. When we think about even his words, “This is the house of God,” like we are your house. We are the temple of your Spirit. Our bodies are the temple of your Spirit. You dwell with us and within us, in all places and at all times. Everyday your presence with us just like you promised, Jesus, “I will be with you always.” “Until the end of the ages” That we are with you, that we have the privilege of max communion with you at any moment all day long.
God, lift us out of our spiritual slumber, help us to realize how awesome this is and help us to live in it. Help us to live in this awesome reality all day long. Lord, help us to pray without ceasing. Teach us to pray without ceasing. Teach us to walk and talk in full connection, communion with you, live all day long in communion with you.
Jesus, we thank you. Thank you for making this privilege possible. Lord, keep us we pray from being a prayer-less people when you’ve given us this privilege. Make us a praying people. Surely you are with us. Surely our bodies are a temple of your Spirit. How 100% awesome is this? We praise you and we pray all day long as we take full advantage of this awesome privilege. In Jesus’ most exalted name we pray, amen.
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost; as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen, amen.
12 I turned toward the voice which was talking to me, and when I turned, I saw seven gold lamp stands. 13 There was someone like the Son of Man among the lamp stands. He was wearing a robe that reached his feet. He wore a gold belt around his waist. 14 His head and his hair were white like wool—like snow. His eyes were like flames of fire. 15 His feet were like glowing bronze refined in a furnace. His voice was like the sound of raging waters. 16 In his right hand he held seven stars, and out of his mouth came a sharp, two-edged sword. His face was like the sun when it shines in all its brightness.
17 When I saw him, I fell down at his feet like a dead man. Then he laid his right hand on me and said, “Don’t be afraid! I am the first and the last, 18 the living one. I was dead, but now I am alive forever. I have the keys of death and hell. 19 Therefore, write down what you have seen, what is, and what is going to happen after these things. 20 The hidden meaning of the seven stars that you saw in my right hand and the seven gold lamp stands is this: The seven stars are the messengers of the seven churches, and the seven lamp stands are the seven churches.
The Word of God for the Children of God.
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost; as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen, amen.
Throughout his teaching ministry, Jesus gained a reputation for reaching out and physically touching people.
When people with leprosy cried out to be healed, Jesus physically touched them.
He physically touched the eyes of people who were blind.
Touch was an absolutely integral component to Jesus’ healing ministry.
We see the gift of Jesus’ touch in this passage of Revelation too.
John fell at Jesus’ feet—as though he were dead—because he could not remain standing in the Lord’s presence.
Jesus responded to John’s fear by reaching out, placing his right hand on him, and saying, “Do not be afraid. I am the first and the last, 18 the living one. I was dead, but now I am alive forever.”
What a calming touch this now heavenly Jesus provided to the distressed John!
What powerful words of assurance he spoke!
This biblical story does more than just provide a picture of what happened to the exiled John on the island of Patmos when he stood face to face with Jesus.
This reveals who Jesus is as the ascended and exalted Son of God: Jesus is the Lord of love and compassion.
Just as when Jesus came to bring the good news of the kingdom of God (Mark 1:14-34), touch is central to his healing ministry.
The Spirit of God invites us to see ourselves in this picture.
Jesus reaches out to us.
He not only reaches out to us but he actually touches us.
He places his right hand upon us, and we hear him say these powerful words:
“Do not be afraid. I am the first and the last, 18 the living one. I was dead, but now I am alive forever. ”
The story of John receiving the book of Revelation from Jesus own hands brings a steady flow of tears to my eyes.
I imagine an isolated, weary, and lonely John on Patmos spending his days waiting until he finally gets to be with his beloved Messiah Jesus again.
Through my tears, I imagine his heart yearning just to see his friend and Savior.
And now suddenly, after years of serving Jesus, he appears to John once again, his Lord, Savior and King standing before him, reaching, touching, revealing, speaking exclusively to him, that which will be the final words of Scripture.
As much as anyone can, try to imagine for yourself the joy and awe in John’s heart as his Rabbi Jesus reveals himself in glory to once again, as He first did in life, when they walked together, to share with him history-altering revelation.
Imagine if you can the distress in John’s heart coupled with his physically aged and distressed body, imagine afterwards the passion John would feel as his last days, which he thought he would spend alone in exile, are interrupted by a final chapter of pure kingdom work delivered straight from the mouth of his Savior.
God loves to interrupt the physically and spiritually distressed seasons of our lives in which we feel most useless and lost with glorious encounters with him.
He loves to reveal Himself to us, reach, touch us, seize on our distressed states, repurpose us for incredible kingdom work just where we thought, we believed we were at our most defeated, most useless, most weakest life circumstances.
He longs to reveal Himself, reach out to us, to meet with us, to touch us and to then re-masterpiece us, envision us for his plans to bring his kingdom to earth.
No matter where you are or how old you are, how physically and or spiritually distressed, God has tremendous plans in store for all those who will serve him.
There is no kingdom work He gives us which is too small, too inconsequential.
There is never a time in our lives that we are, from God’s perspective, unusable.
There is no age or infirmity in which we are to stop being used by our Savior.
The passage of years since John was touched by the right hand of Jesus, wrote the Words of Revelation, has changed exactly nothing about our Jesus’ desires.
Our heavenly Jesus still longs to reach out and to touch us today with His hope.
Jesus still longs to meet with you today and tell you of his plans for salvation.
By His Words of Life, longs to empower us to do a mighty work for his kingdom.
He longs for us to see his kingdom come to earth all the days of your life until we inevitably, finally, take your final breath here and so wake up with him.
May we each receive and share the revelation Jesus gives each of us today with a physically and spiritually world that absolutely, desperately needs to know him.
From our own places of spiritual and physical distress, to be comforted today by Jesus’ own touch, His Words of assurance, His presence that removes our fear.
As John himself, touched by the right hand of Jesus himself, refreshed of spirit, might then have unleashed his heart upon his unsuspecting churches, readers;
Victory In Jesus by EM Bartlett 1939
I heard an old, old story, How a Savior came from glory, How He gave His life on Calvary To save a wretch like me; I heard about His groaning, Of His precious blood’s atoning, Then I repented of my sins And won the victory.
Chorus O victory in Jesus, My Savior, forever. He sought me and bought me With His redeeming blood; He loved me ere I knew Him And all my love is due Him, He plunged me to victory, beneath the cleansing flood.
I heard about His healing, Of His cleansing pow’r revealing. How He made the lame to walk again And caused the blind to see; And then I cried, “Dear Jesus, Come and heal my broken spirit,” And somehow Jesus came and bro’t To me the victory.
I heard about a mansion He has built for me in glory. And I heard about the streets of gold Beyond the crystal sea; About the angels singing, And the old redemption story, And some sweet day I’ll sing up there The song of victory.
In the name of God, the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit,
Let us Pray,
1. Meditate on God’s heart to meet with you in every season of your life. Allow Scripture to fill you with faith and desire to meet with your King today.
“Call to me and I will answer you, and will tell you great and hidden things that you have not known.” Jeremiah 33:3
“When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come.” John 16:13
“Seek the Lord and his strength; seek his presence continually!” 1 Chronicles 16:11
2. Ask the Holy Spirit to fill you afresh today. Open your heart and receive him that you might live empowered to see the kingdom of God come to earth.
3. Ask God what it is he would have you do today. How does he want to use you to advance his kingdom on earth?
“Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” Matthew 6:10
What an incredible gift God would choose to use us for his kingdom purposes.
You and I can have a real, eternal impact on the earth.
No matter what our age or past failures, God longs to use us.
And through the coming of the Holy Spirit, we have God dwelling within us.
The same God who raised Christ Jesus from the grave, empowered the disciples for miraculous works, has been at the root of every great spiritual awakening, lives and dwells within us, lives and dwells and intercedes for us when we can’t.
May we allow God touch us with His righteous right hand to use us in mighty and powerful ways today to spread the gospel of Jesus unto everywhere we go.
Forgive us, Lord God, for thinking you might be far away from us and out of touch. Lead us more and more into the strong embrace of your healing touch. Amen.
Heavenly Father, thank You for the wonderful revelation of Jesus and the glorious hope that I have in You. I pray that Jesus may be first and last in every area of my life as I wait in glorious anticipation of His return. In Jesus’ name I pray, AMEN.
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost; as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen, amen.
8 Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. 2 Early the next morning he returned to the temple courtyard. All the people went to him, so he sat down and began to teach them.
3 The experts in Moses’ Teachings and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught committing adultery. They made her stand in front of everyone 4 and asked Jesus, “Teacher, we caught this woman in the act of adultery. 5 In his teachings, Moses ordered us to stone women like this to death. What do you say?” 6 They asked this to test him. They wanted to find a reason to bring charges against him.
Jesus bent down and used his finger to write on the ground. 7 When they persisted in asking him questions, he straightened up and said, “The person who is sinless should be the first to throw a stone at her.” 8 Then he bent down again and continued writing on the ground.
9 One by one, beginning with the older men, the experts in Moses’ Teachings and Pharisees left. Jesus was left alone with the woman. 10 Then Jesus straightened up and asked her, “Where did they go? Has anyone condemned you?”
11 The woman answered, “No one, sir.”
Jesus said, “I don’t condemn you either. Go! From now on don’t sin.”
The Word of God for the Children of God.
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost; as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen, amen.
To understate the obvious, and without hesitation to offend, it is easy to point out everyone else’s sin and to forget that we have our own glaring weaknesses.
Seldom revealed is God’s grace is sufficient for us, no matter what we’ve done.
In the beginning of John 8 we see the character of Christ toward sinners who break the commands of God, the freedom that comes by accepting His Grace.
The person who is most critical of the faults, failings, and sins of others is often guilty of the self-same faults, failings, and sins.
‘When you point a finger of accusation at another, remember you have three fingers of accusation pointing right back at yourself,’ as the old saying goes.
How often the person who is severely judging his fellowman is the hypocrite who flatters himself of their own alleged uprightness.
Throughout His ministry, Christ had those who hated Him, sought to trip Him up, accused Him of breaking the Law of Moses or flouting the dictates of Rome.
In this passage, a band of elders brought a woman caught in adultery, to Him.
The Law of Moses demanded adultery be punished by stoning and they asked Jesus what He would do.
They said this to test Him, so that they might have grounds to accuse Him.
If He recommended her release, He would be breaking the Law of Moses and if not, they could not hesitate to accuse Him before Rome, of inciting murder!
But Jesus said nothing.
He simply stooped down, with His finger wrote “some words” on the ground.
“But when they persisted in asking Him, He straightened up, and said to them, ‘He who is without sin among you, let him be the first to throw a stone at her.’
Once more Jesus stooped down, and wrote on the ground.
When they heard it, they began to go out one by one, beginning with the older ones – and Jesus, in almost no time at all, was left all alone with the woman.”
The Gospel narrative of the woman caught in adultery is one the most powerful depictions of God’s heart to meet everyone in the midst of sin and show grace.
What an incredible example Jesus set.
He was not flattered when they asked for his ‘advice’.
He knew their hearts were full of their egos, distrust, spite, hatred, and rage.
Instead, He demonstrated great restraint and wisdom by not immediately responding to their demands.
There are times when a response to ultimatums needs to be considered and prayed through.
And although we should always be ready to give an answer for the hope we have in Christ, no one has a right to insist that we comply with their every demand.
We don’t know what Jesus wrote on the ground.
Some speculate that it listed the sins of the men accusing this woman.
Others think it gave Christ time to pray to His heavenly Father for wisdom and guidance, for Jesus only said and did those things He heard from His Father.
However, Jesus was well aware of their trap.
“But when they persisted in asking Him, He straightened up, and said to them, ‘He who is without sin among you, let him be the first to throw a stone at her.'”
In few words, pregnant with meaning, Christ communicates with the accusers, meets with the crowd, silences every accusing voice and each pointing finger.
Jesus did not excuse this woman’s adultery by finding fault with God’s law, for later challenged her to face her wrong-doing and to “go and sin no more.”
And by His atoning death, she too was forgiven by grace through faith.
There is no sin so great that it cannot be forgiven, except the sin of unbelief.
For the one who believes in the Son has forgiveness of sin and life everlasting, but the one who refuses to believe in the Son does not have forgiveness, and will not see life – instead, the full weight of the wrath of God remains full on him.
The punishment for adultery was stoning, but the wages of all sin and every trespass, whether sins of the body or sins of the heart, whether physical sins executed in our body or senses, or spiritual sins undertaken in the secret smugness of our own prideful hearts, the wages of all sin is death, and death and the full wrath of God on the unrepentant, means separation from God.
But the gift of God is eternal life, which is accessed through Lord Jesus Christ.
He took the punishment for our sin – the punishment that we so justly deserve.
When I find myself in the midst of sin, my first instinct is to run away from God.
For some reason we seem to hold this belief that God is like us: that he loves us like we love ourselves.
I assume he’s even more ashamed of me than I am ever ashamed of myself.
I assume He’s “turned His face away,” distanced himself from me in my sin.
I assume that he can’t be near to me or that his grace surely isn’t strong enough for my sin this time.
But Jesus’ quiet, yet authoritative actions, when presented with the woman caught in adultery completely obliterate my worldly perceptions of his grace.
Insert yourself into the moment and try to imagine the fear this woman feels.
Imagine the horrific embarrassment and shame she feels being caught in the act of terrible sin and dragged before Jesus, God incarnate, God, her true judge.
Put yourself in her PUBLIC position.
Feel the piercing glares of onlookers.
Feel their control of the moment and the woman’s absence of control. Try and hear the terrible judgements being hurled your way by these religious leaders.
Now imagine Jesus standing before you, drawing in the sand as he did that day.
Imagine what he would say when He stood to face you, look at you in your sin.
Now, imagine your response when He doesn’t seem the least bit surprised.
Now, imagine your response when you realize that He doesn’t seem worried.
Now, imagine your response when He does not even cast judgment upon you.
Instead surprisingly, miraculously, shows you the fullness of grace for your sin.
God longs to meet with us in the midst of our sin, quiet all of the background noises of sin in our ears, to cast away all the lies the accuser would speak to us.
He longs to cause all the judgments we so easily speak over ourselves and that others have spoken over us to “get thee gone” flee in light of his powerful grace.
Romans 5:7-10 GOD’S WORD Translation
7 Finding someone who would die for a godly person is rare. Maybe someone would have the courage to die for a good person. 8 Christ died for us while we were still sinners. This demonstrates God’s love for us.
9 Since Christ’s blood has now given us God’s approval, we are even more certain that Christ will save us from God’s anger. 10 If the death of his Son restored our relationship with God while we were still his enemies, we are even more certain that, because of this restored relationship, the life of his Son will save us.
God sent His Son to meet with us in our sin, now Jesus stands before us today with nail-pierced hands having fully paid the price for each one of your sins.
Romans 8:1-4 GOD’S WORD Translation
God’s Spirit Makes Us His Children
8 So those who are believers in Christ Jesus can no longer be condemned. 2 The standards of the Spirit, who gives life through Christ Jesus, have set you free from the standards of sin and death. 3 It is impossible to do what God’s standards demand because of the weakness our human nature has. But God sent his Son to have a human nature as sinners have and to pay for sin. That way God condemned sin in our corrupt nature. 4 Therefore, we, who do not live by our corrupt nature but by our spiritual nature, are able to meet God’s standards in Moses’ Teachings.
He’s always ready to meet with us with a mindset on forgiveness and mercy, to empower, inspire us, to “Go, and from now on sin no more” by his love and grace.
Meet with Him today.
Talk with Him today.
Receive the fullness of His love in the Spirit of which it was first given today.
Allow him to meet you in the midst of your sin.
Run into his arms instead of away from him.
And live empowered and inspired to experience the fullness of his presence, without condemnation and wrath and learn to live in total freedom from sin.
Praise God that Christ is the only one Who has the righteous authority to cast the first stone at you and at me.
And how high and mightily we ought to praise and thank Him and worship Him that by His grace He took our punishment upon Himself, and through our faith in Christ, we are forgiven of all our sins through His atoning death.
Praise God that by faith the PENALTY of sin has been dealt with. Christ took the punishment we deserve and clothed us in His perfect righteousness.
But in addition, the POWER of sin (the old sin nature’s control), can be broken in our lives.
Praise God that all who have been born from above can conquer the world, through living a life of faith.
We have the power to overcome the world, the flesh, and the devil – a supernatural power which is given to us by the indwelling Spirit.
This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith. Hallelujah!
It is through the indwelling Holy Spirit, that the life of Christ within is able to overcome our innate sin, our old, inherited, imputed sin nature, (the old-man as Paul calls it) that lurks within.
And a day is fast approaching when we will be with Christ in heaven and the PRESENCE of sin will be gone forever.
Christ alone had the right to judge the adulteress who stood before Him.
He alone had the lawful right to condemn her for her sin.
And so, having finished writing in the sand, Jesus stood up and said to her, “Woman, where are they? Did no one condemn you?” She said, “No one, LORD.”
This woman KNEW Jesus as her Savior, for she addressed Him as LORD and no one can call Jesus “Lord” except by the Holy Spirit of God.
“And Jesus said, ‘neither do I condemn you. Go, and sin no more.'”
May we never forget we are not to become judge or jury for the sin of our fellow man, for we are all sinners, only by God’s grace have we been forgiven of sin.
Oh, we can judge the false teaching through knowledge of Scripture, and we should judge ourselves, to see if we are walking in spirit and truth, but we are all sinners, saved by grace and for that, we praise and thank our heavenly Father.
Ephesians 2:8-10 GOD’S WORD Translation
8 God saved you through faith as an act of kindness. You had nothing to do with it. Being saved is a gift from God. 9 It’s not the result of anything you’ve done, so no one can brag about it. 10 God has made us what we are. He has created us in Christ Jesus to live lives filled with good works that he has prepared for us to do.
May the mind of Christ direct all our actions and attitudes, our thoughts and the motives of our hearts, and may His more gracious attitude be reflected in us as we each seek to live lives that are pleasing in His sight, for His praise and glory.
In the name of God, the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit,
Let us Pray,
1. Meditate on God’s heart to meet us in our sin as displayed through the woman caught in adultery.
2. Where are you closing off your heart to God as the result of your sin? Where do you feel beyond forgiveness unlovable? Where have sins lies and accusations caused you to withdraw yourself from God rather than return to celebrate Him?
“There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” Romans 8:1
3. Take time to receive the grace, forgiveness, and love of your heavenly Father. Confess your sin to Him and rest in his loving presence. Be filled with the power of his grace that you may be bold enough, to walk in freedom today.
“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” 1 John 1:9
May 1 John 2:1-2 fill you with faith to run to Jesus with your sin rather than away from him in shame or judgment:
My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.
Father God, greatest lover of my soul, caretaker of my heart, thank You that my sins have been forgiven and there is no condemnation to those that are in Christ Jesus. I confess that there are times when I have been critical of others, forgetting that my own sins were scarlet, but by Your grace have been washed white as snow. Lord, I want to live a life that is pleasing to You. I pray that Your new-life within may display the grace and love of the Lord Jesus towards others, in the same way that You show Your grace and love towards me. In Jesus’ name I pray, AMEN.
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost; as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen, amen.
Loving God, Living God, Loving Hope, Living Hope, Loving Living Life His Way! "Many things are possible for the person who has hope. Even more is possible for the person who has faith. And still more is possible for the person who knows how to love. But everything is possible for the person who practices all three virtues." - Brother Lawrence (1605-1691), Practicing the Presence of God (1692). 