A Prayer to Prepare All Our Hearts to Give Glory to God and Celebrate Our Nation’s Freedom on this, its 248th 4th of July Birthday. John 8:31-32, 36

John 8:31-38 Amplified Bible

The Truth Will Make You Free

³¹So Jesus was saying to the Jews who had believed Him, “If you abide in My word [continually obeying My teachings and living in accordance with them, then] you are truly My disciples. ³²And you will know the truth [regarding salvation], and the truth will set you free [from the penalty of sin].” ³³They answered Him, “We are Abraham’s descendants and have never been enslaved to anyone. ^[a]What do You mean by saying, ‘You will be set free’?”

³⁴Jesus answered, “I assure you and most solemnly say to you, everyone who practices sin habitually is a slave of sin. ³⁵Now the slave does not remain in a household forever; the son [of the master] does remain forever. ³⁶So if the Son makes you free, then you are unquestionably free. ³⁷I know that you are Abraham’s descendants; yet you plan to kill Me, because My word has no place [to grow] in you [and it makes no change in your heart]. ³⁸I tell the things that I have seen at My Father’s side [in His very presence]; so you also do the things that you heard from your father.”

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 Bible – Our Free Pathway to God’s Personal Truth

The Truth Will Make You Free

Sometimes the Bible is described as a telescope.

A telescope is not something to look at but an instrument to look through.

When we do, we are free to see that what we see and believe is far away or hard to see is actually closer than we thought, when focused it becomes clearer to us.

When we look at life and history through the narrowed lens of the Bible, what once seemed distant and hard to understand will inevitably come into focus.

Through the Words of Scripture we are brought close to God and His truth.

Through the Words of Scripture we are brought near to events that happened thousands of years ago. We zoom in, for example, on the life and ministry of our Savior Jesus Christ, who became human and came to live among us (John 1:14).

Jesus wanted the people of his day to believe in him as the One who reveals the truth about God, what God is doing in this world, His freedom, through Christ.

But instead they wanted to hang on to old legalisms that enslaved them to a broken system, refusing to admit that they were slaves to sin, could not keep the law perfectly. Jesus urged them to accept him as the eternal truth and life who could bring them out of this slavery, give them new life forever with God.

Are we any different? As we daily encounter the Word of God, we must accept and meet God on his terms, not ours. By relying on the Spirit’s help, God speaks to us and breathes into us his life and truth. And that truth sets us free-free to serve him in our all daily work, play, relationships, and every other facet of life.

A Prayer of Gratefulness for our Nation’s Freedom

Galatians 5:1The Message

The Life of Freedom

5 Christ has set us free to live a free life. So take your stand! Never again let anyone put a harness of slavery on you.

Even though some American citizens may not feel too much gratitude for our nation in its present condition, we should want to view it with thankful hearts, treasuring how God worked in 1776, divinely established this nation in freedom.

As 2 Corinthians 3:17 explains, “Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.”

Regardless of how some feel about our nation’s present state, 1 Thessalonians 5:18 urges us to “Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.”

Especially as Christians to recognize that God is the author of freedom.

As John 8:36 explains, Jesus is the One that sets us free. “So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.”

Cultivating Ongoing Gratefulness for Our Nation’s Freedom

Long-lasting freedom requires citizens to practice ongoing gratitude.

Without continual appreciation and recognition of the efforts that fostered and shed blood, sacrificed for freedom, a nation starts to lose widespread support for it, leading to coming generations being uninformed and misconstruing events that led to the establishment of a free nation. Proverbs 11:14 explains, “For lack of guidance a nation falls, but victory is won through many advisers.”

Silence Equals Consent: The Sin of Omission author William J. Federer writes how on March 30, 1961, America’s future 40th President, Ronald Reagan, spoke to the Phoenix Chamber of Commerce on the importance of passing on gratitude for the history, lessons, and sacrifices of freedom to our future generations:

“Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn’t pass it on to our children in the bloodstream. The only way they can inherit the freedom we have known is if we fight for it, protect it, defend it, and then hand it to them with the well-taught lessons of how they in their lifetime must do the same. And if you and I don’t do this, then you and I may well spend our sunset years telling our children and our children’s children what it once was like in America when men were free.”

For America’s freedom to endure, it’s vital for us to pass on genuine, heartfelt gratitude for it by first giving glory, thanking God and, secondly, by recognizing exactly what it takes to maintain it. As Proverbs 15:22 explains, “Plans fail for lack of counsel, but with many advisers, they succeed.”

Passing Gratefulness for Our Freedom On to the Next Generation

Proverbs 13:22 urges parents to leave an inheritance to their children.

Teaching our children and their children to be thankful for America’s costly freedom is vital and a priceless gift.

Taking the time to pass on gratitude for it to our families is well worth our time.

A key to parents passing on gratitude for America to future generations is by example, expressing it ourselves, and researching, studying, and knowing and then sharing and celebrating its rich history – both its victories and its defeats.

Providence Forum Executive Director Dr. Jerry Newcombe encourages parents to “Learn the true history ourselves and teach it to our children. “

There are plenty of sound resources out there trying to get Americans to learn about what made our nation so special.” One such resource is the Providence Forum “Foundation of American Liberty” film series, written and produced by Newcombe. This series explores the foundation of American liberty, which is our Judeo-Christian heritage.

A Prayer to Prepare Our Hearts to Celebrate God and Our 248th Nation’s 4^th of July Birthday.

John 8:36 Amplified Bible

³⁶So if the Son makes you free, then you are unquestionably free.

America’s 4^th of July holiday is all about celebrating freedom. Although many citizens may be viewing it as a reason for an extended holiday, family gatherings, and setting off fireworks, there is much more behind this national holiday. Many Americans may not realize where the desire for freedom, the kind that stirs the hearts of men and women, originates. 2 Corinthians 3:17 explains its source, “Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.”

Many believe God’s way is to restrain people, but His way is freedom; as John 8:32 explains, “Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

Humankind’s longing for freedom comes from God, who provides the way for us to be free. “It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery” (Galatians 5:1).

Freedom Came to America

Sadly, some Americans have no idea how America came to be the free nation it is today. They haven’t heard or learned how God divinely led Christians from across the ocean who longed to openly serve Him to leave everything behind and risk their lives to set sail for a world where they could freely worship God.

In The Pilgrim Chronicles, historian Rod Gragg traces the Pilgrims’ beginnings in 1606 England as Christian separatists who had faced severe persecution by the Church of England. But fleeing to Holland in 1609 brought them face-to-face with worldly Dutch ways, causing them to look beyond the Netherlands for the religious freedom they longed to find.

Journeying to the New World offered them the opportunity to find the freedom to worship their Savior Jesus in peace. Because they did, the Pilgrims laid the biblical foundation and influence, leading our Founding Fathers to base our Declaration of Independence on godly principles. These truths are exactly why we each have been given the right to worship God freely and without reserve.

Freedom Brings Unity

But as the New World grew, England’s King George ruled with a heavy hand, oppressing the citizens and cultivating a widespread desire for them to be free from his control. His oppression led to the Revolutionary War that led to the Declaration of Independence and the creation of the United States of America.

Behind this movement was the Church, consisting of Congregationalists, Anglicans, Catholics, Deists, Quakers, Dutch Reformed, Baptists, Lutherans, Puritans, and Presbyterians who came together to pray, overlooking their own denominational differences to unite 13 colonies together for a common goal.

Dennis Prager, an American conservative radio talk-show host and writer, explains, “Ultimately, they wanted people to be free to practice their religion and relate to God in their own way. They all knew God is the source of liberty.”

Freedom’s Ultimate Sacrifice

As Christians, we know freedom comes through Jesus’ sacrifice.

As 1 John 2:2 explains, “He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world.”

Likewise, sacrifice led the way for our nation’s freedom, too. Retired Judge Darrell White describes, “In a nutshell, our founders sacrificed their prosperity for their posterity, us. They pledged to give their entire lives, their fortunes, their reputations and their sacred honor to secure our blessings of liberty.”

Because Jesus loved us, freely laid down His life, we have been set free from sin.

John 3:16-17 Amplified Bible

¹⁶“For God so [greatly] loved and dearly prized the world, that He [even] gave His [One and] ^[a]only begotten Son, so that whoever believes and trusts in Him [as Savior] shall not perish, but have eternal life. ¹⁷For God did not send the Son into the world to judge and condemn the world [that is, to initiate the final judgment of the world], but that the world might be saved through Him.

This foundational freedom, this foundational truth, strengthened and led the way for men and women before us to sacrifice of themselves, lay down their lives so that we might live in a nation founded on liberty for all. As Dr. Jerry Newcombe, Executive Director of Providence Forum, explains, “We are free in large part because many others sacrificed on our behalf that we might be free.”

Thank You, God! Happy 248th Birthday – The United States of America!

In the name of God, the Father, and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit,

Let us Pray,

Psalm 22:27-28 Amplified Bible

²⁷
All the ends of the earth will remember and turn to the Lord,
And all the families of the nations will bow down and worship before You,
²⁸
For the kingship and the kingdom are the Lord’s
And He rules over the nations.

Dear Father, King of Eternity, thank You for the freedom You give to us through Jesus Christ, Your Son. Help us, as United States citizens, publicly and privately give thanks to You for the freedom we have as a nation. Lead Americans across our nation to be grateful for what You have given us and to recognize that true freedom is a gift from You. Let our hearts overflow with thankfulness to You for the true freedom our nation offers us because its foundation is based on the freedom we receive from You. Lead us in teaching our children, and our children’s children, to have hearts full of gratitude to You for providing the way to freedom through Jesus. Inspire future generations to treasure freedom and treasure You and to see that it comes from You and You alone.

Today and every day, we are freely able to celebrate the freedom You give us and how it laid the foundation for our nation to be free. Thank You for the freedom You give to us through Your Son, Jesus Christ. Because of You, true freedom is possible and stirs the hearts of Americans and people around the world. Let Your name be glorified in our celebrations. Help us celebrate in ways that bring You praise and honor. Remind Americans how You divinely led Christians to set sail and settle this land for Your glory. Show us, too, O Lord, how to be grateful and respectful to the men and women who came before us, sacrificing their lives and futures, braving and suffering hardship, to establish this land for Your glory so future generations could live free. In Jesus’ name, 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.

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The Homeless Sinner: “What has God EVER Done For Me?” Romans 5:8-10

Romans 5:8-10 Amplified Bible

⁸But God clearly shows and proves His own love for us, by the fact that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. ⁹Therefore, since we have now been justified [declared free of the guilt of sin] by His blood, [how much more certain is it that] we will be saved from the ^[a]wrath of God through Him. ¹⁰For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, it is much more certain, having been reconciled, that we will be saved [from the consequences of sin] by His life [that is, we will be saved because Christ lives today].

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 lonely—widows, orphans, prisoners, homeless

Psalm 68:5-6 Amplified Bible

⁵
A father of the fatherless and a judge and protector of the widows,
Is God in His holy habitation.
⁶
God makes a home for the lonely;
He leads the prisoners into prosperity,
Only the stubborn and rebellious dwell in a parched land.

The lonely—widows, orphans, prisoners, the homeless—the sinner without Christ as their Savior, what can be done to ease their sense that no one cares?

Ultimately, God in his love is our dwelling place. As “a father to the fatherless,” he adopts us as his children. He defends the widow, cares for the orphans, sets the lonely in families, frees the prisoners, and puts a new song in their mouths.

When God led Israel through the desert wasteland of the Sinai Peninsula after freeing them from Egypt, he scattered their enemies and refreshed his weary people with manna from heaven and quail. And in his law he made special provisions for widows and orphans, for foreigners, visitors, all who were poor.

To be a part of the people of God, the church of Christ, heirs of the promise, recipients of salvation—this is a great, great blessing. There are people who think and believe of Christ’s church as boring, divided and a waste of time.

They go to worship once or twice and soon give up – they are not refreshed.

But they miss the fellowship that they could enjoy—the fellowship of all who share in God’s deep love and grace, made possible through Christ’s sufferings for all who believe. God’s caring people have a heart for those who are suffering.

Are we following God’s example, caring with His compassion for others today?

“Exactly, what in the hell has God ever done for me?”

That question was the response I heard from the homeless veteran sitting in my office, who curtly delivered it as I offered him a place to recover from alcohol. I tried to strike up a conversation about our veterans programs, spiritual things.

“Let me tell you this,” the man went on. Getting emotional, the man said to me, “I laid on a battlefield in Vietnam, bleeding. If anything could atone for my sins, it was my own blood as I lay there in a country I did not care enough it existed, nearly dying in a jungle swamp for a country that obviously didn’t care for me!”

It was hard to decide which was more shocking: The pain this fellow carried for some many decades, or his apparent indifference to God. We ended up having a fairly cordial conversation, he seemed genuinely touched as I thanked him for serving as he did. I asked him to grasp God has proven His love; The Father demonstrated His love by sending the Son, Jesus, to set us free (Romans 5:8).

I do not know if he believed me or ever got around to believing in God as he left the program after only a month, long enough to get another temporary job. I heard several years later that he had been shot, killed on the streets in robbery.

Homelessness, loneliness, abandonment, betrayal are hardened prisons for the souls to survive – they are hardcore, ruthless, merciless environments to live in.

There’s no sense of safety, or freedom, no sense of confidence or independence, no reason for anyone to have any measure of faith in anyone but your own self, limited to no reason to believe in God in a place where you know that if God was about being God, loving and having compassion on everyone, why am I a wreck?

Why is everything and everyone and everywhere around me a prison, a wreck, an uncaring, dispassionate, soulless, mocking, scornful mass of humanity, is there any reason for anyone to believe in God and the freedoms He promises?

As Independence Day approaches and we thank God for the hard-won freedoms this country enjoys, because so many were willing to give their everything, up to their very lives, to lay the foundation of a radical dream, of founding a nation under the providence, protection and care of God, with liberty, justice for all.

A Declaration of Independence, a one of a kind Constitution To set a standard of true liberty and independence and freedom for everyone for the last 248 years.

It is also important to point out the freedoms we have through Jesus Christ.

Jesus Christ’s life giving sacrifice, on the Cross gives each of us these five liberties:

1. Freedom from the guilt that all inherit.

The Bible says in 1 Corinthians 15:22, “In Adam all die.” Physical death — and the risk of spiritual death — are universal realities because of the sin we inherit from Adam and Eve. In Christ, we are forgiven, not condemned, promised a home in heaven, and set free from guilt. (Romans 8:1 – 4)

Escape from Bondage

8 Therefore there is now no condemnation [no guilty verdict, no punishment] for those who are in Christ Jesus [who believe in Him as personal Lord and Savior]. ²For the law of the Spirit of life [which is] in Christ Jesus [the law of our new being] has set you free from the law of sin and of death. ³For what the Law could not do [that is, overcome sin and remove its penalty, its power] being weakened by the flesh [man’s nature without the Holy Spirit], God did: He sent His own Son in the likeness of sinful man as an offering for sin. And He condemned sin in the flesh [subdued it and overcame it in the person of His own Son], ⁴so that the [righteous and just] requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us who do not live our lives in the ways of the flesh [guided by worldliness and our sinful nature], but [live our lives] in the ways of the Spirit [guided by His power].

2. Freedom from sinful deeds we personally commit.

We have all known the right things but done the wrong things. Sinful actions not only put a big wedge between us and God, but they also result in numerous negative repercussions. Confessing Christ as Savior, He forgives our sins, and the indwelling Holy Spirit can give us the strength to overcome temptations.

Romans 7:14-20 Amplified Bible

The Conflict of Two Natures

¹⁴We know that the Law is spiritual, but I am a creature of the flesh [worldly, self-reliant—carnal and unspiritual], sold into slavery to sin [and serving under its control]. ¹⁵For I do not understand my own actions [I am baffled and bewildered by them]. I do not practice what I want to do, but I am doing the very thing I hate [and yielding to my human nature, my worldliness—my sinful capacity]. ¹⁶Now if I habitually do what I do not want to do, [that means] I agree with the Law, confessing that it is good (morally excellent). ¹⁷So now [if that is the case, then] it is no longer I who do it [the disobedient thing which I despise], but the sin [nature] which lives in me. ¹⁸For I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my flesh [my human nature, my worldliness—my sinful capacity]. For the willingness [to do good] is present in me, but the doing of good is not. ¹⁹For the good that I want to do, I do not do, but I practice the very evil that I do not want. ²⁰But if I am doing the very thing I do not want to do, I am no longer the one doing it [that is, it is not me that acts], but the sin [nature] which lives in me.

3. Freedom within ourselves over personal struggles.

If we are willing, God’s Spirit can even help us overcome sinful habits that may have held us in bondage for years. Whether the issue is gnawing remorse over past bad decisions, feelings of worthlessness, emotional pain from abuse, or just fear about tomorrow — Jesus gives us peace within. The Gospel is our way to an abundant peace with God and is also the key to peace with ourselves.

4. Freedom from judgment that is ultimately coming.

Jesus is in the process of restoring a broken world. “Eschatology” is an 85-cent word that refers to what the Bible says about “last things.” One day, the entire world and universe will be made brand-new (Revelation 21:5). Just as there is a global, universal eschatology — Jesus gives us a joyous personal eschatology. This fallen world is under judgment, but Jesus has made the believer exempt.

5. Freedom to face eternity—our soul’s final destiny.

“It is appointed for people to die once — and after this, judgment.” – Hebrews 9:27

We may not want to or like to think about our own pending mortality, but it is unavoidable. There is a date that we will leave this world, and God knows when that date is. It is very freeing, liberating to know that we are ready to face God!

Several years ago, I was asked to visit the neighbor of a friend who had been arrested and put in jail. As a minister of the Gospel, requests like this come along more than you might imagine.

It is an honor to do such things, and when people find themselves in the deepest of valleys, with prison bars between them and their independence, they are very often quite open to allowing Jesus Christ to become Lord, Savior of their lives.

The facility was very bleak, with rough gray concrete everywhere and seemingly endless hallways of bars and flaking paint. Not surprisingly, an air of gloom and hopelessness permeated the place, and reflected on the faces of all the inmates.

The particular jail where I visited the inmate in question had a very small, dark courtyard in the middle of the building. There were a few concrete squares in an otherwise dirty, rain soaked and muddy courtyard.

Suddenly, I noticed a small flower growing up against the concrete wall in one corner. It was the only bit of vegetation in this otherwise dank, lifeless place.

Invisibly, some minimal breeze had carried a seed over the roof and into this small open area within the prison facility. The bleakness of the surroundings made that one little flower all the more vivid to those who cared to notice.

When you think of the prison bars, bondage, sufferings, and entanglements that permeate this world, the freedoms that we have through Savior Christ appear all the more precious. Jesus is the flower of beauty in a muddy place.

Luke 4:16-21 Amplified Bible

¹⁶So He came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up; and as was His custom, He entered the synagogue on the Sabbath, and stood up to read. ¹⁷The scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to Him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written,

¹⁸
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me (the Messiah),
Because He has anointed Me to preach the good news to the poor.
He has sent Me to announce release (pardon, forgiveness) to the captives,
And recovery of sight to the blind,
To set free those who are oppressed (downtrodden, bruised, crushed by tragedy),
¹⁹
to proclaim the favorable year of the Lord [the day when salvation and the favor of God abound greatly].”

²⁰Then He rolled up the scroll [having stopped in the middle of the verse], gave it back to the attendant and sat down [to teach]; and the eyes of all those in the synagogue were [attentively] fixed on Him. ²¹He began speaking to them: “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing and in your presence.”

Jesus absolves the guilty, the homeless sinners, who are imprisoned by sin. The heart and soul cries out in silence, longs for freedom — and finds it in Christ.

Acts 4:8-12 Amplified Bible

⁸Then Peter, filled with [the power of] the Holy Spirit, said to them, “Rulers and elders of the people [members of the Sanhedrin, the Jewish High Court], ⁹if we are being put on trial today [to interrogate us] for a good deed done to [benefit] a disabled man, as to how this man has been restored to health, ¹⁰let it be known and clearly understood by all of you, and by all the people of Israel, that in the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene, whom you [demanded be] crucified [by the Romans and], whom God raised from the dead—in this name [that is, by the authority and power of Jesus] this man stands here before you in good health. ¹¹This Jesus is the stone which was despised and rejected by you, the builders, but which became the ^[a]chief Cornerstone. ¹²And there is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among people by which we must be saved [for God has provided the world no alternative for salvation].”

For there is salvation in no one else, no other name under heaven … Acts 4:12

In the name of God, the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit,

Let us Pray,

Lord, “Whom have I in heaven but you? And earth has nothing I desire besides you. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever” (Psalm 73:25-26). May I reach out with your love to people who are lonely. In Jesus, Amen.

Psalm 42 Amplified Bible

Book Two

Thirsting for God in Trouble and Exile.

To the Chief Musician. A skillful song, or a didactic or reflective poem, of the sons of Korah.

42 As the deer pants [longingly] for the water brooks,
So my ^[a]soul pants [longingly] for You, O God.
²
My soul (my life, my inner self) thirsts for God, for the living God.
When will I come and see the face of God?
³
My tears have been my food day and night,
While they say to me all day long, “Where is your God?”
⁴
These things I [vividly] remember as I pour out my soul;
How I used to go along before the great crowd of people and lead them in procession to the house of God [like a choirmaster before his singers, timing the steps to the music and the chant of the song],
With the voice of joy and thanksgiving, a great crowd keeping a festival.

⁵
Why are you in despair, O my soul?
And why have you become restless and disturbed within me?
Hope in God and wait expectantly for Him, for I shall again praise Him
For the help of His presence.
⁶
O my God, my soul is in despair within me [the burden more than I can bear];
Therefore I will [fervently] remember You from the land of the Jordan
And the peaks of [Mount] Hermon, from Mount Mizar.
⁷
Deep calls to deep at the [thundering] sound of Your waterfalls;
All Your breakers and Your waves have rolled over me.
⁸
Yet the Lord will command His lovingkindness in the daytime,
And in the night His song will be with me,
A prayer to the God of my life.

⁹
I will say to God my rock, “Why have You forgotten me?
Why do I go mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?”
¹⁰
As a crushing of my bones [with a sword], my adversaries taunt me,
While they say continually to me, “Where is your God?”
¹¹
Why are you in despair, O my soul?
Why have you become restless and disquieted within me?
Hope in God and wait expectantly for Him, for I shall yet praise Him,
The ^[b]help of my countenance and my God.

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What Lessons Can We All Still Learn from the Israelites’ Wandering Years Exodus 17:15-16?

Exodus 17:15-16 Christian Standard Bible

¹⁵And Moses built an altar and named it, “The Lord Is My Banner.”^[a] ¹⁶He said, “Indeed, my hand is lifted up toward^[b] the Lord’s throne. The Lord will be at war with Amalek from generation to generation.”

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 the book of Exodus, we read the story of how God’s people had endured years of bondage under the Egyptians.

They were enslaved, oppressed, abused, mistreated people.

They needed rescue, they needed a way of escape, needed freedom. God saw their need, didn’t miss a thing, in his perfect timing, he acted on their behalf.

The people of Israel spent 40 years in the desert. 40 years of wandering. 40 years of journeying towards the Promised Land that God had given them.

That’s a very long time.

The days must have been intense, hot, dry, I’m sure they got weary.

But God met them where they were, he made sure they had what they needed.

They learned through every hard, grueling step, how much they relied on Him.

It is not so much faith that is important, but the One in Whom you place your trust. Some people trusted in chariots and some in world leaders.

Some trust in themselves, their finances, their family ties, or their talents.

Some trust in their physical strength, in their intelligence education, their personality, their artistic abilities, or performing lots of good works.. but what is most important is trusting Jehovah-Nissi, (the Lord our banner) for He has promised to fight for us, when our enemies come at us like a raging angry flood.

What is necessary for life and living, for death and dying, is our hope in God.

The strength that is needed for today and the blessed hope we have in the world to come, is a heart that trusts in Jesus Christ, and wholly relies on His sufficient grace and mighty strength to get them through all of their weakest moments.

Every person we know and each security in which we place our trust, will one day let us down – including reliance on our own strength and abilities.

What is needed is a willingness to admit our fullest need and have a dependent trust on God to timely supply all we will need according to His riches in glory.

In Exodus, the Lord revealed Himself to Israel as Jehovah-Nissi, (the Lord our banner). The people of God had just escaped from Egypt. They were no fighting army. They had no experience of defeating a fierce enemy.

But they had been brought out of slavery by God, Who provided food for their bodies and led them in the wilderness by pillars of fire and smoke.

The menacing army they faced carried a victorious standard at the head of their battalions of fierce, well trained fighting men, which was meant to intimidate their opponents, instill fear in their ranks, fear and second thoughts in leaders.

It was as they journeyed through the wilderness that the Amalekites came up and fought against Israel at Rephidim, and Moses said to Joshua, “Choose men for us and go out, fight against Amalek, and tomorrow I will station myself on the top of the hill with the staff of God in my hand.”

Trust in God to deliver you, was Moses’ crystal clear instruction.

While Moses held up the Staff of God, Israel prevailed, but whenever he put his hand down, Amalek prevailed, Aaron and Hur held up the tired arms of Moses until the Amalek’s army was defeated.

On that day, God revealed Himself as Jehovah-Nissi, (the Lord our banner), “and Moses built an altar and named it The LORD is My Banner.”

As Israel’s armies fought Amalek on the field of conflict in the physical realm.. so Moses battled the adversary in a parallel sphere, through spiritual warfare.

As the Israelites fought their physical enemy with sword and spear, so Moses battled a spiritual enemy in the heavenly realm – through prayer and through intercession. Moses defied the satanic realm as he held up the Standard of God.

What faith was demonstrated by Moses, Aaron, Hur, Joshua, and the entire army of God. They trusted Him to fight for them, and He did not disappoint.

As Israel raised weapons of war against their bitter foe, so Moses lifted high the Rod of the LORD against the principalities and powers in heavenly places.

The earthly foe could only be overcome in the spiritual realm. Victory or defeat of Joshua’s army would be determined by the effective prayer of Israel’s faithful watchman.. for the effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much – the effective prayer of a REDEEMED man.

Just as soldiers raise their battle standards high, proclaiming allegiance to king and country, so Moses lifted up his Banner to the Lord.

Moses raised up the Rod of God to proclaim Whose they were, Who was their true Champion, and in Whom they trusted.

The Lord God was their Defense and Defender, and so they fought under the authority, direction, and power of God, Who from that day on, became to Israel, “Jehovah-Nissi: The Lord Is My Banner.”

The arms of Moses grew weary and the legs of this prayer-warrior weakened as he travailed in intercession for those in his care.

Spiritual warfare is intense, and the arm of flesh fails when we face the enemy’s onslaught in our own strength.

But Aaron and Hur joined forces with Moses as together they raised high the standard of God, and the outnumbered armies of Israel continued to battle the Amalekites with swords and spears.

The long fatigued arms of an 80+ year old Moses were held aloft until sunset, against spiritual wickedness in high places, for only as he interceded for Israel was Joshua’s victory secure.

It was as Moses prayed for the people of Israel that the enemy was overcome.

Although he grew weary and rested his exhausted body on a stone, Moses kept the Rod of the Lord high, lifted up in prayer, so that we finally read, “Joshua overcame the Amalekite army with the sword.”

We too fight under the same standard, for Christ is our Banner.

Jesus is our Jehovah-Nissi. His is the Standard under which we stand and the Commander Whom we obey.

We too lift high the name of Jesus, for He is our Rod and our Staff.

We too rest our weary soul in Him, for His is the Rock of our salvation, and He is our Strong Tower to Whom we flee for safety.

The Lord is our Banner – the Lord is MY Banner.

Like the armies of Israel under the leadership of Joshua, we are not to rely on our own strength, for Christ’s strength is sufficient for all the difficulties and dangers we may face.

He is the One upon Whom we are to cast our heavy burdens and rest our weary souls for Jesus won every spiritual battle we will face, when He proclaimed from the Cross, “It is finished.”

5 Things We Can Learn from the Israelites’ Wandering Years in the Desert:

1. The way to our promised land is not always easy, in fact, it rarely is. But it’s worth it.

God had promised his people a land that would be full of blessing. But the way there would stretch their faith and lead them through journeys where they’d have to depend on God like nothing before.

Maybe you feel like the blessing is too long in coming, maybe you feel like giving up. Be assured again today that God is faithful and he will use all things to strengthen our faith and bring goodness to his people.

Stay strong, keep pressing through.

2. God will make a way where there doesn’t seem to be a way.

As the Israelites got closer that sea must have looked bigger and deeper.

Their eyes focused on the problem.

They forgot about the bigness of their God. But God didn’t forget about them.

Even if the way He’s leading doesn’t seem to make much sense and His timing seems off, or the wait feels long, and wandering in desert places is the last thing we want to do, we can trust Him.

Always. He knows our way. He sees the big picture. He has good in store.

3. God will lead us day and night.

“By day the Lord went ahead of them in a pillar of cloud to guide them on their way and by night in a pillar of fire to given them light…” Exodus 13:21

God never left his people alone in their journey. His presence was always there, a reminder to them that they hadn’t been left on their own in the wilderness.

God will not leave us to fend for ourselves, struggling to find our way.

He will lead us.

He promises to be faithful. We may not see him in a pillar of cloud or fire these days, but we have his Word, and the Holy Spirit to give guidance to our days.

4. God fights on behalf of his people

“Then the angel of God…withdrew and went behind them. The pillar of cloud also moved from in front and stood behind them…” Exodus 14:19

He gives us victory and power even when it doesn’t make sense. After a battle against the fierce Amalekites, when God gave his people a great victory, the Bible says, “Moses built an altar and called it The Lord is my Banner. He said, ‘For hands were lifted up to the throne of the Lord…” Exodus 17:15-16

We’re never left to wrestle through on our own in hard places. He doesn’t send us out to fight the enemy in our own strength. He just tells us to be still, to stand strong, and to know he’s fighting on our behalf.

5. God provides in miraculous ways

“Then the Lord said to Moses, ‘I will rain down bread from heaven for you…” Exodus 16:4

They were hungry. God sent manna. They were thirsty. God sent water gushing from a rock. Every day a miracle was right before their eyes. They just had to pick up the manna, drink the water, accept the blessing.

And just like the people of Israel had to look to God to meet their needs, so it is with us.

They couldn’t store it up, they had to look for it daily. And God always provided.

Sometimes we miss the miracles of his provision, out of busyness or stress. We try to get things going too fast all on our own, spinning around, trying to get it all done. Or other times we might start to forget what matters most.

But even for those days, there’s His grace. He waits for us. His provision and blessing, they never run dry. Every day, his miracles lie right before our eyes. We just have to choose to look for them and stay extra close in his presence.

In the name of God, the Father and God the Son and God the Hoy Spirit,

Let us Pray,

All glory, honor, praise and Thanks be unto You, Jehovah Nissi, for the spiritual lessons I can learn from faithful saints like Moses and Joshua, Aaron and Hur. May I recognize that in everything, Jesus is all I need, and that under Your banner I can face the future in full assurance and peace. I pray that my prayers and intercessions will be underpinned by Jesus, the Rock of my Salvation, the Hope of the whole earth and the Standard with Whom I am identified. With every passing day, I pray that I may trust in Him, stand against the enemy in prayer and intercession, and be upheld in truth, through Jesus Christ, my God and Savior, in Whose name I pray, AMEN.

Psalm 20 Christian Standard Bible

Psalm 20

Deliverance in Battle

For the choir director. A psalm of David.

¹May the Lord answer you in a day of trouble;
may the name of Jacob’s God protect you.
²May he send you help from the sanctuary
and sustain you from Zion.
³May he remember all your offerings
and accept your burnt offering. Selah

⁴May he give you what your heart desires
and fulfill your whole purpose.
⁵Let us shout for joy at your victory
and lift the banner in the name of our God.
May the Lord fulfill all your requests.

⁶Now I know that the Lord gives victory to his anointed;
he will answer him from his holy heaven
with mighty victories from his right hand.
⁷Some take pride in chariots, and others in horses,
but we take pride in the name of the Lord our God.
⁸They collapse and fall,
but we rise and stand firm.
⁹Lord, give victory to the king!
May he^[a] answer us on the day that we call.

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.

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A Life Lived Against the World, A Life Lived inside the Shadow of the Cross, Is a Life Definitely Worth Our Living. Philippians 1:21 – 30

Philippians 1:21-30 Amplified Bible

To Live Is Christ

²¹For to me, to live is Christ [He is my source of joy, my reason to live] and to die is gain [for I will be with Him in eternity]. ²²If, however, it is to be life here and I am to go on living, this will mean useful and productive service for me; so I do not know which to choose [if I am given that choice]. ²³But I am hard-pressed between the two. I have the desire to leave [this world] and be with Christ, for that is far, far better; ²⁴yet to remain in my body is more necessary and essential for your sake. ²⁵ Since I am convinced of this, I know that I will remain and continue with all of you for your progress and joy in the faith, ²⁶so that your rejoicing for me may overflow in Christ Jesus through my coming to you again.

²⁷Only [be sure to] lead your lives in a manner [that will be] worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I do come and see you or remain absent, I will hear about you that you are standing firm in one spirit [and one purpose], with one ^[a]mind striving side by side [as if in combat] for the faith of the gospel. ²⁸ And in no way be alarmed or intimidated [in anything] by your opponents, for such [constancy and fearlessness on your part] is a [clear] sign [a proof and a seal] for them of [their impending] destruction, but [a clear sign] for you of deliverance and salvation, and that too, from God. ²⁹For you have been granted [the privilege] for Christ’s sake, not only to believe and confidently trust in Him, but also to suffer for His sake, ³⁰[and so you are] experiencing the same [kind of] conflict which ^[b]you saw me endure, and which you hear to be mine now.

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 today’s verses Paul tells his readers that he found ultimate meaning not in the length of his life but in his life of connectional relationship with the Lord.

Paul, feet shackled, wrote this letter from a prison. He didn’t know what his future held, and yet he trusted the risen Christ to carry him through any trial.

For Paul, even while chained and imprisoned, to live in the Lord and serve him in whatever capacity God entrusted him with is wonderful. And to die in the Lord is blessed, for death itself could not rip him away from his Savior’s care.

As we all face up to the inevitable which is our own mortality, that of our loved ones, our hope is rooted inside the everlasting grip our Savior has upon his own.

God might grant us a longer or shorter life. But to be truly fulfilling, worthy, our life in the world, but not of the world, but the cross, must be focused in Christ.

Living for Christ in the present age can get extremely difficult at times.

Rather than living for Christ, it can be easy to do the alternative — to live for ourselves or our own wants and desires.

Paul tells us in Philippians 1:21, “For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.”

It should be our heart and souls most sincere desire to follow Paul’s example, be able to echo these same words, “For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.”

In our greatly challenged stressed day to day lives, we need to continually pray, continually ask ourselves, are we truly living for Christ, or living for ourselves?

This is a difficult question for all of us to answer, yet there can only be growth if we are brutally honest with ourselves and then make the appropriate changes.

Breaking the Mold and Living for Christ goes against the teachings of the world.

The teachings of the world tell us to “live our best life” or to do all we can for our own ultimate pleasure and happiness.

Our wildly reckless abandon, our endless pursuit of pleasure and happiness will only end up leaving us physically and spiritually torn, worn out, and exhausted.

The things of the world may bring fleeting happiness, but this happiness will quickly fade away, and we will feel empty again. Only in the Cross of Christ are we given the lasting joy of knowing Him and having a relationship with Him.

The Bible tells us that the “god” of the world is Satan (2 Corinthians 4:4).

Since Satan is the “god” of this world, the world’s teachings are not in any kind of correct alignment with the Bible.

The world teaches us that lying, being selfish, and immoral acts are all normal or that we should do anything that is allegedly “true” to ourselves. As one can see, these teachings do not come from the Bible. If we are going to truly live for Christ in this present day and age, we are going to have to have a radical change.

When we stop giving into the lies, start truly living for Christ, we are going to break the mold of the world. No longer wanting to live according to the world.

Rather, we will simply want to live for Christ, serve Him with our whole heart.

Living for Christ is no easy task, yet it is something that we must strive for each day. We cannot make a difference for Christ if we are living according to the standards of the world. As Christians, we are called to stand out from the world.

From within His Beatitudes, Jesus teaches each of us, “You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead, they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven” (Matthew 5:14-16).

As Jesus tells us, we are to be the light of the world. We cannot be the light of the world if we are “hiding in some darkened corner, under old tiny baskets, living abundantly in the darkness of the world’s teachings, conforming to its rules.”

Romans 12:2 tells us, “Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.”

Romans 12:1-2 Amplified Bible

Dedicated Service

12 ^[a]Therefore I urge you, ^[b]brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies [dedicating all of yourselves, set apart] as a living sacrifice, holy and well-pleasing to God, which is your rational (logical, intelligent) act of worship. ²And do not be conformed to this world [any longer with its superficial values and customs], but be ^[c]transformed and progressively changed [as you mature spiritually] by the renewing of your mind [focusing on godly values and ethical attitudes], so that you may prove [for yourselves] what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect [in His plan and purpose for you].

The Lord wants us to discipline ourselves, abstain from our conforming to the pattern of this world, to instead be transformed by the renewing of our minds.

We can be transformed by the renewing of our minds by reading the Bible, meditating on its truths, teaching and applying its teachings to our daily lives.

If we choose to conform to the pattern of this world, we cannot properly live for Christ. Living according to the pattern of this world will only result in a broken relationship with God, sin, and shame. As believers, we have the permanent indwelling Holy Spirit, who guides, helps, and convicts us (John 14:26, 16:7-13).

He will help us walk in the right path if we listen to Him (Galatians 5:16-18).

Unfortunately, as we will inevitably do, when we turn two deaf ears to the Holy Spirit, our hearts can become cold and calloused to the point that we no longer feel the conviction of the Holy Spirit. It is vital that we get disciplined, never let ourselves get to the point where we no longer feel the Holy Spirit’s conviction.

The Father and Jesus have given us the great gift of the indwelling Holy Spirit within our hearts, and He is there to help us live for God. In fact, the Holy Spirit is God because He is the third member of the Trinity. Therefore, when we are turning our deaf ears to the Holy Spirit, we’re turning a deaf ear to God Himself.

This is a very dangerous and high risk business and a road that is hard to return from. We cannot truly live out our all in all for our Savior Christ unless we are walking in the Spirit, allowing Him to shape and mold us to reflect Jesus better.

Surrendering Everything for Christ, Living for Christ, means that we have to be willing to make hardcore sacrifices, give up everything, however much value we assign to those, to follow Him, including all of our hopes, dreams, and desires.

Jesus tells us boldly, “In the same way, those of you who do not give up everything you have cannot be my disciples” (Luke 14:33).

Luke 14:25-35 Amplified Bible

Discipleship Tested

²⁵Now large crowds were going along with Jesus; and He turned and said to them, ²⁶“If anyone comes to Me, and does not ^[a]hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life [in the sense of indifference to or relative disregard for them in comparison with his attitude toward God]—he cannot be My disciple. ²⁷Whoever does not carry his own cross [expressing a willingness to endure whatever may come] and follow after Me [believing in Me, conforming to My example in living and, if need be, suffering or perhaps dying because of faith in Me] cannot be My disciple. ²⁸For which one of you, when he wants to build a watchtower [for his guards], does not first sit down and calculate the cost, to see if he has enough to finish it? ²⁹Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is unable to finish [the building], all who see it will begin to ridicule him, ³⁰saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish!’ ³¹Or what king, when he sets out to meet another king in battle, will not first sit down and consider whether he is strong enough with ten thousand men to encounter the one who is coming against him with twenty thousand? ³²Or else [if he feels he is not powerful enough], while the other [king] is still a far distance away, he sends an envoy and asks for terms of peace. ³³So then, none of you can be My disciple who does not [carefully consider the cost and then for My sake] ^[b]give up all his own possessions.

³⁴“Therefore, salt is good; but if salt has become tasteless, with what will it be seasoned? ³⁵It is fit neither for the soil nor for the manure pile; it is thrown away. He who has ears to hear, let him hear and heed My words.”

In other words, we have to be willing to give up everything in order to follow Jesus and serve Him.

Christ can never be “second best” in our life. He has to always come first.

Placing Jesus as our number one priority each day is crucial for living for Him.

Whenever we place anything above Christ in our lives, it becomes an idol.

Even good things can become idols if we place them above Christ, such as marriage, family, or friends, material possessions, places of employment.

While it is deeply desired, great to be married, have a family, and have friends, we should never place them as being more important than God in our lives.

Choosing to live for our Savior Christ is something that we have to do each day intentionally. This means we should always be ready and willing to go out of our way to help someone else in our lives or to help out at our local church, a local ministry, or even to just help a neighbor who needs help carrying in groceries.

We do not have to be a missionary or an ordained pastor to live for Christ.

If we’re indeed authentic Christians, we can all live for Christ in our daily lives.

God has trusted us each with our own spiritual gifts and talents, skills, and gifts, and He wants us to use these things to be able to serve Him and others.

Each in our own unique capacity has the ability to do great things for Christ, regardless of age, gender, ethnicity, financial status, or relationship status.

Living for Christ can be quite difficult, yet living for Christ is always worth it because we are serving our great Savior and Redeemer.

Why Does This Matter?

Why should this matter?

What possible difference can it make?

What possible difference could I make?

Even if the end result is as minimal as it can get-say only .01% , as much as 100, God will be the One who will plant the seed of the change, nurture it to fullness.

Philippians 2:1-4 Amplified Bible

Be Like Christ

2 Therefore if there is any encouragement and comfort in Christ [as there certainly is in abundance], if there is any consolation of love, if there is any fellowship [that we share] in the Spirit, if [there is] any [great depth of] affection and compassion, ²make my joy complete by being of the same mind, having the same ^[a]love [toward one another], knit together in spirit, intent on one purpose [and living a life that reflects your faith and spreads the gospel—the good news regarding salvation through faith in Christ]. ³Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit [through factional motives, or strife], but with [an attitude of] humility [being neither arrogant nor self-righteous], regard others as more important than yourselves. ⁴Do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others.

If you have been living for Christ for a while now, as you are familiar with the difficulties, trials, and hard times that come along with living for Christ, yet it is vital you continue to live for Christ even when it’s hard and even when it hurts.

Maybe at the end of our lives, we’ll be able to echo Paul’s words, “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith” (2 Timothy 4:7).

2 Timothy 4:3-8 Amplified Bible

³For the time will come when people will not tolerate sound doctrine and accurate instruction [that challenges them with God’s truth]; but wanting to have their ears tickled [with something pleasing], they will accumulate for themselves [many] teachers [one after another, chosen] to satisfy their own desires and to support the errors they hold, ⁴and will turn their ears away from the truth and will wander off into myths and man-made fictions [and will accept the unacceptable]. ⁵But as for you, be clear-headed in every situation [stay calm and cool and steady], endure every hardship [without flinching], do the work of an evangelist, fulfill [the duties of] your ministry.

⁶For I am already being ^[a]poured out as a drink offering, and the time of ^[b]my departure [from this world] is at hand and I will soon go free. ⁷I have fought the good and worthy and noble fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith [firmly guarding the gospel against error]. ⁸In the future there is reserved for me the [victor’s] crown of righteousness [for being right with God and doing right], which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that [great] day—and not to me only, but also to all those who have loved and longed for and welcomed His appearing.

Ralph Waldo Emerson and his son were struggling to get a calf to step into the barn. They tried poking, prodding, pushing, but the calf would not move.

Suddenly a servant girl shuffled by, and by thrusting her finger into the animal’s mouth, she rather easily lured him into its stall inside the barn.

The business world is built on the device of promise of reward for productive work. After a week’s hard work, we receive the reward of a paycheck.

We may also receive other benefits, such as health insurance and vacation time. Work that will be rewarded gets done.

God uses the promise of reward to motivate Christians as well.

Heaven, the gift of everlasting life in the presence of the eternal God, is an awesome reward for all who serve God. When the work is strenuous, the obstacles are foreboding, and our courage is waning, God reminds us of the reward we will receive in heaven.

Picture the crown of righteousness that God wants to place on your head.

Imagine the throne being prepared for you to reign with Christ.

Visualize the banquet table where all of God’s family will feast forever.

But the reward is also a gift; it’s already been earned for us by Christ.

And as he offers it freely, we already begin to live the new life that we’ll receive fully in God’s presence. The reward of the life to come summons us to give our best sacrifices, very best fruits of our labor, and to win the race here on earth.

In the name of God, the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit,

Let us Pray,

Psalm 103 The Message

103 ^1-2O my soul, bless God.
From head to toe, I’ll bless his holy name!
O my soul, bless God,
don’t forget a single blessing!

^3-5    He forgives your sins—every one.
    He heals your diseases—every one.
    He redeems you from hell—saves your life!
    He crowns you with love and mercy—a paradise crown.
    He wraps you in goodness—beauty eternal.
    He renews your youth—you’re always young in his presence.

^6-18God makes everything come out right;
    he puts victims back on their feet.
He showed Moses how he went about his work,
    opened up his plans to all Israel.
God is sheer mercy and grace;
    not easily angered, he’s rich in love.
He doesn’t endlessly nag and scold,
    nor hold grudges forever.
He doesn’t treat us as our sins deserve,
    nor pay us back in full for our wrongs.
As high as heaven is over the earth,
    so strong is his love to those who fear him.
And as far as sunrise is from sunset,
    he has separated us from our sins.
As parents feel for their children,
    God feels for those who fear him.
He knows us inside and out,
    keeps in mind that we’re made of mud.
Men and women don’t live very long;
    like wildflowers they spring up and blossom,
But a storm snuffs them out just as quickly,
    leaving nothing to show they were here.
God’s love, though, is ever and always,
    eternally present to all who fear him,
Making everything right for them and their children
    as they follow his Covenant ways
    and remember to do whatever he said.

^19-22God has set his throne in heaven;
    he rules over us all. He’s the King!
So bless God, you angels,
    ready and able to fly at his bidding,
    quick to hear and do what he says.
Bless God, all you armies of angels,
    alert to respond to whatever he wills.
Bless God, all creatures, wherever you are—
    everything and everyone made by God.

And you, O my soul, bless 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.

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God Freely Gives us His Gift of Peace, True Peace that’s Eminently Possible. Romans 12:17 – 19.

Romans 12:17-19 Amplified Bible

¹⁷Never repay anyone evil for evil. Take thought for what is right and gracious and proper in the sight of everyone. ¹⁸If possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. ¹⁹Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave the way open for God’s wrath [and His judicial righteousness]; for it is written [in Scripture], “Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,” says the Lord.

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.

Peace That Is Possible

The Bible is a wonderfully practical book.

Its wisdom is both rich and realistic, the longer we live, the more meaningfully we hear it speaking to our every situation.

As we age, many of us will realize that our parents were often correct in their warnings and wisdom; and as we walk by the light of God’s word, so it will be proven right in time, every time to this and to us and subsequent generations.

Paul displays this timeless, realistic wisdom here.

On one hand, this sounds overly simplistic: just try to be at peace with everyone.

It’s not difficult to understand.

But that is not all he’s saying.

The instruction is preceded by two qualifications: “if possible” and “so far as it depends on you.” The implication is clear; that it may not always be possible!

Paul is not providing a loophole here.

He’s not telling us to be at peace so long as we can control our temper or hold in our emotions, but otherwise we’re free to harbor bitterness. His call to us is to ensure that any ongoing conflict in our lives is in spite of us, not because of us.

The responsibility for ongoing animosity must never be traceable to reluctance for reconciliation on our part.

2 Corinthians 5:17-21 Amplified Bible

¹⁷Therefore if anyone is in Christ [that is, grafted in, joined to Him by faith in Him as Savior], he is a new creature [reborn and renewed by the Holy Spirit]; the old things [the previous moral and spiritual condition] have passed away. Behold, new things have come [because spiritual awakening brings a new life]. ¹⁸But all these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ [making us acceptable to Him] and gave us the ministry of reconciliation [so that by our example we might bring others to Him], ¹⁹that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting people’s sins against them [but canceling them]. And He has committed to us the message of reconciliation [that is, restoration to favor with God].

²⁰So we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were making His appeal through us; we [as Christ’s representatives] plead with you on behalf of Christ to be reconciled to God. ²¹He made Christ who knew no sin to [judicially] be sin on our behalf, so that in Him we would become the righteousness of God [that is, we would be made acceptable to Him and placed in a right relationship with Him by His gracious lovingkindness].

But even if, as Christ’s Ambassadors, we’ve done our part, we need to realize that there will always be two situations in which peace may not be possible.

One is when the other party is unwilling to be at peace with us.

We may be dealing with someone intent on harming us and with no interest in resolving the conflict.

In that situation, it may not be possible to change that person or prevent their cruelty—but it will be possible for us not to fight back.

When we ensure that we are not contributing to the conflict, we are pursuing peace “so far as it depends on” us.

The other obstacle arises when the terms of peace are incompatible with principles of holiness, truth, and righteousness.

The writer of Hebrews had such a situation in mind when he instructed his readers, “Strive for peace with everyone, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord” (Hebrews 12:14).

Hebrews 12:14-16 Amplified Bible

¹⁴Continually pursue peace with everyone, and the sanctification without which no one will [ever] see the Lord. ¹⁵See to it that no one falls short of God’s grace; that no root of resentment springs up and causes trouble, and by it many be defiled; ¹⁶and [see to it] that no one is immoral or godless like Esau, who sold his own birthright for a single meal.

These are not two disjointed instructions; our striving for peace and for holiness must definitely, unequivocally, not take us in separate directions.

The pursuit of peace is not to become the pursuit of peace at any price.

Some of us need to take care that our distaste for conflict and confrontation does not lead us to pursue peace at the cost of our integrity and righteousness.

One cannot change a heart; that is the Lord’s business.

Ezekiel 36:26-27 Amplified Bible

²⁶Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you, and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. ²⁷I will put my Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will keep My ordinances and do them.

One must not compromise their integrity; that is the Lord’s chief concern. But God is giving you, me, an imperative, as much as it is up to us, that we pursue peace. Do you or I need to be prompted by this command to temper our words, change our behaviors, or make the first step toward repairing a conflict, today?

God Will Speak, God Freely Gives His Gift of His Peace

Psalm 85:8-13 Amplified Bible

⁸
I will hear [with expectant hope] what God the Lord will say,
For He will speak peace to His people, to His ^[a]godly ones—
But let them not turn again to folly.
⁹
Surely His salvation is near to those who [reverently] fear Him [and obey Him with submissive wonder],
That glory [the manifest presence of God] may dwell in our land.
¹⁰
Steadfast love and truth and faithfulness meet together;
Righteousness and peace kiss each other.
¹¹
Truth springs from the earth,
And righteousness looks down from heaven.
¹²
Indeed, the Lord will give what is good,
And our land will yield its produce.
¹³
Righteousness will go before Him
And will make His footsteps into a way [in which to walk].

Peace is a commodity that can only be found with time spent seeking the face of God. The world can’t offer us peace because it has nothing in which to place its hope, trust, and security. Kingdoms come and go. Leaders move in and out of power. What cultures and societies value changes like the passing of the tides.

Our only constant is God. He has been, is, and forever will be the Creator, Sustainer, and Lord of all. All authority has been given to him. He governs the change of seasons. He thwarts the plans of our enemy. And He longs to offer total and sustained peace to all who will place their full hope and trust in him.

Isaiah 26:3 says, “You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you.”

Our God has peace in store for us in every situation if we will choose to keep our mind stayed on him and trust him.

The world says that peace can only come when you’ve worked your fingers to the bone and have finally attained all you want. You can only have peace when you have enough money, friends, the right job, or the right spouse. You can only have peace if friends, family, bosses like you. Peace as negotiated with enemies.

James 4:7-9 Amplified Bible teaches us …

⁷So submit to [the authority of] God. Resist the devil [stand firm against him] and he will flee from you. ⁸Come close to God [with a contrite heart] and He will come close to you. Wash your hands, you sinners; and purify your [unfaithful] hearts, you double-minded [people]. ⁹Be miserable and grieve and weep [over your sin]. Let your [foolish] laughter be turned to mourning and your [reckless] joy to gloom.

God’s way is to draw you into himself and offer you peace in the midst of your circumstances. He doesn’t want you to wait until everything gets worked out before you can have rest—we submit yo Him, he’s offering you rest right now.

Psalm 23 says, “The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters. He restores my soul . . . . You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows” (Psalm 23:1-3, 5).

God longs to prepare a table for you in the midst of whatever trouble surrounds you. He is calling upon each, every one of us to keep our minds stayed on him no matter what may lie before us. And he is asking us to seek his face, not ours and find our rest in him rather than toiling and striving for a circumstantial peace.

Romans 8:6 says, “To set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace.”

Romans 8:5-8 Amplified Bible

⁵For those who are living according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh [which gratify the body], but those who are living according to the Spirit, [set their minds on] the things of the Spirit [His will and purpose]. ⁶Now the mind of the flesh is death [both now and forever—because it pursues sin]; but the mind of the Spirit is life and peace [the spiritual well-being that comes from walking with God—both now and forever]; ⁷the mind of the flesh [with its sinful pursuits] is actively hostile to God. It does not submit itself to God’s law, since it cannot, ⁸and those who are in the flesh [living a life that caters to sinful appetites and impulses] cannot please God.

It’s by the Holy Spirit alone that you and I will find abundant life and true peace.

Stop looking for your fulfillment in the things of the world. Stop asking the world to offer you what it never had to begin with. Look toward your heavenly Father for the peace that surpasses all understanding. May you be filled with rest and peace today as you spend time in prayer seeking the face of God.

In the name of God, the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit,

Guided Prayer:

1. Meditate on the truth that God is your sole source of peace and rest.

Allow God’s word to mold and shape your perspective.

“The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters. He restores my soul.” – Psalm 23:1-3

“To set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace.” – Romans 8:6

“You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you.” – Isaiah 26:3

2. Where have you been running to for peace?

Have you had much peace and rest in your life lately? Acknowledging your past pursuits will help you make present changes.

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart, do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight.” Proverbs 3:5-6

3. Seek the peace coming from placing your hope and trust in God alone.

Ask the Spirit to fill you with peace in the midst of your circumstances. Let your requests be known to God, and receive the peace that comes from casting your burdens on the loving and capable shoulders of your heavenly Father.

“The Lord is at hand; do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” Philippians 4:5-7

You will be robbed of peace as soon as you turn your trust away from God and begin to live in your own strength.

The only source of consistent peace is keeping your mind stayed on God.

You can trust in the reality of God’s desire and ability to help you.

You can wait on him if he tells you to wait.

You can move when he tells you to move. Offer your understanding, actions, and emotions to him, and allow him to be sovereign Lord over them all today.

Psalm 29 Amplified Bible

The Voice of the Lord in the Storm.

A Psalm of David.

29 ^[a]Ascribe to the Lord, O ^[b]sons of the mighty,
Ascribe to the Lord glory and strength.
²
Ascribe to the Lord the glory due His name;
Worship the Lord in the beauty and majesty of His holiness [as the creator and source of holiness].

³
The voice of the Lord is upon the waters;
The God of glory thunders;
The Lord is over many waters.
⁴
The voice of the Lord is powerful;
The voice of the Lord is full of majesty.
⁵
The voice of the Lord breaks the cedars;
Yes, the Lord breaks in pieces the cedars of Lebanon.
⁶
He makes Lebanon skip like a calf,
And Sirion (Mount Hermon) like a young, wild ox.
⁷
The voice of the Lord rakes flames of fire (lightning).
⁸
The voice of the Lord shakes the wilderness;
The Lord shakes the wilderness of Kadesh.
⁹
The voice of the Lord ^[c]makes the doe labor and give birth
And strips the forests bare;
And in His temple all are saying, “Glory!”

¹⁰
The Lord sat as King at the flood;
Yes, the Lord sits as King forever.
¹¹
The Lord will give [unyielding and impenetrable] strength to His people;
The Lord will bless His people with peace.

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.

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For how long, O LORD shall I take counsel in my soul? Are We Being Too Hard on Ourselves, or Taking Ourselves Too Seriously? Psalm 13:2

Psalm 13 Amplified Bible

Prayer for Help in Trouble.

To the Chief Musician. A Psalm of David.

13 How long, O Lord? Will You forget me forever?
How long will You hide Your face from me?
²
How long must I take counsel in my soul,
Having sorrow in my heart day after day?
How long will my enemy exalt himself and triumph over me?

³
Consider and answer me, O Lord my God;
Give light (life) to my eyes, or I will sleep the sleep of death,
⁴
And my enemy will say, “I have overcome him,”
And my adversaries will rejoice when I am shaken.

⁵
But I have trusted and relied on and been confident in Your lovingkindness and faithfulness;
My heart shall rejoice and delight in Your salvation.
⁶
I will sing to the Lord,
Because He has dealt bountifully with 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.

Being too hard on yourself can cause immense pressure and toxic stress.

Of course, not all stress is bad.

Stress can be good for you, but when you put pressure on yourself to live up to certain expectations and you don’t, this stress can become toxic, affecting your mental and physical and spiritual wellbeing.

It creates confusion and uses up your energy resources, throwing off your balance, much like putting too much pressure on an object can throw it off balance.

Pressure is a force, and if you are going to apply force in any direction, why are you applying directing it against yourself? Why not apply it in positive, uplifting direction? Why not make a .001% extra effort to turn this pressure around into your biggest fan, encouraging, instead of discouraging, your every step?

To do this, recognize the need for change, it is important to recognize the main signs you are putting too much pressure on yourself, what to do about them:

1. “I Didn’t Get ‘X’ Done.”

Often, we tend to focus on what we haven’t done instead of what we have accomplished, then get stuck feeling guilty, frustrated, edgy, and like a failure.

When you feel yourself falling into this way of thinking, stop and say or write down what you have done. Remind yourself of what you have achieved, and that there will be time to get the rest done tomorrow.

2. “I Have to Have it All Together.”

So many of us feel like we must have it all together all the time, but this denies our humanity and the fact that we all make mistakes, mess up and get things wrong at times.

When you feel like this, remind yourself that no one has it all together.

And try not to compare your life to what others are doing, because the way you think and act, and your experiences, make you completely and utterly unique!

You will never be able to be anyone else but you, and you are amazing, and even unique, however, even if you are not uniquely perfect all the time. No one is!

3. “I Must Succeed.”

It is easy to fall into the trap of thinking we must always succeed at something or achieve something to be worthy of attention. When you feel like this, remind yourself that God defines your own success based on His Standard, not yours!

God alone knows there is always something you can do that no one else can do.

4. “I Cannot Make a Mistake.”

Even though we all make mistakes, it is easy to think we shouldn’t mess up and we need to get things right all the time.

But it is critically important to recognize our failures are often as important as our successes, and teach us important life lessons that help us grow as a person.

So, next time you start beating yourself up over a mistake or two, ask yourself what this experience has just taught you and to focus on how you have grown.

5. “I Let Everyone Down.”

Sometimes, it is easy to feel like we always let people down and like we are just failures. Here, it is important to remind yourself that we all fail at times, that your failures help you grow, and that, at the end of the day, life is unpredictable.

We can’t always control everything to make sure things turn out well, because so much of life is out of our control. Also, remind yourself that trying your best is the only way forward, even when it doesn’t work, meet the minimal standard of your own definition of success, because you will learn and grow as a person.

6. “I Feel Exhausted All the Time.”

We often take on so much and expect ourselves to do so much that we quickly find ourselves stressed out, overwhelmed and full blown full bone exhausted.

If this sounds like you, do a lifestyle check, and ask yourself:

Do I take enough breaks to recharge?
Do I give my brain and body time to rest and reset?
Am I having enough fun?
Do I take time to take care of my mental and physical health?

See what you can change in your life to give yourself the time you need to rest! This is so vitally important for your mind, brain and body and spiritual health.

7. “I Can Hardly Smile Anymore.”

It is too easy for humanity to get into a pattern of living where we are so laser focused on what needs to get done that we forget how to enjoy life, which can have an impact on our wellbeing.

If you find yourself smiling less and forgetting why you are working yourself so hard, take a step back, pick up a bible and pray upon ways to enjoy life again.

Watch something funny, spend time with a loved one, or do something that makes you smile again! You can even deliberately schedule this anywhere into your day so you don’t forget to give yourself a break, take the time to enjoy life.

8. “I Need to Do Everything Perfect All the Time.”

If you find yourself emotionally “holding onto” “bear hugging” the mistakes you’ve made, noticing more of the finite details of what, where, why, how you have done wrong than what you’ve gotten right, and getting anxious when you do a good-but-not-so perfect job, you may have fallen into the perfectionism trap, where you can’t come to accepting all your weakness’ or anyone else’s.

If this sounds a little too much like you, take the time to notice when you do this, and remind yourself that there is a difference between wanting to achieve certain things and thinking you need to do everything perfect all the time.

Remind yourself that mistakes and learning are a necessary part of life, and that you can work hard and harder, if you take some breaks, set up self-boundaries.

And, when you find yourself spinning into outer space, thinking more and more about what you got wrong, remind yourself of what you have gotten right too!

9. “I Am Not Good Enough.”

Take the time to observe and analyze your internal conversations and dialogue.

How do you speak to yourself?

How do you think of yourself?

If you are using a lot of negative, pessimistic language to describe yourself, take the time to work on the way you think about yourself.

Consciously observe and write down your critical self-talk and how often it’s happening. Then, work on creating re-conceptualized statements to counter this negative way of thinking and change the way you speak to yourself.

For example, change

“I wish I could be as good as…” to “I will never be able to live up to someone else’s example of success because I am unique and define my own success.”

This will take time to become a habit, so make sure to practice it every day!

The Happiness of Abundant Life

John 10:11-18 Amplified Bible

^11 [a]I am the Good Shepherd. The Good Shepherd ^[b]lays down His [own] life for the sheep. ¹²But the hired man [who merely serves for wages], who is neither the shepherd nor the owner of the sheep, when he sees the wolf coming, deserts the flock and runs away; and the wolf snatches the sheep and scatters them. ¹³The man runs because he is a hired hand [who serves only for wages] and is not concerned about the [safety of the] sheep. ¹⁴I am the Good Shepherd, and I know [without any doubt those who are] My own and My own know Me [and have a deep, personal relationship with Me]— ¹⁵even as the Father knows Me and I know the Father—and I lay down My [very own] life [sacrificing it] for the benefit of the sheep. ¹⁶I have ^[c] other sheep [beside these] that are not of this fold. I must bring those also, and they will listen to My voice and pay attention to My call, and they will become ^[d]one flock with one Shepherd. ¹⁷For this reason the Father loves Me, because I lay down My [own] life so that I may take it back. ¹⁸No one takes it away from Me, but I lay it down voluntarily. I am authorized and have power to lay it down and to give it up, and I am authorized and have power to take it back. This command I have received from My Father.”

In our reading Jesus explains that he is our shepherd, “the good shepherd” who “lays down his life for the sheep.”

Jesus also says the purpose of his coming into the world is to give us life in abundance. Unlike the thief, who comes to steal, kill, destroy the sheep, Jesus came so we can experience permanent joy, lasting peace, and eternal happiness.

Once, during a feast in Jerusalem, Jesus stood up and declared, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them” (John 7:37-38).

John 7:37-38 Amplified Bible

³⁷Now on the last and most important day of the feast, Jesus stood and called out [in a loud voice], “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink! ³⁸He who believes in Me [who adheres to, trusts in, and relies on Me], as the Scripture has said, ‘From his innermost being will flow continually rivers of living water.’”

True happiness is in knowing Jesus by experiencing him and enjoying him. This is not just a theoretical or intellectual knowledge. Jesus is the water of life. We need to drink this water. Whoever drinks this water will never be thirsty again.

Jesus quenches our existential thirst, our over abundant hunger for meaning.

Although we may feel like an insignificant speck in the vast universe, Jesus became human, just like us. He, more than anyone, values his creation and gives us an unmatched gift: abundant life, more than we could ever realize.

In the name of God, the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit,

Let us Pray,

Psalm 27 Amplified Bible

A Psalm of Fearless Trust in God.

A Psalm of David.

27 The Lord is my light and my salvation—
Whom shall I fear?
The Lord is the refuge and fortress of my life—
Whom shall I dread?
²
When the wicked came against me to eat up my flesh,
My adversaries and my enemies, they stumbled and fell.
³
Though an army encamp against me,
My heart will not fear;
Though war arise against me,
Even in this I am confident.

⁴
One thing I have asked of the Lord, and that I will seek:
That I may dwell in the house of the Lord [in His presence] all the days of my life,
To gaze upon the beauty [the delightful loveliness and majestic grandeur] of the Lord
And to meditate in His temple.
⁵
For in the day of trouble He will hide me in His shelter;
In the secret place of His tent He will hide me;
He will lift me up on a rock.
⁶
And now my head will be lifted up above my enemies around me,
In His tent I will offer sacrifices with shouts of joy;
I will sing, yes, I will sing praises to the Lord.

⁷
Hear, O Lord, when I cry aloud;
Be gracious and compassionate to me and answer me.
⁸
When You said, “Seek My face [in prayer, require My presence as your greatest need],” my heart said to You,
“Your face, O Lord, I will seek [on the authority of Your word].”
⁹
Do not hide Your face from me,
Do not turn Your servant away in anger;
You have been my help;
Do not abandon me nor ^[a]leave me,
O God of my salvation!
¹⁰
Although my father and my mother have abandoned me,
Yet the Lord will take me up [adopt me as His child].

¹¹
Teach me Your way, O Lord,
And lead me on a level path
Because of my enemies [who lie in wait].
¹²
Do not give me up to the will of my adversaries,
For false witnesses have come against me;
They breathe out violence.
¹³
I would have despaired had I not believed that I would see the goodness of the Lord
In the land of the living.
¹⁴
Wait for and confidently expect the Lord;
Be strong and let your heart take courage;
Yes, wait for and confidently expect the Lord.

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.

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A Guarded Heart; Guarding Your 2024 Heart from Evil Today. Proverbs 4:23

Proverbs 4:20-27 New American Standard Bible 1995

²⁰My son, give attention to my words;
Incline your ear to my sayings.
²¹Do not let them depart from your sight;
Keep them in the midst of your heart.
²²For they are life to those who find them
And health to all ^[a]their body.
²³Watch over your heart with all diligence,
For from it flow the springs of life.
²⁴Put away from you a deceitful mouth
And put devious ^[b]speech far from you.
²⁵Let your eyes look directly ahead
And let your ^[c]gaze be fixed straight in front of you.
²⁶Watch the path of your feet
And all your ways will be established.
²⁷Do not turn to the right nor to the left;
Turn your foot from evil.

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 proverb writer, presumably King Solomon is very deeply concerned about helping his children build a wise and discerning life, avoiding his fathers errors, avoiding, learning invaluable lessons from his father David’s vast array of wild and severe intrigues which nearly cost him his throne, his family, his very life.

“Listen,” he pleads, “pay attention to what I’m saying.” (verse 20)

Throughout the early chapters of the book of Proverbs we find one plea after another like this.

And in Proverbs 4:23 the writer points out the central issue in all this teaching.

“Above all else,” the writer says, “guard your heart.”

In other words, “Look inside. Search inside, Rummage around, Be concerned about your inner life before you build your external life. After all, your heart, your inner life, ‘is the wellspring of life.’ Your heart shapes who you are.”

Jesus taught this truth also.

He said that a person produces good things when that person has a good heart— that is, a heart focused on living for God.

But if a person has an evil heart, that will show up in the evil things that person does. (See Luke 6:45.)

Luke 6:39-45 New American Standard Bible 1995

³⁹And He also spoke a parable to them: “A blind man cannot guide a blind man, can he? Will they not both fall into a pit? ⁴⁰A ^[a]pupil is not above his teacher; but everyone, after he has been fully trained, will ^[b]be like his teacher. ⁴¹Why do you look at the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? ⁴²Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Brother, let me take out the speck that is in your eye,’ when you yourself do not see the log that is in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take out the speck that is in your brother’s eye. ⁴³For there is no good tree which produces bad fruit, nor, ^[c]on the other hand, a bad tree which produces good fruit. ⁴⁴For each tree is known by its own fruit. For men do not gather figs from thorns, nor do they pick grapes from a briar bush. ⁴⁵The good man out of the good ^[d] treasure of his heart brings forth what is good; and the evil man out of the evil treasure brings forth what is evil; for his mouth speaks from ^[e]that which fills his heart.

Throughout the Psalms, the writers encourage and even admonish: be focusing on our “inner life”—the focus and direction of our heart. (Psalms 4:4, 7:10, 9:1, 10:17, 13. 14:1, 17:3, 19:14, 22:14, 25:17, 26:2, 27:1-8, 28:7, 33:11, 37:4, 38:10, 39:3, 40:10, 44:21, 51:10, 53:1, 55:4, 57:7, 61:2, 62:8, 66:18, 69:20, 73:12-14, 73:26, 77:5-7, 78:37, 81:12, 84, 86:11-12, 90:12, 95:8-10, 101, 107:12, 109:22, 111, 119:2,7, 10,11,32, 34,36, 58, 69, 70, 80, 111, 112, 145, 161, 139:23-24, 141:4, 143:4)

Put your heart on the highest possible levels of alert, know that God is coming soon!

Mark 1:1-3 Amplified Bible

The Preaching of John the Baptist

1 The beginning of the [facts regarding the] good news of ^[a]Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

²As it is written and forever remains in the [writings of the] prophet Isaiah:

“Behold, I send My messenger ahead of You,
Who will prepare Your way—
³
A voice of one shouting in the wilderness,
‘Prepare the way of the Lord,
^[b]Make His paths straight!’”

And before we start discussing about how we ought to behave and what we all ought to do, let’s simply talk about what’s inside – take a prayerful day or more to take your heart on that rigorous journey through those verses of the Psalms.

After all, it would be a wasted effort to try building a way of life (on the outside) if the heart wasn’t healthy (on the inside) courtesy of the power of God’s Word.

So let’s reach way inside the remainder of this month and continue on for as long as it takes for you and God, Jesus and Holy Spirit to check out our inner life.

In that vigorous effort, let’s remember to also ask for God’s help in guarding it.

In the name of God, the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit,

Let us Pray,

Psalm 19 Amplified Bible

The Works and the Word of God.

To the Chief Musician. A Psalm of David.

19 The heavens are telling of the glory of God;
And the expanse [of heaven] is declaring the work of His hands.
²
Day after day pours forth speech,
And night after night reveals knowledge.
³
There is no speech, nor are there [spoken] words [from the stars];
Their voice is not heard.
⁴
Yet their voice [in quiet evidence] has gone out through all the earth,
Their words to the end of the world.
In them and in the heavens He has made a tent for the sun,
⁵
Which is as a bridegroom coming out of his chamber;
It rejoices as a strong man to run his course.
⁶
The sun’s rising is from one end of the heavens,
And its circuit to the other end of them;
And there is nothing hidden from its heat.

⁷
The law of the Lord is perfect (flawless), restoring and refreshing the soul;
The statutes of the Lord are reliable and trustworthy, making wise the simple.
⁸
The precepts of the Lord are right, bringing joy to the heart;
The commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes.
⁹
The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever;
The judgments of the Lord are true, they are righteous altogether.
¹⁰
They are more desirable than gold, yes, than much fine gold;
Sweeter also than honey and the drippings of the honeycomb.
¹¹
Moreover, by them Your servant is warned [reminded, illuminated, and instructed];
In keeping them there is great reward.
¹²
Who can understand his errors or omissions? Acquit me of hidden (unconscious, unintended) faults.
¹³
Also keep back Your servant from presumptuous (deliberate, willful) sins;
Let them not rule and have control over me.
Then I will be blameless (complete),
And I shall be acquitted of great transgression.
¹⁴
Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart
Be acceptable and pleasing in Your sight,
O Lord, my [firm, immovable] rock and my Redeemer.

Psalm 139:23-24 Amplified Bible

²³
Search me [thoroughly], O God, and know my heart;
Test me and know my anxious thoughts;
²⁴
And see if there is any wicked or hurtful way in me,
And lead me in the everlasting way.

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.

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Living in Harmony Is So Necessary; Rejoicing with Others is Symphony. Romans 12:9-16

Romans 12:9-16 The Message

^9-10Love from the center of who you are; don’t fake it. Run for dear life from evil; hold on for dear life to good. Be good friends who love deeply; practice playing second fiddle.

^11-13Don’t burn out; keep yourselves fueled and aflame. Be alert servants of the Master, cheerfully expectant. Don’t quit in hard times; pray all the harder. Help needy Christians; be inventive in hospitality.

^14-16Bless your enemies; no cursing under your breath. Laugh with your happy friends when they’re happy; share tears when they’re down. Get along with each other; don’t be stuck-up. Make friends with nobodies; don’t be the great somebody.

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.

Living in Harmony Is So Necessary

Wise believers acknowledge when Jesus said, “A new command I give you: Love one another” (John 13:34), this was not simply a suggestion for getting along.

So too, the Bible’s commands as to how we treat one another shouldn’t be considered optional. That’s not the nature of God’s commands at all.

As Christ’s followers, we must remember how our relationship with God affects our relationships with each other.

When we pray, “Our Father,” we acknowledge that we are part of a family that includes sisters and brothers. We’re each called to live in harmony together.

Today’s reading mentions specific ways of doing so, such as honoring one another above ourselves, holding to what is good, praying faithfully, sharing with people in need, showing hospitality, and not being haughty or proud.

When believers live in harmony, expressing their love for one another by sharing tears in times of sorrow and expanding their joy by celebrating together, they become appealing witnesses to their truest hope in Christ.

When a coworker or stranger observes, “It’s amazing how you guys love each other,” the cause of Christ moves forward. Jesus taught this when he prayed that all believers “may be one” and also “may be brought to complete unity.

Then,” he said to the Father, “the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me” (John 17:22-23).

Rejoicing with Others is So Symphony.

Romans 12:9-16 Complete Jewish Bible

⁹Don’t let love be a mere outward show. Recoil from what is evil, and cling to what is good. ¹⁰Love each other devotedly and with brotherly love; and set examples for each other in showing respect. ¹¹Don’t be lazy when hard work is needed, but serve the Lord with spiritual fervor. ¹²Rejoice in your hope, be patient in your troubles, and continue steadfastly in prayer. ¹³Share what you have with God’s people, and practice hospitality.

¹⁴Bless those who persecute you — bless them, don’t curse them! ¹⁵Rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep. ¹⁶Be sensitive to each other’s needs — don’t think yourselves better than others, but make humble people your friends. Don’t be conceited.

Can you hear the triumphant sounds of symphony of Christians in community?

Can you hear the ruckus of badly timed, tuned instruments of no Christians in community or harmony at all – a million of clashing cymbals + broken bugles?

1 Corinthians 13 The Message

The Way of Love

13 If I speak with human eloquence and angelic ecstasy but don’t love, I’m nothing but the creaking of a rusty gate.

²If I speak God’s Word with power, revealing all his mysteries and making everything plain as day, and if I have faith that says to a mountain, “Jump,” and it jumps, but I don’t love, I’m nothing.

^3-7If I give everything I own to the poor and even go to the stake to be burned as a martyr, but I don’t love, I’ve gotten nowhere. So, no matter what I say, what I believe, and what I do, I’m bankrupt without love.

Love never gives up.
Love cares more for others than for self.
Love doesn’t want what it doesn’t have.
Love doesn’t strut,
Doesn’t have a swelled head,
Doesn’t force itself on others,
Isn’t always “me first,”
Doesn’t fly off the handle,
Doesn’t keep score of the sins of others,
Doesn’t revel when others grovel,
Takes pleasure in the flowering of truth,
Puts up with anything,
Trusts God always,
Always looks for the best,
Never looks back,
But keeps going to the end.

^8-10Love never dies. Inspired speech will be over some day; praying in tongues will end; understanding will reach its limit. We know only a portion of the truth, and what we say about God is always incomplete. But when the Complete arrives, our incompletes will be canceled.

¹¹When I was an infant at my mother’s breast, I gurgled and cooed like any infant. When I grew up, I left those infant ways for good.

¹²We don’t yet see things clearly. We’re squinting in a fog, peering through a mist. But it won’t be long before the weather clears and the sun shines bright! We’ll see it all then, see it all as clearly as God sees us, knowing him directly just as he knows us!

¹³But for right now, until that completeness, we have three things to do to lead us toward that consummation: Trust steadily in God, hope unswervingly, love extravagantly. And the best of the three is love.

It is a good thing that God’s love stays in eternal harmony, His love never ends and His love forever bears all things because man’s love for his fellow man fails.

Shared faith, hope, love, joy are a great expression of sympathy. We typically use the word sympathy to describe a shared grief—but it applies equally to joy.

We understand sympathy when we use it in a sentence, but the word itself can be difficult to define. So consider its opposite: apathy. If apathy is akin to saying, “I couldn’t care less,” sympathy is akin to saying, “I couldn’t care more.” Sympathy is an identification with the experience of another person.

Many of us find it natural to “laugh with those who laugh, weep with those who weep.” It is instinctive for us to enter into the merriment and disappointment and pain of those we love and to cry at the sight or thought of their sadness.

This is a good thing, for to “bear one another’s burdens” is to “fulfill the law of Christ” (Galatians 6:2).

To enter into the joy and success of others, however, is often the far greatest of challenges because it requires us to work against the grain of the fallenness of our human nature, which is prone to continuous resentment and bitterness.

Instead of someone’s success serving as an occasion for us to bless God and thank Him, it so easily becomes an occasion for everything contrary to love.

Most of us know how to avoid expressing envy. But there is a massive difference between not expressing envy and not feeling envy. We can modify our behavior enough to keep from showing it, but it requires spiritual transformation to get us to the point of not feeling it. This transformation begins with a well studied understanding of our identity as members of Christ’s body in true community.

Paul says that “we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another” (Romans 12:5). To be in community with Christ means we are members of Him and of one another in authentic community.

To put this another way: if we are in Christ, we are all on the same team.

When we grasp this, it will be as natural for us to enter into another’s joy as it is for a soccer player to rejoice at their teammate’s game-winning goal in just the same way as if they had scored it themselves. As God’s people, we win and lose—we enjoy and we grieve—in community as God is in community – all together.

God’s word calls you to “let love be genuine” (Romans 12:9)—and genuine, Christlike love conforms your feelings so that jealousy gives way to joy and apathy to true sympathy playing God’s symphony of peace. Is there anyone who you are standing aloof from in some way, either in their joy or their sadness?

Have you considered whom you will encourage with tickets to God’s symphony?

There is almost certainly someone you know who needs you to reach out and let them know that you are with them, praying for them and there for them as they walk a deep valley. Likewise, there will be someone whose joy you can share, and you can simply let them know that you praise God for His favor on their life.

Be that community, that symphony of someone’s of whom it can increasingly be said, “They couldn’t care more.” Ask the God of all compassion and comfort to work in you and through you by His Spirit to mold you into that person today.

In the name of God, the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit,

Let us Pray,

Father God, we want to live with others in such a way that shows we are in a life-giving relationship with you. Grant us your Spirit to do so. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Psalm 150 The Message

150 ^1-6Hallelujah!
Praise God in his holy house of worship,
    praise him under the open skies;
Praise him for his acts of power,
    praise him for his magnificent greatness;
Praise with a blast on the trumpet,
    praise by strumming soft strings;
Praise him with castanets and dance,
    praise him with banjo and flute;
Praise him with cymbals and a big bass drum,
    praise him with fiddles and mandolin.
Let every living, breathing creature praise God!
    Hallelujah!

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.

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Unlocking those not so Mysterious Secrets to Loving Others As Jesus Did. Psalm 40:11

Psalm 40 New American Standard Bible 1995

God Sustains His Servant.

For the choir director. A Psalm of David.

40 I waited ^[a]patiently for the Lord;
And He inclined to me and heard my cry.
²He brought me up out of the pit of destruction, out of the ^[b]miry clay,
And He set my feet upon a rock making my footsteps firm.
³He put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God;
Many will see and fear
And will trust in the Lord.

⁴How blessed is the man who has made the Lord his trust,
And has not ^[c]turned to the proud, nor to those who lapse into falsehood.
⁵Many, O Lord my God, are the wonders which You have done,
And Your thoughts toward us;
There is none to compare with You.
If I would declare and speak of them,
They would be too numerous to count.

^6 [d]Sacrifice and meal offering You have not desired;
My ears You have ^[e]opened;
Burnt offering and sin offering You have not required.
⁷Then I said, “Behold, I come;
In the scroll of the book it is ^[f]written of me.
⁸I delight to do Your will, O my God;
Your Law is within my heart.”

⁹I have proclaimed glad tidings of righteousness in the great congregation;
Behold, I will not restrain my lips,
O Lord, You know.
¹⁰I have not hidden Your righteousness within my heart;
I have spoken of Your faithfulness and Your salvation;
I have not concealed Your lovingkindness and Your truth from the great congregation.

¹¹You, O Lord, will not withhold Your compassion from me;
^[g]Your lovingkindness and Your truth will continually preserve me.
¹²For evils beyond number have surrounded me;
My iniquities have overtaken me, so that I am not able to see;
They are more numerous than the hairs of my head,
And my heart has ^[h]failed me.

¹³Be pleased, O Lord, to deliver me;
Make haste, O Lord, to help me.
¹⁴Let those be ashamed and humiliated together
Who seek my ^[i]life to destroy it;
Let those be turned back and dishonored
Who delight ^[j]in my hurt.
¹⁵Let those be ^[k]appalled because of their shame
Who say to me, “Aha, aha!”
¹⁶Let all who seek You rejoice and be glad in You;
Let those who love Your salvation say continually,
“The Lord be magnified!”
¹⁷Since I am afflicted and needy,
^[l]Let the Lord be mindful of me.
You are my help and my deliverer;
Do not delay, O my God.

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.

Happiness in Being Cared For by God

Psalm 40:11-12 The Message

^11-12Now God, don’t hold out on me,
    don’t hold back your passion.
Your love and truth
    are all that keeps me together.
When troubles ganged up on me,
    a mob of sins past counting,
I was so swamped by guilt
    I couldn’t see my way clear.
More guilt in my heart than hair on my head,
    so heavy the guilt that my heart gave out.

One of the most comforting truths for our lives is the providence of God.

The Lord Almighty takes care of us 100% of the time. The same God who created us also 100% sustains us. In this comfort we live and move and have our being.

God is the one who gives us breath and 100% of everything He knows we need.

God gives life to the seeds and plants we need for food. God gives us our daily bread and good health to enjoy. He even gives flavor to our food so that we can savor it. God is the one who preserves our life and delivers us from evil. The Lord God is our creator, provider, protector, redeemer, and our comforter.

The apostle Paul asks, “He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?” (Romans 8:32).

Our life does not drift on the winds of time at random, at the mercy of mere circumstances. We are all in the hands of the one who controls the universe.

How comforting it is to know that the God who rules the world is in control of our lives!

It is a great assurance to troubled souls and burdened hearts to know that God cares for them. He is thinking about you right now and has not forgotten your pain and need. Knowing this, everyone who seeks the Lord can be filled with joy.

Happiness is being unselfishly Cared for by Others

John 13:34-35 Amplified Bible

³⁴I am giving you a new commandment, that you ^[a]love one another. Just as I have loved you, so you too are to love one another. ³⁵By this everyone will know that you are My disciples, if you have love and unselfish concern for one another.”

The walk of life is filled with all kinds of relationships.

We pray that they’re mostly good ones that enrich our lives, but that’s not always the case.

They say people are here for a reason, a season, or a lifetime; unfortunately, some fall in the former.

Lucky for us, God redeems all things for good, and losing a friendship or just not clicking with someone from the start are no exceptions to that rule.

It doesn’t make it easier at the moment, though, and spending time around these people can be inevitable.

However, it’s during times like these that I’m often reminded of one of the more remarkable concepts in the faith, one that can be challenging when the temptation is to do the exact opposite.

Golden Rule #1 Treat everyone like Jesus died for them. (Matthew 7:7 – 12)

Because He did. Yes, even that stranger who was rude to you at Starbucks, even that ex-friend from your past who won’t stop spreading rumors about you and even that peer who won’t get off your nerves and those contrary to God’s ways.

All of them have the same opportunity for salvation as you.

It’s inviting to let those people hold a 100 year mortgage on the space between your ears, ruin your day, snap back, maybe say something bad about them too.

That’s not how Jesus taught us we’re supposed to publicly conduct ourselves.

Navigating the John 13:33 – 34 text is one of the more powerful exercises for self-control, but you have to remind yourself in those moments they are a child of God too and loved just the same as you. You can’t treat them as anything less.

Unlocking all those Secrets of Navigating John 13-34

1. Love God as God Loves Us.

Matthew 22:35-40 The Message

The Most Important Command

^34-36When the Pharisees heard how he had bested the Sadducees, they gathered their forces for an assault. One of their religion scholars spoke for them, posing a question they hoped would show him up: “Teacher, which command in God’s Law is the most important?”

^37-40Jesus said, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your passion and prayer and intelligence.’ This is the most important, the first on any list. But there is a second to set alongside it: ‘Love others as well as you love yourself.’ These two commands are pegs; everything in God’s Law and the Prophets hangs from them.”

It’s a simple concept. When Jesus was approached and asked outright what the greatest commandment was in Matthew 22:37, He didn’t hesitate to answer that it was to love the Lord your God with all of your heart. He continued to say that the second is like it and that you shall love your neighbor as yourself.

However bothersome that person is to you, they are your neighbor, and you are not asked to like them; you are commanded to love them.

Otherwise, you would not be loving God.

The two are so closely intertwined that you can’t have one without the other. Now, what is love? How do we love someone who has done us so wrong?

“And as you wish that others would do to you, do so to them.” Luke 6:31

Christianity demands kindness and just treatment, but the Bible has never instructed us to be doormats or pushovers.

Matthew 7:12 echoes the same sentiment referenced above.

To start, we can simply treat others civilly.

In fact, it truly is the most mature course of action for any interaction.

Being civil and respectful are the bare minimum acceptable standards, and no one benefits from gossip or behind the back snarky comments or dirty looks.

It’s certainly not expected to treat someone as a friend when they haven’t been one; it’s not good to reward harmful hurtful and 100% unacceptable behavior, but there are a few ways to have decorum going forward: Faith Hope and Love.

2. Pray for Others

1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 The Message

^16-18Be cheerful no matter what; pray all the time; thank God no matter what happens. This is the way God wants you who belong to Christ Jesus to live.

It’s incredibly hard to continue feeling anger toward someone if you’re praying for them—not praying because you feel obligated, but genuinely sitting down and praying for that person. Putting yourself in your enemies’ shoes and too walking their path, very quickly gives you a new Kingdom perspective.

I’ve tried this out myself on occasion, and it had me thinking in ways I never would have thought about someone who betrayed me.

I felt compassion and even empathy.

It brought me peace in ways I didn’t know it would. I found myself thinking about all that may be going on in their lives to make them act in those ways.

Matthew 5:43-48 The Message

^43-47“You’re familiar with the old written law, ‘Love your friend,’ and its unwritten companion, ‘Hate your enemy.’ I’m challenging that. I’m telling you to love your enemies. Let them bring out the best in you, not the worst. When someone gives you a hard time, respond with the supple moves of prayer, for then you are working out of your true selves, your God-created selves. This is what God does. He gives his best—the sun to warm and the rain to nourish—to everyone, regardless: the good and bad, the nice and nasty. If all you do is love the lovable, do you expect a bonus? Anybody can do that. If you simply say hello to those who greet you, do you expect a medal? Any run-of-the-mill sinner does that.

⁴⁸“In a word, what I’m saying is, Grow up. You’re kingdom subjects. Now live like it. Live out your God-created identity. Live generously and graciously toward others, the way God lives toward you.”

Maybe the grumpy and rude someone at Starbucks or Burger King had just received some bad or devastating news sometime during that day. I didn’t have to imagine the scenarios for ex-friends because, funny enough, I already knew them so well. They’d always had struggles with their family or even their own self-worth. We didn’t need to keep being friends, but I could pray for them.

3. Extend Grace

Ephesians 2:8-10 The Message

^7-10Now 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.

Remember, revenge, picking a fight, and gossiping are not the path to healing.

Instead, embrace the power of love and grace.

It’s not necessary to maintain a friendship that causes you pain.

By choosing to love yourself and others, you can overcome the hurt.

“Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen.” Ephesians 4:29

However, responding with malice or cruel intent is also not loving.

Act with grace and treat the other person with dignity.

Jesus wants us to set boundaries and defend ourselves in respectful ways, but seeking revenge is not our job.

God will repay; He expects us to do what is honorable.

“Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everyone. If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. Do not take revenge, my dear friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: ‘It is mine to avenge; I will repay,’ says the Lord. On the contrary: ‘If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head.’ Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.” – Romans 12:17-21

4. Pause before Reacting

Proverbs 3:5-8 New American Standard Bible 1995

⁵Trust in the Lord with all your heart
And do not lean on your own understanding.
⁶In all your ways acknowledge Him,
And He will make your paths straight.
⁷Do not be wise in your own eyes;
Fear the Lord and turn away from evil.
⁸It will be healing to your ^[a]body
And refreshment to your bones.

There are two different paths to take when dealing with someone we don’t get on with, whether we’ve just met them or known them for a long time.

Confrontation is the first option.

Is the situation worth having a conversation?

Obviously, that person in the Starbucks or the Burger King probably doesn’t need a conversation, but someone who did you wrong and you will likely keep seeing may need to be spoken to.

That peer from before, maybe you’re working on a project for school with someone who won’t do their part, or you have a coworker who won’t stop bugging you. They may need kind and intentional confrontation. If there’s something you can do to make that everyday reaction better, you should.

If it’s that friend from your past, sometimes an honest discussion can go a long way. But conversation isn’t always meant to salvage something. Sometimes, it’s meant for the circumstance to help you part ways, walk different divergent line.

Distance is the other option.

Tough love is love, too, and I’m a firm believer in that.

That can be executed by taking space if it’s possible.

Remember, you won’t always get closure the way you want it, and on occasion, that is all the closure you’ll get.

You’ll save yourself a lot of pain and struggle by making that choice to step away. Even if your relationship used to be close or maybe that person was just in your life quite a bit, they won’t always need that confrontation. Talking doesn’t solve everything. Walking away can be the best “I Love You” course of action.

Pray for discernment to determine which would be best for your situation.

God will help nudge you in the direction you should take.

It’s important to be astute going forward to protect yourself.

“Discretion will protect you, and understanding will guard you. Wisdom will save you from the ways of wicked men, from men whose words are perverse.” Proverbs 2:11-12

5. Remember, You Are Loved

Romans 5:8-11 The Message

^6-8Christ arrives right on time to make this happen. He didn’t, and doesn’t, wait for us to get ready. He presented himself for this sacrificial death when we were far too weak and rebellious to do anything to get ourselves ready. And even if we hadn’t been so weak, we wouldn’t have known what to do anyway. We can understand someone dying for a person worth dying for, and we can understand how someone good and noble could inspire us to selfless sacrifice. But God put his love on the line for us by offering his Son in sacrificial death while we were of no use whatever to him.

^9-11Now that we are set right with God by means of this sacrificial death, the consummate blood sacrifice, there is no longer a question of being at odds with God in any way. If, when we were at our worst, we were put on friendly terms with God by the sacrificial death of his Son, now that we’re at our best, just think of how our lives will expand and deepen by means of his resurrection life! Now that we have actually received this amazing friendship with God, we are no longer content to simply say it in plodding prose. We sing and shout our praises to God through Jesus, the Messiah!

Sometimes, in our heads, it can feel like, ‘How could a person who is so mean, rude, or awful have the opportunity for forgiveness in the same way I do’?

Why would Jesus make the “tough love” decision to go through all that grief, all that bodily pain and ultimate humiliation of the Cross to do that for them, too?

It’s because they need it, and you need it too. You need forgiveness like they do because you, too, have sinned. Jesus didn’t come to condemn; He came to save.

I desperately need the daily reminder that we are all sinners in need of His forgiveness and that while I may feel like the victim now, there have most definitely been instances in the past when I was the villain in someone else’s story, instances where I may not have conducted myself with grace and dignity.

It’s why we all deserve to be treated like Jesus died for us—because, thank goodness, thank God, He did so love us with an everlasting sacrifice of love!

In the name of God, the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit,

Let us Pray.

Psalm 23 The Message

23 ^1-3God, my shepherd!
    I don’t need a thing.
You have bedded me down in lush meadows,
    you find me quiet pools to drink from.
True to your word,
    you let me catch my breath
    and send me in the right direction.

⁴Even when the way goes through
    Death Valley,
I’m not afraid
    when you walk at my side.
Your trusty shepherd’s crook
    makes me feel secure.

⁵You serve me a six-course dinner
right in front of my enemies.
You revive my drooping head;
my cup brims with blessing.

⁶Your beauty and love chase after me
every day of my life.
I’m back home in the house of God
for the rest of my 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.

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“like a wise man who built his house on the rock.” Build a Strong Spiritual Foundation at Home. Matthew 7:26

Matthew 7:24-29 Amplified Bible

The Two Foundations

²⁴“So everyone who hears these words of Mine and acts on them, will be like a wise man [a far-sighted, practical, and sensible man] who built his house on the rock. ²⁵ And the rain fell, and the floods and torrents came, and the winds blew and slammed against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock. ²⁶And everyone who hears these words of Mine and does not do them, will be like a foolish (stupid) man who built his house on the sand. ²⁷And the rain fell, and the floods and torrents came, and the winds blew and slammed against that house; and it fell—and great and complete was its fall.”

²⁸When Jesus had finished [speaking] these words [on the mountain], the crowds were astonished and overwhelmed at His teaching; ²⁹for He was teaching them as one who had authority [to teach entirely of His own volition], and not as their scribes [who relied on others to confirm their authority].

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.

Wise and Foolish Defined …

Matthew 7:26-27 The Message

^26-27“But if you just use my words in Bible studies and don’t work them into your life, you are like a stupid carpenter who built his house on the sandy beach. When a storm rolled in and the waves came up, it collapsed like a house of cards.”

At the end of his Sermon on the Mount, the most dramatic ethical and religious teaching of all time, Jesus closes with a parable to note this teaching is nothing if people do not put it into practice. Wise people still heed this biblical advice.

Sometimes it takes a crisis to spur us to act on the truth. I know someone who adamant – they would not quit smoking until they were diagnosed with cancer.

Jesus describes such a crisis in this parable.

In desert lands a rare storm can roll through a mountain pass and sweep away everything that is lodged only in sand.

Jesus pictures a disaster like that here to describe for his audience the crisis of the coming of God’s kingdom.

Interestingly, Jesus concludes the parable not with success, but with failure.

After describing the wise builder, Jesus leaves his audience pondering the example of the foolish one.

Jesus explains to his audience, “The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash.”

Though not every disaster in our lives is a punishment, sometimes it takes a disaster to get us to pay closer attention to what Jesus is trying hard to teach.

Perhaps the most obvious lesson is we must live wisely, serving God faithfully.

If we are living too foolishly, we need to turn around before disaster strikes.

Understanding God’s Word is a first step, and acting on it must immediately follow. When we obey God’s Word, we stay in touch with our firm foundation.

Build a Strong Spiritual Foundation at Home

Isaiah 2:1-5 The Message

Climb God’s Mountain

2 ^1-5The Message Isaiah got regarding Judah and Jerusalem:

There’s a day coming
    when the mountain of God’s House
Will be The Mountain—
    solid, towering over all mountains.
All nations will river toward it,
    people from all over set out for it.
They’ll say, “Come,
    let’s climb God’s Mountain,
    go to the House of the God of Jacob.
He’ll show us the way he works
    so we can live the way we’re made.”
Zion’s the source of the revelation.
    God’s Message comes from Jerusalem.
He’ll settle things fairly between nations.
    He’ll make things right between many peoples.
They’ll turn their swords into shovels,
    their spears into hoes.
No more will nation fight nation;
    they won’t play war anymore.
Come, family of Jacob,
    let’s live in the light of God.

What and Who are you living for?

What and Who do you see as your primary ‘why’ for all you do each day?

These questions reveal much about what foundation we are building our lives upon. If all we can say is that we are not sure what the answer would be, we likely have not really seriously considered how all we do matters to the Lord.

We have been created in the Image of God on purpose with God’s purpose!

Matthew 7:24-27 states, “Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash.”

Jesus makes clear that what we are living for matters more than we can fully comprehend. He asks what we are putting into practice. Whose words are guiding us? He cautions that if we don’t follow Jesus’s way, life’s storms will come, and we will find ourselves drowning without a home to protect us.

A solid spiritual foundation is vital to our ability to live our life with peace and joy. Here are some ways we build a strong spiritual foundation in our homes:

1. Study God’s Word Together …

2 Timothy 2:14-18 Amplified Bible

An Unashamed Workman

¹⁴Remind the people of these facts, and solemnly charge them in the presence of God to avoid petty controversy over words, which does no good, and [upsets and undermines and] ruins [the faith of] those who listen. ¹⁵Study and do your best to present yourself to God approved, a workman [tested by trial] who has no reason to be ashamed, accurately handling and skillfully teaching the word of truth. ¹⁶But avoid all irreverent babble and godless chatter [with its profane, empty words], for it will lead to further ungodliness, ¹⁷and their teaching will spread like gangrene. So it is with Hymenaeus and Philetus, ¹⁸who have deviated from the truth. They claim that the resurrection has already taken place, and they undermine the faith of some.

Jesus tells us we must hear his words and put them into practice in order to build our house on the rock. In our modern context, that means studying God’s Word.

Why is knowing the Bible so important?

The Bible is the Holy Spirit inspired, living, and active Word of God.

Reading God’s Word is the best way to learn who God is and what he desires us to do with our lives.

We learn from the stories of those who walked with God long ago, we read poems that shed light on how we wrestle with God from time to time, we gain wisdom from all those Psalms, Proverbs and the prophets, and we can read the accounts of Jesus’ life and death in the Gospels. There is so much to gain from studying the Bible, the context, culture that existed at the time it was written.

When we know the stories of the Bible, we can begin to know God better and practice his ways.

The Bible has the ultimate power to guide us, correct us, convict us, change us, and motivate us. If we want our homes and our families to have a solid spiritual foundation, we must include prioritize the reading and studying of God’s Word.

2. Embrace the Power of Prayer Together

Matthew 26:40-41 The Message

^40-41When he came back to his disciples, he found them sound asleep. He said to Peter, “Can’t you stick it out with me a single hour? Stay alert; be in prayer so you don’t wander into temptation without even knowing you’re in danger. There is a part of you that is eager, ready for anything in God. But there’s another part that’s as lazy as an old dog sleeping by the fire.”

Matthew 26:41 says, “Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.”

Prayer not only connects us with God, but it also protects us.

When we pray often, we are inviting God’s Spirit into our daily lives, which guards us from harm and temptation. The point of having a strong spiritual foundation is protection. We need something stable to build our lives on so that we are grounded in truth when things get hard. The goal is an unshakable faith.

That faith is built through daily conversations with God.

It’s this back and forth with Jesus that grows solid roots of relationship in our homes and with our families.

James 1:5-8 The Message

^5-8If you don’t know what you’re doing, pray to the Father. He loves to help. You’ll get his help, and won’t be condescended to when you ask for it. Ask boldly, believingly, without a second thought. People who “worry their prayers” are like wind-whipped waves. Don’t think you’re going to get anything from the Master that way, adrift at sea, keeping all your options open.

James 5: 16 – 18 states, “Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed, Prayers of the righteous have power.

James 5:16-18 The Message

^16-18Make this your common practice: Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you can live together whole and healed. The prayer of a person living right with God is something powerful to be reckoned with. Elijah, for instance, human just like us, prayed hard that it wouldn’t rain, and it didn’t—not a drop for three and a half years. Then he prayed that it would rain, and it did. The showers came and everything started growing again.

The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.”

Prayer is a vital part of our faith not only because it protects us but also because it is powerful! God moves, things change when we pray. Our hearts change, our relationships change, our views change, and even our circumstances change.

Prayer is the catalyst for forgiveness, is the precursor to miracles, and is the bedrock of our relationship with Jesus. Prayer is a vital part of building a solid spiritual environment in our homes, with and among our families, neighbors.

3. Never Get Tired of Serving One Another with Love

Galatians 5:13-15 The Message

^13-15It is absolutely clear that God has called you to a free life. Just make sure that you don’t use this freedom as an excuse to do whatever you want to do and destroy your freedom. Rather, use your freedom to serve one another in love; that’s how freedom grows. For everything we know about God’s Word is summed up in a single sentence: Love others as you love yourself. That’s an act of true freedom. If you bite and ravage each other, watch out—in no time at all you will be annihilating each other, and where will your precious freedom be then?

Galatians 5:13 says, “For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another.”

God is love, and a huge part of what he tells us as his people is to serve one another through love.

1 John 4:7-10 The Message

God Is Love

^7-10My beloved friends, let us continue to love each other since love comes from God. Everyone who loves is born of God and experiences a relationship with God. The person who refuses to love doesn’t know the first thing about God, because God is love—so you can’t know him if you don’t love. This is how God showed his love for us: God sent his only Son into the world so we might live through him. This is the kind of love we are talking about—not that we once upon a time loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to clear away our sins and the damage they’ve done to our relationship with God.

We live out that love through random selfless acts of service towards the people we are closest to as well as towards those in our community that need to feel the real and tangible love of God through us. (Matthew 10:38 – 42 The Message)

Matthew 10:38-42 The Message

^38-39“If you don’t go all the way with me, through thick and thin, you don’t deserve me. If your first concern is to look after yourself, you’ll never find yourself. But if you forget about yourself and look to me, you’ll find both yourself and me.

^40-42“We are intimately linked in this harvest work. Anyone who accepts what you do, accepts me, the One who sent you. Anyone who accepts what I do accepts my Father, who sent me. Accepting a messenger of God is as good as being God’s messenger. Accepting someone’s help is as good as giving someone help. This is a large work I’ve called you into, but don’t be overwhelmed by it. It’s best to start small. Give a cool cup of water to someone who is thirsty, for instance. The smallest act of giving or receiving makes you a true apprentice. You won’t lose out on a thing.”

Mother Teresa put it this way: “Love is a one-way street. It always moves away from self in the direction of the other. Love is the ultimate gift of ourselves to others. When we stop giving we stop loving, when we stop loving we stop growing, and unless we grow we will never attain personal fulfillment; we will never open out to receive the life of God. It is through love we encounter God.”

We grow to know God more by loving others. Love is an action. It’s giving something of ours away for the benefit of another. To be near God, we have to be near those brokenhearted. We have to serve the least of these. We have to utterly accept God’s love and turn around to freely give that same love away.

4. No Shame in the Gospel, Live from Faith to Faith

Romans 1:16-17 Amplified Bible

¹⁶I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation [from His wrath and punishment] to everyone who believes [in Christ as Savior], to the Jew first and also to the Greek. ¹⁷For in the gospel the righteousness of God is revealed, both springing from faith and leading to faith [disclosed in a way that awakens more faith]. As it is written and forever remains written, “The just and upright shall live by faith.”

Hebrews 11:6 says, “And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.”

In order to draw near to God, we have to have complete faith that he is who he says he is. That requires faith. Faith is fundamental to living a Christian life.

If we consider the great heroes of our faith revealed in Hebrews 11 in the Bible, they all share one thing in common: They did something in their lives that had defied all human logic and trusted God rather than following the world’s way.

Most of the time, the people around them thought they were crazy!

Noah built an ark before God invented rain. Abraham believed he would have many offspring with a wife that was barren. Moses went to free a whole nation by being God’s mouthpiece, all the while struggling with a speech impediment.

David went after a giant as an unarmed shepherd boy. It was an unshakable faith that pushed these heroes to move past what the natural world says is possible and first thing trusted that God is the one that has the real final say!

If everything we do only trusts what we can reason to be true, then we aren’t living with enough faith.

To build a faith that lasts for generations, we have to trust God to show us how he can use us to do abundantly more than we could ever ask, think, or imagine!

When we surrender to God’s way, our lives find a firm place to grow upon. Let God’s gentle Holy Spirit lead, guide you towards him. Jesus told us all we need is the faith of one single mustard seed to see mountains moved (Matthew 17:20).

In the name of God, the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit,

Let us Pray,

Psalm 119:105-112 The Message

^105-112By your words, God, I can see where I’m going;
    they throw a beam of light on my dark path.
I’ve committed myself and I’ll never turn back
    from living by your righteous order.
Everything’s falling apart on me, God;
    put me together again with your Word.
Adorn me with your finest sayings, God;
    teach me your holy rules.
My life is as close as my own hands,
    but I don’t forget what you have revealed.
The wicked do their best to throw me off track,
    but I don’t swerve an inch from your course.
I inherited your book on living; it’s mine forever—
    what a gift! And how happy it makes me!
I concentrate on doing exactly what you say—
    I always have and always will.

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.

https://translate.google.com/

John 8:31-38 Amplified Bible

The Truth Will Make You Free

The Bible – Our Free Pathway to God’s Personal Truth

The Truth Will Make You Free

A Prayer of Gratefulness for our Nation’s Freedom

Galatians 5:1The Message

The Life of Freedom

A Prayer to Prepare Our Hearts to Celebrate God and Our 248th Nation’s 4th of July Birthday.

John 8:36 Amplified Bible

John 3:16-17 Amplified Bible

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Romans 5:8-10 Amplified Bible

The lonely—widows, orphans, prisoners, homeless

Psalm 68:5-6 Amplified Bible

“Exactly, what in the hell has God ever done for me?”

Jesus Christ’s life giving sacrifice, on the Cross gives each of us these five liberties:

1. Freedom from the guilt that all inherit.

Escape from Bondage

2. Freedom from sinful deeds we personally commit.

Romans 7:14-20 Amplified Bible

The Conflict of Two Natures

3. Freedom within ourselves over personal struggles.

4. Freedom from judgment that is ultimately coming.

5. Freedom to face eternity—our soul’s final destiny.

Psalm 42 Amplified Bible

Book Two

Thirsting for God in Trouble and Exile.

To the Chief Musician. A skillful song, or a didactic or reflective poem, of the sons of Korah.

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Exodus 17:15-16 Christian Standard Bible

Psalm 20 Christian Standard Bible

Psalm 20

Deliverance in Battle

For the choir director. A psalm of David.

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Philippians 1:21-30 Amplified Bible

To Live Is Christ

Romans 12:1-2 Amplified Bible

Dedicated Service

Luke 14:25-35 Amplified Bible

Discipleship Tested

Philippians 2:1-4 Amplified Bible

Be Like Christ

2 Timothy 4:3-8 Amplified Bible

Psalm 103 The Message

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Romans 12:17-19 Amplified Bible

Peace That Is Possible

2 Corinthians 5:17-21 Amplified Bible

Hebrews 12:14-16 Amplified Bible

Ezekiel 36:26-27 Amplified Bible

God Will Speak, God Freely Gives His Gift of His Peace

Psalm 85:8-13 Amplified Bible

Romans 8:5-8 Amplified Bible

Psalm 29 Amplified Bible

The Voice of the Lord in the Storm.

A Psalm of David.

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Psalm 13 Amplified Bible

Prayer for Help in Trouble.

To the Chief Musician. A Psalm of David.

The Happiness of Abundant Life

John 10:11-18 Amplified Bible

John 7:37-38 Amplified Bible

Psalm 27 Amplified Bible

A Psalm of Fearless Trust in God.

A Psalm of David.

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Proverbs 4:20-27 New American Standard Bible 1995

Luke 6:39-45 New American Standard Bible 1995

Mark 1:1-3 Amplified Bible

The Preaching of John the Baptist

Psalm 19 Amplified Bible

The Works and the Word of God.

To the Chief Musician. A Psalm of David.

Psalm 139:23-24 Amplified Bible

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Romans 12:9-16 The Message

Living in Harmony Is So Necessary

Rejoicing with Others is So Symphony.

A Prayer to Prepare Our Hearts to Celebrate God and Our 248th Nation’s 4^th of July Birthday.