Tag: God's Promises

Today’s Choice: We Can All Fully Give Up, Or We Can All Fully Rely on God Who is Supposed to be Number One. 2 Corinthians 1:8-11

If you have ever traveled in the deep country, where there are nothing but narrow two lane and rutted dirt roads, then you’ve probably seen the sign,

“Pick your rut carefully, you’ll be in it for the next 20 miles.”

You know what it is like.

A story is told of a frog who was hopping across a dirt road and he fell into a rut.

He tried to jump out of it, but he couldn’t.

He cried out to his friends, “Help me, I’m stuck in this rut.”

Well his friends could not pull him out but they offered him encouragement and support, telling him what they had done when they had recently been in similar situations, assuring him he could do it, but he said he had tried and he couldn’t.

After a short while it was time for all his friends to leave, everyone was very sad, but there was nothing more they could do.

You can imagine their surprise when the next morning they saw all their friends at the riverbank.

“What happened?” they asked, “We thought you were stuck in the rut.”

“Well, so did I” their friend answered, “I thought it was a hopeless situation, when all of a sudden a sanitation truck came down the road and its tires were traveling in my rut! We had no choice but to rely on our survival to hop to it.”

Someone once said the only difference between a rut and a grave is the depth.

2 Corinthians 1:9-11 The Message

8-11 We don’t want you in the dark, friends, about how hard it was when all this came down on us in Asia province. It was so bad we didn’t think we were going to make it. We felt like we’d been sent to death row, that it was all over for us. As it turned out, it was the best thing that could have happened. Instead of trusting in our own strength or wits to get out of it, we were forced to trust God totally—not a bad idea since he’s the God who raises the dead! And he did it, rescued us from certain doom. And he’ll do it again, rescuing us as many times as we need rescuing. You and your prayers are part of the rescue operation—I don’t want you in the dark about that either. I can see your faces even now, lifted in praise for God’s deliverance of us, a rescue in which your prayers played such a crucial part.

The Word of God for the Children of God.

Adeste Fideles! Laeti Triumphantes! Venite Adoremus! Dominum.

Gloria! In Excelsis Deo! Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia, Amen.

If you have ever traveled in the deep country, where there are nothing but narrow two lane and rutted dirt roads, then you’ve probably seen the sign,

“Pick your rut carefully, you’ll be in it for the next 20 miles.”

You know what it is like.

A story is told of a frog who was hopping across a dirt road and he fell into a rut.

He tried to jump out of it, but he couldn’t.

He cried out to his friends, “Help me, I’m stuck in this rut.”

Well his friends could not pull him out but they offered him encouragement and support, telling him what they had done when they had recently been in similar situations, assuring him he could do it, but he said he had tried and he couldn’t.

After a short while it was time for all his friends to leave, everyone was very sad, but there was nothing more they could do.

You can imagine their surprise when the next morning they saw all their friends at the riverbank.

“What happened?” they asked, “We thought you were stuck in the rut.”

“Well, so did I” their friend answered, “I thought it was a hopeless situation, when all of a sudden a sanitation truck came down the road and its tires were traveling in my rut! We had no choice but to rely on our survival, to hop to it.”

Someone once said the only difference between a rut and a grave is the depth.

It Always Takes Great Pressure to Make Diamonds

2 Corinthians 1:8-9 Amplified Bible

8 For we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers and sisters, about [a]our trouble in [the west coast province of] Asia [Minor], how we were utterly weighed down, beyond our strength, so that we despaired even of life [itself]. 9 Indeed, we felt within ourselves that we had received the sentence of death [and were convinced that we would die, but this happened] so that we would not trust in ourselves, but in God who raises the dead.

The Christian life is full of utterly impossible challenges.

Do we think we can overcome our sin and live a holy life in our own strength?

Have at it, my friend!

Come back in six months and tell me how it’s going for you.

You think you have enough wisdom and experience to help your children whatever their age, navigate all the landmines, pitfalls of their young life?

Well huzzah for you! (Side note: we really need to bring the word “huzzah” back into usage.)

Do you think you have enough personal insight to untangle the sticky relational or financial mess you, your family might be finding themselves in right now?

Do you think you have the strength to sufficiently lead your co-workers, small group, a worship team, a counseling team, a church planting team, or a church?

Do you believe you have the strength to sufficiently lead your own two feet to the floor of your bedroom when you first wake up after a “night” of slumber.

Right.

God bless,

Have at it my friend.

I’ll pray for you to have a soft bed in a padded room waiting for your return.

The reality is, God constantly finds us in situations of our own making that are impossibly far beyond our ability to bear up to.

He looks every which direction for us and always finds us smack dab inside the middle of befuddling, perplexing, overwhelming, even crushing circumstances.

Why does God keep looking for, finding us in these places?

Why does God keep on perpetually nudging us in our ribcages – “I AM here’

To assure us.

To humble us.

To quiet us.

To subtly or not so subtly redirect our spiritual eyesight.

To emphasize and indeed even over emphasize this point, to make us painfully aware, sharply remind us, we cannot make it through this life apart from him.

To shine the brightest lights in our eyes, cause us to look up and away from the catastrophe directly in front of us, highlight our desperate dependence on him.

God strips us of our own strength to make us totally reliant upon his strength.

God allowed Paul to be pushed and pressed, hit and hammered, beaten and even ship wrecked and even sentenced to “death,” SO THAT he would not rely upon himself, but straight upon the grace, the power of the God who raises the dead. (2 Corinthians 12:7-10)

God allows us to get into situations that are so far beyond our ability to survive so that when failure comes, deliverance comes, only God can receive the glory.

Speaking of pastoral ministry (but this quote applies equally to a million other situations), 19th Century English Theologian Charles Bridges says:

“Did we depend upon the failing support of human agency [strength], or upon the energy of mere moral suasion [our ability to persuade] – we should cry out, prostrate in heartless despondency – “Who is sufficient for these things?” But the instant recollection – that “our sufficiency is of God” – “lifts up our hearts in the ways” and work of the Lord.” (The Christian Ministry, page 19)

Are you in a situation that is too hard for you?

Are you being stretched beyond your spiritual gifts and abilities?

Are you pushed down and crushed, even to the point of despair?

Do you feel like butter scraped over too much bread?

Do you feel like you want to run and hide in some cave like David frequently did?

Maybe dig up your backyard and install an underground bunker, lock all doors?

You really only have two options.

2 Corinthians 1:8-9 Amplified Bible

8 For we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers and sisters, about [a]our trouble in [the west coast province of] Asia [Minor], how we were utterly weighed down, beyond our strength, so that we despaired even of life [itself]. 9 Indeed, we felt within ourselves that we had received the sentence of death [and were convinced that we would die, but this happened] so that we would not trust in ourselves, but in God who raises the dead.

Behind door number one: throw your hands up not in praise but to give up.

Let the mounting lack of self-control, despair, anger, impatience and unbelief wash over you like an acidic shower, slowly dissolving eating away at your faith.

Start calling yourself: “highly educated motivated professional worldly realist.”

Allow all of the class 5 storms of unbridled cynicism to have their way with you.

OR…

2 Corinthians 1:10-11 Amplified Bible

10 He rescued us from so great a threat of death, and will continue to rescue us. On Him we have set our hope. And He will again rescue us [from danger and draw us near], 11 while you join in helping us by your prayers. Then thanks will be given by many persons on our behalf for the gracious gift [of deliverance] granted to us through the prayers of many [believers].

Behind door number two: Fully rely upon the God who raises from the dead.

Throw aside any foolish remnants of self-sufficiency and depend wholly upon our mighty, powerful God.

Depend upon God alone to work in your rebellious children.

Fully Rely On God who alone is Always #1

Depend upon God alone to work mightily in your shaky financial condition.

Fully Rely On God who alone is Always #1

Depend upon God alone to save your “un-savable” relative.

Fully Rely on God who alone is Always #1

Depend upon God alone to give you physical and emotional strength to serve your family.

Fully Rely on God who alone is Always #1

Depend upon the God who slays giants, shuts lions’ mouths, and rescues out of fiery furnaces.

Fully Rely on God who alone is Always #1

God does incredible things, God does the incomparable, does the impossible when we finally stop relying upon our own abilities and start relying on him.

He does incredible things, the incomparable things, the impossible things when we finally “raise a white flag” on our own abilities, find all our strength in him.

Come out from the darkness, into the Kingdom of God, in the Strength of God!

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

Let us Pray,

Dear Lord Jesus,

I know you must have countless reasons for allowing me to go through difficult circumstances, but here in your word I find one that comforts me. You are teaching me not to rely on myself. That’s a big job. I was born wanting to be in charge and my raising in this culture is geared toward making me self sufficient. So, when life is too big for me, that’s okay. I’m constantly learning that it’s not too big for you. You are, from everlasting to everlasting, bigger than the complexities of my life and will deliver me from my troubles. You send help in a myriad of ways. Some I have not even thought of yet. I will set my hope on you that you will deliver me from all my troubles. Help me remember this passage today as I face health issues, mechanical failures, relationship stresses and challenges in my work. Help to remember that you are a prayer away from delivering me. Don’t let me drive myself to your hospital. I will call your 911 and you pick me up. You loved me and finally you died for me, your grave was empty, were raised, were resurrected, how would you ever not rescue me?

Adeste Fideles! Laeti Triumphantes! Venite Adoremus! Dominum.

Gloria! In Excelsis Deo! Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia, Amen.

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Do We Really ‘Feel’ What This Means Anymore: “We Love Because He First Loved Us?” 1 John 4:17-21

Sometimes, one too many times, believing God loves us so deeply can be hard.

When we mess up, we make bad choices, it can be difficult to believe God cares.

We are likely to ask of ourselves “why should God care about me anyway, I know what I have done, surely God knows what I have done, so why should He love me?”

The thing of it is – we are only likely to be asking this of ourselves, to ourselves.

In the real world we encounter today, we do not openly express such thoughts in an outward manner – we are not likely to be shouting this on the city streets.

We will be internalizing these ideas, blasting them against the walls of our souls until even the most ardent believer will find themselves poking very substantial holes, if not trying to dig vast canyons into their steadfast and immovable faith.

When we see all our failures and flaws we can often think that we’re unlovable.

Vulnerability overtakes us – we can’t help it nor can we seen to slow it or stop it.

However, in the midst of all our failures and shortcomings, and sudden onsets of unconquerable vulnerabilities – guess what – God chooses to love us anyway!

1 John 4:17-21 The Message

To Love, to Be Loved

17-18 God is love. When we take up permanent residence in a life of love, we live in God and God lives in us. This way, love has the run of the house, becomes at home and mature in us, so that we’re free of worry on Judgment Day—our standing in the world is identical with Christ’s. There is no room in love for fear. Well-formed love banishes fear. Since fear is crippling, a fearful life—fear of death, fear of judgment—is one not yet fully formed in love.

19 We, though, are going to love—love and be loved. First we were loved, now we love. He loved us first.

20-21 If anyone boasts, “I love God,” and goes right on hating his brother or sister, thinking nothing of it, he is a liar. If he won’t love the person he can see, how can he love the God he can’t see? The command we have from Christ is blunt: Loving God includes loving people. You’ve got to love both.

The Word of God for the Children of God.

Adeste Fideles! Laeti Triumphantes! Venite Adoremus! Dominum.

Gloria! In Excelsis Deo! Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia, Amen.

Sometimes, one too many times, believing God loves us so deeply can be hard.

When we mess up, we make bad choices, it can be difficult to believe God cares.

We are likely to ask of ourselves “why should God care about me anyway, I know what I have done, surely God knows what I have done, so why should He love me?”

The thing of it is – we are only likely to be asking this of ourselves, to ourselves.

In the real world we encounter today, we do not openly express such thoughts in an outward manner – we are not likely to be shouting this on the city streets.

We will be internalizing these ideas, blasting them against the walls of our souls until even the most ardent believer will find themselves poking very substantial holes, if not trying to dig vast canyons into their steadfast and immovable faith.

When we see all our failures and flaws we can often think that we’re unlovable.

Vulnerability overtakes us – we can’t help it nor can we seen to slow it or stop it.

However, in the midst of all our failures and shortcomings, and sudden onsets of unconquerable vulnerabilities – guess what – God chooses to love us anyway!

God’s love for us should energize us to love other people.

When we focus on all God has done for us, it makes loving other people easier.

God’s love is empowering.

God’s love is an overcoming love.

It gives us the strength and motivation to truly love others.

So when you have those onset moments when you struggle with vulnerability, struggle with loving a “someone” who is less than lovable (including yourself), realize that you have got the power to yet do “love” because God loved you first.

When you were your own first and worst enemy, when you were convinced that didn’t deserve anybody’s “first love” and were an enemy of God, God loved you.

That knowledge gives you first burst of knowing what you need to love others.

What Does the Word of God Say of “First Loves?”

First love. 

The phrase evokes powerful feelings.

For many this phrase evokes the image of a newborn baby just placed on its mothers chest immediately after birth and the two make their “first contact.”

For some this phrase evokes the image of a new father looking at their very first newborn child for the very first time, and all the love in his world becomes real.

For many, the term conjures images of a first crush when a toddler recognizes mom for the first time or as a teenager, or impressions of “love at first sight.”

But first love is a much more intimate concept than simply a first recognition of of mom or dad or any raging hormones and pictures of pulsing cartoon hearts.

It’s God, Himself. 

1 John 4:8 tells us that God is love.

This means that any worldly love falls short of the true definition.

Think about the most dynamic couples, real or fictional, that are well known throughout history—Romeo and Juliet, Robert and Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Billy and Ruth Graham, President Jimmy and, Rosalynn Carter to name a few.

Now think about current celebrity match-ups in the media that make you sort of swoon – Bob and Betty Hope, George Burns and Gracie Allen, Fred Astaire and the incomparable Ginger Rogers, Humphry Bogart and Lauren Bacall.

As romantic as any of those might seem right now, those examples aren’t true love.

Without God involved in the process, without that cord of three strands that is not so easily broken (Ecclesiastes 4:9-12), no human relationship could ever be real love – it will always and forever “miss the mark.” 

1 Corinthians 13, known as the “love chapter,” states that “faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.” 

I believe it’s important to note the greatest of these character traits only comes from God!

He is the source of love—not romance novels, not sonnets and poetry, and certainly not Hollywood.

Here are three things the Word of God reveals to each of us about “first loves.”

1. God Loved Us First

Everything springs from this. 

Such a beautiful message of hope is found in 1 John 4:19.

“We love, because He first loved us.” 

We don’t love because we manage to “dig deep down” and “conjure up our best effort”—no, we love because God put it in us first, via the Holy Spirit, to do so.

Any desires toward love, holiness, purity, etc. toward others or toward the Lord only come from God.

We are incapable of love on our own—yet we love because God first loved us.

What a relief!

Don’t you feel the burden rolling off your shoulders?

Love is a gift from God, who is love Himself—Who became love in the flesh through Jesus Christ, who came to “deliver us from the domain of darkness and transfer us to the kingdom of His beloved Son” (Colossians 1:13).

“You did not choose Me but I chose you, and appointed you that you would go and bear fruit, and that your fruit would remain, so that whatever you ask of the Father in My name He may give to you.” (John 15:16)

Let the depth of this truth saturate your weary and vulnerable soul… let it seep in, let it comfort you and hug you with all the coziness of your favorite quilt. 

You are held.

You are loved. A

nd it has nothing to do with you or what you bring to the table, and everything to do with the God who created you, who knew you from before the foundations of time (Jeremiah 1:5), planned every one of your days way long before you were even in your mother’s womb (Psalm 139:16).

2. We Often Leave Our First Love (GOD)

As comforting as it is to sit and bask in the reality of God’s love for us, we must also acknowledge and recognize the sobering concept of leaving our first love.

“But I have this against you, that you have left your first love.” (Revelation 2:4)

Even as believers, we are not immune to apathy.

Sometimes, we lose our fervor and passion for the things of the Lord.

When we are busy catering to our sin rather than confessing it, we are blocking communication with the Holy Spirit.

Conviction becomes fewer and farther between.

We grow farther away from Christ.

We stop praying, we stop reading and studying the Word, disciplining our lives and start listening to the lies that we can never love or worse—be loved—again.

Rather than heeding the dark deceptions from the enemy, we should recognize our behavior, turn, and repent.

Do we have unconfessed sin in your life?

Admit it already.

God already knows.

Avoiding prayer will only keep you feeling more and more disconnected, leaving ample room for the enemy to continue to tempt you.

There have been times in my Christian walk where it felt like my prayers hit the ceiling and stopped and splattered there and it made me prone to not pray at all.

In those times, the only prayer we need is “Lord, give me the want to want to.”

Rather than hide in our vulnerability and shame when we’re “prone to wander” and aren’t feeling a desire toward the things of God, we must shine truth on those dark thoughts, bring them to the light, simply ask for God’s desires again.

The Holy Spirit is infinitely more than capable of filling us back up.

In my experience, believers tend to occasionally disregard various disciplines of the faith because “that’s not what saves them.”

I agree—it’s not.

But I also realize when we only go through the motions of daily Bible reading, daily prayer, consistent fellowship with the church, we’re more prone to stay in communion with the Holy Spirit and on the right path in our Christian walk.

Sometimes, sitting down with the Word of God despite “not wanting to” will be exactly what’s needed to bring forth the desire.

Actions often breed feelings, and this is one of the greatest offenses we have against spiritual warfare.

The Word of God is our sword! 

Ephesians 6:17 says, “Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.”

“For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart…” (Hebrews 4:12)

Even when we don’t feel like it—maybe especially when we don’t feel like it—pick up your sword anyway and start swinging it against your vulnerabilities.

Psalm 84: 8-9 The Message

8-9 God-of-the-Angel-Armies, listen:
    O God of Jacob, open your ears—I’m praying!
Look at our shields, glistening in the sun,
    our faces, shining with your gracious anointing.

Standing tall, Steadfast and Immovable, Protect and Fight for your first love.

3. We’re to Stay with Our Second “First Love”

“Let your fountain be blessed, And rejoice with the wife of your youth.” (Proverbs 5:18)

Christ is and should always be our first love.

But on earth, we are granted the blessing of marriage between a man and a woman (that won’t be recognized in heaven –Mark 10:5-9) that reflects the union of Christ and His bride—the church.

It’s a holy and sacred covenant before the Lord himself, because it reflects His relationship with His beloved.

To participate in that reflection is a gift and an honor.

It’s not to be taken lightly.

Unfortunately, in our current culture, marriage today is often considered to be “open to man’s socio-cultural interpretation” or an extreme version of dating, where choices of divorce are made as recklessly as high schoolers speed dating.

Mark 10:9 says, “What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.”

This verse does not mean that all divorce is forbidden.

There are unfortunately circumstances of abandonment where spouses didn’t have a choice (Malachi 2:16), or marriages of physical abuse and unrepentant adultery (Matthew 5:31-32), the Bible allows for the dissolving of a marriage.

It’s impossibly painful to those involved and indescribably messy, regardless of the circumstances, and every story is unique to the person who then carries it.

But far too often, marriages dissolve solely for the lack of commitment and desire to keep them going—lack of reverence for the covenant they represent.

“For I feel a divine jealousy for you, since I betrothed you to one husband, to present you as a pure virgin to Christ.” (2 Corinthians 11:2)

“Let us rejoice and exult and give him the glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and his Bride has made herself ready; it was granted her to clothe herself with fine linen, bright and pure”—for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints.” (Revelation 19:7-8)

While our ultimate first love is the Lord, our first love on earth—or what I’ve termed our “second first love” is our spouse.

They deserve to be respected and treated as such.

They are worthy to the utmost to be maximally protected, cherished, guarded, and loved for as long as both spouses shall live.

It’s so vitally and critically important to remember that it’s impossible to follow through with our role in a godly marriage if the very first truth of our very first love, about first love isn’t recognized—that “God is love, that He first loved us.”

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

Let us Pray,

God, you are LOVE! Absolute, from everlasting to everlasting , perfect, unconditional, incomparable, pure, incomprehensible. And all creation is of your love. We are all born of this love. And your splendored love, ever existent, commands us to love you unceasingly, wholly, with all our minds, hearts, souls, strength. And to love our neighbor as ourselves. Lord, we are your chosen people and as Christians, who are born again, of the Spirit, as your children, we are set apart and identified by our love.

Jesus, in obedience of your Will, has taught us the meaning of true love, in serving our fellowmen with humility, and with compassion, without prejudice and without judgement. Father, you are the fountain of love, which emanates from you to us, and if we love as you do, it is because you are the source and origin of selfless love. Love, not just to our own, but also to our detractors, our enemies and our persecutors.

Loving Father, Precious Savior, Intercessor Holy Spirit, nothing more animates and inflames our love, than the One truth of the existence of your love for us, before ours, which shows that it is free, true, sovereign, and unmerited. Living in Savior Christ, aspiring to work and obtain salvation by our faith and your free grace, we know that when we stand before you, it will be because we have lived in obedience to your Will, have finally risen above pride, arrogance, ego, and have decreased ourselves in the purity of love, thereby increasing Christ, living in the counsel of the Spirit, in Christ.

Adeste Fideles! Laeti Triumphantes! Venite Adoremus! Dominum.

Gloria! In Excelsis Deo! Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia, Amen.

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Wisdom of the Wiser: What God Chooses to Accomplish His Will. 1 Corinthians 1:26-31

In 1 Corinthians chapters 1 and 2, Paul assigned his readers an important task: the confident preaching of Christ crucified.

The Gospel message, he wrote, is foolishness to the world (1:18-25) and yet the undeniable truth of the message means quite literally everything to believers—and God chooses to use not the most powerful but the very weak to proclaim it.

Beginning in a process of conversion, the core of being a Christian is living a life of discipleship — of following Jesus in everything we do — so that we can step up and step out to help change the world into the Kingdom Jesus told us about.

This is the lifestyle Jesus chose to attract others to him that they might come to the moment where their desire to know Him and His Father, God is priority #1.  

Stepping up and stepping into this lifestyle of witness ourselves prayerfully attracts others to our faith, gives us opportunities to explicitly share our faith.

1 Corinthians 1:26-31 New American Standard Bible

26 For [a]consider your calling, brothers and sisters, that there were not many wise according to [b]the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble; 27 but God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong, 28 and the [c]insignificant things of the world and the despised God has chosen, the things that are not, so that He may nullify the things that are, 29 so that no [d]human may boast before God. 30  But it is [e]due to Him that you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, [f]and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption, 31 so that, just as it is written: “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.”

The Word of God for the Children of God.

Adeste Fideles! Laeti Triumphantes! Venite Adoremus! Dominum.

Gloria! In Excelsis Deo! Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia, Amen.

In 1 Corinthians chapters 1 and 2, Paul assigned his readers an important task: the confident preaching of Christ crucified.

The Gospel message, he wrote, is foolishness to the world (1:18-25) and yet the undeniable truth of the message means quite literally everything to believers—and God chooses to use not the most powerful but the very weak to proclaim it.

Beginning in a process of conversion, the core of being a Christian is living a life of discipleship — of following Jesus in everything we do — so that we can step up and step out to help change the world into the Kingdom Jesus told us about.

This is the lifestyle Jesus chose to attract others to him that they might come to the moment where their desire to know Him and His Father, God is priority #1.  

Stepping up and stepping into this lifestyle of witness ourselves prayerfully attracts others to our faith, gives us opportunities to explicitly share our faith.

What God Chooses to Accomplish His Will

1 Corinthians 1:27-29 New American Standard Bible

27 but God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong, 28 and the [a]insignificant things of the world and the despised God has chosen, the things that are not, so that He may nullify the things that are, 29 so that no [b]human may boast before God.

When have you not ever felt the nudge to do something, say something, or try something that felt even .01% outside your ability to conceive?

As soon as the thought came into your head another did as well, discrediting your so called self perceived, self-conceived time limited “qualifications”.

Yet, somehow the very idea brought a momentary quickening in your heart.

The undeniable feeling this could be great.

The undeniable feeling this could be exciting.

The undeniable feeling this could be transformational.

The undeniable feeling this could be life changing to the utmost and uppermost.

The undeniable feeling this could be a major league professional difference maker.

These are those miracle moments when God wants to step in to do something bigger than what “we believe” is possible with our seemingly unqualified lives.

Isaiah 57:13-15 New American Standard Bible

13 When you cry out, let your collection of idols save you.
But the wind will carry them all up,
And a breath will take them away.
But the one who takes refuge in Me will inherit the land
And possess My holy mountain.”

14 And it will be said,
“Build up, build up, prepare the way,
Remove every obstacle from the way of My people.”
15 For this is what the high and exalted One
Who [a]lives forever, whose name is Holy, says:
“I dwell in a high and holy place,
And also with the contrite and lowly of spirit
In order to revive the spirit of the lowly
And to revive the heart of the contrite.

The amazing truth is that we are never left to ourselves in these moments!

Miraculously, when God plants the thought into our thoughts, our souls, God lays something on our heart to do or brings on a challenge for us to conquer for Him, then God is the ONLY one who is going to be sufficient to see us through!

God pushes us into uncomfortable places so that we are able to recognize it is time for a difference to be made somewhere and recognize His power at work.

If God only called us to what we felt only barely capable to do, then would we even recognize God’s hand at work in our lives?

When we feel like we have it all together, when things make sense in our own minds then we stop seeking God for his help.

Our worldly malignant pride so easily raises up, steals our need for a Savior.

It is for this reason God allows us to face obstacles that feel insurmountable at the moment.

In these moments we must be faithful to take a step of faith.

God will meet us and miraculously provide so His glory can be seen in our lives.

God enables his people to accomplish what He desires them to do with their lives.

5 What then is Apollos? And what is Paul? Servants through whom you believed, even as the Lord gave opportunity to each one. 6 I planted, Apollos watered, but God was causing the growth. 7 So then neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but God who causes the growth. (1 Corinthians 3:5-7 NASB)

Making Sense of the Value of our Christian Witness

God’s plan for humanity is not one that we can make sense of on our own.

God came in a form that no one expected, performed miracles no one would have considered to be possible, died a criminal’s death, and yet used these lowly circumstances as the tool to free humanity from the chains of sin and death.

If we are to be ones called away by God, separated by God from the world who accomplishes God’s plan or even be among those few who are able to accept the truth of the cross, we have to be obedient, willing to lay aside our expectation, known limitations, and step out in faith that God will meet us where we are.

Two thousand some years ago, God used a foolish cross to redeem our lives.

He gives us the strength we need to minister to those who need His love in our daily lives.

God will carry us through dark days.

He will provide for our families when we see no way forward.

God is infinitely able and uses our vast measures and degrees of powerlessness to show His great ability to carry us through whatever it is that He calls us to.

Pause for just a few precious moments to prayerfully consider how you need to invite God to “tap your shoulder” to show His mighty hand at work in your life?

Are you only relying on what “makes sense” to you or is there an area in your life in which God is nudging you to step out in faith so He can do something great?

God only gave the Israelites in the desert the manna and Quail they needed each day so that they would have to learn to trust in God as their only true provider.

Pray and Learn: how is God teaching you to trust in him as your daily provider?

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

Let us Pray,

Dear Father, God Almighty, Creator of all things, you alone of whom we now boast,

Why have you chosen the weak, the foolish, the despised? You have done this so that no human being can boast. And we do not! We cast our lives at your feet. You alone are worthy! You are above all things, you alone are the source of our lives in Christ Jesus, whom you made to be everything to us. He alone is our wisdom and He alone is our righteousness. He alone is our sanctification and He alone is our redemption. Therefore, as it is written, “Let him who boasts, boast of the Lord” – and we do! In the name of Savior Jesus, by his wisdom and authority, I ask these things. Amen.

Adeste Fideles! Laeti Triumphantes! Venite Adoremus! Dominum. Gloria! In Excelsis Deo! Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia, Amen.

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A Lifestyle of Urgency. Acts 20:22-24

As Paul took his leave of the Ephesian elders in Acts 20, the Apostle felt an urgent compulsion from the Holy Spirit to go back to the city of Jerusalem.

He declared to all present he had no idea what would happen to him when he got there, but he had a clear sense hard times and imprisonment awaited him.

Then he made this incredibly valuable and impossibly staggering statement:

“I do not account my life of any value.”

Acts 20:22-24 The Message

22-24 “But there is another urgency before me now. I feel compelled to go to Jerusalem. I’m completely in the dark about what will happen when I get there. I do know that it won’t be any picnic, for the Holy Spirit has let me know repeatedly and clearly that there are hard times and imprisonment ahead. But that matters little. What matters most to me is to finish what God started: the job the Master Jesus gave me of letting everyone I meet know all about this incredibly extravagant generosity of God.

The Word of God for the Children of God.

Adeste Fideles! Laeti Triumphantes! Venite Adoremus! Dominum.

Gloria! In Excelsis Deo! Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia, Amen.

As Paul took his leave of the Ephesian elders in Acts 20, the Apostle felt an urgent compulsion from the Holy Spirit to go back to the city of Jerusalem.

He declared to all present he had no idea what would happen to him when he got there, but he had a clear sense hard times and imprisonment awaited him.

Then he made this incredibly valuable and impossibly staggering statement:

“I do not account my life of any value.”

“I do not account my life of any value.”

What an incredibly shocking statement summarizing Paul’s own deep, abiding passion for the urgent way he personally views the sum total of his valued life.

“If my life isn’t of any value, it’s not precious to me, I got one thing I’m focused on, and that’s the ministry I have received from the Lord Jesus, testifying to the gospel of his grace.”

This was not first century mindset of masochism—some strange utter hatred of personal joy, happiness, self control, peace, or spiritual health, or physical life.

So what, then, did Paul mean by declaring his life completely valueless?

Simply this:

that solely for the sake of His Savior Jesus and the Kingdom of God, he did not regard his own life as so precious a possession as to be held on to at all costs!

What value we assign to our lives is summarized by people often nonchalantly saying, “Well, as long as I have got breath, and health, that’s all that matters!”

“I am happy I am still breathing, my heart is still beating and I am standing!”

Yes!

Absolutely!

Value all of these things and so much more!

Be happy you are still breathing, your heart is beating and you are standing!

But that is not all that is to be valued, all that matters in the Kingdom of God!

Be Comforted but also recall our invaluable bodies are steadily passing away. (Isaiah 40:1-9)

We are crumbling even as we live and breathe.

We may have our health today, but a day will come when we do not.

Unless we are able to say with Paul, “To live is Christ,” we cannot legitimately affirm with him, “and to die is gain” (Philippians 1:21).

The only way that death can be a valued gain is if Christ is urgently everything.

And if Savior Christ is valued as urgently everything, as Paul says He is, then we can declare with him, My life is not ultimate. I don’t need to protect it as the most precious thing I have. I want to spend it for the most precious person I’ll ever know.

What mattered most to Paul was that he finished his life trusting Christ and carried out to the best of his abilities the ministry Christ had given him.

He felt a compelling, overwhelming resolve to complete the task of testifying to “the gospel of the grace of God” everywhere he could reach by foot or by boat. 

There’s a task! 

There’s a purpose, significance, an agenda, a calling!

There is a Christian lifestyle which matters to the Kingdom of God!

There is a Christian lifestyle worthy of being valued!

And this is the task entrusted to all of us—the Great Commission to (Matthew 28:16-20) to let everyone we meet know the good news of God’s amazing grace.

Matthew 28:16-20 English Standard Version

The Great Commission

16 Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. 17 And when they saw him they worshiped him, but some doubted. 18 And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in [a]  the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

“If Only I May Finish My Course …”

Acts 20:22-24 Amplified Bible

22 And now, compelled by the Spirit and obligated by my convictions, I am going to Jerusalem, not knowing what will happen to me there, 23 except that the Holy Spirit solemnly [and emphatically] affirms to me in city after city that imprisonment and suffering await me. 24 But I do not consider my life as something of value or dear to me, so that I may [with joy] finish my course and the ministry which I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify faithfully of the good news of God’s [precious, undeserved] grace [which makes us free of the guilt of sin and grants us eternal life].

From time to time, I will silently pray about each of these verses in Acts 20:22-24 and as I do quietly pray through them I will find myself constantly driven, then more urgently praying for the spread of the gospel through all our lives.

It then feels like every chapter and verse I can recall and prayer that flows from every verse and every chapter has got to help me to faithfully share the gospel.

That’s exactly what Paul is expressing here.

Think about it.

Paul knows he’s on this earth specifically for the spread of the gospel.

He urgently desires, and he says later, “I want to depart and be with Christ, but it’s better that I’m here.

Philippians 1:21-24 Amplified Bible

To Live Is Christ

21 For 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]. 22 If, 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]. 23 But 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; 24 yet to remain in my body is more necessary and essential for your sake.

In God’s wisdom. He’s left me here for the spread of the gospel. This is what I want to do. I want to testify of his grace.”

Acts 20:24 Reminds Us of the Bible’s Teaching

Let’s look at our lives in a similar way.

I’m not saying this is the only thing we do in the world.

This is obviously not what the Bible is teaching, but the Bible is teaching that this is primary.

We are here on this earth for the spread of the gospel of the grace of God.

We are here exclusively to help other people know how good, and great, and gracious, and glorious and invaluable God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit are to all.

This is the opportunity God has given us every day and the place where he has put us in the world to make this good news to others.

A billion years from now what’s going to matter most is whether or not we have made this good news known to as many others as is possible in ones lifetime.

Acts 20:24 Leads Us to Have a Right Perspective

God, we ought to be urgently praying:

“Please give us a right perspective on our lives here.”

“God, Help us not to miss this glorious purpose you’ve entrusted to us.”

“We want to be a part of testifying to the gospel of your grace, telling other people about your love in Christ.”

“Lord, we don’t want to get to the end of our lives and look back and not have done this, not have given our whole lives to this, not having spent our lives doing this.”

In all the places I find myself, and I think about my life, my schedule this week.

I think about each person who’s praying this and their lives, their schedule, the different workplaces where they are, the different places where they live, the different people around them who probably don’t know Christ as their Savior.

“Lord, help us all. Help us all, we pray, to be faithful to testify to the gospel of your grace. And, Lord, help us not to neglect this most important ministry.”

This Reminds Us of Our Duty to Proclaim the Gospel

Obviously, we know we are not Paul in the same way that he was an apostle in the New Testament.

But we do know that, like the Apostle Paul, we have been urgently sent out by Christ with an urgent message, a gospel of God’s abundant and eternal life so to proclaim.

“Dear God, Help us urgently, we pray, to do it faithfully.”

“May I say in my own hearts my life I don’t count of any value.”

“Precious unto myself.”

“If only by your grace, I may finish this race and complete this ministry that I have been given from you, this opportunity that you have given to me, to urgently testify to, and witness exclusively unto, the gospel of your exceedingly amazing grace.”

“God, help me to be faithful to run that race today and to do this work today.”

“For the exclusive glory of your name and for the exclusive and urgent spread of your gospel, we pray, in Jesus’ name. Amen.“

Living Out and Into A Lifestyle of Urgency

In these most contemporary of “lets hurry up and wait” how are you and I, like Paul, to live a life of urgency so that you and I might keep going until the end?

You and I must run our race with all our might, with the finish line in view.

Do not look for any opportunity to bow out or slow down before the final lap is over and urgently run with all our strength and running right through the tape, gripped by Christ’s love, energized by God’s Spirit, and guided by God’s Word.

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

Let us Pray,

Heavenly God, Author of my life, Perfecter of my faith, be with me as I run the race of becoming more like your son Jesus. I pray God that you remove my selfishness so I follow what’s best for You, not what’s best for me. When I am tired, please give me strength to finish the race with joy. Let my actions, my witness and my testimony show the meaning of the gospel, reveal the invaluable message of Christ my Savior.

Adeste Fideles! Laeti Triumphantes! Venite Adoremus! Dominum.

Gloria! In Excelsis Deo! Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia, Amen.

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Finding the Courage to Be Different. John 15:18-19

John 15:18-19 The Message

Hated by the World

18-19 “If you find the godless world is hating you, remember it got its start hating me. If you lived on the world’s terms, the world would love you as one of its own. But since I picked you to live on God’s terms and no longer on the world’s terms, the world is going to hate you.

The Word of God for the Children of God.

Adeste Fideles! Laeti Triumphantes! Venite Adoremus! Dominum.

Gloria! In Excelsis Deo! Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia, Amen.

A Hated People

John 15:18 Amplified Bible

Disciples’ Relation to the World

18 “If the world hates you [and it does], know that it has hated Me before it hated you.

This may be one of Jesus’ hardest teachings—especially if anyone of us tends to prefer being a people pleaser.

Jesus wants us to understand that his followers will sometimes be at odds with the values of the world.

As a result, there will be times when we pay a relational price for following him.

But will we be hated?

Disliked? Probably.

Misunder­stood? Sure.

But hated? That sounds pretty extreme.

Well, hatred is a pretty extreme and polarizing emotion.

Hatred is a high energy radically divisive way of immediately shutting down the course of events of that moment – say the words “I hate you” and life just stops.

Yet Jesus deliberately chooses this strong language here for a reason.

And Jesus knew that it absolutely had to be said and Jesus knew his disciples had to be prepared to receive the hatred – even to the point of their death on a cross.

Putting God first in our life will absolutely create friction—being different from everyone around you — well, guess what? it’s going to be a significant threat to people and unto world systems which have a deep and vested interest in their own selfish ambitions and much preferred ways of doing “their own” things.

Jesus invited people into the kingdom of God, to hate the world, and this will result in his arrest, public humiliation and his suffering and death on a cross.

Why? Because his teachings represented a threat to the religious leadership.

Following Jesus meant great personal sacrifice, having less power, status, and attention, so their response was to get rid of the competition and protect their own interests (see John 11:48 Amplified).

48 If we let Him go on like this, everyone will believe in Him, and the Romans will come and take away both our [holy] place (the temple) and our nation.”

Since we read in Scripture this is how Jesus was treated, should we be surprised to encounter such a hardship in our own lives because of our faith in him? No.

Yet, in spite of resistance in this world, God remains faithful to his people.

Through the Holy Spirit, we can be emboldened, empowered and inspired and refreshed to continue the most challenging of Kingdom work God calls us to do.

And in community we can find the prayer and support to keep following Jesus, no matter what it costs us.

John 17:6-12 Amplified Bible

6 “I have manifested Your name [and revealed Your very self, Your real self] to the people whom You have given Me out of the world; they were Yours and You gave them to Me, and they have kept and obeyed Your word. 7 Now [at last] they know [with confident assurance] that all You have given Me is from You [it is really and truly Yours]. 8 For the words which You gave Me I have given them; and they received and accepted them and truly understood [with confident assurance] that I came from You [from Your presence], and they believed  [without any doubt] that You sent Me. 9 I pray for them; I do not pray for the world, but for those You have given Me, because they belong to You; 10 and all things that are Mine are Yours, and [all things that are] Yours are Mine; and I am glorified in them. 11 I am no longer in the world; yet they are still in the world, and I am coming to You. Holy Father, keep them in Your name, the name which You have given Me, so that they may be one just as We are. 12 While I was with them, I was keeping them in Your name which You have given Me; and I guarded them and protected them, and not one of them was lost except [a]the son of destruction, so that the Scripture would be fulfilled.

With the power and strength of Such deep Prayerful Support – what becomes possible?

The COURAGE to be DIFFERENT!

John 15:19 Amplified Bible

19 If you belonged to the world, the world would love [you as] its own and would treat you with affection. But you are not of the world [you no longer belong to it], but I have chosen you out of the world. And because of this the world hates you.

Against the Grain

My father who grew up in the Depression era and was a combat veteran of the Korean Conflict, used to say the times have changed, a sentiment I now echo.

A child of the sixties and seventies, the world looked so very different during my own childhood; some resulted from my idyllic imaginings, and some from a much darker more brutal and bullied reality now most thankfully long past.

Today, the world, especially whether it is my country, or most anyone else’s country, looks darker, uncertain, bullied, terrorized and war-like and divided.

My Judeo-Christian faith now shines brighter than ever, and too many days I have never felt so alone, misunderstood and out of place. 

Born and baptized a Christian, My family and I grew up Jewish when being Christian was much more in fashion, even ubiquitous.

Kids pretended to be Christian even when they weren’t.

I do not guess that is as true now as it was then – Not anymore.

It was the sixties and seventies – Haight Ashbury, the Vietnam War, Protests, Anti War Sentiments and campus riots were 5 minutes from my parents home.

There was the iconic transformative Woodstock on a farm in Bethel New York.

There was the Watergate Scandal and a US President was compelled to Resign.

This was our era – which we and my family lived, grew up in, were shaped by.

Each era seems to have its own iconic mind-bending, setting, transformative events which served to change the thinking of those who were born and raised.  

Nowadays, many people hide their faith for fear of being offensive.

There seem to be fewer open prayers when out in public and less mention of God in school. 

The challenges are mind bending, mind setting, controversial, transformative, divisive, politically high charged: Abortion. Homosexuality. Race. Transgender.

Violence, school shootings, walk into a church or any other place and spray bullets and bombs all over, among many other things which could easily take their place in bending, breaking, shaping, transforming billions of minds.

Uttering an unpopular opinion or a fact that goes against the grain is far more consequential than just merely taboo.

So for those of us seeking to stand firm in the faith, our absolute belief in God, the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit, what exactly are we left to do?

Finding the courage to be different today comes with consequences like job loss, public ostracization with threats of physical violence, legal repercussions, fines, and maybe at some point, death. 

From those first century days, it is not too far fetched to believe or wonder if it’s not significantly more counter-cultural to be that faithful, faith-filled, hopeful hope-filled, publicly prayerful, publicly praying Christian in today’s society.

The question is, do we have even the the minimal courage to be max different?

Intersecting Faith and Life:

The world hated Jesus.

There should be no surprise when we receive the same treatment.

If you are a Christian who finds yourself in harmony with the world, that’s an indication to rethink your faith.

We are called live differently, like Christ. 

He didn’t have an easy life.

Why would we? 

Why should we?

Christ told His disciples there would be suffering in the world.

Yet, despite suffering, through Him, they could find peace.

Through Him, they found the strength needed to live out their faith.

That same peace and strength are available to us today. 

We’ll need it if we are to be different.

Different in the Way We Talk

Scripture prescribes a certain way to communicate.

Our words are supposed to build another up, those in the faith and outside.

That doesn’t mean every word spoken from our mouths is soft and gentle, but that also doesn’t mean our words should be extremely harsh and ultra divisive.

Where the world seeks to offend, we should make peace.

Where the world stresses peace, we should boldly speak the truth of the Gospel of our Lord, Savior Jesus Christ in “tough” love to people who need to hear it.

Different in the Way We Walk

Modern society glorifies the value of an individual’s happiness, priorities, needs, and wants. Our faith prioritizes the values of God.

We recognize we are not the center of the universe, which causes us to value getting married and starting families.

We value impartially serving others as opposed to serving ourselves. (James 2:1-13)

We value children in and outside of the womb. (Psalm 139:13-18)

Different in How We Think

Our primary motivations as Christians should be to love God and, secondly, to love our neighbors as much or as little as God commands us to love ourselves.

These are the greatest commandments.

Society commands the love of self.

If we aren’t happy, the culture encourages us to change our circumstances through divorce, jobs, etc.

Scripture helps us understand happiness is not just transitory but something we are not entitled to for simply existing.

God blesses us with good, but He also blesses us, allows for the bad and even the catastrophic and for very good reasons!

Different in What We Believe

Those in the world reject God when they can’t see the evidence but are quick to believe science without viewing the evidence – the methodology, the variables, the data, etcetera.

Knowing ‘the science’ proves something is enough for some people.

As Christians, we believe science helps us understand the natural world, but we also recognize there is also a supernatural one.

God allows us to see where conventional insight fails or deceives. 

Being different is a challenge today, but walking with God was never meant to be easy.

Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection are proof. 

Proverbs 29:18Amplified Bible

18 
Where there is no vision [no revelation of God and His word], the people are unrestrained;
But happy and blessed is he who keeps the law [of God].

Choosing courage over comfort means embracing the unknown.

It pushes you to new experiences and makes you open and accommodating when you are tired of working for world instead of working for Savior Jesus.

Serving as Jesus did? It requires courage and confidence to do what your mind would otherwise assume and ignore because it anticipates failure or challenges.

Comfort will keep you back from pursuing your goals, fulfilling your dreams, and living up to your potential.

Courage, on the other hand, gives us prophetic vision (Proverbs 29:18) to see what others cannot see, to pursue what others would not dare to go after.

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

Let us Pray,

God Almighty, God my Father, I come before you now with a fresh anointing of your Gospel from John 15:18-19, with a plea and a prayer for courage. Please be with me on these dark and challenging days. No matter how alone I may feel, remind me you are my ever-present company. Whatever obstacles I face and my mindset faces, help me to live out the faith consistently and constantly. When the world seeks hate me as it hated your Son Jesus, seeks to deceive and sell me on falsehoods as Satan did your Son, direct me again towards truth. Please direct me to you. Being different is hard and scary, and some days God, I wonder what life would be like to be of the world. But I want to remain steadfast. I wish to remain with you. So, Lord, please give me the courage to be different, especially when I need it the most. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Adeste Fideles! Laeti Triumphantes! Venite Adoremus! Dominum.

Gloria! In Excelsis Deo! Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia, Amen.

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Today’s Legitimate Dose of Life’s Reality: When God is Excluded from our Life, All Our Things Are Vanity. Ecclesiastes 1:1-11

Ecclesiastes 1:1-11 English Standard Version

All Is Vanity

1 The words of the Preacher,[a] the son of David, king in Jerusalem.

2 Vanity[b] of vanities, says the Preacher,
    vanity of vanities! All is vanity.
3 What does man gain by all the toil
    at which he toils under the sun?
4 A generation goes, and a generation comes,
    but the earth remains forever.
5 The sun rises, and the sun goes down,
    and hastens[c] to the place where it rises.
6 The wind blows to the south
    and goes around to the north;
around and around goes the wind,
    and on its circuits the wind returns.
7 All streams run to the sea,
    but the sea is not full;
to the place where the streams flow,
    there they flow again.
8 All things are full of weariness;
    a man cannot utter it;
the eye is not satisfied with seeing,
    nor the ear filled with hearing.
9 What has been is what will be,
    and what has been done is what will be done,
    and there is nothing new under the sun.
10 Is there a thing of which it is said,
    “See, this is new”?
It has been already
    in the ages before us.
11 There is no remembrance of former things,[d]
    nor will there be any remembrance
of later things[e] yet to be
    among those who come after.

The Word of God for the Children of God.

Adeste Fideles! Laeti Triumphantes! Venite Adoremus! Dominum.

Gloria! In Excelsis Deo! Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia, Amen

When God is Excluded All of Our Things Are Vanity

From start to finish, the book of Ecclesiastes declares the utter futility and complete meaninglessness of life without God.

Whether it is referring to work or pleasure, or wisdom or wealth, power or prestige, entertainment or virility, life or death, ALL is considered futile and worthless whenever God is excluded from the equation.

It is Solomon who is credited with the authorship of Ecclesiastes.

He was chosen by God to succeed his father, King David as Israel’s anointed king, and when faced with the great responsibility of leading the nation, he humbly confessed that he was unable to do so without help from the Lord.

Despite his humble confession to God and his magnificent prayer at the dedication of the Temple, Solomon set out to discover the meaning of life using his own reasoning power and without the leading, guidance, direction of God.

The conclusion he was forced to reach was: “Vanity of vanities! All is vanity.”

At the end of his life, Solomon discovered his long search for fulfilment through his many accomplishments, was nothing more than just chasing after the wind.

Despite his great wisdom, power, fame, and fortune, his search for the meaning in life proved completely, ultimately profitless – because he had chosen to set out to explore the meaning of life, its significance, in his own human strength.

The entire book of Ecclesiastes amounts to Solomon’s discovery that when God is excluded from one’s existence, the benefits of wisdom and learning are futile.

Small achievements, great achievements, vast possessions, no possessions skillful work, also linguistic expertise, and various accomplishments prove to be ultimately profitless and quite futile when that is ALL that life has to offer.

Solomon recognized that death is the ultimate equalizer of both the king in his palace and the beggar at his gate.

He realized that competition between one person and another is profitless and life is very transitory, like the grass of the field which is here today but come a single moment of next tomorrow is almost immediately cast into the bonfires. 

“Vanity of vanities,” says the Preacher, “Vanity of vanities! All is vanity.”

In Romans, Paul reminds us that the whole of the creation was made subject to vanity because of sin and its consequences.

The whole premise of the Preacher of Ecclesiastes is true – for there is truly NOTHING that can be pursued or gained on earth that can provide everlasting fulfilment for a man’s soul.

The Preacher in Ecclesiastes states his conclusion that “all is vanity,” at the very beginning of his dialogue and again at the end.

Were it not for a little verse tucked away in the middle of Ecclesiastes, his whole treaties could become very depressing for anyone who reads it, because without God, literally everything is vain and futile for this is the condition of every man.

Yet, there is one last verse that identifies well the meaning and purpose of life:

“When all has been heard, the conclusion of the matter under consideration is: fear God and keep His commands, for this is the whole duty of all mankind.”  (12:13-14)

A Legitimate Dose of Reality Regarding Change

Twenty years ago when I was visiting an ancient abbey on the Isle of Iona in Scotland, I wandered upon an ancient graveyard with many Celtic Crosses.

As I walked among the tombstones, I observed a variety of ages chiseled into their surfaces.

As near as I could tell with many stones barely or nearly unreadable, some of the people appeared to had lived to be quite old, while others not live past 30.

Yet when all these ages were taken together, it seemed that the average life span was around 65-70—just as the Bible says:

“The years of our life are seventy, or even by reason of strength eighty” (Psalm 90:10).

And more time than that had gone by since most of these people had passed.

This sobering reminder of life’s brevity returned me to a question that all of us ask at one point or another: Is this pursuit of all things in life all there is?

The book of Ecclesiastes addresses this deep question by giving us a solid dose of legitimate reality.

Truthfully, most of us don’t do well with reality; we prefer fantasy, mirage, and distraction.

Yet the author of Ecclesiastes, Solomon, begins his discourse by encouraging us to carefully, thoughtfully and completely reflect upon the absolutely mindless, utter meaninglessness of life, stating bluntly, “Vanity of vanities! All is vanity.”

Solomon seeks to prove his thesis by showing us life is marked by drudgery:

“What does man gain by all the toil at which he toils under the sun? A generation goes, and a generation comes, but the earth remains forever” (Ecclesiastes 1:3-4).

Life, in other words, is just a perpetual series of clocking in and clocking out until we die.

No matter who you are—whether you are an executive, a schoolteacher, or a stay-at-home mom—life “under the sun” contains much toil, and then it ends.

Does this leave you thoroughly depressed?

It should—if you rule out the existence of God.

When God is taken out of the equation, life truly has no meaning.

There is a reason why some people desire to escape reality through a drug-induced stupor or through mindless indulgence in pleasure and entertainment.

What may seem like strange behavior to us may actually be the best considered response of the one who has gotten a heavy, albeit incomplete, dose of reality.

Studying the book of Ecclesiastes forces us to try and consider the deep, deeper, deepest implications, meanings of life without God, in view of inevitable death.

But such an image is seldom if ever given even the most minimal measure or degree of consideration because nowadays too many Christians discount God.

Not just discount God but openly state in a pulpit that “God is 100% nothing!”

Not just declare from a church pulpit on a regular Sunday morning worship service that “God is 100% nothing!” but God never existed or is “100% dead.”

But read the rest of the Bible and you will discover that you may receive eternal life by trusting in Him, Him being Jesus, who said, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6).

Only through God, the Father, God the Son, our Savior Jesus and the Holy Spirit will we 100% discover life’s true meaning, find the reason why all is not vanity.

Only if you remember the undeniable reality of Christ’s Resurrection, there absolutely is life beyond the grave, will we be able to live with joy, meet with all the ups and downs of life with a healthy perspective, on this side of the grave.

Life Changing Dose of Legitimate Reality: Everything Absolutely Revolves Around Father God, Son, Spirit.

Ecclesiastes 1:1-3 New American Standard Bible
The Futility of All Endeavors

1 The words of the Preacher, the son of David, king in Jerusalem.

2 “Futility of futilities,” says the Preacher,
“Futility of futilities! All is futility.”

3 What advantage does a person have in all his work
Which he does under the sun?

And thus begins one of the more depressing books in all of the Bible, but I would submit depressing in a good way, and here’s the reason I would say that.

When we come to Ecclesiastes, we read in these words, in these dispassionate chapters, a picture of life lived apart and separate from belief God.

Of life apart, of life separate from the reality of who God is, and all that’s in His character, of His love, His forgiveness, His justice, His mercy, His power, of His incomparable presence and indomitable and unsearchable wisdom.

Apart from the wisdom, power, love, justice, mercy of God, indeed, all is vain.

Ecclesiastes 1:2–3 Teaches Us Our Life is Vain Apart from God

The author of Ecclesiastes says this five times in one verse.

“Vanity of vanities. All is vanity.”

The point is clear, that all is in vain, everything lacks meaning apart from the reality of who God is.

The world revolves around God.

You take away the center around which the world revolves, and everything falls apart and so as you read through Ecclesiastes, as we likewise pray study and we pray through these different verses in Ecclesiastes, let’s all be reminded of the God-centeredness of the universe, and the need in each of our lives for God to be at the center of it all, knowing everything is meaningless apart from him.

The complete absence of God in our life is the Ultimate expression of Vanity!

Ecclesiastes 1:2–3 Reminds Us God is Our Rest

And so let’s pray based on Ecclesiastes 1:2–3.

Oh God, you are our everything, and we fix our eyes, our minds, our hearts on you today and we say that apart from you, everything is vain. You are our life, you are the author of our life, you are the Creator of our lives, you’re the sustainer of our lives, you’re the only one who can satisfy our lives. God, you are everything to us, oh God. You are our Creator, our Savior, our One and Only true King, our Ruler, our Lord.

You are literally everything and we are as nothing without you. And we pray that you would help us to live today with our intemperate minds and sin laden hearts and tiny attention span and fickle affections centered around you, as we do for you, oh God to infuse meaning and purpose into everything we do. And fulfillment in our hearts. Our hearts, as Saint Augustine said years ago, are restless until they find their rest in you.

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

Let us Pray,

Our Heavenly Father, thank You for this honest assessment and exploration of living life in this fallen world, without our ever living Savior Jesus Christ. I pray this day to please keep me from chasing after any of the inevitably vain things this world offers, knowing that there is nothing on earth that has lasting value except to know You. May I place You in the center of my life, knowing that the whole duty and delight of man is to worship and praise You for Your goodness, grace to all men. In Jesus’ name.

Adeste Fideles! Laeti Triumphantes! Venite Adoremus! Dominum.

Gloria! In Excelsis Deo! Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia, Amen

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Seeking and Finding the Disconnect in Our Connection with the Lord Our God. Matthew 6:31-34

Matthew 6:31-34 New King James Version

31 “Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. 33 But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. 34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.

The Word of God for the Children of God.

Adeste Fideles! Laeti Triumphantes! Venite Adoremus! Dominum.

Gloria! In Excelsis Deo! Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia, Amen.

During a small group Bible Study one night a friend once told me he set his alarm for 6:33 a.m. for a stretch of time during his teenage and young adult years.

He would wake up, put his feet on the floor, see his alarm, and immediately be reminded of Matthew 6:33 and his absolute need to “seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness.”

To me, it was a pointed example, in one way, of Matthew 6:33 in action.

The question to me then was what impact would it have on someone, anyone who did not know the meaning of “the kingdom of God” (at the time – me) and “His righteousness” and did not know how to “seek” them?

The myriad of ideas floating around about the Kingdom of God is evidence that the devil has successfully deceived millions of people about the true meaning of the Kingdom of God—the center of Jesus’ message.

Even to this day, Satan actively obscures the heart and core of Jesus’ teaching, leading many sincere Christians to confidently say the Kingdom of God is the warm, fuzzy feeling people experience when they “invite Jesus” into their lives.

Yet God’s Word testifies that Jesus preached “the gospel of the kingdom of God”—not just a message about Himself, but the good news of a literal, world-ruling government to be set up on this earth (Mark 1:14).

So, just what is the Kingdom of God, and how does one go about seeking it?

What exactly is “His righteousness”?

What “things” will be added to us if we prioritize seeking the Kingdom and His righteousness?

What does Matthew 6:33 say that believers should do?

Matthew 6:33 is a foundational scripture that directs our focus and attention to what God considers to be the most important goal a person can have.

In order to weave this critical verse into our own lives, we need to have a biblical understanding of its core concepts.

“But Seek First the Kingdom of God”

The New Testament has much to say about the Kingdom of God, but one of the most memorable visions of God’s government replacing human governments can be found in the Old Testament book of God’s Prophet Daniel.

In Daniel chapter 2 Nebuchadnezzar, the ancient king of the Babylonian Empire, dreamed about a great image or statue—presumably of a man—with a head of gold, chest and arms of silver, belly and thighs of bronze, legs of iron, and feet of iron and clay.

But as the dream went on, the image was eventually shattered by a cataclysmic stone (Daniel 2:31-34).

Unsure of the dream’s meaning, Nebuchadnezzar turned to the prophet Daniel for its interpretation.

Under God’s inspiration, Daniel explained, “You [Nebuchadnezzar] are this head of gold. But after you shall arise another kingdom inferior to yours; then another, a third kingdom of bronze, which shall rule over all the earth. And the fourth kingdom shall be as strong as iron . . . and like iron that crushes, that kingdom will break in pieces and crush all the others” (Daniel 2:38-40).

According to Daniel’s interpretation, the statue represented the rise and fall of four great, successive empires.

These empires, or kingdoms, have been identified in history as the Babylonian Empire, the Medo-Persian Empire, Greco-Macedonian Empire and the Roman Empire. 

With this understanding in mind, notice what Daniel said about the symbolism of the stone that came and broke the image:

“And in the days of these kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed; and the kingdom shall not be left to other people; it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand forever” (Daniel 2:44, emphasis added throughout).

This kingdom that “stands forever” is the Kingdom of God, a literal kingdom with territory, subjects, laws and rulers just like the other great empires.

The Kingdom of God will be:

  • Set up here on earth (territory).
  • Ruling over and serving human beings (subjects) during Christ’s millennial reign.
  • Governed through God’s commandments and statutes (laws).
  • Ruled by Christ and the saints (rulers).

The Kingdom of God is not figurative nor is it another way of saying going to heaven, as many passionately argue.

It is the very real government of God to be established here on earth at Christ’s return.

Those who will inherit God’s Kingdom are called the “saints of the Most High,” they will “possess the kingdom forever, even forever and ever” (Daniel 7:18).

To “seek” that Kingdom is to have a strong desire to enter it—a willingness to go to any length to do so.

Matthew 6:33 tells us that this must be the main priority of a Christian’s life.

“And His Righteousness”

After instructing His followers to prioritize the Kingdom of God, Rabbi Jesus added that they also need to prioritize not just any kind of righteousness, but “His righteousness” – His righteousness meaning God’s righteousness.

What is the biblical definition of God’s righteousness? 

Psalm 119:172 says, “All Your commandments are righteousness.”

Take careful notice that the verse does not say “a few” “some” or “half” or “two thirds” “three quarters” “nine out of 10” (excluding the commandment to keep the Sabbath day holy), but rather it says “all” of God’s commandments.

Understanding the biblical definition of righteousness, this verse could read: “Seek first the Kingdom of God and obey all His commandments.”

Unfortunately, obedience is a very unpopular message in a society where people are obsessed with the idea of freedom to do whatever they please, no matter how much harm that kind of liberty may pose to themselves or others.

The result is people who lack self-esteem, self-respect and lack any respect for any authority figure and contemptibly refuse to yield one inch to that authority.

Many of the laws of the land—let alone God’s laws—have become more of a suggestion than anything mandatory.

They’re viewed as something that is optional for those who “feel” like obeying.

People nowadays bristle at the idea of someone else telling them what to do.

Yet the Bible is replete with scriptures that prove, beyond a shadow of a doubt, obedience to God’s law is absolutely necessary to be a true Christian.

Here is one of the plainest of those scriptures: “He who says, ‘I know Him,’ and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him” (1 John 2:4).

For those who follow the clear teachings of Scripture and value obedience, there is a special blessing in place.

Take extra careful notice of Revelation 22:14: “Blessed are those who do His commandments, that they may have the right to the tree of life, and may enter through the gates into the city.”

The blessing is entry into the Kingdom of God.

That is the reward for those who seek God’s righteousness.

Righteousness and the Kingdom of God are inextricably linked together!

“And All These Things Shall Be Added Unto You”

To know what this part of the verse refers to, we have to examine the context.

Matthew 6:25-32 New King James Version

Do Not Worry

25 “Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? 26 Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? 27 Which of you by worrying can add one [a]cubit to his [b] stature?

28 “So why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; 29 and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not [c]arrayed like one of these. 30 Now if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?

31 “Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things.

In verses 25-32 Jesus instructs His disciples not to fret or be anxious about the physical necessities of life.

Food, water and clothing and shelter will always be the very basic must-haves for our very good health and happiness as long as we are living human beings.

But prioritizing any single one of these things or all of them over a disciplined life of prayer, study, obedience and a close relationship with God would be a potentially dangerous misallocation of our focus and attention upon our God.

In reassuring fashion, Jesus reminded His disciples,

“Do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ . . . For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things.”

“Father” is a fitting description of our loving God!

God could have designated Himself using any number of titles, but Father communicates His authority, strength and, most of all, His tender love.

The Sermon on the Mount can, in some ways, be seen as an explanation of why God is called our Heavenly Father.

Again and again throughout Matthew 5-7, we vividly see God’s function as our ultimate provider. 

Recognizing God’s commitment to protect and look out for His children is what this part of Matthew 6:33 is all about.

Again, please take careful notice of Matthew 7:9-11:

“Or what man is there among you who, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent? If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him!”

The point is, God always knows.

God always sees.

God is not blind to our needs or desires.

God promises to provide for the physical necessities of this life if we prioritize His Kingdom and His righteousness.

Please look to these life transformative scriptures and claim God’s promises if you have been seeking God with your whole being but find you are struggling to make ends meet and are overwhelmed with life’s demands.

What Does Matthew 6:33 Really Mean?

In a nutshell, Matthew 6:33 serves as every Christian’s marching orders.

Our ability to seek first God’s Kingdom and His righteousness can be hampered if we become entangled with the cares of this life.

Nonetheless, diligently, prudently, regularly practicing spiritual disciplines like fellowship, and prayer, Bible study, meditation and the occasional fast can help refocus our minds, support the notion of reprioritizing on what matters most.

As much or as little we strive do our part to make our relationship with God our highest priority, God will surely do His part to provide for our every need, which is something we can count on.

This means always putting Him first in our lives, even the first few moments of our day.

He is the One who graciously woke us up, gave us the breath in our lungs, and provided us the opportunity to live another day.

He deserves our fullest possible measure of devotion the moment our eyes pop open, even if it is a mere “thank you, God” before our feet even hit the floor.

Intersecting Faith and Life and Matthew 6:33

As we strive to figure out life in the great information age, we are bombarded with an infinite measure of opportunities to fill our time and our minds with many things that can so easily replace our time of fellowship with the Lord.

The information available to us, literally at our fingertips, at all times, is a wonderful gift, but that mobile device we carry around in our purses and pockets can also be a mobile distraction that follows us everywhere we go.

Although our cell phones, smartphones, tablets, laptops, etc. are not evil, I do believe we need to be extra cautious as to how much time we devote to them.

We need to be more aware of where we are directing our focus.

We need to be attentive to what is “moving in” and capturing our attention.

Perhaps you may not have an issue with technology distracting you from the Lord- that’s great!

Stay strong and become an accountability partner for those around you who have easily pulled away from the things of God because of the ever-increasing information age.

But if you are like me (a stay-at-home/work-from-home, caregiving retired person,) you are finding yourself with limited time to spend with Jesus in prayer and the Word, I challenge you to prioritize seeking out the Lord if there is some way you can arrange in your schedule to allow better time management.

Also, ask Him if perhaps He would like for you to prioritize a fast (technology, that is) something which could be causing a division between you and Him. 

Prioritize devoting specific time every day to spend some quiet time in quiet fellowship with God and reading your Bible, without your cellphone or iPad within reach- to “turn them off” during that time and perhaps put a timer on the most-used apps that you access throughout your day.

Be thankful for the benefits of the tools and global connections that technology brings us, but also do not allow this technology to rob you of your connection to Jesus – un-connect technology for a while, refocus, reconnect with the Lord!

Always keep the Kingdom of God and His righteousness at the forefront of life.

“But Put God First” — That is the life-changing meaning of Matthew 6:33.

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

Let us Pray,

Sovereign Majesty, God and Ruler over all creation, since the beginning of time you have been our Provider, our Refuge, our Shelter, Defender, Protector and Redeemer. Your covenant with the human race, is from everlasting to everlasting and all that we possess and will ever possess, comes from you. Father, we have sinned greatly against you, but being a God of Righteousness, you have exhibited and manifested your steadfastness and faithfulness which prevails forever, through which we are saved, when we turn all of us over to you with fervent hearts and complete trust.

Your unshakable promises reflects your perfect attributes, for whatever we do in our arrogant and sinful nature makes your incomprehensible compassion more evident, proving you will never abandon us, will rescue all who are lost. Jesus has revealed to us the honor and glory of his Father, and we have the assurance that you will never leave us orphans, but have, through your plan of Redemption and Eternal Salvation, obediently fulfilled by Jesus your only Son, made us citizens, co-heirs of heaven.

By our deep faith, our belief, our resolve to focus on you and to obediently follow your Divine Providence for us, knowing that you have provided and taken care of all our needs, we concentrate on studying the right path to heaven, and promote your kingdom in the world, to bring hearts into subjection to your Will. We seek only your Holy Grace and hope to bring others to the obedience of faith, for we need not worry about the things of this world, since you have bestowed upon us all that we need and our only hope is in beholding your beatific face and be added to the ranks of the elite of your kingdom, in blessed, in highest possible exaltation of Jesus’ Name. Amen

Adeste Fideles! Laeti Triumphantes! Venite Adoremus! Dominum.

Gloria! In Excelsis Deo! Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia, Amen.

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While We Are All Walking By Faith and Not By Sight, Are We Pondering any Prayers for Our Blindly Leaning, into Our Never to be Seen God’s Equipping? 2 Corinthians 5:7

2 Corinthians 5:6-10 Easy-to-Read Version

6 So we always have confidence. We know that while we live in this body, we are away from the Lord. 7 We live by what we believe will happen, not by what we can see. 8 So I say that we have confidence. And we really want to be away from this body and be at home with the Lord. 9 Our only goal is to always please the Lord, whether we are living here in this body or there with him. 10 We must all stand before Christ to be judged. Everyone will get what they should. They will be paid for whatever they did—good or bad—when they lived in this earthly body.

The Word of God for the Children of God.

Adeste Fideles! Laeti Triumphantes! Venite Adoremus! Dominum.

Gloria! In Excelsis Deo! Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia, Amen.

“Life is a Journey, Not a Destination”

Ralph Waldo Emerson said, “Life is a journey, not a destination.”

While each one of us on a journey in life, that journey does lead to a destination – either eternal life in heaven, or eternal torment in hell.

But our devotional text from 2 Corinthians 5:7, focuses on the journey.

Paul wrote to the young, heavily divided and struggling Corinthian church and said, “For we walk by faith, not by sight.”

Whether we are a believer in God, or we do not believe in God, or we are right now struggling to believe or to continue to believe, every individual must now choose which path their journey will take – the path of life or the path of sight.

Walking by faith, living by believing in what will happen as opposed to seeing what will happen is like our leaving our homes, taking journey with a blindfold on, “walking in some direction” and trusting God to get you He’s leading you.

But if you leave your home, look at and pick your own direction, you walk by sight where you want to go, then you see the path and each step along the way.

You see what is before you – you see the potential obstacles, the potential risks and the potholes and the pitfalls – you see them and then automatically avoid.

But, how does all that change if you cannot see where you are going?

If you cannot assess the quality of the terrain and the environment you travel?

You can’t see the raised portions of the side walks which present a trip hazard?

You cannot see the puddles of water sure to get your socks, shoes and feet wet?

Where are the curbs you need to stop at to avoid walking into oncoming traffic?

Walking by what we can see is easy and such listed obstacles and threats to our physical health and spiritual wellbeing are otherwise so very easily avoidable.

Paul understood well this analogy on the Damascus Road when he went from walking by faith and fury after the new followers to sudden blindness courtesy of the risen Jesus when Paul encountered, experienced the very brightest light.

Suddenly and without explanation and with no time for defense of self, he was blinded by the incomparable light of the risen Jesus.

Now he could no longer rely on his vast knowledge of himself, his own survival skills to live and visually walk his own path and road from one town to another.

In an instant he was full of all the self confidence in the world, then reduced to that anxious and fearful someone who needed help with literally everything.

From immediate instant confidence into an immediate, instant helplessness.

He had no idea when or if ever he would regain his sight.

He had to figure out what all that change meant to the rest of his life.

And standing there on that Damascus Road, the risen Jesus left him with no instructions, no road maps, no guide books, no walking sticks, no nothing!

His companions took him to someone’s home and there Saul sat – in Prayer and in Fasting until some response was to come from somewhere, somehow.

The operative thing we each need to see is the choice of responses Saul had available to him and how he how fast and how instinctively he chose prayer.

We read nowhere in the Word of God Saul went into wild, flailing, hysterics.

His first instinctive response was to the spiritual disciplines of prayer, fasting.

How about our own most instinctive, most immediate response to any crisis?

Praying and Leaning into God’s Equipping

2 Corinthians 5:7 Easy-to-Read Version

7 We live by what we believe will happen, not by what we can see.

It is always disheartening to feel as though I have reached a significant point in my journey only to ask, “Now what, Lord?”

God has put a desire in my heart to write for Him which I cannot calm.

I wrestle and fight, clawing for any direction or insight or wisdom not my own.

God tells me to listen, watch, do the next thing, and wait. 

He reminds me not to worry about the future, but to wait on Him.

Obediently, I try my best to research, learn, write, pursue, listen, follow …and wait. 

I choose to trust Who is leading me, even when it feels like I am always walking with blinders on, I have no walking stick to use and I can’t see and cannot know and cannot watch the results of my efforts unfold before me and my own eyes.

God gave me the desire to write and keep right on writing, but it is up to me to raise up every morning to pray and to fast and to study, to put all the work in.

A work He promised to equip me for!  

Isaiah 55:8-11 Easy-to-Read Version

People Cannot Understand God

8 The Lord says, “My thoughts are not like yours.
    Your ways are not like mine.
9 Just as the heavens are higher than the earth,
    so my ways are higher than your ways,
    and my thoughts are higher than your thoughts.

10 “Rain and snow fall from the sky
    and don’t return until they have watered the ground.
Then the ground causes the plants to sprout and grow,
    and they produce seeds for the farmer and food for people to eat.
11 In the same way, my words leave my mouth,
    and they don’t come back without results.
My words make the things happen that I want to happen.
    They succeed in doing what I send them to do.

The road and the devotionals can be can be long and precarious, and often we don’t know the destination … what God is going to do with them, but God does. 

He will equip us when we don’t feel capable or worthy of His calling on our lives.

Our calling is to do the work He has assigned us, wait for Him to clear the way.

I am learning to take each day as it comes, trusting Him to lead and guide my steps and my writings.

I try to plant my boots and my roots in securely into His ways and His truth.

I am too often overwhelmed with all the roads I could veer off onto, but He quietly reassures me with each effort that He alone will guide me through.

I feel dwarfed among thousands of Christian theologians, commentators and writers, but He gently tells me He’ll help my voice reach who it is intended for.

It may not be the masses; it may only be intended for one.

It may be for someone tomorrow; it may be for someone years down the road.

Philippians 2:12-13 Easy-to-Read Version

Be the People God Wants You to Be

12 My dear friends, you always obeyed what you were taught. Just as you obeyed when I was with you, it is even more important for you to obey now that I am not there. So you must continue to live in a way that gives meaning to your salvation. Do this with fear and respect for God. 13 Yes, it is God who is working in you. He helps you want to do what pleases him, and he gives you the power to do it.

God did not call me nor anyone and everyone else into something big only to leave us hanging and struggling on the side of some ditch to figure our life out.

He is not reliant on our human ability to pick the right road.

He works within us.

It is our calling to fully rely on God instead of ourselves.

It is our calling to fully relay on our Savior Jesus instead of ourselves.

It is our calling to fully rely on God, the Holy Spirit instead of ourselves.

Even when the road ahead of us is full of seen and unseen fog, seen and unseen potholes, pitfalls, stumbling blocks we can keep our both eyes fully on Jesus.

Psalm 121 The Message

121 1-2 I look up to the mountains;
    does my strength come from mountains?
No, my strength comes from God,
    who made heaven, and earth, and mountains.

3-4 He won’t let you stumble,
    your Guardian God won’t fall asleep.
Not on your life! Israel’s
    Guardian will never doze or sleep.

5-6 God’s your Guardian,
    right at your side to protect you—
Shielding you from sunstroke,
    sheltering you from moonstroke.

7-8 God guards you from every evil,
    he guards your very life.
He guards you when you leave and when you return,
    he guards you now, he guards you always.

Even if we cannot nor ever see the words of the Psalmist before our eyes;

We can 100% trust Him with each day, task, and notion to do things for Him. 

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

Let us Pray,

Lord, You have placed a desire and calling on my life. I have heard Your voice and know the direction You want me to go. However, I am overcome by discouragement. I can’t see the road ahead and need Your strength to keep moving forward. I need Your sight, Lord, and Your leading. Forgive me, Lord, for taking hold of things that do not belong to me. Forgive me for striving in my power to try and manifest things that were never intended for me. Help me to see clearly what You have for me. I surrender my calling to You and place it securely in Your ever more wise, ever more capable hands. Reveal and inspire me with Your Holy Spirit. I trust You to equip me for all You want me to say and to do. You did not call me to do Your will because of my ability but because of my willingness. Take my worry and strife and turn it into glory-filled work. Give me discernment when I start to go down the wrong path. 

I rebuke the enemy and the distractions that he is placing in my path. I pray for strength against laziness or complacency. I come against the lies that enslave me, telling me I am not good enough, I don’t have what it takes, or that I will never get to where I want to go. I stand firmly on the truth and promise that You are with and will never leave me. I surrendered all my heart’s desires and ask You to lead every moment of every day. Thank You, Jesus, for Your everlasting love, and the many treasures of life You have stored up for me in the heavens I have never, ever seen.

Adeste Fideles! Laeti Triumphantes! Venite Adoremus! Dominum.

Gloria! In Excelsis Deo! Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia, Amen.

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What Does it Mean for those who are Unsaved, Us as Christians that God Is Available and that God is Accessible? Psalm 90

Psalm 90 Amplified Bible

Book Four

God’s Eternity and Man’s Transitoriness.

A Prayer of Moses the man of God.

90 Lord, You have been our dwelling place [our refuge, our sanctuary, our stability] in all generations.
2 
Before the mountains were born
Or before You had given birth to the earth and the world,
Even from everlasting to everlasting, You are [the eternal] God.

3 
You turn man back to dust,
And say, “Return [to the earth], O children of [mortal] men!”
4 
For a [a]thousand years in Your sight
Are like yesterday when it is past,
Or as a watch in the night.
5 
You have swept them away like a flood, they fall asleep [forgotten as soon as they are gone];
In the morning they are like grass which grows anew—
6 
In the morning it flourishes and springs up;
In the evening it wilts and withers away.

7 
For we have been consumed by Your anger
And by Your wrath we have been terrified.
8 
You have placed our wickedness before you,
Our secret sins [which we tried to conceal, You have placed] in the [revealing] light of Your presence.
9 
For all our days pass away in Your wrath;
We have finished our years like a whispered sigh.
10 
The days of our life are [b]seventy years—
Or even, if because of strength, eighty years;
Yet their pride [in additional years] is only labor and sorrow,
For it is soon gone and we fly away.
11 
Who understands the power of Your anger? [Who connects this brevity of life among us with Your judgment of sin?]
And Your wrath, [who connects it] with the [reverent] fear that is due You?
12 
So teach us to number our days,
That we may cultivate and bring to You a heart of wisdom.

13 
Turn, O Lord [from Your fierce anger]; how long will it be?
Be compassionate toward Your servants—revoke Your sentence.
14 
O satisfy us with Your lovingkindness in the morning [now, before we grow older],
That we may rejoice and be glad all our days.
15 
Make us glad in proportion to the days You have afflicted us,
And the years we have suffered evil.
16 
Let Your work [the signs of Your power] be revealed to Your servants
And Your [glorious] majesty to their children.
17 
And let the [gracious] favor of the Lord our God be on us;
Confirm for us the work of our hands—
Yes, confirm the work of our hands.

The Word of God for the Children of God.

Adeste Fideles! Laeti Triumphantes! Venite Adoremus! Dominum.

Gloria! In Excelsis Deo! Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia, Amen.

“So, Lord God, Teach Us to Number Our Days,”

Often in life we think we are heading in the general direction of our goal, our life is moving steadily along on cruise control, we finally get to that somewhere , we look around and survey the landscape of all the success, but we still end up lost.

Though we might start out well, we might achieve what we feel is the best, but we can quickly realize that the best was not in fact, the best, then lose interest in seriously considering everything but exactly the next actions we must take.

A sudden barrage of questions arise within – are we living up to our potential?

Are we being “all we can be?”

Are we being “all we can be” for those who need us to be their “all we can be?”

Living unto, into our full potential, Living up and into to a set of standards?

Have you ever felt like you are not living up to your God potential?

Ever felt like you ought to be closer to God than you are?

Or that you ought to know God better than you do?

We all get to a point in life when we have seen so much of life, where we have experienced so much of life, or where we have sinned against God and how we believe God wants us to live. 

We succeed and then we fail.

We glorify God when we succeed and when we think we have done too many wrong things, have failed one too many times for God to continue to bless us.

We conclude we have sinned too much.

We have been too disobedient and we have wandered too far.

We have grown too old and too set in our ways, too inflexible in our thoughts.

Therefore God is done with us – change and transformation are not possible.

God won’t use me anymore.

God can’t use me anymore.

God will not use me anymore

God is through with me, God is certainly going to be washing His hands of me.

God is no longer available to me because I am no longer usable, available to God.

Have you been there?

Are you there right now?

Have I been there?

Am I there right now?

Without Exception

Without Purpose of Evasion

– Resoundingly, Undeniably, Undoubtedly, Absolutely – YES! YES! YES!

Here is some good news.

God is a 24 hour a day, 7 day a week God.

God is always available – ever vigilant, no slumber nor sleep, eyes always open!

God is always accessible!

The Kingdom of God is always going to be available.

The Kingdom of God is always going to be there.

The Kingdom of God is always going to be accessible.

The Question: will we ourselves always be available and accessible to God as God and the Kingdom of God is always and forever available, accessible to us?

Is our Prayer anything close to sounding like… (Psalm 90:12)

12 
So teach us to number our days,
That we may cultivate and bring to You a heart of wisdom?

In order not to lose track of where we are going and why we are going there, the psalmist encourages us to “ask God to teach us to number our days.”

The writer is not talking about any exercise of basic, simple nor complex math—that being our counting the number of days that we might potentially live.

No one knows “the number of our days” but God himself.

Rather, the psalmist wants us to realize that nothing in this life except living for God should be our ultimate goal, or the ultimate treasure we have in mind.

Money, fame, possessions—none of that will last.

As a popular sayings go,

“When you die, you can’t take it with you.”

“Ain’t never seen any U-Haul trailers hauled behind no Hearses.”

“That We May Cultivate and Bring to You a Heart of Wisdom.”

God is not done with you.

One more time – God is not done with you.

God is not done with me.

God is not done with any of us. 

God has not quit on you.

God has not quit on me.

God has not given up on any of us. 

God is still available to you.

God is still available to me.

God is still at work.

God still speaks and God still wants to be known.

Four key insights into God’s availability from Moses’s encounter with God.

Key 1 – Avoid being so consumed with life that you miss what God is doing.

Let’s turn to the Scripture and pick up with Moses, who is still far from God.

One day Moses was tending the flock of his father-in-law, Jethro, the priest of Midian. He led the flock far into the wilderness and came to Sinai, the mountain of God. There the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a blazing fire from the middle of a bush. Moses stared in amazement. Though the bush was engulfed in flames, it didn’t burn up. “This is amazing,” Moses said to himself. “Why isn’t that bush burning up? I must go see it.” Exodus 3:1-3

Moses wasn’t so consumed with his job that he didn’t notice the burning bush.

Now many of us might wonder what Moses has to be consumed with.

He was herding sheep, which is exhausting, mainly because they would have had some Rams in it.

Female sheep are called Ewes.

Male sheep are called Rams.

According to most farmers, the Rams are evil.

While ewes (the female sheep) are generally docile, non-aggressive animals, this is not usually the case with rams (the male sheep), especially during the breeding season.

Rams can be very aggressive and have been known to cause serious injuries, even the death of people.

Therefore, a ram should never be trusted, even if it is friendly or was raised as a pet.

It is essential always to know where the ram is and to never turn your back on him.

Moses sees this burning bush.

Common sense would tell a sheepherder to move the sheep away from the fire.

But Moses didn’t let the business of watching sheep keep him from noticing the God thing.

He did not turn away from the God thing.

Instead, he turned toward it, which leads to the following key.

Key 2 – Allow curiosity to lead you toward God – even when uncomfortable.

Our most significant victories and achievements rarely happen when we are comfortable.

Instead, they occur when we are willing to step outside our comfort zone.

They happen when we take what little faith we may have and trust God.

Moses noticed something was up.

He saw something out of place and unusual, a bush that wasn’t being consumed by the fire.

So he chose to move closer and find out what was going on.

The Scripture continues:

When the Lord saw Moses coming to take a closer look, God called to him from the middle of the bush, “Moses! Moses!” “Here I am!” Moses replied. The Lord responded, “Take off your sandals, for you are standing on holy ground. I am the God of your father — the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” When Moses heard this, he covered his face because he was afraid to look at God. Then the Lord told him, “I have certainly seen the oppression of my people in Egypt. I have heard their cries of distress because of their harsh slave drivers. Yes, I am aware of their suffering. The cry of the people of Israel has reached me, and I have seen how harshly the Egyptians abuse them. Now go, for I am sending you to Pharaoh. You must lead my people Israel out of Egypt.” Exodus 3:4-7,10

Moses had to be freaking out that God was speaking to Him.

But he is also leaning in.

So it seems to me that there are a set of God things happening around us today.

A spiritual awakening of sorts is happening on some college campuses, in micro-church and church planting movements.

Don’t run away.

Lean in. Check it out.

Key 3 – After you begin to investigate what God is doing, expect God to speak.

There is so much in this passage.

Let’s reread a piece of it.

So, we can take a closer look.

When the Lord saw Moses coming to take a closer look, God called to him from the middle of the bush, “Moses! Moses!” “Here I am!” Moses replied. The Lord responded, “Take off your sandals, for you are standing on holy ground. I am the God of your father — the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” Exodus 3:4-5

God did not speak to Moses until after Moses began to investigate.

Did you catch that?

God didn’t speak until AFTER Moses took a tangible step toward God. 

God often waits for us to move closer to Him before He reveals more of Himself to us.

Here is the challenge.

We can get lost in our routine.

One of my favorite sayings goes like this:

“The problem with life is that it is so daily.” 

Life in the wilderness as a shepherd would have been way routine.

First, take care of the sheep.

Next, find grass for the sheep.

Then, find water for the sheep.

Repeat.

A bush on fire would have been unusual.

But what made it way unusual?

What made it unique?

  • The bush is not being consumed – it is burning but not burning up.
  • There is a divine presence in the bush – it is holy ground.
  • God speaks from the bush. 

Moses could have run away fast and furious.

But he chose to move in instead.

He chose to move toward God.

What’s the result of his moving closer to the things of God?

That leads to the fourth and final key.

Key 4 – Assume that continually moving closer to God will help you and me discover God more fully.

Moses discovers his purpose for the next phase of his life.

Moses gets the next step of his life laid out because of this connection with God.

“Now go, for I am sending you to Pharaoh. You must lead my people Israel out of Egypt.” Exodus 3:10

God being near to us isn’t just an old testament concept.

We see it all throughout the New Testament as well.

As Paul was reasoning with a crowd of atheists and people of other religions, he explained that God put people in specific times and places during history.

Check out Paul’s words:

“His purpose is for the nations to seek after God and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him — though he is not far from any one of us.” Acts 17:27

James – the leader of the early church – said it this way:

“Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you.” James 4:8

Here is what it means to me:

God is as available to you and me as you and I are to Him. 

Take advantage of that.

God is available to you as you are to Him. 

Check out the promise in the Old Testament that is repeated often:

“If you seek him, you will find him.” 1 Chronicles 28:9

Jesus says this as well:

“Keep on asking, and you will receive what you ask for. Keep on seeking, and you will find. Keep on knocking, and the door will be opened to you.” Matthew 7:7

Don’t miss this:

We serve a God who wants to be found. 

We serve a God who wants to be known. 

We serve a God who wants to be discovered.

If you and I are far from God, it is because you and I have chosen to be far from God.

If you and I are not as close to God as you and I wish, that is all on you and me.

When we discipline ourselves to number each day with God as our main focus and guide and guardian, we gain deep wisdom for this life and the life to come.

Draw close to God, and God will draw near to you and close to me.

Take a step toward God, and God steps toward you.

Of course, I can’t and wont promise that if you and I do this, all our problems, hurts, and pains will be solved.

But I can promise you that if you move toward God, God will move toward you.

God will be with you and me as we journey through the ups and downs of life.

God is available.

God is accessible.

Are you?

Am I?

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm …..

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

Let us Pray,

Almighty God, you are the source of all life. We know each day of our lives is a gift from your hand. Help us live each day in the light of your Word. Heavenly Father, thank You for each day of life and for the opportunities You have given me to live a life unto You. May each day of my life, from this day forward, be exercised in a way pleasing to You so that in all I say and do You may be glorified. In Jesus’ name I pray,

Adeste Fideles! Laeti Triumphantes! Venite Adoremus! Dominum.

Gloria! In Excelsis Deo! Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia, Amen.

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Do We Have Any Earthly Idea How to Be Satisfied in God? Psalm 119:57-64

Psalm 119:57-64 The Message

57-64 Because you have satisfied me, God, I promise
    to do everything you say.
I beg you from the bottom of my heart: smile,
    be gracious to me just as you promised.
When I took a long, careful look at your ways,
    I got my feet back on the trail you blazed.
I was up at once, didn’t drag my feet,
    was quick to follow your orders.
The wicked hemmed me in—there was no way out—
    but not for a minute did I forget your plan for me.
I get up in the middle of the night to thank you;
    your decisions are so right, so true—I can’t wait till morning!
I’m a friend and companion of all who fear you,
    of those committed to living by your rules.
Your love, God, fills the earth!
    Train me to live by your counsel.

The Word of God for the Children of God.

Adeste Fideles! Laeti Triumphantes! Venite Adoremus! Dominum.

Gloria! In Excelsis Deo! Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia, Amen.

As believers, we tend to say, ‘God is all I need’, but over any expanse of time we repeatedly learn that particular statement is not always true in our daily lives.

Many of us seek satisfaction in whatever form, if not perfection, in whatever form we can find it in our lives.

We want so very much to “live in the abundance of God” “abundant blessings of God,” to believe that God is enough, but yet we still chase fulfillment elsewhere.

I mean, who does not want significantly more than their own “fair share” of the abundance, the abundant life, which God offers to all His Children who believe?

Who does not want to feast on the “abundance of quail and manna” which God provided to the Israelites in their 40 plus years of circling the vast wilderness?

Who does not want to be the one’s to partake of the miraculous supply of food Jesus gave the thousands of hungry people from a few loaves of bread and fish?

Who wouldn’t want to have this prayer of Psalm 69:13 answered for their life;

But as for me, my prayer is to You, O Lord, at an acceptable and opportune time;
O God, in the greatness of Your favor and in the abundance of Your lovingkindness,
Answer me with truth [that is, the faithfulness of Your salvation].

The truth is: we were all designed for perfection—to be truly satisfied, to max out all their measures of “satisfaction” and this is why so many of us long for it.

If we look at the Bible in the very beginning, God created a perfect world for us to inhabit.

In Genesis, He designed for us to live surround by complete satisfaction.

It was indescribably beautiful, undeniably fulfilling, and beyond measure completely satisfying in every way – no sadness, emptiness, or confusion.

However, insert Adam and Eve.

Subtly enticed by the serpent, they made a choice against God’s will, and due to their choice, the consequences of their sin “dissatisfaction” entered the world.

So now, fast forward to today, we now live in a broken, fallen, sin-filled world.

But the great news is God is coming back for His people.

He promises in His forever Living and forever Active Word that He brings us back to perfection as Eden is restored in the last chapters of Revelation.

Revelation 21:3-5 The Message

3-5 I heard a voice thunder from the Throne: “Look! Look! God has moved into the neighborhood, making his home with men and women! They’re his people, he’s their God. He’ll wipe every tear from their eyes. Death is gone for good—tears gone, crying gone, pain gone—all the first order of things gone.” The Enthroned continued, “Look! I’m making everything new. Write it all down—each word dependable and accurate.”

The truth is this: the more we do crave and thirst for satisfaction in this fallen world we live in, the more disappointed we inevitably become, because it will never truly satisfy the longing placed in our hearts from the very beginning.

Everyone’s Never-Ending Hunger and Thirst

Our hunger and thirst for satisfaction starts from the first day we are born.

From the very first moments after we are born, we instinctively hunger and thirst for milk from our mother’s breast – and gorge ourselves when given it.

From the time we were children, we search to be satisfied with that new bike, new toys which help us interact with our environments, or a new video game.

We eagerly wait for all of those things we believe are going to make us happy.

As teenagers, we sought satisfaction in good grades, excelling in sports, making friends, comradery, our getting our very first car, or a boyfriend or a girlfriend.

As growing and maturing adults, we think of an education, a career, a spouse, a bigger house, children, or that one high-paying position will quench our thirst.

But always and forever in the end of it all, we are usually still left wanting more.

We are left with this gap, and time and time again; it is never fulfilled.

A gap between this fallen world and a world full of abundance and satisfaction.

There will always be a gap, otherwise we would never have a need for God.

Ecclesiastes 3:9-13 The Message

9-13 But in the end, does it really make a difference what anyone does? I’ve had a good look at what God has given us to do—busywork, mostly. True, God made everything beautiful in itself and in its time—but he’s left us in the dark, so we can never know what God is up to, whether he’s coming or going. I’ve decided that there’s nothing better to do than go ahead and have a good time and get the most we can out of life. That’s it—eat, drink, and make the most of your job. It’s God’s gift.

Think about it: if all the things we sought after never disappointed us, leaving us hungry, thirsty for more, we would have no need to thirst after God Himself.

We would already be filled by ‘things’, leaving no room for God to be in our life.

As Christ followers, and because Christ gave his life for us, we can be 100% satisfied in God and God alone, even while living in this abundantly messy, abundantly stressful, very wide middle path between Genesis and Revelation.

We can learn to not just say the words, but rather believe the words: that God is all I need—He is enough.

God, Our Portion

Psalm 119:57-64 New King James Version

ח HETH

57 You are my portion, O Lord;
I have said that I would keep Your words.
58 I entreated Your favor with my whole heart;
Be merciful to me according to Your word.
59 I thought about my ways,
And turned my feet to Your testimonies.
60 I made haste, and did not delay
To keep Your commandments.
61 The cords of the wicked have bound me,
But I have not forgotten Your law.
62 At midnight I will rise to give thanks to You,
Because of Your righteous judgments.
63 I am a companion of all who fear You,
And of those who keep Your precepts.
64 The earth, O Lord, is full of Your mercy;
Teach me Your statutes.

With words such as “Though the wicked bind me with ropes,” the psalmist continues his lament in this section of Psalm 119.

The laments of this psalm are often raw and deep.

And yet we can sense that the psalmist finds safety in the promises and love of the Lord, the surest source of comfort and protection.

Notice that this section begins with the words “You are my portion, Lord. . . .”

This is likely a reference to the way God gave portions of the promised land to the tribes of Israel (see Joshua 13-21).

Allotments were given to all of the tribes except for the tribe of Levi, because God had dedicated the Levites to serve and lead in the worship of the Lord.

Their apportioned service to God included everything from offering sacrifices to teaching the law, and from leading in worship to taking care of all the materials used in the Tabernacle for worship (see Exodus 25-30).

As Joshua explained to the people, “The Levites . . . do not get a portion among you, because the priestly service of the Lord is their inheritance” (Joshua 18:7).

In a similar way, the psalmist has nothing and no one but God to depend on.

The Lord is his portion, his inheritance.

In utter dependence and trust, the psalmist takes everything to God in prayer, including his laments.

With God as our portion, we too have the privilege of taking all our troubles and cares to the One whose guidance and instruction give us full life.

The Cup Which Satisfies

The way to be truly max satisfied in God is to fill your cup with Him daily—and please note here that I’m not referring to your salvation.

Being saved and being filled are two different things.

Being saved is when you accept Christ into your heart and commit your life to walking with Him.

This is the salvation you are given freely by the grace of God.

Your salvation never goes away. (John 3:16).

Being filled refers to God’s Holy Spirit, which is the gift Jesus left us after He died on the cross, filling you up.

As believers who accept Christ’s salvation, we have max access to this gift.

In fact, the “Holy Spirit lives in us” (John 14:17).

But we also live in our flesh, so we have to nurture our spirit daily.

The Holy Spirit is meant to fill us up to be our daily guide, counselor, “helper” and “teacher” and intercessor (John 14:15-18, 26, Romans 8:26-27).

How Can We Be Satisfied in God’s Presence?

John 14:15-18 New King James Version

Jesus Promises Another Helper

15 “If you love Me, [a]keep My commandments. 16 And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another [b]Helper, that He may abide with you forever— 17 the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you. 18 I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you.

Jesus’ disciples were upset.

For three years they had been with Jesus.

They had walked with him and talked with him.

And now he suddenly announces that he was about to leave.

How could they possibly go on without him?

How could they face the challenges of life without his daily presence?

In his farewell address the Lord Jesus put the disciples’ minds at ease.

He told them that his returning to the Father was for their good (John 16:7).

He promised to send the Holy Spirit, who would live in them and teach them about living for God.

And through the Spirit they’d be able to enjoy God’s presence always.

Through the Holy Spirit you and I can experience God’s presence every moment of the day.

All we have to do is ask.

As Jesus says in Luke 11:13, “If you … know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”

The most important prayer we can pray each day is to ask for the all-powerful presence and guidance of the Holy Spirit.

When we have the Holy Spirit guiding us each day, we will not only experience the abundance of God’s presence in our own lives, but we’ll also be able to show God’s presence to others as we live God’s way, displaying the fruit of the Spirit. (Galatians 5:22-23)

Thank you Lord for leaving us with such a gift!

It is perhaps a worn out cliché to repeatedly say

“Nothing comes naturally to living in the Spirit.”

One day I can react to a situation in my flesh, while the next day I allow God to fill me up with the Holy Spirit, and my reaction can be completely different.

This is why daily filling up your cup and nurturing our spirit is so important.

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

Let us Pray,

Psalm 40:1-10 The Message

40 1-3 I waited and waited and waited for God.
    At last he looked; finally he listened.
He lifted me out of the ditch,
    pulled me from deep mud.
He stood me up on a solid rock
    to make sure I wouldn’t slip.
He taught me how to sing the latest God-song,
    a praise-song to our God.
More and more people are seeing this:
    they enter the mystery,
    abandoning themselves to God.

4-5 Blessed are you who give yourselves over to God,
    turn your backs on the world’s “sure thing,”
    ignore what the world worships;
The world’s a huge stockpile
    of God-wonders and God-thoughts.
Nothing and no one
    compares to you!
I start talking about you, telling what I know,
    and quickly run out of words.
Neither numbers nor words
    account for you.

6 Doing something for you, bringing something to you—
    that’s not what you’re after.
Being religious, acting pious—
    that’s not what you’re asking for.
You’ve opened my ears
    so I can listen.

7-8 So I answered, “I’m coming.
    I read in your letter what you wrote about me,
And I’m coming to the party
    you’re throwing for me.”
That’s when God’s Word entered my life,
    became part of my very being.

9-10 I’ve preached you to the whole congregation,
    I’ve kept back nothing, God—you know that.
I didn’t keep the news of your ways
    a secret, didn’t keep it to myself.
I told it all, how dependable you are, how thorough.
    I didn’t hold back pieces of love and truth
For myself alone. I told it all,
    let the congregation know the whole story.

Lord God, Creator of all life, please fill us with your Holy Spirit and help us to show in our lives the fruit of the Spirit. We ask all this for Jesus’ sake and in his name. Amen.

Adeste Fideles! Laeti Triumphantes! Venite Adoremus! Dominum.

Gloria! In Excelsis Deo! Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia, Amen.

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