Psalm 128: 1
How joyful are those who fear the Lord, all who follow His ways!
Proverbs 29: 18
When people do not accept Divine guidance, they run wild. But whoever obeys the Law is joyful.
When people are lawless, chaos abounds. God gave us His Laws so that we will have order in our lives and our relationships.
O my Father, Your goodness to us is unsearchable. Your ways are beyond fully knowing. Your ways are so far above our ways, we would never be able to discern them had You not revealed them to us. We don't even want to know You until You grant us that desire.
O Father, forgive our rebellion and defiance! Remove our stony hearts and give us a heart of flesh; vulnerable and teachable and moldable by You. Teach us Your ways and strengthen us to walk in them. Open our ears to hear Your still, small voice behind us, saying, "This is the path, walk ye in it." Strengthen our resolve to do and act on what You have taught us, instead of following our own ideas; to accomplish Your purposes in our daily, moment-to-moment lives.
Please help us to obey You, to do Your will Your way. Then You will reward us for our obedience and we will experience Your joy.
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
Monday, July 3, 2017
Sunday, July 2, 2017
Little Time
Revelation 12: 12
But terror will come on the Earth and the Sea, for the devil has come down to you in great anger, knowing that he has little time.
O my Father, I thank You and praise You for Your great power and might, and for Your wondrous Plan that You have purposed for this World and the whole Universe. I thank You and praise You for Your mighty warrior Angels to whom You have given power and strength to defeat the enemy and his host of demons.
I pray that You would continue to be faithful to Your promises, as I know You are and will do, to protect and strengthen Your children to withstand the onslaught of our enemy as he is cast to the Earth. His fury is great, so our passion for You must be greater. Continue to wake up Your church, O Lord; draw us to Yourself for Your strength, because we are weak; protect our reputations, as they reflect Your character; and bring us through this "little time" victoriously, through the Blood of the Lamb and the word of our testimonies.
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
But terror will come on the Earth and the Sea, for the devil has come down to you in great anger, knowing that he has little time.
O my Father, I thank You and praise You for Your great power and might, and for Your wondrous Plan that You have purposed for this World and the whole Universe. I thank You and praise You for Your mighty warrior Angels to whom You have given power and strength to defeat the enemy and his host of demons.
I pray that You would continue to be faithful to Your promises, as I know You are and will do, to protect and strengthen Your children to withstand the onslaught of our enemy as he is cast to the Earth. His fury is great, so our passion for You must be greater. Continue to wake up Your church, O Lord; draw us to Yourself for Your strength, because we are weak; protect our reputations, as they reflect Your character; and bring us through this "little time" victoriously, through the Blood of the Lamb and the word of our testimonies.
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
Saturday, July 1, 2017
Search Me O God
Psalm 139: 23-24
Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. Point out anything in me that offends You, and lead me along the path of everlasting life.
O my dear Father, my Abba Dad, please search my heart and my attitudes and point out to me those things there that offend You because they are not surrendered to Your will and Your ways. Show them to me so I can confess and forsake them, and You will forgive, cleanse and heal me.
Give me Your wisdom, discernment and strength to turn from my idols--anything that acts as a wall between me and You--and turn to You, to seek Your face. I want to know You better and love You more every day. I want Your light to shine upon me, in me, and through me to others, that they will be drawn toward You by my life.
Hide me in the cleft of the Rock and cover me with Your hand, so that others seeing me will not see my flesh, but the beauty of Your Spirit, and be attracted to You.
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. Point out anything in me that offends You, and lead me along the path of everlasting life.
O my dear Father, my Abba Dad, please search my heart and my attitudes and point out to me those things there that offend You because they are not surrendered to Your will and Your ways. Show them to me so I can confess and forsake them, and You will forgive, cleanse and heal me.
Give me Your wisdom, discernment and strength to turn from my idols--anything that acts as a wall between me and You--and turn to You, to seek Your face. I want to know You better and love You more every day. I want Your light to shine upon me, in me, and through me to others, that they will be drawn toward You by my life.
Hide me in the cleft of the Rock and cover me with Your hand, so that others seeing me will not see my flesh, but the beauty of Your Spirit, and be attracted to You.
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
Friday, June 30, 2017
Perhaps Even Yet
Zephaniah 2: 1-3
Gather together--yes, gather together, you shameless Nation. Gather before judgment begins, before your time to repent is blown away like chaff. Act now, before the fierce fury of the Lord falls and the terrible Day of the Lord's Anger begins. Seek the Lord, all who are humble, and follow His commands. Seek to do what is right and to live humbly. Perhaps even yet the Lord will protect you--protect you from His anger on that Day of Destruction.
Jesus is coming soon! We've heard this phrase so often that it seems trite. But its Truth is becoming more and more present in the World today.
God is giving our Nations time and space to realize their errors and turn around. He does not want to have to pour out His wrath on people, that's why He put it on Jesus on the Cross. But He will not violate our Free Will--those who refuse His offer will experience His wrath. He is just, and justice must be done.
God is also merciful in not wanting to give us the punishment we deserve, and gracious in granting us all the good that we don't deserve in Jesus.
O my Father, I pray for my Nation. I pray that You would wake up Your church here, set us on fire with Your Holy Spirit. Reveal the hidden things and make them known; reveal who are Yours and who are not; and reveal to us the secret sins hidden in our own hearts. We hereby confess those sins as You reveal them to us, and forsake those personal gods that have separated us from You and cause us to run from You.
Please turn us around as a Nation to remember the first things; to return to You, O Lord God, and Your ways that initially made us great. Let us be that City on a Hill that displays to the World Your goodness and Your greatness.
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
Gather together--yes, gather together, you shameless Nation. Gather before judgment begins, before your time to repent is blown away like chaff. Act now, before the fierce fury of the Lord falls and the terrible Day of the Lord's Anger begins. Seek the Lord, all who are humble, and follow His commands. Seek to do what is right and to live humbly. Perhaps even yet the Lord will protect you--protect you from His anger on that Day of Destruction.
Jesus is coming soon! We've heard this phrase so often that it seems trite. But its Truth is becoming more and more present in the World today.
God is giving our Nations time and space to realize their errors and turn around. He does not want to have to pour out His wrath on people, that's why He put it on Jesus on the Cross. But He will not violate our Free Will--those who refuse His offer will experience His wrath. He is just, and justice must be done.
God is also merciful in not wanting to give us the punishment we deserve, and gracious in granting us all the good that we don't deserve in Jesus.
O my Father, I pray for my Nation. I pray that You would wake up Your church here, set us on fire with Your Holy Spirit. Reveal the hidden things and make them known; reveal who are Yours and who are not; and reveal to us the secret sins hidden in our own hearts. We hereby confess those sins as You reveal them to us, and forsake those personal gods that have separated us from You and cause us to run from You.
Please turn us around as a Nation to remember the first things; to return to You, O Lord God, and Your ways that initially made us great. Let us be that City on a Hill that displays to the World Your goodness and Your greatness.
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
Thursday, June 29, 2017
The Lord's Anger And Power
Nahum 1: 3
The Lord is slow to get angry, but His power is great, and He never lets the guilty go unpunished. He displays His power in the whirlwind and the storm. The billowing clouds are the dust beneath His feet.
God is God, and there is no other. He is Almighty God, Lord of the Hosts of Heaven. His power is greater than humanity can imagine.
All the evil rulers in this World have no idea of His Plans or ways, they have been deceived and blinded by our enemy. They put their trust in themselves and the things of the World, and they do not realize that God is giving them time and space to repent.
But in the end, the guilty will not go unpunished. Their calamity will come upon them suddenly, and they will be destroyed. How much better it would be for them to hear about God's love in Jesus, taking their punishment for them, so they can live.
God is just, and He is also the justifier of those who let Jesus be their personal Sacrifice. That has been His Plan from the beginning. He gave His chosen people the sacrificial system so that we would understand how Jesus is our Lamb of God, shedding God's own Blood on His altar, the Cross. Animal blood could not take away our sins, only cover them; Jesus' precious Blood actually washes away our sins. Now that He has come to fulfill that Law, we don't have sacrifices any more, so our understanding today must come from the past.
When Jesus died He fulfilled the personal sacrifice law for individuals for our salvation, one by one. He fulfilled the corporate sacrifice for the Nation, in purchasing all the Nations, making Him our rightful judge. So those who refuse to admit that they deserve that death and let Jesus pay their eternal debt for them will be judged by Him. So let's tell them.
Pray that God will send laborers into His fields that are already white to harvest. Wherever you live, tell the people you know about Jesus. People everywhere need to hear this good news that they don't need to work to try to please God, He already loves them and sent His own Son for them. Now we can trust Him to have done all the work to save us from the power of sin in our lives.
O my Father, thank You for Your faithfulness to Your Word. Thank You for telling us what You are doing, and giving each of us a part to play in Your great Plan. Thank You for Your wisdom in using everything that happens to further Your purposes for this World, according to Your Plan and in Your time.
Help us, Father, to understand how what You have done for us applies to our own lives, and teach us how to cooperate with You in what You are doing where we are, where You have placed us in the World.
Here we are, here I am, Lord; send me to where You want me, use me to tell those You have prepared to hear, and keep me faithful to Your ways.
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
The Lord is slow to get angry, but His power is great, and He never lets the guilty go unpunished. He displays His power in the whirlwind and the storm. The billowing clouds are the dust beneath His feet.
God is God, and there is no other. He is Almighty God, Lord of the Hosts of Heaven. His power is greater than humanity can imagine.
All the evil rulers in this World have no idea of His Plans or ways, they have been deceived and blinded by our enemy. They put their trust in themselves and the things of the World, and they do not realize that God is giving them time and space to repent.
But in the end, the guilty will not go unpunished. Their calamity will come upon them suddenly, and they will be destroyed. How much better it would be for them to hear about God's love in Jesus, taking their punishment for them, so they can live.
God is just, and He is also the justifier of those who let Jesus be their personal Sacrifice. That has been His Plan from the beginning. He gave His chosen people the sacrificial system so that we would understand how Jesus is our Lamb of God, shedding God's own Blood on His altar, the Cross. Animal blood could not take away our sins, only cover them; Jesus' precious Blood actually washes away our sins. Now that He has come to fulfill that Law, we don't have sacrifices any more, so our understanding today must come from the past.
When Jesus died He fulfilled the personal sacrifice law for individuals for our salvation, one by one. He fulfilled the corporate sacrifice for the Nation, in purchasing all the Nations, making Him our rightful judge. So those who refuse to admit that they deserve that death and let Jesus pay their eternal debt for them will be judged by Him. So let's tell them.
Pray that God will send laborers into His fields that are already white to harvest. Wherever you live, tell the people you know about Jesus. People everywhere need to hear this good news that they don't need to work to try to please God, He already loves them and sent His own Son for them. Now we can trust Him to have done all the work to save us from the power of sin in our lives.
O my Father, thank You for Your faithfulness to Your Word. Thank You for telling us what You are doing, and giving each of us a part to play in Your great Plan. Thank You for Your wisdom in using everything that happens to further Your purposes for this World, according to Your Plan and in Your time.
Help us, Father, to understand how what You have done for us applies to our own lives, and teach us how to cooperate with You in what You are doing where we are, where You have placed us in the World.
Here we are, here I am, Lord; send me to where You want me, use me to tell those You have prepared to hear, and keep me faithful to Your ways.
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
Wednesday, June 28, 2017
Jude's Benediction For Us
Jude 24-25
Now all glory to God, Who is able to keep you from falling away and will bring you with great joy into His glorious Presence without a single fault. All glory to Him Who alone is God, our Savior through Jesus Christ our Lord. All glory, majesty, power and authority are His before all time, and in the present, and beyond all time! Amen.
Jude wrote only one chapter, but in it he talks about some very weighty things. This little book is very rich in that it is packed solidly with deep understandings of important truths we need to know.
The book ends with this benediction, which wraps up his whole message to us.
All glory to God - God is the One Who deserves all the credit.
Who is able to keep you from falling away - God is powerful to hold us securely in His hand and keep us from being deceived by these false teachers Jude wrote about earlier, and also from the extreme persecution that will come in the end of the Last Days.
And will bring you with great joy - God will give us His great joy.
into His glorious Presence - God's Presence is more glorious than we can imagine.
without a single fault. - God has seen the Blood of Jesus upon His altar the Cross and it has washed away all of our sins without a trace, to make each one of us perfectly clean and holy and worth dwelling with God in His glory forever.
All glory to Him Who alone is God, our Savior - God our Savior is a title of the Lord God in the Old Testament, and it survives in the New Testament being used 7 times. We know the Lord God of the O.T. as Jesus in the N.T., Who has always been the One Who saves: Israel from Egypt, the three friends from the fiery furnace, Daniel from the lions' den, and now as our atoning Sacrificial Lamb of God.
through Jesus Christ our Lord. - God the Father has saved us from the power of sin right now (Salvation), and will save us from the very presence of sin (Redemption, Glorification) through the Death and Resurrection of Christ Jesus our Lord.
All glory, majesty, power and authority are His before all time, and in the present, and beyond all time! Amen. - Our God deserves all the credit (glory), all the majesty, all the highest authority (Lord means Boss) over all creation; right now, from forever past and all past time, and through all future time and all eternity.
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
Now all glory to God, Who is able to keep you from falling away and will bring you with great joy into His glorious Presence without a single fault. All glory to Him Who alone is God, our Savior through Jesus Christ our Lord. All glory, majesty, power and authority are His before all time, and in the present, and beyond all time! Amen.
Jude wrote only one chapter, but in it he talks about some very weighty things. This little book is very rich in that it is packed solidly with deep understandings of important truths we need to know.
The book ends with this benediction, which wraps up his whole message to us.
All glory to God - God is the One Who deserves all the credit.
Who is able to keep you from falling away - God is powerful to hold us securely in His hand and keep us from being deceived by these false teachers Jude wrote about earlier, and also from the extreme persecution that will come in the end of the Last Days.
And will bring you with great joy - God will give us His great joy.
into His glorious Presence - God's Presence is more glorious than we can imagine.
without a single fault. - God has seen the Blood of Jesus upon His altar the Cross and it has washed away all of our sins without a trace, to make each one of us perfectly clean and holy and worth dwelling with God in His glory forever.
All glory to Him Who alone is God, our Savior - God our Savior is a title of the Lord God in the Old Testament, and it survives in the New Testament being used 7 times. We know the Lord God of the O.T. as Jesus in the N.T., Who has always been the One Who saves: Israel from Egypt, the three friends from the fiery furnace, Daniel from the lions' den, and now as our atoning Sacrificial Lamb of God.
through Jesus Christ our Lord. - God the Father has saved us from the power of sin right now (Salvation), and will save us from the very presence of sin (Redemption, Glorification) through the Death and Resurrection of Christ Jesus our Lord.
All glory, majesty, power and authority are His before all time, and in the present, and beyond all time! Amen. - Our God deserves all the credit (glory), all the majesty, all the highest authority (Lord means Boss) over all creation; right now, from forever past and all past time, and through all future time and all eternity.
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
Tuesday, June 27, 2017
Bringing In The Sheaves
Psalm 126: 4-6
Restore our fortunes, Lord, as streams renew the desert. Those who plant in tears will harvest with shouts of joy. They weep as they go to plant their seed, but they sing as they return with the harvest.
Going forth with weeping, sowing for the Master,
Though the loss sustained our spirit often grieves;
When our weeping's over, He will bid us welcome,
We shall come rejoicing, bringing in the sheaves.
Bringing in the sheaves, bringing in the sheaves.
We will come rejoicing, bringing in the sheaves,
Bringing in the sheaves, bringing in the sheaves.
We will come rejoicing, bringing in the sheaves.
(Knowles Shaw, 1880)
O my Father, thank You for being so faithful to do exactly what You have said You would do. I listen to Your Word and I see what is happening in the World today and I marvel at the accuracy of what is being done is exactly what You said to expect. So I trust that You are preparing me, strengthening me and all of Your children, for the coming troubles. Like another song says, "It's Friday, but Sunday's coming!"
Your fields are already white to harvest, Lord: Send Your workers into Your fields. Here I am, send even me! Send me to the field You have prepared for me, and continue to ready me to go to work and toil to harvest Your crops. Send me, and all of Your workers to correctly and skilfully and compassionately harvest all Your fields, Lord!
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
Restore our fortunes, Lord, as streams renew the desert. Those who plant in tears will harvest with shouts of joy. They weep as they go to plant their seed, but they sing as they return with the harvest.
Going forth with weeping, sowing for the Master,
Though the loss sustained our spirit often grieves;
When our weeping's over, He will bid us welcome,
We shall come rejoicing, bringing in the sheaves.
Bringing in the sheaves, bringing in the sheaves.
We will come rejoicing, bringing in the sheaves,
Bringing in the sheaves, bringing in the sheaves.
We will come rejoicing, bringing in the sheaves.
(Knowles Shaw, 1880)
O my Father, thank You for being so faithful to do exactly what You have said You would do. I listen to Your Word and I see what is happening in the World today and I marvel at the accuracy of what is being done is exactly what You said to expect. So I trust that You are preparing me, strengthening me and all of Your children, for the coming troubles. Like another song says, "It's Friday, but Sunday's coming!"
Your fields are already white to harvest, Lord: Send Your workers into Your fields. Here I am, send even me! Send me to the field You have prepared for me, and continue to ready me to go to work and toil to harvest Your crops. Send me, and all of Your workers to correctly and skilfully and compassionately harvest all Your fields, Lord!
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
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