Day 241: And So, Jesus said to 'them': "What Sin Might That Be?"

Day 241: And So, Jesus said to 'them': "What Sin Might That Be?"

Read: Psalm 25

Beloved friends, on my heart and deep within my spirit today is the word 'hope'. Well, I’ve been thinking a lot about hope, and I desire to spend a little bit of time with you on it. I remember when I was a child, growing up in church, we used to often sing that hymn: "Since Jesus Came Into My Heart". Do you remember that one? I seem to remember being bemused by one particular line of that hymn that goes like this: "I’m possessed of a HOPE that is steadfast and sure, since Jesus came into my heart, And no dark clouds of doubt now my pathway obscure, since Jesus came into my heart ..." And I remember that I used to think how can you be 'possessed of a hope'?

For myself, and perhaps for you too, hope is not just a wish or a desire, but a settled confidence in God and in His promises. Christian hope is a continuing reliance upon God’s wisdom, and love, and power. What distinguishes our hope from those without faith is that instead of just hoping for something, our hope is in someone. Someone who loves and cares for us, whose possession of wisdom and understanding is far far beyond ours. Someone who has the power to accomplish whatever He pleases, both in our lives and in the world. I pondered too, with my past, just what hope did I have? Perhaps you too are po8ndering with your own past, just what hope you have as well.

Psalm 25 finds David gearing himself up spiritually for what future lies ahead of him. He spends significant time looking backward, admitting to his own inadequacies and past mistakes. This is a pit that we can all identify with quite readily. However, David does not keep his gaze backward for long. Without ever making an endless array of excuses for his past, David looks forward because he knows God is for us, not against us. He was forgiven, we were all forgiven when we clothed ourselves in Christ Jesus. But we still have a tendency to look back, pick up our past, weighing ourselves down all over again with the sins we burdened ourselves with. When will we get God's hint?

The enemy has always had a great way of trying to keep each of us tied to our past sin, weighing us down with sorrow or pain and regret. We have all fallen short, we will always fall short of the grace of God. God knows this, but just how much of the message of hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ do we actually internalize and live out in our daily lives? Whoa! Did I just dare to ask you that question? Well, I did! I hope you will have a response sufficient for the Lord when He asks you too! Do you remember feeling almost weightless when you were first saved. It was the literal removal of the weightiness of sin. What a glorious Savior! Step forward you're free!

Let Us Pray: Psalm 25 is a Prayer for Protection, Guidance and Pardon. Spend some meaningful and quality time with it. Internalize it! Absorb It! Make it your own! Take possession of the limitless hope contained within it's Living Words! Look forward to  the eternal hope offered to us without price through the resurrection of Jesus Christ and take firm possession of this too. For the hope that is, will be, forever before you!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zdMWyDyIPaE

'What Sin' by Morgan Cryar

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Have you heard the expression, "Confession is good for the soul"? Well, the Gospel of Jesus Christ is Good News concerning our sin - how God forgives and for...

Day 240: What If We Set Our Differences Aside For God's Sake?

Day 240: What If We Set Our Differences Aside For God's Sake?

Read: Malachi 3:16 - 18, Psalm 4

When people come together at a time of fellowship, have you ever wondered, just a little, what the Lord thinks, when His children get together to speak about him? I see the people of Moore, Oklahoma, I read the host of inspirational stories coming from there and countless other places around the country of the people, whether of God or not, coming together and talking and sharing and loving amongst themselves. They find themselves drawn together by bonds of friendship and support. They set aside the differences, the enmity that may have existed before because what is now before them is recognized as infinitely greater than themselves. What does God think of this? What do you believe God would think of this 'let's come together' stuff?

I know what I think. I can probably make a fair guess of what you might be thinking of at a time like this. But what, if it is even possible to know, is God thinking of this? Well it is very special to Him! In fact the word of God says the words become His very special treasure. Have you ever seen this scripture Malachi 3:16-17? 16 'Then those who feared the Lord talked with each other, and the Lord listened and heard. A scroll of remembrance was written in his presence concerning those who feared the Lord and honored his name. 17 “On the day when I act,” says the Lord Almighty, “they will be my treasured possession. I will spare them...." Those who feared the Lord, talked with each other, the Lord listened, heard. They are God's treasured possession!

In Psalm 4:2, we witness a heartbroken King David as he pleads on behalf of God: How long will you people turn my glory into shame? How long will you love delusions and seek false gods?  Throughout the Psalms and Prophets, you will hear a familiar lament "why would God's own children reject Him so through their enmity with each other?" Was it for lack of love? Never on God's part! Was it because they were mistreated in some way? Of course not! However, somehow mankind allows their hearts and minds to become locked into the vanities of life - false riches, false security, idols made and fashioned by their hands. What if we got together? Set them aside for God's sake? What if we all just got together and set ourselves aside for God?

What a stark contrast are of those who love God set against the back drop of those who get locked and blocked into the things of mankind versus mankind, obstacles to God's grace. Something miraculous happens when together we open our hearts to His love. Our hope is in the name of the Lord. Our glory is that we finally stopped to hear Jesus' call to us and finally recognized in that moment - the voice of the Good Shepherd (John 10:3,4). Do you hear the Shepherds voice saying to you: “On the day when (they) act,” says the Lord Almighty, “they will be my treasured possession. I will spare them, just as a father has compassion and spares his son who serves him."?

Let Us Pray: Dear heavenly Father, until Jesus comes back, we, your people will live through all kinds of seasons together. Indeed, “there is a time for everything and a season for every activity under the heaven. A time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance”. In Christ, our seasons providentially change, because we are a broken people in a broken world utterly dependent on you, our sovereign Father and redeeming Lord. Seasons are subject to you. You are an every present help in times of trouble, periods of pain, moments of madness, seasons of sadness. Come to us now, Father, we plead before Your Throne, come to us today.

Because of you, mighty Father, the river of restoration and streams of grace flow to us even as “mountains fall into the heart of the sea… waters roar and foam, and the mountains quake with their surging.” Your hand causes real gardens to bloom in real deserts; you bring the gladness of the Gospel into the agony of our pain; you bring the message of hope of your kingdom into our kingdom - size hurts. Please, Come to us now, Lord, come to us today. We hurt, we cannot do it alone, we need your hope.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xNOfw1NVAyo

Blest Be The Tie That Binds

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A beautifully done song about the love shared in the fellowship of believers.

Day 239: When Our Hearts Are Not Big Enough To Pray

Day 239: When Our Hearts Are Not Big Enough To Pray

Read: John 17:1 - 12

On my heart today, as I am absolutely sure they are on the hearts and in the prayers of countless people are the ones who found themselves in the path and on the ground of the Oklahoma tornado. The men, women, and children who were in their homes, in their classrooms at schools, stores doing their shopping, in cars, and trucks going to work, going home to their families, doing the everyday things they did on so many regular days in the past, even the day before the storm destroyed their way of life. I see life scattered everywhere, stories of people looking for loved ones not knowing if they are alive. There is so much to do, help to provide, it is just absolutely staggering.

What do you pray for when there is just too much to pray for? The sheer magnitude of it all and I have to ask it - where does anyone begin to pray in the midst of such a great catastrophe as this or any catastrophe for that matter? Generic words just are not going to cut it. I know in my heart and by God's Word that God hears all prayers however the words may be strung together. But still they seem wholly insufficient to me to address the enormity of their needs. As much as anyone might call the other a "Prayer Warrior", have the God given gift of intercession, called upon by God's Holy Spirit to bear the burden of Prayer (Nehemiah 1:1 - 2:5), we're still out of our league.

As much as we never want to admit it to ourselves or another human being, whether they are a believer or not, in times and places such as Moore, Oklahoma, we are so very much out of our league. And we struggle with that as we very well should. Our hearts are in the right places but I have to admit that my heart is simply too small. I am sorry to tell you, the reader, that your heart is also just far too small for this task. In the Gospel of John we find in rich detail of Jesus' last days and moments with His disciples. All of Jesus' words are precious and powerful for the believer, but as Jesus experiences His final moments His words reveals the deepest depths of God's heart.

In searching Scripture for a heart which is unquestionably big enough, I came to this verse: "11 I am no longer in the world; and yet they themselves are in the world, and I come to You. Holy Father, keep them in Your name, the name which You have given Me, that they may be one even as We are." If you have ever experienced a moment in life when you have felt anything close to what the community of Moore undoubtedly feels now, then you know that God's heart is the only heart big enough to provide the measure of Love required to meet so complex a need. He prays for our safety, prays, intercedes before God on all our behalves for divine connection, divine unity and Love.

Let Us Pray: Wonderful God! We thank You that You fill our hearts with Your hope and our lives with a sense of expectation, that You heal our wounds and wipe away our tears, that You excite us with Your grace and overwhelm us with Your mercy, that in Christ's life, His death and resurrection You have demonstrated Your complete victory over death and despair and given us the divine assurance that nothing, but nothing can bring an end to Your loving-kindness toward us or separate us from Your love. We thank You O God of our salvation for the peace, hope, joy and courage with which You have filled our hearts and our lives and for the gratitude with which You have flooded our hearts. Thank You for praying for us, interceding for us when we cannot. From the bottom of our hearts, thank You for sending us Your Heart - Jesus Christ.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T5-6gwssX0Y

Names of God

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THANK YOU!!! 1 Million + Hits! It's amazing how I've gotten emails and heard about how this video has gone around the world. Praise the LORD!!

Day 238: The Difference Makers: The Believer And His/Her God

Day 238: The Difference Makers: The Believer And His/Her God

Read: Psalm 4

On my my mind today are the difference makers in our lives. Are there any of us out there who can point to that certain someone or or group of someones who has made the difference, who has stepped forward from anonymity, or obscurity, temporarily into the spot light, and forever changed your outlook on the future? I look at and study so many of the pictures posted online from the devastation in Oklahoma. What I see are faces of regular people thrown headlong into catastrophe of unimaginable depth. I see people rescuing people. I see first responders digging through tons of rubble. I see people responding in an instant for somebody needs the difference they'll make!

Praise God for these people! Praise God to the highest for in the difference they make a life is saved, a life is changed, a life is transformed, a miracle in fact a whole host of miracles are witnessed by a world in shock. I love to hear those stories of how one person stepped forward, how in the moment of catastrophe people step forward and despite their own injuries, their own state of being, they start digging, they reach for a crow bar, they begin to reach out to people, they hug them, they love them, they pray for them. They do whatever it is they can because someone, they know not who desperately needs the difference they are about to make. I see the believer and God!

Psalm 4 is an excellent example of the big difference the Lord makes in our lives. He gives a rock solid reason to Pray 'Answer me when I call, O God of my righteousness! You have relieved me in my distress; Be gracious to me and hear my prayer. Prayer is critical, and centrally grounded to a vibrant relationship with Father, Son and Holy Spirit. The Psalms have been designed to give us a language of love, wholly adequate and thoroughly sufficient for any humanly response to all things of God, who spoke to the chaos, told chaos that it was time for it to finally make a difference and creation came forth into the lives of all nature and all mankind. Yes, from chaos - a difference made.

The richness of God’s word is how it speaks to us differently at different times. We can read same passage many times yet becoming enlightened by it as if never read before. This happened to me as I read today’s passage, especially this one verse (7) which made the difference for me today 'You have filled my heart with greater joy than when their grain and new wine abound.' What better choice of words describing the depths of a heart that beats in God's own rhythm within the chest of a 'difference maker'? Sit back for a while and pray, let that verse sink in as you witness Oklahoma recover. May each one of us, difference makers all, be able to fully share in this joy.

Let Us Pray: Prayer for the difference makers, the First Responders, The one's who are called to fill the breach, repair the walls, pick up the pieces, bring love with their hands and arms full of the basic necessities we take for granted, the restorer's of hope through a hug or a smile, a shovel, a wheelbarrow and their bare hands ready. With hearts that beat strong, steadfast and true in one rhythm with their Creator God.

I found this prayer online for First Responders and figured I'd share for anyone who would like to pray for those trying to find a way to make a difference on the ground in Oklahoma or from a distance, to give aid and comfort and help that community.

Blessed are you, Lord, God of mercy,
who through your Son Jesus Christ
gave us a marvelous example of charity
and the great commandment of love for one another.
Send down your blessings on these your servants,
who so generously devote themselves to helping others.
Grant them courage when they are afraid,
wisdom when they must make quick decisions,
strength when they are weary,
and compassion in all their work.
When the alarm sounds
and they are called to aid both friend and stranger,
let them faithfully serve you in their neighbor.
We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rXilbs5a-iI
Lifesong (Lyrics) Casting Crowns ♪
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Lifesong LYRICS Casting Crowns Lifesong with lyrics - Casting Crowns Album: Lifesong

Lifesong (Lyrics) Casting Crowns ♪

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Lifesong LYRICS Casting Crowns Lifesong with lyrics - Casting Crowns Album: Lifesong

Day 237: Love: When We Were Children ... When We Became Adults ...

Day 237: Love: When We Were Children ... When We Became Adults ...

Read: 1Corinthians 13, 1 John 4, Psalm 64

Today, my friends, my heart is a bit on the troubled side. Today, my heart and spirit is squarely on these words: 'When I was a child, I used to speak like a child, think like a child, reason like a child; when I became a man, I did away with childish things. For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face; now I know in part, but then I will know fully just as I also have been fully known.' (11,12) Why should my heart be on the heavy side - in as few words as possible - family strife. Not between me and my wife, but between my sisters, my niece, and two growing great nieces. Why? A years long ago exchange of many hurtful words that today has become a quiet? war.

Perhaps some of you know from first hand experience what I'm talking about and can put forth some heavy prayer on my and my family's behalf. Family at war? It seems so completely contrary and so completely hurtful to what we prayerfully hold Love to be all about. A Love that bears all things, suffers all things, patient with all things, is kind with all things, believes, hopes, endures all things, rejoices in all things of truth, is not provoked, does not count the cost or keep a score card, never ever fails .... Yes my friends this is the example of Love that God has set before all mankind. But, I sit here and wonder, how much of this do we actually live by? Can there be Love in war?

In Psalm 64, David calls to God for deliverance, not from those who would do him any bodily harm but from those who are talking behind his back and speaking ill of him. In verse 3 he says: "Who have sharpened their tongue like a sword. They aimed bitter speech as their arrow,". You know, it has been written somewhere that perfect Love casts out fear, but now I am in complete wonderment about what perfect Love does when it is confronted by a war of words .... does it likewise cast out or cast off or cast away all the fears of all that has been, all that is, all that will become of a family at war with itself? As children we loved, reasoned like children, so as adults are we any different?

The Permanence of Love. Love that lasts forever. Throughout all eternity love will never end. The Corinthians had their focus on the wrong things. They were overly concerned about the temporary and had little concern about the permanent and eternal. For the sake of Love every Christian will want to build his/her life upon the permanent, the most preeminent love of God. The gifts of the Spirit are temporary. Even when compared with the other two eternal virtues, faith and hope, love reigns supreme. Love is God’s gift of gifts. Love is the most excellent way of life. But what about in a family at war?

Let Us Pray:

Precious Lord,

You are the source of all love and grace – the one who redeems and heals. You have a plan for us to live in harmony yet we are driven by other forces. I lift into the light of Your love, a family, my family whom I love, that has been torn asunder.

Lord, please let your love surround each part of this broken family. For each person, Lord, minister to needs as only You can. Heal the hurts. Quicken each spirit to find refuge and guidance in You. Please, Lord, do not let the dividing walls continue to grow. As the Prince of Peace, As the Lord of Truth and Love, stop the destruction.

Be a common ground where each one is enabled to put down the tools of war. Let Your tender mercy flow and encourage their hearts toward a faith that gives way to perseverance. Send angels, Lord, to protect and to bring message of hope. Restore to them a joy they once knew, and lead them to a great peace they have yet to see.

May each ones connection to Your Love become the common bond that holds them together until You can heal and restore. Please, Lord, send the support they need from every direction to reinforce Your plan and hold at bay whatever would hinder.

Lord and Love of my life, we desire a miracle today .... What can You do for us?

Signed with a broken heart

In Your precious name, Amen.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uusiWwIo-C4

Psalms 13 (How Long O Lord) - Brian Doerksen

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worship video

Day 236: Are You Ready to 'Exhort' Yourself? Then Let God Arise!

Day 236: Are You Ready to 'Exhort' Yourself? Then Let God Arise!

Read: Psalm 68

Today is my birthday. God has blessed me with another few moments. The Holy Spirit has been unleashed upon the world of sinful man. Let me tell you I am so pumped for what this day will bring. God, Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit are on the march and there is just no turning back now. Today, I want to share with you on the challenging theme of "Letting God Arise" using Psalms 68:1-3 as the scripture text. I am praying that at the conclusion of this message that our hearts will be burning with the same desire that filled the heart of the Psalmist as he cried these words ... "Let God Arise!"

Throughout Scripture, God's people have called out to Him for their deliverance and in spectacular earth shaking and heaven quaking fashion God has responded (Psalm 18:4-19)! 'As smoke is driven away, so drive them away; As wax melts before the fire, So let the wicked perish before God. But let the righteous be glad; let them exult before God; Yes, let them rejoice with gladness.' (2,3). When you think all is suddenly lost, Jesus died yet He returned to the Upper Room. We stayed behind locked doors, we waited like He told us too then from nowhere, a great wind rushes in, we are all made new by the fires of the Holy Spirit. We are unleashed by God: "Let God Arise!"

How can we not dare celebrate this day when the Psalmist declares 'Blessed be the Lord, who daily bears our burden, The God who is our salvation. God is to us a God of deliverance's; And to God the Lord belong escapes from death.'? (19,20) Are you celebrating the day(s) of your own deliverance's or is it just another day when you are getting ready for the hum drum busyness of rush hour traffic, caffeine highs and sugar rushes to get through the day? When was the last time you seriously felt like leaning out of the window of your car, home or office, belting out at the on rush of life ahead of you: "Let God Arise!" It is a bit risky I admit. But it might just catch fire! "Let God Arise!"

What we so desperately need is a new marching song: So my friends, set your spirits on fire for a few minutes today and just let er rip from the top of your lungs, let your voices be heard, let God Arise in your hearts and sent into the lives of our neighbors: 'O God, when You went forth before Your people, When You marched through the wilderness, The earth quaked; The heavens also dropped rain at the presence of God; Sinai itself quaked at the presence of God, the God of Israel. You shed abroad a plentiful rain, O God; You confirmed Your inheritance when it was parched. Your creatures settled in it; You provided in Your goodness for the poor, O God.' (7 - 10) "Let God Arise!"

Let Us Pray: My prayer for today is that we will strive mightily to find a few minutes out of each day to celebrate the unfathomable power and the simple kindness of God in our lives. I pray today for all you who may read this and find your hearts strangely stirred, I pray that in spite of bad knees, bad backs, bad colds, bad moods etcetera, you will find it within your heart and within your spirit, to 'exhort' and I guess 'exert' yourselves too, to sing and shout to the heavens above and the people below: "Let God Arise!" Because we will never ever truly know this side of heaven the full breadth of all that God has delivered us from. Come, Join God and me into a new procession!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bY6SKjsuSV8

Let God Arise Paul Wilbur.

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Let God Arise Paul Wilbur.Video created by Celio Abatti.Roni Roni Bat Zion Heriu Yisrael Simchi V'altsi B'chol Lev Bat Yerushalayim.The purpose of this

Day 235: If Your Pentecost Can Be Summed Up In One Word ...

Day 235: If Your Pentecost Can Be Summed Up In One Word ...

Read: Acts 2:1 - 11

I believe it’s generally true that people are always looking to improve, to change their lives for the better. That’s why there are so many commercials for diet and exercise products – lots of people out there trying to change their appearance for the better. I guess it comes down to an exercise in our vanity to be more concerned with outward appearance than inner self, before and after pictures. People are always looking to improve, to change for the better. Isn’t that why people go to school? Isn’t that why people go to conferences and seminars? Professionally, or personally, we desire to be seen as changed, as better than who we really are. If just one word could sum it up for you today, what would it be ....?

What is it about yourself that you would like to change? If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be? Is it the way you look? Something to do with your health? Something to do with your level of expertise on a certain subject? If you could sum up in one word the one change, that one thing about yourself, what would it be? My beloved friends, this is where you need to be prayerful, careful, and oh so spiritual when you look in the mirror. Who is looking back at you? I know the obvious answer. I would see me looking back at me too. Ask yourselves, who else is looking back at you? Who else might be staring back at you wondering "If just one Word could sum it up for Me today, what would it be ....?"

God is interested in change. He’s interested in changing you. Today is your Pentecost Sunday, and as we take a look at what happened on Pentecost many years ago, we see that God changed many people’s lives. And as we learn about these things, we will see that God is also interested in changing you - there are certain things about you that God wants to change. What are those things? And how does God plan to do that? We will find the answers as we study God’s Word. Change # one was what happened to the disciples. We know the disciples believed in Jesus as Savior, yet they were still confused. They did not fully understand Jesus’ mission or even their own.

But then Pentecost came. The disciples were together, when the sound of a blowing wind came down from heaven. What seemed to be tongues of fire settled on their heads. They were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and began to speak in several foreign languages they had never learned before. A crowd gathered, people from all over the world, and that crowd listened as the disciples preached the Gospel. The Apostle Peter stood up and addressed the crowd – he gave a beautiful sermon that God the Holy Spirit inspired him to preach, a sermon that converted 3000 people in one day. As you begin praying for your changes this Pentecost, If just one Word could sum up your Pentecost this day, what Word would it be ....?

Let Us Pray the Prayer of St. Bonaventure to the Holy Spirit:

Lord Jesus, as God's Spirit came down and rested upon you,
May the same Spirit rest on us,
Bestowing his sevenfold gifts.
First, grant us the gift of understanding,
By which your precepts may enlighten our minds.
Second, grant us counsel, by which we may follow
in your footsteps on the path of righteousness.
Third, grant us courage,
by which we may ward off the enemy's attacks.
Fourth, grant us knowledge,
by which we can distinguish good from evil.
Fifth, grant us piety,
by which we may acquire compassionate hearts.
Sixth, grant us fear,
by which we may draw back from evil
and submit to what is good.
Seventh, grant us wisdom,
that we may taste fully the life-giving sweetness of your love.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HNBqKWpIpnI

Phillips, Craig & Dean - From the Inside Out

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CCLI Song # 4705176 Joel Houston © 2005 Hillsong Music Publishing (Admin. by EMI Christian Music Publishing) A thousand times I've failed Still