Day 74: Overcoming Ourselves: Seeking Jesus In The Darkness.

Day 74: Overcoming Ourselves: Seeking Jesus In The Darkness.

Read: John 3:1 - 17

What is the one thing that you’re scared of? Think about that for just a few moments. I mean what is or who is it that really frightens you? Perhaps it’s something you think of regularly or maybe it’s something or someone you would much rather go far out of your way to avoid. Perhaps it is a situation the mere thought of which sends waves of shivers rushing down your spine. The one thing, the one person, the one place, the situation you pray does not become the least bit obvious that you are avoiding at all costs. The one thing, the one person, the one place, the one situation, the one time you will become instantly defensive over, the one's excused by 'plausible deniability'?

I know that it is the beginning of the weekend. I can guess that for most it has been a long week filled with long hours of pre-christmas "I can't wait for the Christmas Party" boredom, tedium and rushing from pillar to post to make travel arrangements, buying the right gifts and then shipping them to all the right places around our vast globe, in the process making sure you get just the right card for this person or that, writing the perfect note explaining why you didn't do a better job of keeping in touch like you so eloquently promised the year before then being sure you've bought sufficient numbers of forever stamps to mail them. Yes, perhaps these are those most frightening things.

For many of us folks in the real world, we have this conscious or subconscious fear of the darkness that night time brings. We cannot always see where we are going. We cannot clearly see or distinguish the faces of the people walking up and down the city sidewalks. We may possibly become more naturally suspicious, that these suspicions will overwhelm our otherwise naturally confident nature. We will enter our twilight zones in secret because we do not want to admit to anyone, including ourselves let alone to family, friends or neighbors, that we are trying to overcome something about ourselves that we would never otherwise do in the day light - that is to seek the Light of God, the true Light of This world - His Son, our Savior, Jesus Christ.

Do you remember the story of Nicodemus? He was a highly esteemed member of the Pharisees, a very influential religious sect that gave Jesus a lot of trouble. There was one - named Nicodemus - who wanted to learn from Jesus. However, he was greatly afraid of his brethren. So he secretly went to Jesus at night so he would not be seen. Nicodemus, this greatest of teachers, whose knowledge of the Hebrew Scripture was second to no one, feared perhaps there was something of greatest significance to him that was missing, something that he was willing to risk everything he had to find it. I am wondering, if we wearing Nicodemus' shoes that night, what is it or who is it we would need to walk into the night to overcome, to find the only true Light of our salvation?

Let Us Pray: Dear God, please give me the courage to enter the darkness, to get in touch with and face all my fears so I don't set myself up to fail. And please lead me to the help I need to overcome them so I can honestly say with David, 'I sought the Lord, and he answered me; he delivered me from all my fears.' (Psalm 34:4) Thank you for guiding me through my darkness toward Your marvelous light and new hope. I thank you for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully, in Jesus' name, Amen.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RB1NJV3rG6k

You never let go - Matt Redman

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Thank you Lord - for never letting go of me. I am empty. I long for You as I long for water in a desert. Personal Note: Thank you all for watching and leavin...

Day 73: How Can This Be ....?

Day 73: How Can This Be ....?

Read: Luke 1:26 - 38

Ask yourselves these questions this morning: Today, if some stranger were to walk up to you and asked you to do some random ordinary thing for them or for a group of other people standing nearby -- What would be going through your mind? Well, the first thing I would probably think is "How can this be that I should be so blessed or cursed to be standing here at this particular moment in time?" "They want this or that and I do not have the time nor the inclination to become embroiled or involved with what ever this or that could possibly be. This person is dressed in some fashion that almost certainly will arouse suspicion. "Okay, Why me?" "Why now?" or "How can this be?"

Have you ever been asked to do something by someone and asked every combination of 'HOW?' you could ever think of? The 'How' questions just keep rolling through your mind, somehow find themselves descending into your heart, catches the attention of your spirit and then suddenly somehow makes their way back up and through some unknown force unconsciously come out of your mouth? In that very short instant when you thought you could overcome your desire to become the least bit involved it is too late and against your better judgment you suddenly find yourself acting so completely out of character? How can this be that in the twinkling of an eye you're so overcome?

Has the Lord ever tickled your conscience, asked you to do something and you asked HOW? In that very instant, in those very first milliseconds a miracle has just suddenly taken place. That wonderful miracle was your overcoming your willingness to remain content, of just living and existing on the side lines of life. How can this be? Please pay particular attention to verses 34 and 35: 34 Then Mary said to the angel, "How can this be, since I do not know a man?" 35 And the angel answered and said to her, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Highest will overshadow you; therefore, also, that Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God.

The angel told her she was “highly favored” that is, the object of special favor from God. Gabriel gave her the good news: she would become the mother of the promised Messiah whom she would name Jesus (Jehovah is salvation). In that one miraculous moment Mary's life was transformed, never to be the same again. That single instant when the plain and ordinary ho hum "How can it be this way for me" on earth is now, suddenly, in less time than it takes to blink your eye, is miraculously set on fire by the Holy Spirit of God and given a brand new extraordinary purpose the scope of which we can't begin nor hope to fathom, only accept. How? Because with God nothing is impossible.

Let us Pray: God of all creation, we come this morning in this season of waiting and longing and hope: to listen for Your voice, to hear Your call upon our lives and to live out our witness to the miracle of our transformation through our faith in the coming of thy infant Son Jesus the Messiah. May this time of anticipation strengthen our own resolve and like Mary to live lives of unquestioned acceptance of the miraculous roles you have in store for those who come to believe and in radical love of the impossible.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=86dagxYWKmY

Noelle-Mary Did You Know

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Noelle was still quite sick but she really wanted to send a Christmas video to all of the nice people that have supported her over this past year. We'll prob...

Day 72: Why Shouldn't God Ever Fly Off The Handle?

Day 72: Why Shouldn't God Ever Fly Off The Handle?

Read: Exodus 32:7 - 10 (Golden Calf- Tablets smashed); 34:1 - 11 (Tablets Restored)

I would love to say that, today as we approach the new year and the glowing promise of a new us and our new round of new years resolutions that, even after who knows how many thousands of years of trying and failing, that we the very best representatives mankind has ever offered could finally set the example that everyone else could come and follow. That just like the very smoothest of finely aged Scotch Whiskey's, Wines in their casks, that we too could learn just how to mellow out, sitting back in a state of near complete relaxation and let nature do for us exactly what nature is supposed to do - keep all living, maturing things in a state of calmness, not flying off the handle.

Sadly, We continually find ourselves living in an age when too many people are too easily provoked toward anger or fear; toward flying completely off the handle at the very slightest of provocations. We all have a tendency to over react when provoked. It is something that we are just simply born with. I am convinced that it is one of those gene's that so many scientists are trying to map out to answer that age old question: "Why does any man or woman get so easily irritated and just suddenly 'lose it'? Is it a chemical or hormonal imbalance - very possibly true. Is it a learned response we just reach down and pick up along the highways, from under bridges, from off the floors?

Imagine if you can all of the obstacles a person might have to overcome if he were to walk from New York City to San Francisco. One man who accomplished this rare achievement mentioned a rather surprising difficulty when asked to tell of his biggest hurdle. He said that the toughest part of the trip wasn’t traversing the steep slopes of the mountains or crossing hot, dry, barren stretches of desert. Instead, he said, "The thing that came the closest to defeating me was that miserable sand in my shoes." Now, I ask you to prayerfully meditate on this: As you read today's passages from the Book of Exodus, ask yourself: How much of that miserable sand was in God's shoes?

God had brought His people out of Egypt with a mighty hand, an out stretched arm. He had walked before them as a line of clouds by day and fire by night to bring them to Mountain of Sinai. He had brought them safely through the waters of the Red Sea. He wrote His law on two stone tablets. Spent forty days explaining how they would finally come together as one nation under God. The people responded and built for themselves a calf of gold. Should it be any wonder that God, being slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love should suddenly feel that sand in His shoes? So about our response? Our golden calf's of gratitude? Why shouldn't God be flying off the handle at us?

Let Us Pray: Lord Jesus, there is anger and ingratitude in my heart and I cannot root it out. I know that I should calm down and offer the hurt and disappointment to You but today, I am feeling so incredibly irritated at (....) and my emotion is running away with me. I am feeling so impatient and worn down because (....) I cannot seem to contain myself and I cannot keep up the pace for much longer before I know I will exhaust my physical and spiritual self. Help me to overcome this season and give me peace of heart as well as mind. Lord, let Your steadfast love and mercy surround me. Let me grow from this experience, mature into a better human being in Jesus Christ.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DXDGE_lRI0E
10,000 Reasons (Bless the Lord) - Matt Redman (Best Worship Song Ever) (with Lyrics)
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Matt Redman - Ten Thousand Reasons (10,000

10,000 Reasons (Bless the Lord) - Matt Redman (Best Worship Song Ever) (with Lyrics)

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Matt Redman - Ten Thousand Reasons (10,000 Reasons) (Bless the Lord), New Album - 10,000

Day 71: All For One And One For All

Day 71: All For One And One For All

Read: 1 Corinthians 12: 1 - 11

Well, it will soon be College Bowl season and if you are any kind of football fan then you know there have been plenty of games to watch to keep you busy. In fact, there will be (if I have counted right) 35 spread out all over the country. There are indeed going to be plenty of college football fanatics trying to figure out how they will be able to keep up with them all during this holiday season. Friends will be invited over to the party in some 'man cave' somewhere where the whooping and hollering will begin in earnest. All of you know who I am talking about when I say there will be collections of friends wearing all kinds of team specific clothing and make up. All Rivalries Arise!

Michigan versus Ohio State, Harvard versus Yale, Army versus Navy, Boston College versus Notre Dame, Florida versus Florida State, Alabama versus Auburn and a host more. One friend goes to one college the other friend to the rival college and all of a sudden during bowl season friendship is briefly set aside and it becomes a free for all in living rooms everywhere: "All For One And One For All"; "Up with this team and down with that one." Let's face it, there is an incredible amount of team fervor and zeal that ends up being put on display. Team rivalries are taken very seriously. There is great honor and pride at stake; bragging rights and many trophy cases to be filled.

No doubt, one of the greatest college football coaches in history was Bear Bryant at University of Alabama. When asked how he won so many games through the years he said, “well I’m just an old plow hand from Arkansas, but I have learned how to hold a team together. How to lift some men up, how to calm down some others, until finally they’ve got one heartbeat together, a team. There’s just three things I’d ever say: if anything goes bad, I did it. If anything goes semi good, then we did it. If anything goes real good, then you did it. That’s all it takes to get people to win football games for you. A team; All for one and one for all. Many heartbeats learning to beat as one.

A team is exactly what the apostle Paul is describing in our text today. Webster gives us a couple of definitions of teamwork: 2 or more people working together; a single unit composed of individual components for the purpose of accomplishing a common goal. This is how Paul describes the church or any community of faith in verses 4-7. Paul says we are many, yet at the same time we are one. We are a team and our team is defined by our relationship to Christ. Team work involves many people who are often very different. Teams work for the good of everybody. We all benefit. We will accomplish much more together than we will apart. All for one and All for Christ!

Let Us Pray: O Sovereign and Almighty Lord, bless all your people, and all your flock. Give your peace, your help, your love to us your servants, the sheep of your fold, that as your team, as God's team, as the Body of Christ we may all be united in the bonds of peace; of faith; of hope and above all else love, All for one, one for all, one body and one spirit, in one hope of our sure calling, within your divine and boundless love.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QvLxZEU02uI&feature=g-high
Cornerstone - Cornerstone - Hillsong Live 2012 - (HD) (With Lyrics)
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Cornerstone - Hillsong Live 2012 - (HD) (With Lyrics) Watch in 1080p Please Comment Rate and Subscribe Please be informed I do not own this

Cornerstone - Cornerstone - Hillsong Live 2012 - (HD) (With Lyrics)

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Cornerstone - Hillsong Live 2012 - (HD) (With Lyrics) Watch in 1080p Please Comment Rate and

Day 70: What In the World Is Worldliness?

Day 70: What In the World Is Worldliness?

Read: 1 John 2:15 - 17

"My Momma always said there would be days like these but she never told me that there could be so many -- and all in a row!" I asked her one time why this had to be so and all she told me was - "I guess it's just the way of this world that we are forced to live in." My Father would say to me "My son, you aren't playing on the playground of life anymore!" Others may have told you that "this is where the rubber of life meets the road to reality!" Still others may quip "Guess what, Toto, you are not living in the state Kansas anymore!" What does it mean in the grand scheme of this thing called life to sit back and acquiesce, to submit yourself to "It is only the way of this world?"

Whether you are a believer in a benevolent God or not, it does not take very long in life for anyone of any age to realize that life is not very orderly and seldom goes as one would allow themselves to accept. As the age old saying goes "life is a bowl of cherries." Which is true until someone hands you your very first bowl of cherries and you discover that not all cherries are going to taste the same. Some will be sweet, some will be so incredibly sour that the muscles of your face will contract and contort every which way in response. Then you will discover one more thing: cherries have a pit right in the middle of them and it isn't the least bit pleasant when biting into one!

Very soon after you become a Christian you discover that the Christian life no longer resembles life played on a playground, it is now fought and lived on a battleground. You make the single most shocking discovery that to live the Christian life is not a bowl of cherries, but that you have become enrolled and embroiled in an intense live fire struggle. These verses today focus in on the world and the Bible says very clearly that we are not to love the world, neither the things that are in the world. What does the Bible mean when it talks about worldliness? What do we mean when we talk of being a worldly individual? What about this notion that we are only here just to exist?

God created the world so that we should do more than simply exist. God made for us an incredibly dazzling array of living things and a thriving planet perfectly suited for us because God desires us to flourish. Genesis 3:16 - 19 serves to reminds us that when sin entered the world that life got a whole lot tougher. As you grow older in this adventure called life you likewise noticing yourself becoming that much the wiser to the world and that much more susceptible to the irresistible irrepressible spiral of earthly decay not the possibility of living forever in heaven through the resurrected life of Jesus Christ. Instead of focusing on the decaying treasures this world offers, focus on eternal love.

Let Us Pray: Father, Help me to overcome my love of the world and its things. Your word says that your love cannot be in the person who loves the world. The desires of the eyes, the desires of the flesh, the pride in possessions are not from you. Father, through Jesus you have given me eternal life, so the temporary, passing things of this world are in congruent with my station as your child. Teach me to do your will. Increase my love for you. Increase my faith for you. Increase my eternal hope in You.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0xwzItqYmII&feature=g-high

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0xwzItqYmII&feature=g-high

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Day 69: A Humorous Or Humor(LESS) Anecdote?

Day 69: A Humorous Or Humor(LESS) Anecdote?

Read: Philippians 2:12 - 18, Numbers 11:1 - 15, Deuteronomy 1:26 - 38

A humorous or humorless anecdote?: A man long dreamed of joining a monastery. His goal in life was to be a monk. So one day he went to a monastery and talked to the head monk and said, “What do I need to do to join.” He was told that it was far more difficult than what he thought. In our monastery monks are only allowed to say two words every year.” He said, “That sounds a bit extreme, but I’ve wanted to be a monk for so long, I’m going to give it a try.” So he was shown to his room. And so for the next twelve months the man never said a word. At the end of his first year he was taken back to the head monk, and was told he could now say his only two words.

The man replied: “Food’s bad.” He went back to his room, and was silent for another twelve months. At the end of his second year he again was taken back to the head monk for his only two words. This time his two words were, “Bed’s hard.” The head monk said, “Thank you.” And the man was again turned around and went back to his room. Another twelve months of silence quietly passed by, and the man was brought again to the head monk for his annual two words. This time the guy shouted, “I quit.” The head monk just stared back at him and quietly he said, “Well, it doesn’t surprise me one little bit. Why? Because all you've done is complain ever since you got here.”

A humorous or humorless anecdote? Hmm, I guess it will all depend on where your heart is located at this very moment and how so far away your earthly treasures are from your heavenly one's. Do everything with a great big 'ear to ear' smile plastered across your face? Paul writes (dares sounds better): 'Do all things without grumbling or disputing; so that you will prove yourselves to be blameless and innocent, children of God above reproach in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you appear as lights in the world, holding fast the word of life, so that in the day of Christ I will have reason to glory because I did not run in vain nor toil in vain.'

Paul under the divine inspiration of the Holy Spirit or from an all too human heart who has heard quite enough of others' peoples displeasure conjures up a tall order. Do all things without murmuring......”complaining”. Doesn’t he realize who we are ? Doesn’t he understand that we are, after all, well ... human beings? A smile is truly a divine thing but a complaint ... well, is a guaranteed human right that I'll defend to the last. Work without complaining, serve without complaining, give without complaining, go without complaining? I understand it, but I wouldn't count on it. It is troubling. Do you know why? Because we (God help us!) occasionally? Well, regularly love to complain.

Let Us Pray: Father GOD, Forgive us for murmuring and complaining in our hearts, in our thoughts, and in our deeds and with our words. Lord Jesus Christ, thru Your own infinite mercy make us strong where we are the most weakest. Strengthen us where we are strongest, Through the most gracious healing ministry of thy Holy Spirit help us where are the most broken. Return our hearts and our spirits to wholeness once again and may our sin bound tongues be that much quicker to give all thanks to You!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GyGD3zH9Xvc&feature=g-high

How Great is Our God (World Edition) Live @ Passion 2012!

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Chris Tomlin and some international friends sing How Great is Our God in multiple languages at

Day 68: Time Well Spent: Examining The Scriptures

Day 68: Time Well Spent: Examining The Scriptures

Read: John 5:39 - 47, Ezra 7:7 - 10

This morning I will safely presume that at least once in your life you have heard this from someone: If you want to go far in life then there are few things you need to do. The first is go to school and stay in school. The second is to study your lessons hard. The third was probably to pass more exams than you fail, preferably with a higher grade than the person next to you. Most Christians agree in order to assure spiritual growth and maturity, then there are a few things they will need to spend some time doing. The first is to find a quiet place and read the Bible. The second is to examine the Bible. Third; study the Bible daily. They should verify what they have been taught.

Additionally, our just simply reading or examining or studying Scripture is not enough. We likewise need to listen to Jesus speaking to us out of His word. When we hear Jesus speaking to us in His Word we need to allow Him to change our perspective which will change our life. Jesus leads us to life through our receptivity to His word. God knows this is a very daunting challenge for Bible scholars let alone the everyday people like you and I who try to do what we can to attend Bible studies once a week. Intense study was intended to lead us to Christ. Verse 39 "You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; it is these that testify about Me."

Jesus adds the Holy Scriptures to His list of witnesses for Him. First-century Judaism deeply studied, painstakingly scrutinized the Scriptures. They knew all to well what the Scriptures said, in fact they intently scrutinized them, but were not always the most diligent to applying its teachings to their lives. Jesus says His contemporaries did not see the central message about the Messiah, about Jesus, how He fulfills the whole Scripture and brings the people to God. He was plainly standing there, in the flesh. The Scripture bore witness to Him. Had they rightly like Ezra, understood, applied the words of Scriptures to their very own lives they should have recognized the truth of His claim.

How about you? Do you have enough knowledge and understanding of God's Word that you can separate God's truth from the lies of this world? Can you tell when the truth is not being taught? Not just about what might be considered small things like the myriad of music or worship styles that do not affect your relationship with God. But on those major topics that directly relate to your relationship with Father Son and Holy Spirit. Major topics such as Grace, Love, Mercy, Redemption, Forgiveness of Sin, Resurrection of the dead unto Eternal Life, Salvation, Prayer, Healing, Mission work. There is more than enough for us to study that we should become knowledgeable of.

Let Us Pray: O Lord our God, your Word is a lamp to our feet and a light to our path. Give us grace to receive your truth in faith and love, that we may be obedient to your will and live and learn always for your glory; through Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2JMrOec7bCk&feature=g-high
Laura Story - Faithful God - Lyrics
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May the grace that sought my heart on that first day Be the grace that binds my heart to stay May the truth that opened up my eyes on that first time

Laura Story - Faithful God - Lyrics

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May the grace that sought my heart on that first day Be the grace that binds my heart to stay May the truth that opened up my eyes on that first time Be the ...