Romans 5:1,8:31 -- Gifts from God

Peace through our Lord Jesus Christ
If God is for us who can be against us?

Today the world isn't at peace.  People are deciding they'd rather destroy than build up.  Lord, You know we need food, shelter, love and work.  Please give us what we need; especially a grateful heart.

John 17:3 -- To live to 70, 150 or forever???

This type of question was asked at expo' in Vancouver.  People weren't that excited about the 150 mark but they liked the forever one.  I'm guessing that that was because forever includes heaven, and living the way God intended us to live.  So if we start now, living in God's Kingdom here on earth what does it look like?  Lord, would you give us Your eyes to see Your Kingdom, would You give us Your courage and Your Spirit to obey You as You share with us the next little thing You want us to do and most of all would You help us to delight in our relationship with You.  Your the best and I know You have the best planned for us today!

1 Peter 3:3-4 -- Shine the inner beauty

Jesus was always talking about what is on the inside.  What are our motives and what are you feeding the inside of your heart because ultimately this is what comes out.

I've seen some people however, who are taken advantage of because of their kindness and compassion.  Father, You've given then a tender heart.  Please help them to manage their own needs such that they don't love others more than then love themselves and help them to love You more than anything or anyone!

Acts 1:6-8 -- It's not for us to know when

Without a doubt God will fill us with His Spirit and allow us to be witnesses of the triune God through out the world but the time and the season to do this is not for us to know.  What we need to know is God's still small voice so that we may obey the next little thing He tells us to do.

"We must listen to the Spirit speaking and Spirit of the Lord obey
We must listen to the Spirit speaking and the Spirit of the Lord obey;
We don't need to know the where and where fore
We don't need to know the how and why;
We must listen to the Spirit speaking and the Spirit of the Lord obey"

James 1:19 -- 2 ears, 1 mouth!

God knew what He was making and knew we needed to listen more than we speak and definitely more than we become angry.  We each have our own perspectives so when we want to share and when we want to become angry it's good advice to slow down and listen first.

2 Samuel 22:31 and Ephesians 6 -- Our shield!

Reacting without knowing all the facts
Reacting out of fear; not love
Reacting ....

this is what humans tend to do; react yet reacting comes out of who we are on the inside.  If we believe we're in danger we defend ourselves...and these verses remind us that God is bigger than us and we need to start defending ourselves by using our shield...God Himself.  Picture yourself hidden under the wings of God Himself.  Picture yourself taking the firery  offense weapons and defending yourself with "that's not true; that's not who I am in Christ, that's not how God operates; that's not what the word of God says"

Thank You Lord for being our shield.  Please help us to remember this when we're tempted to come out from behind You and represent ourselves.

2 Peter 3:9 -- If God is slow maybe it's because He's waiting for us

I can remember Jesus's frustration after years of being with His disciples and they still didn't have the faith to heal the sick.  He knew His Father so well faith seemed so easy for Him and He tried to show them His Father through His own life and they still didn't get it.  Ultimately He left the Holy Spirit for them and us yet we too have a hard time understanding where God is working and how we can help him.

Father, help us to approach today with by seeing things from Your perspective not our own.  Thank You for being patient with each one of us; so patient that at times we get annoyed with You for taking so long yet You know what each of us need more than we know ourselves.  As You work in and through us please help us to see You and Your perspective more and grow in us Your heart of compassion.

John 14:6 -- I am the way, the truth and the life

This is a radical claim!  Is Jesus out of His mind!!!  Many people will say Jesus was a good person but not the Son of God yet with this claim of being the way, truth and life CS Lewis has highlighted that Jesus is either crazy, a liar, or really the Son of God he claims to be but being just a good moral man is not an option

Reading this verse in context we see that in John 14 the disciples were having a hard time understanding Jesus as well.

It seems that real understanding requires the Holy Spirit, and obedience to God and a relationship with Jesus and a sign of this is an inner peace.

John 14 has some other "nuggets of gold"

v12-14 "I tell you for certain that if you have faith in me; you will do the same things that I am doing.  You will do even greater things, now that I am going back to the Father.  Ask me, and I will do whatever you ask.  This way the Son will bring honour to the Father.  I will do whatever you ask me to do"

(This type of power scares me a little because I don't have a full understanding of what is going on with everyone else.  For instance a Salvation Army church wanted to have church outside so they prayed that God would send a storm that was coming their way out to sea.  They were so excited when God answered their prayer they started to share and my friend's Dad heard their story and then shared his.  He was a commander on a ship that day and was at sea and told them he encounter the worse storm he'd ever encounter that day....so I'm with the disciples..."Lord teach us how to pray".   It highlights that we really do need the power and wisdom of the Holy Spirit to direct us.)
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v 29 "I can't speak with you much longer, because the ruler of this world is coming. But he has no power over me.  I obey my Father so that everyone in the world might know that I love him"

(This is hard to comprehend because the evil one took Jesus's life and Jesus certainly didn't want to go to the cross yet he chose to obey His Father; even when He didn't want to go through the pain yet by doing this it took the power of the evil one away and ultimately Jesus rose from the dead.)

1 John 1:9 -- If we confess our sin

If we confess our sin God is faithful and just and will forgive us and help us to clean up the mess and help us to do what's right the next time.

Father, please help us not to take You for granted.

1 Peter 3:4 -- Be beautiful in your heart

"God blesses those who do the right thing even if they get in trouble for doing it" (v 3:14)

"most important of all, you must sincerely love each other, because love wipes away many sins" (v 4;8)

"each of you has been blessed with one of God's many wonderful gifts to be used in the service of others.  So use your gift well." (v4:10)

Lord, thanks for those who have done the right thing but people didn't realize it at the time.  Thanks for Your promise to bless them.  Help us to understand how to sincerely love each other and help to understand and use our gifts well.

Colossians 3:3 -- Dead yet hidden with Christ

The higher you are up in society the more likely you'll have people making making fun of you, and trying to pull you down so this is a fascinating thought; being dead (to self) and hidden with Christ (does this mean Christianity is hidden?).  It's important to get some context to this scripture reference so check out the rest of Colossians 3.

Being dead means dead to sins such as sexual immorality,impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry, anger, rage, malice, slander, lying and filthy language from your lips

and being hidden means that we clothe ourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience and bear with each other and forgive each another if any of us have a grievance against someone. In fact we're to forgive as the Lord forgave us.  

And over all these virtues put on love, which binds us all together in perfect unity.

Psalm 46:10 -- Be still and know that I am God

Wow!  Wait! Be still!
You don't have to fix it; You don't have to take it all on.  You just need to be still and know that God is God!...and then do what He says!

Matthew 7:12 -- The golden rule

If you're trying to figure out what's right and what's wrong the easiest thing to measure by is the golden rule; if someone behaved the same way you're behaving with you would you like it.  Of course this is a little more interesting when we think about it because we all have different treats.  Learning how to love each other isn't as easy as it is stated!

Romans 1:1 -- Servant, Called, Separated

As a Christian we're first to be a servant of Christ. How does this work?  How do we serve Him?  Can we measure this by our impact on His Kingdom?

Then we're called to a particular function, or task in the Body of Christ.

Then we're separated for the purpose of the good news of Christ.

Colossians 3:3 -- Not me but Him

Grasping the fact that we're completely covered by God is interesting.  We no longer stand out in the crowd yet we can radiate His presence.

Psalm 90:12 -- Time; our valued resource

We value 2 things; time and money and in many cases time is the most valued.  Knowing where to invest our time and money is incredibly important.  So important we're encouraged to use our time to grow wisdom in our hearts.  Wisely loving; Lord, help us to recognize that quality time, acts of service, and affirmation are all gifts we can give for free.

Luke 4:13 -- ended temptation...for a season

Luke 4 is interesting because it doesn't say Jesus saw a red devil with a pitch fork.   He was dealing with his regular human thought life.  This is how satan works best.  Jesus was prepared though.  He had spent time in God's word.  The good news  is that He responded with scripture from the same area in the bible.  It makes sense that that's what He read for His devotions that day.  What this means is that we don't have to know all the scripture; we just have to be faithful to what God is teaching us through His word each day and He'll make sure we have the right passages when we need them.

Scripture says the enemy wants to destroy us; come at us like a roaring lion; fill us with fear... yet the good news from this verse is that temptation is only for a season.

Lord, for each person reading this blog; would You give them the tools they need to face the temptations coming their way; and would you give them the breaks they need to enjoy amazing fellowship with You.  Thanks

Micah 6:8 -- What does God want?

God wants us to:

Do justice:

In trying to understand this I went looking for information from Christ's teaching on the parable of the labourer and discovered this:
http://www.gotquestions.org/parable-laborers-vineyard.html

An inmate told me one day "I was justice for her and grace for me".  I loved that line because I think this way too!!!  I think we all do.  When we talk about justice we need to talk about what's fair; and I'm being reminded.  How am I doing in paying my labourers?

Understanding how we're blessed and understanding how our lives affect others is important and also recognizing that justice is required for the protection of others is important.

Lord, today would you bless our police officers, lawyers and judges.  Would you help them to do what's right in Your eyes.  Give them wisdom beyond measure so that justice may be applied in our nation.  Thanks

Love mercy:

If God treats someone else after doing exactly what He said He'd do for us will we celebrate or get jealous?... This is the question on my mind after reading about the parable of the laborers.

If we know someone deserves some just act because they offended us and they're truly repentant will we forgive them?  Will we forgive someone who has offended us just because we know what it's like to be forgiven ourselves?  Matthew 18 has something to say about this.

Because God loves justice and I don't believe we're called to be a doormat to be walked all over but I do like the idea of restorative justice.  The whole concept of looking for ideas of what will bring healing to the hurting.  Lord, thank you for the doctors and nurses in our world as well as the prayer warriors and those who provide jobs.  Lord thank you too for the scientists and engineers, the social workers and garbage collectors....Lord, each one of us contributing to the whole is like your word says; a part of the body 1 Corinthians 12-14.

Walk humbly with God:
They say the sign of wisdom is to know how little one knows!  To recognize how small we are compared to our mighty God allows us to value the knowledge and experience of those around us and recognize that God is bigger than all of that!