A Mighty Fortress
Thank You, Father, for every aspect of yesterday’s services. Your presence in preparation to the last “Amen” of the last service. I am so grateful that you take the little I have to offer and You choose to use it and adding Yourself into the equation the little is multiplied exponentially All the praise surely goes to You. The old song rings true, “Little Is Much When God Is in It.”
Hebrews 4:15 (<<click here)
Temptation – what an all-inclusive unifier of the entirety of humanity. Every person to ever walk the face of this earth has had to deal with it – and You, Lord, are no exception. And we all have failed, many times over, to not yield to its many allures – with one great exception, and that is You, Lord – Only You, in Your perfection, had the fortitude to withstand every assault that was leveled upon You.
Jesus I am oh so weak and my propensity to yield to the temptations that come my way is absolutely HUGE! My only hope is found in my relationship with You.
In and of myself I am utterly incapable of success but, praise Your holy name! You understand – You can relate because quite literally, You have walked in our shoes and have been victorious! Today and every day I come to You, I stand with You – for again that is where my strength is. When I keep my eyes on You I can overcome anything that crosses my path.
Martin Luther surely got it right! “A mighty fortress is our God, a bulwark never failing; our help in He, amid the flood of mortal ills prevailing…” Thank You, Lord, for being that “mighty Fortress” for me, I would be lost without You!
Mar 7th, Mon, 5:12 am
Expel the Darkness
Father, I am so looking forward to today! I am eager to share what You have laid upon my heart. I am so grateful that You found me useful in proclaiming Your word. But I guess when it comes right down to it, I am overwhelmingly grateful that You found me period. It is truly an honor and a joy to be Your child. I am blessed beyond measure! Praise Your holy name!
Hebrews 4:14 (<<click here)
Lord, You are a High Priest that surpasses any other. Being fully God and fully man You fulfill that role perfectly! And because You are who You are, we can “hold firmly to what we believe.”
Quoting a current cultural colloquialism, “You got my back.” There is nothing that we can’t handle as long as I rely on You. In and of myself, I will fall. Even now totally random things keep popping in my head. Things that are not of You but I am holding to what I believe. The minions of darkness are not welcome here! You, Jesus, are my Lord and Savior, You are my High Priest. You were the Supreme Sacrifice that eradicates the sin in my life. I, right now, claim Your forgiveness. I, in You, claim the power to overcome! Darkness, you have no power over me. You are expelled from my presence, because the King is here – be gone!
“The Lord is my light and my salvation, whom shall I fear?” Psalm 27:1
Thank You, Jesus; I am an overcomer because of You!
Mar 6th, Sun, 6:19 am
And It Came to Pass
Father, time is surely one of the many things from You that man cannot control. We try to savor the good “times” with attempts to slow it down. We try to sidestep tough (or boring or uncomfortable) times by hoping it will “pass quickly”. But it is a constant, seemingly, it will forever continue at its fervent (or plodding) pace depending upon our perspective.
But Your perspective is a constant too, Father, for You Yourself are a constant. You stand outside of time for You just are. You have always been and will always be.
I on the other hand, by Your creation, live in time. I cannot avoid it. And though I am here “now” that will not always be the case. I may currently live in time but in actuality am a creature of eternity. My life here, in the comparative short time I live on this spinning globe, is but a precursor to what my life will be eternally.
Here and now everything, myself (body that is) included, will deteriorate. Absolutely nothing that I can touch or see or hear or smell will ever be the same. I cherish the things I love while they are in proximity of my sphere of life. I am consoled knowing that difficulties and heartaches will not always, I pray, be with me but that I can assuredly say, “And it came to pass.”
There is great comfort found in 2 Corinthians 4:17-18:
“For our present troubles are small and won’t last very long. Yet they produce for us a glory that vastly outweighs them and will last forever. So we don’t look at the troubles we can see now, rather we fix our gaze on things that cannot be see. For the things we see now will soon be gone, but the things we cannot see will last forever.”
Lord, I would ask today that You would help me to make You the constant in my life. Time, though a constant now, will be no more but You are eternal. And the things of You are eternal. May my life be spent in investing in all those things. And the overarching component in them is love – Your love for me, my love for You, and my love for others. If I can fill every second of my life with love, fleshing it out in incalculable ways, that is what will last for eternity.
Mar 5th, Sat, 5:10 am
Hand in the Cookie Jar
In the quiet of this early hour, Father, speak to my heart. Open my spiritual ears that I may hear every word. Fill me with You that I then may live them out. Amen.
Hebrews 4:13 (<<click here)
“Nothing… is hidden from God. Everything is naked and exposed…we are accountable.”
From a physical perspective alone, Lord, this would scare most people half to death but that is just a shallow, surface mentality. Of course when the author of Hebrews says “everything” they mean “ev–ry–thing”!
Many of us excel…Let me rephrase that… I as well of many of us excel at keeping all of our unmentionables discreetly tucked in. Our minds process things all the time that we would be absolutely mortified if others could see what we are thinking and when and where we are thinking it! And the things we think run the gamut of possibility from silly to selfish, from inappropriate to sinful.
Others cannot see, thankfully, but You, Lord…You see everything in its entirety. Absolutely “nothing in all creation is hidden from You.” All that we do or think is an open book before You. We cannot hide it or disguise it or embellish it. “Everything is naked and exposed before Your eyes.” That’s pretty blunt and just the thought of it makes us uncomfortable and all we seem to be able to do is to look down at our shifting feet.
We have, without question, no excuses left. We are caught with our proverbial hand in the cookie jar. And it’s not like our kid sister caught us. You, Lord, the God of the Universe, the “One appointed by God to be the judge of all – the living and the dead.” (Acts 10:42)… You are the “one to whom we are accountable.”
So payment is due. The bill is on table and there is no slipping out the back door. Some of our “indiscretions” are harmless and not worth remembering but many…many are infractions against our most holy God. And regardless of whether we want to acknowledge it, the fact of the matter is “the wages of sins is death…” Romans 6:23a We don’t but, Lord, You surely did. You gave Your life in our stead. You took upon Yourself the sins of every man, woman and child who has ever walked the face of this earth. The “wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord.” Romans 6:23b
We are caught…we are exposed…we are guilty…but thanks to Jesus’ supreme sacrifice – if we will but accept it – we are forgiven. AMEN!
Mar 4th, Fri, 5:48 am
More than an Old Book
When I arrived home last night, Father, I was greeted by a beautiful sight. I was very dark but when I glanced up the night sky was filled with stars. It was absolutely spectacular! What a wonderful God You are! You are so diverse! Thousands of stars visible to the naked eye – and no two alike!
“The heavens proclaim the glory of God. The skies display his craftsmanship.” Psalm 19:1
Hebrews 4:12 (<<click here)
Lord, I would think many people would raise their eyebrows to hear that the Bible is “alive” and “exposes our innermost thoughts and desires.” It’s just a book and an outdated ancient one at that! And it was written mainly by ancient people from an insignificant country on the other side of the world, so how could it have any impact on a modern mind from a much more advanced culture such as mine?
Well believe you me it can impact and it surely does impact!
The greatest reason why the Bible is what it is and does what it does is that it is the very word of God! You used men to write it but Your Spirit inspired and directed every single one of them in their own personal way to communicate what Your people needed to hear.
It is “powerful” in that it is infused with the very power of God. If He can take the dust of the earth and breathe life into it making man, it is no more of a task to breathe life into words on a page no matter how old they may be.
And being old and written by people from another culture on the other side of the world makes no difference. We may think we are so much more advanced but man is still man. We may have more toys and gadgets and believe we are intellectually superior but things and knowledge do not change man at his core. We are still driven by our emotions, we love and hate, we are still controlled by our passions and we are still in need of a Savior in that we still cannot free ourselves from the bondage of sin.
Thank You, Lord – the Living Word of God – for giving us Your Word. May it “expose our innermost thoughts and desires” so that You may help us to overcome, so that You may change us for the better. Amen!
Mar 3rd, Thurs, 6:46 am