In Our Temptation, God's Power Is Within Us!

Many of the Holy Scriptures are hard for us as believers to understand on our own. We surely need the mind of Christ to triumphantly trust in "what saith the Lord". Perhaps one of the seemingly most difficult Scriptures for believers to decipher is 1 Corinthians 10:13. Here it is from God's Word Translation of the Holy Bible:

There isn’t any temptation that you have experienced which is unusual for humans. God, who faithfully keeps his promises, will not allow you to be tempted beyond your power to resist. But when you are tempted, he will also give you the ability to endure the temptation as your way of escape.

As I have sought the mind of Christ in relation to this Scripture, I have come to believe that the way to understand this verse victoriously is to realize that God "will not allow us to be tempted beyond what His power can resist within us."

So, what am I saying exactly? I am saying that the answer to our confusion with 1 Corinthians 10:13 is found in another verse of Scripture -- Colossians 1:27: Christ in you (us), the Hope!!!

Let us never forget that, In our temptation, God's Power is Within Us!
Grateful 

The Latest Love Line (Another Life-Verse)

I love that sacred part of the journey home, when the Lord drops deep into my heart yet another life-verse from His Holy Word. Here's the latest verse He gave to me during a quiet time in His presence:

It is God who produces in you the desires and actions that please Him. -- Philippians 2:13 (GWT)

Thanks Lord for accenting two of my other life-verse's. Yes, Galatians 2:20 and Colossians 1:27 are only reinforced when Philippians 2:13, the latest love line You have whispered to me, is compounded with them. I am humbled and speechless because of Your kindnesses towards me.

Click here: Michael W. Smith - Psalm 139, Thy Word - YouTube

Thy Word continues to be a lamp unto my feet. A light unto my path!
Grateful

Where Is The Kingdom Of God?

They can’t say, ‘Here it is!’ or ‘There it is!’
You see, the kingdom of God is within you.”
-- Words of Jesus Recorded in Luke 17:21 (GWT)

John Wesley wrote these words to correspond with Luke 17:21:

For behold the kingdom of God is within or among you -- Look not for it in distant times or remote places: it is now in the midst of you: it is come: it is present in the soul of every true believer: it is a spiritual kingdom, an internal principle. Wherever it exists, it exists in the heart.

God wanted His people throughout the world to know the glorious riches of this mystery—which is Christ living in you, giving you the hope of glory.
-- Colossians 1:27 (GWT)
Grateful

Do You Not Realize?

(5) Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Or do you not realize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you? — unless indeed you fail to meet the test! (6) I hope you will find out that we have not failed the test.
-- 2 Corinthians 14:5-6 (ESV)

Christ in you, the hope of glory! (Col. 1:27b)
Grateful

Real Is More Wonderful Than Cool

This prayerful thought has been on my mind many times lately:
Lord, I want my life to be positive proof that "being real in You" is more wonderful than "being cool on my own".

Yes Lord, I want Your Holy Spirit's presence within me to be a real and wonderful moment-by-moment witness of Your undeniable Love for, and existence on, planet earth. In Jesus' name. Amen.

As a matter of fact, John 3:16-17, is in my face-and-eyes right now: (16) God loved the people of this world so much that He gave His only Son, so that everyone who has faith in Him will have eternal life and never really die. (17) God did not send His Son into the world to condemn its people. He sent Him to save them! (CEV)

Christ in you (me), the hope of glory.
-- Colossians 1:27b

Holiness Unto The LORD!
Grateful

"In Me..."

Christ in you, the hope of glory...
- Colossians 1:27b (NIV)

The high-point of my day was hearing the song by Casting Crowns based on Colossians 1:27. The sacred tune is titled "In Me". Oh, indeed, I've heard the song many times and the Scripture is one of my life verses, however hearing it today, lifted my soul to a whole new level of resting in my Lord.

Click: - "In Me" - Casting Crowns

These two lines really touched me deeply:

How refreshing to know You don't need me...
How amazing to find You still want me...

By Faith! In Faith! (Hebrews 11)
Grateful

Are We Becoming The Will Of God?

...that I myself may be in them.
-- Final Seven Words of Jesus' Prayer in John 17:26 (NIV)

The disciple who abides in Jesus, is the will of God.
-- Oswald Chambers

Lord, instead of always searching for Your will as if it is a destination to reach, help us to live in Your presence as Your presence lives in us, thereby, becoming Your will presently. In Your Wonderful Name, we pray. Amen.

The mystery in a nutshell is just this: Christ is in you, so therefore you can look forward to sharing in God's glory. It's that simple. That is the substance of our Message.
-- Colossians 1:27b-28a (The Message)

Count it all joy.
Grateful

Not Human Imitation, But Holy Manifestation!

God does not expect us to imitate Jesus Christ. He expects us to allow the life of Jesus to be manifested in our mortal flesh.
-- Oswald Chambers

(3) For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering. And so He condemned sin in sinful man, (4) in order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the sinful nature but according to the Spirit.
(29) For those God foreknew He also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brothers. (30) And those He predestined, He also called; those He called, He also justified; those He justified, He also glorified.
-- Romans 8:3-4 29-30, (NLT)

Christ in you, the hope of glory.
-- Colossians 1:27b (NIV)

My Prayer Today: Merciful Lord, help me to allow Your extraordinary Life to be so fully manifested in my ordinary life, that sin itself is condemned by the glory that is all Yours, yet in me -- not my human imitation, but Your holy manifestation. In the Name of Jesus. Amen.

Holiness Unto the LORD!
Grateful

My Dad's New Joy-Description at Age 70.

A PRICELESS STORY WORTH YOUR PRECIOUS TIME. I PROMISE.

My Dad, Billy, has been working on the water in and around The Graveyard of the Atlantic Ocean all of his life. Fishing, crabbing, scalloping, and mostly shrimping has been his livelihood. Old Salty would properly define him. Now at age 70, because Dad's retirement fund never really got funded, he's got a new job-description. (Most all of the commercial fishermen along the North Carolina coastline have experienced less than overflowing nets, especially over the past 20 years or so.) About that new job-description? Dad would see it more as His new joy-description. Yes, my Dad is now working twelve-hour-a-day shifts on a ferry boat for the North Carolina Department of Transportation. Though he's been a boat captain of his own vessel for more than thirty years, he now goes back to being a deckhand and an engine oiler -- both servant-jobs he performed everyday of his life, even while he was captaining his own shrimp boat. My Dad has been and continues to be the very definition of a servant leader. That's one reason he's a hero of the faith to his family.

Well, recently Dad shared a story as our family of fifteen had gathered at the water's edge to celebrate Dad and Mom's 5Oth Wedding Anniversary. Dad's story was about a boy named Jesse.

The story began with Dad loading vehicles for a ferry boat passage across the channel, when he saw an over-sized van pull onto the deck. A severely handicapped boy was riding as a passenger. When the van stopped and the ferry pulled away from the dock, Dad watched from the cabin window as the boy's father unloaded his son in an electric wheelchair to sit on the deck and watch the coastal scenery during the half-hour crossing.

Dad stood at a distance as long as he possibly could, but he's never been good at posing as an innocent bystander. He likes to get involved once he senses permission from the Holy Spirit to do so. So Dad made his way out towards the father-and-son duo. After friendly introductions and careful questions, Dad learned that the boy, who looked to be seven or eight, was actually fifteen. Yes, his name was Jesse, and though he was severely handicapped physically, he had complete mental capacities. Jesse could only control his body basically from the neck up. He was bent and totally dependent on his father for pretty much everything except breathing and talking. It broke my Dad's heart.

Dad elevated the conversation with Jesse by beginning to talk prayerfully about Jesus and a place of total healing called Heaven. Dad gently reminded Jesse about the great day coming when he would have a new body, a day when physical pains and human limitations would be things of the past. Jesse was encouraged by Dad's words and agreed wholeheartedly with Dad's forecast of hope. Jesse, indicated that he knew life would be more than wonderful for him soon enough. Dad, touched deep within, went back into the cabin, all the while keeping a close prayerful watch on Jesse and his dad.

Inside the ferry boat, Dad kept thinking on something Jesse's father had said earlier. Yes, Jesse and his dad were actually making their once-a-year trip on the ferry. Each year Jesse asks to make the ferry boat ride --thirty minutes one-way and then to make the return across the channel, to the mainland where he lives. Jesse's father told Dad that his dear boy just loves sitting on the deck in his wheelchair. Obviously, it is like medicine to his soul.

Finally, Dad said to the Lord, "I think I might be able to make Jesse's day." With that declaration, he went back to the deck and knelt down beside Jesse's wheelchair once again and asked: "Jesse, do you like ice cream?" Jesse gave Dad a big grin and said, "I think I do! I love ice cream, Mr. Billy!" Dad showed Jesse a five-dollar-bill and handing the cash to Jesse's dad said, "Jesse, I know there's a Dairy Queen Ice Cream Shoppe on the journey back to your hometown. When you and your dad pass by, I want you to stop and have a big, ice cream sundae on me." You guessed it! Dad was right. Jesse's day was made, indeed! His countenance was invigorating proof. Yes, Jesse's day was made by a silver-haired, should-be-retired-by-now (by this world's standards for success) boat-captain who took on the saintly joy-description of a deckhand and engine oiler at the age of 70. Could it be that being refired beats being retired?

As Dad walked back toward the cabin, Jesse's dad tenderly called out gratitude something akin to: "Thanks Mr. Billy. You'll can't possibly know how much encountering you on this two-way, ferry boat ride today means to Jesse and me." I know the feeling was mutual. You see, in making Jesse's day? Jesse, Jesse's dad, and especially Jesus had made Mr. Billy's day, too.

At the end of his story, my Dad was weeping big tears, and so were the rest of us listening around the table. Then Dad spoke to us his secret. "Each day when I wake up, I tell God the same thing. 'Today don't let people see Billy. Let them see Jesus in Billy.'" I'd say God is answering my Dad's daily prayer. Wouldn't you?

A vast crowd was there as He (Jesus) stepped from the boat, and he had compassion on them... -- Matthew 14:14 (NLT)

Then Jesus said to them, "Follow Me, and I will make you become fishers of men". -- Mark 1:17 (NKJV)

For this is the secret: Christ lives in you... - Colossians 1:27 (NLT)

Dad still has his shrimp boat, The Lady Melba. It's tied up at the dock most days in the Refuge Harbor on the west end of Harkers Island, North Carolina. My guess is, that Dad will probably wet his shrimp nets a time or two again before the Lord calls him home. But right now God has him witnessing on the ferry boat. Life is good, even without early retirement funds. My Dad, Mr. Billy (still "Captain Billy" to most of the people who know him best) is invigorating proof of that.

*A 2006 YouTube clip of my silver-haired Dad scalloping:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NpnOoEN3OzA

IF MY PEOPLE... WILL? I WILL! God's Promise in 2 Chron. 7:14.
Grateful

Possessed

Judges 6:34 in two translations:
Then the Spirit of the Lord took possession of Gideon.
Then the Spirit of the Lord clothed Himself in Gideon.

In other words, when the Spirit of the Lord clothed Himself in Gideon, it was a foretaste of our inheritance following the Crucifixion, Resurrection, and Ascension of the glorified Christ. Yes, a pre-Pentecost, Old Testament foretaste of the post-Pentecost, New Testament reality for all of us who belong to the Lord -- Colossians 1:27: Christ in you, the hope of glory.

IF MY PEOPLE... WILL? I WILL! God's Promise in 2 Chron. 7:14.
Grateful

You Will Be My Witnesses

These words of promise concerning the coming of New Testament Pentecost were spoken by Jesus and recorded in Acts 1:8 (NIV) -- But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be My witnesses...

Praise God! New Testament Pentecost happened and is still happening. Why? That The Holy Spirit might enter and indwell believers. Why? That He could live the life of Christ through his saints -- yes, that the world might know God personally one-soul-at-a-time.

Christ in you, the hope of glory. Colossians 1:27b (NIV)

Lord, I don't just want to talk about You. I want to be Your Holy Spirit-filled witness. Amen.

IF MY PEOPLE... WILL? I WILL! God's Promise in 2 Chron. 7:14.
Grateful

A Beautiful Opportunity

Let us not forget the sacred preseason that leads us to the Glorious Main Event of our Lord's Resurrection year-after-year. Yes, as Henri Nouwen said, The Lenten Season offers a beautiful opportunity to discover the mystery of Christ within us.

So let's sacredly soak in the seven-word, secret message written in Colossians 1:27 -- Christ in you, the hope of glory. And let's get the secret message out during the Lenten Season and every season.

IF MY PEOPLE... WILL? I WILL! God's Promise in 2 Chron. 7:14.
Grateful

Presence

Presence is much more essential than words.

Lord, when I don't know what to say, let me continue to be present in the lives of the hurting so that I might inhale and exhale Your essential Presence in their presence, knowing that these seven words from Colossians 1:27 are wonder-working indeed: "Christ in you (me), the Hope of Glory!" Amen.

IF MY PEOPLE... WILL? I WILL! God's Promise in 2 Chron. 7:14.
Grateful