Lord, Give Me Your Eyes.

The Lord is teaching me to pray today through Colossians 1:24:

Now I rejoice in what was suffered for you, and I fill up in my flesh what is still lacking in regard to Christ’s afflictions, for the sake of His body, which is the church. (NIV)

But part of my work is to suffer for you; and I am glad, for I am helping to finish up the remainder of Christ’s sufferings for His body, the Church. (TLB)

I pray that the Lord will allow me to enter His agony in my prayer life. Why? I want to see the world He died for from His perspective. He invites you and me to share in the fellowship of His sufferings when we pray. Surely, if we see from His perspective while on our knees, we will walk into the world and make it different.

I don't know about you, but I now pray fervently the words of the contemporary Christian song by Brandon Heath: Lord, give me Your eyes. Amen.

Click here: YouTube - Brandon Heath - Give Me Your Eyes

Pray all the time. Ask God for anything in line with the Holy Spirit’s wishes. -- Ephesians 6:18 (TLB)

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

Looking Like The Gardener?

Rev. Bill Wilson planted this thought in my mind a few years ago:

Did you ever think that maybe the Resurrected Jesus came back in appearance on that first Easter Morning looking like "the Gardener" (to Mary Magdalene) so He could help us through the agony of our own Gethsemanes?

John 20:11-18 (NLT) -- (11) Mary was standing outside the tomb crying, and as she wept, she stooped and looked in. (12) She saw two white-robed angels sitting at the head and foot of the place where the body of Jesus had been lying. (13) "Why are you crying?" the angels asked her. "Because they have taken away my Lord," she replied, "and I don’t know where they have put Him." (14) She glanced over her shoulder and saw Someone standing behind her. It was Jesus, but she didn’t recognize Him. (15) "Why are you crying?" Jesus asked her. "Who are you looking for?" She thought He was the gardener. "Sir," she said, "if You have taken Him away, tell me where You have put him, and I will go and get Him." (16) "Mary!" Jesus said. She turned toward Him and exclaimed, "Teacher!" (17) "Don’t cling to Me," Jesus said, "for I haven’t yet ascended to the Father. But go find My brothers and tell them that I Am ascending to My Father and your Father, My God and your God." (18) Mary Magdalene found the disciples and told them, "I have seen the Lord!" Then she gave them His message.

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

Go to Calvary. Breathe Again.

For as long as I can remember, my Aunt Edith (my Dad’s only sister and only sibling) has been the organist at the church where I was raised – Free Grace Wesleyan Church. She’s not a flashy musician, but she is talented and dependable and her love for the Lord invites breathless souls to breathe again.

Aunt Edith was always content to let the pianist choose the selections for praise and worship. I only remember once when she requested we learn a new hymn. Well, it was written in 1921 by Jennie Hussey, so it wasn’t exactly “new”, but you know what I mean. It was “new” to us. As Aunt Edith passionately shared, it was obvious that this “new” hymn was a personal prayer from her very alive soul.

By the theme of the hymn, it must have been the season leading up to Easter when Aunt Edith brought it to our attention. The title is “Lead Me to Calvary”. To this day, whenever I think on the wonderful words of “Lead Me to Calvary”, it inspires and challenges me to consider each word carefully and prayerfully.

Here are the loving lyrics now. Let’s remember that before we can breathe again on Easter Resurrection Sunday, first the Lord must “Lead Us to Calvary!”

(1) King of my life, I crown Thee now,
Thine shall the glory be;
Lest I forget Thy thorn crowned brow,
Lead me to Calvary.

(Chorus)
Lest I forget Gethsemane, Lest I forget Thine agony;
Lest I forget Thy love for me, Lead me to Calvary.

(2) Show me the tomb where Thou wast laid,
Tenderly mourned and wept;
Angels in robes of light arrayed
Guarded Thee whilst Thou slept.

(3) Let me like Mary, through the gloom,
Come with a gift to Thee;
Show to me now the empty tomb,
Lead me to Calvary.

(4) May I be willing, Lord, to bear
Daily my cross for Thee;
Even Thy cup of grief to share,
Thou hast borne all for me.

Lord, I do not ever want to forget Your love for me. I want to go to Gethsemane and to Calvary, yes through Your agony, so my eternal soul can in gratitude breathe again – inhaling and exhaling for forever Your Resurrection Life. In the name of Jesus. Amen.

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

The "Nudges"

Lord, today, I'm praying that I will learn to be more sensitive and responsive to the inward "nudges" of Your Holy Spirit than I was yesterday, and I pray that I will be even more sensitive and responsive tomorrow. And please Lord, help me to increase the fervency of my prayer life, so that I might enter into Your heartaches more with each passing moment. In Jesus name. Amen.

God forbid that I would in anyway increase the agony of Your heart recorded in Ezekiel 22:30 (NLT) -- I searched for someone to stand in the gap in the wall so I wouldn’t have to destroy the land, but I found no one.

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

Witnessing the Glory and the Agony of Jesus

Today in my devotional reading I was reminded that the three, inner-circle disciples of Jesus --Peter, James, and John -- witnessed not only the glory of Christ during His Transfiguration, but they also witnessed His agony in Gethsemane.

Surely, because our Lord is present, whether we are surrounded by light or engulfed by darkness, we are blessed. As the Psalmist said in Psalm 23, Yeah though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil for You are with me.

ALL JOY!
Grateful