The Need to Pray... Transparently. "Search Me."

Today, Ash Wednesday, I am keenly aware of the need to pray... transparently... "Search Me, Oh God..."

You can join me if you want?

Dearest Loving Father God...

You know me inside and out.
Whatever's going on at anytime and at all times...
... within my heart, mind, soul, and body?
You surely know about it and you certainly care about me!
Oh, how I need Your vigilant watch-care over me.

Today, I humbly ask that the mind of Your Son, Jesus Christ...
...would be one-in-the-same with my own mind.
My thoughts have been somewhat scattered these days of late.
People I desperately care for are struggling in many ways.
Oh, how we all depend upon Your intervention in our lives.

Daily, I realize that the decisions before me are many.
Dear God, be my Holy Wisdom and save me from human foolishness.
Moment-by-moment be my Strength to resist the unrelenting enemy.
I want to always look to Jesus and live a life pleasing to Heaven. 
Oh, how devastated we all were by death until You gave Your Son!

Finally, precious Almighty Personal God...
I want to want what You want in every situation and circumstance.
Take my desires day-by-day and search them carefully...
... and cleanse me with Your amazing grace and boundless mercy.
Oh, how You, Lord, are my Everything for All-Time and Eternity.

In the Name of The One Called...
Wonder Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, I pray.
Amen and Amen and Amen.

Note: I "stumbled across" this Prayer Song on YouTube this morning:

Click here: SEARCH ME O GOD! By ChristOurLife

Psalm 139:23-24 (NLT)
"Search me, O God, and know my heart;
test me and know my anxious thoughts;
Point out anything in me that offends you,
and lead me along the path of everlasting life."

Grateful 

Short Prayer. Tall Request.

Lord, help me to make it my continuous desire
to never abandon my sacred, quiet seasons of prayer
without an undeniable awareness of Your Holy Presence
and a sure sense of Your Holy Approval.
In Jesus' Name. Amen.

Grateful

What Do I Know of Holy?

I recently heard a young pastoral couple in the Pittsburgh area, Fred and Kelley, testifying about how God has been working mysteriously in their lives over the past few months. Kelley nearly died but God spared her life. During this scary season, Fred became spiritually numb. He took some time alone to seek God in solitude. He said these song lyrics in the form of a question, "What Do In Know of Holy," spontaneously restarted his soul.

Click here: What do I know of Holy? - Addison Road - YouTube

Holiness Unto The LORD!
Grateful

Your Sins Have Deprived You!

Your sins have deprived you of My bounty.
-- From Jeremiah 5:25 (NET)

Lord forbid that we would choose to embrace our sinful rebellion and in so doing forfeit Your holy blessings. In Jesus' Name. Amen.

Click here: It Is Well With My Soul - YouTube

"My sin not in part, but the whole...
is nailed to the cross and I bear it no more!
Praise the Lord! Praise the Lord! O, my soul!"

Deo Volente -- Whatever God Wants!
Grateful

Greedy, Indecent, Immoral.

Being greedy, indecent, or immoral is just another way of worshiping idols. You can be sure that people who behave in this way will never be part of the kingdom that belongs to Christ and to God.
-- Ephesians 5:5 (CEV)

Lord, I want to be generous, not greedy.
I want my life to be sacred, not indecent.
And please make me holy, lest I be immoral.
In Jesus' name.
Amen.

Holiness Unto The LORD!
Grateful

What a Holy & Awe-Inspiring Name!

He has paid a full ransom for His people.
He has guaranteed His covenant with them forever.
What a holy, awe-inspiring name He has!
-- Psalm 111:9 (NLT)

Holiness Unto The LORD!
Grateful

Be Careful What You Think...

Recently, I had the privilege of attending our local Fellowship of Christian Athletes' Banquet. The speaker was Coach London, Head Football Coach at the University of Virginia. What a testimony he shared! One portion of his talk especially spoke to me. Here's my paraphrase of what he said:

Be careful what you think, your thoughts become your words.
Be careful what you say, your words will influence your actions.
Be careful how you act, your actions become your habits.
Be careful about your habits, your habits impact your character.
Be careful about your character, your character chooses your destiny.

Finally, my friends, keep your minds on whatever is true, pure, right, holy, friendly, and proper. Don't ever stop thinking about what is truly worthwhile and worthy of praise.
-- Philippians 4:8 (CEV)

At all times and for all-time, I desire The Mind of Christ!
Grateful

Wishes or Hopes?

Lord, empty me of my wishes for the future and fill me with Your hopes. I have come to believe that my human wishes are too often founded on my human fears, while Your holy hopes rest firmly on the foundation of Your holy promises.

By Faith. In Faith. (Hebrews 11)
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

What Kind of Lives Should We Be Living?

I awoke early this morning with this passage in my mind and on my heart:

(8) But you must not forget, dear friends, that a day is like a thousand years to the Lord, and a thousand years is like a day.
(9) The Lord isn’t really being slow about his promise to return, as some people think. No, He is being patient for your sake. He does not want anyone to perish, so He is giving more time for everyone to repent.
(10) But the day of the Lord will come as unexpectedly as a thief. Then the heavens will pass away with a terrible noise, and everything in them will disappear in fire, and the earth and everything on it will be exposed to judgment.
(11) Since everything around us is going to melt away, what holy, godly lives you should be living! -- 2 Peter 3:8-9 (NLT)

ALL JOY TO YOUR WORLD!
Grateful

I See The Lord

In Isaiah 6:1, Isaiah testified:
In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord...

Do I want to be able to personally say:
I see the Lord?

Do I want others to be able to personally say to me:
I see the Lord in you?

The words of this praise song have are one with the cry of my heart:

Click here: YouTube - Ron Kenoly/ I See the Lord

I see the Lord, I see the Lord,
Exalted high upon the worship
Of the people of the earth.
I see the Lord, I see the Lord
My eyes have seen the King,
The Lamb upon the throne
Who reigns forever more
(Repeat)

The train of His robe,
Fills the temple
A cloud of heavenly worshipers,
Surrounding His throne
We join with them now crying,

"Holy, holy is the Lamb.
The Lamb alone"
(Repeat chorus and verse)
(Repeat chorus)

... and ever
Forever and ever,
Forever and ever
Forever and ever,
Forever and ever,
Forever and evermore,
Forever more

My eyes have seen the king
The Lamb upon the Throne
Who reigns forever more
(Repeat)

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

Another Sacred Song

Today, I finally switched my MP3 player off the repeat-one-song-over-and-over-again mode. If you read my post yesterday, you know that for quite a long time I couldn't listen to any other song except Mercy Me's Send the Rain.

Well, finally today I felt released to listen the next few songs on my play list. Pretty quickly, the ears of my soul got gloriously stuck on another sacred song. Now my MP3's repeat-one-song-over-and-over-again mode is back on. This time the touching tune is by Chris Tomlin and titled Uncreated One. Here are the holy lyrics:

Holy Uncreated One
Your beauty fills the skies
But the glory of Your majesty
Is the mercy in Your eyes
And worthy uncreated one
From heaven to earth come down
You laid aside Your royalty
To wear the sinner's crown

And O great God be glorified
Our lives laid down,
Yours magnified
And O great God be lifted high
There is none like You
Jesus, Savior,
God's own son Risen, reigning Lord
Sustainer of the Universe
By the power of Your word

And O great God be glorified
Our lives laid down, Yours magnified
And O great God be lifted high
There is none like You
There is none like You
There is none like You

And when we see Your matchless face
In speechless awe we'll stand
And there we'll bow with grateful hearts
Until the great I am

O great God be glorified
Our lives laid down, Yours magnified
O great God be lifted high
There is none like You
There is none like You
There is none like You

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

Singing for Rain

I'm not a music technological person at all, but I do own a simple MP3 player that holds about 200 songs that really do make up the soundtrack of my life.

Yesterday, I flipped one of the few switches on my simple little music-playing gadget, the switch that repeats one song over and over and over again until you're done listening to it. I'm not sure how many times I listened to the Mercy Me song titled Bring the Rain. I didn't count, however, I can say it's already a day later and I still have the repeat switch on for the same singing for rain song.

Here are the words. Let them saturate your soul and as you listen I invite you to ask the question: Is this really my testimony?

I can count a million times
People asking me how I
Can praise You with all that I've gone through
The question just amazes me
Can circumstances possibly
Change who I forever am in You
Maybe since my life was changed
Long before these rainy days
It's never really ever crossed my mind
To turn my back on you, oh Lord
My only shelter from the storm
But instead I draw closer through these times
So I pray

Bring me joy, bring me peace
Bring the chance to be free
Bring me anything that brings You glory
And I know there'll be days
When this life brings me pain
But if that's what it takes to praise You
Jesus, bring the rain
I am Yours regardless of
The dark clouds that may loom above
Because You are much greater than my pain
You who made a way for me
By suffering Your destiny
So tell me what's a little rain
So I pray

Holy, holy, holy
Is the Lord God Almighty

Philippians 3:10-11 (NIV) -- (10) I want to know Christ and the power of His Resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in His sufferings, becoming like Him in his death, (11) and so, somehow, to attain to the Resurrection from the dead.

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

Jesus Always Lives to Make Intercession

(23) The former priests were many in number, because they were prevented by death from continuing in office; (24) but He (JESUS, OUR GREAT HIGH PRIEST) holds His priesthood permanently, because He continues forever. (25) Consequently He is able for all time to save those who draw near to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them. (26) For it was fitting that we should have such a high priest, holy, blameless, unstained, separated from sinners, exalted above the heavens. (27) He has no need, like those high priests, to offer sacrifices daily, first for His own sins and then for those of the people; He did this once for all when He offered up Himself. -- Hebrews 7:23-27 (RSV)

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

The Holy Highlights

Recently, my twenty-three-year-old son and I have had the blessed privilege of traveling out-of-town together on two occasions (and to be honest we have a third one on the calendar). While all of our roadtrips are sporting event destinations, I can honestly say that "the journey has been the destination" in each instance.

Indeed, on the highways and backroads to and from the sporting events, the totally vulnerable and heart-warming hours of sharing between daddy and son about earthly life, eternal life, and especially the marvelous mysteries of the Mind of Christ have been the holy highlights. Yes, the journeying conversations together have been much more full of wonder than the actual destinations.

Deuteronomy 6:5-9 (NIV) -- (5) Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. (6) These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. (7) Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. (8) Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. (9) Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.

My Faithful God, I am humbled, grateful, and speechless for Your blessings in my life. In the Name of Jesus, I desperately pray that future generations of our family will be told about the Lord. Let me stay in the Destination Conversation with my loved ones. Most of all I desire that our family circle will be unbroken in-the-sky, Lord, by-and-by. Amen.

Future generations will be told about the Lord. -- Psalm 22:30 (NIV)

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

Possess Your Possession

Lord, my prayer today is:
"I am not my own, I belong to You."

Therefore, please Lord:
"Let Your Holy Presence Wholly Possess What You Presently Possess!"

Yes, Spirit of the Living God:
"Possess Your Possession. Thee in me. Amen."

Jesus, let the final seven words of Your prayer to the Father in John 17:26 be reality in my life right now: "...that I Myself may be in them." Yes, Lord, I need what You want! I want what You want! In Your name I claim my inheritance! "Christ in me, the hope of glory! Amen."

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

When We Rest...

It has been suggested:
"When we rest, God works!
When we work, God rests!"

Matthew 11:28-30 may hint to us that this is a very true suggestion.
Psalm 46:10 reinforces the hint.
What do you believe?

My Lord Jesus, please help me to live my life as if I believe wholeheartedly that Your Blood works so very much more effectively than my sweat. Help me to place Holy Trusting above human trying. In Your name, I pray. Amen.

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

My Fervent 3-Part Holy Prayer

Lord, I pray this fervent 3-part Holy Prayer today and day-by-day:

(1) Intensify my Holy Hunger for You. (Mt. 5:6)
(2) Glorify Your Holy Name in me. (Rev. 15:4)
(3) Multiply Your Holy Church for Eternity. (Mt. 16:18)
In the name of Jesus. Amen.

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

Raise Praise

In the coastlands of the sea, praise the name of the LORD...
-- Isaiah 24:15 (NLT)

Lord, as a native island boy, I raise Your praise in holy harmony with those who dwell in the coastlands of the sea! Let everyone that has breath Raise Praise in the name of Jesus. Amen.

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

Holy Wounds, Wholly Healed

HALLELUJAH!!! Jesus Is Risen! He is Risen, indeed!! And, surely in His Resurrection, our Resurrection is guaranteed. What a Great and Wonderful Joy! All Joy! Pure Joy! By His Holy Wounds we are Wholly Healed!!!

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