Light Will Shine On Your Ways

Yesterday, because of the 17 inches of snow that blanketed our community, my wife and I had to cancel our appointment with our dear friend in the Lord and our tax accountant, Bill. Though we could not meet we shared e-mails with one another.

Brother Bill sent me this passage of Scripture as a blessing. I pray it will bless you as well.

Surely then you will find delight in the Almighty and will lift up your face to God. You will pray to Him, and He will hear you, and you will fulfill your vows. What you decide on will be done, and light will shine on your ways. When people are brought low and you say, ‘Lift them up!’then He will save the downcast.
-- Job 22:26-29 (NIV)

Let it be so, Dear God.
Grateful

Snow. Snow. Snow. Trust. Trust. Trust.

It's a cold and snowy day in our neck of the woods. As I write these words, we already have 14 inches of very heavy snow on the ground and the white stuff is still falling from above.

Earlier this morning, (while I was shoveling my truck out of a snow bank to move it before the neighbor's tree breaks and falls on it) I gave worship to the Lord for His mighty works. Looking around me at all the snow, snow, snow I couldn't help but shout from the deep places in my soul, "God, You are Totally Awesome!"

Practically, I have had to trust God with this particular snow storm as well. How's that? Well, it could threaten some essential plans in my life. Big snow storms have a way at times of divinely interrupting our lives. So, it is surely an opportunity to trust God and to remember that His plans are the plans that really matter most.

So, I'm doing my best to trust, trust, trust my God. Yes, I'm simply inhaling and exhaling and believing that my God's mysterious ways and even His mysterious weather patterns are all working together for my good.

Yes, it's a real Romans 8:28 kind-of-a-thing: And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to His purpose for them. (NLT) 

Deo Volente -- Whatever God Wants!
Grateful

Much Prayer, Much of the Holy Spirit

In the history of the Church two great truths stand out: Where there is much prayer there will be much of The Holy Spirit; where there is much of The Holy Spirit, there will be ever-increasing prayer.
-- Andrew Murray

Holiness Unto the LORD!
Grateful

God's Love For Us Is Everlasting

God's love for us is everlasting. That means that God's love for us existed before we were born and will exist after we have died. It is an eternal love in which we are embraced. Living a spiritual life calls us to claim that eternal love for ourselves so that we can live our temporal loves - for parents, brothers, sisters, teachers, friends, spouses, and all people who become part of our lives - as reflections or refractions of God's eternal love.
-- Henri Nouwen

God is Love. We are...
...Grateful.
 

Teach Me to Love -- A New Song

To accent a message I was preaching from 1 John 3:16-17, our local church's worship pastor, Joseph, wrote a new song. It is a refreshing prayer chorus. Here are the words. I think you will agree that the new song makes for a wonderfully, transparent response to the sacred passage of Scripture:

Lord, teach me to love, for You have shown me mercy.

Lord, I want to know, the depths of Your heart, completely.

Lord, I want to see, through Your loving eyes,
And see only what you see.

Lord, teach me to love, show me Your mind.

Lord, teach me to love, Oh, oh, Lord, teach me to love, oh, oh.

Teach me to love.

 

This is how we’ve come to understand and experience love: Christ sacrificed His life for us. This is why we ought to live sacrificially for our fellow believers, and not just be out for ourselves. If you see some brother or sister in need and have the means to do something about it but turn a cold shoulder and do nothing, what happens to God’s love? It disappears. And you made it disappear.

-- 1 John 3:16-17 (The Message)

 

Lord forbid, that in this world that so desperately needs to see Your Love that I would make Your Love disappear. Live Your Life through me, then Your Abiding Love will dominate me from within and I will surely be Your witness, Lord, to the end of my life. 

Grateful.

Jesus is -- In Fact and By Faith -- My Life

I invite you to pray with me:

 

Dearest Jesus:

I know You are closer to me than my own breathing is,

because you are  -- in fact and by faith -- my Breath, my Life.

All I need is for You to be the air that my eternal soul breathes,

And to love me, and to love others through me.

Amen.

 

Click here: Elevation Worship - Give Me Faith - YouTube

My God,  I need You.You give me faith.. I am so very...

Grateful

Famous But False

If we, as the human race, do the right thing 51% of the time we will be okay.
-- Tom Hanks, Famous American Actor

FALSE.

-- Kerry Willis, Obscure Christian Pastor

Lord, give us a hunger and thirst for Truth!
In the Name of Jesus. Amen.

Grateful