God’s love
Imagine Jesus being too busy to Pray
Very early the next morning, long before daylight, Jesus got up and left the house. He went out of town to a lonely place, where he prayed. Mark 1:35 TEV Can you imagine Jesus being too busy to pray in the morning, gulping down a cup of coffee and thinking, “I’ve got so much to do today. When is there time to talk to the Father?” If we are learning to be like Christ, then we have to learn that our intimacy with the Father always takes priority. God says it is foolish to succumb to the tyranny of the urgent in the morning:“It is useless to work so hard for a living, getting up early and going to bed late. For the LORD provides for those he loves, while they are asleep”. (Psalm 127:2 TEV) Spending time with God in the morning should be a normal part of life. Dietrich Bonhoeffer notes: “With ...
Touching Women’s Lives
One woman was caught in the scandalous act of adultery. Another was rejected and ignored because of her promiscuous lifestyle. And even another was shunned for her shameful condition. Nonetheless, Jesus personally reached out to those three while He was on earth. Sharon wanted to use their stories to connect with women in her area. So she prayed and planned an outreach at the community center. She chose to show a film about their stories. Many wept as they viewed the movie https://www.youtube.com/user/magdalenatoday Some prayed to receive Christ, while others rededicated their lives to Him. Friend, help others understand true freedom and value are found only in Christ. He still reaches women today no matter what their story might be! To learn more, go to https://www.youtube.com/user/...
Reason Together
“Come now, let us reason together,’ says the Lord. ‘Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool.” Isaiah 1:18 Thoughts on today’s verse Nothing stains quite like sin. It not only leaves a stain in our heart but a residue in our minds. But God’s grace is shown in that he doesn’t just forgive our sins, he doesn’t just forget our sins, he banishes them. They are gone. The stain is removed, the guilt is taken away. We are clean by his grace. Prayer: O the joy your grace gives me! I can never thank you or praise you enough for rerouting my life so that it will end, and begin again, in you. Through Jesus I pray. Amen. by Phil Wareused by permission from http://www.heartlight.org/ and is used by permission.You ca...
New Knees
“If anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: the old has gone, the new is here!” 2 Corinthians 5:17 (TNIV) “Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation…” 1 Peter 2:2 Here I am, preparing again to go to the gym for a strenuous workout. For a person who finds the most pleasurable exercise to be turning the pages of a book, these experiences are not high on my Happiness List. Nine months ago I was the recipient of a new knee. The surgeon assured me that—in time—my mobility would be back to normal with a limping gait and constant pain only a distant memory. The key words in his prognosis were “in time.” While there have been no physical complications, recovery has not been without its challenges. First there were six weeks of therapy a...
The First Commandment
“The Lord your God will cleanse your heart…. so that you will love Him with all your heart and soul.” Deuteronomy 30:6 God greatly desires our love. It is the nature of all love to want to be acceptable and to be accepted. God longs to have the love of our whole heart. How can we love God with all our heart and soul? In the same way that we receive salvation – through faith alone. Paul says, “I live my life in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me” (Galatians 2:20). When we take time to wait upon God and remember how God sought to win our love through the gift of His Son, we shall realize that God has a strong longing for our love. Our hearts are blind. It is easy to forget that God longs for the love of Hi...
Guilty as Charged
“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son.” John 3:16 He had been out of prison only a few weeks when I met him. It was the result of a cold call that I made to ask him to speak at a men’s retreat I was leading. He said yes and it was the beginning of a long friendship. He was known as “The Hatchet Man” in the White House. He went from the Oval Office to standing in front of a judge and answering “guilty as charged.” While confined in a jail cell he was touched by John 3 and once again said “guilty as charged.” He became a new creation…. a new man as he gave his heart and life to Christ. He wrote a best seller in Born Again and the rest is evangelical history. He called me one day to say that he had a heart for those in prison and wanted me to help. A group of us later...
Choices
Colleen Reece had a career choice to make! She’d been offered the position as personal assistant to a bank president. Definitely a step up the ladder for Colleen. And to add icing to the cake – the salary she was offered was twice what she was making as a school secretary. Colleen had given her life to the Lord many years before. And a big part of her life since, was counseling at Christian youth camps. It was something she loved to do. This new bank job would change all of that! Her summers would no longer be free. In Revelation 2:4 God reminds His church: “Do not forsake your first love.” Do the things you did at first. Colleen stayed where she felt God was using her. And she has never regretted it. Follow God’s leading for your life....
Forgiving is Not Excusing
Forgiveness is not excusing! Nor is it pretending. To forgive is to move on, not to think about the offense anymore. You don’t excuse him, endorse her, or embrace them. You just route thoughts about them through heaven. Revenge is God’s job. By the way, how can we grace-recipients do anything less? Dare we ask God for grace when we refuse to give it? It’s a huge issue in the Bible. Jesus was tough on sinners who refused to forgive other sinners. In the final sum, we give grace because we’ve been given grace. In the story Jesus tells in Matthew 18:32, the master calls the servant in. “You wicked servant, he said, “I canceled all that debt of yours because you begged me to. Shouldn’t you have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had on you?” It’s a good question. We’ve been...
