Month: September 2016

Matthew 28: 18 “And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, ‘All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth.’”

Dear God,

Thank You for being a living God and that mankind is made in Your image, and even though we are now marred by sin and will one day die, if all things proceed as they are.  Therefore I look forward to the coming of Jesus and the restoration of my image so that that it is no longer tainted by sin and death. I have the hope of being taken to heaven by Jesus, and to live with Father God and Jesus our King, along with the heavenly host of angels and all the redeemed from earth.  It is truly, as one would say, a heavenly thought, and one all the righteous down through earth’s history have longed and hoped for; based upon the good news Jesus Christ shared when on earth.

This is the theme in the writings of King Solomon of Old Testament times (though less prominently than in 2 Corinthians 3 that I have read today.  I believe God, that You are talking with me each day through Your word, and bringing me to Yourself more completely so that as I am connected to You and more trusting of Your promises, You are changing me by Your love and power.  By Your gift of the Holy Spirit, I can not only be changed, but reach out to others with the love and wisdom that You place within me, by Your power.

My physical body is closely connected to my ability to receive Your love and wisdom and how I in turn then reflect Your gifts to others.  Always my human frailties and sinful tendencies are there and will come to the fore, unless by faith in You, they are subdued.  It is in Your strength I can leave behind or change any practices that not of You and will bring me down, or allow my ugly sinful nature to express itself.

Dear Jesus, thank You for Your forgiveness of all my sins, including the frequent times that I use unlovely words and actions, that are not what You will fill me with by Your Spirit I when connected to You.

It is my serious intention to bring my body to a condition that You can reach, therefore I in Your given strength commit to endeavouring to have good food, enough sleep, exercise, uplifting music and thoughts, so all of me is receptive to Your infilling, direction and enabling.

Amen

Proverbs 8: 11 “For wisdom is better than rubies and all the things one may desire cannot be compared with her.”

Dear God,

It is so good to be listening and talking with You this morning and to be reminded, that all true wisdom comes from You.  It is pertinent to remember, that much wisdom on earth, comes from someone created by You, and like all of us, has been led into sin by Satan, and so any extrapolation of earthly wisdom cannot compare with the wisdom of and from heaven.

Please impress me in my giving to some of the very worthy organizations who send me requests for funds, such as The Bible Society and other helping organizations that continue to take the scriptures to many people and language groups.  Without physical aid and Your precious scriptures, many would not have life or a living, and certainly not know of Your wisdom and that Jesus saves every person who believes in Him.

I find that Proverbs 8 gives a wonderful comparison of the words of earthly wisdom, born in wickedness and then with the words born out of loving You, V8 “All the words of my mouth are with righteousness; nothing crooked or perverse is in them.” And V17 “I love those who love me, and those who seek me diligently will find me.”  I find also, that Your blessings upon Your own children and are more precious than any precious metal or gem.  Understanding that comes from You, gives deep meaning to the knowledge that the Son of God has always been and was there before, during and after the creation of the earth.

I choose You today, dear Jesus V32 “Now therefore, listen to me, my children, for blessed are those who keep my ways.”

On this new day, I am grateful  I can come to my loving Heavenly Father and In my weakness, I recognize my need, and lift up my mind to You, especially in times of physical difficulties or any distress.  Thereafter I am comforted, and profoundly affected, that the Almighty God tenderly loves me and comforts me, Psalm 94: 19 (TNEB) “Anxious thoughts may fill my heart, but Thy presence is my joy and my consolation.”  I have increasingly come to appreciate that everything I really need, are found in You, my God.  Please remind me of this when I am tempted to use and rely on human wisdom first, and then when things get no better or even worse, then I turn to You, almost as if I thought I could do it on my own or better.  I have found that You always respond to me.   When I love You first and believe You will answer my prayer for leading and wisdom, Your peace ensures, and for that I give praise.

Please write in my heart today, Proverbs 9: 10 “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.”  I am so glad that You delight to give us wisdom and to teach me (us) of Yourself.  In Your strength alone I will be able to stop, rest in body, mind and spirit to hear and appreciate You more closely.

Amen

 

Matthew 22: 37 “Jesus said to him, ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’”

Dear God,

Thank You again for my life, and the opportunity to enjoy the experience.  Above all else, to have a knowledge of You, and to know that You love me, and I cherish the promise that when I can be filled with Your love, with the ability to love others better, not in a selfish or self-interested way, but in the way Paul talks about in 1 Corinthians 13. My love if from You will be manifested without reference to myself, because Your love is supernatural and can only be within me, when I have asked and been cleansed from all sins.  As it was for Jesus so it can be for me, that Your love flows out to all I meet, expecting nothing in return, though it is appreciated by You and I, when love is returned.

Your love is constant to each person, whether they acknowledge or accept Your love.  Love is an essential part of Your makeup, therefore it is impossible for You not to love every person, no matter what type of person they are.  The young lawyer who asked Jesus a question to test Jesus, was secure in the knowledge, that he had always kept all God’s commandments to the letter, but had never considered that they had been spoken in love, and reflected God’s love in action.  Therefore the keeping of God’s commandments without love availed nothing toward his salvation.

Today Lord, I give my heart and service, accepting Your love and in the strength of the Holy Spirit, will love You and my fellow man, with a true heart, which I of myself do not have.

Thank You that You accept and strengthen me unto the day ahead.

Amen

Proverbs 2: 2, 10 “So that you incline your ear to wisdom and apply your heart to understanding. When wisdom enters your heart and knowledge is pleasant to your soul.”

Dear God,

How delightful it is to seek Your wisdom and discernment each morning.  In Your word, the Bible, Your reveal yourself specifically, and when I put aside my own interests and prejudice, I find you without being wholly or partially obscured by my own bias.  For You send Your Holy Spirit, who leads me gently, day by day in knowing You, and how I should live my life as Your child.  When I meditate and pray out of Your word and teaching, I am corrected and led along a pathway to heaven.  This time has become most precious to me and more important than anything else.  For this and every other blessing and mercy, I praise Your name.

King Solomon, the author of Proverbs, was filled with wisdom, by You in answer to his prayer upon his ordination, as king of Judah.  In Proverbs after a large portion of his life, lived in apostasy and disobedience has passed, he shares his wisdom about what not to do, and instead to seek wisdom (Yourself) and understanding with diligence; to ‘cry out for discernment’ to ‘lift up your voice for understanding’; to seek as if for silver or hidden treasure’ (Proverbs 2: 1 – 4).  In V5, he promises that in the process of seeking true wisdom, we will learn what it means to appreciate and reverence the Lord, and will find the wisdom which comes from God.  Solomon found as we will, V6, “For the Lord gives wisdom; from His mouth come knowledge and understanding.”

Thank You that even my early morning dull mind (at times) can receive some knowledge and understanding of You in all ways needful; with more to come as I continue in Your way.  V8 “He guards the paths of justice, and preserves the way of His saints.”

I am so glad that I can go upon Your path all through this day; with the knowledge that You love to hear my prayers of petition and praise and then fill my need combined with blessing and peace that is beyond all human understanding.

Amen

1 Corinthians 15: 20 “But now Christ is risen from the dead, and has become the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep.”

Dear God,

In my mind, all is beauty and glorious, because You are with me these mornings, as I seek, thank and worship You.  Even though Your creation has been spoiled by sin and death, there is still much that is beautiful and wondrous in it.  It is exhilarating to contemplate Your heavenly home.  We have been told in scripture that heaven is a place of shining beauty that is in no way marred by sin and death.  For it is the home of You, Father God, and Son, Jesus Christ; now given a place of honour, because by His sacrificial death, the price for every sin ever committed on earth, has been paid.

No tomb could for ever hold the body of God, the Christ, and He arose from the tomb alive.  With no more left for Him to accomplish on earth, He returned to heaven, as King of Kings and Lord of Lords.  Now in heaven, Jesus intercedes for all who come in repentance and pray for forgiveness, opening the way for them to be saved from eternal death, if they choose to follow Jesus and live in His righteousness.

Hallelujah, I am loved and saved by God to day, because again today I have confessed every sin, and today, given Him my life anew.  Paul in 1 Corinthians 15: 1-4 has given the same word picture of Christ’s redemptive work on earth, and how we can be saved, so I can confidently follow his pattern.  1 Corinthians 15: 12 “Now if Christ is preached that He has been raised from the dead, how do some among you say that there is no resurrection of the dead?”   Then he goes on to counter the arguments, that there is no resurrection and what it would mean to us, if Christ had never been resurrected.  It would indeed be an empty faith and hope that I would have.  V13, 14 “But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ is not risen.  And if Christ is not risen, then our preaching is empty and your faith also empty.”

Thank You God, for saving Paul form his sins and work of destroying as many Christians as he could, and that Jesus gave him a vision of Himself, and forever after Paul was filled with Your Spirit.  In the letters to the congregations that he raised up, we of this present age can be encouraged and enlightened, by the many words of admonition and insights given to him, through Your inspiration.

It was Adam, who by believing Satan above God, bought sin and death to earth from that time forth.  It was Christ, in human form upon earth, in reliance upon His Father and the Holy Spirit, who did not sin, despite Satan claiming You God ask an impossibility for creation to obey Your law.  By His death and resurrection, Jesus reclaimed earth for Your rule, when it will be made new.

Today, like Paul, I rejoice in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus, in the knowledge that He has gone upon the route first, and I (we) can all follow, when we accept Christ and His way.

Amen

Matthew 5: 27, 28 “You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not commit adultery’.  But I say to you that whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.”

Dear God,

Thank You for another day and for my life with sufficient strength to work throughout the hours ahead.  Please show me the right way to deal with the pain beginning below my left buttock.  I am so grateful, that in answer to my prayer, I was able to find a position in which I eventually could sleep.

I have been so blessed with my health that I may have taken this gift for granted, as well as not give enough consideration in love, for those who are in constant pain, or any other type of disability/illness.  Today I pray that You will fill me with Your love and forbearance, as I endure this small trial, and strengthen me to look away from myself and instead up to Jesus, so that I can adequately uphold others in their needs.  Praises, Your mercy and comforts are always with me.

The priests of Christ’s day set out to trick Jesus, by asking a question about divorce, arising from their interpretation of what Moses had written; and the two different understandings of this teaching within the priests of the day.  Jesus through the Holy Spirit directed their minds to some related aspects that were sin and commonly indulged in their ranks.  These included their habit of not thinking it was adultery to lustfully look at a woman, or allowing the husband to divorce his wife for no moral reason.  They gave no reply to his answer that pointed them to their own sin, neither did it seem apparent that they had any conviction of their own sin, or need to change.

Please do not let my mind be content, to take an attitude of ‘nearer enough is good enough’ or that of ‘winking’ at my sin or diluting God’s moral code, just to fit around my own desires or sin.

In the days of Jesus, the man could divorce his wife on a flimsy excuse, or because he wanted a new wife, etc., even though she had not committed adultery.  As a divorced person, I am comforted, that I have Your blessing, as the recipient of sexual immorality.  Even though I know that divorce was never in Your original plan for the marriage partnership which was first instigated in Eden.    You never designed that another should in any way set out to separate those joined in marriage; but people did/do find themselves left alone because the other partner had/has moved out for someone else.  In these days that have different attitudes about the roles of woman and men, we woman are nevertheless not set free from the responsibility of being true to our promises and upholding the agreements or contracts two people have legally made with each other.

At the time of the adultery and being left for other women; I believe You gave me the opinion that I still hold, which is, all of us have sinned, and sexual adultery is the breaking of one of Your commandments, no less than stealing etc.; and even though painful for me, I can forgive, in Your power, as I can, being told lies or having something stolen from me.

Figuratively I am to put away anything that leads me into sin (Matthew 5: 29 – 31).  Not literally my eye or hand, but my thoughts that cause any part of my body to sin.  Even if that means breaking habits, contacts, lifestyle habits, or moving locality or jobs.  I am so glad I can give You all of me, including my thoughts and besetting sins.  Psalm 57: 2 “I will cry out to God Most High, to God who performs all things for me.”

Amen