Pursuing the Presence, Purpose and Power of a closer walk with Christ

Posts tagged ‘Jesus’

Challenge of Specificity


 

Who can describe in twenty words or less a major event in one’s life that resulted in a life changing outcome?  What specific words can you use to describe what Jesus has done in your life that will have a lasting impact on another person’s life?

This is the challenge of specificity given by Michael Benson on a DVD we watched while at evening service this past Sunday.

I was hopelessly enslaved by addiction. Jesus delivered and set me free. I now have peace, joy, hope and purpose.

I started to write a paragraph, but rewrite after rewrite, I have accomplished the challenge…in text.

Will I tell specifically how God has changed my life and share the Gospel with others?

It is the Great Commission to do so. “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father,  and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,  and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age” (Matthew 28: 19-20) NIV

It is not a job for the weak, half-hearted or timid.

It is a command from the Commander of the Armies of the Lord.

And we, who profess to be a Christian,  who are full of the power of the Holy Spirit are able to accomplish His will.

With joy!

And specificity!

Are you up for the Challenge of Specificity?

Heavenly Father, help us tell others what you have done in our lives and thus fulfill the Great Commission with love.

 

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The Unexpected


Ground Zero Cross

Ground Zero Cross

I remember what happened exactly 13 years ago today on September 11th. I imagine there aren’t too many adults who don’t recall the horror of seeing the World Trade Center’s Twin Towers destroyed. Who can imagine what the survivors endured or how friends or family members of people who worked there awaited with frantic fear to learn if their loved ones were dead or alive. Certainly the husbands wives, mothers, grandparents, children, family members or friends of the brave ones risking their lives to help find and rescue those buried alive remember…and continue to grieve. The United States remembers and grieves this tragedy of unexpected loss.

Heavenly Father,

Bless and heal our nation.

Bless and heal the families who continue to grieve. Help the many victims who continue to grieve forgive if the haven’t yet done so.

Open the eyes and hearts of the terrorists who committed these unholy crimes. Help them and others like them repent and find you as their Lord and Savior.

God Bless and Keep America that we may all come to know and love the gift of your Son, Jesus. Amen.

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Loving Family


34 “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. 35 By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” (John 13:34-35 NIV)

Lord, God, loving family includes our children, parent(s), brother(s), sister(s), in-laws, step-children or step-parent, distant relatives and those who are in our church family as well.

Help us to be patient, kind and forgiving when they are difficult or almost impossible.

Help us model Christ-likeness in our giving, church attendance, and extra-curricular activities.

Help us repent of a habit contrary to the role-model we are to be.

Lead us to be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to anger.

Help us with the chores we do for family members, however menial or unpleasant.

Lead us to show love and kindness by sending a card, making time for and bonding with family members, blessing them with homemade goods or gifts to cheer when they are in need and on occasion performing one of their tasks unexpectedly.

Give us direction as we offer our service to the church.

Help us to have special times of prayer for family members who are unsaved.

Give us a desire to read your Word daily and spend time before your throne of grace in prayer. Fill us with your Presence, and help us serve them with a glad heart.

May we be faithful to pray for guidance for our loved ones to become who and what you have created them to be.

Finally, Lord, forgive us when we have been an ineffective witness because we displayed undesirable behavior toward our family.

Forgive us when we’ve been harsh, abusive, spiteful, jealous, covetous, hurtful, unloving, unyielding, unkind, and unfaithful.

Reform us into the family members that bring glory to you.

In Jesus name, Amen.

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Loving God


“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.” (Mark 12:30 NIV)


Help us, dear Lord, to have hearts that are free to love you as you have requested in your Holy Word.

Reveal to us any secret sin that may cause deception, thereby keeping us from loving you as we should.

Forgive us our trespasses through your Son, Jesus, and purify our souls.

For when our souls are pure and holy, our minds can think according to your Word.

As we meditate on your Word, we find comfort, hope, peace, direction, illumination, wisdom, knowledge and strength.

In your Presence, there is fullness of joy, and the joy of the Lord is our strength.

Thank you, Heavenly Father, that you loved us so much that you gave your Son, Jesus, to the whole world as part of your plan of redemption and Eternal Life.

Thank you Jesus, for the love you gave to each of us in that you went to the cross and you took our sins upon you, though you were without sin. You sacrificed your life in order that we may have the remission of sins and the gift of your Holy Spirit. Thank you for the hope of your promise that we’ll one day have the privilege of living with you for eternity.

We love because you first loved us, and it is your love that flows through us.

God is love and he who abides in God, abides in love, and God in him.

Help us love you more and serve you better than we did the day before.

In Jesus name, Amen.

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From Rags to Riches


Wisdom that is from God's Word is more valuable than gold, silver or rubies.

Wisdom that is from God’s Word is more valuable than gold, silver or rubies.

If someone offered you riches beyond your wildest imagination in exchange for your rags, would it give you cause to heckle and spout off? Certainly, there have been many rags to riches stories bringing the pauper and unknown fame and fortune. And whom among us would not want a dream come true life filled with the abundance of earthly things.

When I was younger, I often wished for the inheritance of a wealthy unknown relative to come to pass. But, this wishful thinking was not my reality, in fact, my life at one point was filled with despair because of my sinful heart.

All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away. (Isaiah 64:6 NIV)

Before I invited Christ into my heart, I felt dirty, ashamed, and in need of forgiveness. The moment I asked Jesus to forgive all my sin, I was cleansed of self-reproach associated with wrongful acts I committed and filled with his peace, joy and the promise of Eternal Life.

The good deeds done before coming to Christ would never be able to make-up for the wrong. My self-righteous acts were filthy rags before God who is Holy and all-powerful. The meaning of “filthy rags” written by Isaiah in the Bible are likened to a woman’s monthly sanitary protection. Yes, it is repulsive to think of such a word picture, but that is what our self-righteousness is before God Almighty. Only Jesus is righteous, but we can be clothed in his righteousness once we’re saved.

Yet, even though we were born into sin, our Loving Heavenly Father knew we needed a spotless lamb as our Savior to become sin for us and take our place on the cross. Jesus died on Calvary to cleanse and forgive our sins. John 3:16 says it best, “For god so loved the world he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish, but have Everlasting Life.”

It’s wonderful that the King of Kings and Lord of Lords wants to share what he has with us. “And my God will meet all your needs according to the riches of his glory in Christ Jesus.”(Philippians 4:19 NIV)
 It doesn’t mean we will get rich because we belong to Christ, if he so chooses to do that in our life he can. What I’m referring to is spiritual and eternal riches.

I find the abundant life in Christ and His Word to be wealth enough. That is my rags to riches story. I hope it is yours also. If it isn’t, I strongly urge you to decide that you want to know Jesus and experience the love he has for you. Then, the personal relationship with Jesus and the presence of the Holy Spirit will help you follow him the rest of your days.

Proverbs 8:10, “Choose my instruction instead of silver, knowledge rather than choice gold, for wisdom is more precious than rubies, and nothing you desire can compare with her.” v18, “With me are riches and honor, enduring wealth and prosperity.” v20, “I walk in the way of righteousness. along the paths of justice, bestowing wealth on those who love me and making their treasuries full.”

The wise choice is evident. Do you agree?

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A Stitch inTine


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You may have seen them out on the rural back-roads these past couple of weeks. Planting season is upon us and some of us have been delayed because of driving slowly behind a tractor that was either on its way to or coming from a field.

My neighbor owns a 1957 401 Case Tractor. He obliged my request to plow a new patch of ground where I planned to plant a strawberry patch and a few vegetables. As I returned home from an errand, I heard a tractor running. I turned off my car, got out and walked around to the back of the house hoping find out why it was idling.

At first glance, I thought, “He’s hurt!” My neighbor was laying on the ground beneath the rear of the tractor near the tines. As I hurried closer, he seemed to be wrestling with the cable that we took down earlier that morning; the one I wanted to drag completely out-of-the-way so the tractor wouldn’t be encumbered. However, my neighbor thought part-way was far enough. A “stitch-in-tine” in this Case(tractor)could have saved two hours if I had pulled it back into the woods.

The cable, formally used as a dog-run, became an entangled nightmare around the tines of the tiller head. Have you ever been vacuuming a rug when a piece of the unraveling rug yarn gets tangled in the brush-roller head? I have. It can become embedded in the ends of the roller making it difficult to untangle. But this cable couldn’t be pulled free like the unraveled rug yarn from a sweeper head. The cable had to be put through one side over a tine, then pulled through to the other side again and again until we could begin to reach the horrible tangle. The wires of the cable had to be painstakingly cut through. It then required an oversized screwdriver to pry the cable loose, one wrapped rotation at a time.

Just when I thought we were making headway, we would encounter another tangle, time after time. My neighbor was more patient then I; I wanted to take the end of the tiller that held the tines off. The cable wires looked like they were melted together in some sections, but thankfully, they were not.

While working on this tangled mess, I couldn’t help but think about how it related to my personal life. My life had at times become so entangled with the things of this world that I could not get myself free. It took the patient help of Jesus to free me from addiction, relationships and sin. Many times His love would reach down and pry loose the grasp that bound me by the cable of consequences, resulting from choices that I’d made. Choices that cost time and kept me from becoming what God wanted to be.

Has this been true for you? Has the Lord been merciful to you providing you forgiveness and Grace in spite of your faults, failures or wrong choices that you’ve made in your life? If not, I want to encourage you to seek his help in untangling any cable that binds you from becoming free to serve him and live in joy, love and peace.

Heavenly Father, help us to be at the right place, at the right time, doing the right thing to Glorify You. Bless those that need your comfort and forgiveness and draw them ever closer to You.

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Walking into Heaven


stairsway-to-Heaven-45956820346

I love dreams that I remember being happy in. Recently, I had such a dream. This was one of those dreams that you don’t want to wake up from. And I did wake up thinking to myself, “Not now! Why did you have to wake me when I was having a happy dream?”

I was awakened by my daughter for help while staying at a cabin out-of-state. I enjoyed my dream so much that I reluctantly got out of bed. However, as a 24/7 caregiver, duty was calling during the middle of the night.

Getting back to my dream, I dreamed I walked right into heaven! I was so happy. My surroundings were lit up to a brightness I hadn’t seen before, but it was not a blinding bright where you would need to shield your eyes. It was quite beautiful.

I then thought, “Well, this must be my glorified body because I wasn’t this petite size last I looked. But, Praise to God for giving me a glorified body in a smaller size.”

After helping my daughter, I returned to bed and thought about this especially happy dream of walking right into heaven. If this dream were to become true, that would mean I would be going to go home soon. Was I wishful-dreaming?

In the evening the next day, I attended special services at a quaint country church. During the beginning of the service, a young lady about thirty years of age stood up to ask for prayer and give her testimony. Her Grandmother had died the night before and she told the congregation how glad she was that her Granny had accepted the Lord recently and that she believed she had gone home to heaven.

After hearing what she said, the light went on in my head. The dream wasn’t about me walking into heaven, but was about her Granny walking into heaven and how very happy she was.

I immediately rose to testify about the dream I had the night before, which was the night her Granny died. What a blessing it was for the grieving Granddaughter to know by faith that her Granny was saved through the Grace of Jesus Christ, and to hear it confirmed through this prophetic dream.

Jesus life-sustaining blood was shed for all the world to redeem us from eternal death. Those who receive His sacrifice by faith are given the free gift of eternal life.

I am glad to have the hope and promise of Eternal Life because Jesus took my place of punishment and died on the cross for my sins. Thank you Jesus for loving me so much that you would suffer and die for me. And thank you Heavenly Father for your great Love and for sending your only Son to redeem the world.

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Sowing Seed


sowerAbout this time of year, in the colder regions where  some of us live, many people come down with a case of cabin-fever.  You know, the blahs, doldrums, sick and tired  of this cold, dreary weather that is putting its damp on my style.  Among the remedies for cabin-fever  featured  on television  are construction projects, home improvement ideas and beautifully  landscaped displays resembling the Garden of Eden. I, myself,  begin to dream of the possibilities of what the planting season will bring and get the “green-thumb urge” to go out into the fresh air wearing my work clothes, gloves and boots and begin sowing seed.planting seed_upd

Jesus spoke of sowing seed that is of a spiritual nature but illustrated it so simply in the Parable of the Sower.  “As he was scattering seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up. Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow. But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root. Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants. Still other seed fell on good soil, where it produced a crop-a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown. Whoever has ears, let them hear.” Matthew 13:4-9 NIV

I thought about this passage many times before, but in regards to  the context of verse nine; primarily how much of a crop is produced. Recently, a friend spoke to me about my writing and the neighborhood ministry I had been working on for the past several years. She expressed how I had let it fall by the wayside.  I couldn’t get the phrase, “fall by the wayside” out of my mind so I  googled it . There in verse four of the King James Version,  I read a similar expression, “some seeds fell by the wayside, and the fowls came and devoured them up.”  I’ve thought about the neighbors/readers who may have been  searching for Christ, and how I neglected sowing the seed of love. How many opportunities to reach out to them fell by the wayside? I’ve resumed writing and have gotten the “green-thumb  urge” spiritually  to  plant the seed of love by helping others in my neighborhood find peace, love and forgiveness through Jesus.

I encourage those of you  who read this post to think about how God may want you to sow seed. Do you sense an urgency to do something God has planned for you alone to do?  Perhaps you have a desire to visit the sick, work the line in a soup kitchen, donate clothes that you don’t need to those who have little,  or reach out to a neighbor.  Perhaps you have an emptiness within, the blahs or lack an interest in spiritual things? Are the activities in your schedule crowding out time that could be spent serving God? Do you hear God calling you to plant seed for his kingdom so it will produce a crop that is a hundred, sixty or thirty times greater than what was sown? Let’s get busy about his business of planting seed.

Father, help us make you our priority each day. Forgive us for missed opportunities and help us sow the seed you’ve given us while it still may be planted in the hearts of men and women.

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Autumn Abundance to Blessed Abundance


With Autumn’s abundance come the showering of leaves the trees shed.

 The maple trees bordering one corner of my property seemed to have been rather abundant this year. I had a carpet of 2-3 inches of that abundance that raked into 2-3 feet piles.

My neighbor had been watching the leaves  that were from another neighbor’s property,   shower onto my property.

I thought there had been more this year  than I had ever raked before.

 I won’t be stingy, though. I am more than willing to share the abundance with whoever may need a few…thousand…of  the thousands.

I was reminded of the Bible verse from Revelation 22:2. “On each side of the river stood the tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, yielding its fruit each month. And the leaves of the trees are for the healing of the nations.”

I think there will likely be  an abundance of leaves  since they will  be used for the healing of the nations in God’s Holy and Eternal Kingdom. 

 After seeing Jesus, one of the things I am looking forward to seeing  when God takes me to heaven is the tree of life with a blessed  abundance of “healing” leaves.

Today would have been my late husband’s birthday.  I may not be able to celebrate  Jerry’s birthday, but I know we will celebrate a greater day when together with the Lord in Heaven.

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The Blackberry Harvest Part-4


HOW DO YOU STAY CONNECTED TO JESUS AND BEAR MUCH FRUIT?

I think the answer to the above question is simply given in God’s Holy Word, the Bible.

John 15: 4 states, “Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.”

The concept of the vine and the branches is used because it refers to the relationship between the source-which Jesus is portraying himself as the vine and the branches-which are the believers in Christ.

Staying connected to the Lord will enable you to bear fruit. The prerequisites include faithfulness to the relationship and obedience to his will.

 How do you bear the fruit  that is spoken of in John 15?  Of course, it’s not the kind you may buy at the corner market.

This sweet fruit can be the things you do that reflect an attitude or deed which glorifies the Father.

 It could be  giving your neighbor a loaf of baked bread or a plate of cookies.(Why not invite them to church while you’re at it?) 

Letting the person behind you,  go ahead of you in the grocery line since you have a cart that is full and they have only a few items.

 Giving a compliment to another person, it doesn’t have to someone you know,  that you notice is good about them, their attire or hairdo. 

 “This is to my Father’s Glory, that you bear much fruit showing yourselves to be my disciples.” (John 15 :8 NIV)

Are we using every opportunity to love others and glorify the Lord?

Are our lifestyles  packed with errands, responsibilities and overcommitment, so that we don’t have room for bearing fruit?

“Well, I do my part in service to the church. That’s serving the Lord isn’t it?”

Only you and God can answer that question.

What does your harvest look like? Abundance or slim pickings?

Why not ask the Lord of the Harvest to prune you so you bear much fruit and glorify him?

Father, you are so good to allow us to go and bear fruit that remains. Help us focus as we begin each day, to give the baskets of our hearts to you to fill it with much fruit that glorifies you. In the name of your Son, Jesus, Amen.

Written

on 09/03/2012

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