The perfect guide

Below is a devotional I receive daily, here is today's. Enjoy!

Long before baby Jesus was born, God prophesied that a King would be born in Bethlehem. Caesar Augustus had no idea he was setting God's plans in motion when he issued a decree that all the world should be taxed.
Mary and Joseph arrived in Bethlehem confident their Heavenly Father was taking care of every detail--but there was no room for them or baby Jesus in the inn! Mary may have been tempted to doubt the Divine planning. Surely 

there would have been arrangements made for Jesus to be born in a respectable place. 

Sometimes we think God must have forgotten to plan some details of our lives. Things don't seem to fall together. But God always provides, although not always in the way we anticipate. Sometimes He says, "I have higher purposes than simply allowing all to fall together easily. Trust Me to be your Guide no matter how things seem."

Thank You, Jesus, for being my perfect Guide. I will trust You even though I do not understand.

 "The LORD will guide you continually" (Isaiah 58:11).

Bind our hearts

Bind Our Hearts to Thee Posted: 06 Dec 2014 12:00 AM PST RG AUDIO 120614   Isaiah 53:1-12 The hymn “Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing” was written by Robert Robinson. Robinson came to Christ under the ministry of George Whitfield. He felt called to preach while attending Whitfield’s Calvinist Methodist Church. But, in only a year, he became entangled in a controversy over infant baptism. He soon joined a Baptist church, later becoming their pastor. One book he wrote during this time was: A Plea for the Divinity of our Lord Jesus Christ. However, after retirement he became associated with Unitarians and a prominent Unitarian minister performed his funeral. It is said that late in his life, while riding in a coach, a woman asked Robinson if he recognized the tune of the hymn she was humming. It was the tune to “Come, Thou Fount.” Robinson is reported to have replied, “Madam, I am the poor unhappy man who wrote that hymn many years ago, and I would give a thousand worlds, if I had them, to enjoy the feelings I had then.” We have all gone astray and are too prone to go our own way. Our only hope is to live daily near the One who was pierced for our iniquities. Author: Duane C. Brush

love

Love refers to a variety of different feelings, states, and attitudes that ranges from interpersonal affection ("I love my mother") to pleasure ("I loved that meal"). It can refer to an emotion of a strong attraction and personal attachment.^[1] It can also be a virtue representing human kindness, compassion, and affection—"the unselfish loyal and benevolent concern for the good of another".^[2] It may also describe compassionate and affectionate actions towards other humans, one's self or animals.^[3]

Ancient Greeks identified four forms of love: kinship or familiarity (in Greek, storge), friendship (philia), sexual and/or romantic desire(eros), and self-emptying or divine love (agape).^[4][5] Modern authors have distinguished further varieties of romantic love.^[6] Non-Western traditions have also distinguished variants or symbioses of these states.^[7] This diversity of uses and meanings combined with the complexity of the feelings involved makes love unusually difficult to consistently define, compared to other emotional states.

Love in its various forms acts as a major facilitator of interpersonal relationships and, owing to its central psychological importance, is one of the most common themes in the creative arts.^[8]

Love may be understood as a function to keep human beings together against menaces and to facilitate the continuation of the species.^[9]

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·             1 Corinthians 16:14 (GWT)

Do everything with love.

·             1 John 4:19 (GWT)

We love because God loved us first.

·             John 15:9 (GWT)

“I have loved you the same way the Father has loved me. So live in my love.

·             1 John 4:10 (GWT)

This is love: not that we have loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the payment for our sins.

·             Matthew 19:19 (GWT)

Honor your father and mother. Love your neighbor as you love yourself.”

·             Matthew 22:39 (GWT)

The second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as you love yourself.’

·             John 16:27 (GWT)

The Father loves you because you have loved me and have believed that I came from God.

·             1 Peter 4:8 (GWT)

Above all, love each other warmly, because love covers many sins.

·             Joshua 23:11 (GWT)

Be very careful to love the Lord your God.

·             Psalms 119:47 (GWT)

Your commandments, which I love, make me happy.

·             Luke 6:32 (GWT)

“If you love those who love you, do you deserve any thanks for that? Even sinners love those who love them.

·             1 Corinthians 8:3 (GWT)

But if they love God, they are known by God.

·             1 Corinthians 16:24 (GWT)

Through Christ Jesus my love is with all of you.

·             2 Corinthians 2:8 (GWT)

That is why I urge you to assure him that you love him.

·             Ephesians 5:28 (GWT)

So husbands must love their wives as they love their own bodies. A man who loves his wife loves himself.

·             Hebrews 13:1 (GWT)

Continue to love each other.

·             1 Samuel 18:3 (GWT)

So Jonathan made a pledge of mutual loyalty with David because he loved him as much as he loved himself.

·             Proverbs 8:17 (GWT)

I love those who love me.Those eagerly looking for me will find me.

·             Matthew 5:46 (GWT)

If you love those who love you, do you deserve a reward? Even the tax collectors do that!

·             John 13:34 (GWT)

“I’m giving you a new commandment: Love each other in the same way that I have loved you.

·             John 15:12 (GWT)

Love each other as I have loved you. This is what I’m commanding you to do.

·             Romans 13:10 (GWT)

Love never does anything that is harmful to a neighbor. Therefore, love fulfills Moses’ Teachings.

·             1 Corinthians 13:13 (GWT)

So these three things remain: faith, hope, and love. But the best one of these is love.

·             2 Corinthians 11:11 (GWT)

Why? Because I don’t love you? God knows that I do love you.

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·             Galatians 5:14 (GWT)

All of Moses’ Teachings are summarized in a single statement, “Love your neighbor as you love yourself.”

John 15:11

These things have I spoken unto you
Concerning the vine and branches, his abiding in them, and they in him, their fruitfulness from him, and perseverance in him, his love to them, and theirs to him:

that my joy might remain in you;
meaning either that joy with which he joyed in and over them, as united to him, and which is of the same nature as the joy of the bridegroom over the bride, and which will always remain and continue the same; or rather that joy which he is the author, object, ground, and matter of, for there is always reason to rejoice in him, even in the most afflictive circumstances of life:

and that your joy might be full;
that grace of joy which is implanted in the soul, by the Spirit of God in regeneration, and arises from, and is increased by discoveries of the person, grace, blood, righteousness, and sacrifice of Christ; and is "full of glory", ( 1 Peter 1:8 ) ; upon a clear sight of him in this life, and will be entirely full, completely perfected in the other world, when he will be seen as he is,

John 15:12

This is my commandment, that ye love one another
Christ had been before speaking of his commandments; and he mentions this as the principal one, and to which all the rest may be reduced; for as the precepts of the second table of the moral law may be briefly comprehended in this one duty, love to our neighbour, so all the duties of Christianity, relative to one another, are reducible to this, by love to serve each other. This was the commandment which lay uppermost on Christ's heart, and which he knew, if attended to, the rest could not fail of being observed. The argument by which, and the manner in which, he presses it, is as before:

as I have loved you;
than which nothing can be more strong and forcible; see ( John 13:34 ) .

John 15:13

Greater love hath no man than this
By these words our Lord shows, how far love to another should extend, even to the laying down of our lives for the brethren; which is the highest instance of love among men;

that a man lay down his life for his friends;
and in which believers, should not come short of them; and also his great love to his people, and explains what he had just said, "as I have loved you", ( John 13:34 ) ( 15:12 ) ; which in a little time would be seen, by his laying down his life for them: for he not only came down from heaven, and laid aside his glory and royal majesty, but he laid down his life; not his gold and silver, and the riches of this world, which were all his, but his life; than which, nothing is dearer to a man, is himself, his all: and besides, Christ's life was not a common one, it was not the life of an innocent person only, or the life of a mere man, but of a man in union with the Son of God; it was the Lord of glory and Prince of life, who was crucified, and slain; a life that was entirely at his own dispose; it had never been forfeited by sin, nor could it have been forced away from him by men or devils; it was laid down of and by himself, freely and voluntarily; and that "for", in the room, and instead of his people, as a ransom for them; he being their surety and substitute, and standing in their legal place and stead, he took their sins upon him, bore the curse of the law, sustained his Father's wrath, and all the punishment due to sin; and so suffered death, the death of the cross; the just, in the room and stead of the unjust; the persons for whom be laid down his life, are described as "his friends"; not that they were originally so; being enemies and enmity itself to God, when he laid down his life for them, and reconciled them; they were not such as had carried themselves friendly, or had shown any love and affection to him, but all the reverse: but they are so called, because he had chosen them for his friends; he had pitched upon them, and resolved to make them so; and by dying for them, reconciled them who were enemies; and in consequence of this, by his Spirit and grace, of enemies makes them friends; so that his love in dying for his people, is greater than any instance of love among men: he laid down his life for his enemies, without any sinister selfish views, and that freely and voluntarily; whereas among men, when one man has laid down his life for others, either they have been very deserving, or he has been forced to it, or it has been done with the view of popular applause and vain glory.

rend collective - alabaster 

The city harmonic - holy wedding day 

Holiness unto The Lord

 Blow the ram’s horn in Jerusalem! Announce a time of fasting; call the people together for a solemn meeting. Gather all the people— the elders, the children, and even the babies. Call the bridegroom from his quarters and the bride from her private room. Let the priests, who minister in the LORD’s presence, stand and weep between the entry room to the Temple and the altar. Let them pray, “Spare your people, LORD! Don’t let your special possession become an object of mockery. Don’t let them become a joke for unbelieving foreigners who say, ‘Has the God of Israel left them?’” (Joel 2:15-17 NLT)

Rise up oh men of god. Sound the alarm. We men are called to be holy.   We are called to lead our families, not to let the run wild or run with the trends of this fallen world. 

Don’t you know that wicked people won’t inherit the kingdom of God? Stop deceiving yourselves! People who continue to commit sexual sins, who worship false gods, those who commit adultery, homosexuals, or thieves, those who are greedy or drunk, who use abusive language, or who rob people will not inherit the kingdom of God. That’s what some of you were! But you have been washed and made holy, and you have received God’s approval in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God. Someone may say, “I’m allowed to do anything,” but not everything is helpful. I’m allowed to do anything, but I won’t allow anything to gain control over my life. Food is for the stomach, and the stomach is for food, but God will put an end to both of them. However, the body is not for sexual sin but for the Lord, and the Lord is for the body. God brought the Lord back to life, and by his power God will also bring us back to life. Don’t you realize that your bodies are parts of Christ’s body? Should I take the parts of Christ’s body and make them parts of a prostitute’s body? That’s unthinkable! Don’t you realize that the person who unites himself with a prostitute becomes one body with her? God says, “The two will be one.” However, the person who unites himself with the Lord becomes one spirit with him. Stay away from sexual sins. Other sins that people commit don’t affect their bodies the same way sexual sins do. People who sin sexually sin against their own bodies. Don’t you know that your body is a temple that belongs to the Holy Spirit? The Holy Spirit, whom you received from God, lives in you. You don’t belong to yourselves. You were bought for a price. So bring glory to God in the way you use your body. (1 Corinthians 6:9-20 GW)

I invite all who read this blog post to fast for 7 days 7 hours each day.  Seek god.  Seek his holiness seek him to rid you of the things this world would have us beleive are important, or the things that would draw us away from the path jesus would want us to take.  Seek him, ask him to reveal the things we need to rid our lives of.
he knows - jeremy camp

refiners fire - passion

bitter or sweet?

Have you ever eaten or drank something sweet, followed by something bitter?  I know i have. That is exactly what Jesus went through the week of passover.  At first he was praised as a hero...in the end he was condemned as a criminal.  


 It was good counsel one gave, “Never let go out of your minds the thoughts of a crucified Christ.” Let these be food and drink unto you; let them be your sweetness and consolation, your honey and your desire, your reading and your meditation, your life, death, and resurrection.

~ Thomas Brooks, Precious Remedies Against Satan’s Devices

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yWCgyMaWcDs

Surrender?

 Then Peter stepped forward with the eleven other apostles and shouted to the crowd, “Listen carefully, all of you, fellow Jews and residents of Jerusalem! Make no mistake about this. These people are not drunk, as some of you are assuming. Nine o’clock in the morning is much too early for that. No, what you see was predicted long ago by the prophet Joel: ‘In the last days,’ God says, ‘I will pour out my Spirit upon all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy. Your young men will see visions, and your old men will dream dreams. In those days I will pour out my Spirit even on my servants—men and women alike— and they will prophesy. And I will cause wonders in the heavens above and signs on the earth below— blood and fire and clouds of smoke. The sun will become dark, and the moon will turn blood red before that great and glorious day of the LORD arrives. But everyone who calls on the name of the LORD will be saved.’ (Acts of the Apostles 2:14-21 NLT)

The LORD took hold of me, and I was carried away by the Spirit of the LORD to a valley filled with bones. He led me all around among the bones that covered the valley floor. They were scattered everywhere across the ground and were completely dried out. Then he asked me, “Son of man, can these bones become living people again?” “O Sovereign LORD,” I replied, “you alone know the answer to that.” Then he said to me, “Speak a prophetic message to these bones and say, ‘Dry bones, listen to the word of the LORD! This is what the Sovereign LORD says: Look! I am going to put breath into you and make you live again! I will put flesh and muscles on you and cover you with skin. I will put breath into you, and you will come to life. Then you will know that I am the LORD.’” So I spoke this message, just as he told me. Suddenly as I spoke, there was a rattling noise all across the valley. The bones of each body came together and attached themselves as complete skeletons. Then as I watched, muscles and flesh formed over the bones. Then skin formed to cover their bodies, but they still had no breath in them. Then he said to me, “Speak a prophetic message to the winds, son of man. Speak a prophetic message and say, ‘This is what the Sovereign LORD says: Come, O breath, from the four winds! Breathe into these dead bodies so they may live again.’” So I spoke the message as he commanded me, and breath came into their bodies. They all came to life and stood up on their feet—a great army. (Ezekiel 37:1-10 NLT)

At times we all become dry, weathered. We try to go everything in our own strength and knowledge, trying to work things out ourselves. The Holy Spirit wants to help wants us to say to him I can't do this thing one own. I need you and your help. It's in our nature to go things on our own, key is will we surrender and let the spirit lead? 

http://youtu.be/ld1cXry5nyM

http://youtu.be/CS9vUZnAtcE

Light

His grace is enough.  No matter the situation, no matter the high or low he is with us.  We as Christians were put on this earth to shine Rays of light on those around us who need it. I pray we will be faithful to that call!

God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam and the mountains quake with their surging. There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, the holy place where the Most High dwells. God is within her, she will not fall; God will help her at break of day. Nations are in uproar, kingdoms fall; he lifts his voice, the earth melts. The Lord Almighty is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress. Come and see what the Lord has done, the desolations he has brought on the earth. He makes wars cease to the ends of the earth. He breaks the bow and shatters the spear; he burns the shields with fire. He says, “Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.” The Lord Almighty is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress. (Psalm 46:1-11 NIV)

If I speak with human eloquence and angelic ecstasy but don’t love, I’m nothing but the creaking of a rusty gate. If I speak God’s Word with power, revealing all his mysteries and making everything plain as day, and if I have faith that says to a mountain, “Jump,” and it jumps, but I don’t love, I’m nothing. If I give everything I own to the poor and even go to the stake to be burned as a martyr, but I don’t love, I’ve gotten nowhere. So, no matter what I say, what I believe, and what I do, I’m bankrupt without love. Love never gives up. Love cares more for others than for self. Love doesn’t want what it doesn’t have. Love doesn’t strut, Doesn’t have a swelled head, Doesn’t force itself on others, Isn’t always “me first,” Doesn’t fly off the handle, Doesn’t keep score of the sins of others, Doesn’t revel when others grovel, Takes pleasure in the flowering of truth, Puts up with anything, Trusts God always, Always looks for the best, Never looks back, But keeps going to the end. (1 Corinthians 13:1-7 MSG)

All rights reserved

As a disciple of Christ am I content to sit on the fence or am I about kingdom business? Do I look at life and others I journey with through the eyes of Christ?  Do I trust his plan, his will for me or am I content to "do it on my own?"  

If I am to be a true disciple of Christ I must give all rights to myself over to him who has saved me!

All rights reserved to the king of kings and lord of lords!

Read Ephesians 2; Romans 6:23, 5:8, and 10:9; Luke 6:37-42; Galatians 2:20

Consecration

Lord in the strength of grace,

With a glad heart and free, 

Myself, my residue of days, 

I consecrate to thee.

Thy ransomed servant, I 

Restore to thee thy own;

And from this moment, live or die,

To serve my God alone.

From the essentials of prayer by  E. M. bounds

prayer

 Rend collective - alabaster

listed below is a couple prayers out of a couple prayers out of an 1892 church manual.


lighten our darkness, we beseech thee, o lord; and by thy great mercy defend us from all perils and dangers of the night; for the love of thy only son, our saviour, jesus christ.  amen



almighty and everlasting god, from whom cometh every good and perfect gift; send down upon our bishops, and other clergy, and upon the congregations committed to their charge, the healthful spirit of thy grace; and that they may truly please thee, pour upon themthe continual dew pf thy blessing.  grant this, o lord, for the honour of our advocate and mediator, jesus christ.  amen.





 titus 2 

 Guidelines for Christian Living

1 Tell believers to live the kind of life that goes along with accurate teachings. 2 Tell older men to be sober. Tell them to be men of good character, to use good judgment, and to be well-grounded in faith, love, and endurance.

3 Tell older women to live their lives in a way that shows they are dedicated to God. Tell them not to be gossips or addicted to alcohol, but to be examples of virtue. 4 In this way they will teach young women to show love to their husbands and children, 5 to use good judgment, and to be morally pure. Also, tell them to teach young women to be homemakers, to be kind, and to place themselves under their husbands’ authority. Then no one can speak evil of God’s word.

6Encourage young men to use good judgment. 7 Always set an example by doing good things. When you teach, be an example of moral purity and dignity. 8 Speak an accurate message that cannot be condemned. Then those who oppose us will be ashamed because they cannot say anything bad about us.

9 Tell slaves who are believers to place themselves under their masters’ authority in everything they do. Tell them to please their masters, not to argue with them10 or steal from them. Instead, tell slaves to show their masters how good and completely loyal they can be. Then they will show the beauty of the teachings about God our Savior in everything they do.

11 After all, God’s saving kindness has appeared for the benefit of all people. 12 It trains us to avoid ungodly lives filled with worldly desires so that we can live self-controlled, moral, and godly lives in this present world. 13 At the same time we can expect what we hope for—the appearance of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ. 14 He gave himself for us to set us free from every sin and to cleanse us so that we can be his special people who are enthusiastic about doing good things.

15 Tell these things to the believers. Encourage and correct them, using your full authority. Don’t let anyone ignore you.