The above prayer was given to by my mother. I am so glad for godly influences in my life
Sunday, March 23, 2014
A fathers prayer
O god, help me to be true to the great privilege and the great responsibility you have given me. Help me to be an example and a friend to my children, and a real partner to my wife. Don't let me get so busy with work and with outside things, that I am almost a stranger in my own home, and that I take no interest in household things. Don't let me take all that is done for me for granted, and help me to keep love alive within the home. Keep me from habits which make the work of the home harder, and from ways which irritate and annoy, or which get on the nerves of those who live with me. Give me health and strength and work to do, to earn a living for those who depend on me and whom I love so much; but help me remember that love is always more important than money. This I ask for your love's sake. Amen.
Friday, March 21, 2014
Man up?
What does it mean to man up? Does it mean to put on a brave face even in the face of danger, in the face of temptation, in the face of sin? We as men tend to think we can fix anything. We rely on ourselves to know the fix for any situation. When the truth is we have no answers...only temporary patches for the situation. The only true answer is found in the person, and personality of Jesus!
There he told them, “Pray that you will not give in to temptation.” (Luke 22:40 NLT)
When it comes to temptation and sin we, as men, tend to blame the media for what's on tv, or we blame women for how they dress...when the truth is it's our sin clouded view that is distorted. The only solution is Jesus!
Dear brothers and sisters, if another believer is overcome by some sin, you who are godly should gently and humbly help that person back onto the right path. And be careful not to fall into the same temptation yourself. Share each other’s burdens, and in this way obey the law of Christ. If you think you are too important to help someone, you are only fooling yourself. You are not that important. Pay careful attention to your own work, for then you will get the satisfaction of a job well done, and you won’t need to compare yourself to anyone else. For we are each responsible for our own conduct. (Galatians 6:1-5 NLT)
I don't normally listen to hip hop, but this song caught me. It's worth a listen.
Thursday, March 20, 2014
How muddy is your path
Open yourself to the leadership of the spirit and your steps will be directed by him. There may be moments of questioning and wondering but there will be no dead end streets. The psalmist says that if we love The Lord, none of our steps shall slide and our future will be peace.
From yesterday's devotional by Dennis kinlaw
Working construction I never know from one job to the next what conditions will be like on site. I went to one the other day that was muddy to say the least. I sensed the Holy Spirit speaking to be saying g no matter how muddy the path might seem no matter how dangerous the path I am here with you.
No matter how impossible the path might seem he is with us, and would never leave us
Monday, March 17, 2014
Dust
francis chan - Rope Illustration
Then he took him by the hand and led him into a very large parlor that was full of dust, because never swept; the which, after he had reviewed a little while, the interpreter called for a man to sweep. now when he began to sweep, the dust began so abundantly to fly about, that christian had almost therewith been choked.
then said the interpreter to damsel that stood by, "bring hither the water, and sprinkle the room"; the which, when she had done, it was swept and cleansed with pleasure.
CHRISTIAN: "What means this?"
INTERPRETER:"this parlor is the heart of a man that was never sanctified by the sweet grace of the gospel. the dust is his original sin, and inward corruptions that have defiled the whole man. He that began to sweep at first is the law; but she that brought the water, and did sprinkle it, is the gospel. Now, whereas thou sawest, that so soon as the first began to sweep, the dust did so fly about that the room by him could not be cleansed, but that thou wast almost choked therewith. This is to show thee that the law, instead of cleansing the heart (by its working) form sin, doth revive, put strength into, and increase it in the soul, even as it doth discover and forbit it, but doth not give power to subdue. (46)
Again, as thou sawest, the damsel sprinkle the room with water, upon which it was cleansed with pleasure. This is to show thee that when the gospel comes in the sweet and precious influences thereof to the heart, then i say, even as thou sawest the damsel lay the dust by sprinkling the floor with water, so is sin vanquished and subdued, and the soul made clean, through the faith of it, and consequently fit for the king of glory to inhabit." (47)
(46)
romans 7:6But now we have been released from the law, for we died to it and are no longer captive to its power. Now we can serve God, not in the old way of obeying the letter of the law, but in the new way of living in the Spirit.
1 corinthians 15:56For sin is the sting that results in death, and the law gives sin its power.
romans 5:20God’s law was given so that all people could see how sinful they were. But as people sinned more and more, God’s wonderful grace became more abundant.
Then he took him by the hand and led him into a very large parlor that was full of dust, because never swept; the which, after he had reviewed a little while, the interpreter called for a man to sweep. now when he began to sweep, the dust began so abundantly to fly about, that christian had almost therewith been choked.
then said the interpreter to damsel that stood by, "bring hither the water, and sprinkle the room"; the which, when she had done, it was swept and cleansed with pleasure.
CHRISTIAN: "What means this?"
INTERPRETER:"this parlor is the heart of a man that was never sanctified by the sweet grace of the gospel. the dust is his original sin, and inward corruptions that have defiled the whole man. He that began to sweep at first is the law; but she that brought the water, and did sprinkle it, is the gospel. Now, whereas thou sawest, that so soon as the first began to sweep, the dust did so fly about that the room by him could not be cleansed, but that thou wast almost choked therewith. This is to show thee that the law, instead of cleansing the heart (by its working) form sin, doth revive, put strength into, and increase it in the soul, even as it doth discover and forbit it, but doth not give power to subdue. (46)
Again, as thou sawest, the damsel sprinkle the room with water, upon which it was cleansed with pleasure. This is to show thee that when the gospel comes in the sweet and precious influences thereof to the heart, then i say, even as thou sawest the damsel lay the dust by sprinkling the floor with water, so is sin vanquished and subdued, and the soul made clean, through the faith of it, and consequently fit for the king of glory to inhabit." (47)
(46)
romans 7:6But now we have been released from the law, for we died to it and are no longer captive to its power. Now we can serve God, not in the old way of obeying the letter of the law, but in the new way of living in the Spirit.
1 corinthians 15:56For sin is the sting that results in death, and the law gives sin its power.
romans 5:20God’s law was given so that all people could see how sinful they were. But as people sinned more and more, God’s wonderful grace became more abundant.
(47)
john 15:3You have already been pruned and purified by the message I have given you.
ephesians 5:26to make her holy and clean, washed by the cleansing of God’s word.
acts 15:9He made no distinction between us and them, for he cleansed their hearts through faith
(The above was taken from The pilgram's progress by john bunyan)
after reading the above passage this morning in my devotion time it got me to thinking, how many christians are walking around hearts so full of dust that the least breeze will stir it up into a cloud? bringing with it all kinds of past regrets and sins? I pray that we would submit to the holy spirit and let him come water us so that the dust of the past might be washed clean. Oh spirit have your way in us, have your way in me wash me till i'm spotless!
His grace is all sufficient and is there with us even when we aren't worthy of it. he calls us all to submit to him to let him live through us. Most don't want to believe we aren't in control. As much as we don't want to admit it, surrender is totally worth it. let him wash us white as snow!
Saturday, March 15, 2014
Which path will you take?
Visiting my parents this weekend after dinner my girls and me went for a walk over what in the past had been a golf course. It has since closed, all the carts are gone, manicured fairways and greens are now over grown. There was one spot we were walking on the cart path, or what used to be a cart path. The words narrow is the path that leads to heaven. Each side of the path is overgrown with bushes and briars. If you stray too far off of the path and you'll get tangled up. This world throws things along our path that can distract us, that can try to lead us to places that will only tangle us up. Only in the love of Christ our savior can we stay on the narrow path. Trust in the one called wonderful, counselor, mighty god he will direct our steps!
“You can enter God’s Kingdom only through the narrow gate. The highway to hell is broad, and its gate is wide for the many who choose that way. But the gateway to life is very narrow and the road is difficult, and only a few ever find it. (Matthew 7:13, 14 NLT)
Trust in the Lord with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding. Seek his will in all you do, and he will show you which path to take. (Proverbs 3:5, 6 NLT)
Monday, March 3, 2014
No anxiety
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Saturday, February 15, 2014
love
John 15
9 “I have loved you the same way the Father has loved me. So live in my love. 10 If you obey my commandments, you will live in my love. I have obeyed my Father’s commandments, and in that way I live in his love. 11 I have told you this so that you will be as joyful as I am, and your joy will be complete. 12Love each other as I have loved you. This is what I’m commanding you to do. 13 The greatest love you can show is to give your life for your friends.
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]
·
·
·
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.
·
·
Galatians
5:14 (GWT)
All of Moses’ Teachings are summarized in a single statement,
“Love your neighbor as you love yourself.”
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:
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:
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,
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,
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:
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 ) .
than which nothing can be more strong and forcible; see ( John 13:34 ) .
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;
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.
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.
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