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Fall from Grace into Grace

I failed majorly today, stepping into sin. I talk all the time about offering the sacrifice of thanksgiving, but today I didn’t. Several frustrating situations came, one after the other, but, instead of giving thanks, instead of trusting God, instead of honoring Him, I  complained. This led to unhappiness, then to anger, and then spilled over into ungracious interaction with others.

Amazing how quickly I can forget truth and then fall over the cliff of  complaining into the valley rebellion. God, however,  is faithful, and reached down to catch me. He gently corrected my thinking, helped me return to praise, and led me up  the path out of rebellion back into the light of His love.
And then He sent a big God sighting, resolving the biggest problem I’d been struggling with all day!
Certainly offering the sacrifice of thanksgiving, getting up the shield of faith is great protection from the flaming arrows of the enemy and from my own delusions about what is important.
“He who offers the sacrifice of thanksgiving, honors me and opens the way that I may show him the salvation of the Lord!” Psalm 50:23f
Picture: The Lord is always there to help us up!
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Worship out of and for Love

Today I want to give you  an example of personal worship helping to nurture my first love for God, using Psalm 84, focusing on the name “Lord Almighty” or “Lord of Hosts”.

“Praise be to you, Lord God Almighty,

Commander of the hosts of Heaven.

To you we give glory and honor and praise, for you,

Lord God,

King Jesus,

Gracious Father,

Holy Spirit.

You are the most High,

the most Wise,

the most Powerful,

the most Good

and the most Holy of all.

You are without beginning or end.

You are the junction point of seeming opposites:

justice and mercy,

truth and grace,

holiness and redemption.

Only you could be so,

only you are worthy of honor and praise.

It is right to bow down in worship before you.

It is right to surrender all to you.

It is right to rise up in obedience.

Praise be to you, Lord God Almighty.”

May be an image of cloud, horizon and text that says '"Blessed Be the Lord God Almighty"'

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Renewing First Love

So, here are some ways to nurture our first love for Jesus.

First, repent: acknowledge that our relationship is not what it should be.
Second, remember:
take the time to think about the early days of our walk with Him, the delicious sense of freedom from condemnation, the giddy wonder of having a new start, the soothing warmth of being fully accepted by God.
Third, reveal:
practice lifting our souls to God, regularly telling Him honestly what we are thinking (mind), wanting (will) and feeling (emotions). Then evaluate these by the Word, surrendering each to Him.

Fourth, rejoice:

spend time daily in personal worship, extolling Him for who He is without thinking about how that benefits us.
This kind of worship is standing in the light of God,
 seeing more and more of Him,
having sin exposed,
being transformed (2 Cor. 3:18),
 reveling in His love and grace.
As I do this, usually by writing my worship thoughts in my journal, there is continual renewing of my first love, there is a growing passion for Christ—and Barbara can see the difference.
Tomorrow an example of this kind of worship.
 
Picture: worshipping in the Light of the Lord
No photo description available.
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What Jesus wants

“…I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first.” Revelation 2:4

 

Barbara says it’s easy to tell when I am “in tune” with God, because then I am in tune with her. What she is referring to is the condition of my first love for Christ.

I can perform all the spiritual disciplines correctly (quiet time, prayer, attendance, giving, being nice) but Barbara can tell when the connection with God is missing, when I have no passion for Him.

As you may remember, when Jesus spoke to the Ephesians in the opening chapters of Revelation, He had a lot of positives to say about them, but ended with rebuking them for losing their first love. They had all the mechanics right, but their hearts had grown cold.

His command to them was, “Remember therefore from where you have fallen. Repent and do the things you did at first. If you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place” (Rev. 2:5).

So it is with us: we get busy, we give our heart and passion to something else, like our work/ministry/hobby/sport. As a result, our relationship with God grows cold, so slowly that we don’t notice it. But our spouse often does because our marriage relationship reflects the warmth or coolness of our walk with God.

So, what can we do to nurture, strengthen and deepen our first love for Jesus? Tomorrow I will give you 4 ways to do this!

Picture: Jesus call us to a renewal of our first love:

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The Power of Prayer

” The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.” James 5:16.

Prayer is joining God in what He is doing

Prayer is powerful because God is powerful.
As tumultuous events unfold in the world, we shouldn’t just sit on the sidelines and moan and groan, or just hope it passes son. No, we should go on the offensive with prayer, tapping into the power of the Lord God Almighty.
I encourage you to intercede for things like these.
Pray for the end to the war in Ukraine.
Pray for God’s desired outcome in the chaos in Iran.
Pray for protection for persecuted Christians.
Pray for the persecutors to come to Christ.
Pray for God to guide world leaders.
Pray for God’s will to be done.
Do so will bring change because God is faithful, bringing light out of darkness.
May be an image of lake and fog
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Ubiquitous Love

“But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Rom 5:9  Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him!” Rom 5:8,9
 
We got an illustration of God’s application of this love. There is a man who lives near us; his wife has MS and is quite incapacitated, so they don’t get out at so we go and visit them in between.
Today he told us his story. Grew up with a very abusive father, a man so evil that our friend thought about killing him.  The son went on to work for the mafia as a messenger, and lived the high life with great clothes, drink, relationships and respect (fear) from others.  
Then something happened and he become homeless, living out of his car. In the end he went to see his aunt who took in him on the condition he would go to church with her, which he did. And then came to the Lord.
He has a deeper understanding of how loving and forgiving God is. “It is amazing how much God can forgive, I have done so much evil in my life, and I am so thankful that Christ’s blood covers it all!”
So am I! It is so wonderful to know that every sin I ever committed and ever will commit has already be covered by Christ’s blood and I am already fully forgiven. Dwelling in the light of the Love of Jesus is a wonderful thing.
” See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!” 1 John 3:1
Picture: Jesus, “I’m so glad you are my child!”
No photo description available.
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Pursuit to the ultimate end

I love this verse that shows God’s great heart of love:

“…God our Savior, who wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.” 1 Tim. 2:3,4

Recently I listened to an interview that gave a glimpse into how much God does to bring people into His Kingdom.

The man interviewed, Pastor John Burke, is the fhe author of the bestselling book “Imagine Heaven,” which compiles research from interviewing over 1,500 people who have had near-death experiences.

These people are from various cultures and religions, including Muslims, Hindus and atheists, Their experiences have many similar aspects, all of which are biblical and result in most of them becoming followers of Jesus.

I encourage you to listen to this and be encouraged at the love, creativity and persistence of God in pursuing people in order to give them eternal life. Here’s the link:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WpY69O4fiZM

What Happens When I Die? | Chad Fisher + John Burke | Rock City Church

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Being Ready

For Christmas we took greeting cards  to some of our neighbors. One older couple in their late 80s were happy we came and we had a good sit down visit.

During the conversation the subject of death came up and I asked them my “parable question.” This is not biblically correct, but it certainly clarifies things for people “When you die and get to the gate of heaven and the angel asks you,”Why should I let you into heaven?” what will you say?
 Without hesitation the lady replied, “I’m a good person!” And humanly speaking she is, very religious, kind and gracious.
“Well,” I said, “that’s really  good, but it won’t work.”
“Really?” she asked, amazed.
I then proceeded to explain the gospel to  them. They followed along, and I gave them a 4 spiritual laws booklet.
Then one week later I learned that  the husband took a  nap and never woke up, passing on into eternity!
 I was so glad that we’d had the opportunity to share the gospel with them before that. Who knows what happened in his last minutes? At least he had a chance.
It is so important to seize the opportunity and share the good news.
Picture: when you have the right answer, “Jesus is my Lord and Savior!”
No photo description available.
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Full and rich Faith

When I am tempted to complain, it is helpful to think of what others are actually suffering—and to see their Godly responses! This gives me an example of what I can and should do. The following is an article from Voice of the Martyers.

 

Imprisoned Church Leaders Rejoice in Suffering for Christ

On Aug. 7, 2021, Pastor Wang Xiaoguang and other leaders of the Linfen church — including his wife, Yang Rongli — were arrested in Shanxi Province, China. They were accused of fraud, which is how the Chinese Communist Party characterizes the collection of tithes in the church.

After almost four years of detention, Pastor Wang Xiaoguang was sentenced to nine years and seven months in prison. In a separate trial, Yang Rongli was sentenced to 15 years in prison. Together, they face fines of 2.3 million CNY, or more than $320,000 USD.

Wang Xiaoguang’s son reported that his father considered it “a great honor” to be put on trial for the Lord, and his mother called the sentence “a great crown given to me by God.”

 

That is true faith in action! Believing that God has a plan and will use this all for good.

Picture: Chinese Christians being arrested during a service.

May be an image of one or more people

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Help on the way

I continue to be amazed at the detailed way God works  in our lives.  As it says in Psalm 139:5 “You hem me in behind and before, and you lay your hand upon me.”

Saturday I put some addative in my car’s transmission. This car doesn’t have the normal dipstick, just a little cap tucked way down under hoses and wires. I was able to get the cap  off and put in the additive, but when I tried to put the cap on, it slipped out of my hands and fell down into the engine.
 
 I looked everywhere for it, including under the car, as did a friend, but nothing. I took a break and as I came back a thought came to mind: “I should get down under the car and look again.” So I crawled under, but nothing. Then another thought came, “Look in  the fan cowling—and there it was! 
 
These thoughts, I believe were not my own from the Holy Spirit guiding me.
 
Today there was another such happening. I had to drill a 2.5 inch hole through the outer wall of an old house. It turned out that it was 7 inches thick of solid  wood. 
 
I struggled with it and made some progress, but then had to  come at it from the outside, but the hole I’d already drilled was much bigger than the bit in my hole saw,  so it jumped all over the place making it impossible to drill the hole. 
 
I sat wondering what I could use that was bigger. I tried several other bits, but they were too small.
Then a thought came, “Look in the tool box in your van.” 
 
I did and spotted a small screw driver which, it turned out fit the hole saw perfectly and was just the right size to guide the hole saw in making the last cut.
 
Coincidences? I think not; God was there helping me, even though i didn’t specifically ask for help. The one thing I did right was not  complain, which left my mind calm and open to the Spirit’s input.
He definitely  “hemmed me in behind and before, and laid His  hand upon me.”
Picture: the hole saw with the guiding screw driver God guided me to.
May be an image of hand drill