More on Peace

As we trust in you, Lord, your peace continues to fill us, and opens the way for joy and hope:

“May the God of hope fill You with all joy and peace as You trust in Him so that Your lives may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit” (Rom. 15:13 – emphasis mine). Without our trusting, none of this will come to pass.

You are wise, O God,

you are worthy of praise,

you are wonderful in insight,

you are a wonderment to all who know you.

To you, Lord Jesus, belongs all honor, glory and praise,

for you are the Lamb of God,

the Savior of the world,

the Prince of Peace,

the Harbinger of Hope,

the Lover of our souls,

the Bringer of justice,

and the Minister of mercy,

the Creator of all,

the Beginner and Ender of time.

Therefore, we exalt you, we lift up your name, we magnify your majesty, we bow down in worship, and we rise up to obey, for you and only you are worthy!

Our God is Magnificent!

“Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her….” Eph. 5:25

We had a good discipleship lesson tonight with a friend, talking about how to love his wife in practical ways.

We worked off of the five languages of love; perhaps you know of these (You can look them up online if you’d like more information on them):

–words of affirmation
–touch
–service
–gifts
–quality time.

Spouses often have different languages of love. For instance my wife’s two primary ones are gifts and quality time. Mine in contrast are words of affirmation and touch.

These often work against each other, so the key ingredient in really loving your spouse is often denial of self!

For instance, I like to work not play games or watch movies or take walks. But these things speak love to my wife, so I do them. And in her family compliments and touch were almost completely absent so for her it is not easy to love me this way. But she does!

Take a look and see what your two primary love languages are, and then talk with your spouse about what his or hers is. Then practice them.

We told our disciple tonight to bring his wife a little gift each week, maybe just a flower, or an apple telling her that she is the apple of his eye! Our friend said this was hard for him to do as it’s outside of his male thinking, but he said he would try it I’m sure his wife will appreciate it.

As it says in Ephesians, if we deny ourselves and love our spouse we are actually doing good to ourselves! God is very economical in his commands, accomplishing several things in one ruling.
Let’s join Him in that!

Picture: a little gift of love.

“May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him….”  Romans 15:13a

Praise be to you, Lord Jesus, King of Peace, God of Grace, Giver of Good.

You, in your wisdom have brought to us the possibility of peace, but.

have left to us the practice of partaking, implementing and enjoying it.

You invite us to dine with you at the table of peace;

if we refuse to sit down and join you by trusting you,

we, by our own choice, will live in peaceless turmoil, worry and fear.

Trust is an act of the will, based on our knowledge of God.

As it says in Psalm 86:15”… you, Lord,

are a compassionate and gracious God,

slow to anger,

abounding in love

and faithfulness.

What more do we need, just one thing: Faith.

Faith comes by hearing the Word.

So let’s get into it every day,

increase our faith,

choose trust and receive

the joy and peace God wants to give us.

Well, I’ve missed a couple of days of posting, but have a good reason.

—I could effectively stop the bleeding with my handkerchief.

—My son Josh was with me and took me right over to the emergency room.

—When we got there, no one was in the waiting room! And I was taken right in (very unusual for a Saturday).

—Athis point I had very little pain—up until they washed my hurt finger with salt water and that did smart!

—Since there was nothing left to sew up, they just wrapped it and sent me home with instructions.

—The low level of pain continued on and I didn’t need to use the strong painkiller they’d prescribed.

—When we came out of the emergency room, there was a puddle of  oil around my back tire, but I could find no source on the van.

—On the day home we found the cause: there was a leak in a brake line—but we made it safely home anyway.

—The van is my only vehicle, so now we were stranded; but the Lord provided as my neighbor came right over and fixed it!

—Then on Tuesday, as instructed, I called an orthopedic sergeon. After listening, the secretary asked, “Can you be here in 20 minutes?” Unheard of getting such a quick appointment!

—And a final God sighting: the doctor I saw was a Turk! And we had a nice conversation in Turkish!

So in the midst of what could look like a little tragedy (I can’t type very well with only 9 fingers!) God is doing many good things.

Truly “Goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life.” Psalm 27:6

My wounded finger and Psalm 23

Effective confession is more than just admitting a sin, like being jealous; it also requires looking at the layers of sin hidden under jealousy, some of which are:

selfishness,

accepting worldly values,

believing lies,

rejection of God’s standards,

pride,

rebellion

and unbelief—to name a few.

As I began confessing down through the layers of sin under jealousy, the Holy Spirit brought something to mind: the principle of setting our hearts on things above (Col. 3:1,2), especially as it is explained in Matthew 5:19-21: “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven…for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”

What a different perspective that is, especially compared to my jealousy and the sins under it. So, with the Spirit’s help,  I choose confession, repentance and surrender instead—and thereby stepped into the light, into the freedom that truth and transparency with God brings.

Picture: Keeping on the armor of God and stepping into the light of truth.