Heart Love

Here is a spiritual principle: We cannot exercise love unless we are experiencing grace. You cannot truly love others unless you are convinced that God's love for you is unconditional, based solely on the merit of Christ, not on your performance. Our love, either to God or to others, can only be a response to His love for us.  Jerry Bridges

I was reading a devotional by Rick Warren and he was talking about loving people from the heart.  He made a statement that stuck with me.  He said that if we don’t love people from the heart then they get on our nerves.  If we react to each other from our minds instead of our hearts then we are not loving with “heart love”. 

What does it mean to love other people from the heart?  It means it is necessary to ask questions and really listen to the answers.  If you hear the hurt and try to understand it, you are moving toward “heart love”. 

There are going to be people in this life who are going to get on our nerves.  So how do we come to love that type of person?  One of the things I do when that occurs is I think of things that person may be going through that I know nothing about.  There may be a tragedy in that person’s life that has broken them.  I run different scenarios through my head.  What if that person lost a son or daughter or maybe a parent?  If I practice “heart love” then my heart will be softened toward that person and instead of getting on my last nerve, I see them in a different light.  The light I see them in is God’s light. 

When God said to love your neighbor, he didn’t mean only when they do what you like or want. I have a neighbor who is volatile when he drinks.  You really never know who walks out of his garage on any given day.  He has a lot of anger in him and he shows that anger sometimes to his kids.  I’ve been the unfortunate witness to this one day when I left my house.  The same person has helped us repair our fence and gate, but he is also the same one who later backed out of the garage and hit that same fence while my husband was standing in the driveway.  Did it aggravate me every day when I walk out to get into my car and my gate wouldn’t open properly because my neighbor knocked it out of whack?  Yes.  But every time I get aggravated I stop myself and think about the issues he has in his life.  If I don’t consciously remind myself of the Holy Spirit living in me, I will never love others as I should in this life.

One of the things that God has provided to help us is the Holy Spirit.  If the Holy Spirit lives in us we will start reflecting “heart love”.  Have you figured out that a lot of what we call love is not really love at all?  Let the Holy Spirit dwell in you and God’s love will be made complete in us.

Prayer for the Day: Heavenly Father, there are times when I do not show others “heart love”.  The death of Jesus Christ on the cross was You showing us “heart love”.  That kind of love is not based on how much we love God, but on how much He loves us. I have figured out that there are times in my life when I am unlovable, yet You continue to show me Your love with all the blessings in my life.  Help me to demonstrate “heart love” to everyone I meet.  I worship and praise you forever.  

      

Scripture: Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.  Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.  This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him.  This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.  Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.

This is how we know that we live in him and he in us: He has given us of his Spirit.  And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world.  If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in them and they in God. And so we know and rely on the love God has for us.

God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them. This is how love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment: In this world we are like Jesus. There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.

 We love because he first loved us. Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen. And he has given us this command: Anyone who loves God must also love their brother and sister. 1 John 4:7-21

Thoughts About Heaven

Heaven is not here, it's There. If we were given all we wanted here, our hearts would settle for this world rather than the next. God is forever luring us up and away from this one, wooing us to Himself and His still invisible Kingdom, where we will certainly find what we so keenly long for.  Elisabeth Elliot

Have you ever thought about the people you will see in heaven and those you will get to spend time with when you get there?  Then there is the time itself where you will have unlimited time where it doesn’t end. 

I remember many summers spent with my grandparents.  My sister and I would go for a week every summer to spend with my grandparents outside of Austin.  Sometimes if we were lucky we might get to stay an extra week. 

My grandmother was a great cook so when you went to Granny’s house she always had homemade cookies.  I don’t remember ever going to her house when there weren’t cookies in the cookie jar.  Sometimes it would be chocolate chip, oatmeal and sugar cookies and the next time there would be peanut butter and potato chip cookies.

My Grandpa was a fisherman so we always had the opportunity to go fishing or tubing in the creek that ran behind their house.  Grandpa had all the fishing equipment.  He had cane poles, hooks, corks and we would go down to the nearest bait store for minnows, worms and crickets.  Grandpa also taught us how to bait our own hook.  We were girly girls but we could bait our hook and remove a fish from the line. 

Granny and Grandpa also had a swing on their front porch and there were always times where you would just sit on the swing and talk about nothing in particular. 

Granny and Grandpa were always the ones who let us get away with stuff that your parents would never allow.  You always knew no matter what we did, Granny and Grandpa never told Mom and Dad.  You might get in trouble while you were there, but they never told on you.  It was the unwritten “Granny Grandpa Rule”.

When I think about heaven and the people I will see there I think about my grandparents. Can you imagine having no schedule and all the time in the world to just visit or maybe just go fishing with your Grandpa or cookies and milk with your Grandma? 

How about getting the opportunity to sit and talk to Jesus with no meetings to get to and having unlimited time with the One who saved us?  What about getting to talk to David about a sling-shot and a rock or Noah and a boatload of animals?  Then you might be able hear Moses talk about parting the Red Sea?  I look forward to Heaven with great longing.  

                  

Prayer for the Day: Heavenly Father, I am forever thankful for your many blessings, the most important one being Christ’s death on the cross for my sin.  Thank you for giving us a way back to You.  I look forward to seeing and worshiping You in Heaven.   

Scripture:  And I say to you that many will come from east and west, and sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven.  Matthew 8:11

Now I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away. Also there was no more sea. Then I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.  And I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people. God Himself will be with them and be their God.  And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away.”

Then He who sat on the throne said, “Behold, I make all things new.” And He said to me, "Write, for these words are true and faithful.” And He said to me, “It is done!  I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. I will give of the fountain of the water of life freely to him who thirsts. He who overcomes shall inherit all things, and I will be his God and he shall be My son.  Revelation 21:1-7

Hurt People Hurt People

As we get close to God, he is going to reveal things in our life that aren't pretty. We'll see the patterns of bitterness, anger, manipulation, and hurt that have cycled in our relationships.  Chip Ingram

Have you figured out that people who are hurting, hurt others.  By that I mean have you noticed how we live in a society of hurt and angry people?  Anger is prevalent in our society and it is getting worse and more often than not, a person who is hurting is going to hurt others through anger or some other means.

What are some of the characteristics of a hurting person?  They are angry and direct that anger at others.  They are insecure because they feel unloved.  Bitterness is a trait of a hurt person and so is sarcasm.  Hurt people build walls around themselves because they are afraid someone will see the vulnerable person inside. 

Secure people who know they are loved don’t act out in anger, bitterness or sarcasm.  A person who knows they are loved is generous, kind and loving. 

One of the things I have learned is that human beings are sinners.  Many years ago I looked up to people who from the outside looked like a Christian, but when you learned the true details of their lives, it wasn’t pretty.  There were times in my life when I did exactly this.  I went through the motions of living a Christian life but there was darkness inside that I didn’t want anyone to see.

Living in a sinful world means that we are going to be disappointed by others around us and we are going to disappoint others too.  Too many times we depend on the people around us to be infallible.  So we look up to others and we are disappointed when they fail us.  Then we turn on them in anger for that very reason. 

When we learn that God is the only one Who loves us unconditionally and that if we put our faith in Him for our security and love, that is when we can learn the wisdom of loving others for who they are and not what we want them to be.  If our focus and security is in the love of Jesus Christ, we start to see the hurt in others.  What this produces in us is wisdom.  When we can see past the hurt and anger to the hurt person inside, we are headed towards God’s wisdom.  God promises us treasure if we search for it.    

Prayer for the Day: Heavenly Father, in the past I was guilty of showing the world what I thought You wanted me to be, but I was a totally different me inside.  I now understand that it created sorrow, loneliness and hurt and that colored everything I did in life.  I have since come to know Your love and what an amazing gift You have given me.  Knowing You love me changed my life.  It helps me to see others in a different light.  It has taught me to love the unlovable.   

    

Scripture:  For this reason I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named,  that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man,  that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height— to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen. Ephesians 3:14-21

How Do You Learn Wisdom?

Wisdom is the right use of knowledge. To know is not to be wise. Many men know a great deal, and are all the greater fools for it. There is no fool so great a fool as a knowing fool. But to know how to use knowledge is to have wisdom.  Charles Spurgeon

I was thinking about wisdom this morning.  How do you learn wisdom?  One of the best ways to learn is through criticism.  Ouch!  That is not one of my favorite things.  It is very hard to accept criticism from others isn’t it?  Who wants to have their faults laid on the table for all to see? 

One of the things that often happens with criticism is it is not given with love.  The majority of people who criticize others often do so harshly and without any sign of love in sight.  Why is that?  The majority of the time it is handled without love because the person administering the criticism is trying to break the other person down instead of building them up.  God never intended for us to tear each other down.  If we are part of God’s family, we are called by God to minister to each other. Part of ministering to each other lies in confronting each other in love when we see someone else moving away from God.

Another way we learn wisdom is by study and application. If we are to learn how God wants us to live we need to meditate on His Word.  We are not going to get it by never opening our Bible.  The next step we need to take is to apply the wisdom we learn by applying it to our life.  If we don’t do the second step, all the study in the world is never going to get us closer to what God wants us to be and we also will never get any closer to that ever elusive wisdom we seek. 

Another way of learning wisdom is by observation.  This one is tricky because you must first determine what is right from wrong.  When I was little I would watch my siblings or friends.  If they did something that got them in trouble I learned from their mistakes.  I didn’t do the thing they got in trouble for and gradually it became second nature to watch others mistakes and not repeat them. 

Unfortunately, as we learned from Solomon, he was given wisdom personally by God but he didn’t handle it very well.  He is an example of gaining wisdom and then losing it.  Just because we have wisdom doesn’t mean we won’t lose it either.  Sometimes we don’t need Satan’s help to fail; we often handle that very well on our own.

Prayer for the Day: Heavenly Father, I praise You for the blessing of wisdom.  I sometimes fail at wisdom but I continue to try to find it in your Word.  If I study Your Word, meditate on it, use love with others and apply what I learn to my life, and make my request known to you, I too can gain wisdom. “But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.  If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him.  But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind." James 1:4-6

Scripture:  My son, if you receive my words, and treasure my commands within you, so that you incline your ear to wisdom, and apply your heart to understanding; Yes, if you cry out for discernment, and lift up your voice for understanding, if you seek her as silver, and search for her as for hidden treasures; then you will understand the fear of the Lord, and find the knowledge of God.   For the Lord gives wisdom; from His mouth come knowledge and understanding; He stores up sound wisdom for the upright; He is a shield to those who walk uprightly; He guards the paths of justice, and preserves the way of His saints. Then you will understand righteousness and justice, equity and every good path.  Proverbs 2:1-9

Expiration Dates

Every path that leads to heaven is trodden by willing feet. No one is ever driven to paradise.  Howard Crosby

My husband shared an article with me the other day from our local newspaper written by a journalist named Steve Blow.  This may or may not apply to you but it sure applied to us.  The two of us laughed over the article.  I admit it, Jerry and I are easily entertained.

Anyway, the article was talking about expiration dates on foods and how much food we throw away because of an expiration date printed on the container.  As he said sometimes the date on the outside of the container is not an expiration date but a sell by date.  So in reality you may have a few extra days left on that gallon of milk in the fridge.

I am of the mind that you can kill most germs in the microwave.  Just nuke it a few minutes.  I admit I have forgotten things in the fridge that would be better off not opened, but how can you tell until you open it unless it is in a clear container.  I am sort of a recycler of plastic food containers so sometimes my memory fails me about what I thought was important to save for a second meal. 

I love to cook but never seem to have the time anymore so my theory is don’t go near the kitchen or the fridge.  That is why bad things happen in my fridge. I put the leftover pizza wrapped in foil in there and forget about it for several days.  When I return to get something out, I start wondering what is wrapped in the foil.  I open it and there is the leftover pizza from last week that resembles an over large hockey puck with extra toppings. It gets even better when you have several people putting things in the fridge because it gives a whole new meaning to the term “mystery meat”.

Then there are the dressings and condiments in the door.  Every year or so I clean those out and throw the outdated ones away, but I wonder if it is just my paranoia over eating some dreaded bacteria that makes me throw out that old bottle of ketchup. Too many times I think we buy into what the manufacturers tell us because they don’t want to be liable for us eating something that makes us sick, plus they want us to buy more. What better way to do this than to tell us our old ketchup is no good anymore.  My theory is that if I left the ketchup in the fridge for over a year, it’s every man for himself.  Eat at your own risk. 

Then there are all the take-out food containers that accumulate.  We take the left-overs from the restaurant and decide to give them a new place to live, “in our refrigerator”.  So they take up residence and never leave until the next time you get hungry.  Then it’s like a scavenger hunt.  Do I open this container and find a shriveled up piece of bread and that stuck together chunk of pasta or the leftover salad that disintegrated.  I kind of like to think of the refrigerator like that old show “Let’s Make a Deal”.  You could choose between door number one or door number two.  Door number one could be a dud and door number two could be edible. 

If you think about it, we all have an expiration date too.  The thing is God doesn’t want us to expire before we make the choice to come to Him.  Every person in this world has an expiration date.  We all will expire from this world into another.  Where we choose to spend the next life is a choice.  None of us know when our time on earth will end but we do have the opportunity to live forever with no expiration date.  Have you accepted Christ’s invitation to the wedding banquet?  

        

Prayer for the Day: Heavenly Father, I will leave this earth one day for another home. I have the choice to live in eternity with You.  I also have the opportunity to show others the way home, but if I don’t tell others how to get to You, then I am not living the life You have called me to live. 

Scripture:  And Jesus answered and spoke to them again by parables and said: “The kingdom of heaven is like a certain king who arranged a marriage for his son, and sent out his servants to call those who were invited to the wedding; and they were not willing to come.  Again, he sent out other servants, saying, ‘Tell those who are invited, “See, I have prepared my dinner; my oxen and fatted cattle are killed, and all things are ready. Come to the wedding.” ‘But they made light of it and went their ways, one to his own farm, another to his business. And the rest seized his servants, treated them spitefully, and killed them. But when the king heard about it, he was furious. And he sent out his armies, destroyed those murderers, and burned up their city.  Then he said to his servants, ‘The wedding is ready, but those who were invited were not worthy.  Therefore go into the highways, and as many as you find, invite to the wedding.’  So those servants went out into the highways and gathered together all whom they found, both bad and good. And the wedding hall was filled with guests.

“But when the king came in to see the guests, he saw a man there who did not have on a wedding garment. So he said to him, ‘Friend, how did you come in here without a wedding garment?’ And he was speechless. Then the king said to the servants, ‘Bind him hand and foot, take him away, and cast him into outer darkness; there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’

“For many are called, but few are chosen.”  Matthew 22:1-14

Engage

Past the seeker as he prayed came the crippled and the beggar and the beaten. And seeing them... he cried, "Great God, how is it that a loving creator can see such things and yet do nothing about them?" God said, "I did do something. I made you." ~Author Unknown 

Our pastor spoke about engagement.  We are doing a study on transformation.  Transforming ourselves into what God created us to be on this earth.  God didn’t create us to just hang out with other Christians.  He also created us to engage with others who don’t know Him.  He told a story that was an excellent example of what it means to engage with other people for God’s glory. 

The story went like this.  The President of the United States is the leader of the largest nation in the world.  You are invited to attend a dinner with the President.  You are sitting at the table and there are plates and utensils all around.  A head waiter from the hotel where the dinner is held comes up to the wait staff and asks why the dishes are still on the table.  He says, “The President of the United States is getting ready to speak so why aren’t the dishes cleared from the table.”  The wait staff replies that the dishwasher is broken and there are dishes all over the kitchen and no room for more.  The head waiter tells the staff that if the dishes aren’t cleared by the time the President steps up to the podium they will all be fired. 

The President happens to overhear the conversation and heads to the kitchen.  He takes off his coat, rolls up his sleeves and starts washing dishes.  The Secret Service has followed him and are drying dishes. 

The correlation here is that Jesus was the best in the world at engaging.  He was the King of the World and he knew how to engage with the least of those on earth.  He showed us what servanthood means.  The evening before his crucifixion he washed the disciple’s feet.  This was a job that was normally left to the lowest person in the household and Jesus Christ our Savior bent down and washed dirty feet. 

How will we know what it means to serve others if we don’t bring ourselves to the lowest level?  What better way do we have to show others God than by serving someone else in need without expecting something in return.  Jesus engaged with tax collectors, thieves, prostitutes, the blind, beggars and he continues to engage with us through the Holy Spirit. What a different world this would be if we all engaged as Jesus did.      

Prayer for the Day: Heavenly Father, I don’t want to stand on the sidelines.  I want to be engaged in Your business.  Please give me the strength to use what you have given me for others.  I want your Glory to be my only business. 

Scripture:  When he had finished washing their feet, he put on his clothes and returned to his place. “Do you understand what I have done for you?” he asked them. “You call me ‘Teacher’ and ‘Lord,’ and rightly so, for that is what I am. Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet. I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you. Very truly I tell you, no servant is greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them. John 13:12-17

Self-Control  

A silly idea is current that good people do not know what temptation means. This is an obvious lie. Only those who try to resist temptation know how strong it is.... A man who gives in to temptation after five minutes simply does not know what it would have been like an hour later. That is why bad people, in one sense, know very little about badness. They have lived a sheltered life by always giving in. ~C.S. Lewis

Self-control is necessary because we are in a fight with ourselves and the problem lies within our own heart.  One of my biggest struggles has always been to not retaliate when someone attacks me.  It would be so much easier to just say what I think and not worry about who is hurt by my words or actions. 

Self-control is an essential character trait of the godly person that enables obedience to God’s Word.   “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.” Luke 9:23 The literal Greek meaning of self is “inner strength” and control conveys the idea of allowing sound judgment to control our desires, appetites, thoughts emotions and actions.  When you put the two together sound judgment enables us to determine “what” we should do and “how” we should respond with the inner strength to follow through. 

Jerry Bridges in his book “The Fruitful Life” states it best I think.  “Self-control is the exercise of inner strength under the direction of sound judgment that enables us to do, think, and say the things that are pleasing to God.”

Emotions play a big role in self-control.  These include anger, rage, resentment, self-pity and bitterness. If we have an uncontrolled temper this is a contradiction to our practice of godliness.  An uncontrolled temper damages the self-respect of others, creates bitterness and destroys relationships.  “Better a patient man than a warrior, a man who controls his temper than one who takes a city.”  (Proverbs 16-32)  This describes how a patient man is better because he fights a daily battle with self-control, whereas a warrior fights to take the city one day and then moves on to the next battle.

Sound judgment is the beginning of self-control.  In order for us to exercise sound judgment we must first know where our own weakness is.  We are all different and each of us suffers with self-control issues.  Where one person may struggle with self-pity another may struggle with spiritual pride.  We must look inward to determine where our lack of self-control lies and the tool we should use to overcome it is God’s Word. 

Prayer for the Day: Heavenly Father, there are so many times when I lack self-control.  I want my actions to be pleasing in your sight but I know that I must spend time with You.  This is the only way I can be more like You.  I am weak but I know with Your help I can become strong.  Please help me in my weakness.    

                  

Scripture:   But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law. And those who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. Galatians 5:22-24

What a Savior

You are saved - seek to be like your Savior.  Charles Spurgeon

If you ever had someone ask you why Christians place so much importance on Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior, we need look no further than the written account of Him in the Bible.  I am thankful to God for giving me such a Savior.  When we die to ourselves and accept Him as our Lord and Savior, our lives are forever changed. 

Scripture promised Him                        Genesis 3:15

Abraham believed Him                          Galatians 3:6-8, 16-18

Moses lived for Him                               Hebrews 11:23-26

Isaiah prophesied about Him                 Isaiah 53

David knew Him                                    Mark 12:35-36

Israel hoped for Him                              Jeremiah 17:13-14

Elizabeth blessed Him                          Luke 1:43

Mary magnified Him                              Luke 1:46-47

Shepherds spoke of Him                       Luke 2:17-18

Wise men worshipped Him                    Matthew 2:11

Simeon looked upon Him                       Luke 2:25-30

Anna testified of Him                             Luke 2:36-38

John wrote of Him                                John 20:31

God anointed Him                                 Acts 10:38

Disciples walked with Him                     Matthew 4:19

Seekers talked with Him                        Luke 24:32

Believers received Him                         John 1:12

Prayer for the Day: Heavenly Father, I praise You for my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  O what a Savior who died a horrible death to save a sinner like me.  Every blessing I ever receive comes from You Lord, and the most important one is Jesus.  I can’t wait to meet Him face to face and sing His praises.  Thank you for loving me and sending Your Son to die for me.    

Scripture: The Humbled and Exalted Christ

Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. Philippians 2:5-11

One of a Kind

The day that each person willingly accepts himself or herself for who he or she is and acknowledges the uniqueness of God's framing process marks the beginning of a journey to seeing the handiwork of God in each life.  Ravi Zacharias

I read a statement that really stuck with me.  “The way you see yourself influences everything else in your life.”  This is so true.  Why do we buy into what someone else tells us we are? 

From the time we are born until we die, we are surrounded by outside influences and those influences can make or break us.  They can turn us in the wrong direction away from God or lead us to Him.  How do you rid yourself of the negative things that people have said to you over the years?  Sometimes we buy into what people say more than what God has to say about us.  Too many times I think it is our need to be accepted for who we are and sometimes we even change who we really are to fit the mold someone places us in.

If we want to know our true worth and our great potential, we need to look no further than the One who created us.  When we look to God’s Word for our true worth we are set free.  One of the best examples of this is found in John 8:31-36.  “Then Jesus said to those Jews who believed Him, ‘If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed.  And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.’  They answered Him, ‘We are Abraham’s descendants, and have never been in bondage to anyone.  How can You say, ‘You will be made free?’ Jesus answered them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, whoever commits sin is a slave of sin. And a slave does not abide in the house forever, but a son abides forever. Therefore if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed.

Each person that God created is “One of a kind”.  There are no two of us that are exactly alike.  When we stop buying the stuff other people are putting down about us, that is our first step to true freedom.  Freedom is knowing “Whose” we are and living for Him.

Prayer for the Day: Heavenly Father, there were times in my life where others said things about me or to me that made me doubt myself.  That doubt moved me further away from You.  I know this to be true.  You created me in your image and you created me for a purpose.  If I look to You instead of those around me, You will give me the true picture of who I am and what I have the potential to be in Your eyes.  I praise You for making me one of a kind.

Scripture: For You formed my inward parts; You covered me in my mother’s womb. I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Marvelous are Your works, And that my soul knows very well. My frame was not hidden from You, when I was made in secret, and skillfully wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. Your eyes saw my substance, being yet unformed. And in Your book they all were written, the days fashioned for me, when as yet there were none of them.  Psalm 139:13-16

Make Me Broken

Learn this lesson: not to trust Christ because you repent, but trust Christ to make you repent; not to come to Christ because you have a broken heart, but to come to Him that He may give you a broken heart; not to come to Him because you are fit to come, but to come to Him because you are unfit to come. Your fitness is your unfitness. Your qualification is your lack of qualification.  Charles Spurgeon

Have you ever prayed to be broken?  Brokenness is not fun and it isn’t meant to be.  Brokenness means we are at the bottom not the top.  In our humanness we want to be unbroken and untouched where tragedy and trouble don’t happen.  The problem is if we remain unbroken we often will never see God as the Redeemer of brokenness.

There have been many times in my life when I was broken and I admit I never prayed for it.  The thing I have since learned is that God loved me enough to allow me to be broken whether I wanted it or not.  One of the definitions I read about the word brokenness is that it means to not function properly or to be out of working order. 

What does brokenness do for us? It helps us to understand that we can’t do it on our own.  Our strength is not enough and never will be enough.  It brings us to the end of ourselves.  When we are at the end of me we are then free to accept that we can’t do it alone and we are then able to look up.  God never intended for us to go on this journey alone.  He wants us to turn to Him but sometimes we won’t do that until we learn that He is the only one that can help us. If we allow pride or selfishness to stand in our way, then we will never see God in the proper light.  

Too many times when we are in the midst of trouble and sorrow, the first thing we do is look for an escape.  How many times have you asked yourself “If I can just escape the pain I will be fine”?  If you have ever done that and then later looked back, you will probably find that you didn’t learn much from the escape.  The times that I learned the most and became the closest to my Creator was when I didn’t escape and went through it.  If your escape includes going around, over or under the obstacle; stop what you are doing and look up.  God will help you through it if you will let Him.

I have always been moved by music.  There is a beautiful song by Sidewalk Prophets called “Keep Making Me”.  The following are three verses of the song that describe what it means to let go and let God.

Make me broken
So I can be healed
‘Cause I'm so calloused
And now I can't feel
I want to run to You
With heart wide open
Make me broken

Make me empty
So I can be filled
‘Cause I'm still holding
Onto my will
And I'm completed
When You are with me
Make me empty

Chorus
‘Til You are my one desire
‘Til You are my one true love
‘Til You are my breath, my everything
Lord, please keep making me

Make me lonely
So I can be Yours
‘Til I want no one
More than You, Lord
‘Cause in the darkness
I know You will hold me
Make me lonely

Writers: David Frey / Ben McDonald / Sam Mizell

Prayer for the Day: Heavenly Father, I have been broken over and over again in my life.  The one thing I know above everything else is that You held me when I was broken.  You loved me through it all.  If I had never been broken, I would never have seen You as my Savior and Redeemer.  I praise You for my brokenness because it helped me to know what Your love is and if brokenness draws me closer to You, then I am thankful.

Scripture:  The Lord builds up Jerusalem; He gathers together the outcasts of Israel. He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds. He counts the number of the stars; He calls them all by name. Great is our Lord, and mighty in power; His understanding is infinite. The Lord lifts up the humble; He casts the wicked down to the ground.  Psalm 147:2-6

You Know You Are Getting Old When…

Preparation for old age should begin not later than one's teens. A life which is empty of purpose until 65 will not suddenly become filled on retirement.  D.L. Moody

George Macdonald said, 'If you knew what God knows about death you would clap your listless hands', but instead I find old people in North America just buying this whole youth obsession. I think growing older is a wonderful privilege. I want to learn to glorify God in every stage of my life.  Elisabeth Elliott

I am getting old.  Instead of receiving emails from Match.com, I started receiving ones from SeniorPeopleMeet.com.   The thing I was trying to figure out is; how do they know I am old.  Last time I checked I wasn’t giving out my birth date. 

The other day I received a notice that I am now eligible for AARP.  Do I really want to become a card carrying member of the American Association of Retired Persons?  I am not even close to retirement and when I get there it probably won’t happen because there will be no social security left since I will be in line with every other Baby Boomer and we are the largest group of Senior Citizens ever. 

I am kind of starting to understand what it means to be over-the-hill.  It’s kind of like you reach the peak and it’s all downhill from there.  I started realizing this phenomenon when a young person called me Ma’am.  Then I read that the definition of Ma’am is a British term for addressing the queen or a royal princess.  Things started looking up.

The reality is we are all going to grow old.  As soon as we are born we are getting older.  Age became a factor in our lives when Adam and Eve ate the apple in the garden.  They would have lived forever young in the Garden of Eden but for disobedience, a snake and an apple. 

When you stop and think about it, getting old doesn’t have to be a bad thing.  We can gain wisdom in our latter years.  If we are smart we will have spent a great deal of time with God and He will have taught us how to age gracefully and with integrity and character.  We will have learned to love others and to give with our heart. 

I think I will go ahead and join AARP but I am going to call it Adopt A Reading Program instead.  If my reading program includes the greatest Book ever written, the Bible, then I can age gracefully with integrity.

Prayer for the Day: Heavenly Father, getting older in life can sometimes be a challenge.  It gets harder to get up in the morning, my limbs don’t work as well as they did when I was 20 and my memory gets shorter every day.  The one thing I know about aging is that You love me no matter what that number is and You are there when life becomes a challenge.  I praise You for loving me in my old age.  I want to glorify You in every stage of my life. 

Scripture: The righteous will flourish like a palm tree, they will grow like a cedar of Lebanon; planted in the house of the Lord, they will flourish in the courts of our God.

They will still bear fruit in old age, they will stay fresh and green, proclaiming, “The Lord is upright; he is my Rock, and there is no wickedness in him.” Psalm 92:12-15

Living to Please God

The key to lasting happiness and real pleasure in this world is not found in seeking gratification, but in pleasing God. And while the Lord desires that we enjoy His gifts and the people to whom we are joined, He wants us to know that we were created first for His pleasure.  Francis Frangipane

When I looked up the definition of vessel it means “a hollow container”.  We all are a vessel or a hollow container waiting to be filled. God can use all of us as a vessel to spread the Word of Jesus Christ, but we must choose to be that vessel. 

Today we are surrounded by things that can distract us from our true purpose in life.  There are all kinds of things that we can fill our vessel with that won’t ever benefit the Kingdom of Heaven.  When we are baptized into a new life with Him, we become a new vessel. 

In the story of Elisha and the widow’s oil we get a picture of what type of vessel God wants us to be.  The story is about a widow whose husband died.  A creditor is on his way to take her two sons to be his slaves.  So she goes to Elisha to ask what she should do.  Elisha asks her “what do you have in the house? And she responds “Your maidservant has nothing in the house but a jar of oil.”  So Elisha tells her to go out and get as many empty jars as she can find and fill them with oil then set them aside. 

If you look at this story we see that the widow and her sons represent the world. Oil is traditionally used to symbolize the Holy Spirit.  The empty jars stand for those who refuse to believe in God.  You can see the same thing when Jesus told the disciples to go into the world and baptize in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.  (Matt. 28:19)

As long as the widow had empty jars the oil expanded to fill them.  As long as people come, there will be enough of the Holy Spirit to fill each of our vessels.  When we receive the Holy Spirit we are set apart just as Elisha told the widow to set aside the full jars.  Our past sins are forgiven and our debts are paid by Jesus death on the cross.

This is an example of salvation by grace, the remission of sin, the redemption of the soul and the gift of everlasting life.  Each one of us is a vessel waiting to be filled.  We can be born again, where our vessel is emptied of sin and refilled with the Holy Spirit.    

Prayer for the Day: Heavenly Father, I praise You for giving each of us a way back to You through Jesus Christ.  I want to be a vessel that is filled with the Holy Spirit.  Help me to set aside anything that hinders me from showing others Who You really are. Remind me daily that my purpose in this life is to please You. 

   

Scripture: Elisha and the Widow’s Oil

A certain woman of the wives of the sons of the prophets cried out to Elisha, saying, “Your servant my husband is dead, and you know that your servant feared the Lord. And the creditor is coming to take my two sons to be his slaves.”

So Elisha said to her, “What shall I do for you? Tell me, what do you have in the house?” And she said, “Your maidservant has nothing in the house but a jar of oil.”

Then he said, “Go, borrow vessels from everywhere, from all your neighbors—empty vessels; do not gather just a few. And when you have come in, you shall shut the door behind you and your sons; then pour it into all those vessels, and set aside the full ones.”

So she went from him and shut the door behind her and her sons, who brought the vessels to her; and she poured it out.  Now it came to pass, when the vessels were full, that she said to her son, “Bring me another vessel.”

And he said to her, “There is not another vessel.” So the oil ceased. Then she came and told the man of God. And he said, “Go, sell the oil and pay your debt; and you and your sons live on the rest.”  2 Kings 4:1-7