30June2016

Proverbs 3:3 Let not mercy and truth forsake thee: bind them about thy neck; write them upon the table of thine heart

Kinda funny how mercy and truth is in the same sentence. We are told, "truth hurts". Or "stop being so nice with them, tell them the truth!"                 

These two attributes are not exclusive to each other. Without mercy, aka giving someone better than "they deserve" , we just become stuff uptight people. Without truth, we become rubber, bend to everything.

I was always taught that you  can be correct in everything, but if you do it wrong it is wrong.

We must remember the point is not just correcting the problem or telling the truth. It is doing it in a merciful and loving way.

29 june 2016

John I 3:21-22 Dear friends, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God and receive from him anything we ask, because we obey his commands and do what pleases him.

   D365-pause                                 
Life gets noisy. Sit for a moment in the eye of your storm. Close your eyes. Feel and hear yourself breathe.
                                                  
Take absolute confidence in one thing — God’s got this.

This moment, this day, this life — God’s got this.

D365 27Jun2016

pause
Life gets noisy. Sit for a moment in the eye of your storm. Close your eyes. Feel and hear yourself breathe.

Take absolute confidence in one thing — God’s got this.

This moment, this day, this life — God’s got this.

D365

pause
Freedom is a noun.

Freedom means being exempt from external control.

Christ preached freedom, lived freedom, and offered freedom to all.

We have the opportunity to live into the freedom of Jesus Christ and also the responsibility to work toward ensuring others may live into their God-given freedom. Let the Spirit move in, around, and through you today, that you might live freely in Christ our Lord

Daily devotions 6/22/2016

He is not here; for he has been raised, as he said.
(Matthew 28.6 NRSV)
Over a thousand years ago, a Spanish kingdom was under attack by foreign invaders. For many years, one small fort withstood all assaults, thanks to a remarkable leader called El Cid. When their great leader died, his followers had an idea. They dressed his body in his armor, tied a sword in his hand, and placed his corpse on his horse. With El Cid's body in the lead, the Spanish forces charged. But they were quickly defeated, for this act fooled no one. A desperate trick that collapsed led to despair instead of victory.
There will always be those who insist that this was the strategy of the early church--a dead leader, dressed in armor, propped up on a horse with sword in hand. "Tell people," the chief priests said to the soldiers following Christ's resurrection, "that his disciples came while you were asleep and stole his body. That way if the story of his disappearance reaches the governor's ears you won't get into trouble." (Mt. 28:14) Thus from the very beginning, the explanation was advanced that the disciples had stolen Christ's body in order to invent the story of his resurrection.
Never has a less satisfactory solution been proposed to a difficult problem. The reason this explanation was not persuasive then is the same reason it is not persuasive now. It simply does not fit the facts. Christ is alive and nothing can change that fact!

God of the living, thank you for making me alive through Jesus Christ. Amen.
Ron Newhouse

Daily devotions.net 6/21/2016

Do not be alarmed; you are looking for Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has been raised; he is not here."
(Mark 16.6 NRSV)

Occasionally we are like terrible-tempered Lucy in the PEANUTS comic strip. Lucy comes into the room where Linus is watching TV. He says to her, "I was here first, so I get to watch what I want." Without a word Lucy marches to the set and flips the channel to her program. Linus protests. "Hey!" Assuming her best know-it-all stance, Lucy states, "In the 19th chapter of the book of Matthew it says, `Many that are first will be last, and the last first.'" Linus' response to this paradox sounds like something you or I would say. He mutters, "I'll bet Matthew didn't have an older sister!"
Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Jesus were the first one's to reach Jesus' tomb early on the first day of the week some two thousand years ago. They may have been the first ones there, but they most certainly felt like Linus who had been dumped on. They felt that all their efforts and work with Jesus had simply left them last in their community. But, in fact, they would be the first to hear: "Read all about it: Jesus is alive." Jesus is indeed alive, as Jesus lives in our hearts.

Dear Jesus, live in me today and always, moment by moment, day by day. Amen.
Ron Newhouse

Look ahead from daily devotions.net

But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything, and remind you of all that I have said to you.
(John 14.26 NRSV)

Dwight L. Moody once to his audience, "Tell me, how can I get the air out of the tumbler (glass) I have in my hand?" One man said, "Suck it out with a pump." The evangelist replied, "That would create a vacuum and shatter it." Finally, after many futile suggestions, Moody picked up a pitcher and filled the glass with water. "There," he said, "all the air is now removed." He then explained that victory for the child of God does not come by working hard to eliminate destructive thoughts and habits, but rather by allowing the Holy Spirit to take full possession.
Look ahead to what God has in store for you. Fill your life with God’s hope!
Dear God, thank you for the hope you give to me each day through the power of your Holy Spirit. In Jesus name, Amen.
Ron Newhouse

1 Thessalonians 5:11
New International Version

Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing.

Responsibility

Genesis 3:12 And the man said, The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat.

This seems to be the thread of life... when in doubt, blame someone else. The battle of the sexes? No, it's a he said,she said kinda life. Sin is this, it is the great divider. Like taking that one brick out of a foundation, it causes the whole house to collapse.Sin takes away our self responsibility. The point wasn't who "did it first" it's about taking responsibility and accepting it. Then you can move on .

1 Chronicles 29:11
New International Version

Yours, Lord, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the majesty and the splendor, for everything in heaven and earth is yours. Yours, Lord, is the kingdom; you are exalted as head over all.

Live live

Ephesians 5:2 Live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.

It doesn't say to live a life if love with people you like. Nor with people who like you or you get along with.  

Just says to live a life of love. Though the world collapses on us. Though everyone hates us. Good or bad. Happy or sad times. 1. Live a life ..... don't stay stuck in mire which kills you slowly. Make a life . 2. Love- whether or not you receive it.       This is how we live as CHRIST  did.

So you think you are perfect?

Romans 3 : 23for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.

Matthew 7 : 3 “Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? 4How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? 5You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.

Back to work again

Wow, sometimes it seems that nothing on this earth is sane. Many wake up and get ready for work. We shower, dress, grab a bite, a coffee , donut, bagel, or something. Then off to work. Then back home, doing whatever it is we do then. How many times, though, do we stop and look at what we are doing? Why am I working? Why am I doing what I'm doing? Is this my life work, sleep, eat, repeat?

Sure, people go to "church" and do "church stuff" and do "good stuff" . Yet, what is it we are really doing?
Are we waking up thanking GOD for another night and morning of life? Do we have a constant dialogue with GOD? Are our words interlaced with building people up? Or is our life empty ?

Deuteronomy 11: 18-23
¹⁸ Fix these words of mine in your hearts and minds; tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. ¹⁹ Teach them to your children, talking about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. ²⁰ Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates, ²¹ so that your days and the days of your children may be many in the land the Lord swore to give your ancestors, as many as the days that the heavens are above the earth.
²² If you carefully observe all these commands I am giving you to follow—to love the Lord your God, to walk in obedience to him and to hold fast to him— ²³ then the Lord will drive out all these nations before you, and you will dispossess nations larger and stronger than you.

I believe, we get so caught up in our desires, we forget that as Christians we have one thing to interlace our lives in. when I say lives, it isn't when I wake up and when people see me or I'm "visible" to others. It is a constant like breathing.  This is true work. The payment for this is much greater than our jobs now. Sure, don't quit working. Not even close. What I mean, is the true work is the work that is done, inside, outside, and all around. 24hrs a day..... everyday.....

May the Peace and power of GOD help you meet this.

Peace, Love, Strength,Blessings, and Guidance

-------------------------- FIN-------------------------------------

I haven't written in a while, Dan. Don't know what to tell you. You gotta try harder.

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Prayer

Ah, well, GOD, it's me again. Yeah. I have been around, but not in YOU. Not enough talking to YOU. IT's so easy to let Satan smokescreen our lives. "Yeah, you aren't killing anyone right? You went to church Sunday whoopty doo for you. You don't throw things or slam walls.  You have less anger issues." " you aren't as bad as you were before. See, you are good now....."
GOD, I'm not good! Anything "good" I do, well it's only due to YOUR ability and not giving up on me. I'm just me..... like Paul states about not looking back but going towards the goal..... it's a constant race, not just one where BOOM i'm done now. Oh how I fail you.....
I'm sorry. Help me let go and stop trying to do things on my own. Thank you for those put in my life in order to show me that there is always work to do on myself and I can still be a help to others.

I pray for my parents, they have struggles, but they never seem to let it get to them because they rely on YOU. I pray for their struggles to lessen. For Sam's parents that her mom and step dad and res tof family were sowed with her love and committment to YOU. Shoot, she made them pray at dinner, something i have not seen her do before. Very humbling. I pray for her whole family.
I pray for Zelda, goodness she scares me. I have no idea what I'm doing and I don't want her to make the same mistakes I made. May YOUR light shine through us to her as she grows.
I also, pray for work, it seems so different. I don't know what i'm doing, and I'm scared I'm going to mess things up.
I pray for Andrea's family, all of them. Parents, siblings, spouse, everyone. Never will my heart not have love. Maybe one day we will meet again.

I thank YOU for life. For another day of seeing how awesome and powerful YOU are. Please, give us strength to do all that is needed. SO many lights have been dimmed in this world, due to our loss of committment. Light up the heavens with YOUR love.

In YOUR SON"s name I ask these things. Amen.