Tuesday June 7

My how time changes things.  In my short life I've seen our country grieve and honor the brave men of World War II, saw the war in Viet Nam grow, become hopeless and then the panicked rush to evacuate, two major wars in Iraq and Afghanistan... yet, yesterday was June 6th, the day of the Normandy invasion and not a murmur of memory was said about one of the most horrific battles for freedom ever.  And just as quietly today, June 7 has rolled in and life goes on.  Indeed it seems TIME is the healer and duller of the memories.


Today's meditation:

June 7

The God of Peace Making Obedience Available to Us

Now may the God of peace who brought up our Lord Jesus from the dead, that great Shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, make you complete in every good work to do His will.  (Heb_13:20-21)

These powerful verses continue our inquiry concerning a life of obedience. They conclude with what results when God is allowed to do His work in our lives. We become "complete in every good work to do His will." This hope is made available to us by "the God of peace."  

We all started out in life at war with God. Although we may not have been aware of this fact, we were enemies of God: "You . . . were alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works" (Col_1:21).  We were disobedient by our very nature: "the sons of disobedience . . . by nature children of wrath" (Eph_2:2-3). 
Yet, through His Son, God reached out to offer us peace. "For He Himself is our peace, who . . . abolished in His flesh the enmity . . . making peace . . . through the cross, thereby putting to death the enmity" (Eph_2:14-16).
This sacrifice on the cross was effective, because the Lord Jesus was raised from the dead with victory over sin and death: "the God of peace who brought up our Lord Jesus from the dead."  
At the cross of Christ, the blood was shed that brings eternal blessings to all who believe in Him: "through the blood of the everlasting covenant." The Lord promised these eternal benefits to His people through the prophets of old. "And I will make an everlasting covenant with them, that I will not turn away from doing them good; but I will put My fear in their hearts so that they will not depart from Me . . . Moreover I will make a covenant of peace with them, and it shall be an everlasting covenant with them" (Jer_32:40 and Eze_37:26). 

The blood of the new covenant of grace secures these benefits: "This cup is the new covenant in My blood, which is shed for you" (Luk_22:20). 
This shed blood of the Lord Jesus Christ is able to cleanse and forgive forever all who humbly trust in Him. Also, that shed blood of the new covenant (God's new arrangement for living) supplies the adequacy we need from God for the obedient life He has called us to live: "Our sufficiency is from God, who also made us sufficient as ministers of the new covenant" (2Co_3:5-6). 

Dear God of peace, I praise You for the shed blood of Jesus, changing me from Your enemy to Your friend. I thank You for also making obedience available through this new covenant of grace. I humbly ask that You teach me to live in dependence upon Your sufficiency, Amen.

May God grant you Peace and His Love to live in utter Obedience to His Will.  

Monday June 6

Are you saved?  Are you a Christian, a person who accepts Jesus Christ as your Savior, your Redeemer, Lord and God?  If not, what are you waiting for?  It's the easiest thing to do and the hardest thing to live up to!  
Just confess that Jesus is the Son of God, that He died for your sins and ask Jesus to forgive your sins and make you one of His, one of God's children.  That's it, confess with your mouth that Jesus is the Christ and you will be saved!
Now you are a child of God, one of His chosen ones, and nothing else is more important than that!


Todays meditation is from F.B.Meyer:

June 6

HOW TO MEET DISCOURAGEMENTS

"Our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory; while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen.'-- 2Co_4:17-18.

NOTICE THE marvellous antithesis of this chapter: light and darkness; life and death; pressure, perplexity, pursuit, and persecution; but side by side, victory, elastic hope, and the brightness of Christian faith. The decay of the outward man and the renewal of the inward; the light affliction and the weight of glory; the brief moment of earth's pilgrimage contrasted with the eternity of reality and bliss.

It is very important that we should not miss the mighty blessing which is within the reach of every troubled soul. Of course it is quite possible to sit down before troubles and afflictions, hopeless and despairing, confessing that we are over-powered and defeated; it is also possible to be hard and stoical, bearing adversity because we cannot help or avoid it, bur the highest Christian way is to be thankful that the earthen vessel is breaking if only the torch will shine out; to be content that the dying of Jesus should be borne about in our mortal body, if only His life will thereby become manifest.

When through the deep waters I call thee to go, The rivers of grief shall not thee overflow; For I will be with thee in trouble to bless; And sanctify to thee thy deepest distress.

PRAYER

Fix my heart, O Lord, on Thyself, that amid the changes and chances of this mortal life I may be kept steadfast and unmoveable and ever abounding in Thy work. AMEN.

Now you have it all.  No, not wealth or all that, you have God's love and His promises.  No matter what happens, God will love you and care for you!

Have a blessed day in God's love.

Sunday June 4

First Sunday of June.  Spring has given way to Summer and the temperatures are really getting up there.  How are things where you are?  Real soon people will be complaining about the heat, the storms, the bugs, and will wish for the cool of Autumn and Winter.  The wonders of the seasons!


Today's meditation from Bob Hoekstra gives us insight into the life of true surrender in our Lord.  

June 5

God Working in Us Unto Obedience

Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure.  (Phi_2:12-13)

We have been considering from various perspectives the great truth that God wants us to grow in obedience to His will. The lordship of Jesus makes disobedience unacceptable. "But why do you call Me 'Lord, Lord,' and do not do the things which I say? " (Luk_6:46).
Also, our Lord taught His early disciples to be instructing all future disciples concerning obedience: "teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you" (Mat_28:20). 
Our present passage offers profound insight on this matter by describing God working in us unto obedience. "It is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure."  

This subject is introduced by a call to "work out your own salvation." Notice, we are not called to work for our salvation. Salvation is a gift of God's grace, freely received by faith. 

"For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast" (Eph_2:8-9). 

Still, this gift of salvation that God has placed within us by His grace is to be worked out (developed outwardly) unto an obedient life, a life that fulfills "His good pleasure."  

This calling is to be approached in "fear and trembling." Initially, our temptation may be to approach this request with unabashed self-confidence. 

Eventually, we begin to understand that we must respond in "fear" [a reverential awe] and "trembling" (a profound sense of inadequacy). The next phrase explains why we are to engage this responsibility with such unusual attitudes: "for it is God who works in you." 

If the salvation that God has placed in our inner man is to ever become a visible walk that pleases Him, it will always be a result of us allowing Him to do an ongoing work deep within us. "I will put My law in their minds, and write it on their hearts . . . you are manifestly an epistle of Christ, ministered by us, written not with ink but by the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of flesh, that is, of the heart" (Jer_31:33 and 2Co_3:3). This is the wonder of true Christian living. It is based upon God working within our hearts.

Dear Lord, I praise You for the precious gift of salvation You have poured into my heart. I earnestly desire that this gift be worked outwardly unto a life that is pleasing to You. Lord, please touch and shape the depths of my heart  that I may obey You in all things, in Jesus name, Amen.

I pray that you will have a blessed day, fulfilling God's will for your life today and always.

Saturday June 4

Life is such a wonderful journey.  We get to see it all, feel it all, to sense the ultimate joy and then the deepest pains.  I don't know what other animals feel, but we surely must experience the deepest and the highest.  So it is that we are the only animal that can read, communicate through these written symbols, and transfer our knowledge and feelings to each other through the magic of the written word.
And the greatest written word is of course the Bible.  Did you know you can go to 
www.e-sword.net
and down load many Bibles, commentaries and other helps?  Try it today.


Today's meditation is from Bob Hoekstra:

June 4

Obedience and the Life of Jesus

And He who sent Me is with Me. The Father has not left Me alone, for I always do those things that please Him . . . Christ in you, the hope of glory.  (Joh_8:29 and Col_1:27)


Our Lord Jesus wants His followers to live in obedience to His will: "teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you" (Mat_28:20). Our Lord is also with us every step of our pilgrimage, granting us His grace unto obedience. "I am with you always . . .  through whom we have received grace and apostleship for obedience to the faith" (Mat_28:20 and Rom_1:4-5).
This is also the way that Jesus lived here on earth in relationship with His heavenly Father. "And He who sent Me is with Me. The Father has not left Me alone, for I always do those things that please Him." The Father was with the Son, as the Son lived to please the Father.  
Jesus came to earth to live in humble dependence upon, and full obedience to, the Father. "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" (Phi_2:8). Even though obedience led to the cross, Jesus obeyed the will of the Father. In the garden of Gethsemane, the obedient Son wrestled with the implications of the impending cross. The holy, eternal One was to taste the cup of sin and death for all of us. His entire being was repulsed by that which was so contrary to His nature. "My soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even to death . . . O My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me" (Mat_26:38-39). Yet, He obediently yielded to the Father's will. "Nevertheless, not as I will, but as You will" (Mat_26:39). 
This is the ultimate example of obedience.  

This same Jesus (who always pleased the Father, even unto death) now lives in us. This same Jesus is our "hope of glory." He is our hope (expectation, confidence) of making it to glory (heaven) some day. He is also our hope of walking in any heavenly reality here on the way to glory. He is our hope of an obedient life.  

Obedience is essentially related to the life of Jesus. The life Jesus lived on earth is our perfect example of obedience. The life He now wants to live in and through us is our glorious hope of obedience. 

Lord Jesus, I look at Your life on earth and I see the obedience that I yearn to experience. I know that I can not produce such a life on my own. I think of You living in me, and I have hope that I can grow in obedience. So, I place my hope in You to express Your obedient heart in and through my choices, my words, my actions, my entire life, Amen.

May you have a blessed and glorious day.

Friday June 3

June, first friday, and we are off and running with summer.  I really am not into summer... weather is hot, mosquitoes, flies, other bothersome things... but it is the season of growth and of fulfilling.  So it is, life too is so seasonal.  It may be summer outside but it really seems to be the dark of winter inside.  The problems are so many, the burdens so tiring, and the afflictions unending it seems.  


Then I remember that my God is an Awesome God, He rules with Power and Love, and nothing is impossible for my God!


Today's meditation is from James Ryle:



June 3


The King's Own Word
The king said, "Go home, and I'll take care of this for you." 
(2 Samuel 14:8).
Once your petition has been set before the King, and He has given you His assurance that it will be handled by Him personally, and in your best interest — well, to linger any longer in earnest angst would be most insulting to His majesty.
Yet we do it all the time!
"Lord, when? Lord, why? Lord, how long?" These, and many other hassling questions too often constitute the bulk of our prayer life. Our hearts flood with dark thoughts which spill from our lips in mournful pleas, as we seek His reply to our unanswerable questions. Our hearts have perhaps been broken by the hammer of relentless disappointments, our minds bewildered by unfulfilled hopes, our eyes blurred by tears that never cease — and we hasten to the Lord with our woeful complaints.
And He says, "Go home, and I'll take care of this for you."
But we linger in our lamentations, stating our case once again in pitiful details, rehearsing the matter over and over, as though He had not yet heard it. It seems in such moments that we are more in awe of our sorrows than we are of our Savior.
"Go home," the Lord says, "and I'll take care of this for you."
There is a faith, noble and true, that leaves the prayer chamber and enters into the day in utter confidence that the Lord will take care of things in a perfect way — if we would only let Him do it.
As children bring their broken toys with tears, for us to mend; I brought my broken dreams to God, because He is my friend. But then, instead of leaving Him in peace to work alone; I hung around and tried to help in ways that were my own. He didn't do at all the things I thought that He should do; He didn't mend my broken dreams; He didn't make them new. In fact He seemed quite nonchalant, as though He didn't care. So, I increased with holy zeal my intercessory prayer. Watching, waiting for His hand to do what I had prayed; but nothing I could say or do helped Him on His way!
At last I snatched them back and cried, "How can you be so slow?"
"My child," He lovingly replied, "you never did let go!"


Oh, hear the Lord's word to you today — "Go home," the Lord says, "and I'll take care of this for you."


Trust in the Lord with all your heart, mind and soul.  Believe and it shall be achieved.  


God bless you today with your dreams.

Thursday June 2

Good morning to you my dear friend,
Today I share with you some wonderful thoughts from Charles Spurgeon; but, if you want all of these thoughts and a whole lot more go to:
www.e-sword.net
and you will find a treasure trove of free interpretations of our Bible, commentaries like Reverend Spurgeon, F. B. Meyer, George Morrison, Bob Hoekstra, and James Ryle and even more - all for FREE!  Go and check it out, it will really help you and give you many blessings.  
Thanks to Rick Meyers for such a blessed website!


OK, today's meditations from Charles Spurgeon:

June 2

Morning

“For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh.”  - Gal_5:17

In every believer’s heart there is a constant struggle between the old nature and the new. The old nature is very active, and loses no opportunity of plying all the weapons of its deadly armoury against newborn grace; while on the other hand, the new nature is ever on the watch to resist and destroy its enemy. Grace within us will employ prayer, and faith, and hope, and love, to cast out the evil; it takes unto it the “whole armour of God,” and wrestles earnestly. 

These two opposing natures will never cease to struggle so long as we are in this world. The battle of “Christian” with “Apollyon” lasted three hours, but the battle of Christian with himself lasted all the way from the Wicket Gate in the river Jordan. The enemy is so securely entrenched within us that he can never be driven out while we are in this body: but although we are closely beset, and often in sore conflict, we have an Almighty helper, even Jesus, the Captain of our salvation, who is ever with us, and who assures us that we shall eventually come off more than conquerors through him. With such assistance the new-born nature is more than a match for its foes. 

Are you fighting with the adversary to-day? Are Satan, the world, and the flesh, all against you? Be not discouraged nor dismayed. Fight on! For God himself is with you; Jehovah Nissi is your banner, and Jehovah Rophi is the healer of your wounds. Fear not, you shall overcome, for who can defeat Omnipotence? Fight on, “looking unto Jesus”; and though long and stern be the conflict, sweet will be the victory, and glorious the promised reward.

“From strength to strength go on;

Wrestle, and fight, and pray,

Tread all the powers of darkness down,

And win the well-fought day.”

Evening

“Good Master.”   - Mat_19:16

If the young man in the gospel used this title in speaking to our Lord, how much more fitly may I thus address him! He is indeed my Master in both senses, a ruling Master and a teaching Master. I delight to run upon his errands, and to sit at his feet. 

I am both his servant and his disciple, and count it my highest honour to own the double character. If he should ask me why I call him “good,” I should have a ready answer. It is true that “there is none good but one, that is, God,” but then he is God, and all the goodness of Deity shines forth in him. 

In my experience, I have found him good, so good, indeed, that all the good I have has come to me through him. He was good to me when I was dead in sin, for he raised me by his Spirit’s power; he has been good to me in all my needs, trials, struggles, and sorrows. Never could there be a better Master, for his service is freedom, his rule is love: I wish I were one thousandth part as good a servant. When he teaches me as my Rabbi, he is unspeakably good, his doctrine is divine, his manner is condescending, his spirit is gentleness itself. No error mingles with his instruction-pure is the golden truth which he brings forth, and all his teachings lead to goodness, sanctifying as well as edifying the disciple. 

Angels find him a good Master and delight to pay their homage at his footstool. The ancient saints proved him to be a good Master, and each of them rejoiced to sing, “I am thy servant, O Lord!” My own humble testimony must certainly be to the same effect. 

I will bear this witness before my friends and neighbours, for possibly they may be led by my testimony to seek my Lord Jesus as their Master.

 O that they would do so! They would never repent so wise a deed. If they would but take his easy yoke, they would find themselves in so royal a service that they would enlist in it for ever.

May you have a blessed day, my our Master be with you every moment through the Loving Holy Spirit!

June 1 2011

Happy Wednesday!
Happy June!
Happy Life!


Today's meditation:



June 1


The New Covenant Promise of a New Heart
I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.  (Eze_36:26)


To live in obedience to the will of God, man needs more than his own best efforts and intentions. The history of Israel emphatically demonstrates this. God gave His law. He commanded them, saying,"Walk in My statutes, keep My judgments, and do them" (Eze_20:19). Israel had promised to obey. "All that the LORD has said we will do, and be obedient" (Exo_24:7). Nevertheless, they failed miserably. "Notwithstanding, the children rebelled against Me; they did not walk in My statutes, and were not careful to observe My judgments" (Eze_20:21).  
In order to live obedient lives, people need a new life from God, followed by understanding in how to develop that new life. Here, we see a promise from God to supply that new life. "I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you." These promises are related to the new covenant of grace that the prophets proclaimed for Israel some day. "Behold, the days are coming . . . when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel . . . not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt" (Jer_31:31-32). 
The book of Hebrews elaborates on this new covenant of grace and applies it to the church today: "Therefore, brethren, having boldness to enter the Holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He consecrated for us" (Heb_10:19-20).  


When anyone embraces the grace of God offered in Jesus Christ (the mediator, the great High Priest of the new covenant), that person is born again by the Spirit of God. "That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit" (Joh_3:6). 
This is a necessity. "Unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God" (Joh_3:3). Human "flesh-birth" brings with it a hard spiritual heart (a dead spirit). Spiritual new birth from God replaces this hard heart (this dead, non-responsive spirit). "I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you."  
Think of our desperate need for this work of God that brings us a new heart, a new life. Those not born again are described as living "in the futility of their mind, having their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God . . . because of the hardening of their heart" (Eph_4:17-18). Yet, whoever relies upon the grace of God offered in Jesus Christ becomes a newborn child of God. "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new" (2Co_5:17). 


Dear Lord, giver of new life, I praise You for replacing my old, hard, dead heart with a new, living, responsive heart. Now, I long to grow in the newness that is in Christ, Amen.


God bless you today and always!