Friday Jan 13

We are half way through the first month of 2012.
How are you doing so far?  
Many changes? 
Or are you back to the old routine?


Many, many changes for me.  I thank God for His blessings and Love.
Ultimately, we all go back to God.


Today's thoughts, from James Ryle:

January 13


Your True Colors
"You know that under pressure, your faith-life is forced into the open and shows its true colors." (James 1:3, The Message)
During a pregame talk with the Colorado Buffaloes some years ago I asked the question, "What do you get when you squeeze a lemon?" Of course the standard answer fired back from coaches and players alike, "Lemon juice!”
But what nobody knew that morning was that I had filled the lemon with ketchup. When I squeezed it tight and the red liquid oozed over my hand, they were all taken back.
"You're wrong," I then said. "The actual answer is that you get whatever is inside it.”
At that point I had them right where I wanted them, and then asked, "So, what's inside you? What are we going to see when pressure puts the squeeze on you?" The answer is the same to the lemon question; we will see whatever is in you.
The great C. S. Lewis said, "A sudden provocation does not make me an ill-tempered man. It shows what an ill-tempered man I am." James tells us in his letter that "under pressure, your faith-life is forced into the open and shows its true colors." Maybe this is why the Lord provides so many wonderful opportunities for us to be squeezed.
The origin of the phrase "true colors" comes from naval parlance back in the days when pirates sailed the high seas. Vessels would always fly on their topmast the flag of their country of origin. But pirates were notorious for hoisting the flags of different nations so as to gain an advantage against unsuspecting vessels. However, under no circumstance would any honorable Captain ever fly false colors. Thus, the phrase "true colors" indicates authenticity in both motive and manner.
The Lord wants to make us truly authentic men and women, but to get us there He has to squeeze out the other stuff – and He will do so with unrelenting pressure until there is nothing left to ooze.
So, you been feeling squeezed lately?

Be blessed, be happy in God's filling of you with His Holy Spirit.

Thursday Jan 12, 2012

Today, I am thankful.
How about you?


Today's meditation, from Charles Spurgeon:

January 12


The General Ability of the Law
Then the LORD delivered to me two tablets of stone written with the finger of God, and on them were all the words which the LORD had spoken . . . You have heard that it was said . . . But I say to you . . . .  (Deu_9:10 and Mat_5:27-28)
Although the law of God is unable to justify or sanctify, it does have some strategic ability in God's plan for man. These verses from the Torah and the Sermon on the Mount help us reflect upon this matter. These two profound sections of the Bible pertain to the law of God. Torah (Hebrew for law) refers to the books of Genesis through Deuteronomy. These books give an extensive explanation of the message of God's law. The Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7) includes Jesus' clarification of man's understanding of the law. 
When these portions of the Bible are read, studied, or taught, the general ability of the law is at work. In these passages the very character and will of God are revealed. The message related to those "two tablets of stone" spoke of God's character, "I the Lord, your God, am holy." The summary of this message expressed God's will for man, "be holy." The details of the message indicated what holiness would be like in conduct toward God and in relationships with others. Jesus' words would eventually extend this message of holiness even into attitudes of the heart. 
The law of God is His standard for spiritual measurement. By His law, God measures holiness in people's lives by revealing His will, which is based upon His holy character. This is why all of us "fall short of the glory of God" (Rom_3:23). We don't measure up to God's holy standard. 
The measuring instruments of man are a helpful illustration of the law. When a tape measure is used to evaluate the height of people, it measures growth or reveals the absence of it. It does not produce human growth. So it is with the law of God. The law describes and measures what God wants lives to look like. It does not cause such spiritual growth to appear. Only God's grace at work in our lives is the sufficient dynamic that produces spiritual growth. 


O Lord, my Hope, I give You praise for Your holy character, revealed in Your holy law. 
I agree with Your will, desiring holiness in my life. 
I also agree with You that I fell far short of Your glorious standard. Thank You for cleansing me of all unrighteousness. 
Thank You for clothing me in the righteousness of Your dear Son. Now I place my hope in You for any and all progress in the path of righteousness. 
O Lord, have Your way in my life, working Your will, by Your grace, through Jesus Christ my Lord, Amen.

Tuesday Jan 10 2012

So, how's it going so far.
Already the second week in January of 2012!


Today, two thoughts, one from George Morrison:

January 10


Known in Adversities
"Thou hast known my soul in adversities." Psa_31:7
One great comfort of assurance in this verse is that such knowledge is always very thorough. When someone has known us in adversities, then he has known us as we really are.
There is a sonnet by Blanco White, familiar to all the lovers of the beautiful, in which he develops the thought that but for the night, we should never know the stars. And so there is a very real sense in which we may say we never know a life till we have seen it in the darkness of adversity. When the sun is warm and all the leaves are green, you can scarcely see the cottage in the forest. But when the storm of winter sweeps the leaves away, then at last you see it as it is. It may be stronger than you ever thought, or it may be more battered and decayed, but always the winter shows it as it is.
Indeed, the revealing power of adversity strips the summer covering away. It shows us not in the setting of our circumstance, but as we are in naked reality. And therefore one who has known us in adversities, and been at our side in sorrow and calamity, knows us with an intimacy that probably nothing else can ever give. That is why the knowledge of a doctor is often more searching than that of any friend. That is why the knowledge of a wife often reaches to an unrivalled intimacy, for she has known her husband not only when all waswell with him and when the sun was shining on his head, but when his heart was wary and his body sick and all his hopes seemed crumbled into dust.
Hidden Burdens
It was a great comfort to the psalmist also that the Lord had pierced through every disguise. That is why he uses the word soul: "Thou hast known my soul in adversities." To the Hebrew, more simply than to us, that word "soul" just meant the real self. There was nothing theological about it. It was a common word in common use. And what the psalmist deeply felt was this: the knowledge of God had pierced through all disguises and known him in the secret of his being.
There are few things more beautiful in life than the way in which men and women hide their sorrows. On the street and in the shops there is a quiet heroism as great as any on the battlefield. You may meet a person in frequent conversation, yet all the time and unknown to you, some sorrow may be lying at his heart. How often a mother, when she is worn and ill, struggles bravely to hide it from her family. How often a husband, deep in business difficulties, struggles to keep it hidden from those at home. How often a minister, called from a scene of death which may mean for him the end of a friendship, has to go to a marriage and be happy there as if there were not a sorrow in the world. Talk of the disguises of hypocrisy! They are nothing to the disguises of the brave—those cheerful looks, that quiet and patient work, when the heart within is heavy as a stone. That Spartan youth who kept a smiling face while the fox was gnawing away at him has his fellows in every community.
But Thou hast known my soul in adversity. That was the joy and comfort of the psalmist. There was one eye that pierced through all concealment, and that was the eye of an all-pitying God. Others had known his outward behavior for in trials there are many eyes upon us. Others had heard his words and seen his actions and wondered at the courage in his bearing. But only God had read the secret story and seen how utterly desolate he was and known how often, in spite of all appearances, he had been plunged into profound despair.
There is a point where human knowledge ceases and beyond which human sympathy is powerless. It pierces deep if it is genuine, but there are depths to which it cannot pierce. And it was just there, in the region of his soul, that the psalmist felt that there was One who knew him and would never leave him nor forsake him. He felt it in the sustainment he received. He felt it in the strength that was bestowed upon him. He felt it in the peace that rested on him, a peace such as the world could never give. And so when the sun shone on him again, as sooner or later it does on all of us, he took his pen and wrote in gratitude, "Thou hast known my soul in adversities."
The Condescension of God's Love
There was one other comfort for the psalmist at which our text hints unobscurely. He had been awakened through the knowledge that he speaks of to the infinite condescension of God's love.
A well-known German religious writer who has brought comfort to multitudes of mourners tells us how once he had a visit from a friend who was in great distress. This friend had once been a very wealthy man, and now he had fallen upon evil days, and that very morning one of his old companions had passed him without recognition on the street. Then Gotthold, for such was the writer's name, took him by the hand and, pointing upward, said, "Thou hast known my soul in adversities."
It is one of the sayings of the moralist that the world courts prosperity and shuns adversity. There are rats in every circle of society who all hasten to leave the sinking ship. But what the psalmist had awakened to was this: the eternal God, who was his refuge, had known him and acknowledged him and talked with him when his fortunes were at their very blackest. Nothing but love could explain the condescension. He had found in God a friend who was unfailing. "If I ascend into heaven thou art there; if I make my bed in hell thou art there." 
So was the world made ready for the Savior who, when other helpers fail and comforts flee, never deserts us, never is ashamed of us, never leaves us to face the worst alone.




And this illumination from James Ryle:

January 10


Towering Humility
"We were sure of ourselves in God." (2 Th 2:2, The Message)
Most people assume that humility involves some form or other of groveling; that cowering demeanor that bows in an abject manner towards others. And so, when tasked with the charge to "humble ourselves in the sight of the Lord", we tend toward a somewhat cowering posture – supposing this is what the Lord wants from us.


Outrageous nonsense! The Lord wants us to come boldly to the throne of Grace; not as beggars — but as sons and daughters.
There was nothing cowering about Jesus Christ at all. He did not snivel in the presence of Pilate's Empire, nor cringe before the sneer of His accusers. He stood as a man of towering humility. And those hearty souls who followed Him in the early years were described by others as "men who turned the world upside down" (Acts 17:6). Nothing groveling about that. Nothing at all.
Humility is the God-given self-assurance that eliminates the need to prove to others the worth of who you are, and the rightness of what you do. 
Jesus was thus a humble man, as were His apostles. "We were sure of ourselves in God," Paul said. And so are those who follow Jesus today. That is, those who are real as opposed to those who are merely being religious.
Somewhere around 360AD a new model of "christian" emerged; one that has altered the public image of Christ to this day. The Roman Emperor Julian, successor to Constantine, found this new form of humility repulsive, as the historian Ibsen tell us.
"Have you looked at these Christians closely?" Julian asked, "They are hollow-eyed, pale-cheeked, flat-breasted all; they brood their lives away, unspurred by ambition. The sun shines for them, but they do not see it: the earth offers them its fullness, but they desire it not; all their desire is to renounce and to suffer that they may come to die."
Jesus was not hollow-eyed, pale-cheeked, nor flat-breasted. Neither were Peter, James and John; nor Paul the Apostle. We should not be so either. Rather, being sure of ourselves in God, we may thereby be clothed in true humility and thus receive the fullness of God's grace to turn our world upside down today – as did our fathers of old when it was their turn.

Monday January 9

Dear friend,
Life is so worrisome.  Life is so complicated.  
But in the end it is all about our relationship with God.



January 9


Morning
“I will be their God.”
- Jer_31:33
Christian! here is all thou canst require. To make thee happy thou wantest something that shall satisfy thee; and is not this enough? If thou canst pour this promise into thy cup, wilt thou not say, with David, “My cup runneth over; I have more than heart can wish”? When this is fulfilled, “I am thy God”, art thou not possessor of all things? Desire is insatiable as death, but he who filleth all in all can fill it. The capacity of our wishes who can measure? but the immeasurable wealth of God can more than overflow it. I ask thee if thou art not complete when God is thine? Dost thou want anything but God? Is not his all-sufficiency enough to satisfy thee if all else should fail? But thou wantest more than quiet satisfaction; thou desirest rapturous delight. Come, soul, here is music fit for heaven in this thy portion, for God is the Maker of Heaven. Not all the music blown from sweet instruments, or drawn from living strings, can yield such melody as this sweet promise, “I will be their God.” Here is a deep sea of bliss, a shoreless ocean of delight; come, bathe thy spirit in it; swim an age, and thou shalt find no shore; dive throughout eternity, and thou shalt find no bottom. “I will be their God.” If this do not make thine eyes sparkle, and thy heart beat high with bliss, then assuredly thy soul is not in a healthy state. But thou wantest more than present delights-thou cravest something concerning which thou mayest exercise hope; and what more canst thou hope for than the fulfilment of this great promise, “I will be their God”? This is the masterpiece of all the promises; its enjoyment makes a heaven below, and will make a heaven above. Dwell in the light of thy Lord, and let thy soul be always ravished with his love. Get out the marrow and fatness which this portion yields thee. Live up to thy privileges, and rejoice with unspeakable joy.


Evening
“Serve the Lord with gladness.”
- Psa_100:2
Delight in divine service is a token of acceptance. Those who serve God with a sad countenance, because they do what is unpleasant to them, are not serving him at all; they bring the form of homage, but the life is absent. Our God requires no slaves to grace his throne; he is the Lord of the empire of love, and would have his servants dressed in the livery of joy. The angels of God serve him with songs, not with groans; a murmur or a sigh would be a mutiny in their ranks. That obedience which is not voluntary is disobedience, for the Lord looketh at the heart, and if he seeth that we serve him from force, and not because we love him, he will reject our offering. Service coupled with cheerfulness is heart-service, and therefore true. Take away joyful willingness from the Christian, and you have removed the test of his sincerity. If a man be driven to battle, he is no patriot; but he who marches into the fray with flashing eye and beaming face, singing, “It is sweet for one’s country to die,” proves himself to be sincere in his patriotism. Cheerfulness is the support of our strength; in the joy of the Lord are we strong. It acts as the remover of difficulties. It is to our service what oil is to the wheels of a railway carriage. Without oil the axle soon grows hot, and accidents occur; and if there be not a holy cheerfulness to oil our wheels, our spirits will be clogged with weariness. The man who is cheerful in his service of God, proves that obedience is his element; he can sing,
“Make me to walk in thy commands,
‘Tis a delightful road.”
Reader, let us put this question-do you serve the Lord with gladness? 
Let us show to the people of the world, who think our religion to be slavery, that it is to us a delight and a joy! Let our gladness proclaim that we serve a good Master.

Friday January 6 2012

Dear friend,
How is your New Year going?  I hope you are off to a fresh new start and keeping all the good things of the past.  


Me too.  I hope this is the year of new beginnings and new lives for myself and my loved ones.
Today's lesson:



January 6


Steel in Your Convictions
"We call to mind your work of faith, your labor of love, and your patience of hope..." (1 Th 1:3)
"To be, or not to be?" That was the question in Shakespeare's classic soliloquy, asked by brooding Hamlet as he contemplated suicide. But the nobler question for those of us who choose to live is, "What to be, or what not to be?" That's the real question.
Ours is a post modern world of faithless men, loveless women, and hopeless dupes galore. In a day when "anything goes" it would seem that everything has gone.
But not really. For God is faithful, loving, and hopeful — and now, even as in the day of Elijah, He has no less than seven thousand who have not bowed the knee to Baal; those stalwart souls who — like Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego — stand upright while everyone else bows before the golden idol.
And mark these men and women, for they not only stand up — they stand out. There is something about them that distinguishes them from the rest. They are doers of the word, and not talkers only.
Paul commends those whose "work of faith, labor of love, and patience of hope" sustain them in times when others are like feathers in the wind — blown about by every whim and fancy. "It is clear to us," he continues, "that God has put His hand on you for something special. For when the Message we preached came to you, it wasn't just words. Something happened to you. The Holy Spirit put steel in your convictions." They had backbones made of metal!
"What to be, or what not to be?" Is this a question that has crossed your mind? How about being a man or woman upon whom God has placed His hand for something special; a doer of the word, and not a hearer only? How about being someone who is known for their work of faith, labor of love, and patience of hope?
How about being someone who can stand up and stand out with God-given steel in your convictions? Now that would be something worth being indeed!

I hope your day is wonderful.  Full of God's love and grace.

Tuesday January 3, 2012

Here we go, 2012.  
First day of school in 2012, primary elections in Iowa for the republicans, a new start for billions of people.  
I have to depend on my God, each year has gotten weirder and weirder.  The events are slowly eating away at the life I once knew.


Lord God, God of gods, Lord of lords, my God, my Savior and Redeemer, have mercy on me, bestow your grace upon me, let thy love replace anger, let thy grace flow and forgiveness through the Sacred Blood of your Son Jesus wash me clean, empower me and enliven me to come to your Holy Presence.  Forgive my human weaknesses, forgive my multitude of weaknesses and sins, my anger and lust and desire and hate and fear and weaknesses.  Lord have mercy, Lord have mercy upon me. 
Bless Ona and keep her safe.  Give her Peace and let your Grace through the Holy Spirit fill her with your Love and forgiveness.  Guide her back and let her know that her family loves her.
Bless my children.
Be with Kimberly as she works to resolve her angers, frustrations, desires, lusts, wants, and finally comes to you to find her real love, joy and peace.  Keep her safe and guard her with your angels.
Bless my Hoya so that he can achieve his goals and hopes.  Bless him with your grace and mercy that he may see you and come to worship you.  Give him your love, your blessings, your mercy and grace, bless him with knowledge and Redeemer.  Save him Oh  Lord and make him your great servant.
Bless my Yoona so that he will have strength, courage, faith, belief and love for You and do what he must to honor you, our family and our forefathers.  Give him thy Love and Blessings.  Fill him with thy Holy Spirit and redeem his life for your service.  Give him strength and courage to do what is right and do what he must.  Bless his hand and his handiwork, bless his work and bless his body with strength, his mind with clarity and vision and inspiration, his spirit with thy Love and Grace.


Thank you God for all your gifts.  Thank you God, my Heavenly Father for all your love, mercy, and grace.  Bless us today, in the name of Jesus we pray, Amen.

Monday January 2, 2012

Happy New Year, 2012.  May this year be THE year for all good things.  Enough of heartaches, set backs, disasters, losses, hurts, painful and searing life events... enough now O my God, my Father, my Lord, my Creator.  Enough, Please God, give us this year your bounty, your love, your grace, your blessings, your inheritance, your Holy Spirit.  
Please my God, bless my children, bless their work, bless their futures, give them your grace, vision, love and insight.  Bless them with wealth, health, love, loving, caring kind hearts.  


Today's thoughts from Charles Spurgeon:



January 2


Morning
“Continue in prayer.”
- Col_4:2
It is interesting to remark how large a portion of Sacred Writ is occupied with the subject of prayer, either in furnishing examples, enforcing precepts, or pronouncing promises. We scarcely open the Bible before we read, “Then began men to call upon the name of the Lord;” and just as we are about to close the volume, the “Amen” of an earnest supplication meets our ear. Instances are plentiful. Here we find a wrestling Jacob-there a Daniel who prayed three times a day-and a David who with all his heart called upon his God. On the mountain we see Elias; in the dungeon Paul and Silas. We have multitudes of commands, and myriads of promises. What does this teach us, but the sacred importance and necessity of prayer? We may be certain that whatever God has made prominent in his Word, he intended to be conspicuous in our lives. If he has said much about prayer, it is because he knows we have much need of it. So deep are our necessities, that until we are in heaven we must not cease to pray. Dost thou want nothing? Then, I fear thou dost not know thy poverty. Hast thou no mercy to ask of God? Then, may the Lord’s mercy show thee thy misery! A prayerless soul is a Christless soul. Prayer is the lisping of the believing infant, the shout of the fighting believer, the requiem of the dying saint falling asleep in Jesus. It is the breath, the watchword, the comfort, the strength, the honour of a Christian. If thou be a child of God, thou wilt seek thy Father’s face, and live in thy Father’s love. Pray that this year thou mayst be holy, humble, zealous, and patient; have closer communion with Christ, and enter oftener into the banqueting-house of his love. Pray that thou mayst be an example and a blessing unto others, and that thou mayst live more to the glory of thy Master. The motto for this year must be, “Continue in prayer.”


Evening
“Let the people renew their strength.”
- Isa_41:1
All things on earth need to be renewed. No created thing continueth by itself. “Thou renewest the face of the year,” was the Psalmist’s utterance. Even the trees, which wear not themselves with care, nor shorten their lives with labour, must drink of the rain of heaven and suck from the hidden treasures of the soil. The cedars of Lebanon, which God has planted, only live because day by day they are full of sap fresh drawn from the earth. Neither can man’s life be sustained without renewal from God. As it is necessary to repair the waste of the body by the frequent meal, so we must repair the waste of the soul by feeding upon the Book of God, or by listening to the preached Word, or by the soul-fattening table of the ordinances. How depressed are our graces when means are neglected! What poor starvelings some saints are who live without the diligent use of the Word of God and secret prayer! If our piety can live without God it is not of divine creating; it is but a dream; for if God had begotten it, it would wait upon him as the flowers wait upon the dew. Without constant restoration we are not ready for the perpetual assaults of hell, or the stern afflictions of heaven, or even for the strifes within. When the whirlwind shall be loosed, woe to the tree that hath not sucked up fresh sap, and grasped the rock with many intertwisted roots. When tempests arise, woe to the mariners that have not strengthened their mast, nor cast their anchor, nor sought the haven. If we suffer the good to grow weaker, the evil will surely gather strength and struggle desperately for the mastery over us; and so, perhaps, a painful desolation, and a lamentable disgrace may follow. Let us draw near to the footstool of divine mercy in humble entreaty, and we shall realize the fulfilment of the promise, “They that wait on the Lord shall renew their strength.”