The Lord is my shepherd I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside the still waters. He restores my soul; He leads me in the paths of righteousness For His name's sake.
Ps 23:1-3
Friday, August 29, 2008
Still waters
The Lord is my shepherd I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside the still waters. He restores my soul; He leads me in the paths of righteousness For His name's sake.
Ps 23:1-3
Monday, August 25, 2008
Christ's leadership
When you say that title out loud, Christ-the head of the church, or Christ-the leader of the church, what do you think of? What pops up in your mind?
I recently finished a book for marriage called, Boundaries in Marriage by Henry Cloud. It went over the very well known verse in Ephesians 5:22-23, and 25;
Wives submit to your husbands as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which is the Savior...Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy.
I know many of us have read this verse time and again, whether single, engaged, married, divorced or widowed. I know I have. But what does this verse describe? What leadership describes Christ to the church? I read this next paragraph, and I thought it was beautiful.
I want to share this piece of the book with you just to remind you of our beautiful Savior.
"He (Christ) died for her (church) and makes her whole. He looks out for her growth, and protects her from the world, the flesh, and the devil. He helps her to invest her talents, heals her hurts, takes her suffering on himself, supports her trials, and comes alongside of her when she falls."
Paul describes the leadership role in Phil. 2:5-8
Let this mind be in your 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.
"A leader is a giving servant who is committed to the best for the one(s) he or she is leading."
taken by Henry Cloud's, Boundaries in Marriage.
This truly inspired me to start disciplining myself to have this same mind set. I want to have this in my relationships and places of influence. Imagining what this is going to look like in my life is so much fun.
I recently finished a book for marriage called, Boundaries in Marriage by Henry Cloud. It went over the very well known verse in Ephesians 5:22-23, and 25;
Wives submit to your husbands as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which is the Savior...Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy.
I know many of us have read this verse time and again, whether single, engaged, married, divorced or widowed. I know I have. But what does this verse describe? What leadership describes Christ to the church? I read this next paragraph, and I thought it was beautiful.
I want to share this piece of the book with you just to remind you of our beautiful Savior.
"He (Christ) died for her (church) and makes her whole. He looks out for her growth, and protects her from the world, the flesh, and the devil. He helps her to invest her talents, heals her hurts, takes her suffering on himself, supports her trials, and comes alongside of her when she falls."
Paul describes the leadership role in Phil. 2:5-8
Let this mind be in your 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.
"A leader is a giving servant who is committed to the best for the one(s) he or she is leading."
taken by Henry Cloud's, Boundaries in Marriage.
This truly inspired me to start disciplining myself to have this same mind set. I want to have this in my relationships and places of influence. Imagining what this is going to look like in my life is so much fun.
Sunday, August 17, 2008
Simply being with Jesus
Tricia encouraged us to share what the most important thing is right now in our walk with the Lord so I'll share some of what Jesus is doing in my heart and life. I thought it was great that Tricia used the wording "right now"....what is the Lord doing "right now?", because we all go through different seasons at different times and what God 's doing with me right now is probably different than what He's doing in you right now, but it's all equally important and valuable. And this is a great place to share and encourage one another with what Jesus is doing in our lives.
This summer The Lord has been drawing me back to Him and just loving Him and simply being with Him. So often I want to come away from my devotion time with notes of what I learned or an answer to the current challenge in my life, and I miss experiencing Him and His love and presence. But I am more aware than ever that it's Him that I need more than mental understanding or answers to my questions. Jesus has used the revival going on in Lakeland, FL and the book The Shack to really jump start a new hunger for HIM. And for simply walking with Him each day in simplicity...hearing and obeying that day. Of course,it's a constant struggle to do this and to focus on my relationship with Him and to just sit down and be quiet. Honestly, my flesh feels better when I feel like I've accomplished something during my time with Him. I get convicted all the time of reading ABOUT Him, or studying ABOUT Him and forgetting to just BE with Him.
So today I encourage myself and everyone to take a little time to just BE with him....even if you went to church today and heard a great message....have you just quieted yourself and spent time with Him? He's always there...waiting for me, and as I'm slowly finding out, that when I feel His love and presence, suddenly mental understanding, or answers I need don't matter so much anymore. Jesus is showing me that my life is best lived IN Him, not just for Him.
Everyone have a blessed week, Emily :)
This summer The Lord has been drawing me back to Him and just loving Him and simply being with Him. So often I want to come away from my devotion time with notes of what I learned or an answer to the current challenge in my life, and I miss experiencing Him and His love and presence. But I am more aware than ever that it's Him that I need more than mental understanding or answers to my questions. Jesus has used the revival going on in Lakeland, FL and the book The Shack to really jump start a new hunger for HIM. And for simply walking with Him each day in simplicity...hearing and obeying that day. Of course,it's a constant struggle to do this and to focus on my relationship with Him and to just sit down and be quiet. Honestly, my flesh feels better when I feel like I've accomplished something during my time with Him. I get convicted all the time of reading ABOUT Him, or studying ABOUT Him and forgetting to just BE with Him.
So today I encourage myself and everyone to take a little time to just BE with him....even if you went to church today and heard a great message....have you just quieted yourself and spent time with Him? He's always there...waiting for me, and as I'm slowly finding out, that when I feel His love and presence, suddenly mental understanding, or answers I need don't matter so much anymore. Jesus is showing me that my life is best lived IN Him, not just for Him.
Everyone have a blessed week, Emily :)
Tuesday, August 12, 2008
Knowing Him as Abba
Over 2,000 years ago Jesus came to declare to the world that the uncreated God of Heaven and Earth is a Father who so loved the world that He gave His only Son to die so that He may inherit a family through the blood of His Son. As Jesus taught, He was very intentional about speaking of God as His Father, your Father, and our Father.
Two verses in the Bible can have a different impact when you change one word; God to Father. Genesis 1:1 could read “In the beginning the Father...” and John 3:16 could easily read, “For the Father so loved the world.” As we consider the truth that Jesus came and taught us to relate to God as our Father we must actually begin to look at several places in the Word and consider Him a Father, a 'Papa', a Dad that has real tangible affection, feeling and emotion for His children.
Consider the many verses that speak of God's delight, rejoicing heart and enjoyment of those that fear Him. Psalm 16:3 As for the saints who are on the earth, they are the excellent ones, in whom is all my delight. Job 33:26 He shall pray to God, and He will delight in him, he shall see His face with joy. Proverbs 8:30 I was daily His delight, rejoicing always before Him. I approach these verses as the description of what my Father in heaven is like and how He feels about me. The truth is He delights in me. He takes pleasure in me. He rejoices over me. I write my name in those verses to where it reads ‘as for Wes who lives in KC, he is my excellent son in whom is all my delight’ (psalm 16:3). This can seem minute but beloved this is powerful. When I speak it, pray it and sing it the most powerful thing begins to happen... I begin to believe it! When our hearts begin to be rooted and grounded in the truth of how our Father feels towards us we will become bold and confident sons and daughters.
I ask myself why? Why does my Father feel this way about me? Because I am His son and He is my Father. That’s it. Jesus said it best in John 17:23 You (Father) have loved them as You have loved Me. This is stunning! The same love that the Father loves Jesus He loves me. The way God loves God is the SAME way God loves me. Unthinkable! He is a Father that is madly in love with His children. He actually likes us, He is for us and He’s zealous to be our Father in whom we find our strength, our comfort, our hope and our security.
I’m a new dad these days and I can tell you that there’s nothing that could keep me from taking joy in my son. When I think of him I’m filled with affection, gladness and pleasure. He’s only six months old, he cannot earn my love. He doesn’t have to do anything for it. He can barely sit up let alone ‘do’ for me, and He doesn’t have to. He is my son! Therefore I’m full of love and affection for him. And the scripture says if you then being evil know how to give good gifts to your children how much more your Father in heaven... Mt 7:11.
Rest in the knowledge that He knows your name, that He built your frame and takes the hitghest pleasure in you. Rest in the fact that you cannot nor ever will be expected to EARN His love. Before time began He knew you, sent His Son--the very gloy of his image--as ransom for you. Rest knowing that you have an eternal Father who will never fail you, who is forever proud of you and let him embrace you with His effection!
Written By: Wes Martin
Written By: Wes Martin
Saturday, August 9, 2008
Take me into the holy of holies
Theres nothing that can compare to entering into a place in worship where Gods manifested presence meets you there. To go in so deep that everything around you seems to drown itself out and fade into nonexistence. A place where God has you all to Himself, to share the intimacy with you that He has longed for since before you were born. Its the one place that He knows His voice is clearer to you than any other sound on earth.
But, its a journey that not all experience. Some may be too timid to venture much past the outer courtyard. Others press in, only to stop short in the holy place they have felt His touch but may not even know that it goes much, much deeper. Or maybe they enjoy the comfort of the holy place a little too much and settle for a sip when they can have a river. The most holy place the holy of holies where the Shekinah glory of the Lord resides. Two minutes spent in the holy of holies can change a life forever.
In these last days, God is calling for a restoration of Davids tabernacle. We know that the structure of Davids tabernacle consisted of not much more than a tent. So, why would God choose this make-shift tent over the tabernacle of Moses or especially Solomon? Davids tabernacle was the only one of the three that lacked a veil that separated the presence of God from His people. He could finally be intimate with His people. His tabernacle was also one that offered up worship around the clock to God without ceasing.
Acts chapter 15 (NIV) says After this I will return and will rebuild the tabernacle of David, which has fallen down; I will rebuild its ruins, and I will set it up; So that the rest of mankind may seek the LORD, Even all the Gentiles who are called by My name, Says the LORD who does all these things.(Also found in Amos 9).
Why is He going to restore the tabernacle of David? So that the rest of mankind may seek the LORD I believe that restoring worship to the body of Christ is an imperative part to these last days and specifically to the harvest of souls in these last days not to mention the fact that the Father misses that intimacy with His children.
Its time for the body of Christ to tap into that glory like we never have before. We must hunger and thirst like we never have if we want an encounter like weve never experienced. Its the power that resides in the glory where we will find healing, restoration, and breakthrough in every area of our lives.
Taken from www.Micahjared.com
-Colleen Eide
Thursday, August 7, 2008
Come to Papa
I wanted to share this precious testimony with all of you!
It's an excerpt from a book that I recently read, it touched my heart and really helped me see God in a new light! I hope that it blesses you as much as it did me...
"When I was preaching at Metro Christian Fellowship, one of the sisters in the fellowship told me a wonderful story, and I will tell it to you with her permission. She came up during the ministry time after one of the messages to receive the good news of the forgiveness of God. Thirty years earlier, she had a child out of wedlock, was sent away by her family to have the child and give it up for adoption. When she came home after that experience, she was met by her father, who was the cranky accountant that many of us picture God to be. He gave her a little black book in which he had detailed all of the expenses of her pregnancy and her experience. He took her into her room, set that little black book on her dresser, and said, "There, now you remember."
How many of us know that little black books like that are about more than money? They are about things like shame, rejection, fear, and brokenness. Then every week, as she would bring home her paycheck from her job she would hand her paycheck to her father. He would receive it, and then he would go into her room, take that little black book, and mark out a line of debt - week after week, line upon line, until the debt was paid. Perhaps you can relate to the burden of that weight of shame and guilt clouding every encounter with your father, the one who could forgive, but chooses not to. The world is filled with people living under just such a cloud of unforgiveness. They never know the joy of being set free from the debt, never believing that God would be the Father of forgiveness.
So, that particular Sunday during the ministry time, she was at the altar when the Lord opened the eyes of her spirit. She saw herself standing again in her bedroom and looking at that little black book on the dresser, when suddenly the door opened and Jesus walked in. He walked straight to that little black book, opened it, and stamped it "Paid-in-Full." Then He took that little book of her debt and flung it away! He sent it away. He threw it out! And He took a little white book that was a book of promise and hope, gave it to her, and said, "This is it, this is the Book of Salvation." He replaced the debt with hope. The debt is paid and cast away. His blood is enough. You owe God nothing, except to say thank you and ask Him again."
Taken from the Book "Come to Papa" (Encountering the Father that Jesus Knew)
By: Gary Wiens
-Colleen Eide
It's an excerpt from a book that I recently read, it touched my heart and really helped me see God in a new light! I hope that it blesses you as much as it did me...
"When I was preaching at Metro Christian Fellowship, one of the sisters in the fellowship told me a wonderful story, and I will tell it to you with her permission. She came up during the ministry time after one of the messages to receive the good news of the forgiveness of God. Thirty years earlier, she had a child out of wedlock, was sent away by her family to have the child and give it up for adoption. When she came home after that experience, she was met by her father, who was the cranky accountant that many of us picture God to be. He gave her a little black book in which he had detailed all of the expenses of her pregnancy and her experience. He took her into her room, set that little black book on her dresser, and said, "There, now you remember."
How many of us know that little black books like that are about more than money? They are about things like shame, rejection, fear, and brokenness. Then every week, as she would bring home her paycheck from her job she would hand her paycheck to her father. He would receive it, and then he would go into her room, take that little black book, and mark out a line of debt - week after week, line upon line, until the debt was paid. Perhaps you can relate to the burden of that weight of shame and guilt clouding every encounter with your father, the one who could forgive, but chooses not to. The world is filled with people living under just such a cloud of unforgiveness. They never know the joy of being set free from the debt, never believing that God would be the Father of forgiveness.
So, that particular Sunday during the ministry time, she was at the altar when the Lord opened the eyes of her spirit. She saw herself standing again in her bedroom and looking at that little black book on the dresser, when suddenly the door opened and Jesus walked in. He walked straight to that little black book, opened it, and stamped it "Paid-in-Full." Then He took that little book of her debt and flung it away! He sent it away. He threw it out! And He took a little white book that was a book of promise and hope, gave it to her, and said, "This is it, this is the Book of Salvation." He replaced the debt with hope. The debt is paid and cast away. His blood is enough. You owe God nothing, except to say thank you and ask Him again."
Taken from the Book "Come to Papa" (Encountering the Father that Jesus Knew)
By: Gary Wiens
-Colleen Eide
Wednesday, August 6, 2008
Thoughts...
I am on vacation until the 21st and one of my goals is to not get online during this trip...haha
So...I will not put a post up until the end of the month.
However, before then, I would really like to know where every one's thoughts are. Are these Bible studies working, what would you like to see in your walk with God, would anyone like to post their learning's, or what is the most important thing right now with your relationship with the Lord? I lovingly nudge those who said they want to participate, to post a comment...let me know where your thoughts are. You don't have to post comments on the study posted...it can be from your one on one with our Father and His Word in your life.
-Tricia
So...I will not put a post up until the end of the month.
However, before then, I would really like to know where every one's thoughts are. Are these Bible studies working, what would you like to see in your walk with God, would anyone like to post their learning's, or what is the most important thing right now with your relationship with the Lord? I lovingly nudge those who said they want to participate, to post a comment...let me know where your thoughts are. You don't have to post comments on the study posted...it can be from your one on one with our Father and His Word in your life.
-Tricia
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)