::my journey with Loving God::: 2/1/15

Mirror, Mirror...-OUR DAILY BREAD

Bible in a Year:Leviticus 23-24; Mark 1:1-22

How often do you see your reflection in a mirror? Some studies say that the average person looks in a mirror 8 to 10 times a day. Other surveys say it could be as many as 60 to 70 times a day, if glancing at our reflection in store windows and smart phone screens is included.

Why do we look so often? Most experts agree that it’s to check our appearance, especially before meetings or social gatherings. If something is amiss, we want to fix it. Why look if we don’t plan to change what’s wrong?

The apostle James said that reading or hearing God’s Word without acting on it is like looking in a mirror and forgetting what we’ve seen (1:22-24). But the better alternative is to look closely and act on what we see. James said, “He who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does” (v.25).

If we hear God’s Word without taking action, we fool only ourselves (v.22). But when we examine ourselves in light of God’s Word and obey His instructions, God liberates us from all that keeps us from looking more and more like Him each day.

Thank You, Lord, for the Bible, Your Word to us.
Give us wisdom and guidance as we
read its pages. Make us sensitive to Your
voice and give us hearts to obey.

The Bible is a mirror that lets us see ourselves as God sees us.

What Money Can't Buy - OUR DAILY BREAD

Read: Ephesians 1:3-14 |

Bible in a Year:Exodus 34-35; Matthew 22:23-46

“There are some things money can’t buy—but these days, not many” according to Michael Sandel, author of What Money Can’t Buy. A person can buy a prison-cell upgrade for $90 a night, the right to shoot an endangered black rhino for $250,000, and your doctor’s cell phone number for $1,500. It seems that “almost everything is up for sale.”

But one thing money can’t buy isredemption—freedom from the stranglehold of sin. When the apostle Paul began writing about the rich nature of God’s plan of salvation through Jesus, his heart erupted in praise: “In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace which He made to abound toward us” (Eph. 1:7-8).

Jesus’ death on the cross was the high cost of delivering us from sin. And only He could pay that price because He was the perfect Son of God. The natural response to such free but costly grace is spontaneous praise from our hearts and commitment to the God who bought us through Jesus (1:13-14).

Praise to our loving God—He has come to set us free!

What amazing love You have for us, heavenly Father!

That You gave Your Son who willingly

died in our place. It seems too good

to be true. Thank You!

Only Jesus’ death could purchase our freedom.

Blended Together - OUR DAILY BREAD

Blended Together

We are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works. —Ephesians 2:10

My wife, Janet, bought me a new Dreadnought D-35 guitar for my 65th birthday. Originally developed in the early 1900s, the Dreadnought style is larger than most guitars designed during that time, and it’s known for its bold and loud tone. It was named after the large World War I British battleship the HMS Dreadnought. The back of the D-35 is unique. Because of the shortage of wide pieces of high quality rosewood, the craftsmen innovatively fit three smaller pieces of wood together, which resulted in a richer tone.Read: Ephesians 4:5-16 | Bible in a Year:Exodus 27-28; Matthew 21:1-22

God’s workmanship is a lot like that innovative guitar design. Jesus takes fragments and blends them together to bring Him praise. He recruited tax collectors, Jewish revolutionaries, fishermen, and others to be His followers. And down through the centuries Christ continues to call out people from varied walks of life. The apostle Paul tells us, “He makes the whole body fit together perfectly. As each part does its own special work, it helps the other parts grow, so that the whole body is healthy and growing and full of love” (Eph. 4:16nlt).

In the Master’s hand many kinds of people are fit together and are being built into something with great potential for praise to God and service for others.

Thank You, Lord, that you have placed us
in Your family—that You are using us
individually and together to bring You
honor. Help us to live in Your power.

We can accomplish more together than we can alone.

a worry list

Years ago, in an article in seminary magazine, Paul Borden gave some helpful suggestion for worries:

1.start a worry list- write down what you're worried about.

2. Turn your worry list into a prayer list- Ask the Lord to work in those situations you're concerned about. Pray specifically for your needs and depend on Him.

3. Turn your prayer list into an action list. If you have any insight that there's something you can do about your cares, do it. As we turn our worries into prayer and action, Borden says, " Paralysing anxienty can be replaced by concern for the responsibilities of life."

WHAT YOU HAVE MADE A MATTER OF PRAYER SHOULD CEASE TO BE A MATTER OF CARE.

THE LIVE I WANT TO BE......THIS IS MY LIFESTYLE.....

I want that Humility, I want to be humble, Lord I humble myself before you. I believe in a breakthrough this year. I don't want to waste anymore time on pride and let satan rob me from the wonderful blessings God has in store for me. I want to walk humbly. I'm created to serve you and the body of Christ, to worship you, to build relationships, putting others before me, loving one another, lift each other up. I'm hungry for more of you Jesus, draw me close to you. I understand it is a life long process. I understand humility is one of the highest graces and the hardest to attain. I understand it's not an easy walk, but I know I serve a mighty God and believe with all f my heart that You are with me and delight in such pursuit. Come Holy Spirit and teach me humility.

As I go through all kinds of feelings and experiences in my journey through life -- delight, surprise, chagrin, dismay -- I hold this question as a guiding light: "What do I really need right now to be happy?" What I come to over and over again is that only qualities as vast and deep as love, connection and kindness will really make me happy in any sort of enduring way. No one is in control of your happiness but you; therefore, you have the power to change anything about yourself or your life that you want to change. To change one's life: 1. Start immediately. 2. Do it flamboyantly. 3. No exceptions. Reverence for Life affords me my fundamental principle of morality, namely, that good consists in maintaining, assisting, and enhancing life and that to destroy, harm, or to hinder life is evil. Affirmation of the world -- that is affirmation of the will to live, which appears in phenomenal forms all around me -- is only possible for me in that I give myself out for other life. I think that taking life seriously means something such as this: that whatever man does on this planet has to be done in the lived truth of the terror of creation, of the grotesque, of the rumble of panic underneath everything. Otherwise it is false. Whatever is achieved must be achieved with the full exercise of passion, of vision, of pain, of fear, and of sorrow. How do we know ... that our part of the meaning of the universe might not be a rhythm in sorrow? Even after all this time, The sun never says to the earth, "You owe me." Look what happens with A love like that. It lights the whole sky. There is nothing we like to see so much as the gleam of pleasure in a person's eye when he feels that we have sympathized with him, understood him. At these moments something fine and spiritual passes between two friends. These are the moments worth living.