Surely

Have you ever felt the pressure of trying to move while keeping life going? Or maybe doing multiple important tasks that all come due at the same time? Opportunity for stress, right? My wife and daughter and I are trying to get moved into my old house in time for her to be able to go to school starting next week. Challenging!!! My wife was praying about it this morning because this is important with our daughter being a special needs 9-year old. She was lead to read the scripture Psalms 23:6 Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me, All the days of my life; And I will dwell in the house of the Lord, Forever. Wow! How about that as a message from God! I want to focus on one word here.

Surely. In this verse this word really adds the punch. It is like God is saying, “What, are you kidding me? SURELY good things are coming your way. How could that even be a question?” I think we can say this of many of the great blessing God has for us. Surely Jesus died and rose again that we might have eternal life. Surely we can be born again if we repent, ask forgiveness, and ask Jesus to be Lord. Surely God is our Deliverer, Savior, Healer King. Surely He has good things for us hear on the earth.

Surely!!!

Prayer
Father, I thank You for the simple messages You give us. Thank You for adding “surely” when You speak about taking care of Your people. Please reach out once again today to Your people, calling them closer to You. In Jesus name. Amen.

Because God Is Good

As I read Psalm 58 today, I was thankful that God is good. He will defeat our enemies every day before us. He casts down the wicked darkness that tries to rise up against His people. When we follow God, His judgements are against the unrighteousness that is in the earth. The really great news in this is that He helps to deliver us daily. He helps us to find His ways. He has mercy on us when we cry out to Him. This is because we serve a very great and a very good God.

Prayer
Father, thank You for Your deliverance. Thank You for being in our lives. Thank You for always being patient, always calling to us when we move away from Your paths, and always raising us up. Thank You for being the very great and Good God, the King of the universe. In Jesus name. Amen.

Turning To God Wins The Battle

A friend of mine included me in an email this morning that I think is worth sharing. We are a part of a prayer group that is praying and doing a Daniel fast for 21 days. God gave her a scripture this morning, Isaiah 30:18. It speaks of God waiting in His mercy to deliver His people when they return to Him. He is waiting to deliver His people, and as we read on, to prosper His people. He is waiting to hear us cry out to Him and will be gracious when we do. A good question to ask is what was going on before this in this scripture to get this response from God?

The first seventeen verses are talking about how God’s people turned away from Him by turning away from His ways, from the law. There is much about the evil and deception that befalls God’s people when they turn away in this manner. They actually end up going to the wrong people for assistance. These people, the Egyptians in this scripture, do not care for them, deceive them, and take everything from them. This represents how our enemy the devil takes from us by getting us to turn away from God and focus on the wrong things. When we turn back to God’s ways and embrace the law (which is written in our heart – this is the new covenant), then God restores us to a good place. We end up on the good side of God’s judgements. This is both the simplest and perhaps most difficult spiritual warfare because it produces great results but requires us to change.

Prayer
Father, we praise and exalt You as the most high God, the King of the universe. Help us return to You and to turn away from that which is deception and evil. We are weak at times, maybe most of the time, but You are not. We are asking for Your forgiveness and help to be who You want us to be. We love You. In Jesus name. Amen.

Yet Another Reason To Sing

In Psalm 98, as in many of the Psalms, God helps to understand more about who He is and what He is doing. In this Psalm and others He also says what we should be doing, and why. One of our primary tasks is to praise God with our voices, in singing and joyful shouts. We also praise Him with instruments. What is interesting is why.

In this Psalm it says God has revealed His righteousness to the nations and made know His salvation. His victory is from His right hand and right arm. God remembers His mercy and His faithfulness (not ours – His never fails). Even the creation is rejoicing. Why? Because He come to judge the earth. There have been many times when I saw judgement mentioned in the bible I thought it was a bad thing. I now understand it to mean that God comes to set things in order. His judgements are good because they set things in order as they should be according to what He has laid out in scripture. To the degree that we are “plugged in” to that, His judgements will appear good to us because they will continue to set things in order. For those that choose not to follow His ways, the judgements are not such a good thing, because He will eliminate the possibility for those wrong things to continue. But the really cool thing is that this happens when we praise God. We know He is seated on the praises of His people. Literally we praise Him and He comes and sets things right!

Prayer
Father, help us to praise You at all times. Thank You for revealing You righteousness and making known Your salvation. Come and set things right. In Jesus name. Amen.

Shadow Of Wings

This morning in prayer I asked God what I should write about that would encourage me and those that read these pages. He lead me to Psalm 63. Wow! It was definitely an encouragement to me. It starts off with the Psalmist rising early to praise and seek God. That was a fit for this morning for sure. Over the years I have found that life seems a little better every day when I have taken time first thing in the morning to reach out to praise God and to pray. It also speaks of being close to God, under the shadow of wings, following close behind. I don’t think I ever thought about God having wings before this morning. Perhaps it refers to the wings of His angels, which is also very encouraging. It is like there is the army of spiritual fighter planes flying over me to protect me. Then it says His right hand upholds me. We have a squadron of spiritual fighter planes above, it says He will destroy our enemies, and His right hand holds us up in our position near Him.

And, oh yes, that right hand would be Jesus. Now that is amazing and encouraging!

Prayer
Father, we praise and thank You for all You do to watch over us. Thank You for the wings and their shadow. Thank You that we are held in position by Your Son, Jesus. Thank You. In Jesus name. Amen.

Plentiful Rain

Have you ever found yourself in a place in your walk with God where you felt a little weary? I know I have. Today when I was reading the Psalms, I ran across a verse that I am going to remember the next time I feel weary. In Psalm 68:9 the psalmist states that God send a plentiful rain. This rain confirms His inheritance, His people. The last line in the verse is the one that caught my eye.

“When it was weary.”

When what was weary? His inheritance – us! When God sends a plentiful rain, it is to confirm to us that we are His. It is to comfort us when we are weary. The entire chapter speaks about God defending His people. God is on our side, brothers and sisters, and He wants to bring the rain of His reign to you!

Prayer
Father, we praise and exalt You. Thank You for taking time to spend with us and for making us feel comforted when we are weary. I ask Father that You send a plentiful rain to each of Your children today. In Jesus name. Amen.

Sabbath Rest

It has been a while, but we decided to take a sabbath rest for Saturday. Please return tomorrow.

God Bless.

Prayer
Father, be with our readers and help them rest. In Jesus name. Amen.

The Age We Live In

Yesterday I wrote about the Bear Fruit Films company making a family film in Culver, with the shooting starting next Monday. We are fortunate to have courageous believers in the movie industry willing to take such a stand as to make a film we can take little ones to that is not a cartoon. “Little Savages” will be such a film, shooting now and due to be released in the Spring of 2014. But it also made me stop and think about the times in which we live.

It seems odd to me that such work is so noteworthy. What kind of nation have we become in America, or any nation, that we find it so rare for such a movie to be made? How did we get here? How do we turn the tide and get back to where this type of pursuit is the norm? Well, one thing I know is that at the same time the entertainment industry went so bad, we were having much division and finger pointing in the body of Christ. How is it that churches never get together to share fun times or meals or praise and worship?

Until the body of Christ can act more like a living bride and a severed corps, there is little hope that evil will be turned back in any significant way in America or any country.

Prayer
Father, we ask that You help us to break the barriers between us. Help us lay down our pride. Help us to be the children You meant us to be. Help us to move down that path expediently so that we can become the bride we are meant to be. In Jesus name. Amen.

Thank You, God, For Bear Fruit Films!

Every day it is good to start off the day, I think, with being thankful to God. As I look into my back yard today, I am thanking God for Bear Fruit Films.

Bear Fruit is the faith based film company that has come to Indiana, to Culver, to film a movie I can take my nine year old daughter to and not have to be concerned about what I may have to explain. In today’s film industry it appears that it takes courage to shoot this kind of film. Perhaps that is why so few do it. The film is called “Little Savages” and has many Disney stars in it, as well as others. They have already brought a sparkle to the eye of many in Culver and throughout the Michiana area.

Thank you Bear Fruit, for your courage.

Prayer
Father, please watch over the production of this movie. Use the production and the end result to draw many to You in a stronger way. Let this be a part of rekindling a sense of family in our homes. Please make sure they have all they need to do this film, and keep everyone in and around it, and their families, safe and healthy. In Jesus name. Amen.

What We Say Matters

In spiritual warfare, it is important to know that what we say matters. Perhaps the greatest spiritual warfare occurs the moment we choose to move from the darkness into the light when we accept Jesus as our Lord and Savior.

How do we do that?

Paul tells us in Romans 10:8-10 in quoting Moses that we believe in our heart and confess with our mouth, we will be saved. This is the key to spiritual warfare. We believe in God and that He is on our side. Then we say with our mouth what we believe, and that changes things. What we say has to line up with the scriptures, of course, but God is on our side and wants good things for us. That is what we are in the process of doing when we speak. Therefore, take heart, speak what you hear God saying, and it will be done.

Prayer
Father, You are the Master and Creator of everything. We ask that You help us to speak those things which are good. We need Your help, for You alone are Holy. Thank You. In Jesus name. Amen.