Easter Prayer...May God receive all the Glory

Lord Jesus, risen and everliving Savior, with your people of all ages and races I adore You as my Lord and my God, who had crushed Satan's head, conquered sin and death, and redeemed all mankind from the forces of evil.  Accept my hallelujahs as I rejoice with believers, saints and angels because You had come forth triumphantly from the grave to live forevermore.  I ask You, Jesus Christ, to cleanse my heart from all sinful desires and dwell there with my eternal peace.

I rejoice to know that You had blotted out all my transgressions and reconciled me with The Father in heaven, that I as a child of His household may seek His face and know that He is full of tender mercies and boundless compassion.

I praise You, Jesus Christ, because of the hope that You had brought to my heart and to everyone in this World.  I need not be afraid of death and dying because there is no condemnation for us who believe in the saving power of Your Cross.  To all who are sorrowing let this Easter Day bring comfort of Your promises and a new joy of expectancy as they look forward to the day when they shall be reunited with their loved ones in the eternal glory of heaven.

I rejoice today because I know that The Church shall go on from victory to victory, receiving strength from Your Almighty hand. Even the gates of hell shall not prevail against The Church.  Accept my vows of allegiance this day as I dedicate myself anew to Your service to tell the nations of the earth that You therefore, the risen King of the ages.

Take full possession of the my heart, remove all sin, scatter all doubts, drive away all worries.  Let Your Spirit set aglow in me a love that will not die.  Increase in me day after day the desire to follow You, Jesus Christ, to whatever place You shall lead me, until I stand before Your Throne to behold all Your Glory as the risen Lord, and praise You with saints and angels with an undying and perfect love.  Hallelujah...Hallelujah....and Hallelujah.  And Amen.

Good Friday Prayer and thoughts...

I pray today that we all will pause, contemplate and mediate on what we Christians celebrate beginning today with Good Friday, Saturday and the culmination of Easter Sunday…of what all Our Jesus Christ endured, sacrificed and did for each one of us…for our sins.

Therefore I pray this Good Friday…Our Lamb of God, slain for and by sinners, this day brings me to the foot of the Cross.  Humbly and shamefully I admit that you had borne my griefs and carried my sorrows; the chastisement of my peace was upon You, and with the stripes I am healed.  I thank You for suffering all as my Substitute.

For me You endured the treachery of Judas; the mockery and mistreatment of Herod; the miscarriage of justice before Annas, Caiaphas, and Pilate; the scourge, the rod, and the crown of thorns.  For my sins Your hands and feet were pierced with nails, Your lips tasted of the vinegar and gall, Your side was pierced by the spear.

Here I behold the tremendous price of my transgressions that cost You your life, Lord Jesus.  Here I see you as the Lamb of God, who by one sacrifice has forever perfected them that are sanctified.  May your Cross ever be the source of forgiveness, comfort, joy and peace.

As I again view You today suspended on the cross of Golgotha, may I by the Love be prompted to say with Paul: “I am crucified with Christ…and the life I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.” Bless the preaching of Your Cross everywhere, and by its constraining love draw all men to You that they may love with and for You forevermore.  For Your holy name’s sake I ask it.  Amen.

I pray you are blessed by this prayer and may many individuals come forth to receive Christ during this Holy weekend.

From a feeble 'worm' to matter of strength

A few more words of encouragement for those praying through your adversity.  Upon reading the bible this morning, I came across a passage that hit me hard across the head.  Isaiah 41:14-15 "Fear not, you worm Jacob, you men of Israel! I will help you", says the Lord and your Redeemer, The Holy One of Israel.  "Behold, I will make you into a new threshing sledge with sharp teeth; you shall thresh the mountains and beat them small, and make the hills like chaff."

So many of us are experiencing many life challenges as we endure our valley.  I join with you in this plight, our adversities, challenges and growth in our journey with Our Lord Jesus Christ.  

First, did you notice...the people were called a worm?  A worm is soft, delicate and easily bruised.

On the other hand, a 'threshing tool' is strong, can cut through rock, not be broken and will leave its mark on the rock.  "Chaff" - meaning worthless.  Leaving the rock and mountain worthless.

Only our Almighty God can convert one to the other.

And that is exactly what God did for his people the Israelite s.  Made them strong from being feeble, weak body of people.  Nations no longer will trample them.

A worm can and should take heart, knowing that the Almighty God can MAKE us stronger than our circumstances and can turn each situation to our good.

God can take a life crushed by pain, sorrow, hardships, depression, uncertainty, etc...and make it a harp, whose music will be total praise.  He can lift earth's saddest failure up to Heaven's Glory.

Find heart and encouragement...Our God is in control...and can MAKE our circumstances, mind set, finances, etc...from weak to strong.

Lets begin praising now...for our Victory to come.

Many blessings to you.

It is Never Too Late for God...

What simple but provocative words...given to me by my 10 year old son.  Let me set the stage....while getting ready for bed...for several reasons or another...were running late getting to bed.  Son normally reads his devotions and I commented how late it was and shared he did not have time and it was past his bed time and was too late.  He immediately responded...."Dad, it is never too late for God".  Wow!!! So..to say the least...I permitted him to read his devotions.

I have learned much from my son and realized I miss the childlike innocence, faith, devotion and passion.  I not only miss it...but welcome it back..all from the innocence of a child.

I could so easily run away in so many directions with his phrase in my ministry blog...from everything is God's timing to is is never too late, regardless of time, conditions, or actions to come to God.

We have so much to learn from children...important thing...are we listening?  Letting pride get in the way?  Or feel there are no lessons to be learned from the youth...etc.?

Will try to elaborate further on this subject and working on a piece about God's promises too. I end with joy to share this with you from my son.

In ending...I share this piece of information and I hope you remember...has I have even entered this in the front of my bible..."It is never too late for God".

Quiet time, Devotion time...

This thread is not for us to pump ourselves up, brag or impress others.  It is simply a place to share your experiences, methods and thoughts on your daily quite time with Our Lord.  As for me, my day is not complete, unless, I enjoy quite time with my Lord in prayer, my devotions and bible reading early morning while everything and everyone are still asleep.  My whole day is so much better with my time of reflection, prayer and nourishment in these early hours of the day.

Lately I had a thought impressed upon me when I read about giving to God our firsts.  Now, of course we mostly know this of giving of our first fruits, but have we ever considered giving Him our first minutes, hours of the day.

When reading the other day in my bible, I was reading (Exodus 34:2-3) “Be ready in the morning, and then come up…Present yourself to me there on the top of the mountain.  No one is to come with you.”

I believe the morning is a critically important time of the day, that we must never face the day until we have faced God, nor look into the face of others until we have looked into His.  We cannot expect to be victorious, if we began our day in our own humanly earthly strength alone.

As for me, I enjoy and feel better when I begin the day after having been influenced by a few reflective, quiet moments between my heart, heart and soul with God. I encourage you and me, to meet with Him alone regularly.  You will not regret it. 

Remember and learn from our forefathers, ancestors, family and friends…those whom have accomplished the most for God in this world are those who have been found on their knees, reading, reflecting…devoting time early in the morning.

Please share your quiet time and how it has affected you, your outlook, and life.

Many blessings to you and your family.

Your brother in Christ, Steven

Praise precedes Victory!

Good day my brother and sisters in Christ.  I write this with much joy and praise the Lord!  What is that?  Am I celebrating because I found employment?  Financial worries over?  Nope.  I know...I know...you are probably thinking...I have lost my nut.  No I did not lose my nut...but I did read this morning 2 Chronicles 20:1-22. I learned this morning...praise can and should precede victory.  As you know the story...a multitude of forces were marching against Israel.  The army of Israel was vastly out numbered, and they did not know what to do.  So they fasted and prayed and in doing so...received word from God. "Be not afraid or dismayed at this great multitude; for the battle is not yours but God's" (2 Chron 20:15)  Did you pick up on that.  The battle is not ours...but God's.  And what did they do in response...they placed together a praise choir.  When the choir of people began to say, the word tells us "the Lord set ambushments against the men...who had come against Judah, and they were self slaughtered"(verse 22).  When it was all over, not one Israelite had fallen and not one enemy survived.  And what blows my mind...the spoils was so abundant...it took three whole days to haul all the cattle, goods, garments, precious items, etc.  What a victory!  And it all started by praising God.  That is exactly what I am doing.  Praising God for the victory that is forthcoming.  It is all left to us to trust Him and began to praise.  Also we, including myself need to keep the faith.  (1 Jn 5:4) "For whatever is born of God overcomes the world.  And this is the victory that has overcome the world - our faith."  Our creator can overcome any obstacle.  We need to trust always His providence, like (Phil 4:19) states..."...my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus."  So I end with this bit of encouragement...praise Him for the Victory...Keep the faith and remember...we have the assurance that every promise God has made in Scripture is available to us.

You are in my thoughts and prayers...I pray I am in yours as well.  Many blessings...safety...and God's protection be upon you and your families this year.

Your Brother in Christ, Steven