How quickly we forget
Some Thoughts…
Am I motivated by the thrill of the fight or the power of LOVE?
OH SO MUCH MORE!
Some Thoughts…
A Prayer…
The praise service or the pity party…
Read Romans 5:3-8
Some Thoughts…
What did we gain the moment we believed?
Read Romans 5:1-2
Some Thoughts…
God began a NEW THING in an old manger….
Read Jeremiah 31:21-33
Father as I celebrate another Christmas help me realize that the old, old story of the baby in the manger is fresh and alive and that You are making me new every day
Another true meaning of Christmas….
Read Luke 2:1-20
Some Thoughts…
Faith at Christmas Time
Read Luke 2:21-40“Moved by the Spirit, he went into the temple courts…” (v27)
Some Thoughts…
I am intrigued by the life and faith of Simeon. An old man who the Bible tells me was full of the Holy Spirit. Jesus has yet to die and ascend to allow the fullness of the Spirit’s presence, yet the man of deep faith and diligent watchfulness was “moved by the Spirit” to enter the temple that day. I’m sure, not for the first time; one can only imagine the hours and days this aging gentleman had spent in prayer and worship in the temple pleading for comfort and the consolation of his people and his own soul…but something was different that day as he felt a push to enter the house of God. He must have lingered in the court of women and not moved to where only the man could go; and then he saw it…he saw HIM! Messiah wrapped in a baby blanket…yet he knows this is Him – salvation for us all Gentiles, Jews, slave or free. The light has broken into darkness!..: The prophesy of Jesus’ life-giving life flowed from his lips to the astounded ears of Jesus’ parents even a jolting prediction of the power many would feel and the rejections, and reaction that many would have for Jesus. Even though He would offer himself for all, not all will have him…then a joyfully funny thing happens, as is so often the case with Kingdom people. God moved in the listening ear of the 84 year old widow, prophetess, Anna, who can do nothing less than her title says, she begins to point Jesus out to every worshiper that stood around that day in the temple. I’m sure this was quite a fiasco…one of which Joseph and Mary must have wished to avoid (v39-40). But God’s Glory cannot be avoided among His seeking people…and all this commotion began because of one man’s willingness to be moved by God’ s Spirit; not to do some great act of charity, just to simply enter the temple courts and see what God was doing… And the message of salvation is passed on from shepherds on the streets to prophets in the temple…Salvation for all people!
A Prayer…Father, as the mundane overtakes my habits, may I always be listening to you speak, feeling you move me, and looking around to see your salvation at work in the lives of those you dwell in. Give me “Old Faith” that will not quit, like Simeon. A faith that will take the most mundane and routine steps and see everything differently Amen.
I’m a exchange student…
I’ve noticed every year when we receive new exchange students in our high school how excited our students are to talk with them. then have fun with the cultural interchange and overcoming the language barriers. The locals really enjoy the stranger form another land…
it got me thinking….
I’m reading through 1 Peter and in chapter 2 we find these word from the apostle:
11 Dear friends, I urge you, as aliens and strangers in the world, to abstain from sinful desires, which war against your soul. 12 Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us. 1 Peter 2:11-12 (NIV)
and I thought about those exchange students… they are living in a land that is not their own, one day they will be going home… so they learn, they listen, and they contribute to the foreign land they are living in… and for the most part the locals get a kick out of them…. I wonder if the citizens of this planet enjoy the citizens of Heaven? Are we living such good lives that even though they don’t understand us, they can’t help but smile… maybe shaking their head in disbelief that we don’t understand how things work around here or how oddly interesting our habits, conversations, and attempts to understand the locals is somehow charming and winsome in some strange way….
I don’t know… I’m afraid I’m too quick to give up on being foreign and I just try to blend in…