Knowing God Personally

On an elevator at the hospital, I admired a cross worn by a lady riding up to her floor with us. She thanked me and I asked her, "Do you know the Jesus who died on that cross for us?" She answered, "Well, not personally."

I told her that she could know Him personally, and He was only a prayer away from her. At that moment the elevator doors opened and we both went our separate ways. I pray for her still, that she will pray to God for that intimate relationship with Him.

Knowing God personally is the greatest privilege of life on this earth. This unity not only guarantees our eternal destination, but also improves the quality of life that we enjoy during our time here. Though mountains of evil surround us, God levels our path (Psalm 27:11).

Jesus offered that we come to Him in our burdened weariness, and He promised us His rest if we do. We yoke up with Him through life, and He carries our burdens for us. His gentle, humble heart gives us rest for our soul - our mind, emotions and decisions (Matthew 11:28-29).

We can follow the apostle Paul's advice and refuse to allow anxiety to influence our thoughts and feelings, as we take all of our concerns to God in prayer. God's peace floods our soul, regardless of our circumstances, and guards our heart and mind in Christ Jesus (Philippians 4:6-7).

When we make a personal relationship with Jesus Christ our priority in each day (Matthew 6:33), life is not perfect; but He equips us with His Godly attitude, viewpoint, wisdom and strength for every trial that we face.

Prayer:

Father God, we no longer struggle with life's choices when we seek You and Your direction prior to every activity we perform at home, work, church and play. We follow the direction of Your Holy Spirit every moment of the day. Help us to use our anxiety over issues as an impetus for prayer.

We want to turn over every ounce of stress that attempts to invade our thoughts, emotions and choices to Your spiritual guidance. Thank You that by doing this, we experience Your peace and joy, which invade our body, soul and spirit. We always want to live in surrender to Your will and to follow Your peace through any struggle that we encounter.

Thought for the Day:

The God of peace has mercy on us in every situation in life, because of His unfailing love for each one of us individually; His compassion blots out and purifies us from the stains of our sins, and removes all guilt and shame that cloud our soul. - Psalm 51:1-2

Overcoming Seasonal Changes

I am a Jersey Girl, straight from the bowels of "Little Italy," and transplanted to Florida at the age of five. Growing up in north Florida, I remember rainy and cloudy days in a row; however, I could always count on the sun to shine several days of the week.

Then, when I married, my former husband moved us regularly. We lived for months and years at a time in the states of Missouri, Arizona, Arkansas and Pennsylvania, as well as several stints back in north Florida. We also traveled full-time with our three children for four years.

One fact of life in all of these places was rainy and cloudy days. Don't get me wrong. I love the rain, because it keeps our reservoirs full, and also waters my garden for me and makes everything so green and vibrant.

Yet, end-to-end cloudy days started to affect the psychological balance of my melancholy personality with Seasonal Affectiveness Disorder (SAD), a type of depression that is related to changes in seasons.

In Pennsylvania, I bought a Kaleidoscope kit, and followed the directions. I made myself a means of viewing colored glass flowers encased in a delightful triangular case. It fed my soul - the home of our thoughts and emotions - any time of the day or night.

At my request, I also received two prisms for Christmas one year, and I hung them in a sunny window. My prisms and kaleidoscope brought me continual pleasure as they sustained my soul with their cheerful colors, and moved with me through several life-altering events in my life, including being divorced.

Eventually moving to south Florida with my new husband, I found so much joy there for so many reasons. One major cause of this bliss included the fact that it only rains there for hours, rarely for days at a time.

I could always count on short, daily showers to water my garden, preceded and followed by the cheerful sun. After 20 years in this tropical paradise, God sent us to IL to Pastor a growing church in a little village.

The weather soon reacquainted me with regimented cloudy and rainy days that followed one another like marching soldiers. I rarely had to break out a hose, but I found myself once again struggling with Seasonal Affectiveness Disorder (SAD).

Counting on my Kaleidoscope and prisms for cheer, I looked forward to the sun coming in the windows, refracted through the prisms, and sending splashes of cheerful dots of rainbow "flowers" all over the walls of our living and dining rooms. 

The prisms are hanging on my potted plant racks. These shelves boast of a variety of "green growing things" that also cheer my soul all year long. Many of them detox the air we breathe by absorbing toxins from the environment that trickle inside the house whenever we open the door.

There are many ways to overcome negative emotions associated with seasonal changes - especially by living, moving and shaping our identity in Christ (Acts 17:8). If you also suffer from SAD, let me encourage you to find your own ways to escape the depression, and to abide in the joy of the Lord.

Prayer:

Father God, I am so thankful to You for giving us Your Word, which continues to be on the best seller booklist even in today's godless culture. Not only did You send Your only begotten Son to pay the penalty of our sin; but You also gave us Your Spirit to guide each moment of our life, and Your encouraging and sustaining Word to comfort us in every circumstance.

Thank You also for green growing plants all year around, for color and music and nature - which enrich our life, for friends and family to encourage and support us, for pets to give us unconditional love, for ministries in which to serve You, and for healthy food to sustain our body. We praise You, O Lord our God, with all of our heart.

Thought for the Day:

We can spend hours of time each day thanking God that we are not prisoners of our human personality or the whims of the weather outside; instead, we live as His adopted children and co-heirs of His Kingdom with our brother Jesus. 

- Romans 8:17

Transitioning through the Depth of Darkness

“You have turned on my light! The Lord my God has made my darkness turn to light.” Ps 18:28-29

Have you ever been in the dark without even a candle or the moon for light? It is very, very dark. I learned this verse soon after a Florida hurricane wiped out our electricity for eight days.

The only recourse we had was to go to sleep with the sunset and wake with the sunrise. We eventually got a rechargeable flashlight that lasted a few hours for those moments of emergency need. Life is often like stumbling in a dark room.

In today's spiritual climate, our family, friends and community are stumbling away from faith in God, and rejecting His loving arms. They are choosing obscurity and death over an eternity with Him in His glorious light.

In our lifetime, God uses technology, weather disasters, constant wars, growing evil, and even celebrities in each generation to prove to us that His Word is truth (John 17:17). Yet, people have scales over their eyes and no spiritual ears to hear.

Sometimes, we Believers cause others to drift away from faith in Christ. In our humanity we fail to witness to them (Ezekiel 3:18), or we are poor examples to them of an authentic Believer (Psalm 23:3).

God sent His only begotten Son into the world to call everyone to repentance and belief; Jesus even came back from the dead and lived again in His community for several weeks (Acts 1:3), but few believed in Him, even then.

Prayer:

Father God it amazes me that in the center of the earth is a sea of molten lava and fire, which erupts into the air from time to time; yet, people refuse to believe in You or in a literal hell. Jesus did not come to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved (John 3:16-18). Help us to lift Jesus higher, so people will be drawn to Him (John 12:32).

Carnal contentment often lulls people into a spiritual sleep, and they neglect their own salvation without realizing their intense need for Your presence and intimate fellowship in their life (Hebrews 2:3). They avoid the Light of Christ, which exposes their debauchery (1 John 1:5,7). Help us to continually shine Your light into our world; so those who choose, may be saved (Matthew 5:14-16).

Thought for the Day:

When our world spirals out of control, we often blame God for the results; rather than drawing closer to His compassion and agape love for our comfort.

Abiding in God's Will

Once we realize that the divinity of Christ and all of the power of the complete triune Godhead live within every Born Again Believer, a new enthusiasm produces constant praise from our lips to God’s ears (2 Peter 1:3).

We no longer view our self as a grubby worm inching around in the world of selfishness and sin. Instead, we see our self as a beautiful butterfly soaring in the Heavenly, spiritual realm of life.

God calls His elect and then reveals Himself to and in us. He has a purpose for each of our lives (Ephesians 1:11). He loves us with His abundant, unfading and everlasting love (Psalm 25:6; Jeremiah 31:3).

We are totally dependent upon Jesus for our direction, health and provision moment by moment throughout the day (Ephesians 1:9; Philippians 2:12-13). Through our connection to the Vine, the life of Christ flows through us.

By His Spirit, we produce much fruit for the Kingdom of God (John 15:8). Through our union with Christ, we shed the shackles of our sin nature and submit to the dealings and leadings of God's Spirit in our life (1 Corinthians 1:30).

As branches in the Vine of Christ, we experience God as our husbandman. He prunes the flesh from us so more spiritual fruit may grow (John 15:1, 5). We walk out of the bondage to carnality and into the glorious freedom of the sons of God (Romans 8:21).

Salvation comes in stages. If we restrict our self by happily camping around the salvation of our spirit, we miss the glory of the sanctification of our soul. One day we will also experience the glorification of our body when Christ appears for His Saints (1 Thessalonians 5:23).

Prayer:

Father God, as we abide in You throughout the day, Your wisdom, grace, love and peace manifest in our life and out into the world around us. As we abide in You, You provide us with a dedicated life full of the wisdom, strength and Godly conviction, which we need to further Your Kingdom in our world.

We look forward to the day when we can also walk in Your power, so You can make a true difference in others through our life. As we make every effort to walk in peace with You, You renew our soul and make us blameless and spotless at Your coming (2 Peter 3:14). Our perseverance in our walk with You, guarantees that we will not stop short of Your glorious riches, which You prepared for us before time began (Romans 9:23).

Thought for the Day:

Jesus is our center and God is the focus of our life; if we walk in the darkness of self and sin, we stumble and fail in all of our attempts, but if we seek to do His will in our job, community, church, extended family and home, we experience unity with God and success in our ministry.

- Colossians 3:3-4; John 11:10

Yet, not I, but Christ

Jesus came to fulfill the law that we cannot keep, so that we may live for God. We have been crucified with Him, and He lives in and through us, as we live by His faith within us. We no longer live in sin, but in accordance with God's precepts (Romans 6:1; Hebrews 10:26-34).

We are crucified with Christ; and we no longer live, but Christ lives in us; and the life which we now live in our human body, we live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved us enough to give Himself for us (Galatians 2:20).

Therefore, we eliminate the evil impulses and desires of our sinful heart. We accomplish this daunting task by realizing that, as Believers, we are baptized into Jesus' death, buried with Him, and raised with Him by the glory of our Heavenly Father (Romans 6:3).

God desires to reveal to us His glorious mystery, which is our hope of glory: Christ in us (Colossians 1:27). Otherwise, we are spinning our wheels and living in our flesh, attempting to serve God, rather than allowing Him to live in and through us (2 Corinthians 13:5).

Jesus loves us and died for us, so that after Salvation we can live in, with and through Him by His faith that consumes our soul (Galatians 2:20). Through our faith in Him, He empowers, guides, sustains and provides for us in every way.

We feed our soul by developing wholesome habits, hobbies and mindset; and we feed our body with chemical-free foods that promote health and healing. This helps us to focus on Jesus as our center for our entire life (Colossians 3:3-4).

We walk with Him in a whole new life (Romans 6:4). Our former lifestyle, hang-ups and preferences die; and by His Spirit, we gain a new, spiritual viewpoint on life. We no longer live by our human spirit, capacities or reasoning, but Christ lives in and through us.

Prayer:

Father God, help us to walk by faith, and not by sight (2 Corinthians 5:7). We live in continual dependence on Your presence within us. Completely engulf us by Your divine nature, spiritual fruit and the mind of Christ (Philippians 1:21). We want to decrease, so that You may increase in our life (John 3:30).

Help us to realize that, in order to be free of all unrighteousness in our body, soul and spirit, we receive the healing that Jesus provided for us by His shed blood (1 John 1:8-10). Remind us to feed our spirit by reading Your Word, fellowshipping with Your Saints, and sharing our testimony about You with everyone who will listen.

Thought for the Day:

Watching the latest popular movie, TV show or YouTube video will not promote a spiritual diet for health; it is only as we die to our flesh, and focus on the spiritual aspects of God's Word and life in us, that we actually find true life now and for eternity.

Winning the Rat Race

The structure of our society encourages us to neglect our self, and to put our vocation as our number one priority. We are a slave to the almighty dollar, to pleasing our boss, and to moving up the corporate ladder to what we think is success.

Many of us tire of the rat race sooner or later. Then we choose to downsize, to simplify, and to tighten our budget. We do this in order to spend less than we make, and to live within our means. We stop neglecting our needs as a well-rounded person.

A cloud of weariness lifts off our shoulders, and we have more energy to traverse the path of life. We enjoy more time having fun with our spouse and children. Our soul - our thoughts, feelings and choices - feels lighter and happier.

We have more energy to bear each other's burdens and to help lighten one another's load (Galatians 6:2). Our soul starts to prosper, because we discover the true riches of life (3 John 1:2, 2:5). We dwell with each other with understanding, and we help to provide for each other's needs (1 Peter 3:7).

This allows us to make sure that we give each other time to care for "self" too, to spend time with one another and with friends, or to pursue hobbies that we enjoy. We realize that we have worth and value to another person, and that God cares about us (Luke 12:6-7).

God's Word makes more of an impact on us, and has more influence on our choices, as we take the time to read and to absorb its truth. We grow spiritually, which also helps us to have more peace and joy in our soul and better health in our body.

Prayer:,

Father God, help us to get our priorities straight, and to make more time in our daily schedule to focus on You and to what is truly important. This helps us to escape the downward spiral of negative emotions born from fatigue, and from neglecting our self and our needs. We draw closer to You and walk deeper in our union with You.

Remind us that two are better than one, because we bear one another's burdens. If one of us is weary, we encourage each other, and we help to lift up each other if we fall (Ecclesiastes 4:9-10). Thank You that no one can snatch us from Your hand, and that Your agape love fills us with each step that we take (Isaiah 49:15-16).

Thought for the Day:

We can turn to the Lord when our burdens make us weary, and He will give us rest in spirit, soul and body; at the same time, we lift up each other and share from our abundance, so that others will be able to help us in our time of need.

- Matthew 11:28-30; 2 Corinthians 8:13-14

Transcending the Limits of This World

Our imagination cannot even fathom the depths of glory, which God already prepared to share with those that love Him. Yet, for those who are Born Again, our spirit realizes that God has our best interest in heart in every aspect of life now and in eternity.

God's Holy Spirit freely reveals to us the mysteries of God, which are hidden from those who do not believe in Him. They are blinded by the spirit of the world, and consider Biblical concepts as foolishness, because they cannot spiritually discern them (1 Corinthians 2:7-15).

Unbelievers reject the gospel, because its power convicts them of their sin. Some people have been wounded and disappointed in life, and they blame God for what they experienced; yet, they cannot escape God's truth, and they intuitively know that He is calling them to true repentance and belief (Mark 1:15).

With Christ abiding within authentic Believers by His Spirit, we function on this earth in our human existence; but we live in and by and through the power of God dwelling within our body, soul and spirit. We completely surrender to God's will and invite Christ to reign in us.

This allows Him to manifest Himself in our individual life, which changes our viewpoint, philosophy, goals, dreams and desires. We yoke our life with His, and partner with Him in furthering His Kingdom on the earth. This allows us to enter into His complete rest (Hebrews 4:9-11).

Our finite thinking limits God's ability to use us in His power, but He is ever calling us into a deeper and fuller life of walking by His Spirit, so that He can bless us in His purposes for our individual life (Ephesians 2:10; Galatians 2:20). We live, move and have our identity in Him alone (Acts 17:28).

Prayer:

Father God, we are approaching the final hours of existence on this sin-cursed planet, because Your imminent return is getting closer with each passing year. Thank You for coming as our Immanuel, and dwelling and dying in human form to take authority over the world, Satan and our flesh.

We pray for those on the verge of coming to faith in You. Strengthen them in their inner being (Hebrews 3:16), so they may believe in You and enjoy Your presence in their life. Thank You for enabling us to transcend the limits of this world, and to walk in Your Spirit as we surrender our life to Your Spirit and purpose.

Thought for the Day:

The King of kings and Lord of lords, who has all authority and dominion and power over life in this earthly plane, abides in us - His temple built with living stones; the government shall soon be on His shoulders, and we look forward to serving Him for eternity.

- 1 Peter 2:5; Isaiah 9:6