April 30, 2012

Luke 11:23 NLT

Anyone who isn’t helping me opposes me, and anyone who isn’t working with me is actually working against me.

Personal Challenge…

I know that I must always be checking my actions; the words that come out of my mouth, the expressions on my face, everything that I do, to determine if I am actually helping the cause of Christ or opposing it. How many times have I allowed my personal agenda to override His agenda, His plan, His love for those around me? Sobering thoughts.

April 27, 2012

Micah 7:18 NASB

Who is a God like You, who pardons iniquity And passes over the rebellious act of the remnant of His possession? He does not retain His anger forever, Because He delights in unchanging love.

Encouraging Words...
How awesome it is to go through life knowing, without a shadow of a doubt, that our God, the Creator of the Universe, delights in unchanging love for His possession...you and me!

April 26, 2012

Proverbs 27:17 NLT

As iron sharpens iron, a friend sharpens a friend.

Encouraging Words…

We do not have to go it alone. God will often bring close friends into our lives that can encourage and correct us. We can do the same for them. Being sharpened does not always feel good, but the tool is always better in the hands of the Tool-master once the sharpening is done.

April 25, 2012

Psalm 46:1 NLT
God is our refuge and strength, always ready to help in times of trouble.

Encouraging Words…

What more can be said than this? He is always there…it us usually me that is absent from His presence not the other way around.

April 24, 2012

1 John 3:16 NIV

This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers.

Personal Challenge…

What does it mean to lay down my life for another? For Jesus it meant giving up His place in the heavenly realms and coming to earth to be born in a stable in an oppressive time and place. For Him it was to live an incarnate life of poverty and hard work so that He could be with the very people that He wanted to rescue from death. For Him it was to be betrayed, ridiculed, spit on, beaten and crucified so that the bondage of death would be broken for eternity. For Him it was to return back to His followers who abandoned Him after He was resurrected so that He could love, comfort and teach them. Should laying down my life for a brother be any less for me…if I claim to be His child?

April 23, 2012

Colossians 2:6-7 NASB

Therefore as you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, having been firmly rooted and now being built up in Him and established in your faith, just as you were instructed, and overflowing with gratitude.

Personal Challenge…

“So walk in Him…” Another passage that is a reminder that our relationship with Christ, our salvation in Christ, is not a passive, one-time event, but an ongoing, active response to God reaching into our lives and saving us from the grip of death. We must surround ourselves with opportunities to be constantly reminded of God’s work in our lives, whether it be worship that is steeped in His calling to us to follow and obey Him, or time in His scripture and other teachings that feed our understanding of Him, or relationships within His community that revolve around Him, or the practices of traditions that have withstood the tests of time. Allow Him to continue to firmly root you and build you up in Him so that your faith can be established in Him.

April 20, 2012

Luke 11:9-10 NLT

“And so I tell you, keep on asking, and you will be given what you ask for. Keep on looking, and you will find. Keep on knocking, and the door will be opened. For everyone who asks, receives. Everyone who seeks, finds. And the door is opened to everyone who knocks.

Command with a Promise…

The life of a believer is not a passive life, but an active life. We are told to ask, look, and knock. This is an active, ongoing life of pursuing Christ and what He has in store for us. If we follow these commands He promises that He will give us what we ask for, that we will find what we are looking for, and that the doors will be opened. This is not some kind of prosperity gospel, because if we are truly pursuing Christ then the things that we are asking for, the things that we are looking for, and the doors that we are knocking on will be those things that God desires for us.

April 19, 2012

Joel 2:12-13 NASB

“Yet even now,” declares the LORD, “Return to Me with all your heart, And with fasting, weeping and mourning; And rend your heart and not your garments.” Now return to the LORD your God, For He is gracious and compassionate, Slow to anger, abounding in lovingkindness And relenting of evil.

Personal Challenge...

God wants our hearts, but He also wants us to fast and weep and mourn for Him, for His presence, for His return. He wants to pour out His compassion and lovingkindness upon His children. I find that I must ask myself, "Has my heart changed with the recent celebration of Christ's life, death, burial and resurrection, or has this event just passed like one more holiday?"

April 18, 2012

Proverbs 23:18 NIV

There is surely a future hope for you, and your hope will not be cut off.

Encouraging Words...
Once again it appears that God is taking us down a new path, a path that can be both challenging and rewarding at the same time. It is times like these that I find myself reviewing those verses that offer hope and promise. Our God is the God of the past, the present, and the future. He is here with us as we begin this journey just as He is already at the destination of this journey waiting to receive us. I am also at a place now where I am being blessed by prayers and guidance of the fathers of our faith that have gone before us...often dealing with their own challenging and rewarding journeys. We are not alone...Praise God!!!

April 17, 2012

Ephesians 5:25-28 NASB

Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her, so that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, that He might present to Himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that she would be holy and blameless. So husbands ought also to love their own wives as their own bodies. He who loves his own wife loves himself;

Encouraging Words…

It is much easier to follow this command when God has blessed you with a wonderful, godly wife. Happy Birthday to my Beautiful Bride!

April 16, 2012

Psalm 33:18 NLT

But the LORD watches over those who fear him, those who rely on his unfailing love.

Encouraging Words…

What a wonderful joy it is to be coming out of the Pascha (Easter) celebration with such glorious reminders of how much our Father loves His children. As today’s verse says…the Lord watches over His children and His love is unfailing.

April 13, 2012

2 Peter 1:3 NIV

His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness.

Encouraging Words…

Not only is it (life and everything in it) not about me and all that I can do, but is also not about everyone else in my life and what they think they can do. It is by His divine power that I receive everything that I need for a full life and godliness.

April 12, 2012

Galatians 5:13 NASB
For you were called to freedom, brethren; only do not turn your freedom into an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another.

Encouraging Words…
We are called to freedom! Our Lord died so that we might be set free…free from death, free from sin, free from the oppressions of the world, free to be His salt and light to the world. Why is it then that many Christian organizations choose to turn this freedom into authoritarianism? Even in the days of Paul he was constantly rebuking the leaders in churches to stop lording it over their membership and implementing manmade rules and requirements. I have been recently told by a leader in an organization that I have loved dearly for many years that this is just how our local leaders choose to lead their area of responsibility and the only choice I have is to submit. Huh!!! Actually I do have another choice…I can choose to walk away and not compromise my freedom in Christ. Jesus did not die to have me put back into bondage.

April 11, 2012

John 11:25-26 NIV

Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?"

Command with a Promise...

If we believe in Jesus the Lord of resurrection and life then He will give us life. Isn't this what we are remembering and celebrating each year as we observe Easter? That Jesus, God who entered the human race, gave up His seat on the throne in heaven to come to earth and be born by a virgin, to grow up as a human and then to give His life so that the grip of death could be broken forever. This is a promise worth holding on to.

April 10, 2012

Daniel 3:16-18 and 28 NASB


Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego replied to the king, “O Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to give you an answer concerning this matter. If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the furnace of blazing fire; and He will deliver us out of your hand, O king. But even if He does not, let it be known to you, O king, that we are not going to serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up.”


Nebuchadnezzar responded and said, “Blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego, who has sent His angel and delivered His servants who put their trust in Him, violating the king’s command, and yielded up their bodies so as not to serve or worship any god except their own God.


Personal Challenge…


Sometimes we must go through the fire in order to truly serve our God. In all cases, whether being thrown into the fire or in the most supportive and rewarding of situations, we must stand firm in our commitment to Him and never compromise His truths. We may never know what the outcome will be for doing this. The outcome may even be much less than what we desire or expect. But God has the master plan and the view of past, present and future therefore He knows what is the best outcome of standing firm for Him.

April 9, 2012

Proverbs 25:4 NASB
Take away the dross from the silver, And there comes out a vessel for the smith;

Encouraging Words...
Ahhhh, so this is what all the heat and pressure in life is about. It is God melting away the dross that pollutes my life so that He, the Master silversmith, can create a vessel that He can use. It is only by the grace of a loving God that the amount of heat and the time in the fire is controlled by the Master.

April 6, 2012

Psalm 51:17 NASB
The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; A broken and a contrite heart, O God, You will not despise.

Personal Challenge...
God does not want our stuff or our promises or our "godly" works. Not that giving any of these things to God is bad, but unless we come to Him with our spirits broken and our hearts contrite, then we really do not have anything of value to offer to Him. I love how one of the prayers that I have added to my daily prayer time says it:

Lenten Prayer of St. Ephraim

O Lord and Master of my life, do not give to me the spirit of laziness, faintheartedness, lust for power, and idle talk.

But give to me Your servant the spirit of purity, humility, patience, and love.

O Lord and King, grant me to see my own faults and not to judge my brother, for blessed are You unto ages of ages. Amen.

O God, cleanse me, a sinner.

April 5, 2012

James 5:7-11 NASB
Therefore be patient, brethren, until the coming of the Lord. The farmer waits for the precious produce of the soil, being patient about it, until it gets the early and late rains. You too be patient; strengthen your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is near. Do not complain, brethren, against one another, so that you yourselves may not be judged; behold, the Judge is standing right at the door. As an example, brethren, of suffering and patience, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord. We count those blessed who endured. You have heard of the endurance of Job and have seen the outcome of the Lord’s dealings, that the Lord is full of compassion and is merciful.

Personal Challenge...
Patience...that thing that we always want in others but that we don't want to cultivate in ourselves. At least not me anyway. As we approach the final stretch of Lent I am reminded that this is not only a season of developing discipline, but that it is also a season of learning and exercising patience. Easter is such a wonderful reminder of both what Christ has done for us, but also a foretaste of what He will be doing when He comes again. Why not practice Lent while leading up to the Easter celebration as a reminder of what we are looking forward to? Yes, we can make it legalistic or a rule to follow, but can we not do that with everything in our lives.? I have seen it as a period of anxiously waiting, waiting in the absence of the physical presence of Christ (in the Orthodox tradition the gospels are not even read during the daily readings of this season to remind us of what the world would be like without Christ), waiting for His glorious return, anticipating the joy that comes in the morning...the morning when we find that the tomb is empty.

April 4, 2012

Romans 5:20-21 NIV
The law was added so that the trespass might increase. But where sin increased, grace increased all the more, so that, just as sin reigned in death, so also grace might reign through righteousness to bring eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Encouraging Words...
To continue from yesterday...was Christ's work all about the law which magnified our death or was it about our redemption through God's grace? Praise be to God that Jesus came to redeem His creation for Himself, to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captive, to set the prisoner free and to comfort those who mourn (Isaiah 60:1-4). Once again it becomes clear that it is all about Him...not me.

April 3, 2012

Matthew 5:17 NIV
Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.

Encouraging Words...
Hmmm...I have always read this verse as talking about the Law and how much I have missed the mark, but now that I am looking at this (and all of the Scripture) through different eyes I see an entirely different focus. Jesus came to redeem God's creation, His creation, from that death that was introduced by Adam. The Law was established to better define the consequences of that death, the prophets rose up to point mankind to God and the promise of the The Christ who would come to defeat that death. Jesus' fulfillment of the Law and the Prophets was His act of redeeming creation from the grip of death and setting it on a new path to fulfill God's glory. Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia!!!

April 2, 2012

Isaiah 12:2 NASB
“Behold, God is my salvation, I will trust and not be afraid; For the LORD GOD is my strength and song, And He has become my salvation.”

Encouraging Words...
God, and God alone, is my salvation. In Him I can find true peace, true joy, true LIFE. I will not find these in the books that I read or the doctrines that grab onto, even those these are not bad in and of themselves. But is is God who is my strength and song, my salvation.