March 16, 2013

Psalm 91:14-16 (90:14-16)

"For he hoped in Me, and I will deliver him;
I will shelter him, because he knew My name.
He shall call upon Me, and I will hear him;
I am with him in affliction,
And I will deliver and glorify him.
With length of days I will satisfy him,
And show him My salvation."

Encouraging Words...

I am never alone in my struggles through life. My God, my Hope, my Shelter, my Salvation, is ever present in my life and I can rest in His arms.

March 15, 2013

Zechariah 8:7-8

Thus says the Lord Almighty: 'Behold, I shall deliver My people from the land of the east and from the land of the west. I shall bring them in and settle them in the midst of Jerusalem. They shall be to Me a people and I will be to them a God in truth and in righteousness.'

Encouraging Words...

Christ is typified here as the One who will bring the people of Go's creation back into His holy presence. We have been scattered and separated from His presence and now because of the work of Christ and the love of the Father, we are being brought back into His city of Jerusalem.

March 14, 2013

Luke 23:34

Then Jesus said, Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do.

Encouraging Words...

Once again I am reminded how much of an example Jesus was for me. He has been reviled, treated with contempt, and persecuted even though He had done no wrong. And yet He still asked His Father to forgive the persecutors. Am I to do any less? Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me a sinner.

March 13, 2013

Joel 2:17-18

Between the porch and the altar, the priests of the altar, ministering to the Lord, will each be weeping and will say, O Lord, spare Your people; do not give Your inheritance to reproach, that the Gentiles should rule over them, lest they should say among the Gentiles, Where is their God? But the Lord was zealous for His land and spared His people.

Encouraging Words...

Joel prophecies that Jesus, our great High Priest will stand between the alter, where sacrifices are given for our sins, and the porch, where we all stand seeking the love and forgiveness of the Lord. There He will represent us before God. Jesus will petition for us to be spared and to be brought into the kingdom of God. And through Him and His work we will be spared and receive the grace fo God poured out upon us.

March 10, 2013

1 Corinthians 8:8

But food does not commend us to God; for neither if we eat are we the better, nor if we do not eat are we the worse.

Encouraging words...

Today we observed Meatfare Sunday in the Orthodox Church. We are one week from the beginning of Great Lent and starting today we started limiting meat in our diet as we begin our preparation for the observance of the Lenten season. We do not enter into Lent because it is some legalistic rubric that we must follow in order to obtain favor with God. In our church and throughout the history of the Christian church Easter has been the high point of the calendar year. We celebrate all that Christ did for His creation and mankind every year at Easter. It is our most holy celebration and feast. "Lent is a spiritual journey and its destination is Easter, 'the Feast of Feasts.'" (taken from Great Lent, Journey to Pascha, by Alexander Schmemann). By progressing into Lent we begin that journey of unloading our worldly desires and taking up that work of Christ. It is a period of reflection, growth and hopefulness.

March 9, 2013

1 John 2:17

And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever.

Encouraging Words...

No matter what happens to this world, no matter what happens to me as a sojourner in this world...my God abides forever and if I strive to do His will then I will abide in Him forever. Praise be unto God.

March 8, 2013

2 John 1:6

This is love, that we walk according to His commandments. This is the commandment, that as you have heard from the beginning, you should walk in it.

Encouraging Words...

It seems so easy to build a whole set of rules around what it takes to live a righteous, Christian life. But it all keeps coming back to one basic commandment that can be summed up in one word...LOVE!