Month: February 2013

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Always There

A Devotion from C.H. Spurgeon

I will never leave thee. Hebrews 13:5

No promise is of private interpretation. Whatever God has said to any one saint, He has said to all.  When He opens a well for one, it is that all may drink. When He openeth a granary-door to give out food, there may be some one starving man who is the occasion of its being opened, but all hungry saints may come and feed too.

Whether He gave the word to Abraham or to Moses, matters not, O believer; He has given it to thee as one of the covenanted seed. There is not a high blessing too lofty for thee, nor a wide mercy too extensive for thee.  Lift up now thine eyes to the north, and to the sourth, to the east and to the west, for all this is thine.  Climb to Pisgah’s top, and view the utmost limit of the divine promise, for the land is all thine own.  There is not a brook of living water of which thou mayest not drink. If the land floweth with milk and honey, eat the honey and drink the milk, for both are thine. Be thou bold to believe, for He hath said, “I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.” In this promise, God gives to His people everything. “I will never leave thee.”  Then no attribute of God can cease to be engaged for us.  Is He mighty? [Is He mighty?]  He will show Himself strong on the behalf of them that trust Him.  Is He love? [Is He love?] Then with loving kindness will He have mercy upon us. Whatever attributes may compose the character of Deity, everyone of them to its fullest extent shall be engaged on our side. To put everything in one, there is nothing you can want, there is nothing you can ask for , there is nothing you can need in time or in eternity, there is nothing living, nothing dying, there is nothing in their world, nothing in the next world, there is nothing now, nothing at resurrection-morning, nothing in heaven which is not contained in this text–“I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.”  [Joshua 1:8-9]

Dear Lord, Help me to remember you are always there, and to walk in the confidence of your promise.  I pray that all who read this message will share the truth of your word to all they meet. In Jesus’ name.  Amen

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What Matters Most is Love

“Let your religion be less of a theory and more of a love affair.” G.K. Chesterton

“Whoever loves much, does much.” Thomas A. Kempis

“Our God is not made of stone. His heart is the most sensitive and tender of all. No act goes unnoticed, no matter how insignificant or small. A cup of cold water is enough to put tears in the eyes of God. God celebrates our feeble expressions of gratitude.”  Richard J. Foster

“I have found the paradox that if I love until it hurts, then there is no hurt, but only more love.” Mother Theresa

“Hatred paralyzes life; love releases it.  Hatred confuses life; love harmonizes it. Hatred darkens life: love illuminates it”  Martin Luther King, Jr.

My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you.  John 15:12

 

Dear God, help us this day to love you with all our hearts, minds and souls, and to love our neighbors as ourselves.  In Jesus’ name.  Amen

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Reflections

Forty five years ago today, God presented me with an enormous assignment, that of mother to a beautiful daughter.
Becoming a parent launches you into the mysteries of life, love and living unlike any other role. At every stage you learn so many things about yourself, your own parents and God. And with each lesson learned you give way to the most precious of all things-love.
As I think about my daughter, and the years I’ve been granted, I thank you God for allowing me the privilege and honor of being her mother.
Happy Birthday Coquese. I am proud to be your mother.

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Happy Valentine’s Day

“Love penetrates the defenses that have been built up to protect against rejection and scorn and belittlement, and it sees life created by God for love.” Eugene H. Peterson

Our lives were created by God for love – that’s right, you and me created for love.  Pretty amazing when you consider it. Our Creator designed us to be love. Love is an action word, although some think it is a feeling.  However, love creates an atmosphere where the unlovable is now the object of profound love.  Love drives us to save the lost and hurting.  Love expends everything to build homes for the homeless, provide food for the hungry, and give water to the thirsty.  Love demonstrates patience when dealing with a rebellious child.  Love shows compassion for each sinner. Love delivers kindness, forgiveness, joy, goodness when the darkness of the world creeps in.  Love means to sacrifice, to give, to cherish, to show mercy, and to correct injustice.   Love is God, who loved this world so much that he gave is only begotten Son for us.   God loved and created us in His image.   Love is action.

Lyrics from a song made popular by Dionne Warwick, “What the world needs now is love, sweet love…it’s the only thing that there is just too little of..”   If there is too little love in the world on this day, and during this month, then show the world what we were made of-love.   All of the faith, and hope in this world, love is the greatest. 

Show your love this day.

Happy Valentine’s Day to all the marvelous manifestations of love.

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Coulda/Woulda

Our Assistant Pastor shared this poem with the adult Bible Study class last night.

And I wanted to pass it along.  This may not be for you, but someone you know needs to know this truth.   I hope you will share it.

Coulda/Woulda

Author unknown

If the devil coulda taken your life by now, he woulda.

Just the fact that you are still here, in the land of the living, is a testament that God has a purpose and a plan for your life.

God has a reason for you being here.

That’s why the devil has been attacking your mind and your spirit so fiercely.

If the devil coulda destroyed you…he woulda;

If he coulda destroyed Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego…he woulda;

If he coulda destroyed Daniel in the lion’s den…he woulda;

If he coulda destroyed David…he woulda;

If he coulda destroyed Job…he woulda;

If he coulda destroyed Jesus Christ on Calvary…he woulda;

But the truth is that he can’t. You may think that this is the worst time of your life, but let me tell you, it’s just a test.

God is not through with you yet!

The enemy is trying to take you out, but be encouraged my brothers and sisters…if he coulda destroyed you, he woulda done it a long time ago.

The word of God says: “We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed” (2 Cor. 4:8-9)

We have the love of God and as long as we have Him, the enemy cannot destroy us.

“For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

(Romans 8:38-39)

You can make it.

Cause if satan coulda torn you apart, he already woulda!

Be encouraged.

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A Day of Grace and Divine Love

The work of Christ on the cross did not influence God to love us, did not increase that love by one degree, and did not open any fount of grace or mercy in His heart. He had loved us from eternity, and needed nothing to stimulate that love.  The cross is not responsible for God’s love; rather it was His love which conceived the cross as the one method by which we would be saved.”

A.W. Tozer

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Sing in the Ways of the Lord

“They shall sing in the ways of the Lord.” Psalm 138:5

A Classic Devotional from C.H. Spurgeon

The time when Christians begin to sing in the ways of the Lord is when they first lose their burden at the foot of the Cross.  Not even the songs of the angels seem so sweet as the first song of rapture which gushes from the inmost soul of the forgiven child of God.  [“Tis so sweet to trust in Jesus and to take him at his word.”]

You know how John Bunyan describes it [Pilgrim’s Progress]. He says, when poor Pilgrim lost his burden at the Cross, he gave three great leaps, and went on his way singing — “Bless Cross! blest Sepulchre! blest rather be The Man that there was put to shame for me!”

Believer, do you recollect the day when your fetters fell off? Do you remember the place when Jesus met you, and said, “I have loved thee with an everlasting love; I have blotted out as a cloud thy transgressions, and as a thick cloud thy sins; they shall not be mentioned against thee any more forever”?  Oh! what a sweet season is that when Jesus takes away the pain of sin! When the Lord first pardoned my sin, I was so joyous that I could scarce refrain form dancing.  I thought on my road home from the house where I had been set at liberty, that I must tell the stones in the street the story of my deliverance.  So full was my soul of joy, that I wanted to tell every snowflake that was falling from heaven, of the wondrous love of Jesus, who had blotted out the sins of one of the chief of rebels. But it is not only at the commencement of the Christian life that believers have reason for song; as long as they live they discover cause to sing in the ways of the Lord, and their experience of His constant loving kindness leads them to say, “I will bless the Lord at all times: His praise shall continually be in my mouth.”  See to it, brother [and sister], that thou magnifies the Lord this day.  “Long as we tread this desert land, new mercies shall new songs demand.”

 

Thank you Lord for loving me, and for loving all your children.

 

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