Sunday, November 30, 2008

Love like YOU love, even when it hurts

November 30

Dear heavenly Father,
while I am on this journey through life,
I pray that I may always listen for Your voice, whether it is for praise or discipline.

Please, please may I always know Your presence,
especially if I am to journey through life’s valleys.

When I am weak fill me with Your strength, and help me to love like You love,
even when it hurts.

May nothing matter to me more than becoming the person You want me to be.
Amen

-Dianne Parsons-

Saturday, November 29, 2008

FiLLed with FERVOR

November 29

O Lord, enable me to live the life of saints and angels.
Take me out of the irritability, the sensitiveness, in which my soul lies,
and fill it with Thy fullness.

Breathe on me with that Breath which infuses energy and kindles fervor.
In asking for fervor, I ask for all that I can need,
and all that Thou canst give.

In asking for fervor, I am asking for faith, hope and charity,
in their most heavenly exercise;

I am asking for perception of duty,
I am asking for sanctity, peace and joy, all at once.

Nothing would be a trouble to me,
nothing a difficulty, had I but a fervor of soul.

Lord, in asking for fervor, I am asking for Thyself,
for nothing short of Thee, O my God.

Enter my heart, and fill it with fervor by filling it with Thee.
Amen.

-John Henry Newman-

Friday, November 28, 2008

Serving YOU

November 28

Loving heavenly Father,
hallowed be Thy name,
Thou art from everlasting to everlasting,
the Father of my Savior the Lord Jesus Christ and
one with the Holy Spirit in the blessed Trinity.

I come boldly but reverently into Your holy presence in the name of Jesus.
I come to You washed in the blood of the Lamb and
knowing that I am holy and blameless in Your sight,
O God, by Your altogether lovely Lord Jesus.

I love You with all my heart, soul and mind.
I am unworthy of Your love, mercy and long-suffering.
You have been generous to my family and me.

Grant, I beseech, every gift of the Holy Spirit according to Your sovereign will
that I may lift up the name of Jesus for His glory alone.
I confess I have sinned in word, thought, and deed,
that I have been unfaithful in the face of Your faithfulness to me.
Wash me in the blood of the Lamb for I am truly sorry for my sins.
Renew in me the joy of my salvation.
Grant me wisdom according to Your promise, integrity, and compassion
that I may be fitted to serve You in the fulfillment of the Great Commission
until Jesus comes to calls me home.

All this I pray in the name of Jesus. Amen.

- Graham F. Lacey-

Thursday, November 27, 2008

To be like YOU

November 27

Father, I want to be like You.
I want my heart to be as big as Yours.

As far as revival is concerned,
I ask You to find those who will be guileless and
entrust them with the wonderful treasures of Your power and Your presence.

Please don’t hide from us because our hearts are divided.
Make us one big family rejoicing Your love.

Lord, I hunger for Your Word,
but I don’t believe that knowing You is only about memorizing Scripture
or learning about how You’ve moved in the past.

Knowing all that is valuable only if I can trust You like a little child.

I’m so glad, Father,
that loving You with a childlike spirit is all that is necessary to please You,
and knowing that makes me love You more.

-John Arnott-

Lord,
live so completely within me
that all my life will be the natural outpouring of the
divine power- the consequence of an indwelling
Spirit of purity and truth.

-Walter James-

Wednesday, November 26, 2008

Truth in LOVE; Gifts of GRACE

November 26

Lord Jesus Christ,
grant me Your special grace to speak Your Truth in love
and to challenge every way that would exclude Love from Truth or Truth from Love.

You who are both Truth and Love,
enter my poor heart and mind afresh to bring forth this
miracle of Truthful Love and Loving Truth for which
I pray in Your most worthy Name. Amen.

-Michael Cassidy-

Come, Holy Spirit,
and daily increase in us Thy manifold gifts of grace;
the spirit of wisdom and understanding;
the spirit of counsel and ghostly strength;
the spirit of knowledge and true godliness,
and fill us with the spirit of Thy holy fear, now and for ever.
Amen

-Gelasian Sacramentary-

Tuesday, November 25, 2008

Lead our life according to Thy good pleasure...

November 25

Grant, O heavenly Father,
that we so faithfully believe in Thee,
and so fervently love one another, always living in Thy fear,
and in the obedience of Thy holy law and blessed will,
that we, being fruitful in all good works,
may lead our life according to Thy good pleasure in this world and,
after this frail and short life, obtain the true and immortal life,
where Thou livest and reignest, world without end. Amen

-Thomas Becon –

O merciful Lord, of Thy bountiful goodness,
receive us evermore into Thy protection,
maintaining and increasing from day to day Thy grace and goodness towards us,
until Thou hast brought us unto the full and perfect unity of Thy Son,
Jesus Christ our Lord, who is he true light of our souls.

-Liturgy of Geneva-

Monday, November 24, 2008

Fix upon Thyself..

November 24

O Light eternal, transcending all created suns,
cause Thy bright beams to shine into our hearts.
Purify, warm, enlighten, and quicken our souls with all their powers:
so that they may find their rest, their joy, in Thee.

The days of this present life are short and evil,
full of troubles and sorrows:
when wilt Thou bring the reign of Satan to an end:
and grant to us to walk at liberty,
without trials or temptations,
seeing Thy face, and wearing Thy likeness?

Until then, preserve us, O Thou eternal Truth;
come unto us, O heavenly Love;
draw our affections away from earthly things,
and fix them upon Thyself.

Blessed are they, O Lord,
whom Thou choosest, and whom Thou causest to approach unto Thee.


-Thomas A Kempis-

Sunday, November 23, 2008

Glory to HIM

November 23

Glory to our ascended Lord that He is with us always.

Glory to the Word of God, going forth with His armies conquering and to conquer.

Glory to Him who has led captivity captive and given gifts for the perfecting of His saints.

Glory to Him who has gone before to prepare a place in His Father’s home fo us.

Glory to the Author and Finisher of our faith;

That God in all things maybe glorified through Jesus Christ,

To whom be all worship and praise, dominion,

And glory;

Now and forever and ever. Amen

-Sursum Corda –

Monday, November 10, 2008

Does truth still work?

When I attended a Christian college back in the Paleolithic Era, one of the key maxims that was drummed into our shaggy heads was this:
All truth is God’s truth. In other words, anything that is true and dependable is from God. God is truth, and therefore the essence of what is factual and knowable and truthful stems from Him alone.

For instance, marriage is a foundation of society because God originated it in Genesis between a man and a woman. Later, Jesus honored it with His presence at a wedding. Clearly, God presents marriage as a basic bulding block of a righteous society. Marriage is good because God says it is.

Or this: Lying is wrong. God included this teaching in codification of His rules in Exodus 20. And He repeatedly had Scripture writers tell us that lying is wrong. God says lying is wrong, so there is no question that it is.

Some people think this kind of thinking doesn’t work anymore. Postmodernists refuse to consider something to be true just because God said it is. They want truth to be whatever a person finds truth to be.

If you tell a lie and it gets you a promotion, and no one finds out, then it’s okay – if worked. If you can get your accountant to cheat on your audit – and the authorities don’t find out – you’ve earned some extramoney.

It doesn’t take a degree in philosophy to recognize that this create-your-own-truth world is a dangerous place. No set boundaries, no moral restrictions, and no basis for an organized society. And most dangerous of all-no need of God.

Look for the truth. It’s another way of seeing that God is there, and He is at work in the world.

-Dave Branon- [taken from ODJ 2008]

Read Psalm 40:9~12
Let Your unfailing love and faithfulness always protect me (v.11)

MORE~
Teach me Your ways, O Lord, that I may live according to Your truth! Grant me purity of heart, so that I may honor You. - Psalm 86:11 –