Amazing, Astounding, and Undeserved Grace

John 1:14, 16-17

And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory,

glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth . . .

For of His fullness we have all received, and grace upon grace. For the Law was given through Moses; grace and truth were realized through Jesus Christ.

Brothers and Sisters of my heart,  

You have probably heard the idiom, ‘where there is smoke there is fire’. Truth is often found in an idiom. Albeit the source of all truth is God’s word the Bible.  Hear this powerful idiom: ‘where there’s sin in abundance, there’s even more grace in abundance.’ This reflects the Truth we find in Romans 5:20-21:

‘but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, so that, as sin reigned in death, even so grace would reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.’

That is truth enough to live on until Christ returns for us! As we grow in likeness to Christ God reveals our sin to us, allowing trials to expose it. Think how terrible that would be if it were not for grace! Dreadful except for the Truth found in Romans chapters 5-8. Romans is rich with life changing truth.

I want to share the beginning of a poem I read yesterday.

Drive Me Deep to Face Myself

Lord, grant me your peace for I have made peace with

What does not give peace, and I am afraid.

Drive me deep, now, to face myself so I may see

That what I truly need to fear is my capacity to deceive

And my willingness to be deceived,

my loving of things and using of people, T. L.

Thankfully there is ‘grace’, unlimited, beautiful grace. Sets my feet to dancing!

In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace Ephesians 1:7

Grace is infinite, but I don’t want you to strain to understand infinitude. God never measures anything else in Himself, against Himself. That is, God never measures His grace against His justice or His mercy against His love. God is all one. But God measures His grace against our sin. (read the scripture above again.) There is nothing in God that can compare itself with anything else in God. What God is, God is. When scripture says grace does ‘much more’ abound,’ it means not that grace does much more abound than anything else in God but much more than anything in us. a.w.t.

Hallelujah! Celebrate this Truth that has the power to overwhelm. This One who is outside of time, who cannot be contained or measured by any dimension, is our great God! Let us live aware of the daily bread of His grace, us who are hopeless sinners and helpless without Him, how is it possible? It is incomprehensibly immense and vast! Our small brains cannot and never will be able to grasp the greatness of His being. Do you think God would have put up with us for all these years if He had a limited amount of grace? How vast and immeasurable to forgive all my sin and make me His beloved child.

 ^‘to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved. In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace, which He lavished on us. In all wisdom and insight.’ Ephesians 1:6-7

As we grow in God’s grace, the more we will see that it comes at Christ’s expense. The more deeply we believe this truth, the more we see we are totally undeserving.

Let us embrace this truth and celebrate our beautiful Savior-God, Giver of all grace.

Father of all grace, Immeasurable One, beyond numbers or words or space, uncontainable, forever God, It overwhelms that You would bend low and pick me from the dung pile of self-righteousness and sin and wash my sin away and give me a new nature, and then indwell me by Your holy Spirit, that I might know You personally and be forever changed, from glory to glory, into Your likeness. We are in awe of You Holy, immeasurable One. I thank You.

Dear ones, I hope you have been encouraged over God’s great love for you! He says even the hairs on your head are all numbered. Praying for you all.

Until every knee shall bow,

az

 email devotional: http://az-doveseye.blogspot.com/
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Can You Say with Paul, "I am well content?"

Precious Ones, immeasurably loved by God,

The Bible has much to say about contentment. May you have ears to hear.

I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do all this through Him who gives me strength. Phil 4:11-13

Then I read this a few days ago:

“Self-revelation precedes divine revelation- that is a principle for both spiritual birth and spiritual growth. The Christian who is going through struggle and failure is the Christian who is being carefully and lovingly handled by his Lord in a very personal way.” MJS

God uses self-revelation to reveal our discontent, exposing our unbelief, our unrest and our striving to live the Christian life by self- effort. Also revealed is a daily busyness in our life that keeps us from His  life-giving Word. When we take vacations with the purpose of refreshing and rest, we often return from vacation in need of a vacation. So to we blame much of our discontent on our circumstances. Each of us would change many things if we were presented the opportunity, beginning with our income. We tear down houses and build bigger ones with bigger storage areas; to fill with more stuff to store and we eventually forget we have it.

Hebrews 13:5

Make sure that your character is free from the love of money, being content with what you have; for He Himself has said, “I will never desert you, nor will I ever forsake you,”

 Then there is our discontent with our weight, our height, our build, our spouse, the climate we live in, the car we drive… and a myriad of other things in our life we are bent on changing, even good things in our life, let alone how quickly we would rid ourselves of trials if it were in our power to do so. We have created a god that is not God, but one who is required to remove our troubles and bless us with riches and abundance. We expect Him to answer the opinions we pray and take offence when He does not kowtow to our demands, joining our pursuits.

We know that Joy is not found in circumstances and is fruit of the Spirit, not fruit of self-effort. So, too, contentment, though not listed as a fruit of the Spirit is something we are to learn, it takes time. We must join God in His pursuits.

II Corint 12:7-10 Because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, for this reason, to keep me from exalting myself, there was given me a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to torment me—to keep me from exalting myself! Concerning this I implored the Lord three times that it might leave me. And He has said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.” Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me. Therefore I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties, for Christ’s sake; for when I am weak, then I am strong.

God told Paul, “No”.

Paul in surrender finds he is more than content, he is well content!

I was quickened to consider just what Paul’s circumstances were when he said he was ‘well content’? I realized he was given a gift. A gift/thorn God allowed to bring Paul to weakness. A gift he begged to return to the giver. OUCH! Can we know contentment in distresses and persecutions and insults and difficulty?

God considered Paul’s circumstances rich soil for teaching Paul contentment. I believe our circumstances are rich soil for God to do the same in us. See what Paul says? Amazing words: Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me. Paul says he will choose his troubles. We will only know contentment to the degree we trust Him and we will only trust Him to the degree we know Him. There are no short cuts. We mature by growth and growth cannot be hurried.

We must be willing to embrace our trials like Paul to be “well content”. We are more likely to be resisting, wrestling, refusing, rebuking the enemy, while lost in tears of unbelief. We may see it as a lack of faith when our binding the enemy results in “no” as our answer. Albeit, the real lack of faith is our refusal to learn contentment in any and every circumstance. We are focused on changing our circumstances instead of learning to dance with the pain God is using in our life.

I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do all this through Him who gives me strength. Phil 4:11-13

This doesn’t leave us room to keep living day after day in a restless discontent.

In this scripture Paul speaks of learning to be content in any and every situation and shares the secret he learned. A secret with power to redeem our trials to serve His purposes. The word does not say that God will remove all the difficulties from our life and then contentment will be ours. Paul states he has learned to be content because Christ gives him strength and in II Corinthians 12, two little words that are part of the secret, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.’ Doesn’t this move you to tears? O the wonder of it all!

We will know contentment even in our tears, as we trust Christ to give us strength and God to give us grace. He knows all about our weakness and it doesn’t stop Him from using every situation for His glory and our good.

“Truly to rest in God is to yield oneself up to the highest activity. We work because He works in us both to will and to do. Entering into the rest of God is the ceasing from self-effort and the yielding of oneself in full surrender of faith to God’s working.” A.M.

Oh the beauty and power of His Spirit indwelling us until we can rejoice in our weakness! Wow my feet are dancing, Christ filling us with strength and delivering us and keeping us until the tears we weep are sweet worship to our King! Hallelujah and blessed be His name.

Great God, holy perfection, You are all we could ever desire, thank You for teaching contentment amidst tears. How gentle and kind You are… allowing me to know You more and more. You give me grace and strength I will never deserve. Thank You that ‘all is grace’.  The world so quickly loses its attraction when we know You intimately and as You  gift us with Yourself. Thank You for the suffering You give. A gift that brings with it a freedom to prove You faithful as I learn to be content. Only in You can we know what it is to be ‘well content’. LORD give my sisters and brothers a desire to know You intimately and learn to be ‘well content’. I boast in You, O Lamb of God, in Your name I pray amen.

Learning contentment,

az

 http://www.gramzkidz.com

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Truth is a Person

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Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. John 14:6

Brothers and Sisters of the Way,

We live in a world where deceit and lying are a way of life for many people. My attention was arrested by what I heard this week, “Liars cannot worship the holy God.”  Now read this verse with a hunger to know Truth. “God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth. John 4:24.” (or there is no worship my emph’)

Colossians 1:6 states even our understanding of grace is by truth. “since the day you heard of it (Gospel of hope) and understood the grace of God in truth’.  

No matter how people define truth in their lives, we know from John 14:6, that ‘Truth’ is a person’. He is 'the way' not  'a' way, the Truth not a truth!

“Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”

Apply following definitions to your life, asking yourself how you live 'truth'.

The quality of being true as:

conformity to fact or reality;

exact accordance with that which is, or has been; or shall be, (exaggeration is a form of lying)

speaking what is true; freedom from falsehood,

that which is true or certain concerning any matter or subject,

honesty; accuracy, correctness, validity, factuality, authenticity.

“The truth does not change according to our ability to stomach it.” fc

Truth is not open to being twisted, redefined, or manipulated or it is not truth.

Anything said to mislead or cover up or rationalize our behavior and choices is dishonesty. To lie to someone is to do the opposite of love.

“If you tell the truth, you don't have to remember anything. A lie can travel half way around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes.” ― Mark Twain

When I find myself giving in to discouragement I need to stop and ask “What lie am I believing?” Did God’s grace suddenly become less than sufficient? Has He stopped giving strength and wisdom or has the whole armor of God proven weak? Is His word suddenly just print on a page? Or is He still the God who spoke billions of galaxies into space and ruling in loving Sovereignty?

Did I suddenly stop trusting Him for the pain and trials in my life? Where then is the faith I am to walk by? We live this Christian life by faith and Truth or we are not living it at all. Thankfully He has made it impossible to live on our own and for good purpose. We need the daily bread of Him, living Truth through us. In order for this to happen I must feed on the daily bread of His word. Denying my flesh daily I take up my cross and follow Him. To take up my cross is to appropriate the truth that I am crucified with Christ, yet alive with Christ, risen with Him. Colossians 3:10 This week has been one of dancing on the edge of discouragement and looking to ‘things’ or ‘food’ for comfort. Albeit I am learning the simple act of “Say no to yourself, Arlene!”

Father who loves me more than I can fathom, it is You I hunger and thirst for... yet it is never enough! I have tasted and know You are good! I have hungered and now I hunger and thirst even more for You. You are my daily bread of life and I long for You more than ever before. I think of Moses crying out to know You by asking to see Your glory and that is my prayer, “LORD show me Your glory!” I long to know thee more deeply for You are Life and Truth. Cover my mind in the blood of Jesus and enfold me near Your heart that I might ever walk in Truth for Your glory, I pray in Jesus, my Master. Amen.

You Sisters and Brothers are loved and prayed for every week, yes every day.

Let us allow Truth to shine forth from Christ's life in us,

az

http://www.gramzkidz.com. 

 

The comical Meekats! God has a sense of humor. Go to 'By Design' at GRAMZ KIDZ

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No Good Thing Will He Withhold...

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The Lord gives grace and glory; no good thing does He withhold from those who walk uprightly. O Lord of hosts, How blessed is the man who trusts in You! Psalm 84:11

Brothers, Sisters and all whose steps are established by the LORD,

The Lord gives grace and glory; no good thing does He withhold from those who walk uprightly. O Lord of hosts, How blessed is the man who trusts in You! Psalm 84:11

Brothers, Sisters and all whose steps are established by the LORD,
We are told to wait on the LORD and how to wait. Patiently. As we wait God is working in us the likeness of His Son Jesus! Time waiting on God is never wasted time. There is truth reflected in our waiting. To wait in rest on our God is to trust Him by faith. He delights in the one who gives Him freedom to ‘establish his steps.’

Another scripture that blessed my socks off this week is found in the Psalms also. I have read this many times but I did not connect verse11 with 12 until I saw this connect.

 Question: What comes to mind when you read verse 11? Many like to use this to ‘name it and claim it in prayer’, even if God has not promised them what they imagine. They are empowered by their own fleshly desires to do’ or ‘to have’ or ‘to be’. This verse covers their ‘want’. They justify this by defining what the key word ‘good’ means. They may long to be married and good is defined as; God bringing a husband or a wife that fits their list perfectly! To another it may be to be happy, or healed from disease, or buy a new car or change jobs.  Their focus is on a thing or a person or a situation. But this results in many disappointed saints who then feel God has let them down.

Wake up church… let God decide what is good to put in your life and stop leaning to your own understanding! A thing may be good in itself, yet not good for you to have, so God withholds it according to His plan. There are lessons of God’s Sovereignty to be learned until we let go of that last breath here on earth. There have been many things I have asked of God and He has withheld them from me. I truly believe it is because they would not have been good for me to have at that time no matter how I yearned or prayed for it to come about.

Our Father often encourages the weak in faith by giving speedy answers to prayer; but the strong in faith will be further developed by God’s delays. ms

See it as an opportunity to die and to prove Him faithful?

Do not over look the condition preceding the promise and do not overlook the promise following the condition. This got my heart beating praise. The condition is we are to walk in righteousness, positioning ourselves for blessing. The Psalm states unequivocally, that the man who trusts in his heavenly Father, to decide what to give and what to withhold, will be greatly blessed. Blessed means happy. Are you willing to trust Him, not only for all He gives, but also and more importantly, for all He withholds? He promises grace for either.

And even further are you able, willing to trust Him for what He takes away?

A young girl’s heart desire was to have a dog. She prayed for a dog that was free, potty trained, and non-allergic. And in God’s wonderful way He gave her a wonderful, small dog named Dallas whom she loved fiercely. This past week God took her doggie. Dallas just couldn’t overcome his health problems. With heart rending emotions, she let Dallas go, freeing him from pain. She chose to trust God and not give into her feelings. She gave no complaint, no resentment. She journaled this quote from Job,

‘The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord.’ Job 1:21

She knows God’s ways are perfect and that He never makes a mistake. No one has ever heard God say “Oooops! She chose to trust Him to make the perfect decision about what was good to give her or what was good to take away. She refused to be offended by what God allowed. (Matt 11:6) Her tears will bring healing in time and thoughts of Dallas will be more than good memories, they’ll be treasured memories. She believes God is good…. He cannot be anything but good, for it is WHO He is. This young teenager was embracing God’s Sovereignty.

God took me a step further… this is so exciting! God describes Himself as ‘good’ in scripture. He refers to His character qualities as good. His creation as good. And Himself is the good Shepherd. He said, no good thing will He withhold from those who walk uprightly. When we walk uprightly, by faith, the good He gives us is Himself! He quenches our thirst to know Him and it is good. In John 14:21 He said,

‘He who has My commandments and keeps them is the one who loves Me; and he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and will disclose  (give) Myself to him.’ He gives us Himself through the word, by His Spirit. He gives understanding that allows us to draw near and drink deeply of Jesus.

He will reveal more and more of who He is to those with a hungry heart, who walks uprightly. Let this promise sink in and warm you from heart to toes. Dance in joy. Raise your hands, sing and shout His praise! Kneel and worship with thanksgiving.

They shall eagerly utter the memory of Your abundant goodness, Psalm 145:7

I said to the Lord, “You are my Lord; I have no good besides You.” Psalm 16:2

How great is Your goodness, Which You have stored up for those who fear You. Psalm 31:19

Father all wise, forever good, You who love us beyond words to describe and wrap every test and trial in your loving kindness, Thank You there is no one like You! You are God and You are good. Teach us to trust You implicitly for what You give and what You take away, knowing You never make a mistake, only You see all our tomorrows. You are so precious Lord.  You are the ‘Good” you give all the time. Thank You for the greatest gift of all, Jesus our Savior, Substitute, and sacrifice for our sins.  In His name I pray, Thank You.

 Blessings to my Sisters and Brothers who are immeasurably loved by Jesus,

az

 email devotional: http://az-doveseye.blogspot.com/
http://www.gramzkidz.com

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'When and Then'....

War Cry of Israel

But Jeroboam had set an ambush to come from the rear, so that Israel was in front of Judah and the ambush was behind them. When Judah turned around, behold, they were attacked both front and rear; so they cried to the Lord, and the priests blew the trumpets. Then the men of Judah raised a war cry, and when the men of Judah raised the war cry, then it was that God routed Jeroboam and all Israel 2 Chronicles 13:13-15

Brothers and Sisters take up your position of Victory… on your knees!!

‘When’ Israel gave their war cry (for they were in desperate straits) it was ‘then’ God intervened. I feel it is time we fall on our knees and give a war cry that will be heard around the world and to the highest heavens? A war cry that is more than a shout to rally troops for battle, but one that catches the ear of our Warrior-Savior? 

When we cry out from the depths of our soul, to our King and Dread Warrior, Jesus Christ, then He will rout our enemy.

Do we not all have family members moving in their own strength and plans, even in rebellion? Are we utilizing the gift of prayer that God has provided to accomplish His will and purpose, and as that which moves the hand of God to do what only He can do? 

Prayer is the most work we will ever attend to. It is exhausting, effective, and a life-changing war cry that moves God's hand and also hears our smallest faith-cry.

God uses the prayer of faith:

to close doors and open them,

to move mountains and cast them into the sea,

to change minds, heal, prepare hearts, give rest,

to indenture our wills and  teach us to listen,

to shape and change us,

to enable us to draw near,

to draw us to Christ and His cleansing blood,

to deliver us from evil and addiction,

to free us to be all He saved us to be,

to intercede for others,

to bring God’s power to bear on a situation and accomplish His will!

to strengthen us to stand strong in the LORD and in the power of His might

to deliver us from our flesh and our well-loved sins

When we know God uses prayer so implicitly and powerfully, why are we careless with such a gift? Is it our unbelief or laziness? We are called to pray in faith… Faith and evidence must rest on facts of the Word of God.

Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. Hebrews 11:1

Faith is not a force we exercise or a striving to believe that something shall be, thinking that if we believe hard enough it will come to pass.  ARH

Those who take up the false teaching that believing hard enough requires God to respond in the way they think is right, end up with the perspective of making the Christian life about them. Believing hard enough does not obligate God to answer any prayer, let alone prayer under such unbelief and pride. It is pure presumption when, in our false wisdom, we pray our opinion from our miniscule understanding and pride! We carry an unwarranted certainty that we know best.

I have witnessed those who are offended with God and how He answered earnest prayer. They have not yet learned His Sovereignty nor trusted He is all-wise and good.

God wants to hear our faith cry. He calls us to be intercessors. He delights to increase our faith because faith is dependence on God. Here is a quote I have shared before:

God-dependence only begins when self-dependence ends. And self-dependence only comes to its end, with some of us, when sorrow, suffering, affliction, broken plans and hopes bring us to that place of self-helplessness and defeat. And only then do we find that we have learned the lesson of faith; to find life rushing onward to a blessed victory of life and power and service undreamt of in the days of fleshly strength and self-reliance. JM

I cannot share it more directly than this statement: … prayer should not be so much for this or that gift, or this or that result, as for Christ Himself to be manifest to us and through us. WFE

Doesn’t that impel you to shout AMEN!!! ?

Father, You who love us more than we are capable of understanding, thank You for teaching us the hard lessons of faith and prayer. Raise us up to walk by faith in ways that bring You glory. We are slow to learn and I bow and thank You for being abundantly patient and compassionate. Everything about You is hard to comprehend. We so often read Your word without really thinking about what we are reading. Establish Your word to us as that which produces reverence for You. Teach us to pray Your word. Fill us with faith to trust You implicitly. Your word is Your greatest gift to Your children, thank You. Your word lives and Your grace is more than enough. Remove the presumption from our imperfect prayers and reveal to us when we are making things about us. We take up our war-cry for our families asking You to move in ways beyond all we could think to ask. We bow and bless Your Holy Name now and forever. 

Praying for all of you who come to Dove's Eye,

 az

 
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Appropriation

Whom have I in heaven but You?

And besides You, I desire nothing on earth. Psalm 73:25

Precious Ones, who love the Lord,

Last week I shared about God being our Shield and what this icon reveals about who Jesus is and that His plan is for you to know Him personally as He deals very personally in your life.

As I am reading God’s word, the vowels always seem to jump out, waving their arms like a pinwheel and shouting, “Pay attention to me”!  In the Ephesians 6:10-18 passage there are many vowels. This is one of the key passages in scripture teaching us spiritual warfare, and what is expected of us in detailed instructions. Ephesians is rich with Truth in the first chapters before He even gets to the specifics in chapter 6. How can we appropriate these truths?

What are we able to trust Him for? What must we appropriate?

appropriate: To take possession of or make use of exclusively for oneself

To appropriate does not necessarily mean to gain something new but to set aside for our practical possession something that already belongs to us. In order to appropriate, for our daily walk, what is ours in Christ, there are two facets that are essential.

One: to see what is already ours in Christ

Two: we must be aware of our ‘need’ for it

W. R. Newell wrote: Paul does not ask a thing of the saints in the first three chapters of Ephesians but just listen while he proclaims that wondrous series of great and eternal FACTS concerning them; and not until he has completed this catalogue of realities about them does he ask them to do anything at all!

Once we see what is ours in Christ Jesus, our practical need will cause us to hunger for more, to appropriate Christ’s supply for our need. When you think about our life here on earth, it is set up so we will continuously be discovering our ‘need’ of Christ, from morning to night! Every time our back is against the wall and our need presses and crushes, we discover more of our helplessness.  Our inability to live the Christian life by our own mega efforts, forces us to acknowledge we cannot produce wisdom or strength or love or anything else required! It is then we hunger for the inflow of His supply and are ready to turn to Him. As He meets our need we prove His sufficiency, there is a new showing forth of His glory through us.

The reality is that seeing and needing free us from childish efforts to accomplish in our own strength what God has already provided, into a responsible walk of faith. Ms (paraphrase)

 Only what is of faith is pleasing to Him. Faith takes us from a ‘help me’ attitude to that of giving thanks for what He has already done and readily provides; from begging to appropriating. We continue to ask God to bless us in this and bless us in that when it is already done. He has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in Christ!

(In Christ) His grace is sufficient. A truth to appropriate daily. Life is difficult and when trouble hits God may feel far away as though He has left us to face things alone. He has better things to do than bother with us. The enemy comes in like a flood and we are told in Ephesians 6:10-18 how to meet that rush by satan to undo us. In our very trouble, no matter the source, it is time to stand strong in faith and live our songs. See it as an opportunity to prove His faithfulness and bring Him glory.

So far so good. The believer sees what he possesses in Christ, and the need enables him to reach out and confidently appropriate and accept His provision for the need. It must be based on clear cut scriptural Truth. Now comes the critical phase, the key to it all. In most instances of appropriation there is a waiting period between the acceptance and the receiving- often of years. Our responsibility is to patiently wait on Him during the time necessary for Him to work into our character, our life, that which we have appropriated in Christ. mjs

We must be rooted.

A farmer planted an orchard along the borders of his field and along the mountain stream, on the other side. They grew, finally bearing fruit. He gathered some of the harvest, along the field orchard, to taste its fruit, but quickly spit it out, as it was inedible and bitter. He then picked fruit from the orchard by the mountain stream. It’s fruit was sweet and delicious. He reasoned that the fruit was affected by the nutrition of the root.

We must be rooted in the Spirit to appropriate His provision. For a life rooted in self is like being planted in a poor, rocky soil lacking nutrition. It will produce bitterness, immorality, strife, and a wasted life.

“A good tree can’t produce bad fruit, and a bad tree can’t produce good fruit.” Luke 6:43

‘The Lord is looking for a man weak enough to use and He found me.’ Hudson Taylor

‘We may easily be to big for God to use, but never too small.’ DL Moody

‘It is not about what we do for Christ, not even a passion for souls, it is about a passion for Him, for Jesus Himself. Nothing, nothing, nothing, can take the place of loving Him, seeking Him, adoring Him, obeying Him, and spending time pursuing Him out of love. I just want to kneel and drink in His Presence, His sweetness and purity and love.

You LORD are Jehovah Jira my Provider. You have not forgotten I am needy and hopeless without Your continuous loving watch-care over me.  Thank You for every failure, sorrow, affliction, disappointment, and every broken plan and dashed hope that brings me to helplessness and the end of trusting myself. There is nothing but goodness in You and I am reminded You wrap every trial in Your loving kindness. I am blessed with every spiritual blessing in Christ. Teach me  LORD to appropriate all You have provided in Your plan for me. It is true, You are good, Lord, all the time. I love You Abba, my Abba.

az

http://www.gramzkidz.com

coming this week on GRAMZ KIDZ, 'By Design'....a Komodo dragon! He is an amazing design!!

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Shielded by our Dread Warrior!

I love you, Lord; you are my strength. The Lord is my Rock, my Fortress, and my Savior; my God is my Rock, in whom I find protection. He is my Shield, the power that saves me, and my place of safety. Psalm 18:1-2

Brother and Sister Warriors,

Shields. Shields have been continually in my thoughts. What comes to your mind when you think of shields? War? Battles? Protection? Weapons? Our dread Warrior?

This is so powerful! Our God reveals Himself as a shield. Our shield.

Doesn’t it make you want to fall on your knees and worship? This reveals just how personal God is. His faithfulness is our shield. Look at these two scriptures!

He will cover you with his feathers, and under His wings you will find refuge; His faithfulness will be your shield. Psalm 91:4

The Lord your God is in your midst a victorious warrior. He will exult over you with joy, He will be quiet in His love, He will rejoice over you with shouts of joy. Zeph 3:17

Someone shout ‘Amen and Hallelujah!” Is this not powerful? It moves me to tears. Hang on there is more…

He is the shield of our help and the sword of our majesty so that our enemies will cringe before us. Deut 33:29b

 But the Lord is with me like a dread champion; therefore my persecutors will stumble and not prevail. Jeremiah 20:11

Ancient battles and skirmishes were fought with different shields. For skirmishes and close combat the smaller shield was used. The major battles were fought with a curved shield that protected the whole body.

Why did our God feel it was necessary to be a shield and also in Ephesians provide a shield? What is He shielding us from? A more relevant question for us personally may be, ‘’do I understand why I have a shield’ and ‘am I using the shield God has provided?’

He provided more than a shield, He provided the whole armor of God for us to wear daily, that we might stand strong in the LORD and in the power of His might. Why do we need to stand strong? Because this is WAR! Within these words, in Ephesians, are the principles for the Christian walk, and how we should stand during trials and troubles that attack us from the enemies camp. Never think the ‘basics’ are too basic for you and therefore unimportant. Without the basics we will not be able to apply advanced principles. We will always need to use these fundamentals, because all things are related to the spirit world. They are the key to standing strong in the LORD and in the power of His might.

Taken from Ephesians 6:10-18

 Girdle of Truth: I put on girdle of Truth. Give me Divine wisdom, knowledge and discernment, to detect the devil at work with his lies and secret workings.

Breastplate of Righteousness: I put on the breastplate of Righteousness, Jesus own righteousness. Thank You for the cleansing blood of Christ. I refuse to own the devil’s accusations for my sin and failure. I am forgiven and forgive those who sin against me.

Shield of Faith:  Above all I take the Shield of faith whereby I can quench all the fiery darts of the wicked that are hurls at me. By faith I will stand, knowing this pleases you. I’m saved and healed by faith. I walk by faith, and I’ll die by faith. I choose to trust You regardless of how I ‘feel’, for I live by faith, not by feelings.

Helmet of Salvation:  I put on the helmet of Salvation. My mind is under the protection of your blood shed at Calvary. I have the mind of Christ. I recognize the enemies thoughts and cast them down for the evil they are and take captive every thought to the obedience of Jesus Christ as I direct my thoughts to the victory that is in the Lord Jesus Christ. Let me not forget ‘the battle is the LORD’s!’

Sword of the Spirit:  Finally I take the sword of the Spirit which is the word of God. Your word is true and is a lamp to my feet and light to my path. Help me stand in the Victory You have won, LORD, for ‘the battle is the Yours!’ I am

not in self-effort to try and produce it, but I am to receive  from You, the victory already won.

Think of all a shield represents. God’s favor is like a shield surrounding us. He alone has power to deliver, encourage, rescue and give favor with others. He shields us in ways that only heaven will reveal. His shield affirms His love for us in an amazingly creative way. He can open doors that no one can close. Let the truth of His being your shield, amaze you.

Our soul waits for the LORD; He is our help and our shield. For our heart rejoices in Him, because we trust in His Holy name. Psalm 33:20-21

Jesus shielded us from eternity in HELL. He paid our sin-debt in full.

My feet are dancing!!

“Many [Western Christians] habitually think and act as if there is no eternity. . . . We major in the momentary and minor in the momentous.”  Randy Alcorn

Abba, my Shield and Defender, how great You are! You who watch over me in loving kindness and discipline me in love… thank you. Thank You for being a Shield to me and for providing a ‘shield of faith’ for me to take up and wield. It is overpowering at times, to have You delight in me and to be loved so fiercely. By the Creator God who spoke billions of galaxies into being. Blessed be Your holy name.

In His love we are shielded and with our shield we will stand strong,

 az

 
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