Sunday — A Day of Rest In The Presence of God

In the presence of God, everything trembles. The earth trembles, according to Psalm 114:7 “Tremble, O earth, at the presence of the Lord, at the presence of the God of Jacob.” The psalmist trembles in Psalm 119:120: “My flesh trembles for fear of you, and I am afraid of your judgments.”

Indeed, the one who trembles at God’s word, that person catches God’s attention, according to what he tells us in Isaiah 66:2: “But this is the one to whom I will look: he who is humble and contrite in spirit and trembles at my word.” And in the New Testament, Paul calls us in Philippians 2:12—Christians — to “work out” our salvation “with fear and trembling.” As you rest today, think on these things.

Saturday Power Line — Do You Have Unsatisfied Desires?

We, as believers, have many unsatisfied desires at present, but soon every wish of ours shall be satisfied; and all our powers shall find the sweetest employment in that eternal world of joy. Within a very little time you shall be rid of all your trials and troubles. Your eyes now flooded with tears shall weep no longer. You shall gaze in unbelievable rapture upon the splendor of him who sits upon the throne. No, even more, upon his throne shall you sit. The triumph of his glory shall be shared by you; his crown, his joy, his paradise, these will be yours, and you shall be co-heir with him who is the heir of all things. Praise God from whom all blessings flow.

Praying Your Uncensored Thoughts Before God

When you pray do you filter your thoughts so they are presented as clean and acceptable before God Almighty? The following article addresses this issue and will help you understand what’s acceptable to God and how to pray.

Article……

Through prayer we come face-to-face with God and do a work of self-examination. In God’s presence, we look at our thoughts, look at God, and consider how God looks back at us.

When you pray your thoughts, how do you imagine God looks back at you? Psalm 139:23 offers us a picture. As we approach God, he searches and knows our hearts, tests and knows our anxious thoughts. He sees the offensive ways that are in us, yet still he chooses to lead us in the way everlasting (v.24). In other words, God sees our true selves and loves us anyway.

As you pray your thoughts to God, he looks at you with love, mercy, and compassion. His love does not materialize because you just had a true, honorable, praiseworthy, or pure thought. It does not disappear because you sinned with your thoughts or can’t seem to escape thoughts filled with suffering. God’s love for you is present amid your unwanted thoughts. It’s not a reward for changing them.

Look at your unwanted thoughts, and you’ll likely see your suffering and sin. Look at God with faith, and you’ll see his love and acceptance. Look at how God looks at you in Christ, and you’ll see in yourself the righteousness of God (2 Cor.5:21). It’s when we see God accurately and see ourselves as God sees us that we find the power we need to change.

Our thoughts are transformed not through force and willpower but through relationship and connection. God’s presence is powerful because in it we encounter his character. We see who he is and what that means for our lives.

Encountering God’s holiness and grace is the motivation we need to move away from thoughts filled with error and sin. The stillness we find in his faithful presence calms our racing thoughts and worry. His compassion and love help us to believe the truth when it doesn’t seem to match our present reality. We leave behind thoughts of regret as we receive his forgiveness. We find help for thoughts of hopelessness as we meditate on his goodness. Telling ourselves to think something different is inadequate. Encountering God and experiencing who he is in our lives has the power to change everything.

Article reprint | The Gospel Coalition | Esther Smith-author | ©Copyright 2022

What Is Wisdom? Where Do We Find It? How Do We Apply It?

Everyday as we live our lives we are faced with making a thousand decisions. Decisions just about anything you can think of. Sometimes our decisions result in an outcome we were not expecting. Why? Because we didn’t search out God’s wisdom first and instead relied on our own thoughts about things. So we have regrets about the outcome. What can we do to prevent this from happening again?

Go to the one source of complete information about wisdom. That source, of course, is the bible. Although the word “wisdom” is a concept, the book of Proverbs and specifically chapter 8 spells out exactly what wisdom is; how to get it, and how to apply it.

Here are some lessons from Proverbs 8:32-36 and what it says about following wisdom……

32 “And now, O sons, listen to me:
blessed are those who keep my ways.
33 Hear instruction and be wise,
and do not neglect it.
34 Blessed is the one who listens to me,
watching daily at my gates,
waiting beside my doors.
35 For whoever finds me finds life
and obtains favor from the Lord,
36 but he who fails to find me injures himself;
all who hate me love death.”

If you want a complete picture of wisdom and how to get it and apply it read all of chapter 8 in Proverbs. The instructions found in those verses are explicit but when followed result in wise choices, favorable outcomes, and no regrets.

If We Truly Love Jesus…….

If we truly love Jesus, our greatest daily ambition must center on becoming like Him, who is the essence of goodness and righteousness. We will nurture a healthy conscience that is repulsed by our own tendencies to blur the line between good and evil. Have we gossiped? Lied? Gone back on our word? Have we ever taken something that didn’t belong to us? Have we ever acted with pride and arrogance, or spoken perversely? Have we acted flippantly toward our marriage or family by engaging in adultery or flirtatious relations with another person?

All of these situations God hates because of the evil they bring. And so should we. Therefore, whatever may keep us from loving and living with Jesus as our God and Savior must be utterly and completely rejected. He alone is our highest priority, and must continue to be throughout our lives. “To fear the LORD is to hate evil” (Prov. 8:13)

What Does Loving God With All Your Heart Look Like?

The Bible is a long book. My New International Version is 1,156 pages long. Ever wonder what the main point of the Bible is? Whether you’ve ever read the whole thing or not, would you like to know one of its central teachings?

The Bible is crystal clear about this — the most important thing I’m supposed to do is love God with everything I am. Do you need help? Do you need direction? Do you want to know what loving God with all your heart looks like?

Here are ten ways you can love God with all your heart, in the order they appear in Psalm 119:

1. Seek God with all your heart (Psalm 119:2, 10, 58)

2. Praise God with an upright heart (Psalm 119:7)

3. Hide God’s word in your heart (Psalm 119:11)

4. Set your heart on God’s laws (Psalm 119:30)

5. Allow God to set your heart free (Psalm 119:32)

6. Obey God’s law with all your heart (Psalm 119:34)

7. Keep God’s precepts with all your heart (Psalm 119:69, 112)

8. Allow the Word of God to be the joy of your heart (Psalm 119:111)

9. Call to God with all your heart (Psalm 119:145)

10. Let your heart tremble at God’s word (Psalm 119:161)

As you work on these ten areas, keep in mind this powerful and comforting promise – “it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose” (Philippians 2:13).

What Is Free Will From God?

The classic defense of God against the problem of evil is that it’s not logically possible to have free will and no possibility of moral evil. In other words, once God chose to create human beings with free will, then it was up to them, rather than to God, as to whether there was sin or not. That’s what free will means. Built into the situation of God deciding to create human beings is the chance of evil and, consequently, the suffering that results.”

The evidence is that God is all-powerful. The point to remember is that creating a world where there’s free will and no possibility of sin is a self-contradiction — and that opens the door to people choosing evil over God, with suffering being the result. The overwhelming majority of the pain in the world is caused by our choices to kill, to slander, to be selfish, to stray sexually, to break our promises, to be reckless.”

Why not choose free will to do things God’s way instead of what the enemy tells you to do? The results of our obedience results in a life filled with peace, happiness, and a strong faith in our Lord God.

Sunday – A Day of Rest

Think on these things as your rest today. Your love for God is directly proportional to the amount of time you spend in prayer and reading God’s word. Nothing else in this world can replace it. Therefore, if we know but little of the excellence of Jesus, what he has done for us, and what he is doing now, we cannot love him much; but the more we know him, the more we shall love him.

Saturday Power Line – Crucifying Our Tempers

Anger is not always or necessarily sinful, but it has such a tendency to run wild that whenever it displays itself, we should be quick to question its character. Many Christians give way to temper as though it were useless to attempt resistance; but let the believer remember that he must be a conqueror in every point, or else he cannot be crowned. If we cannot control our tempers, what has grace done for us? Through the power of the Holy Spirit living in you, you can overcome anger and become gentle and meek.

A Remedy For A Cold Heart Toward God

Do you feel distant from God? Is the temperature of your relationship with Him cool or even cold? Think about this—when you are in love, your future wife or husband are constantly on your mind. It seems as though that’s all you can think about. On the other hand the less time you spend with a beloved friend, the less likely we are to have him or her on our minds and in our hearts. That same thought applies to our relationship with Jesus. If we spend little to no time in God’s word and pray even less then our relationship with Him cools down and for some it grows cold.

What’s the remedy to the situation of a cold heart toward God? Shower yourself with God’s warm promises in the bible. Bask in the heating up of your heart toward God. Read God’s word and pray that your relationship with Him will thaw out and He will embrace you in the warmth of His loving arms. Meditate on God’s word and His promises day and night and you will experience a love that is indescribably rich and warm and profoundly fulfilling.