How To Fill Your Day With Good

1 Peter 3:8-12, Paraphrase from The Message

"Summing up: Be agreeable, be sympathetic, be loving, be compassionate, be humble.

That goes for all of you - no exceptions. No retaliation. No sharp-tongued sarcasm.

Instead - bless. That's your job - to bless. You'll be a blessing as well as get a blessing.

Whoever wants to embrace life and see the day fill up with good, here's what you do: say nothing evil or hurtful, snub evil and cultivate good, run after peace with all you're worth.

God looks on all this with approval."

[That's the kind of life I want, so I guess that's the kind of person I want, and need, to be!] 

Paul and Timothy Pray for Their Friends

The New Testament gives us great insight on how to pray for our friends -- especially in the epistles where the writers record exactly what they are praying for when they are praying for their friends.. .

Consider these words from Paul and Timothy in the letter to the Colossians:

"Be assured that from the first day we heard of you, we haven't stopped praying for you, asking God to give you wise minds and spirits attuned to His will, and so acquire a thorough understanding of the ways in which God works. 

We pray that you'll live well for the Master, making Him proud of you as you work hard in His orchard. As you learn more and more how God works, you will learn how to do your work. 

We pray that you'll have the strength to stick it out over the long haul -- not the grim strength of gritting your teeth but the glory-strength God gives. It is strength that endures the unendurable and spills over into joy, thanking the Father who makes us strong enough to take part in everything bright and beautiful that He has for us." (Colossians 1:9-12).

Lots of ideas here of how we should pray for each other. I love especially the glory-strength that spills over into joy petition, and also the idea that as we learn how God works we can learn to do His work ourselves!

And that He can make us stronger so we can take part in all the glorious things He has prepared for us!

Holiness - Intend to fly? - William Law

 This selection is from William Law's (1686-1761) The Holy Life:


Just as we cannot live a holy life without prayer, so we cannot have prayer without a holy life. To be foolish in the way we spend our time and money is no greater mistake than to be foolish in relation to our prayers.

If our lives cannot be offered to God, how can our prayers?
.....

Our lives should be as holy and as heavenly as our prayers. It is our strict duty to live by reason, to devote all of the action of our lives to God, to walk before Him in wisdom and holiness...and to do everything in His name and for His glory.

If our prayers do not lead to this, they are of no value no matter how wise or heavenly.

No, such prayers would be absurdities. They would be like prayers for wings though we never intended to fly.

Who was the Prodigal?

 

                                                           Who was the Prodigal?

The story about the prodigal son (Luke 15) touches so many hearts.

A self-centered boy, asking for his inheritance early, runs away and squanders all of it, sinks lower than imaginable, desperately returns home to face the consequences of his prodigal lifestyle....

He expects to be treated as a slave and punished. But he is joyously received, forgiven and restored.

What does 'prodigal' mean? The dictionary tells us it means to spend your money or resources freely and recklessly, with wasteful extravagance;  to distribute lavishly and without thought for the future; overly generous to people you hardly know; to be careless with your money without considering what  will happen when it is all gone. What a short-sighted fellow! How foolish! Did he really think he was making true loyal friends with his conduct? Who was he impressing?

He ended up alone and desperate with no place to go but to crawl home and beg a crumb of bread!

But maybe the real prodigal was not the son -- but the father. Didn't he give of his love with reckless abandon? Probably his neighbors considered him foolish to waste his love on his ungrateful son? He was lavish and extravagant with his grace and forgiveness. He didn't even stop to consider if he should welcome his son home - just impulsively received and forgave him - and then restored him to his original position. Extravagant generosity! Talk about being 'prodigal'!  

But, wait -- isn't that the picture of our heavenly Father? 

Maybe we should change the name of the story of "The Prodigal Son" to "The Prodigal Father"?

Have you come home?

Feeling Out of Place?

               Are You Feeling Out of Place?

Great comments from Donald Grey Barnhouse:

Dr. Donald Grey Barnhouse, writing on Revelation, wrote this:

There are four things out of place in the universe.

The church is out of place. She ought to be in heaven.

Israel is out of place. She should be in the land that has been sworn to her and possess every part of it.


The devil is out of place. He ought to be in the lake of fire, but he's still roaming free.

And Christ is out of place. He should be through with intercession and seated on His throne, reigning, instead of upon His Father's throne interceding.

So here in the vision (Revelation) we begin to see all of these things that are out of place being put in their rightful place.

The church is in heaven.

Israel is about to be given back her kingdom and her land and salvation.

The devil is going to be bound and cast into the lake of fire.

And Christ is about to reign.

And those in heaven know this. And so in verse 8 of Chapter 5, we read "after He had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb."

And that initiates immense worship--extreme worship.

And everything is put back the way it is supposed to be!

Even so, come quickly, Lord Jesus!