A Prayer for Every Day - From Valley of Vision

O Lord and Maker of all Things

O Lord and Maker of all things, from whose creative power the first light came forth, who looked upon the world's first morning and saw that it was good, praise You for this light that now streams through my windows to rouse me to the life of another day.

     I praise You for the life that stirs within  me;
     I praise You for the bright and beautiful world into which I go;
     I praise You for earth and sea and sky, for scudding cloud and singing bird;
     I praise You for the work You have given me to do;
     I praise You for all that You have given me to fill my leisure hours;
     I praise You for my friends;
     I praise You for music and books and good company and all pure pleasures. 
                             AMEN.

Praise God from whom ALL blessings flow

Praise Him ye creatures here below

Praise Him above, ye heavenly host

Praise Father, Son and Holy Ghost!

Not asking for eough? C S Lewis

And Jesus answered her, "If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water."  (John 4:10)


If the Samaritan woman knew who she was talking to, she would have asked for more!

Do we ask for enough?

If we realize exactly Who we are talking with, shouldn't we ask for more?



From The Weight of Glory by C S Lewis:

     "If there lurks in most modern minds the notion that to desire our own good and earnestly to hope for the enjoyment of it is a bad thing, I submit that this notion has no part of the Christian faith.

     "Indeed, if we consider the unblushing promises of reward and the staggering nature of the reward promised in the Gospels, it would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak.

     "We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea.

     "We are far too easily pleased."


And I pray that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know his love that surpasses knowledge--that you maybe filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.

..who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us.
                                --Ephesians 3:17-20

Two Words - Jerry Bridges

When the Jew of the Old Testament celebrated the Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur), he had to exercise
 (1) repentance, and (2) faith.

To repent is to acknowledge sincerely and humbly one's sins and desire to turn from sin and strive to lead a godly life - a life that pleases God.

Faith, on the Day of Atonement, is believing God's promise that his sins were transferred to the second goat (the scapegoat) and they no longer contaminated his life - they no longer hung over his head. They were removed - as far as the east is from the west, the Psalter said in Psalm 103.

(The blood of the first goat was sprinkled on the mercy seat in the Holy of Holies. The High Priest then laid his hands on the living second goat, symbolically transferring the sins of the Jewish people to that goat, and then led it out into the wilderness. That second goat is known as the scapegoat.)

From Jerry Bridges in The Gospel for Real Life:

''Of course the scapegoat could not itself carry away the sins of the people. It was only symbolic -- a type of the true scapegoat who was to come, Jesus Christ.

Today we see the reality of the symbol.

We see Jesus as the One who not only propitiated the wrath of God symbolized in the sacrifice of the first goat, but who also removed our sins from the presence of God, symbolized by the second goat led away into the desert, bearing the sins of the people."

              -- The Gospel for Real Life, by Jerry Bridges



The same two attitudes -- repentance and faith -- are still necessary for all of us today.

God's requirements have not changed. 

We come to Jesus and trust in Him as our Savior (the first goat) and our scapegoat, or sin-bearer/remover (the second goat).


In coming to Christ for salvation we must acknowledge ourselves as sinners before a holy God.

Just as the ancient Jews repented and trusted in God for salvation, so do we.

Repentance and faith - for them and for us.

We must repent of our sins, laying them on Jesus, and trusting Him to be true to His Word and take them away forever.

More from Jerry Bridges:

"But it is not just in coming to Christ that we must exercise penitence and faith. Rather, these two heartfelt attitudes should characterize our lives throughout every day.

We not only come to God through faith in Christ as both our propitiation and our scapegoat, we must live in his presence every day on the same basis.

Obviously, our sins have been put away...

Subjectively, however, we must believe the testimony of God that they truly have been put away.

We must believe that, just as the Old Testament scapegoat symbolically carried away the sins of the Jews from the presence of God, so Jesus actually carried away our sins."

                                        ~~~~~~~~~


What does propitiation mean? To appease God, to satisfy His holiness, to enable us (who are covered in sin) to come to Him.

Through the Old Testament sacrificial system we see the way by which how God taught that a sinful human being might approach Him.

Sin means death.

But the sacrificial system taught that there was a way of escape. Another may die in a sinner's place.

And that's the reality of the gospel - Old Testament for the ancient Jews - and New Testament for us.

How to Live Right Now

                                                             How to Live Right Now

Be soft.

Do not let the world make you hard.

Do not let the pain make you hate.

Do not let bitterness steal your sweetness.

Do not let the unkindness around you make you cynical.

Take pride and joy that, even though the rest of the world might disagree, you still believe it to be a beautiful place.

And live each day in joyous expectation of what is coming!

Remember that when God looked at what He had created, He declared it good.

Albert Einstein once said that there are two ways to live our lives. One way is to believe that nothing is a miracle., And the other way is to believe that everything is a miracle!

Since I have a functioning brain, I choose the second option.

Which do you choose?

Because The Days are Evil

                                                    

                                                        Because the Days are Evil

Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil.  Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is" (Ephesians 5:15-17).

Because the days are evil....we are to act wisely and understand what the will of the Lord is....

Earlier in Ephesians, Paul said that when he prayed for his dear friends in Ephesus, he prayed that they would have "wisdom and divine revelation" -- two gifts from God Himself -- now he tells them to walk wisely and understand God's will -- two things they can do using the gifts God has given them.

I think Paul's prayer for his friends is a prayer I can pray for my friends: that God would grant them "wisdom and divine revelation".

So I am doing that. What more could anyone need?