He is risen!

Tomorrow I will resume Daily Verses, thank you all for your patience and understanding this past week... Christ is risen!!  Truly He is risen!!!

 

Luke 24:5-6 "In their fright the women bowed down with their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, "Why do you look for the living among the dead?  He is not here; he has risen! Remember how he told you, while he was still with you in Galilee:"

 

There is a quote, I forget who said, that says, "If God feels far away guess who moved?"  I imagine these women who came on the 3rd day to anoint Jesus body as was their custom...I imagine they must have felt like God was very far away from them if He could allow their precious Jesus to die.  However, Jesus had told them what to expect and so if they were counting then they would not have had to come to the tomb to hear, He is not here."  I think sometimes in life it would help if an angel came to us and said, "Hey!  He is not here," as we approach a path that leads us away from God.  It is an amazing faith journey to go off the path and come back onto it through seeking God though.  Other times I think that God may lead us to where 'He is not here' because God knows there is a need for Him to be there and He wants to use us to bring Him there...that's a scary and amazing thing to approach.  Can you imagine how you would feel if you led even one non-believer to Christ's promised paradise?  Can you imagine going where 'He is not here' and not saving someone?  That probably unsettles me more than trying to share Jesus' saving grace with someone who does not know.  I would be eternally disappointed in myself if I felt God telling me, 'He is not here' but I did nothing to try and bring Him 'here.'  As we have now all celebrated Easter and His holy resurrection, let's not lose that 'wow' feeling of knowing at the tomb, "He is not here" because He has gone to prepare a place for us and in the mean time He'd love it if we lived for Him and brought Him with us where we go!  Let's pray:

 

Heavenly Lord,  Thank You for Your saving grace, through Your death and resurrection.  Thank You for forgiveness through Your cross and for the promise of eternal life with You!  Please help us to hang on to the spiritual amazement we experience at Easter throughout the rest of this year.  Lord we thank You for all Your blessings, especially the people whom You've blessed us with, our clergy, soldiers, police & fire fighters.  Please bless them all through Your divine grace, mercy and protection.  Father, we know that Your healing is the ultimate and true healing for body, mind, soul and heart.  Please grant Your supernatural healing to Summer, Sharon, Melissa, Morgan, Phyllis, Carolyn, Randy, Emily, Brenda, Sheila, Mr & Mrs Jones, Darlene, Brandy's Mom, Nancy, Fran, Rob, Cathy, Alex, Melissa, Benjamin, Amber & Michael, Ward, Karen, Kim, Abby, Lynn, Mark, Heidi, Mike, Deanna, unborn baby Lauren and to all of those whom we personally name to you now.  We recognize that Your will is perfect and we ask that all this may be done not according to our wants but according to Your will and in Jesus precious name.  Amen.

 

Have a blessed week!  Christ is risen!

Love through Christ,

We Can Do Everything

I Corinthians 10:23 ""Everything is permissible"-but not everything is beneficial.  "Everything is permissible"-but not everything is constructive."

 

God gives us the choice between the right thing and "everything" and no one can make this choice for us.  God gave each of us free will from the time He created us - "Everything is permissible."  However, we can see throughout history that from the first two people on through today that not everything is beneficial or constructive...some of our choices damage our relationship with God by tearing us away from Him through sin.  Some of our choices lead us to a path that is so far from God that we cannot feel His presence and perhaps even begin to doubt He is still with us.  But God promises us that He is always with us and so if it feels like He is far away I guess we need to think about who moved...reflection, repentance and reconciliation can bring us back into His loving embrace where He never stopped reaching for us to return to.  We truly can do everything but as we grow closer to our Lord and Savior through our personal relationship with Him we will begin to yearn for only doing the right thing because not everything is good.  So when I focus on this scripture I think about what is beneficial and constructive.  I make a choice to strive for not doing everything but doing good things for the glory of God.  So, who's with me?!  Please join me in prayer:

 

Holy God,

We thank You for not placing limits on our choices, for everything being permissible.  Please help us to learn from this free will, help us to strengthen our relationship with You through the choices we make.  Help us to use even our bad choices to learn from, repent of and draw us close to You.  Lord we thank You for all Your blessings, especially the people whom You've blessed us with, our clergy, soldiers, police & fire fighters.  Please bless them all through Your divine grace, mercy and protection.  Father, weknow that Your healing is the ultimate and true healing for body, mind, soul and heart.  Please grant Your supernatural healing to Summer, Sharon, Melissa, Morgan, Phyllis, Carolyn, Randy, Emily, Brenda, Sheila, Mr & Mrs Jones, Darlene, Brandy's Mom, Nancy, Fran, Rob, Cathy, Alex, Melissa, Benjamin, Amber & Michael, Ward, Karen, Kim, Mike, Deanna, unborn baby Lauren and to all of those whom we personally name to you now.  We recognize that Your will is perfect and we ask that all this may be done not according to our wants but according to Your will and in Jesus precious name.  Amen.

 

In observance of "Greek Easter," I may need to cut down the daily verses for this week to allow time for my personal reflections and prayer through our holy week this week ahead.  I thank you all for your continued interest in receiving these weekly messages and/or daily verses.  I appreciate your understanding in my limited presence during this special week.  Christ has risen!!  He has risen indeed!  Alleluia!!! Have a blessed week!!! 

 

Love through Christ,

Niki

Being God's Children

I John 3:1 "How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God!  And that is what we are!  The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know Him."

 

I love when a verse, one single verse of God's precious Word, holds so many messages!  This verse begins by celebrating the awesome and nearly incomprehensible fact that we are called God's children!  The God who is larger than the heavens, who existed before time, who created time, has blessed us to be called His children!  For me it is the ultimate "warm fuzzies" feeling...you know that feeling you get when someone tells you a special story and you start to get chills up and down?  Yeah, it's like that when I really focus on what it really means to be called a child of God.  It means we are defined not by who we are but by whose we are.  We are God's, His creation, His children, His love for us is greater than any love in the history of history!  The other message that this verse holds for me is in the last sentence of it.  Have you ever felt like no one "got" you?  The people at work, school, in the grocery store, or wherever you had to go outside of church...did you ever feel almost like an outsider?  I feel that John is telling us that when we are truly living for God then the "world," or more precisely all who are of the world, does not understand us at all because they do not know God and His love and what it is to be loved by Him.  The Bible tells us not to be of the world because the world is just this temporary home for us, He's preparing His mansion for us in heaven.  While the "world" may not know us, our church family does because they "get" what it is to be called children of God.  This is why it is so important to have our fellowship with those who do know us because they will give us a good foundation in God...we'll need that when we go out in the world for God expects us to share with the world His good news so that everyone has a chance to have God's love lavished upon them and know this ultimate "warm fuzzy" of being called His children.  Let's pray together:

 

Dear Father,

It is nearly overwhelming the love which You have given to us to bless us with being called Your children.  Thank You for this blessing!  Please help us to share Your love with others of this world so that they too may know the amazing feeling of truly belonging to You.  Father we continually thank and praise You for our clergy. We ask that You may please keep them in Your blessing that they may continue to rightly teach us Your Word.  God we also ask that You please grant Your extraordinary protection and supernatural blessings to our service men and women who put their lives on the line every day to protect us from those who would harm us...please grant that Your favor may go before them and completely surround them daily.  Lord, we are fully aware that Your healing is the true and only healing that we need.  We've come to realize there are many who we love and cherish that are in special need of Your miraculous healing hand for physical, emotional and spiritual healing.  We come to You today and ask that You may grant Your healing to Summer, Summer, Sharon, Melissa, Morgan, Phyllis, Carolyn, Randy, Emily, Brenda, Sheila, Mr & Mrs Jones, Darlene, Brandy's Mom, Nancy, Fran, Rob, Cathy, Alex, Melissa, Benjamin, Amber & Michael, Ward and all those who we individually name to you now...  Please wrap them each in a Spiritual hug of Your comfort and peace.  Finally, we lift up to You Mike, Deanna and Lauren and ask that You please grant Mike & Deanna peace and hope as they await Lauren's birth and also please grant Lauren a safe arrival and a healthy, long life devoted to You.  We ask all these things may be done yet not according to our wants but according to Your will.  In Jesus name.  Amen. 

Have a blessed week ahead!

Love through Christ,

Niki

His Good Works In You

Philippians 1:6 "being confident of this, that He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus."

 

Ever feel like your faith journey is two steps forward and several steps back?  Like your heart and soul are in a tug-o-war and you're just not sure who will win?  I have felt that way for years but I love this passage that I heard Beth Moore quote this past week.  God's not done with me, He's not done with you and He's not going to be done for a while!  God has begun good works in all of us and He has every intention of carrying on this good work to the day of Christ Jesus...yup, that's right, not just as long as we live here on this earth, but as long as this earth is here God will continue to carry on the good works He starts in us!!  Whoa!  That floored me when I really took the time to contemplate what that really means.  It is just another way the Bible shows us how much bigger and more powerful our God is than the evil that surrounds us and tries to drag us down.  I love that saying about not telling God how big our problem is rather tell our problems how big our God is.  He's bigger than the universe and He has a plan for each of us and for the good works He is carrying on through us and through our lives here.  I know it is hard some days but I believe if we just remember that God is using us for these good works and that He is going to keep the good going on and on...well, then it may start to feel more like we are on the winning tug-o-war team every time!  Please join me in prayer:

 

Holy Lord,

We come to You today in awe of the good works You have not only begun in us but will carry on through the day of Christ Jesus.  Thank You for allowing us the privilege of being Your vessels of good works on this earth.  Please help us to remember this when we feel like we are struggling, tumbling and falling.  Father, we thank You for all Your ordained servants who guide and lead us in our faith journeys.  We ask that You bless them so that they may rightly continue teaching us Your Word for many years.  We praise and thank You for the brave men and women who serve in the military, police and fire departments.  Please bless and protect them and their families greatly for they are blessing us with their chosen sacrifices.  God, we know that You are the one and true source for all forms of healing and we are grateful for Your grace, mercy and deliverance.  This week we come to You and ask that You may grant physical, mental, and/or spiritual healing especially for Summer, Sharon, Melissa, Morgan, Phyllis, Carolyn, Randy, Emily, Brenda, Sheila, Mr & Mrs Jones, Darlene, Brandy's Mom, Nancy, Fran, Rob, Cathy, Alex, Melissa, Benjamin, Amber & Michael and all those whom we individually name to You.  Please grant them all Your comfort and peace and help them to feel enveloped in a Spiritual hug of Your presence.  Lord, please also grant special protection to Mike, Deanna and unborn baby Lauren as they await the joyous celebration of her arrival.  We acknowledge that Your Will and timing for our lives is perfect and right and therefore we ask all these things may be done according to Your Will and in the precious name of Your Son, Jesus.  Amen.

 

Have an awesome and blessed weekend and week ahead!!

Love through Christ,

Niki 

Prepare For Battle

I Thessalonians 5:8 "But since we belong to the day, let us be self-controlled, putting on faith and love as a breastplate, and the hope of salvation as a helmet."

 

This is just one of multiple references to putting on the armor of God.  We are in a battle and God knows it and He is on our side and has sent us the needed equipment.  God has already revealed to us through the final chapter in His Word that He will be victorious...so this is a battle worth fighting!

 

Dear Father, Thank You for the armor You have provided to protect us from the battle of living for You.  Please help me to remember to pray this armor on every morning so I am equipped for this battle which ultimately I know You will win.  Amen.