Posted on July 31, 2009 at 9:24am.
I was praying for our team in Ethiopia this morning, praying that God will shape himself in each of their lives. It was a reminder for me that so much of Paul’s references to prayer are him praying for others. I wonder if we can say the same thing? “Lord, help me pray for others rather than myself.”
Posted on July 29, 2009 at 5:55am.
Some days I think I am better suited to write Mark’s blog on struggling well with life, it would fit more. There are not many days that go by where I am not face to face with the reality that we live in a broken, fallen world. We are capable of making choices that cause hurt and pain. The Body of Christ is to be there in the midst of it all and minister in Jesus name. When they brought a sinful woman before Jesus to see how he would respond. He removed her accusers by getting them to see their own sin. Then he gave her truth in love - I don’t condemn you but go and don’t continue to sin. We can’t keep others from harmful choices but we can choose to speak into lives like Jesus did.
Posted on July 28, 2009 at 5:45am.
I woke up this morning with the words of an old chorus running through my mind. It has been years, maybe back to when I was a kid since I have sung this song.
“Speak Lord in the stillness, while I wait on thee. Hush my heart to listen, in expectancy.”
Do I expect the Lord to speak into my life? I really do long for the pathway of communicating with God to be a normal occurrence in my life. I want to be in a position to hear him speak.
Posted on July 27, 2009 at 6:30am.
When is it quiet in your world? I am sitting here in my study and it is quiet this morning. In fact now that the girls are grown and living in their own homes mornings are generally quiet, that is unless I jam meetings and appointments in to the start of my day. I believe quiet is one of those important times in life that often gets crowded out by the many urgent things we fill our days with. It is in those quiet moments that I can best here God speak and seek to know his heart. Listen can you hear that - quiet.
Posted on July 25, 2009 at 8:29am.
Many of us would say, we know that Jesus loves us. Perhaps we learned it as children when we sang “Jesus love me this I know”. However sometimes the way that love gets expressed is confusing. John’s gospel tells us of a time that Martha was confused. Her brother Lazarus had died and when Jesus arrived she told him of her confusion. “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” The shortest verse in the Bible tells us how Jesus felt - he wept. His not being present wasn’t an indicator of his lack of love. For you and me today life may unfold in ways that we don’t understand. It may cause us to say - “Lord if you had been here.” In those times, as hard as it is, I want to say - “Lord, I trust your love.”
