Category: Our Walk

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Thanksgiving Offering

Enter His gates with thanksgiving and His courts with praise; give thanks to Him and praise His name. Psalm 100:4

Consider this day, what you should offer your God. What would be an acceptable gift, for one so great and mighty

What could He possibly need?

For God created all the heavens and the earth. He owns it all, there is nothing that is not His

All the world we live in lies within the palm of His hand. It is His creation. There’s not a single atom within this planet He does not own. All that live upon it were born from His will

He gave breath and life to all who dwell here, both plant and animal, microbe, and fungi

The God of all made the stars that dwell in the sky, He crafted their forms and gave rise to their clusters. He moved His arm and they swirled into galaxies, the courses they take were charted by Him from the beginning. Our God owns them all

What could we offer such a mighty God, who owns each of our lives, who gave us our breath, our life, our body, our heart, and our soul?

He has blessed us with our life, may we revere Him all of our days

In beauty and in death, in triumph and in our struggles, through health and during illness, with our richness and in our want, He stands with us, as our maker and our God

How could we not give thanks for the goodness of His creation and for all the things that He has blessed us with throughout our lives

What is life if we don’t recognize His place in the order of things?

We have riches and opportunities available that we have not seen yet. We have His Word and His Spirit to direct us so that we might live in all fullness of life

We have our families and friends and a great multitude of believers all around us, who He gave to us

They bless us, and He gives us many opportunities to bless them, so that love would abound. Yet, God’s love surpasses all

For He gave us hope in the form of His Son, Jesus Christ. In Him He provided the map that leads off to eternity so that we might dwell with God forever

He Himself has given us this all. Should we not give to Him by His own example?

Give thanks and live out His gift of love that flows through you with all your mind, body, soul, and strength. It is our only true means of offering something of value to Him.   9/8/2021

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Come Worship Our God

Come, let us bow down in worship, let us kneel before the Lord our Maker, for He is our God and we are the people of His pasture, the flock under His care. Psalms 95:6-7

Give thanks to the Lord and praise His name, for you have been cleansed of all iniquity and your lives, restored

Lift up your voices to heaven, sing loud and strong unto Him, for we have been redeemed and given unending hope

He alone has saved us by snatching our lives from the fire. In our own power we could do nothing, but He looked upon us with favor and pardoned every sin

What joy! sing aloud! We have the promise of life forever

Give thanks, for He is worthy. Never forget, for He has given us every good blessing

Cast off your fears, He has overcome them. Lift up your hearts to Him. Return to God again and again and worship Him with love and a genuine heart for He has done what no one could do.

Oh faithful God of unending beauty and grace, we throw ourselves at Your feet. In awe with gratitude, we praise You, for we who were sick are now healed

We love You God, for You have done incredible things for us. You have filled us with the Spirit of truth and made our wretched lives sound

God, You have made each day new, and although everything around us is unstable, You remain true

We sing praises to You, oh Lord, we worship Your holy name; we sing out with joy and in love, for You are an amazing God

Oh what joy You bring and peace to our stricken hearts. We lift up our praises only to You, our Lord

We worship with all our strength, for You have healed us. When we had no hope, You came and raised us back to life.  1/15/2011

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Our God Rescues

I sought the Lord, and He answered me; He delivered me from all my fears. Psalms 34:4

Give thanks, all you who believe in the Lord, for He is good, and powerful to rescue those who trust in Him

Let everyone who has faith, offer thanksgiving to our God, because He has redeemed us from every trouble and from the sentence of death

He has rescued us from our wandering and given us a home within His Kingdom by His power and mercy

Some of us were found lost in deserts of despair, sentenced to dwell in hardship because of the poor choices they made

There, they had stumbled and found themselves lost, thirsting for a redemption from all that they were suffering from

They called out to Him in their anguish and our God answered them. He picked them back up on their feet and led them from despair

God brought them to a place of goodness and light and gave them hope instead of futility, mercy in place of the punishment they deserved for their actions

Let those who believe give thanks to the Lord for He is good

He delivered them from those dark times when hope became distant

Give thanks to The Lord for His unfailing love and for His great gifts of deliverance

Some were found in prisons, either literally or figuratively. They sat there behind bars, in chains, left to suffer a cruel punishment. Day after miserable day they dwelled in boredom and hardship, their very lives threatened by the dangers that lurked around them

When they cried out to their God in truth and in faith, He listened and drew near to them

At first, He gave them glimmers of hope, but then, as they continued to live a life of faith and humility before Him, He began to release them from their distress, Bringing them out of the darkness and deepest gloom, into the light of life

Let them give thanks to Him for His unfailing love, for He opened the most impenetrable doors and cut through bars of hardened steel

Some found themselves stranded in dangerous and difficult places threatened by situations that might injure or even end their life. Disasters, wars, crimes, accidents, mistakes, illness, and disease; People at the end of the line, clinging to life, in need of a savior

Some who were wise, reached out to their God. They cried out to Him for rescue, remedy, or a life rope of some kind. There, they prayed a prayer of deliverance

Then our faithful God came and rescued them from the grave, He reached out His hand, and snatched them from peril

God acts to save us every time from the troubles we face in life, because He is a God of love, forgiveness, and mercy

Let us all give thanks and consider the great love of our Lord.   10/30/2021

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Faith

For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. Ephesians 2:8-9

Faith is a both a living and active force in our life. It swells within us as we begin to believe in God and grows stronger as we come to trust in His Word, realize His great love for us, and begin to experience His grace and forgiveness

Sometimes, when we first come to believe, He fills us to the brim as His Spirit flows into us. It overwhelms our consciousness with an abiding sense of His presence. With His Spirit comes a knowledge of God’s truth, goodness, and love

As we come to know these things, we place our full trust in Him. Even during those difficult days of unending pressures and doubt, we can harken back to our faith in Him, to the truth of His Word, and sense His love, and then we are assured that God is good, and that He loves us without measure

No believer is immune to those days when we don’t feel God near us. Reach then into your toolbox and select a time for prayer, read a chapter in the Bible, or praise Him for something good in your life. Acknowledge Him in everything that you are given in life

Faith is both a living and active force in our life. It is an adventure we must take each day and precious beyond any earthly measure

That is why we cannot allow ourselves to store our faith in a safe place. We can’t keep it locked up like a treasure in our safety deposit box. Like we would with a piece of jewelry, or an important document

Faith is something that must live and breathe. It is active by nature, a reaching out to God, a quiet conversation with our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, or a living out of His truth and goodness in our lives before the world

Faith is precious, it is real, it must be lived out in the moments of our life

Faith can be quiet in a moment of prayer, or, sometimes a bold and loud profession of faith in sermon or song. It can be our day-to-day soundtrack, our inner conversation, a calm response

But it is never present when we lock it away

Life in these times is full of distractions. There are a million pressing things that surround us each day that can distract us away from our faith and leave us empty

Faith cannot exist in us if we lock it in our safety deposit box. It cannot link us with our God, if we set it aside so that we deal with something, or focus on what is demanding our immediate attention now

How many times do these things take over our days and nights, so that we lose sight of Him, and get cast adrift in worries and stress?

Faith is not a natural part of this world we live in. It is the light and life that connects us with the God of the universe

Faith takes effort sometimes to continually come back to Him and acknowledge His presence and imminence within all that happens

It is vitally important for every believer, because it makes real our friendship we have with our creator and opens all the possibilities that He so generously offers, so that we might live a full and realized life for all our days.   9/20/2021

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Our Home, Earth

Blessed are all those who dwell in Your house; they are forever praising You.    Psalms 84:4

Blessed are we who live in this sanctuary called Earth, and those able to see and experience all its boundless wonders

It is of God’s own making, and He made it exceedingly well

How fortunate is the family of mankind to dwell in this house, and to have been born into this place of beauty and comfort

It is a temple of God’s creation fashioned for us to live in, along with all the multitudes of life

Blessed is the entire family of plants and creatures that dwells here. We are all a part of earth’s character, born of this creation

Each of us are linked together as a family in this world, sprouting forth on the surface of this planet

We are cast into orbit around our star, the Sun;

Lost among a million stars, but not unknown, as we swirl within our Milky Way

And rise outward, along with an untold numbers of other galaxies, within this universe of unsearchable length, depth, and time

It is all His making

It is all that we know of

Even if we could think of what lies beyond the distant boundaries of all we know, He would be there, as its creator and as it’s Spirit

Blessed are we who have life, how lucky indeed, are we to experience this miracle and see, touch, and feel all the wonders that life allows

Praise God, for His infinitely grand creation. Commend Him, for this crazy thing called life. It exists here on earth in all its incredible depth and complexity

Glorify our God, because we have life amidst this beautiful world

Life is precious, it is fragile, and exceedingly rare. There is no other place that we know of where it even exists

We believe some simple primitive forms may possibly live somewhere else, but we have not seen them yet, despite all our searching

The universe is wondrous, but it is also an exceedingly harsh place, to find somewhere else that is as soft and hospitable as earth may never happen

How far away will such a place be if one even exists?

God sent His own Son into this place as a gift to Earth’s current apex species, so that we might not die, as every form of life eventually does, but that we might have eternal life

And so that we could have a pathway through faith in Jesus Christ to live on past our present life, the miracle that it is, and live in the presence of God, the very maker of all we know that exists

It begins through faith in Him who made us and by our love and praise for all that He has done

It comes by glorifying Our God and His Son through the very expression of our life

For He is worthy, because there is nothing that is greater than Him

Praise God for His creation and for the gift of salvation through our faith in Him.  9/17/2021

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Seek Forgiveness

Bee on Poison Oak
But there is forgiveness with You, that You may be awed. Psalms 130:4

The past is fixed in stone, it cannot be moved. What has been done and what has been said can never be changed

No amount of worry can ever alter the past, but, love and a righteous way can heal many wounds and bind up that which has been injured

Scars may remain, but God will forgive all who are faithful, and pour out new life into those who are broken

We fail, and often fall along the way. Our righteousness is never good enough. But, in Christ we are made new each day. No form of transgression that overcomes us, will cause us to lose our position in Christ

We sin, get back upon your feet. Our faith is found lacking, return to God with a humble spirit

Confess your sins before Him. Ask of His forgiveness. Repent, and pour your heart out to Him and He will be just to forgive you

Truly, our God is full of love for His children, and though every believer will sometimes fail, in Christ we are made victorious

Resist sin, cleanse yourself from all unrighteousness. Do not allow yourself to become its slave, but seek God’s forgiveness so that you might be restored to health again. For all who sin must pay a severe price.

Remember, judgement begins within the house of God. We who are faithful, will not be spared the direct negative effects of sin, because our physical  past is fixed in stone.

How unpleasant is the withdrawing of God’s sweet presence to all those who have known communion with Him, and how great is the sense of guilt, when we realize our sins have been done against our Lord

The one who has given us all good things, even eternal life, Our savior Jesus Christ, went to the cross and suffered incalculable pain, so that our sins might be taken away

How great then, is the destructive weight of our sin. What complete displeasure our God must feel, that He would go so far as to offer up His Son on our behalf

We cannot do anything about the past, but we can resolve each day to live an obedient life unto Him, and to take up our own cross in respect, awe, and in faith. 10/27/2006

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God Will Restore Us

If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just and will forgive our sins, and purify us from all unrighteousness. 1 John 1:9

Our God has compassion for His people. He cares for them deeply. Though they sin and do terrible things before His face, still He forgives them

God looks out across the entire face of the earth and gazes at the imperfections of man. There is no hope for us apart from Him, no path of our own that leads to safety

He sees all of our sin, we cannot hide it in any way, yet we have a savior, one who can help heal our own afflictions and remove the weight of our guilt

The Lord is awesome. He dwells in unapproachable light. We cannot find Him on our own, yet, He has searched us out and offered us forgiveness and light

Our sins will eventually kill us, they will not allow us to live. But by the power of God in Jesus, we can be saved unto eternity in Him

He can bear the weight of our sin and remove it from us, forever

Great is this gift, and glorious for all those who go before Him, for they will be made as new, purified and whole

Thank God for His goodness. Sing praise for His love

He sees us falling and reaches out to catch us, so that we might live in all fullness and life

Blessed are all who go before Him, who cry out for mercy at His feet. For He is always quick to forgive those who have an honest heart. God will surely restore those who have strayed

Sin is our enemy and a fatal deception. It will sicken us and leave us empty so that we forget the goodness and power of our God

Thank God then, that He is always willing to forgive us

For all who approach Him with an honest heart will be restored without fail, so that they can live in all fullness of life once again.   10/14/2009

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God’s Love Compels Us

And let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds… Hebrews 10:24

In whatever God has placed before you, may you do it with all of your heart and endeavor to complete it with all of your strength

Let your effort be an inspiration to others, so that they might be encouraged along the way

May your work stand out from that of others, and be noticed, not necessarily for it’s volume, but, by how it shows forth the passion of your heart to accomplish the good inspiration that flows forth from God

There is a drought upon this earth. A scarcity of good will and good works. Love is found lacking and the flow of charity has begun to dry up

May you listen to God’s will for your life which has been directed towards your heart, that you might change the entire course of your life and lean towards whatever God’s love compels in you

Produce good works. Be honest and trustworthy. Lead by a good example. Meditate upon the great love of God

Consider His blessings, and then bless those who surround you

Be consistent with God, for He has never left Your side. Make every effort to stay close to Him, so that the Lord, our God, will draw along side you and assist you each day

He will provide encouragement so that your efforts will be reinforced. For in God lies all our strength and the foundation of all truth, which will direct us towards every good path

There is no part of our life that is greater than small. We can do nothing apart from God. He does not need us in any way, still, He loves us and cares deeply for our lives

He chooses us, so that we might work alongside Him. That we might know the joy of His goodness, and the power of His love

Even though we can never understand His ways, we can taste, and know, experience, and have faith, that there is nothing more glorious or awesome, than Him.  9/20/2007

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God is Our Comfort

Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. Matthew 5:4

The Lord is My strength when I have become weak. He is my comfort when sadness has overtaken me

When the loss of someone comes, as surely they come to all who live, when the pain of separation swells and washes over me, He gently rests His hand upon my shoulder to remind me that He is there

God calms our nerves when they’ve frayed from the blows that come from living

For when we rest upon the promises of God, they will give us comfort and cause us to see with a far-reaching perspective, the nature of life and death

How great is our God, that He takes the time to visit ones so small and brings healing through the power of His love

By the works of all His manifest ways, through His Spirit, from His Son, and by His power, He mends us and guides our way through dark valleys

Oh Lord, I thank You for Your presence. I rejoice in the ways You uplift those who trust in You and heal the broken places with your gentle touch

So that even in such dark times, we can see hope through the light that you shine upon us

The Lord is faithful to those who put their faith in Him. He lifts them up as they put their trust in His ways

He loves those who love Him, and cares for those who walk according to His ways

In this world, our lives will have to endure many trials and pain. We can’t even imagine what might happen in the coming years. But we can be sure that there will be the pains of loss, illness, and suffering

In Christ we always have hope. He will lift us up and help us overcome all of life’s challenges

Rejoice during the days of calm and peace. Thank God, and praise Him, for they are truly gifts from Him. Sing forth with joy, for our trials will not last forever

Our God is faithful, trust in His promises. He will never leave us or forsake us, and will certainly provide us the strength to overcome the darkest day

God will stay with us during all the uncertain days of our lives. Even unto the farthest days of eternity. Amen.   7/22/2021

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Wake Up, This is Real

 

If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy them; for God’s temple is sacred, and you are that temple. 1 Corinthians 3:17

This world is changing, our climate is warming, the balance of our living world is degrading and few of us are paying attention

It appears, that the ways in which our climate is changing does not easily set off alarms in us. Perhaps it is happening at such an incremental rate that it defies our deep perception

We notice things are different, but we endure or adjust, and then move on. This  has left us profoundly vulnerable to this danger

Wake yourself, arouse your mind and sharpen your perception, become an observer and listener of nature. This is more important than we realize, a problem which will be difficult to recover from

Never forget that this planet was made by our God, created for life and for wonder. It is a miracle of His work

Do you think God applauds its destruction?

Many say they don’t see the climate changing. Look more intently, study the data determined by the experts.

Remember the harm you have seen across the lands nearby. Recall the gigantic fires, the powerful storms, the unusual freezes and unrelenting heat; the devastating droughts, and all of the collective damage done so far

Sense the enormity of environmental stress that covers most of the world now. It is all there for you to see, just open your eyes and understand

Some say it is a hoax or scheme to defraud us. But, why are so many brilliant people telling us there is now no doubt?

Climate change is happening. It is real, and our own actions are to blame. The real hoax may lie in the disinformation and lies spread abroad, sowed by those who can gain by creating confusion and distrust in the truth

Our God is a God of justice and righteousness, He considers those who act justly, and those who aspire towards what is good, but He is against anyone who acts selfishly and propagates lies

How do you think He feels about those who are damaging this precious Earth?

Some say it is our right to subdue this World that God gave us to live in. But we have gone far past overcoming the challenges of living on this planet

Never has there been so much destruction wrought upon our land, seas, and air; harm that has affected all life, especially our poor and our defenseless, the ones God calls precious in His eyes

Oh Lord, I pray for our collective climate awareness, that we might sharpen our focus upon this threat. Please help us grow closer and more united as we seek to find good solutions

We elevate you, the Lord of the heavens and of this Earth, so that we might regard You in all our ways, that justice may be served, and the health of our world, upheld

May we always acknowledge You, as we work to restore the bountiful abundance of this world, so that it may be well for us, and for all who live here, and so that You may be forever praised for your all Your awesome works. 3/5/2021