Category: Our Walk

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Press On

Forgetting what is behind and straining towards what is ahead, I press on towards the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. Phillipians 3:13-14

I am not perfect. No, I am far from being that. Nor have I attained greatness in any way.

But in spite of my lack, I press on that I may reach that which was given me to reach. So that I may lay hold of the things for which Jesus Christ has also laid hold of me.

For there is a purpose I my life. There is a reason that I am here; That I may glorify my Father in heaven with all that I have and with all of my life.

I have not reached yet what He has placed before me. I feel like I have not come close. But, one thing I do is to forget the things that are behind me and reach for those that lie ahead.

For there are many things from my past that I wish had never happened; And if I let them, they would weigh heavily upon my soul. They would place a drag on my life and keep me from being all I could be.

I thank God then that He has forgiven me, and taken away the sentence of sin that hung heavy upon me. That through His Son, Jesus Christ, I have a new life, where I can live in freedom to be my best for Him

I no longer look back on my life in regret, but look forward to all the exciting things which God has in store for me. In eager anticipation, I reach forward towards all that lies ahead.

No, I am am far from attaining any measure of success. But, I continue on nonetheless. I let God worry about how much of an impact I am making for Him, knowing that there is really no way for me to measure that, anyway.

I simply press on, following His lead, excited to be a part of something so grand.

I remember that God has set aside a prize that awaits all those who pursue the upward call; and a reward to all those who seek His will.

Even though I may stumble and fall many times a day, I pick myself up and brush off the dust that clings to me, and set out again upon the pathway He has laid.

Though I may tire along the way, I rest and take nourishment from His Words; And when my strength has returned, I press on again, knowing that His way is the only way to life

For I have come to the conclusion, that any other way that I could go is just a counterfeit path, for only in Christ, does my life achieve any meaning or purpose.    1997

 

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Bolting When The Heat is On

 

Kale that has bolted

 

I often plant Cole crops early each Spring in my vegetable garden. These plants prefer cool weather to grow and mature, and include Broccoli, Mustard, Kale, and Cabbage. Some seasons I have problems with these plants, because they are sensitive to early hot spells. When the heat comes on too soon, these plants can become stressed and are quickly activated to begin flowering. Sometimes this can happen when the plants are quite small, but most often, just as they start to become productive. This phenomenon is called bolting, and it is a serious problem, since the plant rapidly jumps to flowering mode and bypasses the best stages of harvesting a good crop.  The only thing a gardener can do if this happens is pull up the plants and plant something else.

How many of us Christians decide to bolt and go to seed when things get difficult or when the heat suddenly sets its focus upon us? There is a passage in the Gospel of John chapter 6, where Jesus spoke about having faith in Him by using some particularly difficult metaphors. He said, ” I am the bread of life, they who come to me shall never hunger and they who believe in me shall never thirst”.  He went on to say ” I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If anyone eats this bread, they will live forever; and the bread I shall give is my flesh, which I shall give for the life of the world”.  He said this speaking figuratively, of how He must die, and of His resurrection, so that He might be able to save all those who trust and believe in Him. But these words were hard to understand by many who had followed Him, and upon hearing this, they decided to leave Him and go back to their former lives.

To put our faith in Jesus Christ is the single most important choice a human can make. It is all encompassing, there are great blessings that result, but also distinct trials. Through faith we are allowed to have access into the kingdom of God, but we are also asked to give up the right to ourselves. Most of us are eager to gain the things given, but grudgingly submit to God’s requirement to lose our self for Him. Jesus will never force us to go with Him, He prefaces every invitation with an if; “if any one wishes to follow me, then He must leave all and…” That is when difficulty comes and the great battle of will is waged inside us.

The wonderful part of giving up your life to Jesus Christ, is that His life and Spirit becomes joined to ours, and we begin to gain His strength and wisdom in so many ways. We find character that was never within us before, and a capacity to love that is supernatural beyond anything we understood prior. We soon see His purposes working out through our lives against every odd and in ways that sometimes seem impossible, but true. It is amazing to sense the power of our very Creator at work in our life. He upholds us through trials, and gives us strength to weather affliction, so as we begin to see this at work in our life, we experience a deeper more meaningful joy and purpose.

So when difficulties arise and the urge come to bolt and retreat, hang on to your faith in the life of Jesus Christ. Don’t go to seed, but remain in His presence, for He has a tremendous purpose and incredible blessing to work out through your life.

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Buy the Field

‘And you have said to me, Oh Lord God, “Buy the field for money, and take witnesses! -yet the city has been given into the hand of the Chaldeans”   Jeremiah 32:25

I once managed a community garden that was truly a wonderful place. It was blessed with many talented people, who each contributed to making it one of the most productive and beautiful volunteer gardens I ever worked at. One cold winter day, when the north wind blew strong through its quiet rows, we received some devastating news. The nearby community center was going to be expanded and the footprint for the new building was to be located directly upon the garden. The city was going to break ground on the project in Spring, and we were told to clear the site within the next month. I can still remember how shocked and devastated everyone was. For many, it was a place to be with their friends, others used it to conduct field trips and educational work for local schools and community classes. After twelve years of existence, we were deeply going to miss our shared place of community.

Everyone was too upset to do anything for a few weeks, so the garden just laid dormant. Then in March we came together to meet and decide what was needed to dismantle and decommission the garden. After many minutes of complaint and anguish filled comments, a man stood up and said a very surprising thing. He told us, ” Let’s go ahead and do our normal Spring planting.  We should act like nothing is going to happen to this wonderful place. Be optimistic, these city projects often get tied up at City Hall for years and I happen to know that this project has some opposition that will likely force some long delays”. At first, nobody could believe that this might happen, but after much discussion a feeling of optimism began to grow. Within a week we had begun cleaning up the garden and planting the most ambitious effort in all our history.  We wanted to show the community and the council just how important and valuable the garden was for our town. To this day, the community garden lives on and remains a blessing to the community.

The prophet Jeremiah once gave a speech similar to the one this man gave to our community garden. He was spending time in the Jerusalem jail for speaking God’s Word to the King of Judah, Zedekiah. Even though the enemy was about to take and destroy the entire city, then lead many of its people into captivity, He told them he was going to do something very odd, but optimistic. He was going to purchase a piece of property, a field to grow crops.. a place to grow a garden. He wanted to make it clear, that even in that dark hour, God was at work. Our Lord God wanted to tell His people that this was not the final chapter of the Jewish nation. He said, ‘be optimistic even when destruction and doom lie at the very door’, because I have a plan and a heart of love for my people. I will someday bring them back to this place and they will live in abundance once again.

Spring 2020 has brought illness and loss that have caused many to lose hope in their future. Some of us have lost loved ones, others have lost their way to make a living. How this all ends up is still quite unclear. But there is one thing that we should never lose, and that is our trust  in the love and saving work of Jesus Christ. Remember His promise, “I will never leave you or forsake you”.  He is there with us through every trouble and trial that befalls us. Look up to Him and pray, even when there seems to be no hope. Grab ahold of Him with all your strength, and He will give you reason to rejoice, even in times of despair. Jesus will encourage you to carry on with life  and to be optimistic, even when it seems everything is going in the wrong direction. Praise be, to our God!

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A Late Night Cry for Healing

“Take heart, your faith has healed you” Matthew 9:22

Lord, heal the wounds that have been inflicted upon my life. Pour out your mercy, so that I may be made whole.

Bring about renewal in my heart, so that am made sound and strong

Speak your Word deep unto me, so that I may know the truth, and listen, for your will and your council

Lord, I humbly go before You. I stand at the feet of your throne, confessing my sins and my lack of faith, so that you might heal me and correct every way that is crooked

Pour our your Spirit. Do what only you can do. Bless my life with your presence, and heal me, so that I may again, glorify You

Help me run with endurance. Train up my heart and my mind. Convince my spirit with your Truth, and by the revelation of your perfect love, so that I may serve You each day

I rest in You, and quiet my soul before You. I meditate upon your ways

The things that I have schemed for, I leave aside, so that your will becomes my all in all

My life has become weak, because I forgot to seek You each day. I focused upon earthly things, and not those of heaven. What great affliction has overtaken me!

Yet, I will return again and give glory to my God, through the entire expression of my life

I have been healed by God before. He has pulled me up from impossible places, where there was no light or hope, and now, I will trust that He will help me again.

For He is a God who loves His children. All who go before Him that are sick and broken, can be healed and made new again.   6/27/2007

 

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On This Good Friday

Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, and sat down at the right hand of the thrown of God. Hebrews 12:2

On this Good Friday, I give thanks to our Lord Jesus Christ; Our God and Savior, the one who has loved us throughout time

I praise Him for His sacrifice on this day so long ago and for His obedience to His Father in heaven, so that all His children might live and not perish

How painful His death, nailed there upon that wooden cross. What an incredible act, to bring a forgiveness of sin, for all of mankind, so that we might have hope through the power of His resurrection

Jesus Christ, you are the beginning and the end. The one who spoke this universe into creation. You blessed our world with a richness unlike any other, so we might live in all fullness before you

You thought of us since the beginning of time, and have loved what you have made, for it is good

How ugly and filled with depravity, then, is our sin. It leads us away from You and separates us, so that we become weak and confused in our lives; Falling into all kinds of misfortune and loss

Sin is separation from God

Jesus Christ is the healing power that returns us to Him

On that cross, Jesus carried the weight of all our sins. He shouldered the entirety of them, because He was God

As He died, He cast them away forever. He laid them to rest, so that our guilt might not condemn us, So that we might have hope in life; And hope in life, after death

Great was the sacrifice of Jesus Christ

How wonderful, that our God would love us so completely. That He would give up the life of His Son so that we might live, and suffer the pain of the cross plus the weight of all our sin;  so that we might find our way back to a communion with Him

We were made to live our lives in close friendship with our God, designed to be in love with Him. So that we might experience the true abundance of life as a human; To feel joy in life and to give joy to our creator

Blessed is the one who comes before Christ and gives thanks to Him. Who recognizes the incredible work that was accomplished upon the cross

They will begin to be transformed by the workings of God, and made pure by the sacrifice of Jesus Christ

None of us will be perfect in this world. We will do things and experience wrongs that are not right

But we do have a blessed hope of forgiveness that will never fail or falter. Both on this Good Friday, and for the rest of eternity   4/10/2020

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Give Thanks to the God of Creation

 

Give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.            1 Thessalonians 5:18

All you, who call yourselves believers in Christ, give thanks to your God. For He has blessed you far beyond any earthly measure

Cultivate a thankful spirit within your life, so that you might honor Him who dwells above the heavens. Yet, who also makes a home within our hearts

Look unto the grandness of His creation. Observe the stars of our Milky Way, the wonder of the Sun, and the beauty of the yellow Moon as it rises softly in the east

Give thanks to Him who spoke them all into existence

He arranged them just so, with the stroke of a master artist touch. In such fine precision and alignment, man’s greatest minds are speechless in wonder

Give thanks to God for creating this wondrous Earth. Who placed it within the perfect swirl, within a swirl, within a swirl…

How awesome are the assemblage of elements here. So stirring the sunrise, and so bright the cloudless sky. All the colors that the rainbow gives, dwell richly all across the world

Give thanks to our God for the fullness of His provision that sustains our lives. It has all been bestowed to us through His loving generosity and by the awesome work of His hands

Give thanks! Be thankful in all things. Try and recall all the blessings He has placed into your life

Bow before Him and speak prayers filled with thanksgiving. Sing songs overflowing from a joyful spirit

Give thanks to the God who loves you. For He has given you life and health, and filled all of your days with hope

The God of the universe is awesome and powerful. He dwells in inapproachable light. Purely righteous are all His ways, yet, He is filled with an infinite love towards us

He once cast off all of His heavenly glory and made Himself as a man, Jesus Christ. He dwelt on earth as a humble servant to mankind; though He was actually our King, our God, and our Creator

He went as far as to sacrifice His life and die upon a torturer’s wooden cross. So that we might know the taste, feel, and incredible blessing of salvation unto eternal life

Give your greatest thanks to our Lord and savior, Jesus Christ. Who stepped into time and this good creation and altered the course of history, forever

Give thanks for His goodness, mercy, and grace.

Praise Him for His Spirit, who dwells within every heart who believes Christ lives. For the Spirit helps guide all our paths towards salvation

Let all mankind be filled with thanksgiving; for our God is good.  1/15/2006

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The Value of Wisdom In These Times

God’s Word

A virus has been born and it threatens our lives and our ways

The whole earth has been shaken, and a wave has spread out across our planet. Like a Tsunami, it sweeps across the lands causing panic, and dread, destruction, and loss

These are times of unprecedented fear. Suddenly, our bright future has become darkened, and what is to come is unknown and foreboding.

It is a good time to honor and respect good wisdom. We should always try our best to make the right choices. Don’t let fear overwhelm you and lead you away from the truth

Protect yourself. Look to what is true, and right, and good. Don’t put your hope into what are lies, or be mislead by those who wish to protect themselves first,  at a cost to others

Defend life, protect your families and your communities. Believe in those who have the best information for all. Who make wise recommendations for the health of you and your neighbors.

Beware of trusting first in money, for it is fleeting. Instead, value life, and strive to save as many people as possible. Money will return to those who act wisely and in good faith towards others. It will be given back, in adequate measure, to those who are faithful and true

Trust in those who speak with wisdom and love. Believe in those who tell the truth. Act and decide upon what is best for your families. Don’t betray others, but try to help as you can, for we are all in this together

Justice and life will prevail in the end

Carefully examine the facts. Judge them by the character of whom has presented them.

Know that God is all in all. His will and His love will prevail in the end

We are up against an unseen enemy that has no mind or conscience. How and why it came to be we will never know for sure. Its only function is to propagate and grow

We have but one choice against it. To reduce its spread, manage it, and then, try to stop it cold.

It will surely test us, but we must act according to our good character. We must choose wisely and use every bit of wisdom that we can muster

Be strong, honest, and good. Pray. Increase your faith and trust in God

Don’t give in to the fear that surrounds us, but use your energy and your wisdom to act out in love

Always go with God, for he will continually walk beside you through it all

3/26/2020

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Our Hope In Troubled Times

A righteous person may have many troubles, but the Lord delivers them from them all. Psalm 34:19

Our Lord is faithful in all things. He is not blind to our condition, nor is He ignorant of our situation or troubles

His feet tread next to ours, and His eyes are continually upon us

Jesus will always uphold us, and keep us safe, though we may feel otherwise

Be strong, don’t flee in panic, or retreat from your position. Stand upon His steadfast promises and rely upon His wisdom when things appear unclear

Avoid making earthly judgements on present conditions, even though everything seems to be falling down around you

For God’s eyes see through to the truth of the matter. They see past the smoke and the flames, and reserve safe harbors, just on the other side

Trials and troubles are sure to come into the life of every believer, and we are  made stronger in our faith as we endure them. Don’t fall back upon your old ways when the pressure comes, but be steadfast and obedient to Christ, who saves us unto eternal life

Know that these times are making you more complete in Him; so that your life will shine forth His life more brilliantly

Our Lord is faithful and true to all His promises

Continue on. Be thankful in the face of every trial and agony. Never cease praising Him, who has given you every spiritual blessing; who has made a provision for us that will never run out

Persevere each day by offering prayers to Him, so that He may always remain near to bless and strengthen you

Feed upon God’s words of truth. Study them, so you will have ready answers in tumultuous times

Rely on your patience, instead of your emotions. Wait upon the Lord. For He will act to work things out in their perfect time, and in a manner that will be best for all who believe in Him

Be patient. Do not fret and worry when there is nothing you can do anyway. Proceed upon God’s will, but wait, when He must do the heavy lifting

Release your tensions as you praise and worship Him. Find ways to spend time with fellow believers. Share your burdens with them, for Christ will work through each of you and create solutions far beyond what you hoped possible

Every saint must carry the weight of their own cross. Trials and troubles will certainly beset us. But, if we remain steadfast in our way, refusing to turn back, we will be made stronger in faith, and be filled with His love and Spirit

We can overcome all obstacles through Christ. For our God is always faithful and steadfast in His love for His children.   1/31/2006

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Freedom’s Best Choice

Lord let not my freedom become as a prison to me. Nor, the free will that you have permitted, lead me to places where I might become trapped

But instead, with all of my life, may I live for You, and express abundant praise to glorify Your Holy name

This life can be difficult. Many of the paths we find ourselves on are hard, even dangerous. Yet, by Your hand, You will deliver me and set my feet upon safe places

I have a lifetime of choices set before me, a million ways by which I may go. But I will choose to follow You, Oh Lord, and seek after Your heart

Blessed are all of Your paths for me. Lead me upon them with joy. How glorious are the plans You have for the faithful

I seek Your heart, my God, and meditate upon Your Word. I catch sight of You wherever I go and glorify Your name above all

Help me with this gift of freedom. Assist me, so that I might become a sweet offering unto You

Lift up my heart and mind, so that I may praise You, rightly; And fill me with the presence of Your Holy Spirit, so that I might become more complete in You

Make me strong, so that I can handle my freedom. Wake me and set me upon my feet. Cast off all laziness, so that I may work and accomplish Your will

You lie at the heart of all of creation, and are the strength behind all that is. Your ways are so far above mine, that I am at loss to understand

But You are also faithful to lead me, Your truth has shown the way. Therefore, I bow and kneel before You and worship You above all things

The gift of Your freedom is immeasurable; it carries with it great weight and peril. But I, Oh Lord, will serve You, and give You full control all of my days         9/13/2007

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The King of the World

 

How glorious is the Lord, Jesus Christ, and majestic, His Holy name

He stands above all creation, beautiful and glorious. His form is like no other and His ways are beyond all measure

He calls out from upon high. He stands and beckons

His strength is stronger than the mighty mountains, and position, more firm than the foundations of earth

He rules over all creation, and guides its every ebb and flow. Nothing can rise up against Him. Nor could anything be done by man, that could move Him even slightly

He stands firm in power, the days of His reign will last forever more. We live beneath His feet

He skips across the tops of the lofty peaks and dances upon mountain heights, where none can reach or aspire to

Yet, He loves us. He pours out endless grace and mercy as a gift upon all that dwells below, and for the blessing of our lives

He is a fountain. A nourishing spring, filled with all goodness and grace

Jesus calls out to us, He shouts out from His holy mountain and calls out to man to the farthest reaches. He extends His hand to all who dwell upon this earth

What a friend we have in Christ Jesus. Our savior, filled with love; He will dwell with us forever and lift us up on that final day

Seek Him, for He can be found. Look unto His glory. For He can be seen from every place we go

Call out to Him and listen, because He has been calling out to you. Give your life as an offering unto Him, for He has bestowed the gift of life to you

When you do, He will surely come, and will fill your life with joy and gladness

For through Him, we have eternal life and friendship, forever

9/13/2007