Includes...
Today we are meditating on a passage from Psalm 25 that says, "All of the ways of the Lord are loving and faithful to those who keep the demands of His covenant."
What are the demands of the New Covenant?
To believe in Jesus by putting our faith and trust in him and to walk in love.
Here is the passage from Psalm 25:8-15 for some context...
Good and upright is the Lord; therefore he instructs sinners in his ways.
9 He guides the humble in what is right and teaches them his way.
10 All the ways of the Lord are loving and faithful toward those who keep the demands of his covenant.
11 For the sake of your name, Lord, forgive my iniquity, though it is great.
12 Who, then, are those who fear the Lord? He will instruct them in the ways they should choose.
13 They will spend their days in prosperity, and their descendants will inherit the land.
14 The Lord confides in those who fear him; he makes his covenant known to them.
15 My eyes are ever on the...
Here is April's message and the video for this month contains a new format with some action steps to take for the month.
I view every month like an opportunity for a fresh start.
Here is a short summary of what we go through in the video... I am thinking this will be something we do every month.
Here are the different filters to choose from...
In Deuteronomy 23 God promises the people that if they will follow him, he will be an enemy to their enemies. He also promised something very similar to Abraham in Genesis 12.
Today we are meditating on Deuteronomy 23:20-33 and thanking God for these amazing promises.
Deuteronomy 23:20-33
“See, I am sending an angel ahead of you to guard you along the way and to bring you to the place I have prepared. 21 Pay attention to him and listen to what he says. Do not rebel against him; he will not forgive your rebellion, since my Name is in him. 22 If you listen carefully to what he says and do all that I say, I will be an enemy to your enemies and will oppose those who oppose you. 23 My angel will go ahead of you and bring you into the land of the Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Canaanites, Hivites and Jebusites, and I will wipe them out. 24 Do not bow down before their gods or worship them or follow their practices. You must demolish them and break their...
Here is this week's Yearly Cycle Update.
The Spring is a reminder of a fresh start. I always view April 1st as a reminder that God has given us a fresh start in life.
We also have some important dates coming up...
April 15th is Passover - This a reminder that God has released us from darkness and transferred us into the light. Passover is "Pesach," in Hebrew which means," talking mouth." It is a reminder that we are supposed to be talking about and giving thanks for this transfer regularly.
April 16-22 is the Feast of Unleavened Bread - This is a reminder that after we have been transferred into the light we must clean out our old ways. This feast is a reminder of our righteousness in Christ and all he went through for us.
April 17th is Easter and the Feast of First Fruits - This is a reminder of new beginnings and a fresh start. It's also a reminder that God planted the Spirit of Jesus within us and in that seed is everything needed...
Over the last couple of days Psalm 23:5 keeps coming to mind... God prepares a table before me in the presence of my enemies.
Proverbs 16:7 says When the LORD takes pleasure in anyone’s way, he causes their enemies to make peace with them.
In today's communion we are meditating on Psalm 23, and thanking God for these amazing promises.
1 The Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing.
2 He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters,
3 he refreshes my soul. He guides me along the right paths for his name’s sake.
4 Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I will fear no evil, for you are with me, your rod and your staff, they comfort me.
5 You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.
6 Surely your goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the...
Today we are taking communion over the first 3 paragraphs of John 15.
Here is John 15:1-17
Jesus said, “I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. 2 He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. 3 You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. 4 Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.
5 “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. 6 If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. 7 If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. 8 This is to my Father’s glory, that you...
The imagination is what I call the table turner for the soul. It's the one most important thing in our soul(mind, will, and emotions). We have an ongoing video loop playing on the inside all the time. The things we are imagining can cause physical changes in our body. For example, something we imagine can cause our heart rate and blood pressure to increase.
The imagination is neutral, it can be used for good or evil. In our imagination we can play out worst case scenarios, and build false stories in our head, or we can use it to dream and plan with God. I believe the imagination is one of the most powerful ways to reprogram ourselves when our buttons get pushed in life and we respond in a way that is not the most beautiful and graceful. Most of the time when we respond in an ungraceful way there was an underlying imagination that wasn't good.
In today's communion we are thanking God for the gift of our imagination and we are asking for His help to use our...
The other day when we did the communion meditation on "Smitten by God," I was reminded that Jesus was smitten by God so that God can fight for us. If you have been following along with the communion videos, we have inserted a time of gratitude that Jesus was smitten by God so that God can fight for us into our Daily Prayer as something we remember each day. Personally, I have found that there is a level of peace and rest that comes from thanking God for this every day that is hard to put into words.
The New Testament tells us that God always causes us to triumph and always gives us the victory in Christ Jesus. In the Old Testament, it says over and over is the time of year when kings go to war. This time of year is a reminder that God is fighting for us.
Here are a couple of scriptures to meditate on about God fighting for us. We are not fighting against people but against spiritual forces...
Exodus 14:13-14 - “Do not be afraid. Stand firm and...
Multiple times in the gospels Jesus talks about binding the strong man. For example, in Matthew 3:27 he says, "No one can enter a strong man’s house without first tying him up. Then he can plunder the strong man’s house."
But, who is the strong man?
I had always read these verses under the impression that Satan was the strong man and we are binding him, but recently I feel like God is showing me that we are the strong man now and Satan is trying to bind us.
As I was thinking about this I asked my wife what she thought of when I mentioned the phrase, "binding the strongman."
Her immediate response was the story of Samson.
In the story of Samson, he had supernatural strength from God, and the Philistine leaders were trying to figure out how to bind him.
In Judges 16:5 the Philistines say to the Delilah the woman that Samson loves, "See if you can lure him into showing you the secret of his great strength and how we can overpower him so...
I once heard a sermon on a promise in Deuteronomy 28 that God will smite our enemies. These enemies aren’t people. They are strongholds and forces of evil—forces that are keeping people bound in darkness and in a struggle. In Isaiah 53 it says that Jesus was struck down or smitten by God for us. He was smitten so that God could smite our enemies.
When God led the people into the promised land, he led them into a land of giants and into a battle they could not win on their own. They needed God to smite their enemies. For us to step into all God has for our lives we also need him to smite our enemies.
In today's communion we are asking God to smite our enemies and give us peace and rest on every side, and then we are going to thank him for it regularly. There are giants God wants to slay.
Take a piece of paper and write out a petition asking God to smite your enemies and give you peace and rest on every...
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