Daily Prayer - Mockers!

Good Thursday morning, my friends.
According to Jude "there would be mockers in the last time who would walk according to their own ungodly lusts" (Jude 1:18b). Do you know anyone like that? Don't we see and hear these people every day? They mock any idea of God or the Bible and they live a lifestyle that flaunts God's laws. How do we feel when we encounter someone like this? Revulsion? Condemnation? Or do we love and pity them?

I was one of those people, not just a mocker but a committed one! So you would think that I, perhaps more than many, could see someone like that with love and forgiveness. But alas, I also struggle with judgmentalism. We must fight this "natural inkling" and instead see those "enemies of the faith" for what thy are: deceived and blinded by Satan. We need to tell them the Gospel and pray for them. After all, even Paul says "although I was formerly a blasphemer, a persecutor, and an insolent man; but I obtained mercy because I did it ignorantly in unbelief" (1 Timothy 1:13).

Because sometimes the mockers become believers.


Grace and peace be yours in abundance!
Bruce

(I will be on vacation for the next two weeks, so you likely won't be hearing much, if anything, from me.)

Father, like Paul who desired that his kinsmen not be destroyed by their sin of unbelief, we too bear a burden for our fellow man that they come to repentance and find salvation through Christ Jesus our Lord.
Jude warns us that there will be mockers in the last time who walk according to their own ungodly lusts.

We see it with our eyes and it is evident in the news every day.
But we are encouraged in our witness knowing that salvation is available to any mocker or unbeliever who turns to you in repentance.
Jesus is the only name under heaven by which we can be saved so we proclaim Him who lived among the people, was sacrificed for our sins, was buried and rose on the third day.
How we pray that the life of Christ might resonate through our lives so that others might see Jesus in us.
It is in Jesus’ name that we pray for a plentiful harvest in declaring the gospel through our witness and our lives.
Amen.
(http://adailyprayer.wordpress.com/2012/07/30/a-prayer-for-faithful-impact/)

Daily Prayer - Surrender

Good Wednesday morning, my friends.

Today I thought I would let my sister, Beth, take over. The other day I wrote about the "Rich Young Ruler" passage:

Now as He was going out on the road, one came running, knelt before Him, and asked Him, “Good Teacher, what shall I do that I may inherit eternal life?”

So Jesus said to him, “Why do you call Me good? No one is good but One, that is, God. You know the commandments: ‘Do not commit adultery,’ ‘Do not murder,’ ‘Do not steal,’ ‘Do not bear false witness,’ ‘Do not defraud,’ ‘Honor your father and your mother.’”

And he answered and said to Him, “Teacher, all these things I have kept from my youth.”

Then Jesus, looking at him, loved him, and said to him, “One thing you lack: Go your way, sell whatever you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, take up the cross, and follow Me.”

But he was sad at this word, and went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions. (Mark 10:17-22, NKJV)

Beth sent the following response to that message:

Every time I read that scripture the same thought comes to me. It seems to me that the rich young ruler is asking the question because he feels unfulfilled, like something is missing and he is asking Jesus what it is. Jesus gives him the list of commandments and the young man seems to respond, "no, that isn't it, I've already been doing those things and yet I'm empty". He is seeking but does not know for what or how to get it. It is this desperation that Jesus responds with love to I think, basically telling him that he is empty because he is wrapped up in his own world and his worldly things. He needs to get away from them in order to find his heart, and his true love for God. Sometimes we do all the right things but can't seem to figure out why we don't feel the love of God or the thrill of the freedom He offers. It's a heart problem. We fear giving ourselves over and giving our whole heart because of what it might mean we become. We may have to give up our social structure, our respectability, our time, our comforts and conveniences. No wonder he went away sad. I'm sad that I feel my own twinges at these thoughts! I don't know if I'm strong enough yet. That IS sad.
Beth

I must confess I experience this as well. So what is the cure for this sadness? It has to be surrender - surrender of the things, people, places, whatever it is we put before God. This surrender, this trusting in God and His goodness and his provision, must take place on a daily, even hourly or minute by minute basis.

Grace and peace be yours in abundance!
Bruce

Loving Father,
I surrender to you today with all my heart and soul. Please come into my heart in a deeper way. I say, “Yes” to you today. I open all the secret places of my heart to you and say, “Come on in.” Jesus, you are the Lord of my whole life. I believe in you and receive you as my Lord and Savior. I hold nothing back.


Holy Spirit, bring me to a deeper conversion to the person of Jesus Christ. I surrender all to you: my time, my treasures, my talents, my health, my family, my resources, my work, relationships, time management, successes and failures. I release it and let it go.


I surrender my understanding of how things ‘ought’ to be, my choices and my will. I surrender to you the promises I have kept and the promises I have failed to keep. I surrender my weaknesses and strengths to you. I surrender my emotions, my fears, my insecurities, my sexuality. I especially surrender ______ (Here mention other areas of surrender as the Holy Spirit reveals them to you.)


Lord, I surrender my whole life to you, the past, the present, and the future. In sickness and in health, in life and in death, I belong to you.

(Remain the Lord in a spirit of silence through your thoughts, a heart song, or simply staying in His presence and listening for His voice.)


(http://rcspiritualdirection.com/blog/2011/06/25/a-prayer-of-surrender)