Sunday Praise and a Prayer for a Spirit-Filled Life
Tag: Repentance
The Call of the Shofar
For whatever reason, God put on my heart to look up and post the blowing of the shofar. I did a little research to find out some of the reasons it was sounded, and this is what I found:
“beginning on the second day of Rosh Chodesh Elul (and continuing until Erev Rosh Hashanah) the custom is to blow the shofar every day (except on Shabbat).” The Hebrew month of Elul is a time of repentance in preparation for the High Holidays of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur.
“It is a wake-up call to sleepers, designed to rouse us from our complacency.”
Do you know what day is the 2nd day of the Hebrew month of Elul?
It began today at sunset.
“Yeshua spoke of the shofar blast from the angels who would ‘gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.'” (Matt. 24:31)
The eclipse took place on Elul 1, the same day that Moses went up on the mountain for 40 days and nights, the same day Jesus went into the wilderness for 40 days and 40 nights. The shofar signifies spiritual warfare, and God’s victory.
Listen to the shofar. Can you imagine it?
If you want to read more about it, I found these websites:
http://www.hebrew4christians.com/Holidays/Fall_Holidays/Elul/Shofar/shofar.html and http://www.jewfaq.org/elul.htm
Keep Believing
“And immediately the father of the child cried out and said with tears, ‘Lord, I
believe. Help my unbelief.’”
Mark 9:24
Twenty-seven and a half years ago I believed in Jesus Christ as my Lord and my Savior.
Since then I have had countless opportunities to believe in His love for me despite my circumstances, to believe He had a plan in the middle of confusing trials, to believe He heard every prayer, to believe He understood me in my pain, to believe He was not finished with me even when it felt like He was.
For some funny reason, it’s always been easier for me to believe in God for the “big” things rather than the smaller ones.
I knew God would provide us a place to live; I knew God would provide a job for my husband; I knew God would bless my little son at Christmas when we couldn’t.
But, oh, those countless “little” things… When I’ve trusted in my eyes more than I’ve believed; when I’ve trusted in my understanding more than I’ve believed; when I’ve trusted in my own effort more than I’ve believed.
And I wonder how much I’ve missed out on, how many more blessings I would have had if I’d taken that same belief I had at salvation and applied it every, single time.
“Abram believed the Lord, and He credited it to him as righteousness. “
Genesis 15:6
God puts a lot of stock in belief.
It’s not about what we do, it’s not about who we are, it’s about Whom we believe.
And there is only One worthy of our belief.
If we are going to be followers of Christ, we will daily, consciously, make the decision to take the belief we had at the moment of our salvation, and believe Him for everything else.
Why would I ever believe that Christ died for the sins of a singular, unimportant, obscure little girl who lives 2000 years after His death and resurrection, called her by name, and then somehow think He forgot about her afterward?
He hasn’t, and He never will.
My belief in Him need not ever waiver.
He sees each and every one of us, and He is intimately acquainted with our comings and goings, with our every trial – big and small, with every tear, with every, single, solitary detail.
Nothing gets by Him.
The truth is, it’s a choice. Every day we have the choice to believe in Him – to believe He’s there right by our side, to believe He’s with our loved ones, to believe He wants the best for us, to believe He’s in our futures, to believe He’s bigger, much, much bigger, than our past mistakes.
While we can’t lose our salvations, unbelief is as much a sin after we’re saved than it is before.
The absence of belief in Christ for a particular situation will create a vacuum that’s usually filled with fear, and that can create a whole slew of messes in our wake.
Choosing belief in Christ or to be moved out of fear will determine the decisions we make and the roads we take.
I know it’s hard to keep believing sometimes when the trials seem out of control, when the world around us is a big, complicated mess.
But keep believing anyway.
I know when I’ve stood in belief in my prayers for a situation, God has answered. It’s when I waiver in my belief in prayer that He waits until I stand on faith in who God is – my Loving Savior – to answer me. He desires belief because it is the pathway to our righteousness.
God knows we’re all a work in progress, though, that the sanctification of our souls is not yet fully realized, that it is what we and the Lord are moving toward.
As with every sin, when we repent – when we turn around and do the righteous thing – in this case, choose to believe in Him, and ask God to help us with our unbelief, He will forgive us and set us back on the right path.
We then consciously walk on that path of belief, in full faith and trust in Him – in who He is, in His plans for us, in His love for us, in His grace and mercy that are continually poured out because of His goodness and faithfulness.
“Father, please help us when we are tempted to not believe in you. To not believe in all you say you are. To not believe in your love for us. To not believe in your plans for us. To give way to fear instead of believing in your holy perfection and your promises to us. Please help us choose belief over fear, self, the world, or anything else outside of you. May our constant belief in you be witnesses of your glory and power. In the Name of Yeshua Hamashiach, amen.”
Preparation Day
“As you know, the Passover is two days away—and the Son of Man will be handed over to be crucified.”
Matthew 26.2
The timing of Jesus’ crucifixion was no coincidence. God’s timing never is.
It was Passover, a seven-day holiday commemorating the day some 1336 years before when God delivered His people out of Egypt from the bonds of slavery.
In the last plague carried out before their freedom, the Destroyer would pass through Egypt, striking down every firstborn.
But to the Israelites He gave this command: kill the Passover lamb, spread its blood on the doorposts, remain inside, and the Destroyer will pass over the blood-stained homes and spare the firstborn.
This action more than a 1000 years before Christ’s death foreshadowed the freedom from slavery to sin that would be given to anyone who would choose to find refuge in the blood of the Lamb of God.
“It was the day of Preparation of the Passover; it was about noon. ‘Here is your king,’ Pilate said to the Jews. But they shouted, ‘Take him away! Take him away! Crucify him!’”
John 19:14-15
It was the day before the Sabbath. In the Hebrew culture, no work was to be done on the Sabbath, so all the arrangements for it – the cooking, cleaning, everything, had to be done by sundown the day before, known as Preparation Day.
Christ died on Preparation Day.
The work given to Him by His Father – His arrest, trials, beating, and His death on the cross to pay for our sins – was completed that day.
And He rested on the Sabbath.
Because Jesus, the Perfect Lamb of God, completed the work given to Him – the shedding of His blood as payment for sins – anyone who takes refuge in Him, who believes in Him as Lord will be forgiven and freed from the slavery of sin.
And those souls can rest in their freedom.
But God wasn’t finished.
Then came Sunday morning. The guards, the seal, the stone, even death itself could not hold Him.
He triumphantly rose from the grave, showing His power over death. And because He did, not only do we have freedom from sin, but freedom from spiritual death.
Could there be any greater love? Any greater gift?
Though we are free from the punishment of sin and death, we still wrestle in our flesh until we are brought into the presence of Christ and fully enter into our eternal rest from these earthly bodies.
As we walk toward that day, let us remember that nothing in Him is a coincidence. His timing, His choosing of our trials, are all to prepare us for that great and glorious day.
Until then, in this preparation time, let us “prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for Him” as we “continue to work out {our} salvation with fear and trembling” in expectation of the day we enter our complete and eternal rest.
Heavenly Father, thank you for sending your Son to die for our sins in our place. Thank you, Lord Jesus, for obediently finishing the work The Father gave to you. And thank you, Holy Spirit, for all you do to help prepare our hearts for our day of eternal rest when you bring us Home. We are so grateful, LORD, for your love and grace and mercy in our lives. In Jesus’ Name, amen.
2016 National Day of Prayer
Friends,
Tomorrow, Thursday, May 5, is our National Day of Prayer.
If our beloved country were ever at a crucial crossroads, it is now. And if we ever needed an opportunity to come together on one day to lift up fervent prayers to Almighty God on behalf of our cracked and crumbling nation it is tomorrow.
I am personally brokenhearted at the direction I see our country moving, at the lives being destroyed and the hatred being shouted. We cannot continue to live as though there is no God, as if we can govern it or riot it or picket it or troll it all away. We cannot continue to just hope it will somehow get better. Hearts must be changed and only God, through faith in Jesus Christ, can do that.
It is time to humble ourselves and repent of our own sins first, and then pray for God’s mercy on this land.
I believe there is still hope for God’s peace to return IF we will each – in faith – seek Him for grace and forgiveness.
I believe He is waiting for us to do just that.
May His love and wisdom and discernment in prayer go with each of you.
“…if My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways,
then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.”
2 Chronicles 7:14
Praying for America
Moses did it when God’s people turned away from Him and worshipped an idol of their own making. Nehemiah did it when the city of God had been overrun and lay in devastating and shameful ruins.
Esther, together with God’s people, did it when they faced annihilation by God’s enemies. Gideon did it when the Israelites had turned away from God and their enemies continually sought to oppress them.
Ezra did it when God’s people turned away from Him yet again.
And Daniel did it when the years of Babylonian captivity were coming to an end.
All these, and many others – men and women just like you and me – lifted up prayers to the God of all mercy to save and protect them and their beloved city, always when their enemy seemed stronger, when evidence seemed stacked against them, when they were few and weakened.
But God loves to show Himself strong on behalf of those who will humble themselves and seek Him with repentant hearts.
He is still El Roi – The God Who Sees Me, and El Shama – The God Who Hears Me.
He is still El Channun – The Gracious God, and El Hanne’eman – The Faithful God. He is still El Nasa – the God Who Forgave, and El Mauz – God My Strength.
He is still El Yeshuah – God of My Salvation, and Immanu’el – God With Us.
I believe God gave this land that we would be a people who would give Him glory and who would stand with His beloved Israel. But we’ve turned far away from Him.
It’s time to look up like so many did before us, and pray for forgiveness and mercy. I can’t imagine this country in another twenty years if we don’t come together and turn our hearts back to Almighty God and live holy lives worthy of the calling we’ve received.
Only God can do this and I believe He wants to. I believe He is standing by waiting for us to call on Him with sincere hearts.
Tomorrow I’ll be fasting and praying for the future of our country and for the body of Christ to rise up and be a light in this dark and dying world. If anyone wants to join me, we can lift our voices together to El Elyon – the Most High God.
“Unless the LORD builds the house, the builders labor in vain. Unless the LORD watches over the city, the guards stand watch in vain.” Psalm 127:1
It’s Time to Pray
Hello friends,
I’m sorry I’ve been AWOL for a little while, but I’ve been in the process of selling our house and moving, and that’s taken just about everything out of me. I’m getting settled, though, and my thoughts are turning to our election process here in America and the state of our society, and it has me grieved.
I’ve posted this on my personal Facebook page, but I wanted to open it up to any of you who may be interested in our future here in America, and in large part, the rest of the world.
Whoever would like to join me, I’ll be fasting and praying on Sunday, March 13. At least that’ll be one day. There may be more before election day.
Of course what we face is nothing new. David was also distressed by lying lips and deceitful tongues. But he cried out to God and David tells us that God heard him. God will hear us, too, as we pray fervently from a righteous, repentant, and humble heart. My prayer is for God’s grace and mercy to open the eyes of those who are currently blinded by the enemy, and for belief that leads to salvation.
“I call on the Lord in my distress,
and He answers me.
Save me, Lord,
from lying lips
and from deceitful tongues.
What will He do to you,
and what more besides,
you deceitful tongue?
He will punish you with a warrior’s sharp arrows,
with burning coals of the broom bush.
Woe to me that I dwell in Meshek,
that I live among the tents of Kedar!
Too long have I lived
among those who hate peace.
I am for peace;
but when I speak, they are for war.”
Psalm 120
May God bless and keep you,
Love: Food, Drink…and Burning Coals?
“Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good. Be devoted to one another in love. Honor one another above yourselves. Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord. Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. Share with the Lord’s people who are in need. Practice hospitality.
Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse. Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn. Live in harmony with one another. Do not be proud, but be willing to associate with people of low position. Do not be conceited.
Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everyone. If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. Do not take revenge, my dear friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: ‘It is mine to avenge; I will repay,’ says the Lord. On the contrary:
‘If your enemy is hungry, feed him;
if he is thirsty, give him something to drink.
In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head. (Proverbs 25:21-22)’
Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.”
Romans 12:9-21
The term “to heap burning coals on someone’s head,” is not, as it might seem at first glance, an act of vengeance. It’s actually an act of kindness. People needed to keep their home’s fire burning during the night to cook food in the morning. If it died out, they would go to a neighbor and ask for live coals to relight their fire. The neighbor would have to get out of bed and give some of their own fire’s coals. The coals would be heaped into a container on the person’s head to carry home.
This is love. We are to go our of our way to bless our enemies even when it’s an inconvenience, even if we don’t feel like it, and even when it causes us a degree of suffering. In this way we introduce our enemies to the love of Christ, and bring the kingdom of heaven to their door. It is, after all, God’s loving kindness that brings us all to repentance.
Grace and Peace,
Do You Believe?
“If you declare with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved.” Romans 10:9-10
This Friday, March 20, the movie Do You Believe? will open in theatres. It journeys alongside the lives of a dozen people, all struggling and looking for something, but they don’t know what.
Sounds like a lot of people in the world right now. And of course, there is only one answer to all of life’s questions, to its pain, its confusion, its heartache, to the web of our own sin, and that is Jesus Christ. He is the way, the truth and the life. “No one comes to the Father except through me” Jesus declared. No one.
But the good news is that anyone, no matter what a person’s religious background, age, color, socioeconomic background or anything else, and no matter what sins a person has done, anyone who believes on the name of Jesus Christ and declares Him as Lord will be forgiven and saved from the eternal punishment of those sins.
Christ says “Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me.” Revelation 3:20
Not only will a place be made in heaven for those who believe in God’s Son, but Christ promises to live with us right here, right now, to journey with us and give us hope and peace in the midst of our struggles.
We all know people who are struggling and looking for something but they don’t know what that something is. But we who know Christ do, and we may be the only one who can stand in the gap for them, who can be the bridge between darkness and Light, who can introduce them to the One who is the answer to the questions they’re asking.
Ask the Lord who that person or persons are who He would have you invite not just to see a movie, but to be shown the Way. Pray ahead of time that the Lord would soften hearts. Fast and ask the Spirit to break the chains. And then be bold and ask.
Heck, throw in a big tub of buttered popcorn.
Maybe you are the person who is struggling and looking for answers. Maybe you’ve gone to church all your life, maybe you haven’t stepped foot in one in a long time, maybe never at all.
Please know this: God loves you. His Son, Jesus Christ, loves you, and He desperately wants a relationship with you, so much that He died on the cross for your sins. His grace and mercy are deep and wide enough to reach you no matter how far away you think you are. He is only one prayer away.
If you can, go see the movie this weekend. And whether you go for yourself or you take someone, come back here and tell me how God spoke to you through it.
Life is short, and none of us knows how much time we have left. All those who will pass away today didn’t know it yesterday. We must seize the day.
In His great grace,
Thankful Thursday – Forgiven
“When one of the Pharisees invited Jesus to have dinner with him, he went to the Pharisee’s house and reclined at the table. A woman in that town who lived a sinful life learned that Jesus was eating at the Pharisee’s house, so she came there with an alabaster jar of perfume. As she stood behind him at his feet weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears. Then she wiped them with her hair, kissed them and poured perfume on them.
When the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to himself, ‘If this man were a prophet, he would know who is touching him and what kind of woman she is—that she is a sinner.’
Jesus answered him, ‘Simon, I have something to tell you.’
‘Tell me, teacher,’ he said.
‘Two people owed money to a certain moneylender. One owed him five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. Neither of them had the money to pay him back, so he forgave the debts of both. Now which of them will love him more?’
Simon replied, ‘I suppose the one who had the bigger debt forgiven.’
‘You have judged correctly,’ Jesus said.
Then he turned toward the woman and said to Simon, ‘Do you see this woman? I came into your house. You did not give me any water for my feet, but she wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair. You did not give me a kiss, but this woman, from the time I entered, has not stopped kissing my feet. You did not put oil on my head, but she has poured perfume on my feet. Therefore, I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven—as her great love has shown. But whoever has been forgiven little loves little.’
Then Jesus said to her, ‘Your sins are forgiven.'” Luke 7:36-48
Nothing gets by Jesus, right? The Pharisee thought he was talking to himself, but Jesus knew what was in his heart: judgement. Legalism never leaves room for love.
He knew what was in the woman’s heart, too: repentance. She came face to face with the Son of God. His glory and grace, in contrast to her sins, brought her to her knees in repentance and humility so much that it spilled out into her actions without a care what people thought. She worshipped Him with all she had.
I’ve been forgiven for much, too. I’ve been called a fanatic for my faith, and by someone who called himself a Christian. But I don’t care. Christ was fanatical about His love for me as He allowed Himself to be arrested, “tried”, and crucified, all for my sins. My only argument with my critic is that I’m not fanatical enough. Christ gave me His life. Is my all too much to give in return? Never.
In His Grace,