Celebration of life is Worship

A snowy day, a good latte and time in the hot tub = worship.  No really, as I sit here and write this I am thrilled that God allows me to suffer with chronic pain so that I want to sit in the hot tub for some relief, and as a wonderful spinn off I get to enjoy some coffee with snow falling on my face.  God is amazing!

Like most people I can find reasons that I feel are justification for complaining about life.  Yet my life, all of it, the good, the bad, the ugly, the painful ... all of my life should be in worship to Jesus.  I need to be reminded that because of Him I can live each day with joyous worship because I am forgiven by His blood. 

And so today I worship and make a concious choice to find joy and live a life of worship, no matter what my circumstance is.

Let us rejoice in the lord today ... amen

Preacherman

Power outage

Today the power seems to be out in a lot of our city.  Because of this there are a lot of issues - meetings cancelled, schools closed, businesses closed, medical appointments cancelled, traffic lights stop working, even coffee shops were affected.   Seems that when the power is cut off, disconnected or disrupted, things get crazy and problematic.  Maybe this is a reminder and an opportunity?

When we do not regularly keep our connection healthy with God.  When we stop praying, when we ignore our Bibles, when we decide to live in our own ways and not in and through the Holy Spirit, then life gets Spiritually disrupted and messed up.  But just like the electricity being out does not affect the gas being out, so our regular living is not affected by this Spiritual disconnect is it?  But maybe it is?   Sure the gas is on but my furnace fan will not operate without power so my house will get cold.  Similarly our Spiritual state of being will have an effect on other parts of our lives.

We are called to live as disciples of Jesus, fully following Him.  Part of this is our responsibility to stay connected with our Lord by the reading of His Word, staying in communion with the Father through prayer and living every day in and through the Holy Spirit.  For us to grow and be healthy disciples we need this connection.

So now I will go and use some of this time to read my Bible.

Take care everyone

Preacherman

The Lord my strength

Today I have been reading and meditating on some of the psalms.  A theme that has stuck out to me has been the Lord is my source of strength.  For example we have Psalm 71 where David is both calling on God for help and protection but also Praising God for His strength, care and provision.   So often we find ourselves "defending ourselves" when others are unjustly attempting to bring us down.  Yet I believe that David was in a place where he knew God was the only one who could set things straight.  I feel a sense of conviction today that I need to be more like that.  I need to rely on God to be my defender and while I await His defense (in His time) He is my source of strength.

Lord Jesus, please work in my heart so that I would seek you first to be my defender and protector.  I thank you for the promises you have given us in Christ that we are secure and safe during times of trouble.  I want to praise you for your faithfulness to be my strength and comfort through times of pain and difficulty.  In You oh Lord Jesus will I ever place my trust and confidence.  May Your Holy Spirit continue to mould and shape me to be who You have designed and called me to be.   All to Your glory I ask this in Jesus name Amen

Acts 2 the Spirit Shows Up!

Today as I take some time to enjoy some of Acts chapter 2, I am reminded of something very important, sure it is obvious but often mis-taught and mis-understood.  The Holy spirit shows up in Acts 2.  That right a "baptist" talking about the Holy Spirit in Acts 2.  The Spirit shows up and grants the Apostles great abilities and gifts to proclaim the Gospel.  Often at this point there is a great discussion about things like tongues and other miraculous gifts.  Yet these things are the wrong focus, tongues of fire and the variety of languages heard are descriptive in nature about what was happening.  But the real theme of importance here is this, when the Holy Spirit shows up the Gospel is preached.  Stick with me here, this is really important.

When we are indwelt by the Holy Spirit (become a Christian) it is not really for our benefit.  This is often the focus of a lot of poor teaching, that the Holy Spirit and the gifts are for us and to benefit us and our lives.  But when you read Acts, you will see that the Holy Spirit and the Gifts God gives are for His purposes and His glory.  The gifts and power of the Spirit are always used to put forth the message of the Gospel.  This is what we would call "normative", so our expectation should be that the work of the Holy Spirit is to be about us sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ more effectively.

So the challenge for us today is to be a repentant people firstly.  Maybe like me in the past you have had times where you sought certain gifts or works of the Holy Spirit because it would help you or make you "feel" better etc...  This is really not appropriate for us as Christians.  Sure we are to pray and ask God for the desires of our hearts and to lay our burdens down asking the Lord to help us with them.  But rarely have I heard of the Christian that seeks out the working of the Spirit with a purely Gospel driven focus.  Yet I believe this should be our focus when it comes to the Spirit.

The Spirit indwells us to be our comforter, we need to be thankful today that Jesus sent us this great gift of comfort.  The Spirit empowers us to do the work of the Kingdom of God which is to go and make disciples.  So today as we pray, we need to ask that by the power of the Holy Spirit we would be more effective with this mission.  We need to ask that God would use us and empower us for the work of the Gospel, this is the primary focus of the gifts that the Spirit brings.  You see the Spirit came to Glorify the Father and the Son, the primary way that happens is by the Church being empowered to effectively share the gospel and for people to humbly repent of their sin and accept the generous Grace of God though the person and work of Jesus Christ.

Today my desire is to have the Spirit work in me to keep my  focus on the greater purpose of my faith.  Thank you Lord Jesus for your patience with me and Heavenly Father for the forgiveness You grant to me for all the times I am dis-obedient.  I know that the Holy Spirit is in me, help me today to get out of the way so that the Spirit would work in me, through me and beyond me.  All to the Glory of God - Amen.

Preacherman