Saturday, March 3, 2012

Happy Saturday!

Prayer: “Jesus, You came as a baby, lived as a man, died, and was raised as Lord. I worship You, because You gave up Your heavenly position to be an example for me. Help me today to surrender my rights to Your lordship. In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen.”

Philippians 2: 5, 6 “Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God.”

I have spent the day in a Kairos Team meeting. Today’s topic was on servant hood. I learned today the difference between doing service and being a servant. Doing service is simply helping out with a beginning point and ending point to a task. Service is wonderful and helping those who are in need is a godly activity, but being a servant is something different. Being a servant is the total surrender of one’s self to a master and essentially becoming a slave to a master.

Jesus lived out His life as an example of selfless servant hood to God. Jesus possessed all of the characteristics and qualities of God the Father apart from having human form. Whatever can be said about Jesus can be said about the God the Father and God the Spirit. Jesus was equal to God in holiness and love because Jesus is God on foot!

If we claim ourselves to be children of God and body of Christ then we must adopt the characteristics of Jesus and become a servant to God and in service to all. The difference in our servant hood is that we come before God as servants to Jesus as free slaves. We are forgiven of our sins and freed from eternal death by the blood washed over us on the cross. Jesus knelt before the Disciples and washed their feet in humility to those servants who would carry on the message of Jesus and the cross anointing them through the water being the example of humble service.

Jesus was willing to let go of His position in heaven and all earthly things including His own life to demonstrate what a life given in total surrender to God really meant.

So here is the question for thought…Do we do perform acts of service or have we become servants of Christ, willing to surrender all we are and all we have to become a freed slave of the living God in Jesus Christ? Let us think on, meditate about and pray to God on this as we head into worship today.

Take joy in the journey. Wear comfortable shoes. Count your blessings and say your prayers. Love you all so very much. See you in worship. Bruce, Gaylene, Geni and Travis.

Gcapplenotes@aol.com

I am not moved by what I see. I am not moved by what I feel. I am only moved by what I believe and I believe God.

Prayer alert! Our friend who is facing devastating cancer is Sharon James. She has stage 4 breast cancer and it has metastasized to her bones and is believed to have moved into her stomach. Please keep Sharon, her husband Jeff and their children in your prayers. Peace, Gaylene

Prayer: I also place myself in your loving hands of prayer for the upcoming week. I have a two papers due on Tuesday , a paper due on Thursday and I must preach a sermon for my preaching class on Thursday. I am feeling VERY overwhelmed. Thank you. Peace, gc
Happy Friday!

Prayer: “Father, remind me today that You are for me and that it doesn’t matter who is against me. I choose in prayer today to draw near to You through the blood, the name and the high priestly work of the Lord Jesus. In Christ’s name. Amen.”

Hebrews 7: 25 “Therefore He who is able to save to the uttermost those who come to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them.”

I love it when I know someone is praying for me. It is a gesture of sacrifice, love and kindness when someone I know and love says they will pray for me. When we pray for each other we become partners in prayer with those whom we have trusting relationships. We are grounded in the belief that God hears our prayers and listens to our prayers. Through the gift of faith in God, the blood of Jesus ties us all together and makes us worthy to share each other’s burdens and joys with the reception of every prayer.

Did you ever think of Jesus as a prayer partner? Jesus is the godliest prayer partner we can ever have. Jesus is the great High Priest and He intercedes for us before the Judge of all. Satan condemns us before that judgment seat and Jesus served his sentence on the cross so that we may come before the God of our salvation interceding and asking for complete forgiveness for all who believe. Jesus’ pleading for us has unlimited power because He is the sinless character and the perfect offering. God hears the pleas of His Son and forgives us all of our sins. He welcomes us into the place of the citizens of heaven where all who now stand blameless are allowed to be. Thank You, Jesus, for being our prayer partner.

Take joy in the journey. Wear comfortable shoes. Count your blessings and say your prayers. Pray for others. You are mighty and faithful prayer warriors and I give thanks for each of you in my prayers. Love you all, Bruce, Gaylene, Geni and Travis.

Gcapplenotes@aol.com

I am not moved by what I see. I am not moved by what I feel. I am only moved by what I believe and I believe God.

Thursday, March 1, 2012

Happy Thursday!

What a beautiful March 1st day! I have many things to accomplish in one week and I am feeling somewhat overwhelmed. Prayers are needed.

Prayer: “Lord Jesus, I come to You in awe that as Son of God and son of Man You died for me. Help me to live this day in Your humility and under the shadow of the Cross. In Jesus’ name, Amen.”

Philippians 2: 8 “And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death on the cross.”

Jesus came to earth, being born as a human and came “in appearance as a man.” Jesus’ inner nature was God, but not His external appearance. All that God is, Christ is and always will be. Christ was obedient to God even unto His death on the cross. I have often heard it said that Jesus was murdered on a Roman cross, but perhaps murder is not the correct word or thought. Jesus, in His obedience to his Father, willingly laid down His life for us.

There are lots of folks who are so ambitious trying to “climb the ladder of success,” and being upwardly mobile. But look at Jesus. Jesus, the King of Heaven stepped off of the throne of grace, and, in an extraordinary act of humble obedience, stepped out of His heavenly body and became a human climbing in a downwardly mobile direction even unto death on the cross out of His love for us.

Take joy in the journey. Wear comfortable shoes. Count your blessings and say your prayers. Love you all so very much, Bruce, Gaylene, Geni and Travis.

Gcapplenotes@aol.com

I am not moved by what I see. I am not moved by what I feel. I am only moved by what I believe and I believe God.

Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Happy Wednesday!

Okay, I confess! It was just too beautiful outside today to study. So tomorrow I will go in a bit early and read some of what I need for my first class in the morning.

Prayer: “Lord, Help me to deal with sin’s inevitable defilement by having a clear conscience before You. Help me today to have quick restoration of fellowship. In Jesus’ name, Amen”

Hebrews 9:14 How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?

We have some friends with a precious little boy. When he was younger and would go to the altar for communion, the pastor would give him a blessing instead of the cup and loaf. One time he left the altar with this statement, “I never get the blood of Christ!”

I still chuckle when I think about this scene at the altar and then I serious up when I think of this precious little guy and his prophetic words. I personally believe that he knew something about the blood of Christ. Let us see what we know.

Jesus became the unblemished lamb of God as our sacrifice for sin. We are not invited to the throne of grace and forgiveness because of age, knowledge or good deeds and works. We are invited to the throne of God because of the blood of Jesus. Hebrews 9: 14 tells us that we cannot satisfy God through any other work than that the blood of Jesus. All other attempts are simply “dead works.”

The ashes of the animal sacrifices were used for cleansing in the Old Testament, but the cleansing power of the Cross of Christ at Calvary was the sacrifice for sin for all time. This one-time sacrifice became the ashes of His finished work once and for all.

I am pretty sure that God looked down at this one so small and yet so wise who spoke about the feast to come in his simple child like faith and blessed the parents who faithfully took him to the altar to witness the cup and the loaf of sacrifice. (Way to go Glen and April!)

Take joy in the journey. Wear comfortable shoes. Count your blessings and say your prayers. Love you all very much, Bruce, Gaylene, Geni and Travis.

Gcapplenotes@aol.com

I am not moved by what I see. I am not moved by what I feel. I am only moved by what I believe and I believe God.

Please continue to pray for those in our lives in need of great prayer warriors and might prayers of victory. Peace, gc
Happy Tuesday!

Prayer: Father, I pray like Jehoshaphat facing the evil coalition: We have no power…nor do we know what to do, but our eyes are upon You. Father may Your Holy Spirit teach me what to pray for and how to ask. I place a “Help Wanted” sign over my heart. In Christ’s name, Amen.

Romans 8: 26 “Likewise the Spirit also helps us in our weaknesses. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groaning which cannot be uttered.”

Have you ever been so burdened or fearful or stressed that you could not find the words to pray? It seems as if just taking the next breath was something you could not even imagine. My meditation tonight says it something like this…we can pray when we are sick or even dying, but the problem is that many of us do not pray until we are sick and dying.

Here is the good news…because the Spirit dwells within us, the Holy Spirit will enable us to pray and when we can’t pray, the Spirit will pray in our stead. Those who are prayer warriors can pray on our behalf as intercessors. We need our friends and family to help carry the prayer load. The Holy Spirit will come to our aid taking our prayers to God through intercession and will express our needs in perfect form at the feet of the mercy seat of God. But in order for this to occur we must have the Holy Spirit dwelling within us and walk in the Spirit.

Take joy in the journey. Wear comfortable shoes (maybe even sandals!). Count your blessings and say your prayers. Love you all, Bruce, Gaylene, Geni and Travis.

Gcapplenotes@aol.com

I am not moved by what I see. I am not moved by what I feel. I am only moved by what I believe and I believe God.

Prayer Alert! We have friends who are facing devastating cancer in their family. Please pray for them as well as the others in our lives who are in need of prayer. Thank you, mighty prayer warriors. Peace, gc

Monday, February 27, 2012

Happy Monday!

Today was spent in writing a reflection paper on Psalm 42. It begins with the words “As the deer panteth for the water so my soul longeth after Thee.” The song that is patterned after this psalm is one of my favorites. I have so enjoyed learning more about the psalms and love it when I discover that a song or hymn I know is built on one of the psalms.

Prayer: Father, I recognize my propensity to sin. I sense the constant battle between good and evil that wars within me. So I lean on Your Word and place my life under the lordship of the Son of God. In Jesus’ name I commit this day to You. Protect me today from myself, and place Your hedge of protection around me. Amen.”

1 John 3: 8 “He who sins is of the devil, for the devil has sinned from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil.”

A long time ago someone talked to me about this scripture. Their explanation of this passage went something like this, “Satan does not attack those who are actively practicing their Christian lives. Those who are excited about their faith, who are sharing Christ with others each day, who are staying in the Word, who are having an active prayer life and who are worshipping regularly Satan does not bother with because Satan knows that he does not have a strong effect on those. They are living a life in piety. But those who are sort of rocking along and not actively working in their Christian life are the people who Satan seeks out. Satan will show them a way of life that might be very alluring and appeals to their pride or ego or some other earthly physical attribute.

Scripture also says, “Christians will be known by their fruits.” (Matt. 7: 16, 17, 20) Jesus became a part of our lives to do for us what we could not do for ourselves. Jesus can destroy the works of Satan. My meditation speaks of this in reference to the Garden of Eden saying, “After the original sin in the Garden of Eden, God declared war on Satan and promised ultimate victory!” (Gen. 3: 15) This promise was fulfilled in the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ. The Incarnate Christ was given to destroy the destroyer. We are not powerless but strengthened by the power of God in Christ Jesus. Because God through Christ Jesus fulfilled His purpose here on earth then we can fulfill our purpose too. Praise God from who all blessings flow!

Take joy in the journey! Wear comfortable shoes. Count your blessings and say your prayers. Love you all so very much, Bruce, Gaylene, Geni and Travis.

Gcapplenotes@aol.com

I am not moved by what I see. I am not moved by what I feel. I am only moved by what I believe and I believe God.

Sunday, February 26, 2012

Happy Weekend!

This was started on Friday night, then the weekend happened.

The great Advent Lutheran Church Chili Cook-Off was held Friday night. The winner was Paul Gabrielson. Congratulations Paul! He received prizes ranging from a small case of Tums to a nice Dutch Oven. I entered the cook-off at the last minute. I had been stewing some stew meat with the intention of making beef stew for dinner and ended up turning it into chili. I did not win a prize but it was pretty good and all of it was eaten. So that makes me happy!

Prayer: “Omniscient God, before You I lay naked. As honestly as I know how, I bear my soul to You. You are the thoughts and intent of my heart. I confess my sin and iniquity and ask Your forgiveness through the blood of Your Son. May I start my day clean and fresh before You. Amen.”

John 1: 49 “Nathanael answered and said to Him, “Rabbi, You are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!”

What are you skeptical about? My favorite is the weight loss product that promises that if you go to bed a size 16 you will awake a size 2 without changing anything in your life. These product claims make me very skeptical to the point that I am not willing to try any of these products.

Nathanael was a pretty sincere skeptic. He really did doubt that anything good could come out of Nazareth. But even in his skepticism Nathanael accepted Phillip’s invitation to “come and see.” When Nathanael met Jesus, Nathanael was open enough to listen to this One called Jesus. Jesus knew everything about Nathanael even though they had never even met. Nathanael realized that this man must be the Messiah! He was so sure who Jesus was that he made a public claim that Jesus was, “the Son of God! You are the King of Israel.”

How does this passage play out for us? Well, Jesus met a man for the first time and told him everything about his life. That says to me that Nathanael could not hide anything from Jesus. I think the same is true for us.

My meditation describes this through the episode of Adam and Eve after they realized their sin and tried to hide themselves from God with fig leaves. But God knows us inside out. We cannot hide from God. Because of Jesus, the sins we believe we have hidden are exposed and, by God’s grace through the crucified and risen Christ, are forgiven. Of this forgiveness we need not ever be skeptical or have any doubt!
Today, let us go to God with an open heart. Let us humbly ask for forgiveness of our sins and proclaim that “Jesus is Lord not just of Israel but of each of us today and forever!”

Please continue to play for our friends in their times of trouble, loss and sorrow. Pray victory in Jesus name!

Take joy in the journey. Wear comfortable shoes. Count your blessings and say your prayers. Love you all so very much friends and mighty prayer warriors, Bruce, Gaylene, Geni and Travis.

Gcapplenotes@aol.com

I am not moved by what I see. I am not moved by what I feel. I am only moved by what I believe and I believe God.