Saturday, January 20, 2018
Monday, January 1, 2018
PM#0205 Preparing the Soil
PM#0205
Preparing the Soil
Matthew 13:3-8
A farmer knows of the hard work that is done before a
harvest. It starts with preparing soil,
and planting it. If the soil is not
prepared, precious seed may be lost and may not even grow.
To reach people for the Lord Jesus Christ, there is much
preparatory work to be done so that people will be ready to hear and accept
God’s word for them. This preparatory work starts with prayer, asking God’s
help in preparing people’s hearts to be ready to receive God’s word and to
respond to His Love.
If your desire is to reach people for Christ, then join with
me in this prayer.
Father, we ask you to go before us, preparing hearts to
receive your word. Help us to show your
love to them. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.
Reflection:
Why is it important for
hearts to be prepared to hear God’s word?
Why is prayer important for
people to be able to respond to God’s l0ve?
If you have experienced a
time where someone responded to God’s love, because someone prayed, please
share a few words about it.
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Thursday, June 2, 2016
PM#424 Bless Them That Curse You Matthew 5 vs 44
PM#0424
Bless Them that Curse You
Matthew 5: 44
When you have been falsely accused, can you respond in a
manner that says I love you?
Most of us when falsely accused will respond defensively,
and desire to set the record straight.
Is this the way Christ has taught us to respond?
Christ showed us another way in Matthew 5: 44. It says: “Love your enemies, bless them that
curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully
use you;”
This is a difficult command for many of us because when we
are hurt or have been falsely accused, we receive it personally. Christ too could have reacted against those
who crucified Him, but He chose to forgive them while He hung on the Cross.
Perhaps we should seek the Lord in prayer for His help in
showing love to others and blessing them through prayer. Consider a prayer like this:
‘Father, I ask your help to be able to show your Love
through blessing others. In Jesus’ Name,
Amen.’
Our responses in many situations
are what you might call ‘reactionary’. Often
these reactions are defensive, and if you took a close look at them, those
defensive reactions could easily become a curse. That brings us to a difficult question, what
would Jesus do?
In Matthew 5:44 He said to ‘Forgive’,
and he also demonstrated this when He suffered the painful cross and said in Luke
23:34 when He said “Father forgive them, for they know not what they do.”
It is very difficult to forgive,
but that is what Jesus wants us to do. A
thought about this—does that mean we roll over and play dead? No—in forgiving we need to pray. Christ prayed to the Father when he was hung on
the Cross of Calvary. We need to pray
for others, and for our heart our responding to them. We try to fight the battle, but it is best to
start on our knees, forgiving, and standing for the truth,
letting God direct us His way.
I would like to share another
thought about forgiving, forgiving frees a person. I have seen many times when one forgives, or
one asks forgiveness, the shackles that kept a barrier up for sometimes many
years are removed. This is of importance
in Day to Day personal relationships in families, Parents to Children and vise
versa, and other personal relationships—family, friend, or business. Again—ask the Lord to help you forgive, and
then consider blessing the other when you do.
Saturday, January 23, 2016
PM#400 Blessing Others Hebrews 3 vs 15
PM#0400
Blessing Others
Heb 3:13
Have you ever met a person who is having a bad day?
Probably most of us have met a person like that. You know, there a many ways we could respond
to them, but I would like you to consider the following. Find a way to bless the other person and help
them smile. It just may bring a ray of
encouragement and sunshine to them.
There is a song that says “Make me a blessing to someone
today”. Think about it. Perhaps that should be our prayer.
Father, I ask you to help me bless my friend who is having a
bad day. May that blessing be
encouragement that will help him to smile.
In Jesus’ Name, Amen.
Take a moment and reflect on the following question—How alert
are we to what concerns others—or are we really focused on our own personal
interests? In all honesty—what would
bring more fulfillment to you—your personal interests or taking the time to
help someone else?
When we bless others, we may find significant fulfilment in
our personal life—a fulfilment that helps us reach out to more people. Maybe that is why our Lord encouraged us to
bless others—no matter the situation.
Monday, November 23, 2015
PM#0046 Thanksgiving and Blessing Psalms 18 vs 1
Praise-Thanksgiving Prayer 46
Martin Luther once said "In
thanksgiving we recount blessings received, and thus strengthen our confidence
and enable ourselves to wait trustingly for what we pray."
Praise and thanksgiving prayer is
important. It can be a simple
affirmation of love to God. Ps 18:1
gives an example: "I will love you,
O Lord, my salvation". If you read
the Psalms, you will be encouraged to be thankful, as you will see other times that
thanksgiving was given to God. They will
help you as you pray.
Father, Thanksgiving is not always
come easy, but your word was given to help us.
May we learn from your word so we can offer thanksgiving from our heart.
In Jesus Name, Amen.
Reflection:
Take time
to list a few blessings: __________________________________________
Search the
Psalms for thankfulness given by the writers of the Psalms and write down how
that thankfulness encouraged the Psalmist: ______________________________
Now look
over your list of blessings, how being thankful encourage you?
Friday, November 6, 2015
Veterans
PM#0471
Veterans
John 15:13, Rom 12:14
Vietnam
veterans were deeply hurt when protesters did not respect them.
The protesters had forgotten that our freedoms come with a
cost, one which we fought to preserve, and some gave their lives to protect
those freedoms. The Bible says in John 15:13 that ‘Greater love hath no man
than this that he lay down his life for his friends.”
Yes, veterans have experienced a rejection of that love as a
country. Turning to God’s way, we should forgive and find ways to bless. Rom 12:14 says “Bless them that persecute you;
bless, and curse not.”
Fortunately, our country is now honoring its veterans. Still, all of us who are veterans should
consider this prayer:
Father, help me to continually find ways to bless my
country. I forgive those who hurt us. In
Jesus’ Name, Amen.
Reflection:
Why is important to honor our
veterans?
What happened to our country
when we did not honor our veterans?
Tuesday, September 15, 2015
PM#0511 Listenting to God Speaking through Others
PM#0511
Listing to God Speaking
Through Others
I Cor 12 vs 14 and 18
What keeps us back from accepting
the vision that God has given others?
Are we making our selves a judge of another person’s calling or dreams?
Or is it that it does not fit our personal focus?
The Bible says in I Corinthians
12: 14. For the body is not one member,
but many…in verse 18 it says … God set
the members every one of them in the body, as it hath pleased him.
Now consider that if someone
who carries the gospel, or the foot, should to say to the eye—I do not need
you—don’t you think it would stumble? That
is similar to not accepting a vision of someone else in the body of Christ.
What should we do? Here is a prayer to consider: Father, I ask you to help me listen to you
speaking through others who love you. In
Jesus’ Name, Amen.
Reflection situation and
questions:
The following situation is
often true. Years ago in College, one
summer I sold Bible books, and occasionally I would ask others, what do you
believe. They stated that they would
have to ask their minister.
So—it was the minister who
told them what they believed—now lets take this further—when they hear someone
share about what they heard from the Lord, and that person is not an ‘Ordained
minister’ they may not accept what is
said as from the Lord. That is something
that may have been taught—teaching that only the preacher can do--not just
little me or someone else--only the minister with a title.
The Lord does not speak just
to ministers—He speaks to all who seek with pure and contrite heart. When He speaks it may be something to guide
us. It may be like the eye which is
there to guide us.
Have we really stopped to
consider that when we do not listen—to others speaking about what they have
learned from the Lord through God’s Word—that it could be like saying to the
eye we do not need you?
How does this apply to us
today?
How can we encourage people
to listen to others who spend time in God’s word?
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