Category: wisdom

The Power of Worship: Finding Your Path to Serve the Lord

The first step is to acknowledge that I am not master of my own destiny. The second step is to realize that I do affect my destiny. The third is to seek how to choose wisely as I am confronted with alternatives.

Meditation Thought: “Worship the Lord your God and serve him only.” (Luke 4:8)

Who is the Lord that I should worship him? Who is the Lord that I should serve him?

The Lord is more powerful than any other creature of power.
The Lord is everywhere.
The Lord is wise, loving, just, righteous, merciful.

Are these qualities which I should value? Of course – and not only value, but determine the significance of them in relationship to me.

To be ignorant of the structure of life is to lack the knowledge and the wisdom to make decisions which will be in harmony with that structure, and thus bring positive results.

The first step is to acknowledge that I am not master of my own destiny. The second step is to realize that I do affect my destiny. The third is to seek how to choose wisely as I am confronted with alternatives.

The whole eludes me,
The part entraps me.
Or is the entrapment truly a cocoon
Protecting me, nourishing me, preparing me
Until I am ready to soar above
To see beyond the limits of my childhood place?

To venture out into the vastness of creation
Without preparation for the awesomeness, character, and challenges it presents
Is to be a fool, to endanger myself, to be prey to the unknown.

But to choose to follow my nature,
Be patient to learn before I leap,
To seek to know who I am, and what I should become
That I may be true to my best potential
And satisfy my soul:
This is to be a worshiper of the Lord,
And a servant unto Him.
Hallelujah!

Transforming Despair into Hope

We must trust our Father as to the design that will be needed for eternity even though it may look out of place in the earthly realm.

Meditation Thought: “I rejoice, not because you were grieved, but because you were grieved into repenting.” (2 Corinthians 7:9)

Death – Resurrection
Despair – Hope
Dormant – Live
Passive – Active
Proud – Humble
In-self – In-God
In weakness – in power
Ineffective – dynamic
Sinful – righteous

We choose one of each pair – we must choose one of each pair with each breath we take. The process determines our life in human form. As in a test in school, we may choose to the read the instructions carefully, rise to the challenge of doing our best and seek to learn. Or we may plunge into the test ignoring the instructions, defiantly, sloppily working along to get it over with, with the least inconvenience to our feelings, ignoring our Teacher’s signals that would correct our misunderstandings. Our moment-by-moment choices count on the ‘test’.

Our choices will repeat a pattern – a lovely one, prepared for display in the Kingdom – or a haphazard disordered one better suited to the back room. Remember, we can see only the limited dwelling places of the world. Patterns we would make for the world would look out of place in a mansion in heaven. We must trust our Father as to the design that will be needed for eternity even though it may look out of place in the earthly realm.

Guaranteed Harvest: Faith and Perseverance

Turn to Me to cope with crisis. I will lead you through it, bringing new knowledge and wisdom.

Meditation Thought: “ Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.” (1 Corinthians 15:58)

A guaranteed harvest! What farmer would not eagerly plant, till, and gather, despite difficulties and setbacks, knowing that all of the effort would absolutely be rewarded if they don’t give in and give up?

This is what our Father would have us realize: He sent His Son to us with the message that “Your harvest is guaranteed. Your faith is not misplaced. I do not ask you to work in vain but to work to produce a bountiful harvest. A harvest for you, for your family, for your fellow man. Believe it!

Turn to Me to cope with crisis. I will lead you through it, bringing new knowledge and wisdom in overcoming that will increase the harvest beyond even your fondest dreams. I give you the seed, I nourish it – do your part to make it thrive despite all that would destroy it. Study My ways, which I wish you to know, but which I will not force upon you. You will learn a superior method of farming to your joy and others’ amazement. Together, we will turn chaos into productive lands, feeding my people who will praise My name.”

Creating a Beautiful Life

Will you allow God the pleasure of loving and caring for you?

Meditation Thought: “whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.” (1 Corinthians 10:31)

“Picture yourself choosing various objects laid out before you to drop into a transparent cylinder of time. The overall pattern is determined by the objects you choose. If you listen to Me, I will enable you to choose objects which will produce a pattern of glowing loveliness and beauty. It will be a column of time giving pleasure to the world and to the Kingdom.

If you choose to ignore My wisdom and knowledge of the whole in selecting the objects, the column of time will be clouded and dark and jumbled. It will make no pattern of loveliness. Do not become so preoccupied with the necessity of selecting that you forget to consult Me. Walk in the Way, the Word, the Spirit, to discover My selections for your ideal pattern.

Trust Me – knowing that as the child, you cannot function properly without the care of your Father. I desire to love you and care for you – allow Me this pleasure.”

Caring for Our Bodies in Christ’s Image

Meditation Thought: “Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ?” (1 Corinthians 6:15)

Christ in each cell! With the yielding of my will to His will, my body is transformed into Christ living in the world today! How can I treat His body with anything but care and love?

Bodies come in all shapes and sizes. Genesis 1:27 says that God created people in His own image. That cannot refer to our physical beings – if it did we would all look like each other! Therefore, spiritually we are made in God’s image. Made to seek Him and His way. Made to care for the body He chose to encase our spirit. Not to abuse it, not to bemoan it, but to care for it and love it. And by so doing, we are then able to love others.

Finding Peace: Now and in the Future

Meditation Thought: “for we walk by faith, not by sight.” (2 Corinthians 5:7)

We walk by the inner light, not the outer darkness.
We walk in the joy of the Lord, not the confusion of the world.
We walk in the righteousness of God’s way, not the selfishness of the heart.
We walk in love, not in envy.
We walk in service, not in demanding to be served.
We walk beside the still waters, while the storm rages only a short distance away.
We walk in the peace of forgiveness and in the hope of the future.
We know that future is secure for it is fashioned as a place of refuge and heart’s desires by our loving Father. This is true if we will walk by faith in Him and not by faith in ourselves.

Trusting the Director of Your Life’s Journey

The wisdom of the ages is set before you. Will you partake?

Meditation Thought: “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.” (Romans 15:13)

The wisdom of the ages is set before you. Will you partake? It is the background for the action taking place in your life – its presence affects your performance. Your performance affects your audience.

Come, the time is ripe to be directed into a great performance of the Father’s will. You have been rehearsing and practicing. Now come the years in your life to perform what you have been learning.

The Director is in charge; if you will listen to Him, the performance will be effective for you and your audience. You don’t know the effects of your performance. Therefore, you must believe with all your heart that the instructions of your Director are bringing your performance to exquisite perfection that it may bring enlightenment and appreciation into all who see it, that they might rise up to give glory to the Author, and recognition to the Director.

Will you obey the Director, trusting His judgment is better than yours?

Food for Thought – Literally

“Brain-wash” yourself with the Word…

Meditation Thought: “…present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.” (Romans 12:1)

As you can learn to bring health by proper nutrition, so you can learn to bring health by proper spiritual food. You ae ‘wonderfully made” (Psalm 139) – many interrelated and interacting parts, which need to be kept in good working order. Sin would rob you of the best health of body, mind and spirit.

By the sacrifice of choosing what is healthy instead of choosing what is appealing at that moment, you bring the blessing of the peace of a healthy body, mind and spirit. The healthy foods are listed in your ‘instructional handbook’ (Bible): read it every day that your choice of all the foods may be healthy!

“Brain-wash” yourself with the Word, for this kind of cleansing of old sinful thoughts will purify your mind and renew it with the thoughts of the Father being fed into it. His thoughts prompt actions which are within His will and acting in His will is the presentation of a holy body to Him as sacrifice. And His will is infinitely more healthy, more desirable, more rewarding to you than your own will.

An Heir to all that is Valued in Life

His estate is more to be desired than any worldly wealth; all good things are in it: the gifts and fruits of the Spirit, the peace and love for which all men search, the contentment of ever-sure help and guidance, and confidence of being heir to all that is to be valued in life.

Meditation Thought: “Pay attention to what you hear: with the measure you use, it will be measured to you, and still more will be added to you.” (Mark 4:24)

Conform. Conform to Christ for the measures of love, forgiveness, help, acceptance, are the measures used by your King. Use His measures – not the measures of the world: greed, selfishness, ego, power, grasping and self-centeredness.

Keep pouring out Christ’s measures – they will be multiplied as you learn the art more completely.

It is the will of the Father to be glorified in the Son and the Son’s works. The Son’s works must be operative every day through the body of believers for the Father’s glory. As part of the body, it is your duty and your privilege to use the identical measures of Christ. They are your inheritance, handed down to you from His estate. His estate is more to be desired than any worldly wealth; all good things are in it: the gifts and fruits of the Spirit, the peace and love for which all men search, the contentment of ever-sure help and guidance, and confidence of being heir to all that is to be valued in life.

The Divine Purpose of Creation

Your shape, your form, your destiny depend upon your choice… to cling to yourself or to yield to me.

Meditation Thought: “You make known to me the path of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand.” (Psalm 16:11)

“Love is the healer; love is the joy; love is the pleasure – love, love, love. Love is the elixir – the potion – the only one needed to right every wrong, heal every hurt, fill every heart with peace. My love I pour in unbounding, unending supply – wherever the willing heart, the open mind, the yielding will absorbs it – there is a soul transformed.

Jesus the Christ – see Him, obey His instructions and your knowledge of My love, your ingesting of My love, your renewal by My love fulfills the divine purpose of creation: My love flowing out, your love flowing back, freely given, joyously give, loyally given. The continuous stream of love purifies all who enter into it, cleanses the sin of rebellion and all the sins resulting from that sin. Increase the flow of the stream of love by reaching for more and more of My love to channel back to Me.

Seed the clouds of My love with the Word, the Son, the Spirit within you: the replacing of the parts in you which are rebellious, sinful, unrighteous and unloving – selfish and ego-controlled, with the Word, the Son and the Spirit is the act of seeding My love – releasing it in torrents which will overflow the banks of your life. I want you to replace everything that your free will rejected of Me with My image clearly stamped on every part of you, and every aspect of your life. But I will not force this replacement. You must hand to me, whether willingly or reluctantly, every facet of your life, and I will return it to you – purified by the blood of Jesus, glowing with My love, enriched by the Spirit. Your shape, your form, your destiny depend upon your choice… t0 cling to yourself or to yield to me, bit by bit, moment by moment every physical, spiritual, mental and emotional aspect of your life. Hear and understand, see and perceive, understand with your heart, that I may heal you.”