MORNING PRAYER

Morning

Thou [art] all fair, my love; [there is] no spot in thee.

The whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint. From the sole of the foot even unto the head [there is] no soundness in it; [but] wounds, and bruises, and putrifying sores: they have not been closed, neither bound up, neither mollified with ointment.--We are all as an unclean [thing], and all our righteousnesses [are] as filthy rags.--I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing.

Ye are washed, . . . ye are sanctified, . . . ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.--The king's daughter [is] all glorious within.--Perfect through my comeliness, which I had put upon thee, saith the Lord GOD.

Let the beauty of the LORD our God be upon us.

These are they which . . . have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.--A glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but . . . holy and without blemish.--Ye are complete in him.

OPEN to God's REVELATION

Open to God's Revelation

Selections from Revelation 1
I, John, your brother and partner in the tribulation, kingdom, and perseverance in Jesus, was on the island called Patmos because of God's word and the testimony about Jesus. I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day, and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet saying, "Write on a scroll what you see."... I turned to see the voice that was speaking to me. When I turned I saw seven gold lampstands, and among the lampstands was One like the Son of Man.... When I saw Him, I fell at His feet like a dead man. He laid His right hand on me, and said, "Don't be afraid! Write what you have seen, what is, and what will take place after this." HCSB
Stranded on the island of Patmos, about as far away as he could be from everything he'd ever known, John never thought he'd be used by God again. But he continued taking time on the Lord's Day to meet with God in worship. And one day, something unbelievable happened.

Even when I am old and gray, God, do not abandon me. Then I will proclaim Your power to another generation, Your strength to all who are to come" (Psalm 71:18). The cry of the psalmist, longing to be used until his dying breath, seeing the lasting importance of passing down a godly heritage to his children and grandchildren, reveals the kind of heart we all should have. Even when we're old and gray, Lord, use us. Keep us open. Keep us right where you want us to be.

Look At It This Way
All of us are faced with two realms of reality. We deal with the visible, the tangible every day. We know that it is real. But there is another world, another realm of reality which vies for our attention. The spiritual, the heavenly, and the eternal! The door which John saw open was the door between earth and heaven, the aperture between the visible reality and the invisible reality. Amid all that bids you run and hide and flounder in hopelessness, don't you see that same open door? Don't you hear that same thunderous voice bidding you to come and see? Don't you see that throne and He who sits upon it? He is not wringing His hands over a world catapulting into oblivion. He does not walk around the throne with furrowed brow and worried look. He is the Sovereign God. He is running the show! Get your philosophy of history in line with that, and you will be prepared to praise. Repent of the sin of believing that things are as they appear to be. Ask God to reshape your whole perspective around the vision of God on a throne. - Jack Taylor

A Final Thought
Make it your goal in old age to keep your ear tuned more sharply to God's voice, following Him faithfully all the way to the end. This is a lifetime deal. No quitters need apply.

This devotional is courtesy of the One Minute Bible for Men of Character.

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2 of my most favorite prayers

The Serenity Prayer by Reinhold Niebuhr

God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change;
courage to change the things I can;
and wisdom to know the difference.
Living one day at a time;
Enjoying one moment at a time;
Accepting hardships as the pathway to peace;
Taking, as He did, this sinful world as it is, not as I would have it;
Trusting that He will make all things right if I surrender to His Will;
That I may be reasonably happy in this life
and supremely happy with Him Forever in the next.
Amen.

Prayer by Thomas Merton

My Lord God, I have no idea where I am going.
I do not see the road ahead of me.
I cannot know for certain where it will end.
Nor do I really know myself, and the fact that I think that I am following your will does not mean that I am actually doing so.
But I believe that the desire to please you does in fact please you.
And I hope I have that desire in all that I am doing.
I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire.
And I know that if I do this
you will lead me by the right road
though I may know nothing about it.
Therefore will I trust you always
though I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death.
I will not fear, for you are ever with me,
and you will never leave me to face my perils alone.

GOD PURPOSE.... PEACE AND LIFE

1. God's Purpose...Peace and Life

God loves you and wants you to know Him so He can fill you with peace and give you real life -- forever. The Bible says:: Because of our Lord Jesus Christ, we live at peace with God (Romans 5:1) God loved the people of this world so much that He gave His only son, so that everyone who has faith in Him will have eternal life and never die (John 3:16). Jesus said: "I came so that everyone would have life, and have it in its fullest" (John 10:10). Since God planned for us to have peace and real life right now, why are so many people hurting or angry inside?

Increase THE LIGHT

Increase The Light

In the physical world, there is no measurable quantity which defines darkness; dark is simply the absence of light. Therefore, the measure of darkness can only be in reference to the measure of light - less darkness is only achieved through more light. In the spiritual world, darkness represents the evil of the enemy and light represents the holiness of God. Though neither can be truly measured, the concept is the same: the darkness of evil only exists when there is an absence of the light of holiness. Dark and light cannot exist at the same time; when light is increased, darkness must fade. 1 John 1:5-6 "This is the message we have heard from Him and declare to you: God is light; in Him there is no darkness at all. If we claim to have fellowship with Him yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth." Salvation is by the grace of God through faith in Jesus and not through anything we do (Ephesians 2:8-9). But the purpose of Salvation is to bring glory to God as we walk in intimate fellowship with Jesus - the true and eternal Light. It is not possible to have fellowship with the Light of Christ and still live a life filled with the darkness of sin. Jesus purifies us from all sin (past, present, and future) in the sense of judgment before the Father, but He also illuminates the dark sin in our life and gives us the strength to gradually push it aside. A life without the Light is in darkness and cannot even recognize true sin. If we attempt to remove sin without first shining the Light, we simply clean the outside but leave a heart which is dark and dead. Some outsides are dirtier than others; but no matter how filthy an outside may appear, we ALL need the Light of Christ in our heart before we can be clean; "First clean the inside of the cup and dish, and then the outside also will be clean" (Matthew 23:26). In an instant the grace of His Light is able to cleanse what no amount of self effort can ever accomplish. When our own spiritual life becomes "dim," it usually means our time with the Light has begun to suffer - our discipline of prayer and reading His Word has been replaced with competing distractions. Where we once walked with clear vision, we now bump into walls and continually stub our toes. But God desires to light our path once again. He has "saved us and called us to a holy life" (2 Timothy 1:9), to a life filled with Light, a life of bold clarity in Him. Let's share the true and eternal Light of Jesus Christ at every opportunity and refocus our priorities on the only sure way to restore our vision. Let's commune with Him in prayer and immerse ourselves in His Word. His path will once again be made clear and darkness will surely fade as we increase the Light. Have a Christ Centered Day!

The INNER VOICE of LOVE Spiritual Author Henri Nouwen

In "The Inner Voice of Love," spiritual author Henri Nouwen writes:

You can look at your life as a large cone that becomes narrower the deeper you go. There are many doors in that cone that give you chances to leave the journey. But you have been closing these doors one after the other, making yourself go deeper and deeper into your center. You that God is waiting for you at the end, just as you know that he is guiding you as you move in that direction. Every time you close another door--be it the door of immediate satisfaction, the door of distracting entertainment, the door of busyness, the door of guilt and worry, or the door of self-rejection--you commit yourself to go deeper into your heart and thus deeper into the heart of God.

I demonstrate this a little, as usual. Enjoy the show!

To view the YouTube video, click here.

The Seed's of the Parable of Matthew.

We must keep our eyes fixed on God in everything we say, do, or undertake. We must make a firm resolution to overcome, with God's grace, all the difficulties inherent in the spiritual life.

When we undertake the spiritual life we must seriously consider who we are, recognizing that we are worthy of all scorn and subject to all kinds of miseries, and a multitude of setbacks. These disturb us and make our health, our moods, our inner dispositions, and their outward manifestations changeable; in all, we are persons God wants to humble by means of a multitude of internal and external troubles and trials.

God's help is necessary at every moment because without it the soul can do nothing. The world, nature, and evil wage war so fiercely and so relentlessly that, without this special help and this humble, necessary dependence, they would carry off the soul against its will. This seems contrary to nature, but grace finds pleasure and peace therein.

Well that's good to know. That if my seed accidentally gets dumped on the concrete, as it often does during a day, that I am promised some help relocating it to the fertile ground, where it can grow a hundredfold, that God has my back. Sort of. As long as I'm humble about taking direction.

Read more: http://blog.beliefnet.com/beyondblue/2010/08/mindful.html#ixzz0vWdmv15y