Adoration

ADORATION

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OBEDIENCE

screen-shot-2016-10-14-at-3-52-15-pm“O Lord,

I stand very much in need

of greater grace,

if You want me to attain that

spiritual frame of mind

that allows no one to keep me from You” Thomas a ‘Kempis (ref#147, p185).

FATHER, You send Your HOLY SPIRIT to quicken me (John 6:63). For I am as one dead (John 5:25).

CHRIST, You work out Your righteousness in me. You make me realize its preciousness.   Your righteousness in obeying perfectly all the law is imputed to me (ref#35, p298).   So I am perfectly accepted by the FATHER (ref#35, p297).

The work of the HOLY SPIRIT is to prepare me for obedience; He enables me to be obedient and brings forth the fruits of obedience (ref#35, p305).

Everything the Triune GOD does for me is to make it possible to be obedient. My obedience to You gives You glory and honor. You give me everything and my only proper response is obedience (ref#35, p306). This is all I can give You. My every other interaction with You is all about receiving from You.

“…divine love…begins with the Father, is carried on by the Son, and then communicated by the Spirit; the Father designing, the Son purchasing, the Spirit effectually working” (ref#35, p302). I ascend “to the Father’s love through the work of the Spirit and blood of the Son” John Owen (ref#35, p302).

The SPIRIT is first, working in my heart giving me an interest in CHRIST’s blood. Then my interest is accepted by the FATHER.

TRIUNE GOD, I adore the labor-intense means You exert Yourself for me. I am triply blessed by Your means—blessed much more than if You would describe Yourself as just “the One GOD who saves me.” You are not a GOD who is far off (Jer 23:23).

ADORATION

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POWERFUL IS YOUR ARM

screen-shot-2016-10-14-at-2-37-48-pm “I…submit to Your unfathomable judgments, Lord;

You alone are truly great.

Immeasurable greatness!

Uncrossable sea” Thomas a ‘Kempis (ref#147, p149)!

Powerful is Your arm! Strong is Your hand! Your right hand is lifted high in glorious strength (Ps 89:13).

Not only is Your arm and hand mighty and strong to save Your people, but also to destroy Your enemies. None can resist the force of Your mighty hand. Not one of Your enemies shall flee away. Even if they climb up to heaven You will bring them down (Amos 9:2). Your lifted right hand is a signal of Your power. Your right hand does valiantly (Ps 118:15).

Righteousness and justice are the foundation of your throne. Unfailing love and truth walk before you as attendants (Ps 89:14). Righteousness and judgment inhabit Your throne. Your rules of equity and wisdom never vary. Mercy and truth go before You. These are all Yours in perfection (ref#18, [Ps 89:14]).

Powerful is Your arm to save. “Though I walk in the midst of trouble, you preserve my life; you stretch out your hand against the wrath of my enemies, and your right hand delivers me” (Ps 138:7 ESV).  I will meditate on Your strength.

ADORATION

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CHRIST’S HUMILITY

screen-shot-2016-10-14-at-1-07-02-pmAmong us, CHRIST, You were gentle and humble in heart (Matt 11:29)—as the One who serves (Luke 22:27). You made Yourself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men (Phil 2:7). And being found in human form, You humbled Yourself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross (Phil 2:8). For my sake You became poor, that through Your poverty I might become rich (2 Cor 8:9).

In the days of Your flesh, You offered up prayers and supplications, with vehement cries and tears to Your FATHER. Only He was able to save You from death (Heb 5:7).

You gave Your back to those who struck You, and Your cheeks to those who plucked out the beard; You did not hide Your face from shame and spitting (Isa 50:6). You were a reproach to men and despised by the people (Ps 22:6). Zeal for Your FATHER’s house consumed You; all who reproached Your FATHER, fell on You (Ps 69:9).

FATHER, keep reminding me that my life’s goal is to be Your bondservant as CHRIST was. If You allow me to serve You in a specific way, keep me from focusing on that service. Rivet my focus on being Your bondservant. Refine me into salt (Matt 5:13)—too much salt to the unregenerate but a perfect portion for the regenerate so that my life mirrors CHRIST.

ADORATION

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CHRIST’S BLOOD IS PRECIOUS

“…many achievements and…many blessings…Scripture ascribes to the power of the Blood of the Lord Jesus” Roy Hession (ref#97, p91-92)!

Screen Shot 2016-08-24 at 3.31.10 PMFATHER, CHRIST’s blood is “precious in its preserving power….the blood…is the true reason for our being spared” Charles Spurgeon (ref#34, April 16th AM). “By its power there is forgiveness of sins and eternal life for all who put their faith in the Lord Jesus ( John 6:54)” Roy Hession (ref#97, p92).

FATHER, “Christ’s blood is also precious in its cleansing power” Charles Spurgeon (ref#34, April 16th AM). By the power of the blood there is a continual cleansing from all my sin, past, present, and future (ref#97, p92). Your Son’s blood not only cleanses me from all sin (1 John 1:7), but purifies my conscience so I may serve You (Heb 9:14).

“The blood of Christ is precious in its sanctifying influence. The same blood that justifies by taking away sin, in its after-action, quickens the new nature and leads it onward to subdue sin and to carry out the commands of God”  Charles Spurgeon (ref#34, April 16th AM).

ADORATION

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THE BIBLE IS FLAWLESS

Screen Shot 2016-08-24 at 2.47.44 PM…FATHER, You permitted a fallible man (the Apostle Paul) to write the below quote about other’s words that are written in the Bible. Actually, You not only permitted, but You compelled him to write it.

“Every Scripture is God-breathed (given by His inspiration) and profitable for instruction,…” (2 Tim 3:16 AMP).

Words written in the Bible never came by human impulse; no man ever wrote out of his own will to do so. Instead Bible writers recorded Your will. They were moved along, actually impelled, by the HOLY SPIRIT (2 Pet 1:21). No Scripture is a matter of any man’s own interpretation (2 Pet 1:20).

FATHER, a great swim coach may not know how to swim. The writers of Scripture were not perfect as You are perfect. But, You made their words perfect by giving them the HOLY SPIRIT who called to their remembrance all that You had said (John 14:26).

You spoke by the mouth of Your holy prophets (Acts 3:21). It is an insult to You to say their words contain error—or are contradictory.

“Every word of God proves true; he is a shield to those who take refuge in him” (Prov 30:5 ESV).

ADORATION

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SCRIPTURE AND THE SPIRIT

Screen Shot 2016-08-24 at 12.50.10 PM…FATHER, all honor goes to You for not leaving anything for me to accomplish toward my salvation and sanctification. I do not convince myself of Your worth; I don’t read the Bible and decide I want to follow You. You mark out my path and I walk in it by the HOLY SPIRIT’s involvement in my life.

The words You have set in Your Bible I am able to read but not able to interpret. Your words are encased in human language but they are not limited to what the human mind can perceive (ref#79, p150).

“God’s language in his book is alive and full of power. Sharper than a two-edged sword, it cuts open the very thought life of people. It exposes and interprets what they think and feel” Will Metzger (ref#79, p150).

The SPIRIT’s witness to Scripture is not revealing new information but shedding light on what is already written. My mind held only darkness even as I read Scripture until You sent the SPIRIT to interpret Your Word to me. Suddenly I knew JESUS and the Scriptures were divine. The SPIRIT impressed them on me much like the way I sense taste and colors. Suddenly I found it impossible to doubt. The inward work of the HOLY SPIRIT persuaded and assured me. He bore witness with the Word in my heart and suddenly I had faith enough to believe (ref#56, p1677, “The Authentication of Scripture”).

ADORATION

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JESUS IS ONE PERSON IN TWO NATURES

Screen Shot 2016-08-23 at 3.25.23 PM“…Jesus is one person in two natures…all that is in us, as well as all that is in God, is and always will be truly and distinguishably present in the one Christ” The Reformation Study Bible (ref#56, p1510, “Jesus Christ, God and Man”).

 “He is the Sovereign Lord of the natural creation and of the new creation, so that He is intimately allied to us” T. C. Horton, Charles E. Hurlburt (ref#158, p125). “We can never be separated from Him because He lives in us and we shall live and be with Him forever” (ref#158, p140).

CHRIST, since Your ascension nothing has changed about Your relationship with man.   But, since Your departure, the SPIRIT now resides in man. I can communicate with You in heaven. As the disciples who literally walked with You two millenniums ago, I walk with You now.

FATHER, You have willed that now both, Your Son and I, His little sister, can commune with one another.

“Jesus did not temporarily become man, but that his divine nature was permanently united to his human nature, and he lives forever not just as the eternal Son of God, the second person of the Trinity, but also as Jesus, the man who was born of Mary, and as Christ, the Messiah and Savior of his people. Jesus will remain fully God and fully man, yet one person, forever” Wayne Grudem (ref#63, p543).

Time and space cease to be hindrances; through the SPIRIT, CHRIST is not aloof and far off. He in heaven and I on earth can be together constantly forever.

FATHER, Your CHRIST is still fully human and able to be with me as mentor and companion as well as Savior. This always has been Your plan.

ADORATION

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ADORATION

Screen Shot 2016-07-19 at 4.06.41 PMAdore – to worship, honor highly, love greatly, revere, idolize, respect, prize, treasure, esteem, love to distraction, cherish, admire—these words I read and store in my mind, they all reflect my attitude toward You, FATHER. Morph my thoughts of Your divine perfection into experience that I may actually fellowship with You.

“O LORD,

Help me to approach thee…

Thou inhabitest eternity,

and my life is nothing before thee;

 

Thou dwellest in the highest heaven

and this cannot contain thee;…

Thy power is almighty;…

Thy understanding is infinite;…” The Valley of Vision (ref#76, p84).

FATHER, “interpret Thyself to me…” Oswald Chambers (ref#27, p66). I want to experience You, not concentrate on finding a method to meet You (ref#103, p34).  “Adoration is not seeking the divine presence, but is conscious of it to an unutterable degree, and therefore full of awe and peace…” Charles Spurgeon (ref#104, Day 10). The stars lose themselves in Your glory not making a sound (Ps 19:3). “Be silent, for that is the Absolute” Soren Kierkegaard (ref#137, page xi).

“It [adoration] is the eloquent silence of a soul that is too full for language. To prostrate yourself in the dust in humility, and yet to soar aloft in sublime thought; to sink into nothing, and yet to be so enlarged as to be filled with all the fullness of God; to have no thought and yet to be all thought; to lose yourself in God; this is adoration” Charles Spurgeon (ref#104, Day 10) (brackets mine).

FATHER, manifest Yourself to me (John 14:21). I want the experience of You “happening” to me instead of me just reflecting good thoughts of You and calling it adoration A.W. Tozer (ref#103, p34).

ADORATION

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THE INERRANCY OF THE BIBLE

Screen Shot 2016-07-19 at 12.05.05 PM“…the word of the Lord remains forever…’” (1 Pet 1:25 ESV).

FATHER, Your Bible does not and cannot have errors: the sinless CHRIST cannot error. He says the Bible is Your Word, therefore the Bible cannot error (ref#95).

CHRIST, GOD INCARNATE, in Your earthly ministry You advocated what had been written of the FATHER previous to Your coming. Time after time You preface Your subject with the words, “it is written” (Matt 4:4,7,10). You did not come to abolish what had been written, but to fulfill what had been written (Matt 5:17-18).

You say Yourself that the Scriptures cannot be set aside or annulled (John 10:35). Even the hard-to-believe Scriptures You confessed as true. Jonah was indeed three days in the belly of a great fish (Matt 12:40). Your FATHER’s word is truth and without error (John 17:17).

“My tongue will sing of your word, for all your commandments are right” (Ps 119:172 ESV).

The Bible does not and cannot have errors: OMNIPOTENT, HOLY, PERFECT FATHER, You cannot error. You say the Bible is Your Word, therefore the Bible cannot error (ref#95).

The sum of Your Word is truth and every one of Your righteous rules endures forever (Ps 119:160). You never lie (Titus 1:2); it is impossible for You to lie (Heb 6:18).

You are true even if we are all liars (Rom 3:4)—even if we are faithless, You remain faithful for You cannot deny Yourself (2 Tim 2:13). Your Word is Truth (John 17:17). The audacity of Your creatures to accuse You of allowing an errant book to represent You!!

You revealed Yourself in words and resided over them as they were written in an earthly Book for all generations to read. The Bible is the prime testimony of Your compassion and caring.

ADORATION

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GOD WAITS FOR ME

Screen Shot 2016-07-19 at 9.48.59 AM“…the Lord [earnestly] waits [expecting, looking, and longing] to be gracious to you; and therefore He lifts Himself up, that He may have mercy on you and show loving-kindness to you. For the Lord is a God of justice. Blessed (happy, fortunate, to be envied) are all those who [earnestly] wait for Him, who expect and look and long for Him [for His victory, His favor, His love, His peace, His joy, and His matchless, unbroken companionship]” (Isa 30:18 AMP).