THANKSGIVING

GOD’S WORD IN NATURE-CHANGING

Screen Shot 2016-05-17 at 3.17.40 PM…FATHER, I thank You for Your Scriptures. And I thank You for providing the SPIRIT who guides me as I read.

I can easily fall back into reading with the mind of my flesh, using my natural “sense and reasons without the Holy Spirit…” (Rom 8:6 AMP). But by reading this way I’m only looking for information to help me. Without the SPIRIT to help, Your Word is external. It does not change me inside. It only gives me advice to act independently of You.

“God’s word,…is still living; it is instinct with energy; it is keener than any two-edged sword: that can but pierce flesh, but this finds its way to the dividing line between the animal life and the immortal spirit: it pierces the deepest recesses of our nature; it analyses the very emotions and purposes of the inmost heart” Arthur S. Way (ref#38, p229, [Heb 4:12]).

I praise You that Your Word “is a sifter of the reflections and conceptions of the heart” Kenneth S. Wuest (ref#37, p519, [Heb 4:12]). Its energy seeks to get into and stay with me. It has the ability to stir me and work in me to a degree that I can’t get away from it (ref#28, p83).

All thanks to You, FATHER, that Your Scriptures are able to instruct, reproof, and train me in righteousness (2 Tim 3:16). Thank You that Your Word will never pass away (Matt 24:35). The HOLY SPIRIT brings life to me through the Word which grants life to me both now and forever (Rom 8:6). Thank You. AMEN!

ADORATION

 

I AM A PLANT IN HIS GARDEN

Screen Shot 2016-02-25 at 10.23.16 AM…FATHER, CHRIST, as the Son of GOD, did absolutely everything for Your sake, but as the Son of Man, He did absolutely everything for my sake. For my sake He took my nature upon Himself (1 Tim 3:16). “He took on…a life of prayers, tears, fears” and suffering like me but unlike me He took on all this in perfect obedience “with cheerfulness and delight” (Heb 10:7-8) (ref#35, p249).

For my sake He was obedient to death. He dedicated Himself as a sacrifice—to be killed (John 17:19). What a fearful cup he tasted so I might never have to taste it (Matt 26:39). FATHER, it was a cup full of the curse of the law (Gal 3:13), Your wrath (1 Thes 1:10), and most of all the loss of Your presence (Ps 22:1). He left “his glory, his riches, his ease,” His very life, “to undergo loss, shame, wrath, curse,” and death for me (ref#35, p250). For me!

His interest is that I should be His—that I become a partaker of His glory (1 Pet 5:1). And now He proves His love by His continual care in all my deliverances and afflictions—in all my conditions of sinning and suffering. I am “the apple of his eye, his jewel, his diadem, his crown” John Owen (ref#35, p250).

I am a plant in His garden while the unbelieving world is wilderness. Even if I am “the meanest, debased, weakest and poorest believer on earth,” CHRIST prizes me more than all the rest of the world (ref#35, p251).

“Lord, unto Thee from my full heart my prayers ascend;

To thee will I sing praise….

And for Thy loving grace and truth which hath no end

Will thank Thee all my days” Arthur S. Way (ref#38, p468, [Ps 138:1-2]).

CONFESSION

 

NO MORE GUILTY CONSCIENCE

Screen Shot 2016-03-18 at 3.41.06 PM…MY COMPASSIONATE SOVEREIGN, I easily discourage myself by believing I am sin because I am the one who is doing the sinning. But to the contrary, it is sin that uses the member’s of my body to work through (Rom 7:17).

CHRIST dwells in me (Gal 2:20) as well as my sinful nature (Rom 7:17,20) (ref#56, p1624, [Rom 7:14-25]). Help me LORD, to never forget that You have made me a saint yet because I’m a mortal creature I still am susceptible to sin. I am a saint who still has a sinful nature that indwells me. So, regarding sin, “…no longer is it I who do it, but the sinful nature which indwells me;…” Kenneth S. Wuest (ref#37, p363, [Rom 7:17]).

Remind me that possessing the nature of CHRIST I am no longer willingly habitually disobedient. It is I, in CHRIST, who makes me desire very much to be obedient even when I’m knowingly sinning (Rom 7:14-25).

And, even as I’m sinning the blood of JESUS cleanses all guilt from my conscience (Heb 10:22). So I should never feel guilty for sinning! You say, “…THEIR ERRORS AND THEIR BREACHES OF THE LAW WILL I SURELY NOT REMEMBER ANY MORE’” Arthur S. Way (ref#38, p242, [Heb 10:17]). There is absolute forgiveness of sins (Heb 10:18). I have been washed clean with pure water (Heb 10:22). Help me remind myself of that often, FATHER, for satan loves to bring my failures to remembrance.

When sin entangles me (Heb 12:1) and uses me for its evil purposes—when You, LORD, witness me aiding and abetting evil—when I’m caught in the crime of offending You—how exceedingly sorrowful I am for my participation in assaulting You. Sorrowful yes, but my faith in CHRIST eliminates guilt.

Again, it’s not I who sin but the sinful nature that still indwells me. Help me always make my confession thorough and quick so I may have the freedom again to praise You. I am always in CHRIST and clean (Heb 10:22). Do not let me wallow in self-pity because I find myself involved in sin. Keep me always from a guilty conscience. And encourage me with the fact that while sin still accompanies my new identity eventually my “new identity will result in the final triumph over indwelling sin (Rom 6:2-14)” The Reformation Study Bible (ref#56, p1624, [Rom 7:15]).

 

THANKSGIVING

GOD’S WORD IS NATURE-CHANGING

Screen Shot 2015-11-06 at 4.17.20 PM…FATHER, I thank You for Your Scriptures. And I thank You for providing the SPIRIT who guides me as I read.

I can easily fall back into reading with the mind of my flesh, using my natural “sense and reasons without the Holy Spirit…” (Rom 8:6 AMP). But by reading this way I’m only looking for information to help me. Without the SPIRIT to help, Your Word is external. It does not change me inside. It only gives me advice to act independently of You.

“God’s word,…is still living; it is instinct with energy; it is keener than any two-edged sword: that can but pierce flesh, but this finds its way to the dividing line between the animal life and the immortal spirit: it pierces the deepest recesses of our nature; it analyses the very emotions and purposes of the inmost heart” Arthur S. Way (ref#38, p229, [Heb 4:12]).

I praise You that Your Word “…is a sifter of the reflections and conceptions of the heart” Kenneth S. Wuest (ref#37, p519, [Heb 4:12]). Its energy seeks to get into and stay with me. It has the ability to stir me and work in me to a degree that I can’t get away from it (ref#28, p83).

All thanks to You, FATHER, that Your Scriptures are able to instruct, reproof, and train me in righteousness (2 Tim 3:16). Thank You that Your Word will never pass away (Matt 24:35). The HOLY SPIRIT brings life to me through the Word which grants life to me both now and forever (Rom 8:6). Thank You. AMEN!

ADORATION

“…worship focuses us totally on a majestic, triumphant Creator-Redeemer, lifting us out of ourselves—our sins, inadequacies,…Worship is our response to his extreme grace” Will Metzger (ref#79, p152).

MORNING PRAYER

Screen Shot 2015-09-11 at 12.46.04 PM“O send out Thine angel of truth

and the light of Thy grace!

Let them lead me to…the hallowed hill,

Thy glory’s dwelling-place.

 

“I will go to Thine altar, my God,

I will joy in Thy sight:

I will praise Thee upon the harp,

my Lord, my Light” Arthur S. Way (ref#38, p322, [Ps 43:3-4])!

 

“Lord, pledged am I,

and I will pay my vows with thankful breath,

For Thou hast plucked my soul this day

out of the clutch of death.

 

“And hast Thou not my feet set free

from falling by the way

That I may walk, my God,

with Thee in living light of day” Arthur S. Way (ref#38, p340, [Ps 56:12-13])?

 

“…I will sing Thy protecting power,

Thy mercy will I sing at morning-tide; 

For Thou hast been my lofty refuge-tower; 

In my distress I sheltered by Thy side” Arthur S. Way (ref#38, p344, [Ps 59:16]).