The Daily Breath of God Monday, June 30 2014
Repent, all of you who forget me, or I will tear you apart, and no one will help you. But giving thanks is a sacrifice that truly honors me. If you keep to my path, I will reveal to you the salvation of God. Psalm 50:22,23 NLTSin has no desire for God or his path, and lives only for wanting, not thanksgiving. If left to itself, it will tear apart the individual, the family, the community and a nation. Yet, in this place the grace of our Lord can be found. Here in his grace is love given without limit or condemnation. His grace makes us new and in that place everything changes, from living a constant consumning life, to a life that gives thanks to the Lord and esteems others as more important. Living in the grace of Jesus the Christ renews us, our family, our community and even our nation. It is a life of rejoicing. On this new day may you choose the joy of our Lord as you consider your ways. May you find many varied ways to give thanks for the life you have, for what he has put into your hands and for the freedom that is yours to be an encouragement to everyone around you. There is no regret, no brokeness or tearing apart in the grace of our Lord. Friday, June 27 2014
The first thing Andrew did was to find his brother Simon and tell him, "We have found the Messiah" (that is, the Christ). And he brought him to Jesus. John 1:41,42When we find something along our journey that is true, refreshing and exciting, we want to share the news with our family and friends. There is something inside us that loves to give good news when we are not living life on ourself. It is also true that when the journey of our life has gone on for some time focused on ourself we have much more of a tendency to be critical of others, condemning and focused on lust, which is a view about things and people that is less than good. The grace of our Lord does more than save us for heaven. It refreshes our values of family, friends and community. There is a joy in being overwhelmed by grace that just has to express itself through encouragement, kindness and refreshment. On this new day in the grace of our Lord may you be refreshed again with the heart of an Andrew. There will be no condemnation there. Your joy for the day will become overwhelming and the refreshment you give to others will impact there life and values in all the right ways. Tuesday, June 24 2014
Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love; according to your great compassion blot out my transgressions. Wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin.
Psalm 51:1,2
Our natural nature usually thinks of God as seeing all our failures and all our irritations and then offers nothing but condemnation. Many do not think of God according to his unfailing love at all, they actually believe he is angry all the time. Here is what grace can do for all of us. Grace is his love given in and through Jesus the Christ without any condemnation forever. Here we experience, mercy, love, compassion, kindness and a freedom that is absolutly clean. On this new day may you experience and enjoy his unfailing love that removes all your transgressions and sins. May words like delight, rejoice, praise, thanksgiving and encouragement be words used by everyone you know to describe you. In this place your life will feel brand new and refreshing. Enjoy!
Monday, June 23 2014
All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be. How precious to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them! Psalm 139:16,17One of the great beauties of God's grace is that it gives us the ability to relax and rejoice all at the same time. Living overwhelmed by his grace gives us better hearing, of what is really around us and much better vision as to the situations we are walking through. Grace changes our values and choices which automatically impact our attitude for the day we find ourselves in. Living in a grace condition removes fears, anxiety and much of mis-trust about others. It gives the freedom to know that our Lord is involved in the journey with us and therefore we do not need to be offended so easily and we can enjoy encouraging others along their journey as we have been encouraged by our Lord. On this new day, let his grace be precious to you and enjoy his attitude of kindness as it will be expressed through you. You will be pleased at the way you process info and so will those around you. This is a good day to smile and give thanks to the one who has overwhelmed you with his grace and enjoy his thoughts, bringing praise and refreshment through you. Friday, June 20 2014
And we urge you, brothers and sisters, warn those who are idle, encourage the timid, help the weak, be patient with everyone. Make sure that nobody pays back wrong for wrong, but always try to be kind to each other and to everyone else. 1 Thessalonians 5:14,15Can you imagine living in a place where people stopped offending, stopped condemning, stopped irritating and stopped sinning against one another. Living in a place like that, what would marriages be, what would a neighborhood look like, what would be the mood of the community? Well, this is what is intended to happen to a man or woman who has come into contact with the grace of God given in and through Jesus the Christ. Our nature is renewed with the desire to bless, overwhelm with goodness and forgiveness and to live a life that can be the music people enjoy listening to and seeing. On this new day may your journey of grace be the song that everyone can see and hear with joy. May your marriages, your neighborhood and your community be blessed because of what the grace of our Lord is doing in and through you. Grace makes you a man or woman of God, so go ahead and delight yourself in our Lord and this new day will blow your hair back. Enjoy Wednesday, June 18 2014
As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. Psalm 42:1,2One of the greatest heartaches of our sin nature is the debate that takes place within us as to whether there is a god or not. Even if we begin to believe in some way that there might be a god, what we seek is not him, what we want is for him to give us what we desire. But if there is a god, then the greatest thing he could give us is Himself. Grace gives us the joy and delight of a relationship with the Lord that is a love without condemnation. With that being true, our emotions and attitudes are made new and what we find is the living freedom of rejoicing in seeking and knowing Him. Here stress, anxiety and irritations begin to be removed from our relationships because these things have no place in the living God. On this new day, may you enjoy your desire for the living Lord more than you desire anything else. Delighting in him will change how you see yourself and how you see everyone else. You will be by His nature, known as an encourager and that may just blow some peoples hair back. Enjoy! Monday, June 16 2014
How precious are your thoughts about me, O God. They cannot be numbered! I can't even count them; they outnumber the grains of sand! And when I wake up, you are still with me. Psalm 139:17,18 NLTHow freeing it is to know the love of God that is given in and through his grace in Jesus the Christ. Living in his love frees us from our old nature of irritations, anxiety and all forms of lust. Here, thanksgiving is alive in and through our emotions and thoughts, which become actions and words of encouragement to all around us. When we actually believe - "precious are your thoughts about me, O God," we will find ourselves in a place where smiling and joy have become our nature. On this new day may this scripture not just be some kind of statement, but a description and desire of who you are. If that is the case, this day along with those that will come, will be overwhelmed with life, goodness and grace. Please allow yourself the freedom to enjoy! Friday, June 13 2014
This is what the LORD says - your Redeemer, who formed you in the womb: I am the LORD who has made all things, who alone stretched out the heavens, who spread out the earth by myself. Isaiah 44:24Sometimes along our journey things take place in our lives that in reality, flat out overwhelm us. It may be choices we have made that we wish we would have never made. In fact, sometimes we will think that if there was ever a time we could go back to and change it would be that choice. Well here is some very good news. God's grace lets you know that there is nothing that has come your way that he cannot bring out for your good. Grace changes how and what we love and therefore our choices become, shall we say, a lot more enjoyable. On this new day may you remember and enjoy the freedom and power of his grace in your life. This day your choices are covered in grace and therefore you are free from the past condemnation that keeps trying to haunt you. Grace will let you enjoy your life without fear and you will know the joy of being renewed in the love of your Redeemer. There is nothing in your past that he cannot reform for his glory and your blessing. You and everyone around you will experience the beauty and freedom of his grace on this new day. Wednesday, June 11 2014
For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God's glorious standard. Yet God, with undeserved kindness declares that we are righteous. He did this through Christ Jesus when he freed us from the penalty for our sins. For God presented Jesus as the sacrifice for sin. Romans 3:23-25 NLTSometimes we have a tendency to think of our belief in Jesus the Christ as some sort of religion, and therefore we set up our own standard of judgment concerning ourselves as well as others. This kind of belief never takes us where we wish we could go, it only condemns and therefore we begin to deal with life and its opportunities in ways that really focus on our self and what would make us happy. It is right here where being overwhelmed by grace that is in Jesus the Christ changes everything. Happiness does not come from being focused on ourselves or our will; it comes from the undeserved kindness of God that declares our freedom from that condemnation of sin. Here grace expresses itself with overwhelming joy and delight. This changes everything, in how we see God, ourselves and others. This is the life that we always hoped for, free to smile, rejoice and be encouraging. On this new day may you enjoy what has been given to you by God in and through Jesus the Christ. It is the freedom of grace to start refreshed and renewed today, with emotions and attitudes that become a blessing to you and everyone around you. You are now free in his grace to begin a new journey, with new habits that will just be delightful, now how cool is that? Monday, June 09 2014
The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance. 2 Peter 3:9There is a freedom to be enjoyed in the life of Jesus the Christ, it is called grace. I know that we are all sinners by nature. I also know that the one we call God is most holy in his very essence. But as hard as this generation is, as holy as God is and as sinful as we are by nature, I still believe that any man or woman can be saved from the power, the guilt and the condemnation of sin. There are no obstacles between our soul and eternal life, except our own will. Grace lets us lay hold of Jesus the Christ every moment of every day. On this new day may you experience the freedom in your emotions and attitudes that is yours because of Jesus the Christ. You are free to forgive, to be an encourager, to be patient and to be a delight to everyone around you. Repentance in grace just does not have a bunch of hang ups. For Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. - 1Peter 3:18 Friday, June 06 2014
For God loved the world so much that he gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through him. John 3:16,17 NLTWe are born with a nature that always has a tendency for low self-esteem, lust, condemnation, easily irritated and the inability to forgive well. The problem is that for many of us, we also feel that God looks at us the same way we feel about ourselves and how we view others. But the grace of God is completely different. His love given without condemnation gives us the freedom to no longer be mastered by our old nature, which changes our view of God, ourselves and others, it is called eternal life. It removes the heartache that our sinful nature caused and replaces it with a freedom that will delight our family and our friends. On this new day that has been given to you as a gift of God, may you relax and rejoice in who you now are because of Jesus the Christ. His grace will refresh your thinking, your emotions and your view of others. It is absolutely OK to rejoice, give thanks in everything and not get irritated. Wednesday, June 04 2014
Your righteousness is like the mighty mountains, your justice like the ocean depths. You care for people and animals alike, O LORD. How precious is your unfailing love, O GOD! All humanity finds shelter in the shadow of your wings. Psalm 36:6,7 NLTThe beauty of the grace that is given in Jesus the Christ is that it gives us a new nature, a refreshing view of life around us. We can see our world and the situations we find ourselves in, in a brand new way. His grace gives us the assurance that He is with us and completely aware of where we are and in that place we find a joy that goes beyond just believing. Grace gives us the wonderful experience of knowing that we are loved and therefore the details of our life will bring glory to God and refreshment to us, as well as those around us. How precious is your unfailing love, O GOD! On this new day let the grace of God put away your fears and old habits of thinking that are less than a blessing to you or to others. Enjoy the expressions of grace that are yours in Jesus the Christ and then give them away to everyone you meet. You will be so blessed that you will hardly be able to contain yourself. Your family, work place, church and community will never be the same. This day will be overwhelmed by grace and you will be refreshed in how you feel and think. |