day no. 12,784 finale... pasture eyes'd‏

John 10:9

I am the door. If anyone enters by me,he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture.

 

In Jesus, there is freedom.

 

Fully and finally.

FREE.

 

And the cost of this freedom?

The blood of God.

 

I love that in Jesus we find pasture.

 

We find green grass and room to roam.

 

It is a pasture that has a door.

It is fenced in.

 

There is ONE WAY in.

 

But inside there is life and there is room to live.

 

Hallelujah! What a Savior!

day no. 12,784 continued... an opportunity for the flesh in both directions‏

Galatians 5:13

 

For you were called to freedom, brothers.Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another.

 

Lord, save me from the folly of freedom found in any but You and from the rigor of religion resisting what You've revealed.

day no. 12,784: happy birthday mom!

My mom has been alive 74 years as of today.

That's 27,030 days for those of you playing at home.

Psalm 39:4-5

 

⁴ “Lord, reveal to me the end of my life
and the number of my days.
Let me know how short-lived I am.
⁵ You, indeed, have made my days short in length,
and my life span as nothing in Your sight.
Yes, every mortal man is only a vapor.

 

Selah

 

Selah is the Hebrew equivalent of "chew on that for a while."

 

So go and chew or stew or whatever it is you do.

For a while.

Number your days carefully so that you may develop wisdom in your heart.

P.S. It is also my mother-in-law's birthday today!  I know better than to report the number of days and years she has been alive.  But either way, here's to you too!

day no. 12,783: where we are‏

Oswald put his finger on the trigger this morning when he said

 

We are so busy telling God where we would like to go... Readiness for God means that we are prepared to do the smallest thing or the largest thing— it makes no difference. It means we have no choice in what we want to do, but that whatever God’s plans may be, we are there and ready.

 

We aren't as concerned with where we are as God is.

We are, however, obsessed with where we are going.

 

We feel it is less spiritual to be grounded in today.

It isn't.

 

It is unspiritual to long ONLY for mountaintops.

 

Oswald ended his thoughts by proclaiming it this way:

 

A ready person never needs to get ready— he is ready.

day no. 12,782: a hope that is thrice as nice‏

Romans 15:13

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.

The FATHER fills us with joy and peace as we believe in the SON so that the SPIRIT may overflow our hearts with hope.

I love how the Trinity works together to secure hope, extend hope and stir hope within us.

The FATHER pours out of His abundant riches into our hearts, minds and souls ALL joy and peace as we believe fully, solely and wholly in the work of the SON on our behalf so that the SPIRIT may stir in us a hope abundant enough to endure the days and proclaim His ways.

It is FROM, TO, and THROUGH God that we have hope.

Because He is the source, hope is secure.
Because He is the mode, hope is assured.
Because He is the means, hope endures

day no. 12,779: a perfect holiday‏

Chambers fired this bad boy off the other morning,

You no more need a day off from spiritual concentration on matters in your life than your heart needs a day off from beating.

If your heart takes a break, you die.

You cannot take a moral holiday and remain moral.

If your morality takes a break, your morality dies.

Have you ever acted immorally?
Ever?

If you have, you are not a moral person.

You may be moral more often than not, but moral more often than not does not a moral person make.

The moral person acts with perfect morality.

I know we know that no one is perfect which is why we have a tendency to believe that morality is being more moral than immoral, but that is a compromise fitted to the spirit of our age.

You either have the Spirit of God or you have the spirit of our age.

One requires perfection, the other merely progress.

You cannot work your way back to perfection after missing the mark earlier.

Receive perfection or die imperfect and suffer the consequences thereof.

day no. 12,778: the Holy Spirit is hard to have over for dinner‏

Ozzie could not have said it simpler when he said,

The Holy Spirit cannot be located as a Guest in a house, He invades everything.

The Holy Spirit is hard to have over for dinner.

He acts like He owns the place.

Have you made a little room in your heart for God?

I'm guessing that king-sized bed underestimated His requirements.

Get rid of the little room and give God the whole house.