Tag: No Housework Day

Is Christ Risen In Me?

Jeff2 Comments

“People who know little are usually great talkers, while men who know much say little.”~~Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Read more at: http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes_of_the_day.html

Today’s word of the day, from Dictionary.com, is ersatz, which means, “serving as a substitute; synthetic; artificial.”

Today is No Housework Day. Wouldn’t it be a lot more fun if that fell on Saturday or Sunday?

I think I’m feeling better today. However, the “cold” (or whatever it is) decided to include my head, so yesterday I was sniffling and sneezing, as well as coughing and wheezing. Whoa, that rhymed! I still feel like I could easily sleep another four or five hours, this morning. But I do believe I have “rounded a corner,” as they say.

Baseball continues, and the Rangers are not being very impressive, so far. Bat-wise, they are doing okay, but the bullpen has lost two consecutive games. And, truthfully, they didn’t exactly “win” the first game as much as Seattle lost it. Yesterday afternoon, their closer gave up five runs in the top of the ninth, and never got an out. The Red Sox lost last night, as well. They rallied to go ahead after a rough start by Clay Buchholz, but lost in the eighth, when reliever Tazawa gave up a home run to Mike Napoli, of all people! So he plays for Cleveland, now. The Sox are 1-1 on the season, and the Rangers are 1-2.

It’s Thursday, or pre-Friday, as we like to call it. One more day this week. We plan to spend Saturday in Mineral Wells, to celebrate my mother’s birthday, which is actually tomorrow.

As the bell continues to toll for the year 2016, we lost another legend, yesterday. I found out when Christi texted me at 1:19 PM. Merle Haggard passed away . . . on his 79th birthday! I suppose the song I know him best for is actually a duet with Willie Nelson, “The Ballad of Pancho and Lefty.”

TODAY’S DEVOTIONAL

(From Praying With the Psalms)

My heart overflows with a pleasing theme; I address my verses to the king; my tongue is like the pen of a ready scribe.
You are the most handsome of the sons of men; grace is poured upon your lips; therefore God has blessed you forever.
Gird your sword on your thigh, O mighty one, in your splendor and majesty!
In your majesty ride out victoriously for the cause of truth and meekness and righteousness; let your right hand teach you awesome deeds!
Your arrows are sharp in the heart of the king’s enemies; the peoples fall under you.
Your throne, O God, is forever and ever. The scepter of your kingdom is a scepter of uprightness;
you have loved righteousness and hated wickedness. Therefore God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness beyond your companions;
your robes are all fragrant with myrrh and aloes and cassia. From ivory palaces stringed instruments make you glad;
daughters of kings are among your ladies of honor; at your right hand stands the queen in gold of Ophir.
Hear, O daughter, and consider, and incline your ear: forget your people and your father’s house,
and the king will desire your beauty. Since he is your lord, bow to him.
The people of Tyre will seek your favor with gifts, the richest of the people.
All glorious is the princess in her chamber, with robes interwoven with gold.
In many-colored robes she is led to the king, with her virgin companions following behind her.
With joy and gladness they are led along as they enter the palace of the king.
In place of your fathers shall be your sons; you will make them princes in all the earth.
I will cause your name to be remembered in all generations; therefore nations will praise you forever and ever.
Psalm 45

The most common way to read this Psalm is to read the first nine verses as “adoration to Jesus Christ in all his splendor,” and verses 10-17 as “counsel to the church, urging her to leave the things of the world for a new life as the bride of Christ.”

“My heart, too, ‘overflows with a goodly theme’ when I meditate on your ways, O God. And to think that I am part of your glory! That you include me in your plans! Receive my grateful praise, through Jesus, my Savior. Amen.”

(From My Utmost For His Highest)

“Why Are We Not Told Plainly?”

And as they were coming down the mountain, he charged them to tell no one what they had seen, until the Son of Man had risen from the dead.
Mark 9:9

This verse occurs immediately after what we know as The Transfiguration. There is a correlation here for us, spiritually. The disciples were not to mention this event until Christ was risen from the dead. There are things that we cannot understand, nor adequately speak of, until Christ is risen in us.

“God cannot reveal anything to us if we have not His Spirit. An obstinate outlook will effectually hinder God from revealing anything to us. If we have made up our minds about a doctrine, the light of God will come no more to us on that line, we cannot get it.” But when the resurrection life of Christ has its way in us, this stage of obstinacy will end, and the light will flood within us.

Father, draw us all closer and closer to the resurrected life of Jesus, until we can no longer be obstinate about any subject. Teach us your ways, that we may walk fully in your truth. I ask you to form the resurrected life of Christ within me today and every day!

Come, Lord Jesus!

Grace and peace, friends.

Praying for Enemies

Jeff

Good morning. Sadly, it is only Tuesday, April 7, 2015. 161 games left!! (Just kidding . . . I won’t count down every game of the season. At least not here.)

Today’s Word of the Day is savage man. “In outdoor shows, pageants, masques, etc.: a person dressed in greenery, representing a wild man of the woods.” Also, in “Heraldry. A figure of a wild man, typically represented as naked and wreathed with greenery and depicted as a supporter of a coat of arms.”

Today is No Housework Day. I don’t think that needs any explanation.

Yesterday, I felt a little off, from my morning prayer time, all the way until I got home in the evening. I can’t really explain it, but, oddly, Christi said she felt the same way. Hopefully, today will be better.

Fortunately, the Red Sox were not at all “off,” yesterday. They pounded Cole Hamels and the Phillies (along with five other pitchers) for five home runs (including Hanley Ramirez’s 9th inning grand slam) and 8 runs to defeat the Phillies 8-0. The Rangers did not fare so well on Opening Day, as they were nearly no-hit by the A’s, and lost 8-0. Yovani Gallardo was, apparently, not impressive in his first outing for Texas. In the AL East, Baltimore and Toronto also won, with NY and Tampa losing. In the AL West, Houston, Oakland, and Seattle won, with Texas and LA losing. There are fewer games today, as some of the teams who played yesterday (Boston included) take the day off.

Tonight is my Huddle night. I don’t remember and “homework” given to us for this week.

TODAY’S DEVOTIONAL

A Psalm of David.

Ascribe to the LORD, O heavenly beings, ascribe to the LORD glory and strength.
Ascribe to the LORD the glory due his name; worship the LORD in the splendor of holiness.
The voice of the LORD is over the waters; the God of glory thunders, the LORD, over many waters.
The voice of the LORD is powerful; the voice of the LORD is full of majesty.
The voice of the LORD breaks the cedars; the LORD breaks the cedars of Lebanon.
He makes Lebanon to skip like a calf, and Sirion like a young wild ox.
The voice of the LORD flashes forth flames of fire.
The voice of the LORD shakes the wilderness; the LORD shakes the wilderness of Kadesh.
Psalm 29:1-8

(From Solid Joys)

Today’s reading is “What It Means to Pray for Your Enemy.”

But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.
Matthew 5:44

“Prayer for your enemies is one of the deepest forms of love, because it means that you have to really want that something good happen to them.”

It is possible to do “nice things” for your enemies and not have a desire for things to go well for them. But when we pray for them, we are more deeply in the presence of God, and God knows our hearts. We are also interceding on their behalf, before God. In short, when we pray for our enemies, we are asking God to do good things for them.

Take, for example, the words of Jesus, as he hung on the cross: “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” (Luke 23:34)

Or the words of Stephen, as he was being stoned to death: And falling to his knees he cried out with a loud voice, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.” And when he had said this, he fell asleep. (Acts 7:60)

This is more than a call to just do nice things for our enemies, like greeting them or helping them when they have needs. This is a call for us to want the best for them, “and to express those wants in prayers when the enemy is nowhere around.”

We should, above all, desire their salvation, along with their presence in heaven. So, we should pray as Paul prayed for the Jews, “many of whom made life very hard for Paul,” Brothers, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for them is that they may be saved. (Romans 10:1)

Father, I am convicted by this reading today. Although I have no true “enemies,” at least not in the sense that Paul did, there are still people who make life difficult for me, and I should be praying to you on their behalf, asking for good things to happen to them. May your Spirit lead me in this direction, going forward. Teach me your way, that I may walk in your truth, even, and especially, in this are of praying for my enemies.

I pray for this day, that our travel to work will be smooth and safe. I pray for Christi’s day, that there be no stress/anxiety, and that her work will go smoothly. I pray for Stephanie, that her heart would be full of your love for her, and that she would show that same love to others. May your life shine through my life as I work today, that I might display the Gospel in all things that I do. I pray for my parents, that you would give them strength and hope today, keeping them in your care. I pray for Rachel and Justin, that you would open doors for their future as they seek a path forward. Provide for them whatever they need most today.

Your grace is sufficient.

If you can’t imagine desiring good things for the people you dislike the most, you aren’t following Jesus.

Grace and peace, friends.

May God Show Us How to Worship Him

Jeff

Good morning. It is Sunday, April 7, 2013.

Yesterday was a pretty great day. I had a most wonderful time yesterday afternoon, as Rachel, Justin, and I went to see Jurassic Park 3D at a brand new theater in the Alliance area. Jurassic Park has remained one of my top five favorite movies since the first day I saw it, and may have regained the top spot on my list after seeing it again yesterday. (Sweeney Todd, the Demon Barber of Fleet Street, starring Johnny Depp, has been number one for a long time, now.) And this is still my favorite movie clip of all time. I still get all teary eyed every time I see it.

After the movie, we sat around and talked a while at the house, then had some dinner while we watched a couple of TV shows on Netflix. It was a very nice day.

I only have a short time on Sundays, so I have to skip the history and birthday segments of my daily blog. I will, however, mention that today is No Housework Day. Huzzah!

TODAY’S DEVOTIONAL

May God be gracious to us and bless us and make his face to shine upon us. Psalm 67:1
You are a hiding place for me; you preserve me from trouble; you surround me with shouts of deliverance. Psalm 32:7
Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O LORD, my rock and my redeemer. Psalm 19:14

“Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, the sinner.”

“O God, whose blessed Son made himself known to his disciples in the breaking of bread: Open the eyes of my faith, that I may behold him in all his redeeming work; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.” (From The Divine Hours)

Today’s reading from A Year With God is called “God-Directed Worship.” The scripture reading is Deuteronomy 12:1-7.

These are the statutes and rules that you shall be careful to do in the land that the LORD, the God of your fathers, has given you to possess, all the days that you live on the earth. You shall surely destroy all the places where the nations whom you shall dispossess served their gods, on the high mountains and on the hills and under every green tree. You shall tear down their altars and dash in pieces their pillars and burn their Asherim with fire. You shall chop down the carved images of their gods and destroy their name out of that place. You shall not worship the LORD your God in that way. But you shall seek the place that the LORD your God will choose out of all your tribes to put his name and make his habitation there. There you shall go, and there you shall bring your burnt offerings and your sacrifices, your tithes and the contribution that you present, your vow offerings, your freewill offerings, and the firstborn of your herd and of your flock. And there you shall eat before the LORD your God, and you shall rejoice, you and your households, in all that you undertake, in which the LORD your God has blessed you.

God was very explicit about having the Israelites tear down any places of worship that were directed toward the false gods of the nations around them. These places might tempt the people to either worship God in the wrong way or to worship the gods of the other nations. These places were to be completely destroyed. I can say pretty safely that there aren’t any places around here tempting me to worship another deity. However, there are plenty of things in my life clamoring for my attention, or my “worship,” if you will. There are things that tempt my heart to put them first and God second. “We must root out the desire to worship these things and focus on the true God.”

Also note that the people were told to seek out the worship place that “the LORD your God will choose out of all your tribes to put his name and make his habitation there.” There is a principle at work that we must seek, even today. “God defines the conditions of our worship of him.” I don’t believe he is nearly as strict today as he was in the Old Testament, allowing us quite a bit of freedom in our worship of him. Nevertheless, we must be careful that we are not simply worshiping him as we see fit. We should be diligent to seek his face when it comes to how we worship him.

The challenges for today are to first, identify what might be areas in my life that tempt me to worship them or desire them ahead of God, and to second, think about how God has been directing me to worship him, lately.

If you read yesterday’s entry, you know how it finished. For once, I did not put a “take-away” at the end, nor did I end with my traditional ending. The key from yesterday’s prayer time was, “It’s all about you, Jesus.” I didn’t want to detract from that by putting any of my own thoughts at the end. Today, that is my goal. We are about to leave for church as soon as I complete this entry. I want this morning to be all about Jesus for me, and everyone around me. Today, I believe that is how God is directing me to worship him.

Father, I pray that I will be successful in focusing only on you, through the blood and by the Spirit, this morning. As we set up, may I make it all about you. As I play in worship, may it all be about you. Let everything be about you this morning. Help me to not be distracted by anything else today.

You know how much I love other things in my life, such as baseball, books, and music. I pray that you will, by your Spirit, always point out to me when any of these things (or anything else in my life) becomes more important to me than you. May you be my most important; may you be my main thing; may you be my rock and my fortress and my great and sure salvation. You are my God!

I pray for our worship this morning. May it be acceptable in your eyes, and may our songs and prayers rise up to you like sweet incense. As we celebrate baptism with one of our families this morning, may we rejoice with them at the salvation of one of their children. And let me hang on every word that you bring us today.

Give us safe travel to Mineral Wells after church today, as we visit with my parents.

Let God tell you how to worship him.

Grace and peace, friends.