We are full of worship because of Who You are!  Oh how we love You, Father.  The many wonderful things that You provide for us and do for us mean so very much to us.  We need and desire them.  But it is YOU that we daily seek and insistently require!  We know that our very being is locked into Who You are.  It is such a comforting and secure realization to know that the God of the universe is our very own Father.

Today we just want to pour out our adoration for You.  Your holiness is so amazing to us.  Because we are such creatures of change, the fact that You never change is so important to us.  You are consistently holy and never waiver from it.  Your righteousness is such a force of protection for us.  You always do right and this keeps us from evil.  Your mercy and Your grace are places we run to when we have missed Your glorious mark and we thank You for these refuges.

We thank You for repentance that allows us to come back into proper relationship with You when we sin.  Thank You that You promise to always be faithful and just to forgive us and restore us to Your righteousness.  What can we say about Your love?  It is so amazing!  In fact, You describe Yourself as LOVE!

Thank You that love caused You to give Jesus for us when we had rejected Your instructions and eaten of the forbidden fruit.  Love lifted me, when nothing else could help, love lifted me!  Your teaching nature as our Father is so uplifting.  The way You patiently take us through our lessons means so much to us.  Because of the sin that surrounds us as a result of our original sin, we sometimes do not recognize or understand Your instructions.  But You never fail to give us the same lesson in a different way.  You are determined that we are successful and have the life You are dreaming over us.  Thank You for Your diligence!

You have promised to never let us go and we are grateful for that.  There are times when we feel so weak that we cannot hold on to You.  But You hold us and breathe strength back into us.  Thank You Daddy!  We desire to be accurate representations of Jesus today.  Holy Spirit, we give ourselves to You with joy!  We give this worship and these praises in the matchless Name of Jesus, Amen.

Submitted by Rev. Caralene McClain

A time of prayer is a time of communion. If there is no communion then have we really prayed?

Talent and time spent in praising the Lord is all well and good but have we forgotten the big picture which is, loving God?

It is not always easy to discipline oneself and remain focused, in order to complete a plan. Doing so can be frustrating, especially when there is much to be done. Although following a plan is not always easy, it is necessary if we want to accomplish a goal.

Many of us get bogged down when working on the small steps and make a mountain out of a molehill with what was trivial. . By doing this, we mismanage time and lose focus of our original intent. 

No matter what task we have to accomplish, it is always important to reflect and refocus our thoughts on the important goals. Some like to create ‘To Do’ lists as a guide to help them with their daily tasks. Sometimes, these lists are so long and complicated that they seem like crowded trees in a forest. How do we prevent ourselves from becoming in the midst of many details? How do we keep remembering the big picture?  When it comes to serving in the Kingdom of God, then our big picture is ‘Loving God’.

Let us for a moment step back and take an overview of what are our God-given goals.  What have we accomplished? What is yet to be done?  What boundaries have been established along the way? What skills have we developed that would enable us to accomplish purpose?  From this vantage point we will be on the road to achieving and accomplishing our purpose and mission.  This time of study and retrospection is important and necessary.

Let us review our goals, the goals of the ministry and mission.  Observe how they have changed or developed over time, and then create new goals showing how you plan to accomplish the big picture.

May we show that we love God by obediently doing what He has called us to do. In that way we will keep sight of the big picture.

 John 14:15     Jesus said, “If you love me, keep my commandments.

Read John 14 (The Message)

“If you love me, show it by doing what I’ve told you. I will talk to the Father, and he’ll provide you another Friend so that you will always have someone with you. This Friend is the Spirit of Truth. The godless world can’t take him in because it doesn’t have eyes to see him, doesn’t know what to look for. But you know him already because he has been staying with you, and will even be in you!

^18-20“I will not leave you orphaned. I’m coming back. In just a little while the world will no longer see me, but you’re going to see me because I am alive and you’re about to come alive. At that moment you will know absolutely that I’m in my Father, and you’re in me, and I’m in you.

²¹“The person who knows my commandments and keeps them, that’s who loves me. And the person who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and make myself plain to him.”

²²Judas (not Iscariot) said, “Master, why is it that you are about to make yourself plain to us but not to the world?”

^23-24“Because a loveless world,” said Jesus, “is a sightless world. If anyone loves me, he will carefully keep my word and my Father will love him—we’ll move right into the neighborhood! Not loving me means not keeping my words. The message you are hearing isn’t mine. It’s the message of the Father who sent me.

Do a good deed for someone today. You might be saving a life.

May your walk with the Lord be strengthened in the year to come.

Have a happy and blessed New Year even as we pray for Peace on earth and goodwill to all mankind.

Thank God for the cross!

We often remember it as a place of pain and shame; a place of sacrifice. A place where the ugliness of man’s sinful heart was nailed upon an innocent Christ.

Yet for all its humiliation and sorrow, there is a beauty in the cross of Christ. It is not just a wooden cross hewn from a tree, but it is a golden cross revealing the redeeming light of God’s glory. It is not only a cross soaked with the sin of man, but it is a cross brilliant in the delivering power of God.

The light of the cross of Christ chases away all shadows and darkness. It cuts directly through our stubborn hearts and removes the deepest root of sin, in order to bring us deliverance.

Thank God for the Cross of Christ!

Shalom!

Enjoy this day as you give thanks.

The Psalmist David said:

1 Don’t worry about the wicked
or envy those who do wrong.
2 For like grass, they soon fade away.
Like spring flowers, they soon wither.

3 Trust in the Lord and do good.
Then you will live safely in the land and prosper.
4 Take delight in the Lord,
and he will give you your heart’s desires.

5 Commit everything you do to the Lord.
Trust him, and he will help you.
6 He will make your innocence radiate like the dawn,
and the justice of your cause will shine like the noonday sun.

7 Be still in the presence of the Lord,
and wait patiently for him to act.
Don’t worry about evil people who prosper
or fret about their wicked schemes.

8 Stop being angry!
Turn from your rage!
Do not lose your temper—
it only leads to harm.
9 For the wicked will be destroyed,
but those who trust in the Lord will possess the land.

10 Soon the wicked will disappear.
Though you look for them, they will be gone.
11 The lowly will possess the land
and will live in peace and prosperity.

12 The wicked plot against the godly;
they snarl at them in defiance.
13 But the Lord just laughs,
for he sees their day of judgment coming.

14 The wicked draw their swords
and string their bows
to kill the poor and the oppressed,
to slaughter those who do right.
15 But their swords will stab their own hearts,
and their bows will be broken.

16 It is better to be godly and have little
than to be evil and rich.
17 For the strength of the wicked will be shattered,
but the Lord takes care of the godly.

18 Day by day the Lord takes care of the innocent,
and they will receive an inheritance that lasts forever.
19 They will not be disgraced in hard times;
even in famine they will have more than enough.

20 But the wicked will die.
The Lord’s enemies are like flowers in a field—
they will disappear like smoke.

21 The wicked borrow and never repay,
but the godly are generous givers.
22 Those the Lord blesses will possess the land,
but those he curses will die.

23 The Lord directs the steps of the godly.
He delights in every detail of their lives.
24 Though they stumble, they will never fall,
for the Lord holds them by the hand.

25 Once I was young, and now I am old.
Yet I have never seen the godly abandoned
or their children begging for bread.
26 The godly always give generous loans to others,
and their children are a blessing.

27 Turn from evil and do good,
and you will live in the land forever.
28 For the Lord loves justice,
and he will never abandon the godly.

He will keep them safe forever,
but the children of the wicked will die.
29 The godly will possess the land
and will live there forever.

30 The godly offer good counsel;
they teach right from wrong.
31 They have made God’s law their own,
so they will never slip from his path.

32 The wicked wait in ambush for the godly,
looking for an excuse to kill them.
33 But the Lord will not let the wicked succeed
or let the godly be condemned when they are put on trial.

34 Put your hope in the Lord.
Travel steadily along his path.
He will honor you by giving you the land.
You will see the wicked destroyed.

35 I have seen wicked and ruthless people
flourishing like a tree in its native soil.
36 But when I looked again, they were gone!
Though I searched for them, I could not find them!

37 Look at those who are honest and good,
for a wonderful future awaits those who love peace.
38 But the rebellious will be destroyed;
they have no future.

39 The Lord rescues the godly;
he is their fortress in times of trouble.
40 The Lord helps them,
rescuing them from the wicked.
He saves them,
and they find shelter in him.

(Psalm 37) The Message

The Election furor has come and gone. Many are excited that their candidate won. Others are second guessing their choice while so many others are sad and afraid of the unknown. Yet, in the midst of this period of change, God’s faithful word remains the same. It is His faithful assurance found in the scriptures that I will be sharing with you for the next few days. Let the word of God renew your faith for He never fails.

Today’s Scripture: Proverbs 3: 5-12 (The Message)

Trust God from the bottom of your heart;
don’t try to figure out everything on your own.
Listen for God’s voice in everything you do, everywhere you go;
he’s the one who will keep you on track.
Don’t assume that you know it all.
Run to God! Run from evil!
Your body will glow with health,
your very bones will vibrate with life!
Honor God with everything you own;
give him the first and the best.
Your barns will burst,
your wine vats will brim over.
But don’t, dear friend, resent God’s discipline;
don’t sulk under his loving correction.
It’s the child he loves that God corrects;
a father’s delight is behind all this.

They teach us that we should not covet what belongs to our neighbour. Are many of our friends being coveteous by voting for one of the presidential candidates because he has promised to take from those who have more in order to give to those who say that they need it? Is this the Gospel of the Bible?

Ten Commandments for the Covenant Community (New Living Translation)

1 Then God gave the people all these instructions^[a]:

2 “I am the Lord your God, who rescued you from the land of Egypt, the place of your slavery.
3 “You must not have any other god but me.
4 “You must not make for yourself an idol of any kind or an image of anything in the heavens or on the earth or in the sea. 5 You must not bow down to them or worship them, for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God who will not tolerate your affection for any other gods. I lay the sins of the parents upon their children; the entire family is affected—even children in the third and fourth generations of those who reject me. 6 But I lavish unfailing love for a thousand generations on those^[b] who love me and obey my commands.
7 “You must not misuse the name of the Lord your God. The Lord will not let you go unpunished if you misuse his name.
8 “Remember to observe the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. 9 You have six days each week for your ordinary work, 10 but the seventh day is a Sabbath day of rest dedicated to the Lord your God. On that day no one in your household may do any work. This includes you, your sons and daughters, your male and female servants, your livestock, and any foreigners living among you. 11 For in six days the Lord made the heavens, the earth, the sea, and everything in them; but on the seventh day he rested. That is why the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and set it apart as holy.
12 “Honor your father and mother. Then you will live a long, full life in the land the Lord your God is giving you.
13 “You must not murder.
14 “You must not commit adultery.
15 “You must not steal.
16 “You must not testify falsely against your neighbor.
17 “You must not covet your neighbor’s house. You must not covet your neighbor’s wife, male or female servant, ox or donkey, or anything else that belongs to your neighbor.”