Good morning!

Light…
 
Have you ever been in a place so dark, that you could not see anything at all? Where you could only hear your breathing and noises around you? Or you could touch surfaces but not see them?
 
Has your life ever been this dark? How did this make you feel?
 
I have been in that dark place where no light was shining – my fear was palatable, it paralyzed my life, it lead to bad decisions, selfish behavior, self-loathing. In those times, I couldn’t believe God loved me or that he created me – in His image or that he gifted me and had a purpose for me and my life while in this world.
 
And then there came a moment in my life when the Light started leaking in – not because of my effort to seek His Light – but because He loves me and He called me. And then suddenly one day, I felt the full Light of Christ shine into my life, leaving me praising God for all He has done and filling me with gratitude for each moment, each day, each relationship (with each of you and all others) and thankful for the work He calls me to do.
 
Are you seeing the Light of Christ in your daily life?
 
Scripture has a significant number of references to light – not all relate to light and darkness as I am presenting here. However, there is an overwhelming number that point to the fact that being a believer and follower of Christ places us in His Light and removes us from darkness:
 

• John 1:3-10 “Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. There was a man sent from God whose name was John. He came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through him all might believe. He himself was not the light; he came only as a witness to the light. The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world. He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him.”
• John 3:18-20 “Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son. This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed.”
• John 8:12 ‘When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”’
• 2 Samuel 22:29 “You, Lord, are my lamp; the Lord turns my darkness into light”
• Psalm 4:6 ‘Many, Lord, are asking, “Who will bring us prosperity?” Let the light of your face shine on us.’
• Psalm 13:3-4 ‘Look on me and answer, Lord my God. Give light to my eyes, or I will sleep in death, and my enemy will say, “I have overcome him,” and my foes will rejoice when I fall.”’
• Psalm 18:28 “You, Lord, keep my lamp burning; my God turns my darkness into light.”
• Psalm 19:8 “The precepts of the Lord are right, giving joy to the heart. The commands of the Lord are radiant, giving light to the eyes.”
• Psalm 27 “The Lord is my light and my salvation—whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life—of whom shall I be afraid?”
• Matthew 5:14-16 “You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.”
• Matthew 6:22-23 “The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are healthy, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eyes are unhealthy, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness!” (See also Luke 11:33-36)
• Luke 8:16-17 “No one lights a lamp and hides it in a clay jar or puts it under a bed. Instead, they put it on a stand, so that those who come in can see the light. For there is nothing hidden that will not be disclosed, and nothing concealed that will not be known or brought out into the open.”

 
If you get a chance, go back and read the entire book of Acts. It is full of stories of the Light of the World pushing back the darkness. Acts is the story of how the Good News of the gospel, how the Light spread throughout the world and eventually reaching us today.

​Lord Jesus, my prayer for each of us as we enter this weekend is that when we look up we see You, the Light in those around us and that we shine Your Light back to others as we live centered in You, Jesus Christ! That in that in Your perfect Light, we have gratitude even in these difficult times. Amen!
 
Have a weekend filled with the Peace that comes from knowing our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ,
 
Patrick

Good morning!

My need to be praying is pretty constant these days. A steady stream of prayer request from brothers and sisters in Christ. And just many personal and family needs for prayer have been on my heart. I think this might not be unusual for any of us – and maybe intensified during this current season.
 
This is something I have written about before and thought might be worth your while to see again bolstering your desire to invest time in prayer.
 
These last few months have brought many prayer requests my way. At times the number and frequency of these requests sometimes feels a little overwhelming. But then God starts working on my mind, heart and attitude about these requests.

• James 5:16

Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.

• Matthew 18:19-20

Again I say to you, if two of you agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven. For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them.”

• 1 Thessalonians 1:2

We give thanks to God always for all of you, constantly mentioning you in our prayers,

• 1 Thessalonians 5:16-17

Rejoice always, pray without ceasing,
 
Just for the word prayer, there are 154 references in the ESV translation for that word. And there are so many variations – suffice it to say prayer is a foundation in our relationship with Jesus Christ, God the Father and the Holy Spirit.
 
Our faith is nourished in prayer (a week or two ago I said faith was rooted in action – so you could say prayer is an expression of faith as a verb) – of course not just general prayer directed to someone or something – or thoughts and vibes sent your way - but prayer directed to our God in the name of His Son our Savior.
 
God desires for us to reach out to him prayer – to praise Him, to express gratitude and thanks in all things, to lift each other up, to edify and build up each other, to pour out grief and pain, to seek Him, His wisdom and discernment, to bring our pain and agony to Him, to open our hands in surrender to Him, to reach out for His forgiveness of our sins and for those who have sinned against us, to stay connected to Him by praying often.
 
So this brings me back to my comment above about being overwhelmed by the number of prayer requests I have been receiving. Through His Word and presence as I prayed to Him, my heart has changed, my mind renewed and my attitude adjusted. A friend had a prayer request a couple of weeks ago and as I read that prayer request and settled in to lift up his mother in prayer, God put on my heart the following:

• To be asked to lift someone up or a situation up in prayer before God, is first and foremost a blessing given by God the Father to me. God is asking me into a deeper and holy relationship with Him every time I get to stand, sit, kneel or lay prone before Him in prayer. Personal time with Him that will not only send up the prayer request I offer up for someone else but will also draw me closer to Him, who opened the door for us to have a deep and loving relationship with Him, first through the death and resurrection of Jesus and then also by bringing a prayer request to me that I might be blessed in spending time with Him.

 
Lord Jesus, my prayer for each of us this weekend is that …we learn to cherish the blessing given to us in each and every moment of prayer time; that in the time we spend with the Father we are brought closer to Him, His Son and the Holy Spirit! Amen!
 
Have a weekend filled with the Peace that comes from knowing our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ,
 
Patrick

Good morning!


Do you have a life list? Recently, I had a chance to uncover a list I made several years ago and it spurred me on to revisit this idea of what are my core values. 

Before I spend more time on my life list, I would like to frame my thinking about this by some thoughts around the Bible. The Bible represents God's story - it is not my story except as He has created you and me.  So when we first look at scripture we should try to understand what God is sharing about Himself, what does He want us to know - and only then might we look further to understand how He wants to be in relationship with us (as an individual and as a community of believers)
 
Here is the list I made back a few years ago. How does this apply to my daily life and maybe to yours?…
 
My Life List:

1. Time spent with Jesus –
   1. every morning;
   2. every evening;
   3. everyday
2. Best effort in all the work I do (God ask us to glorify Him in all that we do - 1 Corinthians 10:31)
3. Be a Philippians 2:1-8 person – live in service to others:
   1. Wife / family
   2. Neighbors
   3. Friends
   4. Strangers
   5. Enemies – or those very different from me
4. Turn to Christ in all circumstances
5. By generous – God has provided all I have – hold it with open hands – both time, talent and money
6. Walk in Christ in all interactions with others…

 
I believe this quote by John Maxwell gets to how core values apply to daily living - “Your core values are the deeply held beliefs that authentically describe your soul.” – this applies to individuals as well as organizations and communities of believers…and I think this speaks to understanding how we live in Christ.
 
When I wrote this list I later shared it in a devotional just a few weeks later - I shared the following – it was a piece on what are your (and my) core values fueled by a friend who lives life framed this way – this list above in some sense is the start of a set of core values to live my life by. I think this whole idea of life lists or core values is important and applies to drawing near to God so I am re-sharing these thoughts as well:

• I sense/hear Jesus Christ calling out to me to pause and take the time to walk through this exercise as a way to draw near to Him in my daily walk with Him (see James 4:8, Hebrews 4:16; 7:19, 25; 10:1, 22, 25; 11:16). The word “anchor” comes to mind – Jesus Christ is our anchor. He has provided us the way to connect ourselves to Him as our anchor, through Him, now children of God, the veil has been torn open (Matthew 27:51). When we accept the gift of salvation in Jesus Christ offered to us, we are casting off the chains of the anchor of the world – and in our acceptance of the gift, in the surrender of our lives to Christ, we are chaining ourselves to the One sure anchor in life.

 

• Knowing our core values as anchored (Hebrews 6:19) in our faith in Jesus Christ is like building our house on the rock and not the sand (Matthew 7:23-25).

 
I am glad that the Holy Spirit resurfaced the life list I had produced in the past moving it back to the forefront for me. I pray that I keep this piece of meditating in Him out front. And that this represents and authentically describes my heart and soul in Jesus Christ. And that it aligns with God's heart for my life and yours.
 
Lord Jesus, my prayer for each of us as we go into this weekend is that each of us finds a way in this year to keep you, Jesus Christ centered in our lives, that we see the framework You have provided for us to live in You, for Your glory! Amen!
 
Have a weekend filled with the Peace that comes from knowing our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ,
 
Patrick

Good morning!

Almost 10 years ago now, as I was saying my prayers, my granddaughter Hadley came skipping into the room. She was smiling and full of joy – she had just gotten home from preschool (she was in an evening version of preschool at that time). The joy of a child.
 
Two words popped into my head – one I have used already - J - joy – and the other is faithfulness.
 
The question here is can we find joy in God’s faithfulness? Do we see His faithfulness? Is our love for others imbued with faithfulness of our Lord’s love for each of us? Is our love for Jesus Christ filled with the desire to be faithful to His call on our lives (knowing we are human and fall short)? Do we feel God’s unending and faithful love for us as children of God?
 
If our answers are positive to those questions, we should feel joy, child like joy!
 
I have a personal experience related to God’s faithfulness – I will never forget that moment when Christ broke fully into my life and my life changed. Since God has been ever present and ever faithful. At times the joy I feel in the knowledge of God’s work I my life brims over.
 
Here are some pieces of scripture that speak to God’s faithfulness (there are over 60 references to His faithfulness – many in the Psalms) which we can take joy and hope from:
 
Lamentations 3:21-24
“Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope: Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. I say to myself, “The Lord is my portion; therefore I will wait for him.”
 
Psalms 36:5-9
“Your love, Lord, reaches to the heavens, your faithfulness to the skies. Your righteousness is like the highest mountains, your justice like the great deep. You, Lord, preserve both people and animals. How priceless is your unfailing love, O God! People take refuge in the shadow of your wings. They feast on the abundance of your house; you give them drink from your river of delights. For with you is the fountain of life; in your light we see light.”
 
Psalms 86:15
“But you, Lord, are a compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness.”
 
Psalms 89 – This one Psalm has at least seven references to God’s faithfulness
 
We talk often about God’s goodness, sharing sometimes – “God is good – always!”. We can trust that God is faithful. If you consider faithfulness a part of goodness, God is good, count on it. If God is good, take joy that he is ever present in your life and always faithful!
 
Lord Jesus, my prayer for each of us as we go into this weekend is that we can treasure Your faithfulness, especially in our salvation through You, Jesus Christ, and that truth will bring joy everyday in our living for Him.
 
Have a weekend filled with the Peace that comes from knowing our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ,
 
Patrick