Scripture reading: Colossians 1:9–14
Key verse: Psalm 68:28
Your God has commanded your strength;
Strengthen, O God, what You have done for us.
The most powerful act anyone can perform is to pray for someone. Of course, the power is not in the praying, but in the release God gives in His perfect answer to our prayers. Paul provided an example of one of the most effective prayers we could utter. He prayed for the Colossian church:
• to be filled with the knowledge of God’s will. What a wonderful gesture to ask God to make clear for family members or friends the precise, exact decisions He wishes them to make in every circumstance.
• to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord. This means asking that someone’s life will have weight—will count eternally and not temporally.
• to bear fruit in every good work. We should pray for loved ones to remain so Christ-centered that He through them determines their conversation, conduct, and character.
• to increase in the knowledge of God. Can there be a more precious request than that of wanting someone to grow ever closer to our heavenly Father?
• to be strengthened and sustained with the power of God. Within an evil world system, we need the supernatural power of God to help us bear up under the strain.
• to give thanks for having qualified as saints of God. There is nothing for which we should be more appreciative.
Father, today I pray for those I love—that they will be filled with the knowledge of Your will and walk in a manner worthy of You.
Father, today I pray for those I love—that they will be filled with the knowledge of Your will and walk in a manner worthy of You. Let them bear fruit in every good work and be strengthened and sustained by Your power.
Resources:
Devotional is from Into His Presence By Charles Stanley
Don’t waste your life By Lecrae from the album Rebel.. if you want this album or any other of the materials on this blog email me at inhalejesus@gmail.com
Luke 12:15-21 – Then he said to them, “Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; a man’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.” And he told them this parable: “The ground of a certain rich man produced a good crop. He thought to himself, ‘What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.’
“Then he said, ‘This is what I’ll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I’ll say to myself, “You have plenty of good things laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.” ‘ “But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?’
“This is how it will be with anyone who stores up things for himself but is not rich toward God.”
I pray if you guys take anything out of this song just ask yourselves this: Am I chasing God or his gifts? Do I live for his presence or his presents? Would you be satisfied to get to Heaven and not see Him?
The artist is sho baraka @ reach records if you want some tracks by him email me at inhalejesus@gmail.com
Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am tempted by God”; for God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He tempt anyone. -James 1:13
Although some believe in the ancient idea that God is responsible for our temptation and sin, James forbids such a thought in today’s verse.James warns against rationalizing our sin and blaming God in the midst of our battle against temptation. When you are fighting temptation and near to yielding, don’t make the excuse that God is tempting you.
Assuming that no one would accuse God of directly causing him to sin, James is saying that we should not even think of God as the ultimate cause of our sins. Most people don’t go as far as to see God as the direct tempter, but they do believe God is indirectly to blame by having permitted the situation and the possibility of failure. But God is not the near agency of temptation, nor is He even its remote cause. Don’t ever look at yourself as a victim of God’s providence.
Wish good for those who harm you; wish them well and do not curse them. – Romans 12:14
It would be hard to find someone worse than Judas. Some say he was a good man with a backfired strategy. I don’t buy that. The Bible says, “Judas … was a thief” (John 12:6). The man was a crook. Somehow he was able to live in the presence of God and experience the miracles of Christ and remain unchanged. In the end he decided he’d rather have money than a friend, so he sold Jesus for thirty pieces of silver.… Judas was a scoundrel, a cheat, and a bum. How could anyone see him any other way?
I don’t know, but Jesus did. Only inches from the face of his betrayer, Jesus looked at him and said, “Friend, do what you came to do” (Matt. 26:50). What Jesus saw in Judas as worthy of being called a friend, I can’t imagine. But I do know that Jesus doesn’t lie, and in that moment he saw something good in a very bad man.…
He can help us do the same with those who hurt us.
Resources:
Sermon Jam was created by John Mahshie @ Relevant Revolution
Speaker on sermon jam is Carter Pounders @ The Body
Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life.. – Rev. 2:10
There is a heaven at the end of every faithful Christian’s journey.
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled. – Matthew 5:6
Those who hunger and thirst for righteousness are primarily concerned about being righteous through faith in Christ Jesus (6:33). They naturally then also desire to live righteous and God-pleasing lives, and they are concerned about sharing Christ’s righteousness with the whole world. They trust that, when they put first things first, their heavenly Father will keep his promise to provide them with everything they need for this body and life.
They also know how to satisfy their spiritual hunger and thirst. They know the Lord Jesus as the Bread of Life, and they drink deeply of the living water that he provides. In other words, they faithfully use the means of grace, the gospel of Christ in Word and sacrament. They like to make the Word of God a part of their daily routine. They love to assemble regularly with their fellow believers to hear God’s Word proclaimed. They do not casually pass up opportunities to receive the Lord’s Supper, and they live with daily appreciation of the blessings of their baptism, thus continuing to be blessed and strengthened by the covenant of grace the Lord made with them through Holy Baptism. They know that God forgives all their sins day by day and that they will stand among the righteous on Christ’s right hand on the day of judgment.
When I am weak, then I am strong. – 2 Corinthians 12:10
Paul knew that in every area where he was weak, Christ would more than make up for his weakness, and the result would be far more strength than he could ever have apart from Christ. The same is true for you and me. When we rely on Jesus Christ to be our sufficiency, He steps in and makes us “more” than anything we could ever be in our own strength, intellect, or ability. If we are willing to trust Him and rely upon Him, He will take what we offer—doing our best and giving our best—and enhance it with His own presence, power, wisdom, and creative spirit. He will produce more than would otherwise be physically, naturally, or materially possible.
Resources:
Speaker on sermon jam is John Piper @ Desiring God
Sermon Jam was created by 1031 Sermon Jams
Trip Lee – Cling to You
Lyrics
My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials. – James 1:2
The joy we experience from our trials can be some of the greatest joy we know. Since one of the major reasons God sends trials into our lives is to test the genuineness of our faith, what more fitting occasion to have joy than in and after an experience of suffering that has proved the reality of our salvation? A strengthened assurance of our salvation and confidence that God cares for us, as manifest in the reality that our suffering could neither break our faith nor sever us from His love, is cause for the highest happiness.
True joy does not come cheaply or as a fleeting, superficial emotion. Real joy is produced by much deeper factors than the circumstances that produce superficial happiness. If you are struggling through the negative circumstances of life, floundering in doubt and dismay, you have forgotten that genuine joy resides in the confidence that your life is hidden with Christ in God. In God’s providence, that joy and assurance can be most strong during a trial.
Resources:
Song is by Trip Lee @ Reach Records
As always if you want any of the songs or albums from any of the blog updates you can shoot me an email at inhalejesus@gmail and ill hook you up..
Grace and Peace
We also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance; and perseverance, character; and character, hope. – Romans 5:3–4
Jewelers use “the water test” as one of the surest ways to identify a true diamond. An imitation stone is never as brilliant as a genuine stone, but sometimes the difference can’t be determined with the unaided eye. Jewelers know that a genuine diamond placed in water sparkles brilliantly, whereas the sparkle of the imitation is practically extinguished. That test makes picking the real diamond relatively easy.
By way of analogy, I find that the faith of many people under the water of sorrow or affliction is nothing but an imitation. However, when a true child of God is immersed in a trial, he will shine as brilliantly as ever.
God withdrew from him [King Hezekiah], in order to test him, that He might know all that was in his heart. – 2 Chronicles 32:31
God didn’t need to test Hezekiah to know what was in his heart. God already knew by omniscience. But He tests us so we can find out. He assists us in doing a spiritual inventory on ourselves by bringing trials into our lives to demonstrate the strength or weakness of our faith. If you’re currently experiencing a trial and are shaking your fist at God and wondering why it’s happening, that’s a good indication that you have weak faith. If, on the other hand, you’re resting and rejoicing in the Lord, having placed the trial into His care, then you have strong faith.
God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him.. – 1 John 4:16
God is love; and it is good, as it is true, to think that every sun-ray that touches the earth has the sun at the other end of it; so every bit of love upon God’s earth has God at the other end of it.
Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. – 1 Corinthians 13:4-7
Resources:
Speaker is John Piper
Sermon Jam was created by 1031 Sermon Jams
These pictures were all taken in space by the Hubble telescope. If God has beauty like this in outer space, can you even fathom what heaven will be like?
“No eye has seen,
no ear has heard,
no mind has conceived
what God has prepared for those who love him” – 1 Corinthians 2:9