Build a Peaceful Lifestyle

The Sovereignty of God
The Sovereignty of God

The Peaceful Kingdom

1 Peter 1:3-12  The Message

A New Life

^3-5 What a God we have! And how fortunate we are to have him, this Father of our Master Jesus! Because Jesus was raised from the dead, we’ve been given a brand-new life and have everything to live for, including a future in heaven—and the future starts now! God is keeping careful watch over us and the future. The Day is coming when you’ll have it all—life healed and whole.

^6-7 I know how great this makes you feel, even though you have to put up with every kind of aggravation in the meantime. Pure gold put in the fire comes out of it proved pure; genuine faith put through this suffering comes out proved genuine. When Jesus wraps this all up, it’s your faith, not your gold, that God will have on display as evidence of his victory.
^8-9 You never saw him, yet you love him. You still don’t see him, yet you trust him—with laughter and singing. Because you kept on believing, you’ll get what you’re looking forward to: total salvation.
^10-12 The prophets who told us this was coming asked a lot of questions about this gift of life God was preparing. The Messiah’s Spirit let them in on some of it—that the Messiah would experience suffering, followed by glory. They clamored to know who and when. All they were told was that they were serving you, you who by orders from heaven have now heard for yourselves—through the Holy Spirit—the Message of those prophecies fulfilled. Do you realize how fortunate you are? Angels would have given anything to be in on this!

For Reflection

Resurrection is not just for Christ.  Because of Christ, you too can become resurrected into righteous living.  Not just in the next life, but in the here and now.  The contamination of the life once lived is erased.  God has wiped the slate clean is not making lists.  You are free to choose not to sin.  No regrets!  Your past ignored!  Your future full of hope.  God has given you the gift of life.  Your life is holy.

Pray

prayers of thanksgiving to the giver of life.  Pray for the Spirit to engross you.  Pray for the love of Christ to guide you.  Pray to become a walker in the Way.

God's Offer to Solomon

The Sovereignty of God
The Sovereignty of God

The Peaceful Kingdom

1 Kings 3:3-9  The Message

3 ^1-3 Solomon arranged a marriage contract with Pharaoh, king of Egypt. He married Pharaoh’s daughter and brought her to the City of David until he had completed building his royal palace and God’s Temple and the wall around Jerusalem. Meanwhile, the people were worshiping at local shrines because at that time no temple had yet been built to the Name of God. Solomon loved God and continued to live in the God-honoring ways of David his father, except that he also worshiped at the local shrines, offering sacrifices and burning incense.

^4-5 The king went to Gibeon, the most prestigious of the local shrines, to worship. He sacrificed a thousand Whole-Burnt-Offerings on that altar. That night, there in Gibeon, God appeared to Solomon in a dream: God said, “What can I give you? Ask.”
⁶ Solomon said, “You were extravagantly generous in love with David my father, and he lived faithfully in your presence, his relationships were just and his heart right. And you have persisted in this great and generous love by giving him—and this very day!—a son to sit on his throne.
^7-8 “And now here I am: God, my God, you have made me, your servant, ruler of the kingdom in place of David my father. I’m too young for this, a mere child! I don’t know the ropes, hardly know the ‘ins’ and ‘outs’ of this job. And here I am, set down in the middle of the people you’ve chosen, a great people—far too many to ever count.
⁹ “Here’s what I want: Give me a God-listening heart so I can lead your people well, discerning the difference between good and evil. For who on their own is capable of leading your glorious people?”

For Reflection

We should all yearn for a "God-listening heart."  Our leaders should possess a "God-listening heart."  But, our leaders, like Solomon, are human and as such are vulnerable to the seduction of sin.  None, but Christ, are perfect.

Pray

for the wisdom that comes from a God-listening heart.  Pray for civil leaders who practice as best they can righteous action.  Pray for unjust and vengeful leaders so that they may find more just and compassionate ways. Pray often so that you follow in the way of Christ.

Build a Just and Righteous Community

The Sovereignty of God
The Sovereignty of God

The Peaceful Kingdom

Psalm 72:1-8  The Message

A Solomon Psalm

72 ^1-8 Give the gift of wise rule to the king, O God,
    the gift of just rule to the crown prince.
May he judge your people rightly,
    be honorable to your meek and lowly.
Let the mountains give exuberant witness;
    shape the hills with the contours of right living.
Please stand up for the poor,
    help the children of the needy,
    come down hard on the cruel tyrants.
Outlast the sun, outlive the moon—
    age after age after age.
Be rainfall on cut grass,
    earth-refreshing rain showers.
Let righteousness burst into blossom
    and peace abound until the moon fades to nothing.
Rule from sea to sea,
    from the River to the Rim.

For Reflection

You are a gift from God.  You have the capacity to participate in and grow a community of believers.  Not just by focusing on yourself, but rather, by focusing also on building community.  Seeking the greater good sometimes at the expense of self-interest is a high calling.  But, as a child of God,it is a calling you are prepared for and in which you are supported by the Holy Spirit.  Fear not failure.  Failure is not possible in obedience to God.

Pray

for the courage to do God's will.  Pray for a peaceful Kingdom.  Pray so that you see God's hand at work everywhere.  Pray that you will participate with heart, soul and mind.

Prayer and Love

Toward a New Creation
Life on God's Terms
Love Fulfills the Law

Ephesians 3:14-21  The Message

^14-19 My response is to get down on my knees before the Father, this magnificent Father who parcels out all heaven and earth. I ask him to strengthen you by his Spirit—not a brute strength but a glorious inner strength—that Christ will live in you as you open the door and invite him in. And I ask him that with both feet planted firmly on love, you’ll be able to take in with all followers of Jesus the extravagant dimensions of Christ’s love. Reach out and experience the breadth! Test its length! Plumb the depths! Rise to the heights! Live full lives, full in the fullness of God.

^20-21 God can do anything, you know—far more than you could ever imagine or guess or request in your wildest dreams! He does it not by pushing us around but by working within us, his Spirit deeply and gently within us.

Glory to God in the church!
Glory to God in the Messiah, in Jesus!
Glory down all the generations!
Glory through all millennia! Oh, yes!

For Reflection

We are asked to pray.  Only through prayer can you grow closer to God.  The more you pray the more in tune you become to God's will for your life.

Pray

prayers of intersession.  Pray prayers of lamentation. Pray prayers of confession.  Pray prayers of regret.  Pray prayers for wisdom.  Pray prayers for strength.  Pray, just pray, constantly.

Love and Law

Toward a New Creation
Life on God's Terms
Love Fulfills the Law

1 John 3:4-11  The Message

^4-6 All who indulge in a sinful life are dangerously lawless, for sin is a major disruption of God’s order. Surely you know that Christ showed up in order to get rid of sin. There is no sin in him, and sin is not part of his program. No one who lives deeply in Christ makes a practice of sin. None of those who do practice sin have taken a good look at Christ. They’ve got him all backward.
^7-8 So, my dear children, don’t let anyone divert you from the truth. It’s the person who acts right who is right, just as we see it lived out in our righteous Messiah. Those who make a practice of sin are straight from the Devil, the pioneer in the practice of sin. The Son of God entered the scene to abolish the Devil’s ways.
^9-10 People conceived and brought into life by God don’t make a practice of sin. How could they? God’s seed is deep within them, making them who they are. It’s not in the nature of the God-begotten to practice and parade sin. Here’s how you tell the difference between God’s children and the Devil’s children: The one who won’t practice righteous ways isn’t from God, nor is the one who won’t love brother or sister. A simple test.

¹¹ For this is the original message we heard: We should love each other.

For Reflection

Many will talk the talk.  Few will walk the walk.  Reborn as Children of God, the righteous who live out the way of Christ, are known by their love.  Those who divert  others from this truth are every where.  They  hide under the cloak of conventional wisdom.   They speak with a ring of truth but the truth they speak is empty.  Justice, compassion, and forgiveness are the marks of a God fearing person. 

Pray

that you will be a beacon of righteousness in the darkness of cultural convention.  Pray that you will listen to the God whispers you hear from deep inside you.  Pray to work compassionately for others.

Take Care and Live

Toward a New Creation
Life on God's Terms
Love Fulfills the Law

Joshua 22:1-7  The Message

22 ^1-5 Then Joshua called together the Reubenites, Gadites, and the half-tribe of Manasseh. He said: “You have carried out everything Moses the servant of God commanded you, and you have obediently done everything I have commanded you. All this time and right down to this very day you have not abandoned your brothers; you’ve shouldered the task laid on you by God, your God. And now God, your God, has given rest to your brothers just as he promised them. You’re now free to go back to your homes, the country of your inheritance that Moses the servant of God gave you on the other side of the Jordan. Only this: Be vigilant in keeping the Commandment and The Revelation that Moses the servant of God laid on you: Love God, your God, walk in all his ways, do what he’s commanded, embrace him, serve him with everything you are and have.”

^6-7 Then Joshua blessed them and sent them on their way. They went home. (To the half-tribe of Manasseh, Moses had assigned a share in Bashan. To the other half, Joshua assigned land with their brothers west of the Jordan.)

For Reflection

Having been obedient to God these people of God are blessed with restoration.  God recommends that they take care and not be seduced into violating the commandments. They are asked only to continue to love God and walk in God's ways.  Isn't that what God asks of us all?

Pray

that you will love God and walk in God's ways.  Pray to keep your eye on God's path.

Live Together in Harmony

The Sovereignty of God
The Sovereignty of God

The Peaceful Kingdom

1 Peter 3:8-18  The Message

Suffering for Doing Good

^8-12 Summing up: Be agreeable, be sympathetic, be loving, be compassionate, be humble. That goes for all of you, no exceptions. No retaliation. No sharp-tongued sarcasm. Instead, bless—that’s your job, to bless. You’ll be a blessing and also get a blessing.

Whoever wants to embrace life
    and see the day fill up with good,
Here’s what you do:
    Say nothing evil or hurtful;
Snub evil and cultivate good;
    run after peace for all you’re worth.
God looks on all this with approval,
    listening and responding well to what he’s asked;
But he turns his back
    on those who do evil things.

^13-18 If with heart and soul you’re doing good, do you think you can be stopped? Even if you suffer for it, you’re still better off. Don’t give the opposition a second thought. Through thick and thin, keep your hearts at attention, in adoration before Christ, your Master. Be ready to speak up and tell anyone who asks why you’re living the way you are, and always with the utmost courtesy. Keep a clear conscience before God so that when people throw mud at you, none of it will stick. They’ll end up realizing that they’re the ones who need a bath. It’s better to suffer for doing good, if that’s what God wants, than to be punished for doing bad. That’s what Christ did definitively: suffered because of others’ sins, the Righteous One for the unrighteous ones. He went through it all—was put to death and then made alive—to bring us to God.

For Reflection

Because you are a God-listener, do good.  In spite of what others may think, your goodness will multiply.  If you do the right thing, the just thing, the compassionate thing, the forgiving thing, some will sling mud, some will applaud, some will be changed - transformed by your acts of righteousness. Christ asks us to sacrifice our selves for the greater good, the realization of the Kingdom of God.

Pray

that you will have the courage to sacrifice your self to live a life centered in God.  Pray for those who persecute you.  Pray to be compassionate.  Pray to be humble.  Pray to be a peacemaker.  Pray to be a God seeker.

Choose the Law and Life

Toward a New Creation
Life on God's Terms
Love Fulfills the Law

Deuteronomy 11:13-21  The Message

^13-15 From now on if you listen obediently to the commandments that I am commanding you today, love God, your God, and serve him with everything you have within you, he’ll take charge of sending the rain at the right time, both autumn and spring rains, so that you’ll be able to harvest your grain, your grapes, your olives. He’ll make sure there’s plenty of grass for your animals. You’ll have plenty to eat.
^16-17 But be vigilant, lest you be seduced away and end up serving and worshiping other gods and God erupts in anger and shuts down Heaven so there’s no rain and nothing grows in the fields, and in no time at all you’re starved out—not a trace of you left on the good land that God is giving you.
^18-21 Place these words on your hearts. Get them deep inside you. Tie them on your hands and foreheads as a reminder. Teach them to your children. Talk about them wherever you are, sitting at home or walking in the street; talk about them from the time you get up in the morning until you fall into bed at night. Inscribe them on the doorposts and gates of your cities so that you’ll live a long time, and your children with you, on the soil that God promised to give your ancestors for as long as there is a sky over the Earth.

For Reflection

Our God of Love expects only one thing.  God expects that we will respond to God's love by living lives full of God's love.  God will take care of our needs and we, through God will prosper in the hollow of God's hands.  When times or good, remember God.

Pray

that you will live the life God intended for you.  Pray that you will never be seduced into worship of other gods.  Pray for the wisdom to follow the Holy Spirit.

Diligence and Law

Toward a New Creation
Life on God's Terms
Love Fulfills the Law

1 Timothy 4:11-16The Message (MSG)

^11-14 Get the word out. Teach all these things. And don’t let anyone put you down because you’re young. Teach believers with your life: by word, by demeanor, by love, by faith, by integrity. Stay at your post reading Scripture, giving counsel, teaching. And that special gift of ministry you were given when the leaders of the church laid hands on you and prayed—keep that dusted off and in use.
^15-16 Cultivate these things. Immerse yourself in them. The people will all see you mature right before their eyes! Keep a firm grasp on both your character and your teaching. Don’t be diverted. Just keep at it. Both you and those who hear you will experience salvation.

For Reflection

Can one ever write a more complete description of witnessing to the resurrected Christ?  We are all called to teach.  Perhaps not in a formal sense but with our lives we, Christians, all teach.  Are we teaching humility or pride?  Are we teaching forgiveness or vengeance?  Are we teaching love or hate?  Are we condemning people or lifting them up?   Some look at the variation in Christian witness and call us hypocrites.  Is our perceived hypocrisy deserved?

Pray

that your witness to the world is one of consistent love.  Pray that you avoid the pitfalls of saying one thing and doing the opposite.  Pray prayers of confession and repentance often.   Pray that your righteousness is fed by the Holy Spirit who resides within you.

Repent and Bear Fruit

Toward a New Creation
Life on God's Terms

God Prunes and Grafts

John 15:1-8  The Message

The Vine and the Branches

15 ^1-3 “I am the Real Vine and my Father is the Farmer. He cuts off every branch of me that doesn’t bear grapes. And every branch that is grape-bearing he prunes back so it will bear even more. You are already pruned back by the message I have spoken.

⁴ “Live in me. Make your home in me just as I do in you. In the same way that a branch can’t bear grapes by itself but only by being joined to the vine, you can’t bear fruit unless you are joined with me.
^5-8 “I am the Vine, you are the branches. When you’re joined with me and I with you, the relation intimate and organic, the harvest is sure to be abundant. Separated, you can’t produce a thing. Anyone who separates from me is deadwood, gathered up and thrown on the bonfire. But if you make yourselves at home with me and my words are at home in you, you can be sure that whatever you ask will be listened to and acted upon. This is how my Father shows who he is—when you produce grapes, when you mature as my disciples.

For Reflection

Confess the things that separate you from God and embrace the Holy Spirit, Jesus, who lives within you.  Make yourself at home in Christ.  Listen and you will become one with Christ. and you will know God.

Pray

so that you may mature as disciples.  Pray softly and listen for the God whispers.  Pray and let those prayers displace all other thoughts and deeds.  Pray and bear fruit.

Repent and Live

Toward a New Creation
Life on God's Terms

God Prunes and Grafts

Zechariah 8:9-17  The Message

^9-10 A Message from God-of-the-Angel-Armies:

“Get a grip on things. Hold tight, you who are listening to what I say through the preaching of the prophets. The Temple of God-of-the-Angel-Armies has been reestablished. The Temple is being rebuilt. We’ve come through a hard time: You worked for a pittance and were lucky to get that; the streets were dangerous; you could never let down your guard; I had turned the world into an armed camp.
^11-12 “But things have changed. I’m taking the side of my core of surviving people:

Sowing and harvesting will resume,
Vines will grow grapes,
Gardens will flourish,
Dew and rain will make everything green.

^12-13 “My core survivors will get everything they need—and more. You’ve gotten a reputation as a bad-news people, you people of Judah and Israel, but I’m coming to save you. From now on, you’re the good-news people. Don’t be afraid. Keep a firm grip on what I’m doing.”

Keep Your Lives Simple and Honest

^14-17 A Message from God-of-the-Angel-Armies:

“In the same way that I decided to punish you when your ancestors made me angry, and didn’t pull my punches, at this time I’ve decided to bless Jerusalem and the country of Judah. Don’t be afraid. And now here’s what I want you to do: Tell the truth, the whole truth, when you speak. Do the right thing by one another, both personally and in your courts. Don’t cook up plans to take unfair advantage of others. Don’t do or say what isn’t so. I hate all that stuff. Keep your lives simple and honest.” Decree of God.

For Reflection

God will always be on the side of his people.  Who are God's people?  We all are, the good, the bad, and the ugly.  We are all part of God's creation.  God's overture for reconciliation, Jesus Christ, offers a path to spiritual and human calling.  Becoming all you can be is possible in the loving hands of God.  Do good because the Holy Spirit resides in you.

Pray

that you will recognize the Holy Spirit which resides in you and in each of us.  Pray that you see our differences as strengths.  Pray that you see our similarities as that which conjoins us with God

Repent and Repair

Toward a New Creation
Life on God's Terms

God Prunes and Grafts

Ezra 9:5-9 The Message

^4-6 Many were in fear and trembling because of what God was saying about the betrayal by the exiles. They gathered around me as I sat there in despair, waiting for the evening sacrifice. At the evening sacrifice I picked myself up from my utter devastation, and in my ripped clothes and cape fell to my knees and stretched out my hands to God, my God. And I prayed:
^6-7 “My dear God, I’m so totally ashamed, I can’t bear to face you. O my God—our iniquities are piled up so high that we can’t see out; our guilt touches the skies. We’ve been stuck in a muck of guilt since the time of our ancestors until right now; we and our kings and priests, because of our sins, have been turned over to foreign kings, to killing, to captivity, to looting, and to public shame—just as you see us now.
^8-9 “Now for a brief time God, our God, has allowed us, this battered band, to get a firm foothold in his holy place so that our God may brighten our eyes and lighten our burdens as we serve out this hard sentence. We were slaves; yet even as slaves, our God didn’t abandon us. He has put us in the good graces of the kings of Persia and given us the heart to build The Temple of our God, restore its ruins, and construct a defensive wall in Judah and Jerusalem.

For Reflection

No matter how much you sin, no matter how many times you have turned away from God, no matter how grievous your rejection of the Lord, you from the lowest point in you life, you from the depths of shame and guilt, you will find that God will show you the way to restoration.

Pray

admitting your sins.  Pray in gratitude for the saving grace that is God.  Praise God for God's abiding love.

Repent and Return

Toward a New Creation
Life on God's Terms

God Prunes and Grafts

Hosea 14:1-8  The Message

Come Back! Return to Your God!

14 ^1-3 O Israel, come back! Return to your God!
    You’re down but you’re not out.
Prepare your confession
    and come back to God.
Pray to him, “Take away our sin,
    accept our confession.
Receive as restitution
    our repentant prayers.
Assyria won’t save us;
    horses won’t get us where we want to go.
We’ll never again say ‘our god’
    to something we’ve made or made up.
You’re our last hope. Is it not true
    that in you the orphan finds mercy?”

^4-8 “I will heal their waywardness.
    I will love them lavishly. My anger is played out.
I will make a fresh start with Israel.
    He’ll burst into bloom like a crocus in the spring.
He’ll put down deep oak tree roots,
    he’ll become a forest of oaks!
He’ll become splendid—like a giant sequoia,
    his fragrance like a grove of cedars!
Those who live near him will be blessed by him,
    be blessed and prosper like golden grain.
Everyone will be talking about them,
    spreading their fame as the vintage children of God.
Ephraim is finished with gods that are no-gods.
    From now on I’m the one who answers and satisfies him.
I am like a luxuriant fruit tree.
    Everything you need is to be found in me.”

For Reflection

You have known God and yet you are seduced by other interests, money, power, and false promises of salvation.  Give up your false gods and return to the God of love you have known.  God will make a fresh start with you.

Pray

prayers of confession and lamentation.  Pray so that you will return to the God who loves you.

Restoration after Repentance

Toward a New Creation
Life on God's Terms

Living under God's Mercy

Isaiah 49:8-13  The Message

^8-12 God also says:

“When the time’s ripe, I answer you.
    When victory’s due, I help you.
I form you and use you
    to reconnect the people with me,
To put the land in order,
    to resettle families on the ruined properties.
I tell prisoners, ‘Come on out. You’re free!’
    and those huddled in fear, ‘It’s all right. It’s safe now.’
There’ll be foodstands along all the roads,
    picnics on all the hills—
Nobody hungry, nobody thirsty,
    shade from the sun, shelter from the wind,
For the Compassionate One guides them,
    takes them to the best springs.
I’ll make all my mountains into roads,
    turn them into a superhighway.
Look: These coming from far countries,
    and those, out of the north,
These streaming in from the west,
    and those from all the way down the Nile!”

¹³ Heavens, raise the roof! Earth, wake the dead!
    Mountains, send up cheers!
God has comforted his people.
    He has tenderly nursed his beaten-up, beaten-down people.

For Reflection

We turn to God for all sustenance, physical and spiritual.  God will provide.  We turn from our Godless ways,repent and be forgiven.  It is a message of supreme hope.

Pray

that you will wait patiently for God's time. Pray that you will find hope in the Promise of God.

Patient Mercy

Toward a New Creation
Life on God's Terms

Living under God's Mercy

James 5:7-12  The Message

^7-8 Meanwhile, friends, wait patiently for the Master’s Arrival. You see farmers do this all the time, waiting for their valuable crops to mature, patiently letting the rain do its slow but sure work. Be patient like that. Stay steady and strong. The Master could arrive at any time.

⁹ Friends, don’t complain about each other. A far greater complaint could be lodged against you, you know. The Judge is standing just around the corner.
^10-11 Take the old prophets as your mentors. They put up with anything, went through everything, and never once quit, all the time honoring God. What a gift life is to those who stay the course! You’ve heard, of course, of Job’s staying power, and you know how God brought it all together for him at the end. That’s because God cares, cares right down to the last detail.
¹² And since you know that he cares, let your language show it. Don’t add words like “I swear to God” to your own words. Don’t show your impatience by concocting oaths to hurry up God. Just say yes or no. Just say what is true. That way, your language can’t be used against you.

For Reflection

"Listen - what people do to other souls
They take their lives - destroy their goals
Their basic pride and dignity
Is stripped and torn and shown no pity
When this should be heaven for everyone."

From Heaven for Everyone, a song written by Roger Taylor. Appeared in the Queen 1995 album Made in Heaven,

Pray

Pray for the realization of the Kingdom of God.  Pray for all to embrace the transforming power of the Holy Spirit.

Wise Mercy

Toward a New Creation
Life on God's Terms

Living under God's Mercy

James 3:13-18 

Live Well, Live Wisely

^13-16 Do you want to be counted wise, to build a reputation for wisdom? Here’s what you do: Live well, live wisely, live humbly. It’s the way you live, not the way you talk, that counts. Mean-spirited ambition isn’t wisdom. Boasting that you are wise isn’t wisdom. Twisting the truth to make yourselves sound wise isn’t wisdom. It’s the furthest thing from wisdom—it’s animal cunning, devilish conniving. Whenever you’re trying to look better than others or get the better of others, things fall apart and everyone ends up at the others’ throats.

^17-18 Real wisdom, God’s wisdom, begins with a holy life and is characterized by getting along with others. It is gentle and reasonable, overflowing with mercy and blessings, not hot one day and cold the next, not two-faced. You can develop a healthy, robust community that lives right with God and enjoy its results only if you do the hard work of getting along with each other, treating each other with dignity and honor.

For Reflection

Wisdom is being comfortable in your own skin.  God  made you in God's own image.  You are holy. 

Why then succumb to the pressures of conformity?  Why envy?  Why underestimate your human value?  Measure yourself by the merciful eyes of God. 

Wisdom is civility in the face of incivility. Wisdom is gentleness in the face of vulnerability.  Wisdom is judgment without becoming judgmental.  Wisdom is humility in the face of bombast. Wisdom is courage in the face of fearfulness.  Wisdom is obedience to God's will for humankind.

Pray

for wisdom.

Hopeful Mercy

Toward a New Creation
Life on God's Terms

Living under God's Mercy

Peter 1:3-9 The Message

A New Life

^3-5 What a God we have! And how fortunate we are to have him, this Father of our Master Jesus! Because Jesus was raised from the dead, we’ve been given a brand-new life and have everything to live for, including a future in heaven—and the future starts now! God is keeping careful watch over us and the future. The Day is coming when you’ll have it all—life healed and whole.

^6-7 I know how great this makes you feel, even though you have to put up with every kind of aggravation in the meantime. Pure gold put in the fire comes out of it proved pure; genuine faith put through this suffering comes out proved genuine. When Jesus wraps this all up, it’s your faith, not your gold, that God will have on display as evidence of his victory.
^8-9 You never saw him, yet you love him. You still don’t see him, yet you trust him—with laughter and singing. Because you kept on believing, you’ll get what you’re looking forward to: total salvation.

For Reflection

Most of us do not know the depths of darkness that many of us suffer.  We have little understanding of profound hopelessness.  We have little experience of the incapacitating depression of the soul.
Hope is the absence of that darkness.  Hope is the rational for living.  God is the only life-giver.  God is the victory over hopelessness.  In God you have more tomorrows than yesterdays.

Pray

for the hope that transforms each of us.  Pray so that you may witness to the hope that comes from the Holy Spirit which resides in us all.  Pray for the salvation only the realization of hope exemplified in the life, death and resurrection of Christ.

Awesome Mercy

Toward a New Creation
Life on God's Terms

Living under God's Mercy

Psalm 68:20, 24-26, 32-35  The Message

^19-23 Blessed be the Lord—
    day after day he carries us along.
^24-26 See God on parade
    to the sanctuary, my God,
    my King on the march!
Singers out front, the band behind,
    maidens in the middle with castanets.
The whole choir blesses God.
    Like a fountain of praise, Israel blesses God.
^32-34 Sing, O kings of the earth!
    Sing praises to the Lord!
There he is: Sky-Rider,
    striding the ancient skies.
Listen—he’s calling in thunder,
    rumbling, rolling thunder.
Call out “Bravo!” to God,
    the High God of Israel.
His splendor and strength
    rise huge as thunderheads.
³⁵ A terrible beauty, O God,
    streams from your sanctuary.
It’s Israel’s strong God! He gives
    power and might to his people!
O you, his people—bless God!

For Reflection

We, the worshipers of God, are blessed by God's mercy.  We, the people of God, live in the Grace of holiness.  We, the children of God, are powerful in our humility, in our child-like obedience, in our dependence on the Holy Spirit.  We, the citizens of the Kingdom witness in praise, in bravado, in glorious song, and in deed.

Pray

that you will never forget the wonders of God's mercy.  Pray that you never take God's grace for granted.  Pray that  you will walk in the shadow of God.