Matthew 11:28

Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

Matthew 5:11–12

"Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for My sake. Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you."

Psalm 121:3

He will not let you stumble; the one who watches over you will not slumber.

God is in charge of our lives. One of His greatest gifts to us is free will. Because of that gift, he allows what we would call "bad things" to happen. But, as life progresses, we learn that the lessons we learned in life came from those times of crisis, those trials and storms. During these times we reach out to Him, and in the process we more often than not learn life's most important lessons.

This kind of experience is not the result of random events, however. Our storms are specific events chosen by the Lord for their timing and purpose.

Christ carries us during these times. We are under his protective care even when we feel like He may not be. He never sleeps on the job, and he never leaves us. Even the smallest details are important to Him. He is aware of what we are going through, and in the end, it all works out to His glory.

Remembering Their Sacrifice

Thank you to MDConservative for reminding me that today is National POW/MIA Recognition Day.

Romans 3:23

For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.

*****

We are not sinners because we sin; we sin because we are sinners. We have a natural tendency to do what is wrong. God gave us absolutes to live our lives by--standards that are found in the Bible. When we make choices that are contrary to those absolutes and standards, evil is the result. We cannot trust ourselves to do the right thing, but when placed in the hands of the living Christ, His Will shall be done.

The King

Matthew 11:28

Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

In Memory of those lost on 9/11

A Moment of Silence.

Prayer

"If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you."— John 15:7

When praying, folks tend to forget that God is not just there to do what we want Him to do. Some actually believe that our little prayers are too small for Him, and that we are pestering Him, or taking Him away from things that are great. Some will even tell you that with enough faith prayer is secondary, and we can just speak something into existence if our faith is strong enough.

Fact is, prayer is not for getting God to do things our way. Prayer is for moving us in God's way. The key to answered prayer is lining ourselves up with the will of God and praying for what God wants us to have.

By maintaining our relationship with Jesus his work shall be working through our lives, and we will automatically gravitate toward desiring what is in His will for us. Rather than praying for self-indulgent things, we will pray for the things God wants us to have. Prayer is not about getting what we want. It is about getting our will into alignment with the will of God.

Come to Me. . .

Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Matthew 11:28

In the arms of the Lord, die unto myself, and placing all in His hands.

DADDY'S EMPTY CHAIR

~ A man's daughter had asked the local minister to come and pray with her father.

When the minister arrived, he found the man lying in bed with his head propped up on two pillows.

An empty chair sat beside his bed.

The minister assumed that the old fellow had been informed of his visit "I guess you were expecting me, he said.

"No, who are you?" said the father.

The minister told him his name and then remarked, "I saw the empty chair and I figured you knew I was going to show up," "Oh yeah, the chair," said the bedridden man.

"Would you mind closing the door?"

Puzzled, the minister shut the door.

"I have never told anyone this, not even my daughter," said the man. "But all of my life I have never known how to pray. At church I used to hear the pastor talk about prayer, but it went right over my head. I abandoned any attempt at prayer, until one day four years ago, my best friend said to me, Johnny, prayer is just a simple matter of having a conversation with Jesus. Here is what I suggest. Sit down in a chair; place an empty chair in front of you, and in faith see Jesus on the chair. It's not spooky because he promised, 'I will be with you always'. Then just speak to him in the same way you're doing with me right now. So, I tried it and I've liked it so much that I do it a couple of hours every day. I'm careful though If my daughter saw me talking to an empty chair, she'd either have a nervous breakdown or send me off to the funny farm."

The minister was deeply moved by the story and encouraged the old man to continue on the journey. Then he prayed with him, and returned to the church. Two nights later the daughter called to tell the minister that her daddy had died that afternoon.

Did he die in peace?" he asked.

Yes, when I left the house about two o'clock, he called me over to his bedside, told me he loved me and kissed me on the cheek. When I got back from the store an hour later, I found him dead.

But there was something strange about his death. Apparently, just before Daddy died, he leaned over and rested his head on the chair beside the bed. What do you make of that?"

The minister wiped a tear from his eye and said, "I wish we could all go like that."

Micah 6:9

The Lord's voice crieth unto the city, and the man of wisdom shall see thy name: hear ye the rod, and who hath appointed it.

In this passage the reference is to that of the wickedness of Israel.

God had shown Israel how necessary it was that they should be obedient and do the right things. The Lord tells them in this verse to hear His rod (or parental reinforcement) when it is coming, even before they see it, and feel it, and to recognize the rod when it comes. To do so would be to be sensible and smart, as well it would be sensible to hear what counsels and what cautions the Lord speaks in regards to their activities. The voice of God is to be heard in the rod of God. Those who are dishonest in their dealings shall never be reckoned pure, whatever shows of devotion they may make. Fraudulent gains cannot be kept or enjoyed with satisfaction. What we hold closest we commonly lose soonest. Sin is a root of bitterness. As God's people they were to keep themselves in His love and honor Him, but rather, during their backsliding they did not recognize His rod, except for the few that were wise.

In our own lives, as well, when we fail to be obedient to the Lord His rod will come, and we will be wise to recognize such correction, and turn away from whatever disobedience we are currently practicing. Truly, none of us are sinless, but habitual sin is not a sign of repentence, and surely does not love or honor Him.