Shalom, welcome to June 4^th


><//>--------------------Thought for the Day

When I was steeped in my old sins, attitudes, and behavior, I always tried to build myself up. I used to tell exaggerated stories about myself. I told them so often that I half believe some of them now, even though I know they aren’t true. I used to associate with people I felt below me so I could feel superior to them. The reason I always tried to build myself up was that I knew deep down in my heart that I really didn’t amount to much. It was a kind of defense against my feeling of inferiority.

Do I still build myself up?


><//>--------------------Meditation for the Day

Divine Patience

Lord, make us like Thee, mould us unto Thy likeness.

   Molding, My children, means cutting and chiseling. It means to sacrifice of the personal to conform to type. It is not only My work but yours.

   The swift recognition of the selfish in your desires and motives, actions, words and thoughts, and the instant appeal to Me for help to eradicate that.

   It is a work that requires cooperation – Mine and yours. It is a work that brings much a sense of failure and discouragement too, at times, because as the work proceeds, you see more and more clearly all that yet remains to be done.

   Shortcomings you have hardly recognized or at least for which you had had no sense of sorrow, now cause you trouble and dismay.

   Courage. That is in itself a sign of progress.

   Patience, not only with others, but all of you, with yourselves.

   As you see the slow progress upward made by you, in spite of your longing and struggle, you will gain a Divine patience with others whose imperfections trouble you.

   So on and up. Forward:. Patience – Perseverance – Struggle. Remember that I am beside you, your Captain and your Helper. So tender, so patient, so strong.

   Yes, we co-operate and as I share your troubles, the failures, difficulties, heartaches, so as my friends, you share My patience, and My strength – beloved. 


><//>--------------------Prayer for the Day

Father, we pray that we may think Your thoughts after You. We pray that we may live, as You want us to live. Amen.


A Disciple's Reflections: The Center of Our Lives (Such a deal!)

Beloved, my natural brothers and sisters, the natural descendents of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are called to be a unique and peculiar people. Chosen by God to be His own; he has played a role in their lives as a people and a nation throughout history from those days of old through to this very day. 

In the earlier days, the children or descendants of Jacob, whose name was changed by God to Israel, were continually made aware that God was behind every provision for their lives. The righteous among them would consider God's provision as being holy. To waste or squander this provision would not bode well in the eyes of God; therefore, they learned early to be frugal and to live with respect under His economy under His wonderful supernatural grace.

For all intent and purpose, the other nations of the world known as Gentiles were pretty much left on their own to be formed in their national character solely by their desires, decisions, and deeds.

The desire to gain the riches of this world is accepted as being natural in man. But for the Jewish people, gain or loss, has always been by blessing or a response from God, and was to be desired above all else to be blessed by God.  There was a prayer of blessing over all things, even the bread on their tables.

Truly, not all Jews think this way today, but it was once a way of the culture. As I inventory my own personality daily, I see quite clearly that I have been branded in my soul to covet that which God offers as grace.

Today, more than ever, let us covet the things of God and hold them dear. As we consider the meditation above from our Lord, let us be reminded that the New Covenant is really quite an amazing deal. 

We come to God as individuals today rather than as a nation.  We are invited to give to him all that we are, and in return He gives to us all that He is.  Personally, it appears as though God's getting the short end of the stick.  Actually, God sees a value in each of us that is extremely extravagant. He seriously covets each of us.  Certainly this is shown in the value of His sacrifice – truly no greater a price could be paid – that we may be united with Him forever.

Besides all else, God is an amazing businessman. He really knows how to turn a profit. He creates us from dirt and water and is building Himself a family and a corporate body in which He will forever dwell and express Himself. It makes perfect sense for us to give ourselves away to Him. Our motives are mixed; after all, if we are to be honest, we're nothing but trouble. But, for Him to give Himself completely away for us, and to us so lowly as we are, is purely an act of Love.

I find that most of the people I meet have their lives and even their minds centered on their careers, livelihoods, family, or community. Whenever I would ask my friends for their opinion on what they may think of this idea or this gadget they automatically think of it in the context of where their life is centered – either his or her business, family, or community.  It's just the way we're built.

So the question is – when we think of ourselves, what do we think of ourselves first and above all? It’s really quite important for a believer to consider this. Am I a man? – A husband?  An ex-husband? A father?  An American?  Or do we see ourselves, as we truly are – as born-again children of the living God, placed by faith in Messiah, the Christ of God.

Were we to consider ourselves in the light of the latter, then that will be the context in which we consider all things, make all decisions, rest all our preferences, and in time actually grow to look like Christ in character and behavior.

Let's take an inventory of this gift of a relationship with God. Our God takes us from under Sin and places us in Righteousness. He takes us from a life where the more we achieve and gain the more bored and lost we become, and places us in a life of useful purpose that has a form of fascination and is so interesting that when believed, this Good News cannot be approached by anything this world has to offer – not anything!

He takes us from a life of danger, strife, and providing for ourselves by the sweat of our brow alone to where if we do His service well, He provides for us, grants us His protection, peace, and the supply of all we could ever need for those that are the called according to His purpose. I don't know about you, beloved, but as typically Jewish elders would say, "Such a deal!"

As Dr. James Dobson, of the Focus on the Family Ministries, recently shared on his international radio program that in a recent poll of unbelievers, Christians were considered to be no different in appearance, lifestyle, or behavior than the unsaved by the world. 

This is simply because believers have put family, business, themselves, or the world in general as the center of their lives, and this is the sad result. No one in immediate family or any of my acquaintances consider me to be just like anybody else. If anything they considered me misguided, even bothersome about God and Truth. They avoid me like the plague

That’s what God wants us to be. Like the grain of sand that irritates the Oyster until it produces a pearl of great value. They’re absolutely and positively convinced that I have been changed and affected by something. They know for a fact that God is the center of my life and my thoughts. Not a mate or spouse, not family, not pets, not work, not politics, not sex, or anything else in this world; while not disparaging any of these interests, nonetheless, none of them holds a close second to the Lord for me. For all of these things will eventually pass away, but not God, He is forever, and so are we, precious one.

My family and acquaintances have rebelled at my new outlook on life. Today some have adjusted and remain close while some have stayed away. I am completely at peace with the fact that those who have remained and those who have left have all have done so by the Will of God – not by any compromises on my part. It won't be long now before this life we're living today won't even be a memory in eternity. 

Wouldn't it be a shame if three or four-thousand years from now we were to suffer loss because we valued this short existence on earth much too highly, making it much too costly for this little Jewish disciple of the Meshiach Yeshua. Let us consider we have been given “…such a deal”, and proclaim that we're not going to waste it. It’s just not good business.

What do we think?  Where are our concerns today?  What is at the center or our lives today?  This is the question we must ask ourselves.  Let us each answer Him rightly and be utterly blessed now and forever.


Today's Verse

A gentle answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger.
Proverbs 15:1 (NIV)

Thought... Why is it so hard to endure an unjust or unfair criticism? Why do we always have to defend ourselves no matter how ridiculous the charge? Often the problems we have with others simply escalate because we do not choose to forgive and let them go in the Lord!  We can then trust that God will make all things right.  We must not allow pride to have its way with us and attack in kind. He will be our Justice.  Our acting in kind would most likely undo the possibility a good result in another's life so that we can have revengeful immediate satisfaction that surely does not satisfy at all.  More importantly we need pray that God use our being wronged for the good for the one who has offended us that they may be saved.

Prayer... Precious and Holy God, help me more carefully guard my speech from things you despise, especially gossip, slander, and innuendo. Thank you. In Jesus name and by Jesus' grace I pray. Amen.


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Please have a blessed day, be hopeful, be encouraged, and know that you are not alone.

"God Calling" compiled by A. J. Russell.
"Twenty-Four Hours A Day" Hazelton - [adapted].
Phil Ware brings us Today's Verse.
Barry Gray writes A Disciple's Reflections.