Yes!  Praise.  That moment, in the most difficult place, your sorrow is turned into joy, your fret to praise, the outward circumstances changed from those of disorder, of chaos to calm.

   The beginning of all reform must be in yourselves. However restricted your circumstances, however little you may be able to remedy financial affairs, you can always turn to yourselves, and seeing something not in order there, seek to right that.

   As all reform is from within out, you will always find the outward has improved too. To do this is to release the imprisoned God – Power within you.

   That Power, once operative, will immediately perform miracles. Then indeed shall your mourning be turned into Joy.


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

Father, we pray that the hidden power within us may be released. We pray that we may not imprison the spirit that is within each of us. Amen.


A Disciple’s Reflections: Release Our Imprisoned God

Beloved, since we are about to share in something critical, please allow me to share from my personal experience with the Lord that none may take offense and all may be blessed.

The meditation above that the Lord had given us to consider touches my heart very deeply. The reason for this is a bit sad, but nonetheless true. In many ways, I have found myself keeping God and His wonderful Power imprisoned within me leading to great loss and mourning. I am convinced that if Power, Joy, and the Love of God are ever going to be released in my life, I must stand up and admit to my inner-most parts that this is true.

Those many years ago, at new-birth, the miraculous power of God flowed through my life like a river.  Then came the crucible we each must face with God where we are brought over time to maturity. 

During this period the works we do are less important then the work God is doing in us.  How many priests, pastors, and televangelists have publicly fallen to the flesh do to the lack of preparedness and spiritual maturity by the hand of God.  It was once said that knowledge alone avails us nothing.  Our experience must be spiritual and genuine if we are to glorify God and  rejoice at the judgment of our works.

To this very day I can see where sloth can block the Power of God from being released. When we are not where we're supposed to be, doing what we are supposed to be doing, how can the Lord release His Power? He cannot. He must wait for us to be willing to be rid of the sloth and beseech His aid in being rid of the same. We then must be prepared to allow the Lord to move in our lives in whatever way He sees fit to bring about this cleansing.

I remember once that because of my pride I was not able to hear the Lord leading me to take a humble job as a convenience store/gas station clerk. After all, I had founded my own businesses and was an entrepreneur. He could never have wanted me to be a clerk.

Well, I just ignored the inner calling like one would try to ignore an itch. Pride was the culprit then, and the Lord had to deal with it. The Lord hates sin, and wants to cleanse us for service; therefore, we need always to be available for His cleansing hand to come forth.

Allow me to share what the Lord did in my life to get my attention and see if you can relate to my experience that you too may be blessed.

Early on, out of nowhere, everything in my life became difficult and began falling apart. A lucrative business contract was dissolved in an instant. Every door of opportunity elsewhere was slammed shut in my face. Even a family enterprise worth millions of dollars was torn from me in a way unimaginable.  I found myself penniless, broken, and in the midst of a complete breakdown. The weight of whatever was working in my life to bring me down was greater than I could bear.

The next thing I knew I was homeless – sleeping nights in my Lincoln Continental Town Car, since I had been wise enough to purchase it with cash and had no loan on it.  It was all I had left.  Some nights I would sleep on the beach being that I live in Florida, letting the starry sky be the canopy overhead. 

Whenever I would become afraid or resentful over my state I remembered Scripture where it said the Lord had but a rock for a pillow.  He never owned a home or had property or position.  He completely leaned on God, Our Father, Whom we are called to lean as well.

Poverty and failure was always a great fear of mine, being alone and helpless, but in the end the fear left and I quickly learned the experience could turn out to be interesting as long as I continued to Praise God and keep Him first in my mind and heart through it all. 

It was really quite beautiful.  Sleeping under the stars with God and nature, I spent more time in prayer than ever before. All day long I attended to Twelve Step meetings and worked with recovering alcoholics and drug addicts seeking God as best they could, and slowly leading them to Jesus when appropriate.

Before I knew it three months had passed and I just about had my fill of this life-style. I became ready to take a job – any job, just to get my own bed at night and be able to hug my pillow and go to sleep without getting sand in my shorts.

I pulled into the same major oil company gas station/convenience store every day to service my car, only this day I asked to see the manager and inquired if they needed any help at all, even in the middle of the night would be all right, just as God had been leading me earlier.  The only difference is that I could hear His voice now, and I became willing to humble myself for His purpose.  So often we don't even realize that God actually wants to direct our careers and everything else, if we would only let Him. 

The manager smiled and I was hired. I came to work ready to show the best of Jesus that was possible for mortal man. I was started at  minimum wage, $5.15 an hour. Within one week, I was taken off nights and put on the prime shift as leader. Within three months I was given the keys to the store and made assistant manager.

Soon after that, a senior corporate officer from the home office in Chicago saw me, and the next thing I knew I was a regional field manager for the company making more money, and enjoying more benefits than I had ever known in my life. And all God had to do to bless me with all this… was to break me and make me homeless.  Thank You, Lord.

Truly, He works all things for the good for those who love Him and are called according to His purpose. Even now I’m going through a time that feels like those old homeless days, in a spiritual sense. It is a time of mourning and some discomfort that I must raise my hand in praise to the Lord, and know that He must have something wonderful prepared for me yet to come.  It is a time where my most intimate loved ones have nothing but contempt for me which for years has so burdened my soul.

There's no greater joy for me than to see dark, muddied eyes come to life at new-birth in the Lord having received His grace and the washing by His Blood.  I yearn to see the lame made to walk, the blind to see, and demons cast out as testimony that I we are sent of the Lord with His Word to His glory.

How about us all, beloved? Can we praise God in the midst of our suffering? Can we give Him thanksgiving in decrease as we do in increase?  Can we know that He is cleansing us of sin, freeing us from the power of the flesh, and preparing us for service and blessing unimaginable? Is it worth the struggle? You bet it is!


God Abhors Violence

The face of the LORD is against those who do evil, to cut off the memory of them from the earth.
– Psalm 34:16/NIV

Thought... 
God hates violence and demands that we not admire those who are violent or share in their violent lifestyle. (Prov. 3:31) God abhors those who do evil. God not only opposes them when they are alive, he also mitigates their influence after they are gone. He helps them be seen for what they really are. Far from being viewed as heroes, their legacy of hate and wickedness is spurned, shunned, scandalized, and forgotten. 

As we consider this let us not forget those opportunistic wrestlers on TV who teach our children that what appears to be outright violence can be very rewarding.

Prayer... 
In our own time of terror and wickedness, O LORD, please make worthless the threats of the wicked and make their memory a foul stench in the nostrils of those they are trying to deceive and co-opt to do their evil will. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen


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

“God Calling” compiled by A. J. Russell.
"Twenty-Four Hours A Day" Hazelton – adapted.
Phil Ware offers The Verse for Today.
Barry Gray writes A Disciple’s Reflections.