Grace and Peace

2018-01-18 Devotional Companion to Revelation, Devotional with Hymn No comments

A prayer response to Revelation 1:4,
“Grace to you and peace, from Him who is and
who was and who is to come” (NASB).

Father, You are forever eager to pour out on me
Your grace,
the rich goodness and tender kindness that
I don’t deserve and
can never deserve.

You are forever working, forever reaching to fill me with
Your peace,
Your complete well-being.
You want to share with me and with all of us
the wholeness,
the harmony,
the uninterrupted, undiminished love that flows among
Father,
Son, and
Spirit.

This grace and peace pour from You,
who embrace
all time,
all being,
all past, present, and future
in Yourself,
perfect in power,
perfect in loving,
perfect in knowing.
You know me with an understanding that is
permeated with perfect love.

Father, today I receive
Your grace,
Your peace,
Your knowing,
Your all-encompassing embrace.

Listen and sing:
Hymn: Holy Father, Only You
Recording
Printed Music & Lyrics

I Have a Seed

2018-01-16 Devotional with Hymn No comments

I don’t have a world to build or
kingdoms to conquer.
I have a seed to sow –
a seed of
love and
life and
peace.

Loving God,
let me sow it
joyfully and generously,
fervently and faithfully,
knowing that You, Lord,
will bring an abundant harvest.

Listen and sing:
Hymn: Bless This Seed
Recording
Printed Music & Lyrics

See the Father Walk among Us

2018-01-14 Devotional with Hymn No comments

Father, You are
high and holy,
transcendent and unseen,
great beyond all imagination.
Yet in Jesus Christ we see You as a
real,
touchable,
walking,
smiling,
speaking human being.
How amazing You are!
How can we help but
love You and
want to be like You!

Listen and sing:
Hymn: See the Father Walk among Us
Recording
Printed Music & Lyrics

Urgent!

2018-01-11 Devotional Companion to Revelation, Devotional with Hymn No comments

A reflection on Revelation 1:1-3,
the prologue to the book. 

Our Sovereign God is calling us.
He is calling us to
simple faith and
complete obedience.
He is calling us to Himself.

To call us, He is using the very best of
all He has and
all He is.
He is calling us through the
life,
death,
resurrection, and
exaltation of His only Son, Jesus Christ.

The stakes are high.
Eternal life and eternal death
hang in the balance for us.
No one knows when Christ will return and
our decision will suddenly become irrevocable.
Life is uncertain
for ourselves and
for the loved ones for whom we deeply desire all the best.

The reward is great beyond our imagining.
The Father promises the fullness of Himself
to those who answer the call.
He promises Jesus Christ –
His life,
His love,
His holy perfection,
His eternal glory.

The all-wise, all-loving Lord of all begs us to give His call
top priority
now.
We dare not ignore Him.

We must pay the most careful attention, therefore, to what we have heard.
How shall we escape if we ignore so great a salvation? (Hebrews 2:1, 3, NIV)

Listen and sing:
Hymn: When Jesus Speaks
Recording
Printed Music & Lyrics

Lord of Time

2018-01-09 Hymns No comments

A Hymn based on
Psalm 31:14-15; John 15:5; Ephesians 5:15-16

Recording
Printed Music

I fight with time. I rush. I wait.
I plan. I press. I stay up late.
I try so hard to regulate
What only You control.

Great Lord of time, above its flow,
You give us time to change, to grow,
To learn to live the love we owe
To You, all-gracious God!

In Christ we learn what time can be:
A frame for love unrushed and free,
The pure and perfect harmony
Of life immersed in You.

The fruitfulness that we pursue
Flows not from what our plans can do
But Lord, from living all in You,
The ever-fruitful Vine.

Hear God’s Higher Call

2018-01-07 Devotional with Hymn No comments

See your God for who He is and
all He is.
He is the Father of the entire human family.
He lovingly formed them all to be His very own.
He invested Himself in each and every individual.

Now realize that we are children of this Father,
this loving, universal Father.
He is so much greater than
our self-centered perspective and
limited minds.
He is grander than
our immature faith and
our love, still growing.

This Father is calling us beyond our
small,
fearful,
sectarian ways.
He is calling us to share
His broader mind and
larger heart.
He is urging us toward prayer that believes
He is all He says He is and
does all He says He will do.
He is leading us toward
a faith that is simpler,
a vision that is higher, and
a love that is as universal as He is,
a love that is
boundless and
fearless and
free.

In this lost and needy world, He is calling us to live as
His children,
His Body,
His divine life made flesh and bone.
His compassion for His lost children is
calling us and constraining us to be
the light of the world,
the salt of the earth,
a royal priesthood,
a holy nation.

His love is compelling us and empowering us to be
the People of God.

Listen and sing:
Hymn: Share Your Father’s Heart
Recording
Printed Music & Lyrics

Focus on Jesus Christ

2018-01-04 Devotional Companion to Revelation, Devotional with Hymn One comment

Introduction to Revelation

READER: On Fridays over the next fourteen months I will be posting devotional reflections on the book of Revelation. Revelation can be intimidating and for that reason is too often ignored. My prayer is that through these reflections you will gain meaningful life truth and better know your magnificent Lord. The first reflection below is an introduction to the entire book.

In a world overflowing with distractions and delusions,
empty threats and false hopes,
focus on what God is doing through Jesus Christ.

Jesus is the sovereign, creative Word of Almighty God.
Whatever God wills,
His Son Jesus brings about.
The Father speaks, and
the Son makes it reality.
If you want to know what is going to happen in our world,
focus on Jesus Christ.
He is the future of all creation.

If you want to know our destiny as a race and
your personal destiny as a believer,
focus on Jesus Christ.
He is the Second Adam,
the first of an entirely new human family.
As He is revealed,
we are revealed in Him.
As He is,
we will be.

Jesus Christ is our past, present, and future.
He is our Source and our Goal,
the spring from which we have come and
the ocean toward which we are flowing.

If you want to understand the past,
focus on Jesus.
It points to Him.
If you want to understand the present,
focus on Jesus.
He is what our loving Father wants for us today.
If you want to understand the future,
focus on Jesus.
All reality is moving toward Him.

Listen and sing:
Hymn: Image of the Unseen God
Recording
Printed Music & Lyrics

Well-being

2018-01-02 Devotional with Hymn 2 comments

Today in You, Father,
I enjoy a well-being that
flows all around me and
goes before me,
a well-being that is
deeper and
more permanent
than any temporary, troublesome circumstance.

It is the peace and presence,
the power and unfailing goodness
of You,
my Savior,
my Lord, and
my God! 

Listen and sing:
Hymn: Treasure
Recording
Printed Music & Lyrics

As I See Jesus

2017-12-31 Devotional with Hymn No comments

Father, as I see Jesus,
I see You.
In Him I see Your beauty and glory,
Your holiness and love.
I see all You are
made fully human.

In Him I also see
who I am becoming.
I see all You have destined me to be.
When I am complete in Him, I will be
Your glorious child,
living in You and
loving You,
joyfully and forever.
I will glow with
Your holiness and
Your goodness.

Father, You are fully
showing Yourself and
sharing Yourself with me in Jesus Christ.
Praise to You!

Listen and sing:
Hymn: See All That Human Can Be
Recording
Printed Music & Lyrics

When the Heavens Open

2017-12-28 Devotional with Hymn No comments

When God opens the heavens,
He shows us what He is doing.
He shows us our world as He sees it.

When Jesus was born, God opened the heavens.
He sent us a special star to announce that
the magnificent, transcendent God was
now living among us.
The star drew worshipers from
a far-away land and
a different religion.
They were the first sign that the One who had come was
the Light of all the nations and
the King of all Kings.

When Jesus was baptized, God opened the heavens.
As Jesus’ ministry began, His first act was to publicly
take all our sins upon Himself.
The Sinless One lined up with the sinners and
symbolically died beneath Jordan’s waters,
bearing the sins of the whole world.
At this crucial moment.
the Father spoke and
the Spirit appeared.
Together they testified that
this was indeed the pure and perfect Son of God.

When Jesus was on the mount of transfiguration,
God opened the heavens.
As Jesus approached His death,
the Father gave three disciples a fleeting glimpse of
the Christ as He truly was,
in His eternal splendor,
human yet heavenly.
The law and the prophets visibly testified to Him.

On all three occasions, God opened the heavens to show us
unmistakably,
unforgettably
that His own Son had come to us,
the Light of the World.
He had taken on our flesh and blood
to bear away all our sin.
He had come so that every one of us might
share fully and forever in Him. 

Listen and sing:
Hymn: Epiphany Hymn (REGENT SQUARE)
Recording
Printed Music & Lyrics

« Older Entries   Recent Entries »