Here is our study from Psalm 119 today regarding how the Word of God helps us through affliction.
Tag Archives: devotional
Monday Digging Deeper: Obey and Meditate
Here is today’s devotional thought on digging deeper into the Word of God from Psalm 119.
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Saturday Recap From the Vicarage: Entering the Promise…DLT
Doing Life Together is absolutely essential in order to enter God’s promises.
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Friday Morning Recap From the Vicarage: Living From Your Go To Gift
Living from our go to gift, our God given personality helps us build strength and courage.
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Wednesday Morning Recap From the Vicarage: Focusing On Our Relationship With Jesus.
Here is day three in our Daily live series concerning building a mindset of strength and courage. We build a mindset of strength and courage when we focus on the health of our relationship with Jesus.
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Monday Morning Recap From the Vicarage: Live Truthfully, Live Righteously
This is a deeper dive into part of my sermon from yesterday.
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New Directions, Next Steps.
At this time last year I was preparing to visit the Philippines for my son’s wedding.
I had also just embarked on a massive lifestyle change, the seeds of which had been planted in November of 2018. Way back then the Lord had spoken to me about embracing a lifestyle of faith with my finances that would involve me giving up my salary from the church. I did this in November of 2019 and received my final check from the church on Dec. 31st 2019.
I still work for the church as a pastor and as a volunteer.
One of the things the Lord told me in January was that this move to a lifestyle of faith was about a personal shift which was going to take a year to complete. I was launching on a journey. I had the method of travel. I just didn’t know where the walk of faith would lead me.
Here I am one year later and my life has totally changed. I have shifted from a life schedule to a life rhythm. My prayer life has deepened and changed from intercessor to watchman on the wall. I have finished my book. I have learned much more about my office in the church as a prophet. My leadership style flows chiefly from prayer (rather than from a church schedule) and manifests more as a caretaker than as a facilitator.
As 2021 dawns I am posed to take the next steps of this journey: Next steps in ministry; Next steps in publishing my book; Next steps in being the co-owner of the Vicarage; The next steps in my family; The next steps financially.
I don’t know what all of those steps are yet, but I do know they will take me in new directions. I have tried to follow the threads prophetically so I can see my future but they vanish a bit up the road into a bank of fog God has created to keep me on the pathway of slow constant intentional living by faith in the day to day.
Here are the things I know: The world is not done with its troubles just because it is 2021; America is in the cross-hairs; Prosperity is still possible; Faith is more necessary in the days ahead than in the days past; It is time to operate in my God-given authority; God has equipped me with what I need for the road ahead; I need to focus on the step I see not the ones I don’t; It is time to write; It is time to publish; People are more important than programs.
New directions, Next steps. Anything could happen and probably will. Isn’t that exciting?
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It’s All A Season
I was a reading a post by James Radcliffe today CALLED THE SEAGULLS. Check it out.
His post reminded me of this song.
Life is full of hard seasons. They come. They go. They come again. That is the nature of seasons. That is the consequence of living in a world of continual cycles.
Right now we are in a hard season. It will pass and another season will begin. Here is the thing, every season marks us. Every season changes us. We cannot get away from that fact and there is no going back to what we were after a season no matter how much we want to. We will all be changed by 2020 and that is just the nature of things. We can cry. We can complain. We can rage against the change of seasons, but they will still change and so will we.
Remember dear friends, change has two things intrinsic in its nature: Loss and gain. If we were to speak about it biblically we woulds say… change has two things intrinsic in its nature: crucifixion and resurrection. As earth bound humans we focus too much on the crucifixion. It’s time for that to change. We need to put on some new specs and begin looking for the resurrection power that must come after this season and make no mistake it will come for those who are looking for it.
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Going North To Go South
Then Jerubbaal (that is, Gideon) and all the people who were with him rose early and encamped beside the well of Harod, so that the camp of the Midianites was on the north side of them by the hill of Moreh in the valley.
2 And the Lord said to Gideon, “The people who are with you are too many for Me to give the Midianites into their hands, lest Israel claim glory for itself against Me, saying, ‘My own hand has saved me.’ 3 Now therefore, proclaim in the hearing of the people, saying, ‘Whoever isfearful and afraid, let him turn and depart at once from Mount Gilead.’” And twenty-two thousand of the people returned, and ten thousand remained.
4 But the Lord said to Gideon, “The people are still too many; bring them down to the water, and I will test them for you there. Then it will be, that of whom I say to you, ‘This one shall go with you,’ the same shall go with you; and of whomever I say to you, ‘This one shall not go with you,’ the same shall not go.” 5 So he brought the people down to the water. And the Lord said to Gideon, “Everyone who laps from the water with his tongue, as a dog laps, you shall set apart by himself; likewise everyone who gets down on his knees to drink.” 6 And the number of those who lapped, putting their hand to their mouth, was three hundred men; but all the rest of the people got down on their knees to drink water. 7 Then the Lord said to Gideon, “By the three hundred men who lapped I will save you, and deliver the Midianites into your hand. Let all the other people go, every man to his place.” 8 So the people took provisions and their trumpets in their hands. And he sent away all the rest of Israel, every man to his tent, and retained those three hundred men. Now the camp of Midian was below him in the valley. Judges 7:1-8
My daughter lives in Lynn Ma which is South and East of my home in Winchendon MA. The most direct route to her home involves going North before I go South. That seems strange doesn’t it? It would seem the fastest way to get somewhere should be to head directly toward that place. If my daugther lives South and East then it would seem that going South and East would be the fastest way to get there, but it is not. Oh, eventually I do have to go South but starting out that way actually takes longer.
That’s how it is in the kingdom of God too. I am not sure it is how God is but, I do know for certain it is how He works in the world. I think something in the fallen nature of our world causes the journey to our God-goals to start out by going away from the goals themselves. Scripture bears this out, for instance: God saves the world by killing all but eight people in the flood; God begins to create a unified Kingdom in the world (a process that has been going on for some five thousand years) by separating people into language groups; God raises up a powerful army by reducing it’s size 98%; God brings His life to the world by dying, and so on and so on….
We really shouldn’t be surprised when our lives and projects, once committed to God, begin to reflect the patterns of Scripture. Set backs are a part of God’s plan. They are a part of the journey. They are the way God forces us to keep Him included in the process.
Are you facing a trial or a setback today? It could be the Devil trying to shut you down. Then again it could be God too. Maybe, just maybe, it is a little bit of both. That is why we so desperately need the Holy Spirit’s guidance. Our world is a series of roads going North that actually lead South. What seems like a wrong way to us looks like a perfectly acceptable pathway to Him. He knows the things we will have to give away in order to obtain the better promise. He knows the dreams that have to die in order for THE GOD DREAMS to be resurrected. He knows the areas we have to be weakened in so that we can become stronger. BUT WE DON’T KNOW THOSE THINGS!
Jesus said these words to His disciples just before His crucifixion and if they were true then they are true now.
7 Nevertheless I tell you the truth. It is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I depart, I will send Him to you. …
12 “I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now.13 However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come. 14 He will glorify Me, for He will take of what is Mine and declare it to you. 15 All things that the Father has are Mine. Therefore I said that He will take of Mine and declare it to you.
John 16:7-15
Are you on a road heading North While trying to go South? Ask the Holy Spirit for help. He knows the way.
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Know Himself and Thyself
Yesterday in her morning musings my sister, Brenda Lillie wrote… “Paul prayed that the Ephesians eyes would be open so they could KNOW GOD. So often we find our self lost in a sea of doubt, pain, or fear. We wonder where is God ,when will He make His entrance? In these moments it’s not that God is not there..but perhaps we don’t Know our good and faithful God well enough. Our faith is shaken not from circumstances…but lack of knowing who our God truly is and what He is capable of doing in spite of the circumstances.”
Then last night in her sermon at New Hope Assembly of God in Saugus MA my daughter, Melanie Franklin said, “We can only love one another once we love ourselves…we can only love ourselves when we know who we are…to know who we are we must look in the Word of God.”
It strikes me that most of life’s problems cease to be problems once we know who God is and who we are. In knowing those two things we gain confidence and ultimately love of God, self and others which is a power that does not fail in the midst of any circumstance (I Cor. 13:8).
In your prayer time today let me encourage you to ask God to help you and the people you are praying for to know Him better and yourself/ themselves better so that the issue being dealt with will get lost in the vast scope of God’s love.
Lillie-Put 