What Cost?

Wisdom from Fellow Pilgrims

God loved us, and to prove it to us became human in order to become our brother in the flesh. He became poor, the poorest of the poor, in order to be able to include us all as his brothers (and sisters). He became a little child in order to be like children, even born, children from the slums.  God has loved us and has given all that he is and has.  The Father gave the Son, the Son gave His very self, the Holy Spirit became our habitual sanctifier.... How grateful I should be to this kind Savior!

~Peter Julian Eymard

How grateful indeed?!  This is titled "what cost" today because, when I read the above quote that IS the question that came to mind.  Over and over again, the reality of how God has spared nothing to return us to Himself.  He created us for a personal relationship with Himself and that was broken by selfish desire.


God has never changed in His desire for a personal relationship with each and every soul He's created since the beginning of time.  While I believe that God's heart breaks with every soul lost for eternity, I believe greater joy is expressed in the salvation of each soul.  The bible tells us that, "Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance." ~Luke 15:7


Don't we reach a whole different level of contentment, pleasure or satisfaction when difficult things are accomplished?  When goals are met and greater works and opportunities lay ahead, all things become better and greater!


God's word also tells us that, "For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them." ~Ephesian 2:10 and "And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.~Philippians 1:6


This journey has more to do with God's desire to set right everything that went wrong.  We can never be equal to God.  We can only because HE has made a way through Jesus Christ, be returned to a relationship with God that was intended from the beginning!  This journey is about allowing God to mold us into the image of Christ and in the process expose God's light to a dark, desperate and lost world.


Having given everything with the complete foreknowledge that so many would reject HIS provision and over of restoration, God has still given HIS all and HIS Best.  So, should we give no less?  Should we even think of the cost to ourselves?  OR, should we throw our everything into being committed, sold out and of use to God for God's purposes alone?!


As always, the choice is ours.  God only asks that we accept, obey and trust in HIM!


Blessings & Peace
~Robert

Steve Jobs and the Seven Rules of Success | Entrepreneur.com

Steve Jobs and the Seven Rules of Success | Entrepreneur.com

I once heard a pastor say, "I love taking from the world and using it for God". Steve Jobs' position on faith and religion are not my topic of discussion today. I do find great value in the article I'm sharing on this blog today.

Just as any man or woman can live by the principles of the bible and still spend eternity in hell, separated from God. You can employ the principles lived by Steve Jobs in business and not own your own business. They can still help you succeed in life.

"Do what you love." - I've heard it said over and over again, "do what you love and you'll never work a day in your life". Spend time loving God and choosing to do those things that draw you near to Him and you'll find yourself wanting to do those things that honor Him. Unlike our relationship with our spouse, we can't get things to show how we fill. All we can do is live out our love for Christ by allowing God to form us into His image. Love being used by and formed into Christ's image.

Think about this point today. Allow the Holy Spirit to work this idea deeply into your spirit. Ask our Father to help you grab ahold of HIS vision for your life. You'll be surprised to find that the thing(s) you already love to do, are in fact a huge part of what God created you to do.

Blessings & Peace

~Robert

Perspective

"Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light." ~Matthew 11:28-30

"Every now and then go away, have a little relaxation, for when you come back to your work your judgment will be surer. Go some distance away because then the work appears smaller and more of it can be taken in at a glance and a lack of harmony and proportion is more readily seen."  ~Leonardo DaVinci

I receive several emails every morning for devotions.  Today I received the quotes above from one of these emails.  Soul Care.

As we enter into the 2nd work day of the week, are you already feeling pressure?  Was your Monday filled with demands that set the tone for a week that will seemingly require more than you feel is possible?  Don't give into it, not for a moment!

Look to the source, our only source.  Christ has promised us His yoke.  All we have to do is accept that HE is our power and strength.  Through Him we can overcome and not just overcome, we will live Christ in our jobs and communities.

Looking at the quote from DaVinici, I'm reminded that Christ would OFTEN retreat from everyone to pray.  He needed as we do, the quite solitude encountered when we get alone to pray.  Ever noticed that Christ was the best at leading by example?  Jesus never asked His disciples to do anything He didn't first do.

Learn from Jesus, His yoke is easy and His burden is light.  Gentle and humble is His soul and in Him alone will we find the rest needed.  Rest, renewal and recharging is all found in one singular place....Jesus Christ.

Blessings & Peace

~Robert

Delayed

Streams in the Desert Daily Devotional, Charles Cowman, Christian Bible Devotions:

"An assured part of God's pledged blessing to us is delay and suffering."

I believe you'll all agree, that we live in a "fast food society" in every aspect of life. Give it to me now, I have to have it now, and why is it taking so long... theses are the constant demands, wants and desires that we live with today. We may not personally live this way, however like myself, there are times during the day when we get a little testy about things taking too long.

We know full well that anything worth having must be earned and often the journey is of much greater value than the end result. How many times have we started out on a quest only to change our minds due to new information received in the process?

The reason our God our Father doesn't just give us everything we need or desire, isn't because He is "holding out". Often we don't need what we ask for and in fact the object we seek could or would be a detriment to our life.

In the end, there is only one thing we should recognize as our need and that is God alone. Anything else will be the icing on the cake. If we seek God's face as all we need in this life, then we will only ask for Him. We will recognize that all we've every really wanted has been right before us.

The vacancy in our soul, our deepest longing and greatest needs are all satisfied by one thing.... acceptance that we cannot and will not ever be able to meet our own needs. In the end, delays in this life will come as certainly as the sun shines on the earth. We again must choose how we live out our life today and everyday.

Choose the best and only direction. Christ and the path to eternal salvation.

Blessings & Peace

~Robert

Satan's Tools - Streams in the Desert

Streams in the Desert Daily Devotional, Charles Cowman, Christian Bible Devotions:

The failure of Israel to enter the land of promise began in murmuring, or, as the text in Numbers literally puts it, "as it were murmured." Just a faint desire to complain and be discontented. This led on until it blossomed and ripened into rebellion and ruin. Let us give ourselves no liberty ever to doubt God or His love and faithfulness to us in everything and forever.

We can set our will against doubt just as we do against any other sin; and as we stand firm and refuse to doubt, the Holy Spirit will come to our aid and give us the faith of God and crown us with victory.

The challenge we all face daily is to keep our eyes on Christ. In doing so, we more easily see our situations as "better than" or our glass is "half full". This attitude will help us guard against murmuring and allowing the junk of life to hamper our walk and testimony for Christ.

Enjoy this devotion linked here today and remember, "I can do all things through Him who strengthens me" ~ Philippians 4:13. With such a great and powerful statement to stand on, we should never be anything but positive.

Blessings & Peace

Robert

LOVE WINS.

I saw the title for this post today on a bumper sticker.  Very simple white lettering on a black background.

Yes, I had one of those moments.  You know the moments in our walk with Christ where we become awestruck with a flood of images.  Christ on the cross with His arms held open.  Truth is we have example after example where Christ embodied the love of God in His short life here on this earth.

Verses that give us great descriptions of God's displayed love.  From the beginning right through to the point where our Father kicked Adam and Eve out of the Garden of Eden.  "Then the Lord God said, 'Behold the man has become like one of us in knowing good and evil.  Now, lest he reach out his hand and take also of the tree of life and eat, and live forever-' therefore the Lord God sent him out from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken." Genesis 3:22-23

God couldn't allow us to live forever in this condition.  Separated from Himself for all eternity by our sinful flesh, this wasn't in God's plan for mankind.  Tossed out because of His great love, not out of anger or as a punishment.  Just shown the door so the plan of redemption could begin in earnest.

This one example sets up the beginning of centuries where God with grace, only the grace He alone can provide, shows mankind over and over again His love.  The depth and breadth of which we only ever catch but a glance.  Aw moments in this life.

We really only get very little pictures into God's great love.  We struggle with "cast all our sins into the depths of the sea." (Micah 7:19)  or "as far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us." (Psalm 103:12)  The bottom line is that has never changed and never will.  His great love for us cannot and will not change.


All the way to the cross God has shared His love for mankind.  The goal is the same now as it has always been.  Our creator desires a relationship with us that is deeper than any we've ever know. For some, we had great relationships in this life and other haven't been so blessed.  Regardless of where we stand in the previous sentence, God desires to show us love as only He can.


Seek God and you will find him!  Draw near to Him and He will draw near to you - James 4:8, paraphrase.


Blessings & Peace

The Nature of Degeneration | My Utmost For His Highest

The Nature of Degeneration | My Utmost For His Highest:

"The nature of sin is not immorality and wrongdoing, but the nature of self-realization which leads us to say, “I am my own god.” "

So, you think you're in control. You think all that takes place in your life is the result of your masterful ability to wield your will on everyone and everything around you so that your desires and plans come to pass. That's great for you.

 Now, what about that empty place within you? You just knew it would be filled when you reached your goals!  The trouble with your plan and "lordship" over your life is you still haven't replaced that which is lost to you. You didn't create yourself and therefore you can't meet your own desperate need.

What we need in this life is what we were created for to begin with, an intimate relationship with our creator. Adam's curse for us was this desire to be in charge and have absolute authority over our lives. This is the sin, to desire status equal to God Himself.

Throughout history, man has tried again and again to reach God, our Creator, by our own means and ability. We fail every time and yet God still loves us and has not once withdrawn HIS provision.

Christ sacrificed everything so that God's plan of redemption for mankind would be accomplished. Although man has repeatedly chosen to follow his own path. God has and still does desire that we will choose His way, that we decide His plans are best for us.

More than anything else, we need to come to the place where we know God alone is the source and God alone can and will provide for our life. Only God can fill the void in our life that we try desperately to fill with stuff.

Choose everlasting fulfillment and life in Christ. He alone can help us overcome the deep rooted desire to be "my own god". When we choose Christ we choose life.

Blessings & Peace

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Seeking What We Truly Need

Lord, I believe in you: increase my faith.
I trust in you: strengthen my trust.
I love you: let me love you more and more.
I am sorry for my sins: deepen my sorrow.
I worship you as my first beginning.
I long for you as my last end.
I praise you as my constant helper.

~ Clement XI


Jesus said, "Whatever you ask in My name, that will I do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son." ~John 14:13


I John 5:14, "This is the confidence which we have before Him, that, if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us."


Not only do we truly need each point in Clement's prayer, each one is asked in accordance with our Father's will.  God wants us to have ever greater faith, strengthened trust, deeper love for Him and greater depth of sorrow for our sins.


As we grow in His grace, our faith is increased because we continually take steps of faith in obedience to His direction.  Our trust is expanded and grows stronger because we trust and not just trust, but we are learning to trust in Him completely.  God's unimaginable love for us starts to come into focus because we seek to love Him more.  Sorrow for our sins... on such a deep level that only the Holy Spirit can intercede on our behalf, since we can't express the utter shame of our sorrow.


Through this journey as we ask and receive each of the points in this prayer, we see ourselves joining Clement XI.  Worshiping God as our first, last and constant helper.  Drawn to worship in and through the moments of this life.  Thankful to be His through Christ, thankful to share our belief, thankful that even when the day is long, He is our Father and we His children.


Ask and receive, seek and find.  Go ahead and believe God for He has never changed and never will.  He sought us first to provide everything we need.


All we truly need..... HIM!!!


Blessings & Peace

The Goal of Life

TGIF « Marketplace Leaders:

“I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know Him better. I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which He has called you, the riches of His glorious inheritance in the saints, and His incomparably great power for us who believe…”(Ephesians 1:17-19).

Knowing Christ brings the only real meaning and purpose to the human soul. Spend time today getting to know the Lord in a more intimate way. Then you will discover real meaning and purpose in life."

It's interesting how we are excited, thankful beyond description, or feel completely indebted to Christ for our salvation on the day we accept Christ as Lord and Savior. Our eyes firmly fixed on Christ or are they really?

I'm not calling into question your salvation or mine, only making a point from another direction. We know Christ has filled the void of our life, placed the stopper in the hole of our life which can't be filled with stuff. Yet, we continue to seek to find fulfillment without looking daily to our source.

When we decided to accept Christ as Lord and Savior for our life, salvation isn't the only thing we needed. We also need to seek His direction for our life, daily. As Christ is the only one who can provide us with eternal salvation. He is the only way we will find true fulfillment in this life.

Fulfilling the purposes and mission of Christ by glorifying our Father is the goal. This goal will provide us with the daily fulfillment we seek. Being used by God as the image of Christ to reach the lost, bring comfort to those in need and provide as we can to those who are without. These things glorify God and and bring fulfillment in this life.

God has blessed each of us with different abilities and gifts. We each touch lives and glorify God in ways that no other person can. Each person plays a specific role in the body of Christ and in the kingdom. Seek to do your part with your eyes firmly fixed on Christ.

Blessings and Peace

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Free Through Suffering

Streams in the Desert Daily Devotional, Charles Cowman, Christian Bible Devotions:

"If Joseph had not been Egypt's prisoner, he had never been Egypt's governor. The iron chain about his feet ushered in the golden chain about his neck.--Selected"

The richness of "Old English" always brings to mind heartier times. Meaning more rustic days as compared to the modern conveniences of today. Might the simpler days have been better, not really. Every person is born for their time and here's the point....

Even today, we seek the easier road. There's no doubt that mankind has always sought to make things easier, better and more efficient. If that wasn't true, we wouldn't be where we are today with technology.

Hard work produces satisfaction and a sense of accomplishment. Anything EASILY gained or received is just as EASILY dismissed. We have in this devotional another example that brings home this point.

Joseph, always having the dreams of an easier life where he's in charge and set above. He never dreamed what it would take or actually be like to lead.

So the journey took what appeared to be in the opposite direction. Utter failure and maybe complete loss seemed to be his lot for life. However, God ordered the events of his life in such a fashion that he would with greater faculty lead and love.

Only through great trials, he learned how to lead with the love, compassion, and heart of God. Forgiving what appeared to be great "wrongs", because he recognized God was in every step and at every turn.

We too must choose to endure the rough, ugly, and perplexing times of this life with our eyes firmly fixed on Christ. Only through the fire will we shine and glorify our Father and His kingdom.

Blessings and Peace

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