11.28.08
“SANCTIFYING GRACE”
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1 Thess 5:23-24
23 May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. 24 The one who calls you is faithful and he will do it.
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1 Peter 1:13-16
13 Therefore, prepare your minds for action; be self-controlled; set your hope fully on the grace to be given you when Jesus Christ is revealed. 14 As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance. 15 But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; 16 for it is written: “Be holy, because I am holy.”
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All communities have their own symbols, rituals, and even their own language; which help to clarify their own sense of identity and purpose. The body of Christ has language which some call “Christian-ese.” Words like salvation, justification, glorification, or even sanctification can serve to locate someone within the Christian world view, or without. These words, when unpacked, powerfully communicate some of the core truths by which we in Christ live.
A simple definition of sanctification is: the life-long process by which we are made holy. As God is holy, we are called to be set apart to Him, to become like Him. In the bigger picture, this process is guaranteed to be finished when we see Christ in heaven. However, we are called to actively participate in this process all the days of our life.
Commands are made to grow be holy, and grow in holiness throughout the scriptures. But the source of our sanctification is always God who is already holy, and who does the sanctifying. God is the one who takes the primary responsibility in sanctifying us through and through. It is an act of grace, not of our works by which we are transformed from sinner to saint; in our thinking and our actions. We have a part to play, but God is the one who calls us to it; and faithfully empowers us at every step.
Saving grace, sustaining grace, and sustaining grace are all a package deal. God wouldn’t just save us from the guilt and wrath, to orphan us afterwards. He doesn’t give us strength to sustain us each day, only to leave us spiritually stunted. He graces us through our daily exercises to grow more and more to be like him, holy in every way. Grand are His purposes, and amazing is His grace for us! Halleluiah!
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REFLECTION/RESPONSE
- This morning, will you take time to gaze at the beauty of God’s holiness? Even the holy angels revere and fall facedown before Him. Ask God for greater insight into what it means that He is holy.
- When we come before Holy God, we find that we fall so short! Will you stand in faith according to His word that God is going to make you holy; not by your works, but by His all sufficient grace. Will you lean on His purpose and power, and not on yours?
- You have still have a part to play. Is God targeting a specific pattern of thinking and behavior in your life this morning? If he is convicting you, then He is taking initiative to change you. He will empower you, and so will you respond to His promptings for holy transformation?
11.26.08
“SUSTAINING GRACE”
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1 Kings 19:3-9; 11-12 NIV
3 Elijah was afraid and ran for his life. When he came to Beersheba in Judah, he left his servant there, 4 while he himself went a day’s journey into the desert. He came to a broom tree, sat down under it and prayed that he might die. “I have had enough, LORD,” he said. “Take my life; I am no better than my ancestors.” 5 Then he lay down under the tree and fell asleep.
All at once an angel touched him and said, “Get up and eat.” 6 He looked around, and there by his head was a cake of bread baked over hot coals, and a jar of water. He ate and drank and then lay down again.
7 The angel of the LORD came back a second time and touched him and said, “Get up and eat, for the journey is too much for you.” 8 So he got up and ate and drank. Strengthened by that food, he traveled forty days and forty nights until he reached Horeb, the mountain of God. 9 There he went into a cave and spent the night….11 The LORD said, “Go out and stand on the mountain in the presence of the LORD, for the LORD is about to pass by.”
Then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks before the LORD, but the LORD was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the LORD was not in the earthquake. 12 After the earthquake came a fire, but the LORD was not in the fire. And after the fire came a gentle whisper.
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2 Chron 16:9a NIV
9 For the eyes of the LORD range throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him.
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It has been said, the bigger you are, the harder you fall. Sometimes this applies to our spiritual highs and lows as well; where weakness and defeat seem to follow swiftly on the heels of victory. When we catch up to Elijah in this passage, he is in total flight. He is has succumbed to fear and discouragement, and is ready to surrender his life. We might be surprised to find that this story follows immediately after his amazing victory on top of Mt. Carmel, where he successfully faced down 850 prophets of Baal and Asherah by himself. God had miraculous sustained him through the years of drought, and empowered him to defeat the army of idolatrous prophets. But after the pinnacle accomplishment of his life, he ran out of courage and faith.
But watch how God ministers to exhausted Elijah. Rather than castigate him for his fall from faith, he gently and tangibly restores him. God through an angel repeatedly sustains his body with food and water, intervening with angelic touches. Following this scene, Elijah’s soul is then restored. God manifests His will to Elijah not through the metaphors of wrath (i.e. whirlwind, earthquake, and fire), but through that of sustaining grace, i.e. a gentle whisper. Even when Elijah is at his lowest, God is able to meet and sustain Him with grace. Elijah’s story is our story, if Elijah’s God is our God.
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REFLECTION/RESPONSE
- This morning, will you reflect on the grace of God that not only saves, but sustains? As you reflect on Elijah’s story, recount how God provided for him during the drought, and through life threatening encounters. Will you let your soul be convinced that God intentionally and faithfully strengthens those that are His, by sheer grace?
- Will you reflect on your spiritual propensity? Are you one who hits a lot of spiritual highs and lows, or do you find that you are fairly even keeled? Will you by faith declare that God is more than enough for you at every stage and step? Will you ask God to reveal to you how He has, and will sustain you with amazing grace?
- Is there anything on your heart you need to entrust Him with this morning? Are you exhausted, needing angelic ministrations & Spirit manifestations to restore your body & soul? Will you ask your God to sustain you today with and by grace?
11.25.08
“SAVING GRACE”
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Eph 2:1-9 NIV
2:1 As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, 2 in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. 3 All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath. 4 But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, 5 made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions-it is by grace you have been saved.
6 And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, 7 in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. 8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith-and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God- 9 not by works, so that no one can boast.
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No person whose hearts and lungs have stopped ever resuscitate themselves via auto-CPR. The dead are powerless to redeem themselves. It takes action by someone else who intervenes, and saves. This is the very metaphor which Paul uses in this passage to argue that we were once dead to God; imprisoned by our sinful nature and destined for wrath.
It was God’s great mercy and grace which flipped the script; making us alive and inseparable with Christ. This is at the heart of grace, that we do not deserve it; and we do not achieve it. It is God who chooses us, and plucks us out of the pit of death. We do not get what we deserve, righteous wrath; rather we are given what we do not deserve, i.e. forgiveness and adoption.
Our works apart from God falls so short! Grace that does not include saving grace does not cut it. But God’s saving grace is more than sufficient to turn us right side up, inside out, and full steam ahead!
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REFLECTION/RESPONSE
- If you’ve never had a chance to receive Jesus as Savior and Lord, will you reflect on the Bible’s assertion that without His work on the cross, you are left with the consequences of your sin and disobedience. God who is full of mercy sent His Son to die on the cross to take your place. In exchange He would turn to you in forgiveness and love. There is nothing you can do to save yourself, but God can and will if you turn to Him. Will you receive His saving grace?
- If you have a relationship with Christ, will you this morning bring your heart to remember the moment you recognized that you couldn’t save yourself from your sins, but that God would?Whether you remember the moment or not, will you bow your head and heart in thanks again for His unspeakable gift of saving grace?
- So much of our lives in Christ run along the tracks of…not by our works, but by His grace. Our “works” don’t pay for our salvation, rather they are a thanks response to His saving work on the cross. Will you dedicate this day, and all your “work” as a thanks offering to God?
11.24.08
“360° GRACE”
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John 1:10-18 NIV
10 He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. 11 He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. 12 Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God- 13 children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God. 14 The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.
15 John testifies concerning him. He cries out, saying, “This was he of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me has surpassed me because he was before me.’”
16 From the fullness of his grace we have all received one blessing after another. 17 For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. 18 No one has ever seen God, but God the One and Only, who is at the Father’s side, has made him known.
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2 Cor 9:8 NIV
8 And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work.
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One of our key spiritual handicaps is our inability to recognize God, and His grace at work. Sin has a way of clouding our vision of God, twisting our focus back onto our own selves. According to John, the world neither recognized or received the Word.
But when we truly encounter Jesus, we are enabled to see God with shocking clarity. John says that no one has seen God, but Jesus has made him known; Jesus has exegeted Him. God is not hell-bent on our destruction, rather heaven-bent on pouring out grace! By grace we mean a double reversal: giving us the good we don’t deserve, and not giving us the just deserts of our very sin.
There is an interesting phrase in John 1:16, which the NIV translates “one blessing after another. Literally, the verse reads “from the fullness of him we all received even grace on top of grace.” It means that grace continues to flow in increasing measure. You think grace has run out, and there’s more. You look to the right, and the spiritual landscape saturated by grace. You look to the left; more grace there. Look up, look down, look behind you, in front of you, even inside you….grace is everywhere!
God is able to truly make all grace abound…in all things, at all times! For grace flows out of His person and character; and we are made privy to 360° grace. Halleluiah!
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REFLECTION/RESPONSE
- This Monday morning, will you take a few minutes to acknowledge that God has already prepared and provided abundant grace for you today, this week? Will you in faith thank God for meeting you, sustaining you, and thriving you in His grace?
- Will you take your eyes off of your own inadequacy, and look with spiritual eyes at the landscape of grace that God institutes. Will you ask God for eyes to see how His grace is at work in your circumstances?
Because God’s grace abounds, we are promised to have all we need to abound in every good work! What is the work that God would have you do, by His grace? Will you make yourself available to Him as His servant by grace?
11.22.08
“CUTTING A COVENANT”
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Gen 15:6-21 NIV
6 Abram believed the LORD, and he credited it to him as righteousness.
7 He also said to him, “I am the LORD, who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land to take possession of it.”
8 But Abram said, “O Sovereign LORD, how can I know that I will gain possession of it?”
9 So the LORD said to him, “Bring me a heifer, a goat and a ram, each three years old, along with a dove and a young pigeon.”
10 Abram brought all these to him, cut them in two and arranged the halves opposite each other; the birds, however, he did not cut in half. 11 Then birds of prey came down on the carcasses, but Abram drove them away.
12 As the sun was setting, Abram fell into a deep sleep, and a thick and dreadful darkness came over him. 13 Then the LORD said to him, “Know for certain that your descendants will be strangers in a country not their own, and they will be enslaved and mistreated four hundred years. 14 But I will punish the nation they serve as slaves, and afterward they will come out with great possessions. 15 You, however, will go to your fathers in peace and be buried at a good old age. 16 In the fourth generation your descendants will come back here, for the sin of the Amorites has not yet reached its full measure.”
17 When the sun had set and darkness had fallen, a smoking firepot with a blazing torch appeared and passed between the pieces. 18 On that day the LORD made a covenant with Abram and said, “To your descendants I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the Euphrates– 19 the land of the Kenites, Kenizzites, Kadmonites, 20 Hittites, Perizzites, Rephaites, 21 Amorites, Canaanites, Girgashites and Jebusites.”
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These days, when you want to be serious about an agreement; you sign a contract. But the ancient way of binding people to their word was to cut a covenant. Like in this story, the custom was for animals are hewn in half; with a pathway made between the halves. As each party then walks through the split halves, making unconditional promises as well as declaring the punishment they call upon whichever party might break the covenant…i.e. to end up like the split animals before them.
But this passage reveals that it is God who comes, in the form of the smoking firepot and walk through the pathway of pieces. It is God who initiates, mediates, and consummates the covenant. It is He who is willing to take upon Himself the punishment; even for Abraham’s unfaithfulness.
For God had seen Abraham’s heart. Immediately before this passage, Abraham passes another test. Abraham (unlike Lot), refuses to inter-mesh himself with the King of Sodom; passing up great wealth in light of a pure heart before God. Following this test, God comes to him and declares that He would be given a multitude of sons, and the whole land. In confirming God’s promise, He cuts this covenant with Abraham.
We who look to Abraham as our “father” in faith also experience the same. For God in Christ has walked through the pathway of pieces, taking on the punishment that is due to us on his very own self. In return, we are given the land; the inheritance of the very Kingdom of God.
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REFLECTION/RESPONSE
- This morning, imagine a path of hacked animal halves strewn before you. The very stench of violent death threatening to reveal your faithlessness. Now imagine the smoking pot walking that path alone; in your stead. Will you glory in the unspeakable grace of God? That Christ would take upon our just punishment; even the righteous wrath of God for our sin on His very self?
- Imagine all the broken promises, and all the broken laws that we’ve littered the path of our life’s journey with? If you are besieged by the guilt, punishment, and power of any sin, will you take them to the cross where God cut a covenant on your behalf? Pray for healing and transformation.
- The new covenant in Christ is more than a solution for past faithlessness, it is a means by which we grow in faithfulness. Will you ask for the grace to pay tribute to God rather than the “King of Sodom” in all your ways today?
11.21.08
“REPEATED TESTING”
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Gen 13:5-13 NIV
5 Now Lot, who was moving about with Abram, also had flocks and herds and tents. 6 But the land could not support them while they stayed together, for their possessions were so great that they were not able to stay together. 7 And quarreling arose between Abram’s herdsmen and the herdsmen of Lot. The Canaanites and Perizzites were also living in the land at that time.
8 So Abram said to Lot, “Let’s not have any quarreling between you and me, or between your herdsmen and mine, for we are brothers. 9 Is not the whole land before you? Let’s part company. If you go to the left, I’ll go to the right; if you go to the right, I’ll go to the left.”
10 Lot looked up and saw that the whole plain of the Jordan was well watered, like the garden of the LORD, like the land of Egypt, toward Zoar. (This was before the LORD destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah.) 11 So Lot chose for himself the whole plain of the Jordan and set out toward the east. The two men parted company: 12 Abram lived in the land of Canaan, while Lot lived among the cities of the plain and pitched his tents near Sodom. 13 Now the men of Sodom were wicked and were sinning greatly against the LORD.
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When God wants to work something in us, he is profoundly persistent. Recalling yesterday’s passage, confronted by famine Abram chose poorly to go to Egypt, i.e. to walk by sight and not by faith. This time around, a quarrel between Abram & Lot’s herdsmen over limited grazing land sets up another test.
Abram is in the position of power, and could have easily divvied up the land to his advantage. But faith in the God who is able to en-thrive him irrespective of circumstances enables him to offer the choice of land to his nephew Lot. Presumably, Lot’s gaze is seduced by the fertile land near the wicked and doomed cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. But his careless choice reveals a heart that is gravitating toward that cultural center. The rest of his story amounts to a tragic cascade of compromise, where his integrity and his legacy are shredded. Despite divine intervention, Lot is barely able to disentangle himself and his daughters from the city before judgment. Languishing in a cave, he ends up birthing two sons/nations born of incestuous compromise.
Abram on the other hand seemed to have learned his lesson from the last go around. Rather than putting his trust in the green plains around Sodom, he puts his trust in the God who has promised to bless Him. Immediately following this, God tells him to now to “lift up his eyes” to survey all the land that God would give him and his offspring. Despite grazing on substandard ground, Abram’s flock, family, and faith continue to thrive; a testament to the God who tests and proves hearts.
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REFLECTION/RESPONSE
- This morning, will you take time to reflect on the persistence of God. Why is he so tenacious? Why won’t he just let Abram off the hook, but puts him through rounds of tests? Will you thank Him that He is this persistent with you; with us?
- Imagine that you are privvy to the scene where Abram and Lot part paths. To the East, you see swaths of green; teeming life in the shadow of the twin cities of Ancient Near East sin, Sodom & Gomorrah. To the West, you see lonely, rocky ground. What must it have taken for Abram to avert his gaze, and let Lot choose first? Will you ask for a growing measure of this kind of faith?
- Will you look at your life choices with spiritual eyes? Are you choosing your path out of faith, or sight? Will you ask God for clarity to see the consequences of the choices before you? Will you hear God’s promise to give you all the land, i.e. the Kingdom of God as you walk by faith and not by sight?
11.20.08
“GOING BACK TO EGYPT…I DON’T THINK SO”
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Gen 12:4-5, 10 NIV
4 So Abram left, as the LORD had told him; and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he set out from Haran. 5 He took his wife Sarai, his nephew Lot, all the possessions they had accumulated and the people they had acquired in Haran, and they set out for the land of Canaan, and they arrived there.
6 Abram traveled through the land as far as the site of the great tree of Moreh at Shechem. At that time the Canaanites were in the land. 7 The LORD appeared to Abram and said, “To your offspring I will give this land.” So he built an altar there to the LORD, who had appeared to him.
8 From there he went on toward the hills east of Bethel and pitched his tent, with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east. There he built an altar to the LORD and called on the name of the LORD. 9 Then Abram set out and continued toward the Negev.
10 Now there was a famine in the land, and Abram went down to Egypt to live there for a while because the famine was severe.
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Following through on faith means testing. After his father dies, Abram finally makes the quantum leap of faith of taking all of his family and possessions to the land of Canaan. He has a great start. Being immediately met with confirming grace, his response is to make altars to mark his very first few steps in the land.
But Abraham is immediately challenged with a severe famine. What would he do? Will he trust in Yahweh who has brought him here, or will he shrink back? Counting on the fertility of the Nile, rather than the faithfulness of His God; Abram went down to Egypt. Down in Egypt, he ends up in compromising situations, reflective of his little faith. He is able to return by grace, only to have to retrace the steps he had already made.
Egypt represents the fall back, something or someone other than God to run to when the going gets tough. For Abram it was Egypt, for the disciples it might have been returning to their nets. In the journey of faith, we are going to be tested. Will we trust and obey, or will we run to our Egypt’s?
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REFLECTION/RESPONSE
- This morning, would you imagine that you are on pilgrimage? God, who is the architect and builder of a grand city has called you to pack up your things and spiritually relocate. If you haven’t done already, will you tell God that He is your home; He is your comfort zone.
- Will you recognize that you will be tested. God who regards your faith as precious will refine it like gold. Where are you being tested? Where are your Egypt’s? The places which promise fertility apart from God? Will you turn away from that road of compromising consequences, choosing rather the path of trust and obedience?
- How has God shown His confirming grace on your journey thus far? Will you “altar” your steps, making tangible expressions of faith and love to the God who loves you and His unquestionably faithful?
11.19.08
“UN-TRIVIAL PURSUIT”
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Ps 119:105 NIV
Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path.
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Deut 29:29 NIV
The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may follow all the words of this law.
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It’s so easy to approach the Bible as a playground for fanciful philosophies and speculative theories. As if the Scriptures are given to satisfy our trivial pursuits. However, time and time again God makes it clear that His word is designed for obedient application. Whenever we succumb to obsessive quests that squeeze the scriptures into man made agendas, we fall prey to the sinister trap of our enemy.
Instead, God’s word is given to us so that we might be equipped for a different pursuit; one where God is our object, and our lives are the raw materials. The light of God’s word does not illuminate the whole valley, rather reveals more than enough for one faithful step at a time.
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REFLECTION/RESPONSE
- This morning, who or what are you implicitly pursuing? Is it security, or success; recognition or reknown? Will you subjugate all other pursuits, making them trivial in comparison to your pursuit of God?
- How are you approaching God’s word? Is it for self justification, or sensational distraction? Would you humble yourself, and ask God to ground His word into your heart and life? Will you take ownership of His truth, for the sake of obedient application?
- Will you pray for an anointing to know and live God’s truth, that the generations to follow would have an accurate trail blazed for which to follow? Pray for your children (present & future, natural and spiritual), that this anointing would be passed on like DNA.
11.18.08
“OUT OF THIS WORLD PROTECTION”
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John 17:6-19 NIV
6 “I have revealed you to those whom you gave me out of the world. They were yours; you gave them to me and they have obeyed your word. 7 Now they know that everything you have given me comes from you. 8 For I gave them the words you gave me and they accepted them. They knew with certainty that I came from you, and they believed that you sent me. 9 I pray for them. I am not praying for the world, but for those you have given me, for they are yours. 10 All I have is yours, and all you have is mine. And glory has come to me through them. 11 I will remain in the world no longer, but they are still in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them by the power of your name-the name you gave me-so that they may be one as we are one. 12 While I was with them, I protected them and kept them safe by that name you gave me. None has been lost except the one doomed to destruction so that Scripture would be fulfilled.
13 “I am coming to you now, but I say these things while I am still in the world, so that they may have the full measure of my joy within them. 14 I have given them your word and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world. 15 My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. 16 They are not of the world, even as I am not of it. 17 Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth. 18 As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world. 19 For them I sanctify myself, that they too may be truly sanctified.
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In a dangerous world, security is a prized commodity. How much more for a world in the throes of spiritual conflict. Knowing this, Jesus prays blanket prayers of protection over all that are His, knowing that they too will be targeted by the evil one. But even in his prayers we see some of the dynamics of how this security package is to work.
God’s name and power blanket protection over us, not just for the sake of our preservation; but strategically for our unification and sanctification. In God’s higher purposes, demonic persecution and divine protection work together to sever our misplaced loyalties in the world, and solder our heart to God and His people. Jesus prays that we would be sanctified, i.e. set apart by the word of truth. And that through divine protection, that we would be made one as He and the father are one.
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REFLECTION/RESPONSE
- This morning, would you reflect on the “out of this world” protection to which you and I are privy to? Will you imagine the legions of angels that God has designated to guard us, the armor He has laid before us? Will you put your complete and utter trust in His name=character, His power, and His words of truth?
- Jesus earnestly prayed for our sanctification; that we would be made holy…i.e. think and live as though we are not from this world. How have you been seduced to love for and loyalty to this world? What golden promises have been whispered into your ears to grease acts of spiritual treason and sedition? Will you silence them in Jesus’ name, and sever the lines that make you a puppet of our enemy?
- Finally, will you all the more radically join the ranks of the redeemed? Are there any relationships which have been strained or severed that need mending? Any brothers or sisters that God is calling you to love more deeply, more divinely? Pray for a unity that is active and growing in our midst.
11.17.08
“CRITICAL UNITY”
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Psalms 133 NIV
133:1 A song of ascents. Of David.
How good and pleasant it is
when brothers live together in unity!
2 It is like precious oil poured on the head,
running down on the beard,
running down on Aaron’s beard,
down upon the collar of his robes.
3 It is as if the dew of Hermon
were falling on Mount Zion.
For there the LORD bestows his blessing,
even life forevermore.
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Eph 4:1-3 NIV
4:1 As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. 2 Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. 3 Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.
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Being united in heart and purpose is not something to be taken lightly. In Ps. 133, unity amongst the people of God is directly linked with 1. the priestly anointing which mediates God’s blessing to the church and world, 2. the drenching dew which yields fruitfulness and teeming life.
In fact, there is no way for the church to truly fulfill its calling without unity. Our enemy knows this, and will probe the cracks looking for a foothold. Thus, proactive effort must be expended in order to secure the unity that has been purchased for us by Christ on the cross (cf. Eph. 2:11-22). The stakes are no less than the full expression of our calling to life giving ministry.
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REFLECTION/RESPONSE
- This morning, will you take a moment to register the costly gift of unity that you/we have been given in Christ? Would you picture Christ having aggressively gathered our wandering hearts together with nail pierced hands?
- How proactive have you been in “making every effort” to keep the unity? Where has your practice humility, gentleness, patience, and bearing with another fallen short of being complete? Would you ask God if there is anyone He is asking you to reach out to, or even take on the role of peacemaker for?
- Would you pray this morning for a spiritual hedge of protection around us? As well as for a doubling of our priestly anointing and life giving fruitfulness through unity?
