Beginning Our Day With Worship

Jesus said to him, “You have seen him, and it is he who is speaking to you.”  He said, “Lord, I believe,” and he worshiped him. John 9:37-38 ESV

Discipleship begins by faith but it will only grow as we worship. One pitfall in our churches today is that we connect worship in our minds to a hushed mood, a moment in the worship team’s performance and a time to settle back into our comfortable seats. But in the Bible we see Moses worshiped bare foot in the desert by a burning bush. We see Elijah worshiping God at a stone altar even when the crowd was loving the 400 man worship team at the 1st church of Baal. David worshiped while he watched sheep and Daniel worshiped with only an audience of lions. All of these people were worshiping because they had met an awesome God and they wanted Him to get all the glory, no matter what their circumstances.

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Dial it forward to when Jesus met a blind man in John chapter nine. First, while the disciples were debating why he was blind, Jesus healed him. Later when he was rejected by the local religious leaders, Jesus became His friend. Last of all, when Jesus showed the man who He really was he began to worship. Before we can walk down the road with Jesus we must learn what it means to truly worship Him. No ministry can be more important, no goal more vital, no relationship too precious to stand in the way of our worship. When we see that He is so worthy of all we have to give and begin to uncover the truth of who He really is; what else can we do but worship?

Christmas Devotional

The  devotions and memories shared here are intimate personal lessons I have gleaned from nearly seven decades of Christmases.  For my followers who have enjoyed my daily inspirational readings all year here are stories celebrating our Savior’s birth in simpler times. I pray they may stir in you as they did in me greatness of God’s gift and the humility of the manger. This year’s devotional is just 30 days of readings and is available in  in both large print and standard as well as in e-book format on Amazon.

 

Small Part Big Plan

Small Part? – Big Plan!

Small Part? – Big Plan! Large Print

Easy Listening

But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without variance, without hypocrisy.             James 3:17 ASV

If you asked our sons who they liked going hiking with, they would have pointed to me; but if you asked them who they talked to when they were in trouble; that would have been their mom. It’s not so much that Nancy went easy on them, but, she made them feel welcome to tell her their problems. She was easy to be entreated.

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James tells us that we need to ask God for wisdom and that among its qualities is being easy to be entreated. Maybe some of us struggle with making others feel welcome to share their troubles; because we don’t believe that God will listen to ours. But the amazing truth is that God welcomes us when we come with problems or even just small stuff that we struggle with.

 

Always remember that God never asks us to do anything that He hasn’t already done Himself. He is easy to be entreated; willing to listen and ready to teach us to listen to others, when we ask.