What Is Your Will In Christ?

Psalm 33:1 NLT "Let the godly sing for joy to the LORD ; it is fitting for the pure to praise him." Before Thanksgiving dinner this year, those of my family gathered at the dinner table graciously exercised patience for a moment to give their dad and grandfather a moment to express a firmly held belief that he feels is sometimes a missing core element of some celebrations before the Lord. I'm speaking generally and not making any accusations, merely offering food for thought...  A very special friend and counsel to me a few years ago pointed out something to me that touched on what I've considered a very important point. It became something that expanded in my own mind and life as living truths have a tendency to do. He pointed out that anytime we approach the God of all creation, we should pause and consider who it is that we're about to address and enthrone Him in praise for all that He is and has done. In daily life we may find ourselves busily absorbed

*** Again, to the diligent faithful, I apologize in advance for what may seem somewhat redundant and potentially confrontational. It's not my goal to be either. But there may be some that this speaks to. And if it does, then my heart again cries out for them to not only hear it, but to gain from it. Note that I confess that I am not myself perfect and that I greet each day with the hope that through my willing submission to, and participation with Christ's work in me that I'll become a better man than I was the day before. *** Words, words and more words. They're everywhere. We use them and we abuse them. We write them, type them, think them, sing them and we say them. We throw them around. We bounce them off of other people and we direct them like darts. We deliver them with a smile and we shout them in anger. We record them on paper and plastic along with a host of other endless things. They paint pictures of things that are real and sometimes fantasies that nev

*** To the diligent faithful, I apologize in advance for what may seem somewhat redundant and potentially confrontational. It's not my goal to be either. But there may be some that this speaks to. And if it does, then my heart cries out for them to not only hear it, but to gain from it. *** The struggle for human achievement and notoriety is an old one. History is full of achievers and notable people and I'm not suggesting that it's necessarily a bad thing. But from a personal perspective, having invested a number of years in life so far I've come to a humbling, yet not defeating conclusion:  There's nothing that I have ever done and nothing that I could possibly do that would ever have the smallest chance of equaling what's already been done for me - the greatest example being Christ's sacrifice of course, but so much more well beyond that. Personal life fact: on a 1 - 10 scale of things that count in Father God's examination of my life, there ar

What if you and I were somehow found to be stranded - wandering in the desert, lost without hope, dehydrated and suffering from starvation? And what if the Lord suddenly appeared out of nowhere holding a small cup of warm water, a stale dried crust of bread and a few dried figs and offered them to us with a promise to continually provide us with more of the same as He leads us the long, long way out of the wilderness? How would we respond? Would we complain that the water was warm and not enough? Would we complain that the bread was stale and hard? Would we argue that we knew that this was such a  meager offer in comparison with what we knew that He was able to provide and ask for something more? ... ... Or would we acknowledge that what He offered belonged to Him alone and that this life sustaining offer was something that we had no right or title to in the first place and was thereby purely a gift of compassionate grace? Would we be willing to not only acknowledge, but op