Prayers of My Heart

Are you careful to read the words of the Bible in the context of the verse and chapter? Why is that important? If we take words out of context, the message can come across completely different than intended.

An example is in 1 Corinthians 11:1 where the apostle Paul tells believers to imitate him. If we stop short of the rest of the verse, Paul might come across as arrogant. However, Paul goes on to say, “Be imitators of me, just as I also am imitating Christ.”

Why should we imitate Christ? Paul answers that question in verse 3, explaining, “I want you to understand that Christ is the head of every man,….”

Speaking metaphorically, Paul says Christ is our “head.” As a body without a head is dead, so we are dead apart from Christ. He is our life.

Another important emphasis of Christ being our head is that just as a head sits at the top of our body, over our body, Christ as our head is over us; supreme, master, Lord.

If we want to be a faithful imitator of Christ, our Head, we must learn and submit to Him and His ways. We must pray and follow His lead.

Can we say as Paul, that we are imitators of Christ, our Head? If not, let’s begin today.

Lord Jesus, HEAD OF EVERY MAN, convict us where we need to submit to Your headship. Fill us with Your Spirit so we bring glory to You.

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True or False:

– God is interested in our lives, relationships, and families.

– God assigns individuals to particular tasks.

– God has set times in history.

– God appointed someone for you.

If you said true to the above, you are correct. Consider the following.

“So Sarah conceived and bore a son to Abraham in his old age, at the APPOINTED time of which God had spoken to him.” Genesis 21:2

“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I have APPOINTED you a prophet to the nations.” Jeremiah 1:5

“He (Jesus) APPOINTED twelve, so that they would be with Him and that He could send them out to preach.” Mark 3:14

“Take heed, keep on the alert; for you do not know when the APPOINTED time will come.” Mark 13:33

“And inasmuch as it is APPOINTED for men to die once and after this comes judgment.” Hebrews 9:27

Of all God’s appointments, the greatest is Jesus. “that He may send Jesus, the Christ appointed for you,” Acts 3:20.

Yes, God appointed Christ to save us and He appoints times, people, events, and more. What has He appointed you to do?

LORD GOD, You APPOINT times, people, events and most importantly, have appointed Jesus to be our Savior. We praise You. Open our eyes and hearts to Your appointments for us.

Peace between people. Is it possible? It appears not to be. Why? Because although we aren’t perfect, we expect others to be perfect. Remember when the Jews were itching to stone a woman caught in adultery? The rocks were in their hands. Their self-righteous arms were wound for the throw. But when Jesus confronted them, when He invited the one who was sin-free to throw the first stone, they slunk away.

What did Jesus then do? If you said, stone her because she was guilty and deserving of punishment, you’re both right and wrong. You’re correct in saying she was deserving of death according to the Law. You are incorrect about Jesus’ response. He told her He didn’t condemn her and for her to go and sin no more. Amazing!

Jesus extends the same grace to us. “My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.” – 1 John 2:1

There it is. Believers are not to sin, but when we do, we can be mindfully grateful that Jesus is our Advocate just as He was for the adulterous woman.

Lord Jesus, we praise You, our ADVOCATE. Quicken our hearts to take seriously Your command to sin no more.

Friends, I’d love to have you join me beginning Wednesday, January 10th at 10 am for our weekly Bible Study of John Part 2 or on Thursday, January 11th at 6:30 pm. Click here for more info.

Live outside of the Texas Hill Country? No problem! My weekly teachings and Listening Guides will be added HERE each week so you can follow along or use it for a group study. 

Happy New Year! As we celebrate a new year, we are celebrating what our Almighty Creator established. Yes, Genesis 1:14 states that at creation, God said,

“Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night, and let them be for signs and for seasons and for days and years.”

“Year” and “years” are mentioned over 800 times in the Bible. The Bible records the number of years people lived, the years people were in captivity, the number of years rulers reigned, and on and on. In God’s eyes, the first day of a new year is not simply another day. It has past, present, and future value. Consider a sampling of how God keeps note of years:

Genesis 7:11 – “In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on the same day all the fountains of the great deep burst open, and the floodgates of the sky were opened.”

Genesis 18:14 – “Is anything too difficult for the LORD? At the appointed time I will return to you, at this time next year, and Sarah will have a son.”

Leviticus 27:24 – “In the year of jubilee, the field shall return to the one from whom he bought it.”

Numbers 10:11 – “Now in the second year, in the second month, on the twentieth of the month, the cloud was lifted from over the tabernacle of the testimony.”

2 Kings 25:27 – “Now it came about in the thirty-seventh year of the exile of Jehoiachin king of Judah.”

1 Samuel 27:7 – “The number of days that David lived in the country of the Philistines was a year and four months.”

Isaiah 6:1 – “In the year of King Uzziah’s death, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, …with the train of His robe filling the temple.”

Years have significance to our Heavenly Father. He ordains events for certain years. He marks them. He takes note of them and uses people who are sensitive to His call.

Rather than letting today come and go with passing thoughts of resolutions, let’s pray to our Heavenly Father with anticipation about what He has in store for this year and how we can be a part of what He is accomplishing.

Let us use this year to daily praise how our Lord has chosen to reveal Himself to us.

Let us use Christ as the image of whom we are to be conformed.

Heavenly Father, how exciting that You, Creator God, establish years, months, and days in which to accomplish Your will. We praise You and pray to be increasingly conformed to the image of Christ. Use us for Your kingdom and glory.

Friends, I’d love to have you join me beginning Wednesday, January 10th at 10 am for our weekly Bible Study of John Part 2 or on Thursday, January 11th at 6:30 pm. Click here for more info.

Live outside of the Texas Hill Country? No problem! My weekly teachings and Listening Guides will be added HERE each week so you can follow along or use it for a group study. 

True or False: God is interested in our lives, relationships, families. True or False: God assigns individuals to particular tasks? True or False: God has set times in history.  If you said true to all three you are absolutely correct. Do you have Scriptures to back up your answers? If not, meditate on the following in terms of your life. Let the reality of God’s hand in individual lives, relationships, times, places encourage you.

“So Sarah conceived and bore a son to Abraham in his old age, at the APPOINTED time of which God had spoken to him,” Genesis 21:2.

“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, And before you were born I consecrated you; I have APPOINTED you a prophet to the nations,” Jeremiah 1:5.

“Son of man, I have appointed you a watchman to the house of Israel; whenever you hear a word from My mouth, warn them from Me.” Ezekiel 3:17

“And the LORD APPOINTED a great fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah was in the stomach of the fish three days and three nights,” Jonah 1:17.

“So the LORD God APPOINTED a plant and it grew up over Jonah to be a shade over his head to deliver him from his discomfort. And Jonah was extremely happy about the plant,” Jonah 4:6.

“He (Jesus) APPOINTED twelve, so that they would be with Him and that He could send them out to preach,” Mark 3:14.

“Take heed, keep on the alert; for you do not know when the APPOINTED time will come,” Mark 13:33.

“And inasmuch as it is APPOINTED for men to die once and after this comes judgment,” Hebrews 9:27.

Yes, God appoints times, people, places, events, and more. What has He appointed you to do?

LORD GOD, You APPOINT people, places, times, and events. How exciting! I want to be a part!  Appoint me. 

Do you ever wonder who you can believe? One person says one thing and another claims the opposite. Yes, it can sometimes be difficult to know who to believe, but not in the case of Jesus’ words.  Revelation 1:5 describes Jesus Christ as “the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth. To Him who loves us and released us from our sins by His blood-” Jesus is a faithful witness. A witness of what? He witnessed to us about heaven, His Father, angels, crowns of righteousness awaiting believers, resurrection bodies, thrones, powers, kingdoms, the judgment seat, forgiveness, redemption, His Father’s house, and about Satan. Jesus testified about the fact that Abraham, Noah, Moses, and Jonah were real people and that the Old Testament is true. Our confidence in the Bible and its teachings solidly rests on Christ because He is a faithful witness to us that they are true.

Lord Jesus, we praise You, the faithful WITNESS! Thank You for the confidence we have in the Bible and You because of Your word.

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Friends, I’d love to have you join me any week on Wednesdays or Thursdays for our weekly Bible Study of John. Click here for more info.

Live outside of the Texas Hill Country? No problem! My weekly teachings and Listening Guides will be added HERE each week so you can follow along or use it for a group study.