Bible Bite: Make Your Request

Phil. 4:6, 7 Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. 7 And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. (ESV)

God to Bill for Bill: Peace Rules

I’ve noticed God uses contrasts frequently. Don’t be anxious. Do talk to Me. There is a deep contrast to ponder. I have a relative who is not very God conscious. He is a brilliant inventor who does not seem to get traction with his work. I know God has an interest in him which does not seem to be obvious right now. My request is for God consciousness to increase within him. Then my request is that those who offer to help him discern from God, or their own faculties, the keys that will unlock favor upon his work. Then my request of Father is that the taste of God that my relative gets from his (Kingdom) friends is good in his life and then that the Lord’s drawing upon him prevail.

Why am I sharing this with you? I think we are alike in some things. I think we would worry and fuss over our relationships before we finally try talking to God. We have alibis for our anxious habits, too. There is, however, nothing wrong with asking Jesus to help you rely more on him instead and give you prayerful requests to make on behalf of yourself and others and your circumstances. He won’t scold you for telling Him you are scared, or tired or mad or offended (even if you are mad or offended at HIM). But he will show you the way of escape from all temptations to hankle life by yourself on your own terms and He will even make you part of the solution (if you want to be). That is something else you can request, that Jesus let you be part of the solution. Wow! Isn’t peace great? Peace Rules!

Bible Bite: Run to Me, Let’s Go! It’s 2012/

Isaiah 55:6, 7 (ESV) Seek the Lord while He may be found; call upon Him while He is near; let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; let him return to the Lord, that he may have compassion on him, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.

God to Bill for Bill
Love covers a multitude of sins. Run to Me.

Here I am, Lord. At your invitation, I have come running.

What’s next, Lord?

That’s the question to ask, isn’t it? It is an open-faced question. It is like hearing Dad saying pleasantly, “Let’s go!” as he gets into the car. The next thing he would here as I trot towards the car is an excited, “Where are we going?”

The verse in Isaiah above sounds like “Let’s go” in my ear, as if I was a little boy standing next to our Father, hearing Him kindly calling out to everyone in earshot, Let’s imagine what the verse sounds like in the ear of a youngster who is loves his father because he knows his father is everyone’s friend..

Seek me while I may be found. Can you hear a whistling sound and a voice saying, Hey! Come here. Over here!

Call upon me. I will help you find Me.

Let the wicked forsake his way. (Come on boy. Whatever mess you’re making, stop it. Let’s go).

And the unrighteous man his thoughts> Wake up. Get out of there. Come on. Let’s go.

Return to the Lord, that I may have compassion on you, and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon. I’m your Dad. Let me clean you up so we can get going. Come on. Let’s go. You’re with me! I love you.

The voice of our Lord is the voice of our Father. Even if my experience of a perfect father is absent or he was imperfect in my natural life, still I have a mental picture of what a perfect father might sound like.

Well, Jesus’ Father is our Perfect Father. Hear Him say to you,
“Hey. Come over here.”.

Watch in 2012 for The Father to appear, invisibly to many, but for you,
His Kingdom will come into view. Ask for eyes to see this wonder.
Here is a clue.

It’s the day of the Father. Malachi 4:5 in the Old Testament Prophets says that this day would come and the hearts of the Fathers (shepherds, parents, elders, believers) would turn to the children and the children to the Fathers. Keep watch this year and you will see. The FATHER will introduce himself to you and your sphere.

Bible Bite: My Mercy Is Kind to the Undeserving

Luke 6:35, 36 – But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return, and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, for He is kind to the ungrateful and the evil. Be merciful even as your Father is merciful.

KMJ was a closet lesbian. Her place in the inner circle of the young people’s community from several churches in my hometown was secure until the day she “came out” and made a pass at a few girls. The leadership expelled her from the inner circle but not from the general population. I did not know what the expulsion was all about and I kept trying to “get her back.”

The leaders told me what happened which revealed my prejudice and homophobia so insane that I was ready to erase KMJ from my book of life. God brought me to repentance quickly, far ahead of her and mercy overcame my sin. I maintained fellowship with her and saw the day really close up when God melted her heart. Though I was a youngster, I baptized her and saw her filled with the Holy Spirit.

So why is it so easy to lose patience and mercy toward overbearing, religiotic, un-quickened people who populate my life? I have seen Father’s redemption in many who, like me in my pagan days, ran hard from the first taste of God to know that He is good. Holy Spirit, do not weary of the work You have begun in me to condition me to embrace for others the Kindness of Jesus. Don’t stop till Jesus and I are as one.

Bible Bite: Outdo One Another

Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor. Romans 12:10

Virtue populates the Bible from front to back. It encourages competition in the personal development and display of a Christlike life. Isn’t it interesting that the idea of competition enters into the mix in this verse. We all know that our walk is a personal one, but what about our life as a community? Hebrews 10:25 says we are to stir one anohter to love and good deeds, even to “provoke” one another.

Andres Murray wrote in his book, “The Key to the Missionary Problem” that there are personal ways to prove that a believer has the Holy Spirit. In this description is a way to examine youself and observe others. If you observe others demonstrating the life of Jesus, the Gospel, you will pick uip pointers on how you can strengthen your own life. If you are in the competition to “outdo” one another, you will also see how we can provoke one another to devoted love and showing honor.

The proof is in undying, uncompromising love for Jesus that manifests in three ways. Are you ready?

1. Complete separation from worldly wisdom and worldly ways
2. Devoted love for the Body Christ, Jesus’ Bride
3. A committed and consistent prayer life

Measure you life first. Than, encourage your brother and sister and so fulfill the love of Christ.

Bible Bite: The Righteous Run to Repentance

Proverbs 15:9 The way of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord, but He loves him who pursues righteousness.

Our fellowship has aamong us a friend named Chuck. He prays for the sick at The Corpus Christi Healing Rooms. A Catholic Mother Superior visited there and Chuck was on her prayer team.

It is important to seek Jesus for how to pray for each visitor. In this case, Chuck was led to cautiously suggest to this pious and devout Nun that she should ask the Lord if she needed to repent.

Her reply was immediate and ecstatic. “Oh, yes! I must repent for my unbelief about my illness…” Relieved, Chuck prayed with her after she repented from doubt, fear and unbelief. The session ended on a high note.

Later, Chuck reflected on this incredibly joyous moment. God whispered to Chuck a most amazing and true secret, “The Righteous Run to Repentance.” Chuck repeated it many times

This sharing has gone around and around, far and wide within our area. Another friend picked it up and Norm wrote a lilting song that you just have to sing along. You will want to whistle, dance a jig, twirl, drum your fingers and tap your toes all at once. It is a spring of joyful living waters.

Come to the Thursday Bible Sharing at 6 am at The Aerie and you might get to sing it with us, The Righteous Run to Repentance, The Righteous Run to the Lord.

The Aerie Bible Sharing
Every Thursday at 6:00 AM
6018 Pinehurst Dr.
Corpus Christi,TX78413
361-985-9939

The Righteous Run to Repentance

Share this:

Green Pastures

Bible Bite: Trust Me for Provision and Protection
What God has said to Bill for Bill 10/26/2011

The Lord will keep you from all evil: He will keep your life. The Lord will keep your going out and your coming in from this time forth and forevermore. Psalm 121:7, 8 

Isn’t it interesting how God cross-references the scriptures so that the meaning of what He says in one verse is revealed in another? John 10:9 says that we who cast the core of our life upon the merits of Jesus will go in and come out and find pasture (or find what I need to be sustained). The passage soes on to say how Jesus, The Good Shepherd, lays down his life for the sheep. He keeps (or defends) us (me) so I can and should enjoy the provison without fear. There is a tendency to fear that I learn to trust the Shepherd for: the fear of loss, theft, or whether there is enough for today, tomorrow and my retirement; envy of another’s provision; pride that mine is better than yours, and so on. 

The Good Shepherd never sleeps on the job and He IS the provision. We can relax into trust and enjoy HIM.

Bible Bite: Perspective from Fellowship

Your Word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path. Psalm 119:105 
     Perspective is everything when navigating God’s will in the context of my daily affairs. If there is a secret it is in subduing the emotions. When emotions drive the vehicle of life they cause reactions and frequent train wrecks. Subdued emotions make way for light to fall on the things that pull our emotional triggers. Skillful fellowship with God (interactive and momentary) waits for His perspective to light the way that honors Him and the way that brings order.

If You Practice….

If you practice, what you practice
becomes your practice.

Hebrews 5:14 But solid food is for the mature, who because of practice have their senses trained to discern good and evil. (NASB)

It was a relief the day when I saw the phrase, “because of Practice,” in the verse above. People like me are performance driven. There are so many things that we do as Christians that I did not know before Jesus received me (pray, give, believe, trust wait, follow). Learning all of these reflexes is a painful and incremental exercise. It was easy to condemn myself because of feeling like such a slow learner. (I hope I am not alone.)

The sudden revelation that we are trained in spiritual things by practice relieved the fictitious notion that these things should be naturally instant and expert from the start. How cool that would have been. I remember a one liner that helps. We raise chickens and goats and parakeets. We rear children.

God the Father is rearing us as sons and, phew, there is room to practice.

Believe + Practice = Koinonia (It’s a Start Anyway)

John 6:29 29 Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom He hath sent.

On Mondays at the CBA office, Steve Print and Dr. Keith Hood, gather some men together and fellowship Jesus in one another. Topics rooted in the Bible such as believing God, trusting God, waiting on God, following God and healthy spiritual and natural relationships are part of the dialog. Humility, transparency, vulnerability and covenant take root and get traction and become better seated in us. There is a spiritual life exchange.

We practice the “work of God, to believe.” We help each other believe God for supernatural transformation. Life is exchanged from person to person, spirit to sprit, stimulating one another to love and good deeds (Heb 10:24). Fulfilling the Great Commission to disciple the nations, teaching one another to observe and obey what God has entrusted to us becomes a naturally supernatural reflex.

In the end this pattern duplicates all of our life’s spheres. We will find that it manifests on the streets, in the stors, at the shop, in the office, among friends and enemies and at home.