Archive
Thanksgiving Prayer
God,
I’m thankful for life,
YOUR
Son
Holy Spirit
Love
Grace
Mercy
Salvation
Word
Creation
MY
Lord, Jesus Christ
Salvation
Wife
Children
Other family
Church
Friends
Ministry
Health
Country
OTHER STUFF
My Truck
My hobbies
My kids have jobs
Alabama is #2
The change of seasons
The colors of fall
The holiday season
Time with family
Home
A warm fire
The Masters
Sex (this is not in order of importance)
Music
Movies
Sports
Food (again this is not in order of importance)
Hot water and city water
A flushing toilet
Water
The stars on a clear night
Sunrises and sunsets
The ocean
Vacations
Shoes
THINGS I MISS TODAY
Momma
There is more, but I gotta start cooking
Ham
Sweet Potato Casserole
Dressing
Mac & Cheese
Fudge
Pineapple Casserole
Corn Caserole
Pound Cake
Bread Pudding
Happy Thanksgiving.
A Needed Prayer – Will You Pray It?
I ask you to read this prayer and if you agree, pray this prayer.
“Holy Spirit we need YOU to invade our lives. Not buildings but in the lives of your children. Into the hearts of dads and moms, sons and daughters, grand moms and grand dads, employers and employees, singles and married. Into faith families across our land. We need YOU to draw us with YOUR strong strength. We need YOU to soften that which we have allowed to become hardened. We need hearts to be healed. Marriages to be strengthened. Bondages to be broken. We need YOU to teach us. We need YOU to help us remember whose we are. We need YOU to magnify Christ through every song we sing, every prayer we pray, ever word that is spoken, every opportunity to participate with you. We need freedom. We need YOUR Word to EXPLODE from the pages of our Bibles into the core of our being. We need to remove everything that hinders. We need YOU to break down every barrier that we have allowed to be raised between YOU and us. Break down those barriers that we have constructed and those we have allowed others to construct. We need honesty, transparency and healing. We do not desire to just do life, family or church. We desire YOUR life, godly families and obedient faith families. We desire to be YOUR church, YOUR body, bringing YOU glory, praise and honor. Please accept our weak offering and use it. Right now please begin to draw us with YOUR strong strength. May this time be YOURS. I come to YOU as YOUR child, not in ignorance but in simplicity. I love YOU. In Jesus name and under His blood. Amen.”
Do You Really Need God?
This question comes to my mind because I think you are usually diligent in the things you really think you need. If you are hungry, you diligently seek food. If you are thirsty, you diligently seek something to drink. If your health takes a sudden turn for the worse, you diligently seek medical care. I think most of us live as if we don’t need God on the everyday basis. He has become a part of our life instead of our life. We take care of the God stuff on Sunday. We might give Him a passing glance during the week. We might pick up our bibles or spend a moment in prayer. If God totally stepped out of your spiritual life right now, how long would it take for you to notice (other than you would die). How much thought have you given Him today? Really? We live as if we really don’t need God because deep within we feel like we can handle life. Most of the wrecks in our life are our own doing but somehow God is to blame. If someone came up to you and asked you this question what would your answer be?
What have you been studying lately in God’s Word?
Does God Speak?
I am troubled somewhat at how many people either do not believe God speaks today or they don’t hear God speak. This week I posted God Never Wonders About You in which I reflect on a time God spoke to me this week. I had a friend tell me about someone who said that if someone told them they heard God speak then he would call them a liar. I’m not sure you can even be Christian if you cannot hear God speak. Some may be talking about an audible voice and I have not heard God’s audible voice but He has spoken to me in many other ways. He has spoken to me through His Word. He has spoken to me through His Spirit. He has spoken to me through His Son. He has spoken to me through His church. He has spoken to me through circumstances. He has spoken to me through prayer. God has spoken to me through sunsets and sun rises. He has spoken to me through friends. He has spoken to me through family. God speaks.
I prepare sermons and lessons every week. I believe God has spoken through me (I know that is hard for some of you to believe). Just because it is not audible does not mean God does not speak. For the critic. Is sign language speaking. What about braille?
What about these verses?
Whoever is of God hears the words of God. The reason why you do not hear them is that you are not of God.” (John 8:47, ESV)
In order to hear God, God has to speak.
When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come.
(John 16:13, ESV)
To whom or why is the Holy Spirit speaking if we cannot hear Him?
However, let me throw this in. I do not know of anywhere in the Bible that says God quits speaking, so if He wants to wake me in the morning with His audible voice. I welcome it.
Head Fake Hypocrite
Got to share a little more about God never wonders about you. I was never a great football player but I remember the power of the head fake. I remember watching Alabama play Ole Miss last year when Trent Richardson nearly broke a defender, Senquez Golson’s ankles with the head fake.You gotta watch this.
Have you ever pretended to pray? Pretended to read your Bible? Pretended to care? Pretended to love? Pretended to give? Was your effort to fool yourself? What it to fool others? Was it to fool God?
You can never fool God! He knows you! He will not take your fake. So, let us all quit faking it. You cannot break God’s ankles.
He has a word for when we fake it.
And he said to them, “Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written,
“ ‘This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me;
(Mark 7:6, ESV)
God Never Wonders About You
Today I found myself going into the worship center to spend some time in prayer, but let me back up a minute. I do not spend a lot of time in the worship center during the week praying. I do go in there to pray when I think it is of a serious nature. Not sure why but that is how it works. So, today I was going in and the thought entered my mind, “I guess God wonders where I have been.” It was instantaneous that God spoke in my spirit, “I never wonder about you.” All I could say is WOW!
God never wonders where I have been, what I am doing, where I am going, what is motivating me, why I have not read His Word or prayed. He never wonders why I act the way I do, think the way I think, or go where I go.
God knows me and never wonders about me. He might long for me but never wonders about me. That is comforting and a little convicting. He knows why I do what I do, act the way I act, go where I go, think what I think, and more. He knows why I don’t pray or read His Word. He knows why I don’t love Him or others the way I should. I cannot trick Him. He does not take the head fake. He is not fooled by my superficiality nor yours.
O God, you know my folly; the wrongs I have done are not hidden from you.
Psalm 69:5 (ESV)
Join Me In This Unrealistic Prayer
Unrealistic Prayer
I have prayed over many things in the past 40+ years. I prayed when I did not even know what prayer was.
Childhood Prayers
“God is great. God is good. Let us thank Him for our food. By His hand we all are fed give us Lord our daily bread.”
“Now I lay me down to sleep. I pray the Lord my soul to keep. If I die before I wake, I pray the Lord my soul to take. God bless……” (That’s kind of deep for a 3 year old)
Most of the prayers I have prayed over the last 25+ years have been ones I already had a good answer for if I could just get God on the same page. Many times I did not care what He did because I already had my answer and was going to do it with or without His approval. I have prayed for healing that has happened and many that have not happened. I have prayed for marriages and some have healed and some divorced. I have prayed over jobs, finance, kids, surgery, death, graves, families, singles, church, etc. But now God has prompted me to pray and ask you to pray for something of which only He could get the credit. In all honesty, I have felt like people think I am crazy when I tell them what to pray for. Read more…
Little Things Appropriately Applied
I really does not take much. A little bit will do you. As Bart Starr used to say in his Brylcreem commercial, “A little dab’ll do ya”. I remember when I was young my brother would take a small piece of thread, put it across my nose, apply some pressure and I would not be able to get up. I have found that it is not always the big things that seem overwhelming. It’s the little things appropriately applied. Satan know what and where to apply the little things.
Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. (Phil 4:6, ESV)
If you missed it. Sept 10-14
Here are this weeks posts if you missed one just CLICK IT
Tuesday September 11 Awakened then We Slept
Wednesday I long for God, but I do not want to strive for it.
Friday We prefer chains and it’s stupid
Have a good weekend.
Do It Anyway!
Brush your teeth! Take a bath! Wash your butt! Wash your face with the other hand! Parental instructions for all children. Many times a child does not want to stay clean but a parent says, “Do it anyway!” There are certain activities/habits that by nature have good results. If you do them even when you do not feel like it, they have good results. On the flip side, they have none or few negative results. I guess taking a bath might be bad if you are in the jungle filled with wild animals that salivate at the smell of human cleanliness, but for the most part “Do it anyway!”
There are times when we don’t want to do the “hard” work of Christianity. There are times we don’t want to pray. There are times we don’t want to read the Bible. There are times when we don’t want to be part of a faith family (local church). There are times I don’t want to help the needed or use my spiritual gift. DO IT ANYWAY!
What could the negative results be from prayer, reading your Bible, participating with a faith family? What could be wrong with using your spiritual gift?
I have told people before to “fake it”. Now, there are those who would counsel against this but I believe their are spiritual disciplines that we don’t leave to feelings (insert Freddy Fender song feelings here). When we pray we can be honest with God. You can start with, “I don’t want to pray but….” Psalm 22 starts with, “My God, my God why have you forsaken me!” Spend time reading the Bible. Just look for small nuggets that apply to where you are. Don’t rely on your feelings to do right. Just, “Do it anyway!”
Please Read Yesterday’s Post if you have not. I Long for God, But I Do Not Want to Strive For It
Books I’m Reading
