[S] Psalm 128:3-4 --
3 Your wife shall be like a fruitful vine Within your house, Your children like olive plants Around your table.4 Behold, for thus shall the man be blessed Who fears the LORD.
[O] I don't know the exact symbolism of the vine and the olive plants, but what I gather from the context is the sense of fruitfulness when a family fears the LORD. In many ways than not, my focus (or purpose) of living out my life gets fuzzy with so much going on that I actually forget about how critical it is for me to lead my family to bear fruits of life and in a figure of speech, how I need to make sure my family members' lives are fertilized, watered, and pruned for them to be fruitful in and out of season. This passage gives me a picture of abundance overflowing and that's the prototype family I'd like to help lead into as a husband and father.
[A] Calibrate my purpose of living such that my family will be prepared and nurtured to be fruitful in God's eyes. We must stay humble and fear God at all times. I need to learn how to prune out non-essential items from my schedule so I can dedicate my time to the most essential items.
[P] Dear God, please teach me to fear You at all times as the forerunner in my family so the rest of my family may follow me; even though asking this could boost my ego, I want to stay humble and pure of following after Your heart. In Jesus' name. Amen.
From my Life devotional journaling and more (Read Today's Passage)
Scripture, Observation, Application, Prayer
Showing posts with label Purity. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Purity. Show all posts
Friday, September 16, 2011
Sunday, March 20, 2011
Worse Than Immorality
[S] 1 Corinthians 5:1 --
1 It is actually reported that there is immorality among you, and immorality of such a kind as does not exist even among the Gentiles, that someone has his father’s wife.
[O] The statistics I read show that those attending evangelical churches are not necessarily keeping higher moral standards than those not attending any church and it seems like some things don't seem to change much over all these (2,000) years because Paul is addressing the Corinthian church's immorality that is even more corrupt than the Gentiles. Corinthian church was growing and lots of good works came out of there but when immorality seeps into the church community it will spread like yeast and before anyone is aware the church will suffer much like where the Corinthian church was. Thankfully, Paul was ready to tackle it directly and that's type of a fight we need to fight in order to preserve the purity of our church.
[A] While pursuing the growth of our church community, I must also make sure to watch out for "sin" that may be creeping into the community and if found must check it so it will stop.
[P] Dear Father, may Your Spirit of holiness and righteousness permeate through our church so none of the enemy's tactics will mature into fruition. Allow me the discernments to identify these immorality in our midst and stand up for Your ways. In Jesus' name. Amen.
1 It is actually reported that there is immorality among you, and immorality of such a kind as does not exist even among the Gentiles, that someone has his father’s wife.
[O] The statistics I read show that those attending evangelical churches are not necessarily keeping higher moral standards than those not attending any church and it seems like some things don't seem to change much over all these (2,000) years because Paul is addressing the Corinthian church's immorality that is even more corrupt than the Gentiles. Corinthian church was growing and lots of good works came out of there but when immorality seeps into the church community it will spread like yeast and before anyone is aware the church will suffer much like where the Corinthian church was. Thankfully, Paul was ready to tackle it directly and that's type of a fight we need to fight in order to preserve the purity of our church.
[A] While pursuing the growth of our church community, I must also make sure to watch out for "sin" that may be creeping into the community and if found must check it so it will stop.
[P] Dear Father, may Your Spirit of holiness and righteousness permeate through our church so none of the enemy's tactics will mature into fruition. Allow me the discernments to identify these immorality in our midst and stand up for Your ways. In Jesus' name. Amen.
Friday, January 28, 2011
Bringing Out the Purity
[S] Psalm 12:6 --
6The words of the LORD are pure words;
As silver tried in a furnace on the earth, refined seven times.
[O] This concept of how our walk with God is refined much like refining silver grabs me every time I read it from the Bible because my mind loses the intensity of the refinement process God puts me through in order to bring out the pure image of Him. This process is much more than a casual wishful thinking of becoming refined. I can see that the pure words of the LORD entering my mind and then becoming polluted with my own impurities so I need to through the refining process bring out the purity of His word in me ... seven times (i.e., until I'm purified). This story of The Silversmith's Reflection amazingly parallels God's way of refining me.
[A] Usually this refining process is a challenging one and I tend to focus on the toughness of the process, but I should shift my focus about how passing through such a process will allow my life to reflect God's image because that'll be an indication that my refining process is progressing towards completion.
[P] Dear Father, even though I know this is what I had asked for, it just isn't fun going through it but I want to thank You per 1 Thessalonians 5:18 for refining me. May my life reflect Your smiling face to others through this on-going process. In Jesus' name. Amen.
6The words of the LORD are pure words;
As silver tried in a furnace on the earth, refined seven times.
[O] This concept of how our walk with God is refined much like refining silver grabs me every time I read it from the Bible because my mind loses the intensity of the refinement process God puts me through in order to bring out the pure image of Him. This process is much more than a casual wishful thinking of becoming refined. I can see that the pure words of the LORD entering my mind and then becoming polluted with my own impurities so I need to through the refining process bring out the purity of His word in me ... seven times (i.e., until I'm purified). This story of The Silversmith's Reflection amazingly parallels God's way of refining me.
[A] Usually this refining process is a challenging one and I tend to focus on the toughness of the process, but I should shift my focus about how passing through such a process will allow my life to reflect God's image because that'll be an indication that my refining process is progressing towards completion.
[P] Dear Father, even though I know this is what I had asked for, it just isn't fun going through it but I want to thank You per 1 Thessalonians 5:18 for refining me. May my life reflect Your smiling face to others through this on-going process. In Jesus' name. Amen.
Thursday, March 04, 2010
The Purity of Prayer
[S] Mark 11:25-26 --
25"Whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone, so that your Father who is in heaven will also forgive you your transgressions.
26["But if you do not forgive, neither will your Father who is in heaven forgive your transgressions."]
[O] Praying to God is both simple and complicated. It's simple when I think of it as just chatting with God but passages like these remind me that although it may be a simple action for me to carry out, I must have a right attitude and heart beforehand. So more than what I actually say (pray) to Him, what type of heart I'm lifting up to Him matters more. If you think about it, God already knows what I'm going to say anyways so the words I use is really not significant. So, what type of heart I bring to Him to speak those words is what matters in the end and He wants to hear a pure prayer which comes out of my pure heart -- the purity that is not contaminated with unforgiveness.
I know prayer must be an integral part of my life and at times I tend to focus on the quantity of prayer (how long I pray) but Jesus never emphasized the length of prayer except for the last hours before He was arrested when He scolded His disciples about not being able to stay up and pray with Him. However, if I think about that situation it is really not about the length but the desires and hearts of disciples Jesus was questioning. So Jesus' emphasis on prayer was always on the heart of the one praying as well as the right timing (when).
[A] I must pray at the right moment, and with right heart. Nothing magical or spiritual about the early hours but for me, my application is to pray early in the morning, and by forgiving anyone that I have anything against them. I want my prayer to be pure which is lifted up to God in Heaven. Also, I am going to encourage two people who's been going through some tension between them to forgive so that they, too, will lift up pure prayer to God in their lives.
[P] Dear God, I desire to lift up my pure prayers to You to start off the day. I desire to pray for others with the same purity. I desire to teach others how to lift up such prayers. In Jesus' name. Amen.
25"Whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone, so that your Father who is in heaven will also forgive you your transgressions.
26["But if you do not forgive, neither will your Father who is in heaven forgive your transgressions."]
[O] Praying to God is both simple and complicated. It's simple when I think of it as just chatting with God but passages like these remind me that although it may be a simple action for me to carry out, I must have a right attitude and heart beforehand. So more than what I actually say (pray) to Him, what type of heart I'm lifting up to Him matters more. If you think about it, God already knows what I'm going to say anyways so the words I use is really not significant. So, what type of heart I bring to Him to speak those words is what matters in the end and He wants to hear a pure prayer which comes out of my pure heart -- the purity that is not contaminated with unforgiveness.
I know prayer must be an integral part of my life and at times I tend to focus on the quantity of prayer (how long I pray) but Jesus never emphasized the length of prayer except for the last hours before He was arrested when He scolded His disciples about not being able to stay up and pray with Him. However, if I think about that situation it is really not about the length but the desires and hearts of disciples Jesus was questioning. So Jesus' emphasis on prayer was always on the heart of the one praying as well as the right timing (when).
[A] I must pray at the right moment, and with right heart. Nothing magical or spiritual about the early hours but for me, my application is to pray early in the morning, and by forgiving anyone that I have anything against them. I want my prayer to be pure which is lifted up to God in Heaven. Also, I am going to encourage two people who's been going through some tension between them to forgive so that they, too, will lift up pure prayer to God in their lives.
[P] Dear God, I desire to lift up my pure prayers to You to start off the day. I desire to pray for others with the same purity. I desire to teach others how to lift up such prayers. In Jesus' name. Amen.
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