Tag: Salvation

Sunday Praise – Exodus 15:2

Posted on by Dorci

 

 

Dear Heavenly Father, we praise your Most Holy Name. We thank you for giving us strength when we are weak, and filling our hearts with songs of adoration. We thank you for rescuing us over and over and never tiring of it. Your joy is in knowing and loving us in all ways. As a good father thoughtfully cares for and provides for his children, as a mother sacrifices herself to love her precious ones, as a shepherd lovingly and tenderly cares for his sheep, and a gardener cares for his garden and makes it thrive and grow until it is beautiful, so you love us and care for our every need, big and small, and we praise you.

You rescue us when we need rescuing, and indeed you have rescued our very souls.  You have saved us from the fiery pit and planted our feet on the rock of our salvation – our Lord Jesus Christ. We honor and glorify you above all. You are our salvation and we praise you and will sing of your love forever.  May our lives and our very breath glorify you without ceasing.  May our lives exude praise and glory and confidence in our Precious LORD.  Help us cling to you in the coming week, never hesitating to bring to you our cares, trusting you to love us, to care for us, to rescue us, over and over.  In the sovereign name of Jesus we pray, amen.

National Day of Prayer

Posted on by Dorci

Today in the United States we observe the National Day of Prayer.  It’s a time to remember our nation and lift it up before the Lord in humility and solemnity.

It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see the headlines and know our country needs prayer.  We need it bad.  I hope we will take this opportunity to first confess our own sins, and repent, that is, turn around and go in the direction of Christ in every area of our lives.

To follow Him, to “love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind” and then to show we do as we “love your neighbor as yourself.” Luke 10:27

Will anything change until we do?

If our country is to be illuminated with Christ’s love and truth, if we desire to live in peace and dignity, we must pray for it, and then live it.

Heavenly Father, praise your Holy Name. Please forgive me for my sin of pride and letting fear sometimes dictate my way.  Fill me anew with your Spirit and a fresh vision and passion to follow you, to consume your Word as my spiritual food, and allow your purposes to be accomplished in and through me.  I pray for revival throughout our country including those in our leadership at every level.  May your Spirit sweep over our land once again, opening the eyes of those who have been blinded, gifting untold numbers with faith to believe in you, to receive you, and to be transformed by your Holy Spirit.  May we be overcome with your love and goodness that leads us to repentance.  Thank you in advance for what you’re going to do.  You are the faithful One, the Good Shepherd, the One full of grace and mercy.  May you be glorified and magnified.  In the Name of Jesus, the Christ, our Messiah and Redeemer, amen.

God bless you,

Saturday Song – Lift Your Head Weary Sinner

Posted on by Dorci

 

Jesus continued: “There was a man who had two sons. The younger one said to his father, ‘Father, give me my share of the estate.’ So he divided his property between them. 

“Not long after that, the younger son got together all he had, set off for a distant country and there squandered his wealth in wild living.

After he had spent everything, there was a severe famine in that whole country, and he began to be in need. So he went and hired himself out to a citizen of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed pigs. He longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating, but no one gave him anything. 

“When he came to his senses, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have food to spare, and here I am starving to death! I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired servants.’

So he got up and went to his father. “But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him.
Luke 15:1-20

 

Maybe you’ve somehow stumbled onto this page, and you’re lost.  You’re searching.  You know you need God but you’re afraid.  Afraid He won’t take you. Afraid of what you’ve done.  Afraid you’re too far gone.

My friend, I promise you, God promises you, you are not too far gone.

Maybe you knew Christ at one point a long time ago.  Maybe it was just last week.  But you’ve done something, and you can’t face Him. You’re afraid, too.  Surely He’ll punish you, you think.  Surely He’s ashamed of you, disappointed in you.  You can’t go back.

My friend, you can.

Whoever you are, whatever you’ve done, get this –

God loves you.

And He is willing at this very moment to forgive you and receive you.

Come to Him, no matter what you’ve done.  Come to Him with your sin; come to Him with your wretchedness, your weakness, your guilt.  Come to Him, like the prodigal child.

He is there, waiting with His arms open wide to receive you right here, right now, to forgive you, to love you, to welcome you back with no reservation.  With no condemnation.

That is how great He is, how great His love and mercy and forgiveness.  Whatever it is, it’s all been paid for on the cross.

Just come. And let the chains fall.

If you need prayer, I would be honored to pray for you.  Simply email me by clicking on the envelope to the far right of the Facebook icon to the right.   

May you bask in the glory of the Risen One, the One Who paid it all.

 

Sunday Praise – Psalm 18:46

Posted on by Dorci

 

Sunday Praise

“The Lord lives! Praise be to my Rock! Exalted by God my Savior!” Psalm 18:46

 

 

Father, we praise you for our salvation. Jesus and Jesus alone is our Savior. Please lead us this week, and help us follow You wherever you go. Give us strength and courage, and may You be glorified and exalted by our obedience. In Jesus’ great name we pray, amen.

A Time for Prayer, Salt, and Light

Posted on by Dorci

There seem to be no words sufficient on a day like today in America, or on any given day in so many places in the world. So I turn to God’s Word to find His wisdom and grace.

“This is what the Lord says: ‘These are the ones I look on with favor: those who are humble and contrite in spirit, and who tremble at my word.’” Isaiah 66:2 NIV

“Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” Hebrews 4:16 NIV

Let us remember that we are all guilty of sin, and without the grace of God through the atonement of His Son, we would be deserving of the death He took in our place.

With that in mind, with humble and contrite spirits, and being one in heart and mind, let us join together in prayer before our gracious God, first in repentance of our own sin, and then seeking forgiveness on behalf of our nation. 

And may we rise up as salt and light, revealing to the world the Father’s great love and mercy, praying that many hearts would turn to Him and we would see a fresh revival of His Spirit throughout our own country and the world.   

 

“Now, brothers and sisters, about times and dates we do not need to write to you, for you know very well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night.  While people are saying, ‘Peace and safety,’ destruction will come on them suddenly, as labor pains on a pregnant woman, and they will not escape.

But you, brothers and sisters, are not in darkness so that this day should surprise you like a thief.  You are all children of the light and children of the day.  We do not belong to the night or to the darkness.  So then, let us not be like others, who are asleep, but let us be awake and sober.  For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk, get drunk at night. 

But since we belong to the day, let us be sober, putting on faith and love as a breastplate, and the hope of salvation as a helmet.  For God did not appoint us to suffer wrath but to receive salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ.  He died for us so that, whether we are awake or asleep, we may live together with Him.  Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing.” 1 Thessalonians 5:1-11 NIV

Sunday Praise – Exodus 15:2

Posted on by Dorci

The Call of the Shofar

Posted on by Dorci

For whatever reason, God put on my heart to look up and post the blowing of the shofar. I did a little research to find out some of the reasons it was sounded, and this is what I found:

“beginning on the second day of Rosh Chodesh Elul (and continuing until Erev Rosh Hashanah) the custom is to blow the shofar every day (except on Shabbat).” The Hebrew month of Elul is a time of repentance in preparation for the High Holidays of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur.

“It is a wake-up call to sleepers, designed to rouse us from our complacency.”

Do you know what day is the 2nd day of the Hebrew month of Elul?

It began today at sunset.

“Yeshua spoke of the shofar blast from the angels who would ‘gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.'” (Matt. 24:31)

The eclipse took place on Elul 1, the same day that Moses went up on the mountain for 40 days and nights, the same day Jesus went into the wilderness for 40 days and 40 nights. The shofar signifies spiritual warfare, and God’s victory.

Listen to the shofar. Can you imagine it?

If you want to read more about it, I found these websites:  

http://www.hebrew4christians.com/Holidays/Fall_Holidays/Elul/Shofar/shofar.html and http://www.jewfaq.org/elul.htm

Keep Believing

Posted on by Dorci

“And immediately the father of the child cried out and said with tears, ‘Lord, I
believe. Help my unbelief.’”
Mark 9:24

Twenty-seven and a half years ago I believed in Jesus Christ as my Lord and my Savior.

Since then I have had countless opportunities to believe in His love for me despite my circumstances, to believe He had a plan in the middle of confusing trials, to believe He heard every prayer, to believe He understood me in my pain, to believe He was not finished with me even when it felt like He was.

For some funny reason, it’s always been easier for me to believe in God for the “big” things rather than the smaller ones.

I knew God would provide us a place to live; I knew God would provide a job for my husband; I knew God would bless my little son at Christmas when we couldn’t.

But, oh, those countless “little” things…  When I’ve trusted in my eyes more than I’ve believed; when I’ve trusted in my understanding more than I’ve believed; when I’ve trusted in my own effort more than I’ve believed.

And I wonder how much I’ve missed out on, how many more blessings I would have had if I’d taken that same belief I had at salvation and applied it every, single time.

“Abram believed the Lord, and He credited it to him as righteousness. “
Genesis 15:6

God puts a lot of stock in belief.

It’s not about what we do, it’s not about who we are, it’s about Whom we believe.

And there is only One worthy of our belief.

If we are going to be followers of Christ, we will daily, consciously, make the decision to take the belief we had at the moment of our salvation, and believe Him for everything else.

Why would I ever believe that Christ died for the sins of a singular, unimportant, obscure little girl who lives 2000 years after His death and resurrection, called her by name, and then somehow think He forgot about her afterward?

He hasn’t, and He never will.

My belief in Him need not ever waiver.

He sees each and every one of us, and He is intimately acquainted with our comings and goings, with our every trial – big and small, with every tear, with every, single, solitary detail.

Nothing gets by Him.

The truth is, it’s a choice.  Every day we have the choice to believe in Him – to believe He’s there right by our side, to believe He’s with our loved ones, to believe He wants the best for us, to believe He’s in our futures, to believe He’s bigger, much, much bigger, than our past mistakes.

While we can’t lose our salvations, unbelief is as much a sin after we’re saved than it is before. 

The absence of belief in Christ for a particular situation will create a vacuum that’s usually filled with fear, and that can create a whole slew of messes in our wake.

Choosing belief in Christ or to be moved out of fear will determine the decisions we make and the roads we take.

I know it’s hard to keep believing sometimes when the trials seem out of control, when the world around us is a big, complicated mess.  

But keep believing anyway.

I know when I’ve stood in belief in my prayers for a situation, God has answered.  It’s when I waiver in my belief in prayer that He waits until I stand on faith in who God is – my Loving Savior – to answer me.  He desires belief because it is the pathway to our righteousness.

God knows we’re all a work in progress, though, that the sanctification of our souls is not yet fully realized, that it is what we and the Lord are moving toward.  

As with every sin, when we repent – when we turn around and do the righteous thing – in this case, choose to believe in Him, and ask God to help us with our unbelief, He will forgive us and set us back on the right path.

We then consciously walk on that path of belief, in full faith and trust in Him – in who He is, in His plans for us, in His love for us, in His grace and mercy that are continually poured out because of His goodness and faithfulness.

 

“Father, please help us when we are tempted to not believe in you.  To not believe in all you say you are.  To not believe in your love for us.  To not believe in your plans for us.  To give way to fear instead of believing in your holy perfection and your promises to us.  Please help us choose belief over fear, self, the world, or anything else outside of you.  May our constant belief in you be witnesses of your glory and power. In the Name of Yeshua Hamashiach, amen.”

Preparation Day

Posted on by Dorci

“As you know, the Passover is two days away—and the Son of Man will be handed over to be crucified.”
Matthew 26.2

The timing of Jesus’ crucifixion was no coincidence.  God’s timing never is.

It was Passover, a seven-day holiday commemorating the day some 1336 years before when God delivered His people out of Egypt from the bonds of slavery.

In the last plague carried out before their freedom, the Destroyer would pass through Egypt, striking down every firstborn.

But to the Israelites He gave this command: kill the Passover lamb, spread its blood on the doorposts, remain inside, and the Destroyer will pass over the blood-stained homes and spare the firstborn.

This action more than a 1000 years before Christ’s death foreshadowed the freedom from slavery to sin that would be given to anyone who would choose to find refuge in the blood of the Lamb of God.

“It was the day of Preparation of the Passover; it was about noon. ‘Here is your king,’ Pilate said to the Jews. But they shouted, ‘Take him away! Take him away! Crucify him!’”
John 19:14-15

It was the day before the Sabbath. In the Hebrew culture, no work was to be done on the Sabbath, so all the arrangements for it – the cooking, cleaning, everything, had to be done by sundown the day before, known as Preparation Day.

Christ died on Preparation Day.

The work given to Him by His Father – His arrest, trials, beating, and His death on the cross to pay for our sins – was completed that day.

And He rested on the Sabbath.

Because Jesus, the Perfect Lamb of God, completed the work given to Him – the shedding of His blood as payment for sins – anyone who takes refuge in Him, who believes in Him as Lord will be forgiven and freed from the slavery of sin.

And those souls can rest in their freedom.

But God wasn’t finished.

Then came Sunday morning.  The guards, the seal, the stone, even death itself could not hold Him.

He triumphantly rose from the grave, showing His power over death. And because He did, not only do we have freedom from sin, but freedom from spiritual death.

Could there be any greater love?  Any greater gift?

Though we are free from the punishment of sin and death, we still wrestle in our flesh until we are brought into the presence of Christ and fully enter into our eternal rest from these earthly bodies.

As we walk toward that day, let us remember that nothing in Him is a coincidence.  His timing, His choosing of our trials, are all to prepare us for that great and glorious day.

Until then, in this preparation time, let us “prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for Him” as we “continue to work out {our} salvation with fear and trembling” in expectation of the day we enter our complete and eternal rest.

 

Heavenly Father, thank you for sending your Son to die for our sins in our place.  Thank you, Lord Jesus, for obediently finishing the work The Father gave to you.  And thank you, Holy Spirit, for all you do to help prepare our hearts for our day of eternal rest when you bring us Home. We are so grateful, LORD, for your love and grace and mercy in our lives. In Jesus’ Name, amen.