“but these have been written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing you may have life in His name.”

‭John‬ ‭20‬:‭31‬

Believe in the Lord Jesus today!

“Now therefore, may it please You to bless the house of Your servant, that it may continue forever before You. For You, O Lord God, have spoken; and with Your blessing may the house of Your servant be blessed forever.””

‭‭2 Samuel‬ ‭7‬:‭29‬ ‭

Lord God. We are so grateful that Jesus came as the servant King. It is by faith that we have been made sons. We have believed that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and we are a member of His household. We are members forever because we share His eternal life. We are the royal priesthood serving under our Melchizedek, our Great High Priest without beginning or end. How bless we are that even now, our Great High Priest ever lives to intercede for us with God the Father. This is our blessing. We are sons. More blessed than to be a descendant of David, we are of the lineage of Christ the Eternal Son. We indeed are blessed forever. 

We love You Lord!

“May God Almighty bless you and make you fruitful and multiply you, that you may become a company of peoples.”
‭‭Genesis‬ ‭28‬:‭3‬

Amen. Lord we pray for all the gatherings of Your People wherever You have placed us. We may water and plant, but You alone causes to grow. So, Lord God, cause us to grow, as it pleases You and as we may be pleasing to You.

In Jesus’ name.

“Therefore Jesus said, “Let her alone, so that she may keep it for the day of My burial.”

‭‭John‬ ‭12‬:‭7‬

Lord God, we want to comprehend all You are saying. For Mary, she took to heart all You said of Your pending crucifixion. She alone took opportunity to anoint Your body for burial. She alone saw how You were worthy of her prized possession and satisfied Your heart in her offering. 

You are telling us that You are coming back soon. Help us to comprehend Your heart and anoint Your Body today. How do we satisfy Your heart so that we would keep Your word for Your return and give ourselves to You while we still have opportunity. We love You Lord. We want to be like Mary. 

In Jesus’ name. 

“That I may proclaim with the voice of thanksgiving And declare all Your wonders.”
‭‭Psalms‬ ‭26‬:‭7‬

Lord God, I want to confess that You are good, You are faithful, You do amazingly, and You are full of mercy! In the moments of sorrow and loss, You have come alongside and in time, joy is restored and I can see beyond the hurt and frustration. When I felt unable to forgive, You grace me with understanding of Your forgiveness towards me and availability to pass through me. I couldn’t but You do. How many times You placed hurdles in situations that were not for my good but I couldn’t see that far. And how often You have given me grace to wait for You to open doors that seem impossible to even open a crack. That faith is also a gift You’ve written in my heart. Thank You for the blood of Jesus for cleansing, for atonement, for life. I have a future and a hope in Christ alone. I haven’t done a thing to deserve Your love but I want to respond and speak of the wonder of Your love.

You are worthy of all my praise. And I love You, Lord God!

It’s Memorial Day. We pause to honor those who gave up their lives on the battlefield. By some accounts this practice of decorating the graves of the fallen soldiers began during the American Civil War. How painful for a nation to be divided and nearly destroyed by unfriendly brotherly fire.

We might draw the parallel that Jesus laid down His life for us and we ought to remember that. And indeed, week after week we remember Jesus’ death AND resurrection!

The soldiers remain in their grave but we do not decorate an empty tomb since death did not have the standing to keep a sinless and righteous man dead. Jesus’ tomb is empty. We honor a risen Savior! The soldiers gave unselfishly but none could give their life for us to live. But Jesus humbly gave His life not only as a substitute for our judgement of death, but much more His life is now ours to live righteously today, tomorrow, and right on through to eternity!

So in this life when sorrow and pain are more than mere acquaintances, we ask Lord God for the grace to turn our eyes upon You and to look into Your wonderful face. Your life is for our living today. And even when the days are sweet and cheerful, we can still enjoy His goodness and company. That day will come when we grasp the reality that we are here for God’s own good pleasure and He has loved us all along and longed that we would love to abide in His presence.

We take hold of the grace given.

https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=Y9Ah7NbYF1I&si=2fUVdRC1zcgRbATf

“that all the peoples of the earth may know that the hand of the Lord is mighty, so that you may fear the Lord your God forever.””

‭‭Joshua‬ ‭4‬:‭24‬

Amen! Lord God! The hand of the Lord is mighty, mighty to save! With a rescuing hand Lord Jesus, You lifted a frightened Peter from the choppy waters. He couldn’t keep his eyes on You. With a compassionate hand, You touched the leper and made him clean. With Your hand to bless You broke the loaves and satisfied the multitudes with plenty to spare. With Your hand of life in resurrection, You brought to life the dead daughter of the synagogue leader. But these were all from Galilee or Judea and Samaria. But when You let these same hands be pierced through and nailed to a Roman cross on Calvary, the blood that flowed reached with salvation, healing, satisfaction, and life to even to the least at the farthest ends of the earth. 

Your love, O God, reached me. And forever, we will be in awe of the length and the depth and the height of Your love to reach the least of these. With reverence and awe, with grateful hearts, we receive this Kingdom with cannot be shaken. Jesus paid it all!

“Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you entirely; and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved complete, without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

‭‭1 Thessalonians‬ ‭5‬:‭23‬ ‭

Amen. Lord God, give us grace to pray this over one another. Thank You, Jesus, this is also Your prayer for us so we can be the Bride without spot or wrinkle. When man ages, there are more spots and wrinkles. But, we are a new Creation in Christ. And His life in resurrection is a life of renewing in spirit, day by day. Thank You Jesus’ resurrection life spreads beyond our spirit and permeates our mind, our emotion, and our will. And just as Jesus opened the eyes of the man born blind and raised Jarius’ daughter and Lazarus from the dead, this precious Spirit is giving life to our mortal bodies. We respond with a resounding, “Amen!”

And God of peace, the hearts of the people in Garden Grove and beyond are anxious. We pray that this threat of disaster turns us to You, God of peace. The peace You give doesn’t exist in this world apart from You. We are trusting in You and cause people to call on Your Name in their fear and restlessness. Whoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved!

May it be so, Lord Jesus!

“I have sent him to you for this very purpose, so that you may know about us, and that he may comfort your hearts.”

‭‭Ephesians‬ ‭6‬:‭22‬ ‭

Lord God, we have loved ones on this earth that we don’t get to see. And it’s not the same even via technology. We want eye witness reports if not they themselves. And Lord, do save the ones that are not yet believing. We pray for the ones that are concerned about us. We are also concerned about them. May we send others and be sent by Your own to be encouragement and comfort to those we see. Send us with the good news. Save them by Your name so we will all be comforted. Remember M and his family. 

In Jesus’ name. 

“May integrity and uprightness preserve me, for I wait for you.”

‭‭Psalm‬ ‭25‬:‭21‬ ‭ESV‬‬

O Lord God, we wait for You. We look to no man nor to any idols to deliver and to bless. You alone are our God and we answer to You alone. Your commandments are pure and we want to live by the Spirit who upholds us in obedience to Your Word and to Your ways. Our integrity is found with You. And You have made our crooked places straight. Thank You that our waiting upon You is not in vain. Your will is good and acceptable and perfect. And Your will cannot be thwarted by anyone. Keep us in Your sweet will. Make us one with Your purpose.

In Jesus’ name.