Heaven's Praise - Week 4, Day 5 'Through the Dark Times'

[Maggievt]

Central Passage
John 16:33
1 Corinthians 10:13
John 17:11-18 *
John 17:15
Matthew 5:16
John 10:10
1 John 5:19
1 John 4:4
Ephesians 2:1-3 *
James 4:7
Ephesians 6:13, 18
Hebrews 4:12

My Daily Response

My Daily Meditation

[Wannabe a Worshiper]

Central Passages

"This world is not my home,
I'm just a-passing through;
My treasures are laid up
Somewhere beyond the blue."

Though we have this to look forward to, the ugly reality of living in this fallen world is what most consumes us now.
Jesus made it clear that trouble awaits us here.

So in the midst of this trouble, we are to let our light shine, and we have to deal with temptation. Both of these areas have been my Achilles heel most of my life. The time has come for me to stop hiding the light I have been given, and for me to use the tools I have been given to resist temptation.

I have studied the Ephesians 6 passage about wearing the armor extensively, but I can honestly say that I have not made a habit of consciously putting it on each day. This too, must change. I'm through with being the victim. I choose to be the victor!

My Daily Response

An interesting thing I learned as I read through the spiritual armor passage (Ephesians 6:14-17) is that all of the defensive pieces of armor are quotations from the book of Isaiah, each of which are descriptions of Jesus the Messiah.
Loins: Is. 11:5
Breastplate: Is. 59:17
Feet: Is. 52:7
Helmet: Is. 59:17
So in essence, when we put on the armor of God, we are putting on Jesus.
I thought that was worth sharing.

My Daily Meditiation

Hebrews 12:1-2 is one of those scriptures that belongs on our short list; it should be our "go to" verse, because it is so encouraging, and tells us where to fix our eyes: on Jesus. When our eyes are fixed on Jesus, they aren't fixed on the world and its troubles.

Just an unrelated side note. I'm writing this on Sunday evening. This has been one of those weeks where it has been tough to keep up, and I just got through with the week's studies a few minutes ago. But that isn't what I was wanting to say.

It was my great joy and privilege to lead the music worship in both morning services today. I had planned to use some songs in the contemporary service that I knew the college kids would know, but it turned out that all the college students are on spring break, so there were only a few of them there. When I went over the songs with the pianist early this morning, (no band in our church --yet) they just didn't feel right, so I chose to use the same songs that we did in the traditional service in the contemporary. It was the right choice; there was such a good response from the people.

I say all this to say that God's plans trumped mine, and he received the glory.

In Christ Alone/The Solid Rock
Fairest Lord Jesus
His Name is Wonderful.

Tom