Abundance

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Monday, April 20, 2015

Begin 
Silence and  Stillness  (2 minutes)  

Scripture

“We can be sure that we know him if we obey his commandments.  If someone claims, ‘I know God,’ but doesn’t obey God’s commandments, that person is a liar and is not living in the truth.  But those who obey God’s word truly show how completely they love him. That is how we know we are living in him.  Those who say they live in God should live their lives as Jesus did.” 1 John 2:3-6 (NLT)


Reflect  

God’s demand that we obey him is exactly God’s relentless commitment to bless us.   To repeat, God demands our obedience so that we can flourish.    

This demand for obedience is an act of Grace.   This is no different from a mother who demands, expects, requires her child to do what’s right.  Why?  Because she loves her child and go to whatever length necessary to get her child in a place of blessing, even to the point of making demands.  

Obeying mom, then is the act of receiving grace.   Obedience is trust in mom.  It is belief that she’s right.  It is faith in mom and her love for me.  My faith, trust, belief and obedience, then, are the path to abundant living in God’s good world.   Obedience is always hard, but then the path to ultimate blessing is always hard.

Question to Consider

When have you discovered a great joy and blessing after spending arduous, painful, laborious hours, days, weeks or years obeying some kind of directive  which, while you were in the midst of it, made little or no sense at all?

Prayer  

 

"Lord, thank you for the gift of showing me how life works in your world. Give me the courage I  need to choose your will, your commands, over my weak and selfish desires, choosing to believe that your ways lead to life, while my shortcuts lead only to temporary flashes of light which are all too quickly extinguished by the darkness.  Amen"

 

 

              

Conclude with Silence   (2 minutes)        

 
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Sabbath

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Sunday, April 19, 2015
Jeff Lampl

Then Jesus said to them, “The Sabbath was made to meet the needs of people,
and not people to meet the requirements of the Sabbath.
So the Son of Man is Lord, even over the Sabbath!”
Mark 2:27-28 (NLT)

Reread the Passage from Today's Worship and reflect on it.   

Love and Hatred for Fellow Believers

3 We know that we have come to know him if we keep his commands. 4 Whoever says, “I know him,” but does not do what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in that person. 5 But if anyone obeys his word, love for God is truly made complete in them. This is how we know we are in him: 6 Whoever claims to live in him must live as Jesus did.

7 Dear friends, I am not writing you a new command but an old one, which you have had since the beginning. This old command is the message you have heard. 8 Yet I am writing you a new command; its truth is seen in him and in you, because the darkness is passing and the true light is already shining.

9 Anyone who claims to be in the light but hates a brother or sister is still in the darkness. 10 Anyone who loves their brother and sister lives in the light, and there is nothing in them to make them stumble. 11 But anyone who hates a brother or sister is in the darkness and walks around in the darkness. They do not know where they are going, because the darkness has blinded them.  

John’s Reasons for Writing

12 I am writing to you, dear children,
    because your sins have been forgiven on account of his name.
13 I am writing to you, fathers,
    because you know him who is from the beginning.
I am writing to you, young men,
    because you have overcome the evil one.

14 I write to you, dear children,
    because you know the Father.
I write to you, fathers,
    because you know him who is from the beginning.
I write to you, young men,
    because you are strong,
    and the word of God lives in you,
    and you have overcome the evil one.
                                1 John 2:3-14New International Version (NIV)  

Practice the presence of God.   

             Spend some time “being” rather than “doing”, difficult as that may be for you. 
             Plant some flowers
             Review and enjoy all the incredible blessings with which God has blessed you.
             Connect with someone  

Rest


Prayer
        “Thank you, Lord, for this one life you have given me. Thank you, thank you, thank
          you!   Amen”

 
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Clean

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Friday, April 17, 2015
Jeff Lampl

 

Begin 
Silence, Stillness, and Centering before God (2 minutes)      Imagine yourself cleansed, clean, fully forgiven and free, no skeletons in your closet, nothing that anyone could ever bring against you.    That’s how it actually is because of cross.   Imagine that!

Scripture

“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just
and will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness."   1 John 1:9


Reflect  

Confess.   Come clean with God.   Stop hiding.  There’s nothing that can be hidden from Him anyway.   Hiding is an adventure in missing reality.
God is faithful.   God’s one way love, His unconditional covenant never to quit on us was fulfilled in Jesus’ death for the sin of the world.   God made a promise and he kept it and you are on the receiving end.
God is just.   All sin and evil has been judged, defeated, punished, dealt its death blow on the cross.   All their captives have been set free including you.
In Jesus Christ you have been forgiven.  There is no condemnation in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:1)
You have been cleansed.  You are clean.   God views you as squeaky clean, loved, cherished, delighted in, pure, justified (Just-as-if- you never sinned at all).

Use your Imagination

 

As you began this devotional imagining yourself clean before God, now do so again.  If you find this hard to imagine it simply means that you need more practice imagining the truth about yourself.  Of course using your imagination does not mean entering into fantasy rather your imagination is a faculty given to you by God to be used to lift you out of the false parts of your world and into God’s real world.

       

Prayer   

“Blessed is the one
    whose transgressions are forgiven,
    whose sins are covered.
² Blessed is the one
    whose sin the Lord does not count against them
    and in whose spirit is no deceit.

³ When I kept silent,
    my bones wasted away
    through my groaning all day long.
⁴ For day and night
    your hand was heavy on me;
my strength was sapped
    as in the heat of summer.

⁵ Then I acknowledged my sin to you
    and did not cover up my iniquity.
I said, “I will confess
    my transgressions to the Lord.”
And you forgave
    the guilt of my sin"   (Psalm 32)

 

Conclude with Silence   (2 minutes)

 
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For more:   follow on Twitter @jefflampl  

Walk in the Light

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Begin 
Silence, Stillness, and Centering before God (2 minutes)  

Scripture

“But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, 
and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin."     1 John 1:7  


Reflect  

When we “walk in the light” with God, we also have “fellowship with one another”.    When we walk in the darkness, we hide.   We are not open.  We keep secrets.  We are not forthcoming.  We are closed.  We are very busy doing whatever it takes to cover up what we don’t want others to know.  We do it by becoming jokesters or by clamming up.   We do by controlling or by blending in.  We do it by people pleasing or by being bossy.  But we do it and when we do it our relationship with others is shallow.   And the cycle spins.  Because I am so self-protective, I can’t listen to others and then I feel no one listens to me and I become distanced and cynical.  But risking the unveiled world of the light connects us to others.   You know this.   When another is vulnerable with you, you are drawn to them.   A new depth of relationship has opened up.  The light works its magic.

Question to Consider

 

Do you walk in the light or do you hide in the “darkness”?   With whom are you an “open book”.   Are you an “open book” with God?        

Prayer 

“Lord, against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight.  Cleanse me with hyssop, and I will be clean; wash me, and I will be whiter than snow.  Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones you have crushed rejoice”    Psalm 51:4-8)  


Conclude with Silence   (2 minutes)

 
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For more:   follow on Twitter @jefflampl  

The Life of God

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Begin 
Silence, Stillness, and Centering before God (2 minutes)  Pray . . . . .

“Give us today our daily bread”  

Picture what is before you today.  Ask God to help you to see all of today through His eyes.   Tell Him that because of Him you have everything you need to enter into your day and thank Him for it.

Scripture

“This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all.  If we claim to have fellowship with him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live out the truth."       1 John 1:5-6


Reflect  

John is referring to one of our most practiced strategies to deal with sin.   We simply deny that our sin affects our relationship with God.   But we are wrong.   Sin always damages our relationship with God.   From God’s side we are forgiven, loved and cherished.   The cross has banished our sin.  God sees us as pure and righteous.   From our side, however, whenever I sin I am choosing to live for myself and not for God.   That’s a breach of relationship which exists not in God’s heart, but in mine.   It is I who has created the break.   Therefore when I continue to live in the darkness of my choosing my will over God’s, yet say that I have fellowship with God, I am simply lying to myself.  I am deceived.   And, of course, the greatest danger of deception is that he who is deceived doesn’t know it. 

Question to Consider

 

When has something or someone jolted you out of the deception of thinking you can live your own way while thinking that you and God "are just fine."  could you be living that deception today?

Prayer
       
“Lord, show me my sin, that I may confess it and be restored to a life-giving relationship with You.   Amen"


Conclude with Silence   (2 minutes)

 
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For more:   follow on Twitter @jefflampl  

Bios, Psuche, Zoe

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Begin 
Silence, Stillness, and Centering before God (2 minutes)  
Consider focusing by personalizing the Lord’s Prayer  

“Your Kingdom come, Your will be done, on earth as in heaven”
        Lord, as I enter my world today, help me to see it as your world and myself as your
        servant.   Amen   

Scripture

“This one who is life itself was revealed to us, and we have seen him . . . . .our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ.  We are writing these things so that you may fully share our joy.”                        1 John 1:1-4 (NLT)


Reflect  

There are three Greek words (the New Testament was written in Greek) for life.   Bios means physical life.  Psuche refers to the God created self, the mind, will and heart.   Zoe refers the Life of God contained in Jesus and offered to us through Jesus Christ.   

The Bible begins and ends with the Tree of Life, yet many of us live so much of our lives feeding instead on the bread of anxious toil (Ecclesiastes 2:22).  We seek bios (feeding the cravings of our appetites) and psuche (feeding our mental state with food that disorders rather than nourishes) and we miss Zoe, the pulsating, vibrant life of God that is not bound by circumstances, moods, or others’ view of us.   When we seek bios and psuche we not only miss zoe, but we miss bios and psuche as well.   When we seek zoe (the life that is truly life as found in and offered by Jesus) we get not only zoe but also bios and psuche “thrown in”

Question to Consider


In what ways do you seek the cravings of bios and psuche before you seek "the one who is life itself"?  Why do you do that?  What is one thing you can do to change that?

Prayer

The  "Lord, thank you for John's Letter.  I am so tired of living under my circumstances instead of "above" them.  Help me to grasp the Life that you offer, and in doing so enter each day living in the light, incredibly grateful, and with confidence in you.  Amen." 
       

Conclude with Silence   (2 minutes)

 
Comment    

For more:   follow on Twitter @jefflampl