For the Lord !!!

Today's Reading: Numbers 12-14; Mark 5:21-43
Today's Thoughts: For the Lord
Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men.    Colossians 3:23

We are alive to bless the Lord, not for the Lord to bless us. Although God desires to bless us, our desire needs to be that we just want to please the Lord. 

That means that everything we do should be done to please the Lord and not man. We can do dishes for the Lord, we can wipe noses for the Lord, and we are to help others for the Lord. 

It is not about being appreciated and complimented by others but by Him. A good test to check your motives is to examine what you do when no one is looking. Do you realize that God is watching? The Lord is with you all the time. When we become aware of His continual presence, we change. And this change is good because as we align our hearts to please Him, we receive His peace. 

God has given us internal monitors that let us know if what we are doing is right or wrong before Him. When we make choices that please Him, we have peace. If we are making wrong choices, the Lord convicts us. We become uncomfortable with a lack of peace. We realize quickly that we are not pleasing God when gossiping or speaking negatively. When this happens to me, I sense the quenching of the Holy Spirit and I want to get out of that conversation as fast as I can. 

Praise God for His conviction. I don't want to do anything that quenches the Spirit because I have learned that whatever quenches His Spirit hurts Him because it is bad for me.

Let's live to bless the Lord. Ask Him to convict your heart today when you are doing anything that isn't right before Him. Some day we will each give an account of our actions before Him. If we become aware of His presence now, we will live a life that brings Him glory, which in turn blesses us.  

HE IS WATCHING AND HE IS EVERYWHERE

Daily Disciples Ministries, Inc. 

Be a Doer of the Word !!!

Today's Reading: Numbers 9-11; Mark 5:1-20
Today's Thoughts: Be a Doer of the Word
Now when the people complained, it displeased the Lord; for the Lord heard it, and His anger was aroused. So the fire of the Lord burned among them, and consumed some in the outskirts of the camp. Numbers 11:1
God knows our needs and hears our words. God opens His hand and satisfies the desires of every living thing (Psalm 145:16).
He knows our wants before they are even formed on our tongue. He is faithful in all things and will not let the righteous beg for bread. So why are we so discontent?  Why do we complain to each other? Why don't we pray more and trust Him more?
There is a consistent theme in the lives of the Israelites that left Egypt. They complained. Over and over, they saw the miracles of the Lord to provide for them and protect them.

They were witnesses of His ever constant presence and received daily manna from heaven. But it wasn't enough. They wanted more and bigger and better and newer. They even complained that they wanted what they had when they were slaves. How quickly they forgot.

 It was because of their oppression in Egypt that God intervened to save them from slavery. God answered their prayer in unbelievable ways, but it wasn't enough. And over and over, they were punished for this behavior but they didn't change. Why?
I see patterns like this in my own life too. The Lord will reveal to me a message in the morning like "be thankful today" or "be quiet today."  For some reason though,

I remember His message after I disobeyed. I have frequently asked the Lord how the Holy Spirit was able to impress upon me my sin immediately after I did it instead of helping me before. The answer is always the same...my lack of self control.  We speak without thinking, complain to whoever will listen, and become forgetful in the busyness of the day. I have learned, slowly but surely, to write down those things He told me in the morning on a 3x5 card. I then place the card in my pocket or on my dash board to help me to remember. The responsibility isn't all on the Lord. We need to be active in our faith and fight for victory.

Let's stop being hearers and complainers and become doers of the Word. Join me in entering the promised land of God's rest and peace today, for we have a God who parts Red Seas and pours water from rocks. 

Our mission is to evangelize the lost and awaken the saved to live empowered lives by the Work of God and His Holy Spirit. Daily Disciples Ministries makes a difference for the kingdom of God by teaching and training believers how to be in God's Word, how to pray and how to walk with Jesus every day, as His daily disciple.Daily Disciples Ministries, Inc. 

THE NAME OF THE LORD TO BE PRAISE !!!

PRAYER:
Lord God, You alone are the beginning of my day and each moment in my day. 
Take control of my life, have your way in every thought and deed and I will give you all the praise and the glory for the new thing you will be doing in my life today.. Amen.... 

My thoughts are not your Thoughts

Holy communion !!!

Matthew 26:26-28 (The Message)

The Bread and the Cup

During the meal, Jesus took and blessed the bread, broke it, and gave it to his disciples: 

   Take, eat. 

   This is my body.

Taking the cup and thanking God, he gave it to them: 

   Drink this, all of you. 

   This is my blood, 

   God's new covenant poured out for many people 

      for the forgiveness of sins.

"I'll not be drinking wine from this cup again until that new day when I'll drink with you in the kingdom of my Father."

Breath of Life !!!

Ezekiel 37:1-26 (The Message)

Ezekiel 37

Breath of Life

 ^1-2 God grabbed me. God's Spirit took me up and set me down in the middle of an open plain strewn with bones. He led me around and among them—a lot of bones! There were bones all over the plain—dry bones, bleached by the sun. ³ He said to me, "Son of man, can these bones live?"
    I said, "Master God, only you know that."
 ⁴ He said to me, "Prophesy over these bones: 'Dry bones, listen to the Message of God!'"
 ^5-6 God, the Master, told the dry bones, "Watch this: I'm bringing the breath of life to you and you'll come to life. I'll attach sinews to you, put meat on your bones, cover you with skin, and breathe life into you. You'll come alive and you'll realize that I am God!"
 ^7-8 I prophesied just as I'd been commanded. As I prophesied, there was a sound and, oh, rustling! The bones moved and came together, bone to bone. I kept watching. Sinews formed, then muscles on the bones, then skin stretched over them. But they had no breath in them.
 ⁹ He said to me, "Prophesy to the breath. Prophesy, son of man. Tell the breath, 'God, the Master, says, Come from the four winds. Come, breath. Breathe on these slain bodies. Breathe life!'"
 ¹⁰ So I prophesied, just as he commanded me. The breath entered them and they came alive! They stood up on their feet, a huge army.
 ¹¹ Then God said to me, "Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel. Listen to what they're saying: 'Our bones are dried up, our hope is gone, there's nothing left of us.'
 ^12-14 "Therefore, prophesy. Tell them, 'God, the Master, says: I'll dig up your graves and bring you out alive—O my people! Then I'll take you straight to the land of Israel. When I dig up graves and bring you out as my people, you'll realize that I am God. I'll breathe my life into you and you'll live. Then I'll lead you straight back to your land and you'll realize that I am God. I've said it and I'll do it. God's Decree.'"
 ^15-17 God's Message came to me: "You, son of man: Take a stick and write on it, 'For Judah, with his Israelite companions.' Then take another stick and write on it, 'For Joseph—Ephraim's stick, together with all his Israelite companions.' Then tie the two sticks together so that you're holding one stick.
 ^18-19 "When your people ask you, 'Are you going to tell us what you're doing?' tell them, 'God, the Master, says, Watch me! I'll take the Joseph stick that is in Ephraim's hand, with the tribes of Israel connected with him, and lay the Judah stick on it. I'll make them into one stick. I'm holding one stick.'
 ^20-24 "Then take the sticks you've inscribed and hold them up so the people can see them. Tell them, 'God, the Master, says, Watch me! I'm taking the Israelites out of the nations in which they've been exiled. I'll gather them in from all directions and bring them back home. I'll make them one nation in the land, on the mountains of Israel, and give them one king—one king over all of them. Never again will they be divided into two nations, two kingdoms. Never again will they pollute their lives with their no-god idols and all those vile obscenities and rebellions. I'll save them out of all their old sinful haunts. I'll clean them up. They'll be my people! I'll be their God! My servant David will be king over them. They'll all be under one shepherd.
 ^24-27 "'They'll follow my laws and keep my statutes. They'll live in the same land I gave my servant Jacob, the land where your ancestors lived. They and their children and their grandchildren will live there forever, and my servant David will be their prince forever. I'll make a covenant of peace with them that will hold everything together, an everlasting covenant. I'll make them secure and place my holy place of worship at the center of their lives forever. I'll live right there with them. I'll be their God! They'll be my people!

The commandments,

VERSE OF THE DAY - Romans 13:9-10

The commandments, 

"You shall not commit adultery," 

"You shall not murder," 

"You shall not steal," 

"You shall not covet," 

and whatever other command there may be, 

are summed up in this one command: 

"Love your neighbor as yourself." 

Love does no harm to a neighbor. 

Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.