Month: May 2020

The Kitchen Table            Philippians Day 5

Yes, and I will rejoice, for I know that through your prayers and the help of the Spirit of Jesus Christ this will turn out for my deliverance, Philippians 1:18-19

Bringing Christ into our circumstances involves prayer that takes us to heaven or brings heaven here to us.  It’s like prayer is the magnetic power of heaven that brings heaven here.  God works in our wants waiting for us to pray.  He comes with our permission into our everyday lives.  He’s always here waiting to hear from us. Bringing Christ into our circumstances happens as we pray for us and for others.

The Kitchen Table            Philippians Day 4

Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is proclaimed, and in that I rejoice. Philippians 1:18

When we know that Christ is in our circumstances, we don’t have to let our circumstances take us away from Christ.  There are all sorts of things that can happen today, Jesus is still Lord.  We don’t want to let deception become our drama.  God is in the room.  What matters is that Christ is proclaimed.  He is the answer because He is the solution to our circumstances.

The Kitchen Table            Philippians Day 3

I want you to know, brothers, that what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel.  Phil 1:12

If we want to find Christ in our circumstances, we must be Christ in our circumstances.  If Christ is our reason for living, then Christ will have the reason for what we’re living through.  The moment Christ is no longer our mission we won’t see the mission of what we’re living.  He hasn’t left; we have.  He isn’t done and neither are we.  Look for Christ in your circumstances by being Christ in your circumstances.  Those who live for Him see Him.

The Kitchen Table            Philippians Day 2

And I am sure of this, that He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.  Phil 1:6

Confidence creates compassion.  So when you look out there and don’t see much care and compassion, you can know that most people are living in fear.  When we know that we are loved, we can love.  When we know that God is at work in us we can be free to let Him work through us.  This is all preparation for the day Jesus comes back and the life we will live forever with him in love.

The Kitchen Table            Philippians Day 1

Grace & peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.  Philippians 1:2

Don’t leave the house without grace and peace today.  God is with you and His undeserved and unreserved love comes with Him.  And His love works in and through as well as on and around those who believe.  Recognize it, receive it and rest in it by faith in the name of Jesus.  Just say it, “God’s love is on me today and I am blessed!”

The Kitchen Table    96

Today’s Reading:  Ps 66; Gen 7:1-24; Acts 27:13-38

Bless the Lord, O people; let the sound of His praise be heard, who has kept our soul among the living and He has not let our feet slip.

 Ps 66:8-9

Keep your soul among the living.  We must realize just how important that is and how important it was to Noah and to Paul.  Storms happen and trouble comes but God is the same today and forever.  As we lift up His praise, He keeps our soul (our mind & emotions) among the living.  A dead soul sees no hope and finds no help.  But the one who lifts up praise knows there is hope and help in the storm and in the still.  Praise empowers God to live in us and enables us to live through Him in the storm and in the sill alike.

Today’s Reading:  PS 66; Gen 6:5-22; Acts 27:1-12

Blessed be God, because he has not rejected my prayer
or removed his steadfast love from me! Psalms 66:20

There hardly anything more unsettling than troubled water and anything more undoing than the troubled soul.  We were not created to live in water and when its troubling its terrorizing.  And there’s hardly anything more comforting than love and listen and God gives us both.  Both Paul and Noah found themselves in troubled water but both had the heart and ear of God and that makes all the difference.  God doesn’t reject our pray or remove His love and that is so satisfying to the soul.  We all need love and listening and sometimes that is the best gift anyone can find while sailing troubled waters. 

The Kitchen Table    Day 94

Today’s Reading:  Ps 102; Prov 3:13-18; John 8 31-38

Do not hide your face from me in the day of my distress.  Ps 102:2

I believe that those who pray, enjoy the face of God.  And I believe that in the word of God we find the face of God.  Proverbs says that His word (wisdom) is a tree of life.  Jesus said that those who abide in His word are His disciples and that His truth sets them free.  And I think one of the best things we can do is to pray God’s word when we pray.  As we pray His word, not our worries, we find His discernment, direction and deliverance to live His life in His creation.

The Kitchen Table    Day 93

Todays Reading:  Ps 102; Prov 3:5-12; Acts 7:44-56

But you, O Lord, are enthroned forever, you are remembered throughout all generations.  Ps 102:12

Be not wise in your own eyes fear the Lord and turn from evil.  Pr 3:7

We are never as smart and strong and savvy as He is.  The Lord our God is bigger, greater and wiser than we.  And its prayer that keeps those things in our face.  He knows the beginning from the end.  He has always been and always will be.  He is enthroned and in prayer we become enthralled with His majesty, power and authority.  Prayer takes us where He is (makes us aware of where He is) and places us in His promises and power.  It’s in the place and practice of prayer that we see His glory and discover His goodness.   Keep on praying!

The Kitchen Table    Day 92

Today’s Reading:  Ps 102, Ex 13:17-22; Acts 17:17-40

He regards the prayer of the destitute and does not despise their prayer

Ps 102:17

I’m pretty sure that God waits for us to pray.  He can do anything He wants without us but chooses to do everything He does with us.  And so, He waits for us to pray.  We don’t pray because we don’t pine (yearn intensely) for the presence, power and promises of God.  Without God in the picture there’s pain.  God doesn’t have to send pain, it’s part of the picture without Him but God will let the pain bring Him back into our picture.  God hears the prayer of those who pine for His presence, power and passion.  The Bible says so.