Monthly Archives: March 2013

Help us to see the big picture. Beyond ourselves. To not just follow the crowds but to follow the One who showed us the endless love of God. Help us to praise You beyond the good times and through the bad times. You will never forsake us in our time of need. You rejoice in our happiness and Your heart breaks in our sorrows. We are not alone…You, Lord, are always with us and Your love knows no bounds. Look, it doesn’t matter where we are in this life because we’ve all messed up in someway or the other. We need to let these regrets go and give them to God. The past is not our legacy. Yesterday does not define who we are or who we are going to be. Because we are all redeemed children of God, we are all accepted, we are all loved, we are all forgiven for whatever we did or think we did. And just as this season changes from winter to spring You, Jesus, bring us new life and a new start. The promise that this life is not the end. In Christ there are no good byes, in Christ there is no end. Because of the sacrifice on that cross death has no hold on us. The battle is won, God is with us. Christ is risen, Christ is risen indeed. Hallelujah!!!

Thank You for the ability to live this life.  Thank You for each breath that we take.  Thank You for Your love, forgiveness and grace.   We welcome You as our King and Savior.  We also walk in the shadow of Your cross.   Lord God, strengthen our faith in You to go beyond the cheers of the crowd looking for an instant miracle.  For the crowd can be demanding and unpredictable. And the crowd is temporary and fleeting.  To build on the crowd is to build on a sinking foundation that cannot not support or sustain us.   Instead, let us build on the solid rock of Christ by living out our faith and not on empty words.  When the Hosanna’s fade and turn into words of hate, let us not be moved but instead let us hold on to the truth.  The truth that You, Lord Jesus, humbled Yourself to be like us, that You lived among us, that You loved us and that You died for us so that there would be no emptiness between us and the love of God. Lead us to the cross Lord, where Your love is and will always be…one scarred hand to the other.

Lord, who do we say You are?  You are our friend.  We ask that You would mend the brokenness of the world and of our hearts today by casting out the darkness with the light of Your never ending hope.   Who are we Lord?  We are the saints and sinners who live day by day in this life.  We are the ones who proclaim Your glory.  We are also the ones who choose convenience over the Ten Commandments.   We are the ones who need forgiveness, grace and mercy.  We are also the ones who judge and condemn each other.   Regardless of where we are today, we all need a Savior to lead us away from temptation.  We need You, Messiah, to deliver us from evil.  We need the hope that only the truth of the Gospel can bring us.  That no matter what we are all loved, cherished, forgiven and made new by the God of infinite chances.  The God who doesn’t see our mistakes in the past but who sees us made new and clean in His image.  Let Your presence be known in our lives Lord.  Let Your love be known.  Let Your grace and mercy be known here on earth as it is in heaven.   For the Kingdom, the power and the glory are Yours forever and ever.  Amen. 

Amazing grace how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me.  Lord,  Thank You for Your grace that envelops all of us.  But grace isn’t about us.  It’s about You, Jesus, and what You did for us.   We have all found grace because of Your sacrifice but we have trouble showing it to others.  The truth is that none of us can escape Your grace because it is a gift that You continue to give us.  It has changed our lives because the burdens of sin and death have lost their hold on us so enlighten us so that we don’t bring others down for their mistakes.   Stop us from believing that our sins are not as bad as the sins of others.   Stop us from focusing on the rules of religion rather than an intimate relationship with God.   Stop us from pointing fingers at others for their mistakes according to our standards.   For everyone who exalts themselves will be humbled, but those who humble themselves will be exalted.  You were betrayed, persecuted and punished for all the wrong of this world.   So who do we betray when we persecute others?  What do we gain when we punish others for retribution?   Are our blinders so thick that we only see where people fail and we forget that we are all sinners?   Lord, illuminate this world with the light of Your truth so that we can give grace, mercy and forgiveness to all people just as You have given to us. 

Write into the story of our lives as you wrote in the sand. The story of how much God loves His children that He gave us the gift of His Son, Jesus Christ, so that all would know just how important we are to the Creator. To give a gift is to give of something that we would want for ourselves. We all want to be loved so we should love others as You love us. We all want to be forgiven for our mistakes so we should forgive others as You have forgiven us. We each want mercy not judgment so remind us of the mercy that you give us everyday when we judge others. When we judge…why do we judge? We are all wonderfully and fearfully made in Your image yet we boast in casting words of stones on others who we say are unclean but have  You not washed away all of our sins and made us all clean?  Humble us Lord, when we think our authority is higher than Yours. Our commitment to the Word of God is revealed in what comes from our hands and not from our lips. How we treat others is only a reflection of how we view our relationship with You, Lord. So build our relationship with You and with each other clothed in the love of Jesus Christ. The One who put us above all things, including His own life, so that we could always have a second chance with God.