Obedience, February 8 “Please, let Your ear be attentive and Your eyes open, that You may hear the prayer of Your servant which I pray before You now, day and night, Take not the word of truth utterly out of my mouth, for I have hoped in Your ordinances. So shall I keep Your law continually, forever and ever. And I will walk at liberty, for I seek Your precepts. Nehemiah 1:6-8; 10-11, www.solascriptura.com Father, our prayer that You listen and be fully observant of us is accompanied by the reality that is exactly what You do. You hear us and see us, constantly. We do not understand how that can be true, given our finite capabilities, but we have faith that You know when a bird falls from the sky or when a hair falls from our head. We “reach” for ways to understand, knowing that every living thing is Yours, including the air we breath and the water we drink. You had a dove descend and say, “This is my Son in whom I am well pleased”. You tell us the trees clap their hands, the clouds collide, the earth trembles and the stars are beyond counting. God we simply confess that Your declarations are true and we do not have to explain the phenomena that we observe and experience. We now possess the Living Word, Your Scriptures and we look back on what the Old Testament prophets proclaimed. Your word enriches, encourages and illuminates. What a marvelous resource You have given us. You say, we walk in liberty because we seek Your precepts. Father, is the opposite also true, that if we walk in darkness, there is no true liberty? Father, we want to keep Your law forever and forever. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen Bruce Caldwell The Sola Scriptura Project, P.O. Box 302, Franklin TN 37064
Posts Tagged ‘liberty’
Judged individually? I thought it was a group membership deal.
Sunday, February 3rd, 2013Industriousness, February 3
And if you call on the Father, who without partiality judges according to each one’s work, conduct yourselves throughout the time of your stay here in fear; … he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does.
Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their trouble, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world. … a man is justified by works, and not by faith only. Likewise, was not Rahab the harlot also justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out another way? For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.
1 Peter 1:17, James 1:25;27; 2:24-26 , www.solascriptura.com
Father, we do fear not being in the center of Your will for our lives and we seek diligently to please you. Help us O’God to know that we never stand before You in our perfection, since we are indeed imperfect. We come to you in all humility and contrition, cloaked in the righteousness of Jesus, our Savior and Redeemer with thankful hearts. Father, Your law reveals Your will for us. When we stand within Your law we stand in liberty. Forgive us O’God when we sin. Deliver us from temptation, constantly, because it is ever upon us. As we proclaim our faith, help us to do good works that verify our words. In the name and power of Jesus, we pray. Amen.
Bruce Caldwell The Sola Scriptura Project, P.O. Box 302, Franklin TN 37064
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Will mercy triumph over judgment? I pray it does…
Monday, January 28th, 2013Law of God,January 28 For whoever shall keep the whole law, and yet stumble in one point, he is guilty of all. For He who said, “Do not commit adultery,” also said, “Do not murder.” Now if you do not commit adultery, but you do murder, you have become a transgressor of the law. So speak and so do as those who will be judged by the law of liberty. For judgment is without mercy to the one who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment. James 2:10-13, www.solascriptura.com Jesus, here we have Your half brother, James (same mother), clarifying that sin is sin and that there is no hierarchy of sin. Whether we have committed relatively small sins or grievous sins, we are all in the same place. We need Your forgiveness and cleansing and we need to show mercy to others as You have shown mercy to us. Jesus, James tells us, that we who have been born again now stand in the law of liberty, a position in which “mercy triumphs over judgment”. Yes, Jesus, we are cleansed but our renewal is constant and Your mercy is constant because we need forgiveness every day for every action and thought that disappoints You. Father, You have taught us that “being saved” is a moment in time wherein we acknowledge Your grace, mercy and calling to us and when we proclaim our love of Jesus and the gift of the Holy Spirit that enables us to be led by You. We also know that You, Father, will judge we who are Christians, by our deeds. What we do after we are born again, matters. We will be forgiven for our imperfections but help us today to endeavor to be obedient and to increasingly mature in our faith. Help us be like You Jesus. Our fleshly instincts must decrease but our willingness to serve You and be led by You must increase. It would be great to say “I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me” and have it be truer for every tomorrow than it is today. In Your Holy name, we pray, amen. Bruce Caldwell The Sola Scriptura Project, P.O. Box 302, Franklin TN 37064
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