Good morning, Lord Jesus. Speak, Lord, for Your servant is listening. ...
Yesterday God directed my reflection towards being generous. This morning He directed my reflection towards generosity again. God is really wants to impress this into my heart.
“And God is able to make all grace overflow to you so that because you have enough of everything in every way at all times, you will overflow in every good work. Just as it is written, “He has scattered widely, he has given to the poor; his righteousness remains forever.” Now God who provides seed for the sower and bread for food will provide and multiply your supply of seed and will cause the harvest of your righteousness to grow” (2 Corinthians 9:8-10)
"No good thing does the Lord withhold from those who walk uprightly" (Psalm 85:11).
You are not stingy. You are not controlling or distant in Your compassion and care. You are not cheap or manipulative with Your blessings of grace and lavishing of love. It's not in Your heart to hold back or withhold any of Your good things. You are a good and generous Father who loves to "give good gifts" to Your children (Matthew 7:11).
You are a "God (who) is able to provide (us) with every blessing in abundance, so that by always having enough of everything, (we) may share abundantly in every good work.... He who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will supply and multiply (our) seed for sowing and increase the harvest of (our) righteousness" (2 Corinthians 9:8-10).
Lord, make me more generous like You. Give me the grace of "great generosity, which will produce thanksgiving to God" (2 Corinthians 9:11). Make me "a cheerful giver" -- full of joy in receiving and full of joy in giving (2 Corinthians 9:7).
Give me the grace to think rightly and "walk uprightly" with You. Line up my thoughts with Your thoughts, my heart with Your heart, and my nature with Your nature (Romans 8:29). Set me free from every fear of not having enough. Release me from any hoarding mentality that I need more of anything but you. Deliver me from every doubt about Your great generosity and covenant commitment to provide abundantly for all I need. And give me greater faith to believe "My God will supply every need of (mine) according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus" (Philippians 4:19).
"Now to Him who by the power at work within us is able to accomplish abundantly far more than all we can ask or imagine, to Him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever!" (Ephesians 3:20) In Jesus' name I pray. Amen.
My family, I pray you grow in the grace of knowing the heart of our God who withholds no good thing from us to give us great joy in receiving and then the great joy in giving, in Jesus' name! Please pray the same for me! God bless you, my friends
Please share with me and others your reflections and what God is speaking to you from todays reading in the comment box below.
Gary Liederbach- Lead Follower
One Direction Community
Email: garyl@onedirection.community
Website:https://www.onedirection.community
Facebook: One Direction Community-ODC
Help Us Help Them
I could use you’re the gift of your financial support for my family and those on the margins God has placed in my path I refuse to walk around. Please partner and support my family and ministries through setting up a monthly donation or a one –time gift by clicking the link below. Donation checks can be made out to ODC, 102 Champions Green Drive, Madison, Al 35758.
Thank You!
Help me listen to you. Tune my heart to your melody.
“Now we make known to you, brothers and sisters, the grace of God given to the churches of Macedonia, that during a severe ordeal of suffering, their abundant joy and their extreme poverty have overflowed in the wealth of their generosity. For I testify, they gave according to their means and beyond their means. They did so voluntarily, begging us with great earnestness for the blessing and fellowship of helping the saints. And they did this not just as we had hoped, but they gave themselves first to the Lord and to us by the will of God... But as you excel in everything - in faith, in speech, in knowledge, and in all eagerness and in the love from us that is in you - make sure that you excel in this act of kindness too. ..For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that although he was rich, he became poor for your sakes, so that you by his poverty could become rich. …For if the eagerness is present, the gift itself is acceptable according to whatever one has, not according to what he does not have. For I do not say this so there would be relief for others and suffering for you, but as a matter of equality. At the present time, your abundance will meet their need, so that one day their abundance may also meet your need, and thus there may be equality, as it is written: “The one who gathered much did not have too much, and the one who gathered little did not have too little.” (2 Cor. 8:1-15)
Lord Jesus, I am still celebrating and joyful over Your amazing gift of Easter! I still am saying “Thank you!” for Your extreme gift of love that although You were rich, You became poor for my sake, so that I by Your poverty could become rich. (v.9) Lord Jesus, help me “pay forward” to others the gift I received from You. Help me today to “overflow in the wealth of my generosity”(v.2). Help me to excel in the act of kindness to others (v.6). Help me not only out of my abundance, but out of my poverty seek for the blessing and fellowship found in help others (v.4). Jesus, You remind me today that all I have is a gift from You to be used to pour into, relieve suffering, and bring relief to others. “We must help the weak and remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he himself said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.” (Acts 20:35). However, I am called to give because I have been blessed in receiving from You. Jesus, free me from my fleshes desire to hoard, store up, collect, claim, keep, save, and hold onto my items and my finances I should freely give. Open my heart to others as Your Word says, “your heart shall not be grudging when you give to him, because for this the Lord your God will bless you in all your work and in all that you undertake. For there will never cease to be poor in the land. Therefore I command you, You shall open wide your hand to your brother, to the needy and to the poor, in your land.’(Deuteronomy 15:11-12).
My family, two days ago we celebrated the greatest give we will ever receive and remembered the greatest act of generosity and outpouring of grace this world has ever know. I pray today you will “pay it forward” and be a tangible example of the love and generosity of Jesus that we who call ourselves “Christians” are supposed to be, in Jesus’ name. Please pray the same for me. God bless you friends! He Has!
Please share with me and others your reflections and what God is speaking to you from todays reading in the comment box below.
Gary Liederbach- Lead Follower
One Direction Community
Email: garyl@onedirection.community
Website:https://www.onedirection.community
Facebook: One Direction Community-ODC
Help Us Help Them
I could use you’re the gift of your financial support for my family and those on the margins God has placed in my path I refuse to walk around. Please partner and support my family and ministries through setting up a monthly donation or a one –time gift by clicking the link below. Donation checks can be made out to ODC, 102 Champions Green Drive, Madison, Al 35758.
Thank You!
Lord I seek you this morning as my source of love, grace and mercy.
“I am overflowing with joy in the midst of all our suffering. For even when we came into Macedonia, our body had no rest at all, but we were troubled in every way - struggles from the outside, fears from within.” (2 Corinthians 7:4-5)
This morning I pray over our brothers and sister in Christ in Sri Lanka who’s Easter services that started out in joy ended in horror when bombs went off in their churches. Almost 300 Christians were killed and over 500 injured in the blasts. What started out as a morning of joy became on of sadness. And they were all sons and daughters, grandparents and grandchildren, spouses and friends, neighbors and co-workers so those affected by these blasts is multiplied. Jesus, you remind me this morning that there is not the “persecuted” church over seas and the “un persecuted” church over here, there is just The Church. Your prayer to the Father for us as the church and the family of God was, “So that they may be one just as we are one.” (John 17:11). This, morning, the day after shouting loudly “Alleluia!” on the mountain top of Easter I climb back down into the valley and back down on my knees in prayer and mourning with my family in Sri Lanka. Lord have mercy, Christ have mercy, Lord have mercy.
Jesus, you remind me as I watch the news that we are all connected. Your salvation was not simply focused on me and love for me, but was one of global focus and love, “For this is the way God loved the world” (John 3:16). You remind me that my salvation I live out today, my holiness is a social holiness, that we are connected, and I cant rejoice completely in my salvation while my brothers and sisters are suffering around the world, and in my communities. Lord help strive to restore and live out the complete joy of my salvation by helping those who are suffering in theirs, or have not yet entered into a saving relationship with Christ.
My family, I pray today the global implications of Easters because “For God so loved the world” reminds you of your connectedness with your brothers and sisters in Christ around the world and in your community. I pray your prayers expand today the global, The Church to which we are all called to be one with, In Jesus’ name. Please pray the same for me. God Bless you my friends!
Please share with me and others your reflections and what God is speaking to you from todays reading in the comment box below.
Gary Liederbach- Lead Follower
One Direction Community
Email: garyl@onedirection.community
Website:https://www.onedirection.community
Facebook: One Direction Community-ODC
Help Us Help Them
I could use you’re the gift of your financial support for my family and those on the margins God has placed in my path I refuse to walk around. Please partner and support my family and ministries through setting up a monthly donation or a one –time gift by clicking the link below. Donation checks can be made out to ODC, 102 Champions Green Drive, Madison, Al 35758.
Thank You!
Lord have mercy, Christ have mercy, Lord have mercy..
Good morning, Lord Jesus. On this Good Friday, we remember our Good Shepherd, when You laid down Your life for Your sheep. ...
"Then they brought Jesus to the place called Golgotha (which means the place of a skull).... And they crucified him.... When it was noon, darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon. At three o'clock Jesus cried out with a loud voice, 'Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?' which means, 'My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?'... Then Jesus gave a loud cry and breathed His last. And the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. Now when the centurion, who stood facing Him, saw that in this way He breathed His last, he said, 'Truly this man was the Son of God!" (Mark 15:22-39)
Jesus, We truly have no idea of the suffering You endured for each one of us. For as much as we can take at a time, we begin to imagine the physical suffering and the emotional suffering you endured as You hung naked and rejected by the nails driven into Your hands and feet, gasping for breath and dripping with blood from Your shredded skin and nerves. But we can't even begin to comprehend the spiritual suffering You endured as the One who knew no sin became sin on our behalf, when You willingly took upon Yourself all the sins of the world (2 Corinthians 5:21).
In that moment, bearing the full weight of our sins, the full weight of my sins, You were separated from the holiness of God, so that we would never have to be separated from the holiness of God.. In unimaginable anguish of spirit, You cried out to the Father in the most heart-wrenching cry of all eternity, as the Lamb of God took away the sins of the world by taking them on to Yourself in the passion of the cross, determined before the foundation of the world and prophesied long before the coming of that day (Psalm 22; Isaiah 53).
Carrying our sins, You descended into hell on our behalf to break the power of hell over our lives (Acts 2:31; 1 Peter 3:18-22 and 4:6). But hell couldn't hold You because Satan had nothing in You and no power over You (John 14:30). "Through death, (You defeated) the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and freed those who all their lives were held in slavery by the fear of death" (Hebrews 2:14).
What an incomprehensible price You paid for each one of us. We may never fully comprehend for all eternity the depth of Your suffering for our sins so that we could dwell forever in the depths of Your love in the intimate presence of our holy God. But on this holy day, we stand amazed at the foot of the cross and in the Presence of God. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen.
My family born out of the blood of the cross., I pray you take time on the journey to the joy of celebrating the resurrection of Christ to think on the suffering of Jesus and be filled with knowledge of the truth of how much God loves you and suffered for you to always be with you. Offer to Christ the idols, attitudes, behaviors and things you need to die from and place them on His cross, In Jesus name. Please pray the same for me. Lord have mercy, Christ have mercy, Lord have mercy.
Please share you reflections on Good Friday throughout your day in the comment box below.
Gary Liederbach
One Direction Community
Email: garyl@onedirection.community
Website:https://www.onedirection.community
Facebook: One Direction Community-ODC
Help Us Help Them
I could use you’re the gift of your financial support for my family and those on the margins God has placed in my path I refuse to walk around. Please partner and support my family and ministries through setting up a monthly donation or a one –time gift by clicking the link below. Donation checks can be made out to ODC, 102 Champions Green Drive, Madison, Al 35758.
Thank You!
Good morning, Lord Jesus. Be at the center of my heart and every moment of my day. ...
"Therefore, knowing the fear of the Lord, we try to persuade others; but we ourselves are well known to God, and I hope that we are also well known to your consciences.... For the love of Christ urges us on, because we are convinced that one has died for all; therefore all have died. And He died for all, so that those who live might live no longer for themselves, but for Him who died and was raised for them" (2 Corinthians 5:11-15).
We are "well known to God." And You know well the plans You have for me and each one of Your children (Jeremiah 29:11). ...
My Father, You know all about me. You've created me and saved me. You've loved me and corrected me. You've called me and anointed me, encouraged me and inspired me, equipped me and empowered me. You always go before me and You're always with me. You know every hair on my head and every hurt in my heart. You know every step that I'll take and every misstep I've taken. And yet You love me with "an everlasting love" (Isaiah 54:8).
The Bible says there came a time when "the Lord was sorry that He had made humankind on the earth, and it grieved Him to His heart" (Genesis 6:6). I know I've grieved You to Your heart at times. I wonder if You were ever sorry You made me. ...
But even as I write those words here in my journal, I immediately hear You speaking to my heart. It seems I hear You saying: "No, My son. I chose to create you and never forsake you, even as I have chosen each one of My children. You are created in My image, but destined to struggle through your issues on your spiritual journey to maturity in Me. When you stumble and fall, when you falter or fail, I still love you and help you and even cause you to become more desperately dependent upon Me so that I can display My glory more completely through you. This is My way. This is My will -- that My children learn to trust Me and love Me and know My love for them on their journey to learn to love in the time they have on this earth."
Yes, Lord. "For this is the will of God, (my) sanctification" (1 Thessalonians 4:3). You desire that I would "not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of (my) mind, so that (I) may discern what is the will of God -- what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God" (Romans 12:2).
Though humankind grieved You, at the same time "Noah found favor in the sight of the Lord" (Genesis 6:8). And by the power of Your grace through sacrifice of Christ, we are Your children who find favor in Your sight, despite all our sins and failures and all that grieves Your heart with us. "If anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new! All this is from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ, and has given us this ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting the message of reconciliation to us" (2 Corinthians 5:17-19). In Christ, we are the message -- through our changes hearts and changed lives by the power of the grace of God at work within us! "So we are ambassadors for Christ, since God is making Hi appeal through us" (2 Corinthians 5:20).
You want to bring me to the place here in my heart and soul where I am free to no longer live for myself, but live for You (2 Corinthians 5:15). And in living for You and allowing You to live in me, I am becoming more like You. "Anyone united to the Lord becomes one Spirit with Him" (1 Corinthians 6:17). This is the way of life and the will of God You've chosen for me and every one of us. "God sent His only Son into the world so that we might live through Him" (1 John 4:9). "As He is, so are we in this world" (1 John 4:17). Lord, in desperate dependence upon You alone -- upon the One who knows me well -- make me more like You today, as I learn to love more like You today. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen.
My family,as we enter into this holy time of Maundy Thursday –Easter Sunday and we reflect on the Passion of Jesus Christ, I earnestly pray without a doubt you realize, you completely understand, and that you truly know how much God loves you and longs to live through you, making you more like Jesus as you learn to love more like Him each day, in Jesus' name! Please pray the same for me. God bless you, my friends!
Please share with me and others your reflections and what God is speaking to you from todays reading in the comment box below.
Gary Liederbach- Lead Follower
One Direction Community
Email: garyl@onedirection.community
Website:https://www.onedirection.community
Facebook: One Direction Community-ODC
Help Us Help Them
I could use you’re the gift of your financial support for my family and those on the margins God has placed in my path I refuse to walk around. Please partner and support my family and ministries through setting up a monthly donation or a one –time gift by clicking the link below. Donation checks can be made out to ODC, 102 Champions Green Drive, Madison, Al 35758.
Thank You!
Good morning, Lord Jesus. Fill me with Your Spirit and lead me in Your ways, here at the start and throughout the moments of my day. ...
"In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. For we do not proclaim ourselves; we proclaim Jesus Christ as Lord and ourselves as your slaves for Jesus' sake. For it is the God who said, 'Let light shine out of darkness,' who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ" (2 Corinthians 4:4-6).
Your Word calls our spiritual enemy "the god of this world" who "has blinded the minds of the unbelievers" -- those who do not believe "the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God." And "the god of this world" is at the source of the evil of this world. You called him "the ruler of this world" (John 14:30). Bur Your Word encourages us to not lose heart when we see his evil work of deception and destruction, but to rise up in faith: "Discipline yourselves, keep alert. Like a roaring lion your adversary the devil prowls around, looking for someone to devour. Resist him, steadfast in your faith..." (1 Peter 5:8-9).
One way we resist him, steadfast in our faith, is by letting Your light shine in our hearts. Give us a love for those who are deceived. Move us to intercede for them instead of condemn them, that their eyes will be opened to the truth -- "the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ." Stir in our hearts to pray for those who persecute us, to bless those who curse us, to love those who hate us (Matthew 5:44). Break the blindness from their minds to know the truth who will set them free (John 8:32).
With Easter on the horizon, this is not a time to fear, but to arise in faith. This is not a time to lose heart, but to be stirred in our hearts to pray as warriors into the great contrast between the light and the dark, between good and evil, between the kingdoms of this world and the Kingdom of God.
As You explained long ago, both light and darkness, both good and evil, are all growing to full maturity at the end of this age -- "to grow together until the harvest" (Matthew 13:24). Let us be encouraged when we see these things coming of age in our day -- the time of a great harvest is near! (Mathew 13:39)
You are "not wanting any to perish, but all to come to repentance" (2 Peter 3:9). And You will use this ever-increasing contrast of the light and the dark, the good and the evil, to expose the deception of the ruler of this age so that all can see the truth and know the One who is the truth -- "the Way, and the Truth, and the Life" (John 14:6).
So give us Your harvest perspective. Give us Your kingdom perspective. In the midst of this darkness, as we hold fast to our faith and let the light of Your glory shine through our faces and move powerfully through our prayers, "the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of (our) Father" (Matthew 13:43). In Jesus' name I pray. Amen.
My family,I pray that in this harvest time, the light of the glory of God will increasingly shine through your face and your prayers to expose the darkness of deception and bring many to faith in the One who is the Truth. Holy Week reminds us that the whole earth was Jesus’ harvest field His saving blood was poured into. Pray for Jesus to reveal to you the fields you are to pour yourself into and aide in the harvest, in Jesus' name. Please pray the same for me. God bless you, my friends!
Gary Liederbach- Lead Follower
One Direction Community
Email: garyl@onedirection.community
Website:https://www.onedirection.community
Facebook: One Direction Community-ODC
Help Us Help Them
I could use you’re the gift of your financial support for my family and those on the margins God has placed in my path I refuse to walk around. Please partner and support my family and ministries through setting up a monthly donation or a one –time gift by clicking the link below. Donation checks can be made out to ODC, 102 Champions Green Drive, Madison, Al 35758.
Thank You!
Good morning, Lord Jesus. I speak Your name and seek Your nature, as I begin my day embracing Your presence -- Father, Son, and Holy Spirit of God. ...
"We are not like Moses, who put a veil over his face so that people of Israel would not see the glory, even though it was destined to fade away. But the people's minds were hardened, and to this day whenever the Old Covenant is being read, the same veil covers their minds so that they cannot understand the truth. And this veil can be removed only by believing in Christ. Yes, even today when they read Moses' Writings, their hearts are covered with that veil, and they do not understand. But whenever someone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. For the Lord is the Spirit, and wherever the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. So all of us who have had that veil removed can see and reflect the glory of the Lord. And the Lord -- who is the Spirit -- makes us more and more like Him as we are changed into His glorious image (2 Corinthians 3:13-18 NLT).
Spirit of the living God, come fall afresh on me, come rise up within me, come awaken me to "see and reflect the glory of the Lord." Come remove the veil of everything that would keep me from seeing and hearing and sensing the presence and power of the Lord, my God. You're the One who "makes (me) more and more like Him" as I am being "changed into His glorious image" -- morning by morning and moment by moment on my daily journey of worship and prayer.
Let my heart be tender and my mind be clear to hear Your voice and sense Your leading. Where my heart has grown hardened or my mind has grown dull through complacency or compromise, through passivity or rebellion, through settling for something less than the fullness of "Christ in (me), the hope of glory," come move again with a passion to persistently pursue the presence and the glory of God (Colossians 1:27).
May I never stopped crying out from my spirit to Your Spirit, from deep to Deep -- every morning and throughout the moments of my day -- "Show me Your glory!" (Exodus 33:18; Psalm 42:7) Open the eyes of my heart, for as I see You and pursue You, so I seek to become more like You (Ephesians 1:18). As You are, so am I to be, so am I to become -- "changed into Your glorious image" to "see and reflect the glory of the Lord" (1 John 4:17; 2 Corinthians 3:18 NLT). In Jesus' name I pray. Amen.
My family, I pray the Holy Spirit moves in your heart. I pray the Holy Spirit removes your veil, morning by morning and every moment of your day to passionately, persistently pursue the presence of the Lord and be changed into His image, as you see and reflect the glory of the Lord, in Jesus' name! Please pray the same for me. God bless you, my friends!
As I write This the song “Show Mr Your Glory” came to my mind and I have it playing over me as I write. Sit back play, breath and let it play over you.
Gary Liederbach- Lead Follower
One Direction Community
Email: garyl@onedirection.community
Website:https://www.onedirection.community
Facebook: One Direction Community-ODC
Help Us Help Them
I could use you’re the gift of your financial support for my family and those on the margins God has placed in my path I refuse to walk around. Please partner and support my family and ministries through setting up a monthly donation or a one –time gift by clicking the link below. Donation checks can be made out to ODC, 102 Champions Green Drive, Madison, Al 35758.
Thank You!
Good morning, Lord Jesus. Your words are spirit and life. Speak to my heart as I listen for Your leading and begin my day in the communion of prayer. ...
"For we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing.... For we are not peddlers of God's word ... but in Christ we speak as persons of sincerity, as persons sent from God and standing in His presence" (2 Corinthians 2:15-17).
Like a fresh, hot loaf of crusty, seasoned bread brought to my table at an Italian restaurant, break open my heart and dip it in the pure virgin oil of Your Holy Spirit. I want to soak in Your words and sit awhile in Your presence. I want to "taste and see that the Lord is good; happy are those who take refuge in Him" (Psalm 34:8).
Then I'll be ready to carry the aroma of Christ wherever I go, out into my day. May it be the nature of Your Spirit instead of the nature of my flesh that invites my world into relationship with You -- the God whose presence smells so welcoming and whose words taste so good. "God's kindness is meant to lead (us) to repentance" (Romans 2:4).
Let my words and my heart, throughout the moments of my day, be an expression of Your words and Your heart that You impart to me as I first soak and rest in Your presence in these morning moments of prayer. "Thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession, and through us spreads in every place the fragrance that comes from knowing Him!" (2 Corinthians 2:14) In Jesus' name I pray. Amen.
My family, I pray the Holy Spirit will soak you in the heart and words of our Father God, then send you out into your day carrying the aroma of Christ everywhere you go, in Jesus' name. Please pray the same for me. God bless you, my friends!
Gary Liederbach- Lead Follower
One Direction Community
Email: garyl@onedirection.community
Website:https://www.onedirection.community
Facebook: One Direction Community-ODC
Help Us Help Them
I could use you’re the gift of your financial support for my family and those on the margins God has placed in my path I refuse to walk around. Please partner and support my family and ministries through setting up a monthly donation or a one –time gift by clicking the link below. Donation checks can be made out to ODC, 102 Champions Green Drive, Madison, Al 35758.
Thank You!
Good morning, Lord Jesus. Be at the center of my heart and the moments of my day. ...
"It is God who enables us, along with you, to stand firm for Christ. He has commissioned us, and He has identified us as His own by placing the Holy Spirit in our hearts as the first installment that guarantees everything He has promised us" (2 Corinthians 1:21-22).
Holy Spirit, enable me and empower me to stand firm for Christ today. Deliver me from my two-facedness; awaken me from my wavering; call me out of my complacency. Set me ablaze with a fiery passion to proclaim the name of Jesus and live into this day in the nature of Jesus. "We (are to) live like Jesus here in this world" (1 John 4:17).
"The Spirit who lives in (us) is greater than the spirit who lives in the world.... We belong to God, and those who know God listen to us. If they do not belong to God, they do not listen to us. That is how we know if someone has the Spirit of truth or the spirit of deception" (1 John 4:4-6). So by the power of Your grace at work within me, the spirit of this world will not intimidate me or silence me or keep me from standing firm for Christ.
By Your Spirit, I will stand and I will speak and I will shine with the light of Your glory in my heart -- not in my power, but Yours; not in my goodness, but Yours. "For God, who said, 'Let there be light in the darkness,' has made this same light shine in our hearts so we could know the glory of God that is seen in the face of Jesus Christ. We now have this light shining in our hearts" (2 Corinthians 4:6-7). As You keep shining, I will keep standing -- standing firm for Christ. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen.
My family, I pray that in the power of the Holy Spirit you stand firm for Christ and let the light of the glory of God revealed in the face of Jesus Christ shine through you today, in Jesus' name! Please pray the same for me. God bless you, my friends!
I shared my insights and prayers from todays passage with you. Please share your insights and prayers with me and others in the comments box below.
Gary Liederbach- Lead Follower
One Direction Community
Email: garyl@onedirection.community
Website:https://www.onedirection.community
Facebook: One Direction Community-ODC
Help Us Help Them
I could use you’re the gift of your financial support for my family and those on the margins God has placed in my path I refuse to walk around. Please partner and support my family and ministries through setting up a monthly donation or a one –time gift by clicking the link below. Donation checks can be made out to ODC, 102 Champions Green Drive, Madison, Al 35758.
Thank You!
Join in!
On September 17th we began the journey of reading through the New Testament in a year. This plan has only one chapter to read each weekday. There are no assigned readings on the weekend. Use that time for other studies or to catch back up on chapters you may have missed during the week. The plan we will use is from Bibleplan.org. The website address for it is https://bibleplan.org/plans/new-testament-in-a-year/ or you can get to it by clicking the button below. Go to the site, enter the starting date Sept. 17. 2018, enter your email, and a time you want to receive an email reminder, then click subscribe. Every weekday then you will receive an email reminder of the chapter reading for that day.
“On the first day of the week, each of you should set aside some income and save it to the extent that God has blessed you, …. Aquila and Prisca greet you warmly in the Lord, with the church that meets in their house. “ (1Corinthians 16:2,19)
Bishop Desmond Tutu stood up as the key speaker to give the college commencement speech to the graduating class. He walked up to the mic and proclaimed, “It is all a gift! It is all a gift!” And then returned to his seat and sat down.
Everything we have is a blessing. There is nothing that we have that can’t be taken away from us tomorrow. All we have is a gift from God. All our gifts from God are resources to be given back to God and used for the kingdom of God. God’s grace did not bless you with simply 10% of your gifts. (though sadly the average giving by parishioners in the US is 2.4%. For Christian families making less than $20k per year, only 8% of them gave at least 10% in tithing. For families making a minimum of $75k or more, the figure drops to just 1%.) His grace provided for all of your gifts. The notion that 10 percent of our gifts are all we need to give back to God is false, as Paul states, “You are to set aside income to the extent that God has blessed you.” As the hymn states, “Jesus paid it all, all to Him I owe …”
A major portion of the blessings and where we store up the blessings that God has bestowed upon you and I is our homes and apartments we live in. This major source of our blessing is not meant to be gated and fenced off as “ours” from God’s use but opened up to be used as an outpost of God’s blessings to your neighbors and community as “His.” What percentage of your home, your gift from God to the extent that He has blessed you have you set aside for God? Out of the 168 hours in a week God has blessed you to reside in your home, how many of those hours weekly is your house or apartment open to others and used for God? Used for hosting youth to mentor, after school children’s bible study, accountability groups, house church, or other ministries for God? “Aquila and Prisca greet you warmly in the Lord, with the church that meets in their house.” How are you warmly greeting in the Lord others into your home?
My family, as we are in the season of Lent and and approaching Holy Week, I pray you will intentionally discern and plan how you will “tithe” and open up and share your home or apartment, one of your greatest blessing from God, as a place that warmly greets others in the Lord. In Jesus’ name. Please pray the same for me. God bless you my friends!
I shared my insights and prayers from todays passage with you. Please share your insights and prayers with me and others in the comments box below.
Gary Liederbach- Lead Follower
One Direction Community
Email: garyl@onedirection.community
Website:https://www.onedirection.community
Facebook: One Direction Community-ODC
Help Us Help Them
I could use you’re the gift of your financial support for my family and those on the margins God has placed in my path I refuse to walk around. Please partner and support my family and ministries through setting up a monthly donation or a one –time gift by clicking the link below. Donation checks can be made out to ODC, 102 Champions Green Drive, Madison, Al 35758.
Thank You!
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Good morning, Lord Jesus. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit -- help me sense Your presence, hear Your voice, and follow Your leading, as I begin my day seeking You. ...
"For this perishable body must put on imperishability, and this mortal body must put on immortality. When this perishable body puts on imperishability, and this mortal body puts on immortality, then the saying that is written will be fulfilled: 'Death has been swallowed up in victory.' 'Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?' This sting of death is sin and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ" (1 Corinthians 15:54-57).
In the past months two dear friends of mine and members of our church lost family members. Bothe were unexpected. They passed on from this side of eternity to the next. And in their last breath of their last battle here on this earth, death had no victory and death had no sting. They were delivered through death into eternal life in You, the One who is "the Resurrection and the Life" (John 11:25). Truly they have "fought the good fight" and received his eternal reward in the fullness of Your presence (1 Timothy 4:7; 2 Corinthians 5:8).
So I join with my friend’s families, and families who have lost someone and all who love them dearly to both celebrate their victory and their life in the Spirit with Christ in heaven, even as we also mourn and grieve our loss of their lives here in the flesh with us on earth. Thank You that in You, we do not have to "grieve as others do who have no hope. For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with Him those who have died" (1 Thessalonians 4:13-14).
Through Your victory of the resurrection, we will all rejoice with You and with one another again. In that way, even through hard times like this when our hearts are both full of hope and sorrow at the same time, we hold fast to the promise of Your Word, "Weeping may linger for the night, but joy comes with the morning" (Psalm 30:5). My dear friend is experiencing the healing of the resurrection; and at the same time, we need the comfort of Your resurrection love here in our hearts as we celebrate his victory in You.
Holy Spirit of God, comfort us and strengthen us through the night times and hard times we endure through the battles of this world, as we look forward to that glorious morning to come. "Thank be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ!" In Jesus' name I pray. Amen.
My family, I pray you are strengthened and comforted through every battle you'll face through the night time, knowing joy comes with the morning in the resurrection love of God in Jesus Christ, in Jesus' name! Please pray the same for me. God bless you, my friends!
I shared my insights and prayers from todays passage with you. Please share your insights and prayers with me and others in the comments box below.
Gary Liederbach- Lead Follower
One Direction Community
Email: garyl@onedirection.community
Website:https://www.onedirection.community
Facebook: One Direction Community-ODC
Help Us Help Them
I could use you’re the gift of your financial support for my family and those on the margins God has placed in my path I refuse to walk around. Please partner and support my family and ministries through setting up a monthly donation or a one –time gift by clicking the link below. Donation checks can be made out to ODC, 102 Champions Green Drive, Madison, Al 35758.
Thank You!
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Lord Jesus, I begin my week in desperate need of your presence in my life.
“Love is patient, love is kind, it is not envious. Love does not brag, it is not puffed up. It is not rude, it is not self-serving, it is not easily angered or resentful. It is not glad about injustice, but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends.” (1 Corinthians 13:4-8)
As Paul states above, Lord Jesus let my love for You and my love for others be pure -- untainted and undefiled by self-seeking and self-serving motives. Let my love for You and for others include patients, kindness and not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude, not insisting on my own way, not irritable or resentful, never rejoicing in wrongdoing to others but always rejoicing in truth, bearing all things, believing all things, hoping all things, and enduring all things to never end.
"Let love be genuine; hate what is evil, hold fast to what is good; love one another with mutual affection; outdo one another in showing honor" (Romans 12:9-10).
Lord Jesus, form in me a love that is genuine. And as I genuinely love You and love others, help me love genuinely myself as well (Matthew 22:37-39). Help me love with a genuine, authentic love that shifts the spiritual atmosphere, that changes hearts and minds to change the world, beginning with our own. This is the Spirit and the Presence and the power of God living true through us (1 John 4:16). Lord, increase my capacity to love and be loved genuinely today. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen.
My family, may the Lord increase your capacity to love and be loved genuinely today. May the Holy Spirit give you boldness to love others and allow others to love you. Please pray the same for me. God bless you, my friends!
I shared my insights and prayers from todays passage with you. Please share your insights and prayers with me and others in the comments box below.
Gary Liederbach- Lead Follower
One Direction Community
Email: garyl@onedirection.community
Website:https://www.onedirection.community
Facebook: One Direction Community-ODC
Help Us Help Them
I could use you’re the gift of your financial support for my family and those on the margins God has placed in my path I refuse to walk around. Please partner and support my family and ministries through setting up a monthly donation or a one –time gift by clicking the link below. Donation checks can be made out to ODC, 102 Champions Green Drive, Madison, Al 35758.
Thank You!
http://www.easytithe.com/dl/?uid=onepob279
Good morning, Lord Jesus. Lead me by the heart into Your will for my life today.
“Now you are Christʼs body, and each of you is a member of it. And God has placed in the church first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then miracles, gifts of healing, helps, gifts of leadership, different kinds of tongues” (1Corinthians 12:27-28)
Father, You've given me the gift of Your Holy Spirit. And at the same time, along with each of Your children, You've given me spiritual gifts to express Your heart and dimensions of Your nature through my life as Your son (1 Corinthians 12:7).
"Do not neglect the gift that is in you, which was given to you through prophecy with the laying on of hands by the council of elders. Put these things into practice, devote yourself to them, so that all may see your progress" (1 Timothy 4:14-15).
Stir up Your gifts within me; fan them into flame, as You "rekindle the gift of God that is within (me)" (2 Timothy 1:6). Let them flow out of a secure and confident identity in You as a child of God, called by God and gifted by God, with Your good gifts bearing Your good fruit through my life for the glory of Your good name (John 15:5). In Jesus' name I pray. Amen.
My family, I pray that our great God will stir up and fan into flame His good gifts within you to display the glory of His name through your life today. Please pray the same for me. God bless you, my friends!
I would love for you to share your reflections and prayers with us on this blog in the comment box below.
Gary Liederbach- Lead Follower
One Direction Community
Email: garyl@onedirection.community
Website:https://www.onedirection.community
Facebook: One Direction Community-ODC
Help Us Help Them
I could use you’re the gift of your financial support for my family and those on the margins God has placed in my path I refuse to walk around. Please partner and support my family and ministries through setting up a monthly donation or a one –time gift by clicking the link below. Donation checks can be made out to ODC, 102 Champions Green Drive, Madison, Al 35758.
Thank You!
Father, Son, and Spirit, I press into You at the start of my day so when the day presses into me I can stand firm in You.
“For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night in which he was betrayed took bread, and after he had given thanks he broke it and said, “This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” In the same way, he also took the cup after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, every time you drink it, in remembrance of me.” For every time you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lordʼs death until he comes.,” (1Corinthians 11:23-26)
My devotion for this morning was given to me by a child at the Waffle House. I received by praying as I always do before I went in the restaurant to let me see those I encounter inside through God’s eyes.
I was at the Waffle House and I noticed in the booth to my right a small boy, maybe 5 years old who was seated across the booth from his father. The food was brought to the table and he had ordered a waffle. The boys eyes got big and a large smile came across his face as he stared at the waffle. He looked at his dad with a big grin, his way of saying thanks, then started smearing butter and syrup on his waffle, and ate it in complete joy.
I was reminded of Bonhoeffer’s words:
“The fellowship of the table has a festive quality… God cannot endure that unfestive, mirthless attitude of ours in which we eat bread in sorrow, with pretentious, busy haste, or even with shame. Through our daily meals He is calling us to rejoice, to keep holiday in the midst of our working day…” (Bonhoeffer, Life Together).
And I was reminded of Jesus’s words:
“13 “And they were bringing children to Him so that He might touch them; but the disciples rebuked them.
14 But when Jesus saw this, He was indignant and said to them, "Permit the children to come to Me; do not hinder them; for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these.
15 "Truly I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child will not enter it at all."(Mar 10:13-15)
That young child reminded me what a gift a meal is, something that I take for granted in this land of plenty. The gift of physical life it provides for me is a gift from our Father in heaven, who is ever present in my “booth” while I am eating it. And no matter how rough or hard of a day I may be having (at least in my mind), or what situations I find myself in, I have no right to eat a meal that day, or any day, as Bonhoeffer tells me in sorrow or shame. I always need to rejoice while I am eating, and look up to my Father with a big grin of thanks.
It also reminded me of when I share a special meal together with my family, The Lord’s Supper. It is also a gift from the Father that provides a much greater gift than physical life, it provides spiritual and eternal life. A Father, who through the works of the Son on the cross, and by the Holy Spirit, is present in my “booth.” The triune of God is present more closely during the Lord’s Supper than anything else I can do in life because of the promise of the Son that when you “Do this in remembrance of me” I will be with you. A meal, that if I receive and eat it in shame and sorrow would be insulting and saddening to Father. Like it would be to the father of the boy if he received his waffle with sorrow, ate it in quiet shame, never once looking up at his dad.
I am reminded that as a person in the “church” I have taken the Lord’s Supper at times for granted. I need to receive the bread and the cup in celebration with “big eyes” and a wide open heart in wonder and amazement of all the love the Father has bestowed upon me. I need to receive it like that child at the Waffle House and look up to my Father, my Abba, my daddy and give him a big grin!
My family, I pray today at every meal you partake in a big smile of joy will come over your face and you will look up at your heavenly Father and say “Thanks dad!” In Jesus’ name. Please pray the same for me. God bless you my friends!
I would love for you to share your reflections and prayers with us on this blog in the comment box below.
Gary Liederbach- Lead Follower
One Direction Community
Email: garyl@onedirection.community
Website:https://www.onedirection.community
Facebook: One Direction Community-ODC
Help Us Help Them
I could use you’re the gift of your financial support for my family and those on the margins God has placed in my path I refuse to walk around. Please partner and support my family and ministries through setting up a monthly donation or a one –time gift by clicking the link below. Donation checks can be made out to ODC, 102 Champions Green Drive, Madison, Al 35758.
Thank You!
Good morning, Lord Jesus. You are One with the Father, One with the Holy Spirit, be One within me today. ...
"The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ? For we, though many, are one bread and one body; for we all partake of that one Bread" (1 Corinthians 10:16).
In these days of division and strife, even in The Church, remind us that we are one in You. Though we are many, we are also one. Though we may have different forms of worship, different traditions of expressions of our faith, even different understandings and interpretations of Your Word at times, we are also one. There is "one bread, one body," united through the body and blood of one Savior, our Lord Christ.
"There is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we exist" (1 Corinthians 8:6). And in You, we "have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, making every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, just as (we) were called to the one hope of (our) calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in all" (Ephesians 4:1-6).
Come, Holy Spirit. Unite us in the oneness of Christ as the sons and daughters of our Father God we are created and called to be. May the bond of Your peace break down our walls, heal our divisions, and set things right in our hearts for the sake of our witness to our world. Lord Jesus, may Your prayer from Your last days before Your sacrifice as the Son of Man on this earth be answered in us: "That they may all be one. As You, Father, are in Me and I am in You, may they also be in Us, so that the world may believe that You have sent Me. The glory that You have given Me I have given them, so that they may be one, as We are One, I in them and You in Me, that they may be completely one, so that the world may know that You have sent Me and have loved them even as You have loved Me" (John 17:21-23). In Jesus' name I pray. Amen.
My family, I pray may you be one in Christ and seek to be one with the body of Christ throughout the world and all generations as a witness of our Father's love in our world by the bond of peace in the unity of the Holy Spirit, in Jesus' name! Please pray the same of me. God bless you, my friends!
I would love for you to share your reflections and prayers with us on this blog in the comment box below.
Gary Liederbach- Lead Follower
One Direction Community
Email: garyl@onedirection.community
Website:https://www.onedirection.community
Facebook: One Direction Community-ODC
Help Us Help Them
I could use you’re the gift of your financial support for my family and those on the margins God has placed in my path I refuse to walk around. Please partner and support my family and ministries through setting up a monthly donation or a one –time gift by clicking the link below. Donation checks can be made out to ODC, 102 Champions Green Drive, Madison, Al 35758.
Thank You!
Father, Son, and Spirit, fill me with the unity of your presence.
“Do you not know that all the runners in a stadium compete, but only one receives the prize? So run to win. Each competitor must exercise self-control in everything. They do it to receive a perishable crown, but we an imperishable one.
So I do not run uncertainly or box like one who hits only air. Instead I subdue my body and make it my slave, so that after preaching to others I myself will not be disqualified.”(1Corinthians 9:24-26)
Paul uses a runner as an illustration to compare to a person’s sharing of the Gospel. A runner does not just go and enter a race, he constantly trains to equip his body and mind for running the race. When a runner enters a race, he does not run whenever he wants and where ever he wants, but at a specific time on a specific course. A runner has a daily structure of training and a schedule to help him be a better runner. We all have structures and schedules we use to makes as better and more efficient at completing a task or competing in something. At work we have time schedules and procedures we follow. We have daily schedule of when we work out at a gym. Our calendars have dates and times scheduled on them to help us complete tasks and requirements. What does your schedule for living out the great commission to make disciples look like? What does your routine for training look like to share the gospel with your neighbors? Open your calendar, besides church on Sundays, what dates and times are marked in it daily that are intentionally set aside for your growth as a Christian? What dates are penciled in for sharing your faith with others?
We understand in every area of our life the need to be intentional, have structure and a schedule to follow to achieve results and goals. How come most do not do that with the thing they claim is most important to them above all else, their faith and walk with Jesus? We know, so we don’t forget and miss opportunities, to schedule in our calendars our kids and grand kids ball games, doctor appointments and other events, most however do not have scheduled in their calendar weekly days to prayer walk their neighborhood, go to a laundromat, or intentionally sharing the Gospel with others.
Paul’s ministry and success in sharing the Gospel with people was because he was intentional in sharing it and he actually went out and shared it with people. You and I will be successful in sharing our love of Jesus if we do the same.
My family, I pray today as part of your reflection for Lent you will take time to sit, open your calendar, and honestly look at how intentionally you set aside times daily, weekly, and monthly for training and equipping in the Bible, prayer, and sharing the Gospel to your neighbors and those in your community. We as Christians claim Jesus is better than anything else so I pray you and your family restructure your calendar to reflect that claim. In jesus’ name. God bless you my friends!
I would love for you to share your reflections and prayers with us on this blog in the comment box below.
Gary Liederbach- Lead Follower
One Direction Community
Email: garyl@onedirection.community
Website:https://www.onedirection.community
Facebook: One Direction Community-ODC
Help Us Help Them
I could use you’re the gift of your financial support for my family and those on the margins God has placed in my path I refuse to walk around. Please partner and support my family and ministries through setting up a monthly donation or a one –time gift by clicking the link below. Donation checks can be made out to ODC, 102 Champions Green Drive, Madison, Al 35758.
Thank You!
Lord God, I thank you for your love, grace and mercy.
“yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we live, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we live.” (1 Corinthians 8:6)
This past weekend, from Thursday afternoon –Sunday evening I spent serving on the Kairos Prison team that went into Limestone Correctional Facility. We spent this time in the prison sharing meals, our life stories, listening to those of the inmates, sharing our love for them and sharing the love of Jesus. All the men in the prison are suffering the consequences of bad decisions they made in their life.
In the sharing with the inmates at our last time together before we left the prison, one theme was the most prevalent in the inmates stories, love, or the lack of it. Most of the men, men who have built up walls of strength around them as required to survive in prison, with tears running down their face said they had never experienced love like this before in their life. Or they said they had forgotten a long time ago what real love felt like. They also said they wish they had a person show them this kind of love when they were growing up, a mentor, someone to look up to who showed them love and taught them how to model love and Christian values. They probably would not be in prison now if they did.
Unfortunately, there are many children, young men and women, single mom’s, children’s of single parents, single men in our communities that have not experienced love or have a mentor in their life. You could be that person that “if only someone had shown me love and taught me how to love” that changes the direction of a person’s life. We may not all be called to lead large congregations, however we are all called and capable to open our hearts, our home, and invest margins of time to love and mentor one or two men or women.
My family, I pray as you start this week, you pray for the Holy Spirit to lead you to the one or more persons you can simply love, share life, mentor and intentionally invest time in their life. In Jesus name. Please pray the same for me. God bless you my friends!
I would love for you to share your reflections and prayers with us on this blog in the comment box below.
Gary Liederbach- Lead Follower
One Direction Community
Email: garyl@onedirection.community
Website:https://www.onedirection.community
Facebook: One Direction Community-ODC
Help Us Help Them
I could use you’re the gift of your financial support for my family and those on the margins God has placed in my path I refuse to walk around. Please partner and support my family and ministries through setting up a monthly donation or a one –time gift by clicking the link below. Donation checks can be made out to ODC, 102 Champions Green Drive, Madison, Al 35758.
Thank You!
I place my life in your hand God to mold into the image of your Son.
“It is actually reported that sexual immorality exists among you, the kind of immorality that is not permitted even among the Gentiles…I wrote you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people. In no way did I mean the immoral people of this world, or the greedy and swindlers and idolaters, since you would then have to go out of the world. But now I am writing to you not to associate with anyone who calls himself a Christian who is sexually immoral, or greedy, or an idolater, or verbally abusive, or a drunkard, or a swindler. Do not even eat with such a person. For what do I have to do with judging those outside? Are you not to judge those inside? But God will judge those outside. Remove the evil person from among you.” (1Corinthians 5:1, 9-13)
Why do heathens, those who do not know Jesus and seek to conform their lives to Him act and do some of the immoral things they do? Because they are heathens. You would not expect those who don’t know Jesus that their morals and lifestyles would be conformed to Him. However, you would expect Christians who claim Jesus as their Lord and are to be pressing into deeper Christian perfection and sanctification, trying to imitate the life of Jesus to resist and abstain from these things that are obviously behaviors not in Jesus. “Now the works of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity, depravity, idolatry, sorcery, hostilities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish rivalries, dissensions, factions, envying, murder, drunkenness, carousing, and similar things. I am warning you, as I had warned you before: Those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God! But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.” (Galatians 5:19-22)
Paul’s message today pulls no punches. He is “meddling” and very direct in addressing and calling out the personal morals and behaviors of those in the church, including me.
Holy Spirit, as I meditate on this passage, reveal to to me and in me immorality, bad attitudes and behaviors in me that I am still doing in my flesh that have no business being in someone who claims Jesus as His Lord. Convict me where my lifestyle is a bad witness to my neighbor. I want to be a person who’s association with my wife, family, friends, neighbors, coworkers and church members bears good fruit in them and not bad, builds them up and not tears them down, brings them joy and not pain. Someone of character who can say to a brother or sister, “I encourage you, then, be imitators of me.” (1Corinthians 4:16). In Jesus’ name.
My family, I pray today as part of your Lent discipline you will allow the Holy Spirit to “meddle” in you in a personal way and reveal morals, attitudes, and behaviors in your life you are doing that have no business being in a child of God. Then name them, repent of them, and release them to Jesus to lay at the foot of His cross. In Jesus’ name. Please pray the same for me. God bless you my friends!
I would love for you to share your reflections and prayers with us on this blog in the comment box below.
Gary Liederbach- Lead Follower
One Direction Community
Email: garyl@onedirection.community
Website:https://www.onedirection.community
Facebook: One Direction Community-ODC
Help Us Help Them
I could use you’re the gift of your financial support for my family and those on the margins God has placed in my path I refuse to walk around. Please partner and support my family and ministries through setting up a monthly donation or a one –time gift by clicking the link below. Donation checks can be made out to ODC, 102 Champions Green Drive, Madison, Al 35758.
Thank You!
Order my steps today Lord, please order my steps..
“For, I think, God has exhibited us apostles last of all, as men condemned to die, because we have become a spectacle to the world, both to angels and to people. We are fools for Christ, but you are wise in Christ! We are weak, but you are strong! You are distinguished, we are dishonored! To the present hour we are hungry and thirsty, poorly clothed, brutally treated, and without a roof over our heads. We do hard work, toiling with our own hands. When we are verbally abused, we respond with a blessing, when persecuted, we endure, when people lie about us, we answer in a friendly manner. We are the worldʼs dirt and scum, even now. “1Corinthians 4:9-13.”
We have no reason to be proud; all we have, or are, or do is owed to the free grace of God. “God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:8) As a sinner snatched from destruction by sovereign grace of God alone, it would be very absurd and inconsistent, if I took personal pride in my salvation and all of the free gifts of God.
And we must remember that there is not “regular Church” and a “persecuted church”, referring to Christians in foreign countries who’s faith is under constant attack, there is just The Church. Though some Christians in their lives will face greater persecutions and hardships in their life, we all are called in to suffering and sacrifice. In this season of Lent we are reminded that Jesus himself suffered from poverty, hate, verbal and physical abuse, by those around him and was treated like dirt, looked at like scum, and killed in the most hideous way. His apostles were treated in the same way. And all of us who by our claiming Jesus as our Lord and called to imitate Him must be prepared to sacrifice, suffer poverty, contempt, and abuse for our faith as well.
Satan and his demons, the ruler of this world, sees us in Christ, sees Christ’s face when he looks at us, and with rage desires to insight every form of violence and affliction on and against us. “For to you it has been granted for Christ’s sake, not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for His sake,” (Philippians 1:29). Yet it is better to be rejected, despised and abused by the world as outcasts, knowing we are precious in God’s sight and in His Kingdom and that He will gather us outcasts, us scum to the world together in His loving hands and place us in His throne room.
My family, I pray today as part of your Lent discipline, you allow yourself in meditation over these Scripture and with the Holy Spirit to reveal where you are avoiding Spiritual growth in Christ by an unwillingness to accept the sacrifice involved, the unpopularity it will cause you, or any suffering or persecution that will result. In Jesus’ name. Please pray the same for me. God bless you my friends!
I would love for you to share your reflections and prayers with us on this blog in the comment box below.
Gary Liederbach- Lead Follower
One Direction Community
Email: garyl@onedirection.community
Website:https://www.onedirection.community
Facebook: One Direction Community-ODC
Help Us Help Them
I could use you’re the gift of your financial support for my family and those on the margins God has placed in my path I refuse to walk around. Please partner and support my family and ministries through setting up a monthly donation or a one –time gift by clicking the link below. Donation checks can be made out to ODC, 102 Champions Green Drive, Madison, Al 35758.
Thank You!