La Joy of Blog

with Christ

2011-05-07T07:09:00.000-07:00

2 Cor 5 I would rather be absent from the body and present with the Lord...
Yes thats where I want to be.......and thats where Jake is! He knew his citizenship was in heaven not here and he went to claim it! So brave... so strong....we weep for misssing him but we too would rather be with the Lord!

Prayer: Thank you LORD for for my beautiful son what a gift and now his faith is replaced by sight! In Jesus name Amen!

2011-04-22T14:07:00.000-07:00

Psalm 131 Jacob's Psalm

What can I say when you watch your son at the gate of life and death.
Yet God speaks in that still small voice - He belongs to me - can you give him to Me.
In the middle of the storm Jesus walks on water and rescues the boys. That what I feel like
I feel like - Jesus you are so powerful- you swooped us up.
At least 6x they had to paddle his heart last night. The heart surgery was 10 + hours.
His heart was weak and tired and about to give up.
Thats when they opened him up again and he is stable on the bypass machine.
The time inbetween I kept remebering Jake's favorite Psalm 131. I read it to all the staff and doctors in the room.
Lord my HEART IS NOT PROUD.... MY EYE ARE NOT HAUGHTY...I HAVE STILLED AND QUIETED MY SOUL.........
HELP US GOD! I prayed..... and thank You for another day with Jake!
The gate for Jake ...either life with us now ..here... or heaven.
I wondered if he would say ...love you all but I am going to be with Jesus.
Another day...need a miracle...thought of Dorcus as people are praying for Jake. Thought
of Peter as he prayed for a raising from the dead! Thought Lord I am Peter raise my son up.

Last ...my devotional in Mark 14 the last days as the Christ going to the cross coming
the last supper and pray at the Mt of Olives garden. God the Father sent His Son to die and raise from the dead.
I think I undersaynad alittle better today what that means.

Tremble at His WORD

2011-03-01T19:00:00.000-08:00

.....But on this one I will look:
on him who is poor and has a contrite spirit
and trembles at my Word.....
Isaiah 66:2

I want the LORD to look .... look at me and look at you.

His attention......His CONSIDERATION....... So I choose to think sober thoughts about who I am compared to the greatness of God. When I start to get prideful .... I tell myself to cut it out in the name of Jesus!
I do not understand teachers like Rob Bell. They act as if they are humble but the exact opposite is true. It seems they know more or something different than what God says in his Word. There is no fear of the LORD , no fear of His awesome power and no respect for His WORD.
Avoid such men.... would be the great apostle's advice.

On the other hand I have had the experience of being with those humble servants who take HIS WORD seriously. I love them because all they want to talk about is Jesus.
I spoke with a mom today who told me one of her twin sons in my tues Bible class told her recently, "MOM I want to read the Bible more.... I am praying God would give me a love for his Word!" That young boy will go far in His relationship with Christ!

A contrite spirit, a poor and broken spirit is one who knows the depth of his own sin and knows he deserves to never enter the Kings presence.
BUT GOD who is rich in Mercy made the way for all such humble broken men to come to Him . The Cross of Jesus and the new life He offers is only for those who are poor and contrite in spirit and who tremble at His Word. The Christian life is lived in this humility.
Pastor Furrow often tell us on staff at Calvary Tucson to watch out for pride because it will cause us to be consumed by ourselves!
The contrite heart realizes it is what Christ did for us according to HIS WORD

God I choose to stay broken and humble and to stand on your WORD!
Help me to live a life that is Spirit led and takes your Word seriously.

2010-12-16T06:19:00.000-08:00

Ps 42

For the director of music. A maskil of the Sons of Korah.

42 As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, O God.
2 My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When can I go and meet with God?
3 My tears have been my food day and night, while men say to me all day long, "Where is your God?"
4 These things I remember as I pour out my soul: how I used to go with the multitude, leading the procession to the house of God, with shouts of joy and thanksgiving among the festive throng.
5 Why are you downcast, O my soul? Why so disturbed within me?
Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and
6 my God. My soul is downcast within me;
therefore I will remember you from the land of the Jordan, the heights of Hermon — from Mount Mizar.
7 Deep calls to deep in the roar of your waterfalls; all your waves and breakers have swept over me.
8 By day the Lord directs his love, at night his song is with me — a prayer to the God of my life.
9 I say to God my Rock, "Why have you forgotten me? Why must I go about mourning, oppressed by the enemy?"
10 My bones suffer mortal agony as my foes taunt me, saying to me all day long, "Where is your God?"
11 Why are you downcast, O my soul? Why so disturbed within me?
Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God.
NIV

As the week came to a close I felt the waves and I hit the rocks.
It had been a busy week but that in itself is not new.
For a split moment I lost heart and relied on the arm of flesh. I forgot that as the floodwaters of my Jordan river at the fountainhead of MT Hermon were rising and even as I hit the rocks…. THAT my God is still there!

• 2 My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When can I go and meet with God?

I found myself in my studies this week asking that question of myself .
This year I pray for a renewed passion to make that the cry of my heart

• As things in the World get worse…..and the Challenges get greater

11 Why are you downcast, O my soul? Why so disturbed within me?
Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God.

Let’s Praise Him together!

LORD we praise you that we know you and that you know us.
We pray that together this year we would hold onto you as the anchor of our hope
And that as we meet with you daily we would reflect your GLORY!
Our Hope is truly in YOU!
In Jesus name
Amen

Pre -Marriage Intro. There is Hope in the LORD

2009-12-28T13:59:00.000-08:00

The call came to me on the emergency pager- married for only months the young wife with the tone of anxiety and exasperation said, "He gave His life to Christ, just before we were married but now....?"
Pornography
Hip Hop culture friends
Selfishness
And the justification...
BUT... I go to church on Sunday and that's enough !

The papers had been filed but she felt the LORD wanted her to wait.... ANY Hope Pastor?

To take back my line from a famous political candidate "you betcha!"

Being married for 26 years to my wife - I explained- we all have problems and fights - but we have the Lord.
When my wife married me I was not a Christian -Boy, did I make her life difficult!
Even after coming to Christ I had to GROW UP!

There is hope in the LORD
in the awesome power of prayer and submission to HIS will.
Submission to His will
I took the young wife, to 1 Peter 3 a difficult passage for those who are married to non believers. Non the less, a call to obedience to Christ and a plan for winning the unsaved husband.
The Power of Prayer
I encouraged her to ask God to change her heart about praying for her husband.
The key to prayer is, to pray for God's will for God's Glory - I told her to pray HIS way and HIS will for her husband, not just to pray for an easier life with a "Christian husband."

I can hear the voices of some women saying, "If he is into porn then divorce him."
Sure, on the tech side of the Greek word Porn-ea (Matthew 19 sexual immorality)- she could divorce, but what had God spoken to her! to stay in the marriage........ and hold on to that hope!
Marriage counseling is on their Horizon - as he is open for help.

It's not just the men...
This has also been a year when I have heard of young women who looked solid in Christ from the outside - BUT, they went outside their marriage to find what they thought were greener pastures.

That's what leads me to this blog- I believe there is a way to prevent much of this heartache, by dealing with major issues -before the marriage... with premarital counsel from God's Word. Once married the issues and problems have a way of multiplying (by what seems to be a factor of 10!). Deal with issues now! Grow up in HIM!

The Outline of C's for Premarital Counseling

The outline we will discuss is simple - yet profound because it is based in God's WORD.
I routinely take young couples through this outline and have seen major breakthroughs in their walk with the LORD. These breakthroughs lead to improved relationships - and from what I have observed great marriages

The outline we will be following in future blogs...

Christ: Where is He in my life? - Have I a relationship with HIM? -Is He #1? Am I a disciple?

Commitment: What does commitment mean? Am I commit-ed to Christ? Do I live for HIM? - Do I know HIS commitment to me? Am I a commit -ed person/ to relationships in my life? Will I be commit- ed to my spouse?

Caring: What is love?What love is not? Do I know God's love? Do I love my brothers? Do I know how to love? Do I love my spouse to be?

Communication: Do I communicate like a Christian? What does that mean? Do I communicate with GOD? Am I hearing HIS DIRECTION FOR MY LIFE? How do I communicate with others? How do I communicate with my future spouse? What does bad communication look like?

Conflict: How does God want us to deal with conflict? Is conflict always bad? What are the origins of conflict? How do I deal with conflict? How does this affect my future spouse?

So here we grow............
Ephesians 4:15-16
15 Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is, Christ. 16 From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.
NIV

In Christ
Peter

Making a Comeback Psalm 80

2009-09-24T08:04:00.000-07:00

We never want to stop learning and growing in our relationship with the LORD. The consequence of having a sinful nature and living in this World is that we can find ourselves against the wall.....at the end of our rope. Worse yet is knowing that the sins and mistakes we have made have put us in this place. I know I have felt those pangs of hopeless despair that wage a war within. At those times the thought of being restored, a comeback seems dim.

When a nation begins to reject the LORD, the consequences and decline can bring great anxiety and pain. We have been experiencing this in our nation and world today. Economic uncertainty and the stress of living in 21st century America have caused some to wonder if God has forgotten us because many have forgotten Him.

The Psalmist during a time of national calamity remembers that he has a good shepherd in the LORD, one who restores the soul and brings deliverance. He is honest with God in sharing his feelings of despair and three times makes this urgent plea.

Psalm 80:19
Restore us O LORD, God of Hosts,
Cause your face to shine
and we shall be save
NKJV

He makes this cry to the God who controls the universe and has the power to save.
He makes this plea not just for himself but for a nation.

How much more can we, the redeemed, come to our God, who "has made His light shine in our hearts to give us the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ."
Making a comeback is possible with the LORD!

O LORD God of Hosts, restore us
Cause your face to shine upon us
And we will saved.
NASB

Living among those who hate peace

2009-09-05T17:16:00.000-07:00

Psalm 120:7
I am a man of peace but when I speak, they are for war

One of the more difficult and at time frustrating aspects of living the Christian Life is the conflict that ensues as we take the Gospel of Peace and bring it to those who desperately need to hear the Message of Jesus Christ. There will be those of the tents of Meshech and Kedar who will work to bring distress into our lives. Meshech was a tribe from just North of modern day Turkey known for their cruelty and fierceness. Kedar was in the South - from Abraham's clan -born of his son Ishmael. Reminds me that even "relatives" and close associates can be the source of distress. The distress comes from those words that can discourage and feel as if a sharp object was thrust into ones flesh. Many have been wounded by the untamable tongue.
This is a Psalm of Ascents - Those heading to worship God in Jerusalem for the Passover feast would recite it on the road. The Psalmist reminds them at the outset of this Psalm about the one who is there to answer this prayer. We need to trust Him to defend us and to be our strength and encouragement.

Psalm 120:1
I call on the LORD in my distress
and He answers me

Each New Day

2009-08-24T06:25:00.000-07:00

On thing I love about our LORD is the opportunity of each new day with Him. It is never stale or old but, each day He is doing a new thing- I must forget the former things and move forward. It does not mean I do not remember the wonderful things God has done in my past or that I never learn from my past mistakes but rather I can:

Not allow my past failures and hurts to stop me from receiving TODAY what God has for me
As I read the WORD I can find and hold on to a new PROMISE that gives me HOPE
I can have fresh and new DIRECTION in the most difficult of situations
I can expect new MERCIES that will never fail

He is the God that makes a way in the desert and streams in the wasteland and is the one who calls us to Himself.

Isaiah 43:18-19

Blessings In Christ

Peter