Prayer Meeting Tonight Any Time After 6:30PM
Daily Beats From Your Pastor’s Heart:
PHILIPPIANS 2:12-13, “Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.”
We may live for years having desires to spend time with the Lord in a regular way.
We may experience these desires to a greater or lesser degree, depending upon our spiritual situation.
Nevertheless, we may not be aware of the fact that the very existence of these desires stirring within us is God operating in us.
God works in your will to incline you to spend time with Him.
He operates to that extent.
But He does not take us over, obliterating our faculties and human responsibility and forcing us to spend time with Him.
He works in us to a point.
Then it is up to us to take the initiative to follow through by cooperating with His worked-in inclinations and desires.
In other words, God’s part is to supply the desire and the inclination to be with Him.
Our part is to find a private place, set the alarm clock, rise up from our bed, wash our face, get our Bible, hymnal, and other spiritual books, and begin to wait upon the Lord by reading, praying, singing, or just quietly being in His presence to enjoy Him and behold Him.
We need to realize that our desires to be with the Lord are God Himself.
It is not just you.
It is not just your desire.
It is not merely your own thought that you should spend time with the Lord.
It is God!
God is in your desire!
God is in your inclination!
God is in your thought!
Now you must work out what God has worked in.
Just go along with that still small voice, that slight sensation that you should withdraw yourself to pray and spend time with Him.
If you obey those small nudges, you are obeying God operating within you.
Deuteronomy 7:7-8, “The LORD did not set his love upon you, nor choose you, because ye were more in number than any people; for ye were the fewest of all people: But because the LORD loved you, and because he would keep the oath which he had sworn unto your fathers, hath the LORD brought you out with a mighty hand, and redeemed you out of the house of bondmen, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.”
To speak of God’s unconditional love is to utter a wonderful fact about God’s nature.
He loves because He chooses to love and for no other reason.
His love is not dependent upon finding something in us that merits His love.
His love is without conditions–it is unconditional.
It is this kind of love that is expressed to Israel in the above verses.
In other words, God loves because He chooses to love, not because of a reason found outside of Himself.
God’s unconditional love is revealed throughout the Old and New Testaments, but the most detailed description of His love is found in the book of Hosea.
When we touch this book that unveils the nature of God’s love, we are treading ground that we have never trod before.
We see God’s unconditional love coming to the least likely object of love.
Gomer, the name of the woman Hosea was to take as a wife, reveals the depths of the nature of God’s unconditional love.
In other words, God was telling Hosea, “Go take failure to be your wife,” or “Go take that which has come to an end to be your wife.”
This illustrates the nature of God’s love to us.
He loves us when we have no potential, no victory, when we have come to an end–when we are nothing but failure.
Gomer not only means failure, but it also has the meaning of “completion” or “perfection.”
So this woman was complete or perfected in her failure.
She was a harlot.
She filled up the measure of harlotry to the uttermost.
She committed not merely one transgression but a thousand transgressions.
She reached a state of completion and is ironically spoken of as being perfected in harlotry.
She was that low, that base.
She was perfected in her harlotry because she was fully experienced in sinning and in rebellion.
She was fully developed, perfected, and completed in the realm of failure.
She was not partially a failure, but she was a total failure.
Yet God tells Hosea to take this “wife of harlotry” to be his wife (Hosea 1:2).
Later, God tells him to love her.
This demonstrates the Lord’s love toward us.
He takes us and then lavishes His love on us, despite our failed condition.
Until Tomorrow,
With A Shepherd’s Love
Pastor
Today’s Prayer List
Ashley Burn’s Sister – Surgery Today
Debra Roberts – Critical
Hanna Hall – Pray For Grace
James Parsons – Mae’s Brother – Home on Hospice
Larry Barker – Hip Replacement
Sherry Yoachum – Surgery
Amy Garner’s Mother – Better –
Andria Carter – Ashley’s Sister –
Barbara Shed’s Family –
Bill Lawhead – Cancer Returned
Bill Moody –
Charlie Sessom –Waiting –
Colby/Connor – Allison’s G’sons–
Denise Stubbs – Kim Allison’s Mom
Don Slate – Angela Bryan’s Dad – Hospice
Doug Fritzel –
James Garner – Shoulder Replacement
James Garner’s G’Son –
John Burnette –
John McClain’s Mother –
Joyceann – James Garner’s Daughter
Kimberly – Dustin’s Sister–
Lavona Davis –
Linda Breedlove’s Sister – Sarah
Lynn – Nancy Brown’s Daughter –
Mary Sims –
Michael Stanley –
Nancy Brown’s G’Daughter –
Nora Allison – Dustin’s Mom –
Pastor Stucke– Nikki’s Dad
Paula Ferus’ Missionary Friend
Ricky Stubbs –
Roseleigh Osborn –
Scott Lanier – Lisa’s Cousin –
Sharon Blalock–
Shaelyn – Jill’s Friend
Shannon Golden –
Sheila Simmons Cousin –
Todd Bailey –
Todd Roberts –
Tom Witcher –
Wanda Galanti –