Zenith (John 7:37-38)

Good morning ladies,

The word of the day is “zenith.” I remember as a young Christian wondering what it would look like to be at the very top of my relationship with Jesus. And even more than that, I was hoping that maybe one day I would be able to understand the Christian faith enough to feel confident in sharing my beliefs with others. It seemed like a pretty tall mountain at the beginning. When I expressed that to my leaders, they were very eager to help me reach that goal. They constantly pointed me to verses that would help me get closer to that goal.

On the last and greatest day of the festival, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.” ~Jn. 7:37-38

My question is: how are you asking God to make you an effective witness for the Christian faith? Sometimes we feel like if we do not have all of the answers that we are not qualified to tell others about the gospel. However, as we see in today’s Scripture, all we really need to do is to approach Jesus and allow him to fill us with the words that need to be said to others. My prayer is that you take a moment and ask Jesus to fill you with rivers of living water. We may not reach the zenith of our Christian faith until the day we stand before Christ, but we can always do more to help move that process towards the day of completion.

Praying for you,

MO

Kickshaw (Philippians 3:1-14)

Good morning ladies,

The word of the day is “kickshaw.”  One of my favorite chapters in the book of Philippians (my favrit NT book) is the third. It does not get a ton of play because of the chapter it precedes. But Paul said some pretty outrageous comments here. The following verse used an actual cuss word of his day, and the peeps had to be totally astonished to hear him say it. But, he needed to get his point across as to why he followed Christ and believed in the Gospel.

“What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ...” ~Phil. 3:8

The word "garbage" has been inserted here by English scholars to replace a more colorful word that we would use today.  I will let your imagination take you there for explanation.  My question is: what are the important things in your life… what do you value most?  My prayer is that you would take Paul's advice here, which is to realize everything in your life doesn't mean very much, and is pretty trifle in comparison to what Jesus has commanded to do in following him.  Take some time today and ask yourself what would be like to lose everything for the sake of your relationship with Jesus.  He did it for us, and asks us to do the same.

Praying for you,

MO

Deiform (2 Corinthians 3:7-18)

Good morning ladies,

The word of the day is “deiform.”  I remember back in high school when I was in Latin class for my second language.  It was actually a lot of fun.  When we got into the honors program the last couple of years, we started to read stuff in Latin a lot to translate.  Some of that stuff was Greek mythology.  It was funny to read about how all of the gods used to fight and because of that bad things happened to humans down on earth as a consequence.  They were really full of themselves.  Well, lucky for us, we have a true God who makes us in his perfect image…

“And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord's glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.” ~2 Cor 3:18

My question is: how do people perceive your image?  The good thing is, if you give God a chance, you have the ability to live and reflect his glory.  He gives you the opportunity, and you just have to respond.  My prayer is that you respond favorably today.  As we continually receive his ever-increasing glory, remember that we will one day solidify our deiform nature when we meet him face-to-face.

Praying for you,

MO