Devotional
THE UNLOVABLE GUARD
If we love one another, God abides in us, and His love has been perfected in us.
1 John 4:12
In the mid-1930s, a German Protestant pastor was abducted from his church. Suspected of aiding and abetting Jews, he was thrown into prison without a hearing, a trial, or even a phone call to his family. The prison guard outside his cell hated everyone associated with Jews. He purposely skipped the pastor’s cell when meals were handed out, made him go weeks without a shower, and gave him the most difficult jobs on the labor gang. The pastor, on the other hand, prayed that he would be able to love this guard with God’s love. As the months went by, the pastor smiled at the guard, thanked him for the few meals he did receive, and even talked to him about agape love. The guard never said anything, but he heard it all, and one night he cracked a smile. The next day the pastor received two meals and was able to shower for as long as he wanted. Finally, one afternoon the guard personally made the long-awaited call to the pastor’s family, and a few months later, he was released.
It is against our human nature to love someone like that prison guard, but through His power, God can give us the ability to love the unlovable.
The love, even for your enemies, which Jesus commands, is not our work but His work in us.
THOMAS GREEN[1]
[1] David Jeremiah, Turning Points with God: 365 Daily Devotions (Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale, 2014), 306.
Pray This Prayer Until Resurrection Sunday Everyday
I pray Father in heaven thank you “that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give me the Spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him, having the eyes of my heart enlightened, that I may know what is the hope to which he has called me, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in me, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward me which I believe, according to the working of his great might that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come. And he put all things under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.”
Ephesians 1:17-23 ESV as my daily prayer.
“For this reason I pray before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that according to the riches of his glory he may grant me to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in my inner being, so that Christ may dwell in my heart through faith—that I, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that I may be filled with all the fullness of God.”
In Jesus Name Amen
Ephesians 3:14-19 ESV
Vision
To develop people with the Word of God making them more like Christ.
To tear down the walls of misinformation in people lives, which will cause a change in their life and affect the people around them.
To create an environment of worship for all people.
To see God’s people live an overcoming abundant life.
Faith
Faith is a spiritual principle that taps into the creative power of God made available through man, so that man can transform conditions, circumstances and situations in the natural realm over which he has been given authority.
Great Commission
The most important missional conversation, the most compelling, the most invigorating, missional conversation, the one that our Lord Jesus Christ is the most interested in, is the missional conversation that you and I will have with those who don't know Him yet those who are lost, those who are last, those who are least, and those who are lonely.
Dedication
To love and serve the Lord with all of your heart, mind, strength and to love your neighbor as yourself.
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