July 28, 2016

Posted on July 30, 2016 by jgarrott

Psalm 119:125 I am your servant; give me discernment
that I may understand your statutes.

In the NIV the English has a rhythm to it at first that makes me want to change the last half of the verse to match:
I am Your servant;
Give me discernment
That I may perceive Your laws.
However, that’s a holdover reaction from poetry class in college, I think, and I’m sure the Hebrew doesn’t do that any more than the Japanese does. All that aside, the prayer is a very valid one: when we choose to serve God, we realize that we need His help in grasping what He says to us. As He said to Isaiah, “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.” (Isaiah 55:9) It also brings to mind what Paul said. “The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned.” (1 Corinthians 2:14) We do need God’s help in grasping what He says to us, because it’s analogous to explaining quantum physics to a dog. Unless He helps us, it’s hopeless! The problem is, our flesh – not only our lusts, but also scars from past wounds – distorts what we hear, sometimes badly. I am reminded of a situation my father had to deal with many years ago of a seminary student who was cohabiting with a prostitute. His rationale was that he wanted to “draw her to salvation by showing God’s love to her.” He was taking an essential pillar of the Gospel, God’s love, and distorting it into an excuse for immorality, conveniently ignoring 1 Corinthians 6:15-16. Had his commitment been first to serving God, then he would have found a pure way to express God’s love to the woman and draw her out of that lifestyle. Universalists have the same sort of problem, distorting the message of God’s mercy and grace to the point that they deny His holiness and purity, trying to sidestep the essential point of repentance. Left to ourselves, we are so stupid (compared to God) that we will distort anything. Like the Psalmist, we need to confirm our commitment to serve God and ask Him to enable us to do it correctly.

As with every truth of God, this certainly applies to me. I still remember what a breakthrough it was for me to finally get it through my head that God’s smart and I’m not; I’m no better than that dog trying to understand quantum physics. To be honest, even my desire to serve God has its ups and downs. I can’t count on myself, but I can count on God, and that is my comfort and my hope. When I am at my most rational, I renew and press into my commitment to God, and that helps carry me through the moments when I am distracted by the world and my flesh. I know without a doubt that apart from Christ I can do nothing, (John 15:5) so my focus is to abide in Him.

Father, thank You for being God. Thank You for keeping it all straight and knowing the end from the beginning. Thank You for being totally trustworthy, especially since I am so far from that. I ask for enough understanding and strength to please You as Your servant so that Your will may be done through me, for Your glory. Thank You. Praise God!

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July 27, 2016

Posted on July 30, 2016 by jgarrott

Psalm 119:98-100 Your commands make me wiser than my enemies,
for they are ever with me.
I have more insight than all my teachers,
for I meditate on your statutes.
I have more understanding than the elders,
for I obey your precepts.

At first glance this might seem to be a very conceited declaration, but there’s a lot of truth here. My father was his mother’s pride and joy, but there was still real truth in something she said to him once. My mother told the tale, with laughter, of how my parents and grandparents were riding in a car together one time and my father was bemoaning a tendency to conceit. His mother responded with, “But Max, there’s a difference between conceit and recognizing the truth.” The fact was that my father was certainly not perfect, but he was enormously gifted, and failure to recognize and apply that would not have been humility, but rather poor stewardship. The three points on which the Psalmist claims superiority are all based on his attitude and response toward God. If you have internalized God’s commands so that they become yours indeed, then you are certainly wiser than those who might oppose you because of their rebellion against God. In the second point, teaching something can be a good way to learn it, but when it comes to God’s Word, treating it as just something academic is going to blind you to the riches it contains. The NIV says “I meditate on your statutes,” but the Japanese says, “Your statutes are my thoughts.” You have to let the Word percolate through you to really grasp it. And the third point is one I really need to remember: age by itself doesn’t give understanding of the Word; you have to be committed to obedience. A right relationship to God and His Word is indeed the foundation of true wisdom, as the Bible tells us in many, many places.

This of course applies very directly to me. I’ve been blessed with a high IQ, but if I don’t apply that accurately to God and His Word, I am certainly a fool. I’ve got to remember Jesus’ words: “Apart from me you can do nothing.” (John 15:5) I have been gifted in a number of ways, but none of that makes me superior in value to anyone else. As Jesus also said, “From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked.” (Luke 12:48) I am not to deny what God has given me, but at the same time I must never think I have “arrived.” Paul’s remarks on that point in Philippians 3:1-14 are very applicable. I am to seek the wisdom, insight, and understanding the Psalmist talks about, not for the purpose of “being superior” but so that I may be a good steward of God’s grace.

Father, thank You again for being so incredibly gracious toward me. I feel there is very little in my life I could point to as “achievement;” it’s all a testimony of Your grace. Help me be a good steward indeed, making the use that You intend of everything You have placed in my hands, for the sake of the Body of Christ and for Your glory. Thank You. Praise God!

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July 26, 2016

Posted on July 29, 2016 by jgarrott

Psalm 119:92-93 If your law had not been my delight,
I would have perished in my affliction.
I will never forget your precepts,
for by them you have preserved my life.

Life on this earth can be pretty rough. Jesus said very clearly that it would be that way. (John 16:33) If our focus is on God, His Word, His kingdom and His righteousness, then we can indeed rejoice in the middle of it all, participating in Christ’s victory. However, if we focus on ourselves or on our problems themselves, they will do us in. The Psalmist recognized that it was God by His Word that gave him life. Actually, that statement goes all the way back to Moses, with the very famous declaration that “Man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.” (Deuteronomy 8:3) Jesus famously quoted that in responding to the devil’s temptation to place His physical needs ahead of obedience to God. (Matthew 4:4) If we fail to grasp that, problems in this life can so distract us that we fail to recognize and accept God’s invitation to eternal life. The Psalmist boldly says he will never forget God’s Word, but in practical terms that can be more aspiration than achievement. We really do have to choose to remember what God has said and keep it in focus, because otherwise we take it for granted and it fades from our awareness, and with it the joy of a vital relationship with our Creator.

Once again I am a good illustration. I have indeed had times of walking closely with my Lord and delighting in fellowship with Him, but they have been punctuated by times of being in neutral, so to speak, not intentionally pulling away but certainly not pressing in to follow Him. Looking back the difference is clear, but at the time I was largely unaware of it. I’ve got to be intentional in my obedience, actively maintaining God’s priorities in my life, because I know my own weakness too well. The prospect of heaven looks better every day, but in the meantime I’ve got a lot of joy and satisfaction I don’t want to miss by failing to have my priorities straight.

Father, thank You for this reminder. There are so many things to grab my attention. Some of them are clearly part of my participation in Your kingdom and some are more mundane, but if I allow any of them to take my focus off of You, that’s a problem. Help me look at absolutely everything through the filter of Your presence, Your grace, love, and power, so that I may be faithful at the tasks You assign to me while delighting You by delighting in You, for Your glory. Thank You. Praise God!

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July 25, 2016

Posted on July 29, 2016 by jgarrott

Psalm 119:67, 71, 75 Before I was afflicted I went astray,
but now I obey your word.

It was good for me to be afflicted
so that I might learn your decrees.

I know, O Lord, that your laws are righteous,
and in faithfulness you have afflicted me.

This is a pretty remarkable trio of verses, and they say a great deal about the person who wrote them. Not many people advance to this level of faith, frankly. We place our “creature comforts” ahead of knowing and obeying God, and I think we lose a great deal as a result. Peter had the same understanding as the Psalmist. “Therefore, since Christ suffered in his body, arm yourselves also with the same attitude, because he who has suffered in his body is done with sin. As a result, he does not live the rest of his earthly life for evil human desires, but rather for the will of God.” (1 Peter 4:1-2) I doubt that passage is used very much in sermons today! We aren’t talking about masochism here; this isn’t seeking suffering. Rather, it is recognizing that God never allows anything that can’t be for our good, (Romans 8:28) and allowing God to teach us about ourselves and about Him through our suffering. Any time we encounter suffering, not just in ourselves but particularly then, we need to ask God what His purpose might be in allowing it, and so reap the blessings He intends. I am reminded of what Joseph said to his brothers who had sold him into slavery: “You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives.” (Genesis 50:20) Joseph is actually a good example for us, because in spite of the extreme injustice and temptation he faced, he placed God first, and many people benefited as a result.

From my current perspective I don’t feel like I have suffered very much in my life, but I have gone through some things that weren’t much fun at the time, most recently kidney stones. However, my wife has a medical “rap sheet” that’s so long she has to carry around a written copy of it (in English and Japanese) to fill in any medical personnel whom she might need to call on. That’s certainly not anything she has chosen, either deliberately or by lifestyle choices, but rather than destroying her it has made her the sort of person many people just want to be with – sometimes to our inconvenience! As has been said, God is far more interested in our character than our comfort. We need to remember that, and remember that comfort is just a momentary thing, but character echoes for eternity. As a pastor I have to be careful people don’t feel I’m taking their suffering lightly, but I must always point them to Jesus, not just as our Savior but also as our example. Too many just want Him to save them out of their suffering, not thinking about the suffering He went through to give us eternal life. I am to speak the truth in love so that people may be lifted out of the lies of the enemy and the self-centered prison they produce.

Father, You’ve given me another message, but I’m not preaching next Sunday! Help me recognize and make full use of the opportunities You provide, so that Your Word through me may accomplish everything for which You send it, (Isaiah 55:11) delivering many and bringing You glory. Thank You. Hallelujah!

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July 24, 2016

Posted on July 28, 2016 by jgarrott

Psalm 119:49 Remember your word to your servant,
for you have given me hope.

The more times I read through Psalm 119 the richer it gets for me. This time I’m taking it in 16-verse segments, but there are always multiple verses that speak to me strongly, which leaves me at something of a loss as to what to focus on for writing. Sometimes when one of the Bible writers asks God to remember what He has said it is rather accusatory, because circumstances don’t seem to reflect what the writer had heard from or about God. I don’t get that feeling here. Rather, the writer is himself remembering what God has said to him, and that gives him hope. The Japanese here, as in many other places where English Bibles say either “wait” or “hope,” uses a compound expression that means, “wait in hope.” I find that very descriptive of how we are to be, because we don’t see things from God’s perspective, especially in terms of time. That’s why there are so many places where we are told to wait. When we understand that this isn’t just killing time, the waiting gets much easier. An excellent example is Isaiah 40:31. Traditionally that is rendered as “wait on the Lord.” The NIV switches that to “hope in the Lord,” but the Japanese wraps it all up as “wait in hope on the Lord.” That’s how I want to be! It’s not passive by any means, but it’s not anxious and it’s not impatient. When we get to that place in our faith, all sorts of weights and problems fall away from our hearts and we are set free to enjoy the goodness of the Lord.

This is an area where the Lord keeps giving me lesson after lesson, which is an indication I haven’t learned it well enough yet! I still appropriate far too much anxiety, when that’s something the Lord has told me not to touch. There are many issues for which I don’t see the solution, but I know that God has the perfect solution. The difficulty is in trusting Him enough to refuse anxiety. That is true for health issues, it is true for interpersonal relationships, it is true for ministry/church issues. (Often those categories overlap.) I am to remember what God has said to me, especially through His Word but also in other ways, and wait in hope and peace for His plans to be manifested on His schedule for His glory.

Father, You know all the issues that are weighing on me right now, and You know how meaningless my anxiety about any of them is. Keep me from confusing “waiting in hope” with being fatalistic. Help me have joyful anticipation of what You are going to do, whenever and however You are going to do it. Keep me from trying to dictate to You what the solutions should be to all these situations, but keep me also from being passive and/or presumptuous. May I trust You fully and so keep myself fully available for however You want to use me as part of Your solution to anything, so that Your Name alone may be recognized as holy and Your kingdom come as Your will is done in and through me, for Your glory. Thank You. Hallelujah!

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July 23, 2016

Posted on July 28, 2016 by jgarrott

Psalm 119:45 I will walk about in freedom,
for I have sought out your precepts.

This verse makes no sense to the natural mind. The natural mind does not connect going about in freedom/broadly/unrestrained with keeping, much less seeking out, God’s rules. We see that in the world around us all the time, with the attitude that “Rules are made to be broken.” Try doing that with the law of gravity! Humanly speaking there are indeed trivial rules and even immoral rules, but God’s rules are always for our good, liberating rather than confining, however things might feel in the short run. It’s rather like teaching children not to run out into traffic. To the child, who has no concept of what it would be like to be hit by a car, the parent might seem mean and arbitrary, when the opposite is true. It is interesting, as well as sad, that there are so many protests against displaying the Ten Commandments these days, particularly in a nominally Christian country like America. The devil tells us such rules are restrictive, when actually they protect us from consequences far worse than we can imagine at the point we are faced with temptation. For example, I’ve done a lot of marriage counseling, and I’ve never run into a case where adultery didn’t bring far more heartache and trouble than working on the marriage to make it good would have done. Both the Bible and experience tell us that human beings are naturally rebellious, but it is when we learn to submit ourselves to our Heavenly Father who loves us that we find our greatest fulfillment and joy. When we’re talking about Him, it is certainly true that Father knows best!

I have always had an ambivalent relationship with rules, because I encounter so many human rules that have no good basis. Working in the Japanese school system, I feel that there are a lot of rules that serve only to teach students to ignore or subvert rules. At the same time, I have learned the hard way that the majority of rules have a legitimate purpose. I feel it’s never wrong to question the purpose of rules, but ignoring rules when their purpose isn’t understood can be dangerous indeed. I need to remember what Paul said about human authority being ordained by God (Romans 13:1-2) and stay respectful at all times. That can be very exasperating at times! I need to accept such times as training in submission to God, rather than to the human functionary who’s getting under my skin, and give Him thanks and praise. Right now this church is considering building a small senior care facility. That’s going to mean jumping through all sorts of hoops with various government agencies. I’m going to need to seek out God’s rules so that I will be able to go about it unrestrained, as this verse says.

Father, thank You for all that You teach us in so many ways. Help me recognize, accept, and apply each lesson as You intend, not just for my own growth and betterment but so that I will be more responsive and useful to You in accomplishing Your will on Your schedule, for the blessing of many and for Your glory. Thank You. Praise God!

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July 22, 2016

Posted on July 23, 2016 by jgarrott

Psalm 119:18 Open my eyes that I may see
wonderful things in your law.

As I was reading just now this verse jumped out at me and I thought, this is what triggered that hymn! Open My Eyes That I May See has long been dearly loved, and now I know its roots. The thing is, anyone who genuinely loves God is going to want to know more and more of Him. Actually, it all fits in together. The more we know God’s love for us, the more we will love Him, which will mean we will want to be more obedient to Him, doing His will more and more consistently, which will increase our capacity to grasp Him and His love for us. It’s a glorious cycle! The world is filled with supposed Christians who don’t really pursue God. What a waste! When we accept that He loves us enough to send His Son to die for us, which is at the foundation of becoming/being a Christian, you would think that we would want to “snuggle into” that love, to experience it more and more, but sadly, it seems many people can’t be bothered with that because it takes up too much of their time. What misplaced priorities! As finite beings we don’t have much opportunity to experience the infinite, but God’s love is literally infinite, and it is poured out for us. When we get even a small grasp of that, the appetite for more just keeps growing. However, the devil and our flesh fight tooth and nail against that, seeking to distract us from God with anything possible. That’s why fellowship with God requires our conscious choice. However, if we will choose to press into God and make Him our first priority, we will find that the rewards are greater than anything in the world, or the whole world put together.

This is intensely personal for me on any number of levels. The hymn is one God used to baptize my wife in the Holy Spirit, before I could let go of myself enough to receive that baptism myself. I have had times of fellowship with God that were so intense I thought my flesh would give up on the spot. The first priority for every day is spending time alone with my Lord and His Word. And as a pastor, the cry of my heart is for those to whom I minister to have the same priorities, the same depth of fellowship. Sometimes I am exasperated and sometimes I just want to cry at those who know Jesus to a degree but won’t press in to know Him more. I can’t change them in my strength and wisdom, but I can pray for them and love them with God’s love. I am totally convinced that when we pray that God’s will be done on earth as it is in heaven, intimate fellowship between God and the children He created to love are at the very heart of it. I am to submit my will to God to that end, for His glory.

Father, the message You’re giving me for Sunday is about intimacy with You. There is so much I want to say, so much I want to impart, that I feel overwhelmed. All of life is about this, so how can I even turn the first page in a single message? I ask for clear guidance and anointing, and for restraint so that I won’t try to say too much, but most of all I pray that Your Spirit would prepare the hearts of my hearers so that they may hear Your loving voice and respond in gratitude and obedience, for their eternal blessing and Your glory. Thank You. Hallelujah!

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July 21, 2016

Posted on July 23, 2016 by jgarrott

Psalm 119:1-3 Blessed are they whose ways are blameless,
who walk according to the law of the Lord.
Blessed are they who keep his statutes
and seek him with all their heart.
They do nothing wrong;
they walk in his ways.

Psalm 119 has something of a bad rap. It’s the longest chapter in the whole Bible, and that doesn’t sit well with today’s “sound bite” culture. On top of that, it is an acrostic poem, with every verse in each successive stanza starting with the same letter of the Hebrew alphabet, which makes it seem dully mechanical, at least in theory. The problem with those objections is that they don’t hold water at all. The writer was someone who deeply loved God and His Word, and this Psalm is an expression of that. As such it has a great deal to teach us about practical faith in the face of all the pitfalls of life. These first three verses set that tone. The casual reader today might dismiss them because of the superlatives: “blameless” and “nothing wrong.” They would insist that no one lives that way! However, the key to that is in verse 2: “seek Him with all their heart.” It is true that none of us does things perfectly, but we will get it right to the degree we seek God with our whole heart. Honest self-examination tells us that we live most of the time with a divided heart, perhaps seeking God but seeking other things as well. Too often, God isn’t even in the top few in our priorities, much less the focus of our lives. Verse 11 is one of the most famous in this Psalm, and it gives a practical key to keeping it all straight: “I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you.” There is no better way to maintain our focus on God than to fill our hearts with His Word. This isn’t the same thing as memorization, though that isn’t bad. Rather, this is meditating on, thinking about, what God has said so that it becomes part of us, guiding our thoughts and helping us stand against the constant barrage to lies that come at us. That is the way to walk in the good path that God has laid out for us, recognizing and receiving the abundant blessings He has prepared for us.

My life is a good case in point. Raised in a missionary family, the Bible was a given in my life, always there and hardly ever questioned. However, my seeking God was sporadic, and whereas I learned quite a few Scriptures, I didn’t take them in to make them part of me; they were simply intellectual property. I was doing what James warns against, deceiving myself. (James 1:22) It was only when God got through to me to show me my twisted heart that I repented and fell in love with His Word. In the years since, by the grace of God I have become addicted to the Bible, and I think I have that in common with the writer of Psalm 119. One of the high points of my life was when one of our church members, a recovered alcoholic, said in a Bible study we were having that I was addicted to the Bible, because he knew addiction first-hand. I can’t say I never lapse, any more than Paul could, (Philippians 3:12) but I do know that the course of my life is set, and that gives me great peace, joy, and satisfaction.

Father, thank You for the Bible. Thank You that it is so readily available, and that it was so present in my home as a child. Help me be an effective interpreter of Your Word to others, communicating Your truth in love so that more and more may be set free from the traps of the enemy to walk in Your glorious light, for their salvation and Your glory. Thank You. Praise God!

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July 20, 2016

Posted on July 21, 2016 by jgarrott

Psalm 116:1-2 I love the Lord, for he heard my voice;
he heard my cry for mercy.
Because he turned his ear to me,
I will call on him as long as I live.

Nothing draws forth prayer like experiencing answers to prayer. However, an amazing number of people either never pray at all, or only pray rote prayers that are so generalized that it’s almost impossible to determine if something happens as an answer to them. Some of that comes from failing to recognize answers they do receive, which of course reinforces the tendency not to pray in the first place. Then again there are James’ famous words on the subject. “You do not have, because you do not ask God. When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.” (James 4:2-3) God isn’t going to answer prayer for infidelity to go undetected, if anyone were so foolish as to pray that in the first place! The other side of that coin is perceived unanswered prayer. Some people abandon faith because specific prayers aren’t answered. That’s when we especially need to follow Jesus’ example in the Garden of Gethsemane. He prayed so earnestly that he sweat blood (which is a real medical condition), but He also did that in full submission to the Father. “Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done.” (Luke 22:42) He was completely past the point of “I’ll pray if you’ll grant my requests.” Prayer springs from two things: recognizing our own inability to meet needs, either for ourselves or for someone else, and a simple desire for fellowship with God. Too many people pray to get things, with no real desire for fellowship. It is when we are in closest fellowship with Him that our prayers are most likely to be answered affirmatively! Jesus called that “remaining in Him.” We quote John 15:7 with no real idea of what Jesus was talking about. “If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you.” If we want our prayers to be answered, we need to get close to the One who can answer them.

As I am frequently reminded, I was raised in a home where prayer was as natural as breathing. That was because my parents talked with God on the basis of their relationship with Him. As a pastor I am sometimes distraught over how believers won’t develop a consistent prayer life, but that stems from their lack of fellowship with the Father in the first place. I try to teach prayer as one facet, though a very important one, of an intimate relationship with the God who loves us enough to die for us. (The other facets are taking in His Word to learn to listen to Him, and a commitment to obedience to whatever we hear Him say to us.) Tragically, many people just can’t be bothered with developing such a relationship, even though they claim saving faith. I am not to give up on anyone, because God didn’t give up on me. I am to speak the truth in love, as often and for as long as necessary, letting that truth cut through the lies of the enemy to set people free for the intimacy with God for which they were created, for their infinite blessing and His glory.

Father, thank You for this reminder. Help me package this truth as You intend so that it will be received by my hearers. There are many applicable Scriptures; help me use only the ones You want me to, so that people won’t be overloaded. May all who hear me gain both a hunger for real intimacy with You and a Hope that by Your grace it is possible, so that together we may become all that You want us to be, causing Your name to be acknowledged as holy and Your kingdom to come as Your will is done in and through us, for Your glory. Thank You. Hallelujah!

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July 19, 2016

Posted on July 21, 2016 by jgarrott

Psalm 115:1 Not to us, O Lord, not to us
but to your name be the glory,
because of your love and faithfulness.

It is very interesting that this Psalm of praise and exhortation to praise starts off with this one-verse prayer. It is actually very helpful, because unless we are firmly focused on Whom we praise, we have the strange tendency to make praise to God be self-congratulatory, and end up praising ourselves for having the right religion. That is particularly a risk when we point out, as this Psalm does, the futility of other religions. This verse asks that glory go to God because of His love (the Japanese says grace) and faithfulness. There is recognition that all the good things that come to us, even those for which we might be praised, are because of God’s character. If He weren’t the loving, gracious, faithful God that He is, good things wouldn’t happen. When the world is as it is today, with bad news daily, it is perhaps easy to lose sight of who God is and what He is like. God has given mankind free will, and that too is a reflection of His character, no matter how horrible the results of human choice might be in the short run. When things seem dark, that’s the time to expect God’s light to burst forth. Frankly, current events have quite a Last Days feel to them, but that timing is in God’s hands. Our job is to let our faithfulness be a reflection of His, applying ourselves to the tasks He sets for us, so that the glory may indeed go to Him as His power and character are manifested in and through us.

This is of course fully applicable to me personally. I am at times tempted to go find a hole to hide in, but that benefits no one and nothing. I am to keep firm hold of the hope that I have in Christ, and when people are surprised by that, tell them why. (1 Peter 3:15-16) I am to remember that my task is faithful, trusting obedience; the fruit is God’s business. (John 14:5-8) God has been incredibly gracious to me, and I am to apply myself to the glory going to Him.

Father, thank You for who You are. That includes so much I couldn’t possibly express it all. Thank You for the people to whom You have allowed me to speak the past several days. With some, You have allowed me to speak in some depth about matters of life, death, and faith. I pray that Your words through me would indeed bear rich fruit in each heart and life, for their salvation and Your glory. Thank You. Hallelujah!

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