Keswick Chapel Devotional & Prayer
Acts 9 – Peter’s vision is challenged by God.
Blessings, Pastor Robert Wallace
A Keswick Chapel prayer for you today, June 7, 2020
Passage: “Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.” (Acts 5:1-5)
Thoughts: Justified by our faith in God through Jesus Christ, we are able to stand. Yes? Yes in the “hope of the glory of God” which does include suffering! God does not leave us alone in the sufferings. God goes before us, Jesus walks beside us, and His Holy Spirit walks within us SO WE MAY be able to Persevere in the trials that come our way in this life. The ability to persevere in His strength and grace builds our character and this very growth increases our hope. Yes?
Prayer: “Three-person God, You are a wonder. God the Father our Creator, God the Son our Deliverer, God the Holy Spirit our Sanctifier. United and yet each unique, sole God but not solitary, three and yet One. Thank you for this mystery; that at the heart of the universe is a communion of love. Amen. (Heidelberg Catechism 24/25)
“May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.” (2 Corinthians 13:14)
Blessings Pastor Robert
Rev. Norman Shaw – “Holiness”
This weeks’ message from Rev. Norman Shaw takes a look at “Holiness” as one of the “5 Characteristics of a Christian.” He points out that this series of messages are not a “how to” manual, rather an exploration of what characteristics should be found in us as Christians.
You will find this message to be a blessings, challenge, and an encouragement to you as you “Journey with Jesus.”
I invite you to like this post, leave a comment or prayer request (I would love the opportunity to pray with you). Also, I invite you to like the video on YouTube and to subscribe to the Keswick Chapel channel.
Blessings to you,
Pastor Robert Wallace
Rev. Norman Shaw – “Faith”
The second message in the series on the “5 Characteristics of a Christian” by Rev. Norman Shaw. This week is titled “Faith!”
The first gleam of dawn…
“So, stop being so hard on yourself…surrender those thoughts to HIM! It’s a new day to love the Lord and to recognize how much He loves YOU!” ~Julie Harris
We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.
2 Corinthians 10:5
The way of the righteous is like the first gleam of dawn, which shines ever brighter until the full light of day. But the way of the wicked is like total darkness. They have no idea what t…
Source: The first gleam of dawn…
Heart Thoughts – EXPOSED!
“…that we would be in a place where He is able to “hit” all the spots in our hearts and spirits that He longs to minister to, and bring healing and wholeness” (Pastor O).
What follows here is a message given to a dear Pastor friend who being guided by the Holy Spirit shares with us today. My prayer is that as you read the message, that the sweet Holy Spirit will guide you into a deeper walk as you meditate on these words. You will not happen upon these words by accident or happenstance, you are here by the appointment of God and have a choice before you… Read and accept or push aside as not relevant… Having read this far, I pray your heart and mind will remain open and eager to receive!
“For the word of God is full of living power. It is sharper than the sharpest knife, cutting deep into our innermost thoughts and desires. It exposes us for what we really are.” Hebrews 4:12………”I like to open my Bible and pray, ‘Lord God, let the words leap off the page into my soul, make them vivid, powerful, and fresh to my heart.’ ” Charles Spurgeon
Moving targets are hard to hit. Our flesh is expert in being just that when it comes to the probing, cleansing, freeing word of the Father. It finds endless ways to avoid Him. Pursuits of pleasure. Accumulation of goods. Unending forms of escapism. Busyness, and yes, even “ministry” pursuits done in His name. Anything that can keep us from being perfectly still before Him, allowing Him to search us and “see if there be any hurtful (wicked) way within us.” David asked the Father to do just that. When did we last do so?
Have you ever tried to hold a cat that didn’t want to be held? Near impossible is it not? This is exactly how we can be with Him. When His Holy Spirit starts closing in on us, and what is the truth about us, our squirming, like the cats, grows more and more frantic. There are areas of our lives where we don’t wish to know the truth, where we prefer the lie, the delusion. That’s far more comfortable…..and much safer for our flesh. We don’t want our true motives exposed. Motives that seem so noble on the surface, but at root are centered on ourselves. We can see that in so many of our prayers. Yet how many of them will have ourselves as the main beneficiary if He should answer as we want? How many people’s lives and life situations do we intercede for that in being answered will in the end make our lives better. Difficult mates, children, congregants coming to Christ, surrendering all, being delivered, will result in our lives being made less difficult, and a lot more content, and in ministry, successful. We can pray and seek for many wonderful things with so many impure motives. Yet we can go on deceiving ourselves about it all so long as we keep moving….squirming….avoiding.
We won’t be doing this forever though. Sooner or later, He will pin us down on it all. For all of our sake, I hope its sooner….on this side of eternity, rather than later, when we stand before Him, and everything becomes known. Everything exposed………May His word never cease to “hit the spot” in you and me. Giving life to us, and crushing death within us. Exposed but whole. Exposed but free.
Blessings,
Heart Thoughts – Wineskins
Chris Tiegreen writes, “Do we take the time to ponder which of our own wineskins have attempted to accommodate Jesus and failed?….On what points are we rigid? Where do our expectations lie? Do we insist that Jesus bring about our own vision for the future? Do we try to constrain Him to our church structures? Do we rely on methodology in our ministry? (They)….may be good, but Jesus will not fit. He defies constraint. The Lion of Judah cannot be tamed.”
Jesus said in John 3:8, “The wind blows wherever it pleases.” We cannot control the wind. Why do we seek to control He who is the Source of the wind? Joubert’s quote is powerful. The less we seek to define Almighty God, the more we may know Him. And the desire of His heart, His greatest desire, is that we know Him. He is a mystery. He says so Himself. But He invites us to enter into His mystery, and behold Him to reveal Himself in its midst. To do that, we have to let go of all of our presumptions about Him. I had a very great friend who has since gone home to Him. One of the favorite things he used to say was that he had an “Oops theology.” As in, “Oops, I guess I was wrong.” Old wineskins can never live in such a theology. Only new ones can. He will never violate the truth and authority of His Word, but we must know that our limited minds cannot begin to understand how deep, high, and wide His truth really is.
I continue to grow older, and my natural skin is losing the soft, flexible feel it once had. Yet it is my fervent hope that the “skin” of my heart remain as tender and pliable as that of a child. How about you? In the spiritual realm, we’re all wineskins. Are we old ones…..or new?
Blessings,
Pastor O
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