Sunday, February 28, 2010, 10:18 p.m. – I lay in bed trying to fall asleep but I was wired for some reason. This song kept playing over and over again in my mind, so I just prayed the words back to the Lord for my family, our nation and the world.
Shine Jesus Shine / Graham Kendrick
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J3iB30gCqAc
Lord the light of Your love is shining
In the midst of the darkness, shining
Jesus, Light of the world, shine upon us
Set us free by the truth You now bring us
Shine on me
Shine on me
Lord, I come into Your awesome presence
From the shadows into Your radiance
By the blood I may enter Your brightness
Search me, try me, consume all my darkness
Shine on me
Shine on me
As we gaze on your kingly brightness.
So our faces display your likeness.
Ever changing from glory to glory,
Mirrored here may our lives tell your story
Shine on me
Shine on me
Shine, Jesus, shine
Fill this land with the Father's glory
Blaze, Spirit, blaze, set our hearts on fire
Flow, river, flow
Flood the nations with grace and mercy
Send forth Your Word, Lord and let there be light
Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening. I read Revelation 22:
My Understanding: We are not perfect people. I am reminded of my own imperfections and my sinful flesh on a regular basis. I will never attain heaven on the merit of my own righteousness, because my own righteousness is like ‘filthy rags’ the Bible says. That reminds me of Romans 3:23 where it says, “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” On our own, we will always come up short. Our only hope and our only salvation rest in what Jesus did for us in dying on the cross for our sins, in him being raised to life again on the third day, and in him ascending into heaven where he sits as our Savior and Lord in intercession for us between us and God the Father.
I was lamenting over a personal failure in my life to the Lord last night when he brought the song, “Shine Jesus Shine” to my mind. So, I definitely took the words to the song and applied them first of all to my own life and circumstances and then I also prayed for my family, our nation and the world. I need daily for the light of Jesus; for the light of His love to shine on and then through me to others in my life and with whom I come into contact.
When we fail ourselves and others by not being who or what we think we should be or who they think we should be, or even who we think they think we should be, and/or when we truly sin against God and others, the accuser loves to keep bringing it up to us and to keep reminding us about how we “blew it.” He (the accuser – Satan) tries to instill fears within us and to try to make us feel worthless and ineffective in our witness for Jesus, yet God did not call us because we were perfect. The Bible says that “While we were still sinners Christ died for us” (See Rom. 5:8).
So, while we remain in these fleshly bodies, we will be susceptible to sin. Yet, when we do sin, we are to confess our sin, turn from it and turn to God in faith and obedience once again. We are also to confess it to those we sinned against, where appropriate, and to make reconciliation, where necessary. Yet, we are not to fall into the trap of self-condemnation or to listen to Satan’s lies which say, “Boy, you’ll never win.” We need to listen to the “Voice of Truth” (Casting Crowns song) which tells us a different story. It says, “Do not be afraid, this is for my glory.” “So, out of all the voices calling out to me, I will choose to listen and believe the voice of truth,” the song states.
In this song, “Shine Jesus Shine,” it says, “Jesus, light of the world, shine upon us, set us free by the truth You now bring us.” In order to be free we need to know the truth, first of all, and then we need to believe the truth and we need to apply the truth to our daily lives. The truth is that “Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death” (Rom. 8:1-2). Therefore, when we do sin, and we will from time to time, we need to remember that Jesus died to set us free, that he is our advocate to the Father, and all we need to do is to come to him in prayer, in confession and repentance (godly sorrow) and to trust again in his saving grace and what he did on the cross in dying for our sins.
The truth is that all have sinned (Rom. 3:23), and the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord (Rom. 6:23). The song says, “By your blood I may enter your brightness.” That is the most important truth of all – it is by the blood of Jesus shed on the cross for our sins that we may enter into God’s presence. Knowing that, our prayer should be, “Search me, try me, consume all my darkness,” as the song says. Our hearts’ desire should be for the Lord to purify our hearts and to make us holy as he is holy in how we live out our lives on a day to day basis, because we want our lives to “display His likeness” so that we may “mirror” Him and so our lives, not just our words, may tell the story of His great love.
We want this, not only for ourselves, but our prayer should be that Jesus would “fill this land with the Father’s glory” and that He will “set our hearts on fire” for Jesus. Oh, how I prayed that God would send forth His word throughout the world and that he would “flood the nations with his grace and mercy,” especially as we consider all the tragedy that is going on across the globe due to war, sickness and natural (or man-made) disasters. Oh, how I pray that the end result of all this tragedy world-wide will be that God will set hearts and/or the hearts of His people on fire for Jesus.
One day soon all this pain, sin and sorrow will be over. It will disappear. God will bring healing to the nations via the tree of life. We will no longer need a lamp or the sun to light the darkness, because God will be our light and he will give us that light.
Jesus is coming soon. He says, “Blessed are those who wash their robes, that they may have the right to the tree of life and may go through the gates into the city.” We wash our robes by accepting God’s gift of eternal life through Jesus Christ, His Son, and we do that via true faith that is shown by repentance and by obedience to God and his commands. The Bible says that no one comes to Jesus unless the Father draws him (See John 6:44). So, even the initiative to accept Christ and the faith to believe in Him come from God the Father. We just have to appropriate (make it our own) what Jesus did for us to our lives.
The Spirit and the bride say, "Come!" And let him who hears say, "Come!" Whoever is thirsty, let him come; and whoever wishes, let him take the free gift of the water of life.
He who testifies to these things says, "Yes, I am coming soon."
Amen. Come, Lord Jesus.
Shine Jesus Shine / Graham Kendrick
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J3iB30gCqAc
Lord the light of Your love is shining
In the midst of the darkness, shining
Jesus, Light of the world, shine upon us
Set us free by the truth You now bring us
Shine on me
Shine on me
Lord, I come into Your awesome presence
From the shadows into Your radiance
By the blood I may enter Your brightness
Search me, try me, consume all my darkness
Shine on me
Shine on me
As we gaze on your kingly brightness.
So our faces display your likeness.
Ever changing from glory to glory,
Mirrored here may our lives tell your story
Shine on me
Shine on me
Shine, Jesus, shine
Fill this land with the Father's glory
Blaze, Spirit, blaze, set our hearts on fire
Flow, river, flow
Flood the nations with grace and mercy
Send forth Your Word, Lord and let there be light
Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening. I read Revelation 22:
My Understanding: We are not perfect people. I am reminded of my own imperfections and my sinful flesh on a regular basis. I will never attain heaven on the merit of my own righteousness, because my own righteousness is like ‘filthy rags’ the Bible says. That reminds me of Romans 3:23 where it says, “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” On our own, we will always come up short. Our only hope and our only salvation rest in what Jesus did for us in dying on the cross for our sins, in him being raised to life again on the third day, and in him ascending into heaven where he sits as our Savior and Lord in intercession for us between us and God the Father.
I was lamenting over a personal failure in my life to the Lord last night when he brought the song, “Shine Jesus Shine” to my mind. So, I definitely took the words to the song and applied them first of all to my own life and circumstances and then I also prayed for my family, our nation and the world. I need daily for the light of Jesus; for the light of His love to shine on and then through me to others in my life and with whom I come into contact.
When we fail ourselves and others by not being who or what we think we should be or who they think we should be, or even who we think they think we should be, and/or when we truly sin against God and others, the accuser loves to keep bringing it up to us and to keep reminding us about how we “blew it.” He (the accuser – Satan) tries to instill fears within us and to try to make us feel worthless and ineffective in our witness for Jesus, yet God did not call us because we were perfect. The Bible says that “While we were still sinners Christ died for us” (See Rom. 5:8).
So, while we remain in these fleshly bodies, we will be susceptible to sin. Yet, when we do sin, we are to confess our sin, turn from it and turn to God in faith and obedience once again. We are also to confess it to those we sinned against, where appropriate, and to make reconciliation, where necessary. Yet, we are not to fall into the trap of self-condemnation or to listen to Satan’s lies which say, “Boy, you’ll never win.” We need to listen to the “Voice of Truth” (Casting Crowns song) which tells us a different story. It says, “Do not be afraid, this is for my glory.” “So, out of all the voices calling out to me, I will choose to listen and believe the voice of truth,” the song states.
In this song, “Shine Jesus Shine,” it says, “Jesus, light of the world, shine upon us, set us free by the truth You now bring us.” In order to be free we need to know the truth, first of all, and then we need to believe the truth and we need to apply the truth to our daily lives. The truth is that “Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death” (Rom. 8:1-2). Therefore, when we do sin, and we will from time to time, we need to remember that Jesus died to set us free, that he is our advocate to the Father, and all we need to do is to come to him in prayer, in confession and repentance (godly sorrow) and to trust again in his saving grace and what he did on the cross in dying for our sins.
The truth is that all have sinned (Rom. 3:23), and the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord (Rom. 6:23). The song says, “By your blood I may enter your brightness.” That is the most important truth of all – it is by the blood of Jesus shed on the cross for our sins that we may enter into God’s presence. Knowing that, our prayer should be, “Search me, try me, consume all my darkness,” as the song says. Our hearts’ desire should be for the Lord to purify our hearts and to make us holy as he is holy in how we live out our lives on a day to day basis, because we want our lives to “display His likeness” so that we may “mirror” Him and so our lives, not just our words, may tell the story of His great love.
We want this, not only for ourselves, but our prayer should be that Jesus would “fill this land with the Father’s glory” and that He will “set our hearts on fire” for Jesus. Oh, how I prayed that God would send forth His word throughout the world and that he would “flood the nations with his grace and mercy,” especially as we consider all the tragedy that is going on across the globe due to war, sickness and natural (or man-made) disasters. Oh, how I pray that the end result of all this tragedy world-wide will be that God will set hearts and/or the hearts of His people on fire for Jesus.
One day soon all this pain, sin and sorrow will be over. It will disappear. God will bring healing to the nations via the tree of life. We will no longer need a lamp or the sun to light the darkness, because God will be our light and he will give us that light.
Jesus is coming soon. He says, “Blessed are those who wash their robes, that they may have the right to the tree of life and may go through the gates into the city.” We wash our robes by accepting God’s gift of eternal life through Jesus Christ, His Son, and we do that via true faith that is shown by repentance and by obedience to God and his commands. The Bible says that no one comes to Jesus unless the Father draws him (See John 6:44). So, even the initiative to accept Christ and the faith to believe in Him come from God the Father. We just have to appropriate (make it our own) what Jesus did for us to our lives.
The Spirit and the bride say, "Come!" And let him who hears say, "Come!" Whoever is thirsty, let him come; and whoever wishes, let him take the free gift of the water of life.
He who testifies to these things says, "Yes, I am coming soon."
Amen. Come, Lord Jesus.