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Guided By The Spirit

8/10/2015

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"Dear Lord, you know the way I should go. I pray for the grace to be guided by you. Please open my heart to the actions of your Holy Spirit in my life. Please grant me the grace to flow with your Holy Spirit wherever He wants to move in my life. Grant me the grace to trust you, in all things, and at all times.

Father, Son and Holy Spirit, you have created me, you saved me, and you live within me. Please show me the way to Heaven. Thank you for the gift of yourself. Thank you for loving me in every moment of my life.  I now pray for the humility to be led by The Spirit of Love. Help me not to fear because I know that wherever you lead, you will always be there with me.  In Jesus' name.  Amen.”

Excerpt From “Prayers for a New Way. A Prayer Book For The Heart."  Available in paperback or E-book, on Amazon and in the iBooks Store.

May God Bless your life, fill your heart, and make you New! 
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The Heart of The Father

6/20/2015

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This Father's Day, June 20, 2015, I would like to take some time to honor our Heavenly Father.  God The Father often gets misunderstood as unapproachable and punishing, when really He is a tender, loving and merciful Father who we can be ourselves with in prayer.  A Father who longs to have a real relationship with His children, in and with and through His Son, Jesus Christ.

Each one of us is in The Heart of The Father.  God The Father’s nature is Love and He wanted to spread His Love.  So after creating the earth and all creatures in it, He decided to take creation to the next level by making something in His own image and likeness, something higher than the animals, something more than the sea or the mountains.  Something different.  Something Holy.  Something that would be able to recognize, appreciate, and accept His Goodness, and be able to distinguish between right and wrong.  Something that could choose Love and share in His divine life.  And He did.  He made us. 

With one breath, God brought us into being.  We are the work of His hands.  No one is an exception.  He is The Father of All mankind, and today is a great day to reflect on His Fatherly Goodness.  We know that He is Good because Jesus has shown us the way to the Father.  Jesus Himself is The Father's Love.  As we read in the gospel of John ...

"Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.  If you really know me, you will know my Father as well ... Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you I do not speak on my own authority. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing His work."  (John 14:6-10)

Each one of us has eternal value and a God-given reason for our lives.  Regardless of our sinful nature, God The Father continues to reach out to His children through His Son, Jesus Christ, inviting us back, encouraging us to have an actual relationship with Him through prayer.  No one knows us better than our Maker.  The One who made us, understands us.  He Loves us.  God Himself is Love, and we come from Him.  We were made by Love.  Love created us into His own image and likeness, and today we express our eternal gratitude. 


If we had only one thing to say to The Father today it would be - Thank You!  Thank you for giving us life. Thank you for sending your Son into the world to save us.  Thank you for pouring out your Holy Spirit into our hearts so that we can get to know you in a real and personal way. Thank you for loving us as no earthly father ever could.  Thank you for being so patient with us and for understanding our human frailty.  Please increase in us the grace to know you, so that as we get to know you better we will then naturally love you more, serve you sincerely, and be Happy with you forever.

I pray in Jesus’ name, that by the grace and power of The Father's Spirit, The Spirit of Christ Himself, The Holy Spirit, we will come to know God’s immense Love for us in a New Way, Today.


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A New You!

6/16/2015

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CHAPTER TITLES TO OUR BOOK, "A NEW YOU!  Letting Go of the Past, Trusting God with our Future"

Chapter  1: Remember Not the Past  
Chapter  2: God First 
Chapter  3: A New Creation 
Chapter  4: God's Plans for Peace     
Chapter  5: A New Heart 
Chapter  6: God's Mercy  
Chapter  7: Change Your Thinking  
Chapter  8: Be Transformed 
Chapter  9: Change Your Actions 
Chapter 10: The Present Moment 
Chapter 11: Life More Abundantly
Chapter 12: Eye has not seen 
Chapter 13: Sing a new song 
Chapter 14: Every good gift    
Chapter 15: Kind Words 
Chapter 16: Be Still 
Chapter 17: Prayer 
Chapter 18: Forgiveness 
Chapter 19: Even Now
Chapter 20: Be Yourself
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Praying with Faith

4/15/2015

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Prayer is powerful but it doesn't always come easy.  Sometimes the patience required of us in prayer can be difficult to achieve.  We know God loves us and we believe in His presence in our lives, yet we struggle with our faith at times and can easily become discouraged. 

Here is an excerpt from our book, "Strength For The Weary, Finding Grace in Times of Trial" that can lift our spirits and encourage us to take another look at our prayers, and at ourselves ...

"It's important to continually evaluate our prayer intentions to see if they are God-centered.  We are called to pray with faith. It's not easy to keep a positive attitude all the time but our general mindset should be one of believing that things will get better and God will make a way.  We must have hope in order to activate faith. 

We should be less concerned with defining exactly what the answer to our prayer will look like, and more concerned with believing that whatever the answer is will be the right one.  Let's give God room to surprise us, and find our peace in knowing He will make the best situation work out for us.  As long as it comes from God, we will have the right answer."

I hope this excerpt brings hope and leads us to ask some reflective questions today such as  ...

Am I praying with faith or just with words?  Am I truly seeking God's perfect plan for my life, or maybe some quick and easier version?  Am I honest with God in prayer, admitting my discouragement and allowing His healing love to enter into my heart?  Am I growing in my relationship with God? Whatever your question is, The Lord is listening.  He really does hear you.  He has heard every prayer you've ever said.  He hasn't forgotten. 

Let's turn to Him in prayer now, even for just a moment, and present ourselves to God.  Let's cast our cares upon Him, for He cares for us (1 Peter 5:7).  Let's come to Christ just as we are, trusting in His infinite wisdom, and confident in His unfailing and unconditional love for us.

God knows our hearts.  He truly does know what is best for us and for everyone in our lives.  He knows how to answer our prayers.  He is the answer to our prayers. 

May He Bless you and everyone near and dear to you in a new way, today!


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God Knows Our Hearts

4/5/2015

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"God knows everything in our life that has led us here.  He knows every scrape and cut.  He knows every wound and want. He knows every anxious thought and painful memory.  He knows every tear that has fallen from our eyes, and He knows we think He could have prevented them. 

We sometimes put on a pretty face when we come to prayer time, when truthfully we are angry or disappointed with God.  We say we are  ready to turn our hearts over to the Lord and surrender our lives to Him, when really, we don't completely trust Him. 

This might be tough to admit, especially for Christians with great faith. But we're human beings, with weaknesses and limitations, and it's pride to think our spiritual life is perfect.  We are always in need of greater faith, trust and confidence in God. 

Since we have feelings and experiences that aren't always pleasant we shouldn't try to hide this from God in prayer. As we develop the practice of silent prayer in our lives we will grow in faith and learn to trust God more and more.  It will become easier as we let our guard down and allow God to love the real us, unpleasant feelings and all. We don't have to wear our false image on our sleeve in prayer.  God knows how we really feel. We are here to be healed, not to be perfect."


(This is an excerpt from our latest book, "Silent Prayer: Be Still and Know That I Am God" which can be found on our Amazon page).

May God Bless you, and everyone near and dear to you, In Jesus' name.

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Easter Sunday 2015

4/5/2015

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The New Heaven and the New Earth:

“Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth.  The former heaven and the former earth had passed away, and the sea was no more.  I also saw the holy city, a new Jerusalem, coming down out of Heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.  I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, ‘Behold, God’s dwelling is with the human race.  He will dwell with them and they will be His people, and God Himself will always be with them, as their God.  He will wipe every tear from their eyes and there shall be no more death or mourning, wailing or pain, for the  old order has passed away.’

The One who sat on the throne said, ‘Behold, I make all things new.’  Then He said, ‘Write these words down, for they are trustworthy and true.’  He said to me, ‘They are accomplished.  I Am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end.  To the thirsty I will give a gift from the spring of life-giving water.  The victor will inherit these gifts, and I shall be His God, and He will be My Son’”  (Rev 21:1-7).

New Life awaits us, now.  Even in this very moment, we can turn our lives over to Jesus Christ, The Son of God, and receive the graces He won for us on The Cross.  We can renew and restore our relationship with Him, by allowing His Spirit to breathe new life into us.  Let’s open our hearts today to The One who loves us, to The One who heals us, to The One who forgives us and makes all things new!

God is with His people.  He has never abandoned us, and He never will!  Happy Easter!

“Worthy is The Lamb that was slain to receive power and riches, wisdom and strength, honor and glory and blessing” (Rev 5:12). 

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Good Friday 2015

4/3/2015

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Our Lord’s passion and death was prophesied in Isaiah 53, "God’s Suffering Servant."  Today, on Good Friday, our Lord walks this walk.  Let’s walk it with Him, as we read the scripture passage in its entirety ...

“Who has believed our message, and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?  He grew up before Him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of dry ground. He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to Him, nothing in His appearance that we should desire Him.  He was despised and rejected by mankind, a man of suffering, and familiar with pain. Like one from whom people hide their faces, He was despised, and we held Him in low esteem. 

Surely He took up our pain and bore our suffering, yet we considered Him punished by God, stricken by Him, and afflicted.  But He was pierced for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities. The punishment that brought us peace was on Him, and by His wounds we are healed.

We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way, and The Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all. 

He was oppressed and afflicted, yet He did not open his mouth.  He was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before its shearers is silent, so He did not open his mouth. By oppression and judgment He was taken away. Yet who of His generation protested?

For He was cut off from the land of the living, for the transgression of my people He was punished. 

He was assigned a grave with the wicked and with the rich in His death, though He had done no violence, nor was any deceit in His mouth. 

Yet it was The Lord’s Will to crush Him and cause Him to suffer, and though The Lord makes His life an offering for sin, He will see his offspring and prolong his days, and The Will of the Lord will prosper in His hand.  After He has suffered, He will see the light of life and be satisfied.


By His knowledge my righteous servant will justify many, and He will bear their iniquities. Therefore I will give Him a portion among the great, and He will divide the spoils with the strong, because He poured out His life unto death, and was numbered with the transgressors.

For He bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors"  (Isaiah 53).

This Scripture predicts the manner by which we shall all be saved, through the suffering of The Son of God.  This is not the way we would expect God to come to us, as one of us, born into this world, taking His Divine nature and uniting it fully to our human nature.  But He did. 

God became man in the person of Jesus Christ, who took upon Himself the sins of the world.  Because of the actions of Adam and Eve, who disobeyed God's command, sin and death entered the world. Mankind rejected the paradise God created for us, and now lives in a sinful nature, in a sinful world.  With sin comes suffering.  We were unable to right this wrong.  So God sent His Son to make up for our sinfulness.  Jesus came to conquer sin and death by taking our sins upon Himself.  He bore the punishment that really belongs to each one of us.  He made up for what humanity lacked, and through Christ, all who believe in Him can receive the grace He won for us on The Cross, the gift of eternal life.  Why did He do this?  Because He Loves us.  God is Love, and God Loves what He has created.  He loves each one of us - to death.  And if you were the only person on earth, He would have done it all the same .. just for you. 

Jesus died so that we may live, forever in Heaven. We need a Savior.  We needed a Savior then, and we need a Savior now.  Sin is still a choice to us, in fact it's everywhere, but through Christ we can reject that choice, reject sin and choose Heaven through the Cross of Christ, by receiving Jesus into our lives.  

Today our personal relationship with God can grow significantly if we open our hearts and reflect on what He did for each of us.  Let's pray and ask God for the grace to understand this better, and to become more loving, even in our own sufferings. 

With gratitude for the life of Christ, as we meditate on His suffering and death, lets remind ourselves that He did it "for me."  He didn't just do this for someone else.  He did it for you. We can truthfully say "He bore my sins, my weaknesses, my guilt, my punishment .. so that I don't have too."  We receive the benefit of His death when we accept Him as the center of our life. Let's finally let go of our old way of living, and start living for Christ, in a New Way, Today.  



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Palm Sunday 2015

3/29/2015

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Today we celebrate the triumphant entry of Christ into Jerusalem ... Holy Week begins.  During Holy Week we are called to walk with Jesus. To walk in His footsteps on the journey He took to The Cross. We are called to be by His side, to see what He saw, what He endured for our sake, through His eyes, through His immense Love for us. It's a week filled with special masses, prayers, sacrifices, etc.  but it's so much more. 

We have spent the previous weeks of Lent reflecting within, trying to change, looking at ourselves. Now, this Holy Week, we look at Jesus. We focus our attention on Him.  We don't just read about His passion and death this week, we enter into it. Today, He enters Jerusalem, and we go with Him.
 
"The very large crowd spread their cloaks on the road, while others cut branches from the trees and strewed them on the road.The crowds preceding him and those following kept crying out saying:  'Hosanna to the Son of David; blessed is he who comes in the name of the  Lord; Hosanna in the highest.' And when he entered Jerusalem the whole city was shaken and asked 'Who is this?' And  the crowds replied, 'This is Jesus the prophet, from Nazareth in  Galilee"(Matthew  21: 8-11).

The people are very excited to see Jesus.  They heard all these awesome stories about Him, how He heals the sick and performs miracles, how He speaks powerful words of life and love and forgiveness ...and now He's here, right in front of them. He  is greeted so passionately and is praised and loved by the people. We are these people. We put ourselves there this week, at every step.
 
Today we shout "Hosanna!" Friday we will shout  "Crucify Him!"  But Jesus already knows this.  Jesus enters Jerusalem amidst the shouts of honor and praise knowing that these same people will turn on Him and scream for His death in a few days ...  and He loves us anyway. He dies for us anyway. He knows how fickle our humanity is. He knows how weak we really are, how selfish we really are, and He knows we won't always appreciate the sacrifice He's about to make for  us.  But He makes it anyway.  God Loves us.  And this week, He proves it!

So let's reflect today on how often we turn on Christ too. How often are we "Christian" when things are going well but abandon Christ when things don't go our way? As long  as we see the miracles and answered prayers we Praise Him, but if not? How strong is our faith really? When the cross comes into our lives, what do we do?  
 
Let's pray in a new way today. Let's look at Holy Week in a new Light. Let's see ourselves among  the people and ask ourselves the really deep questions our hearts need answered. Let's grow in love and faith. When we enter into Holy Week with our whole heart, we enter into Christ's passion and death, and in the process of appreciating Him, find amazing graces for ourselves. 

May God Bless you and everyone near and dear to you this Holy Week.  In Jesus' name. Amen.

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The Stations of The Cross

3/6/2015

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We adore You, O Christ, and we praise You, because by your Holy Cross You have redeemed the world.

There is a great spiritual benefit to us when we reflect on the passion and death of Jesus Christ. "The Stations of the Cross" or "The Way of the Cross" is a scriptural, meditative prayer in which we call to mind certain moments of suffering that Jesus endured.  We consider each station, perhaps reflect on a scripture passage, pray, and think about what Jesus went through for us. Then we move on to the next station and do the same.  We open our hearts to God, and allow His grace to enter as we pray.  It's a powerful prayer approach and a very peaceful experience, as we contemplate God's tremendous Love for us. 

During Lent it is especially appropriate to pray this way and reflect on the Cross Jesus carried for us. If you're not familiar with the Stations of the Cross, I have listed each one below with a particular scripture that we can reflect on. These are only my suggested scriptures. Simply pray in your own way.  What's more important is that we open our hearts and spend this time with Jesus, reflecting on the path He walked for our salvation.
 
We begin each station by saying, "We adore You, O Christ, and we praise You, because by your Holy Cross You have redeemed the world."  Let's ask God The Holy Spirit to guide our thoughts and fill our hearts as we think about each one.

The First Station:    Jesus is condemned to death (Mark 14:61-64).

Second Station:      Jesus carries His Cross (John 19:14-16).

Third Station:     Jesus falls the first time (Psalm 140:5-6).
 
Fourth Station:   Jesus meets His mother (John 19:25-27).
 
Fifth Station:      Simon of Cyrene helps Jesus carry the Cross (Mk 15:21).
 
Sixth Station:     Veronica wipes the face of Jesus (Sirach 6:14).

Seventh Station:  Jesus falls the second time (Isaiah 53:4-7).
 
Eighth Station:    Jesus meets the women of Jerusalem (Luke 23:27-28) and (Lam 1:12).
 
Ninth Station:     Jesus falls a third time (Isaiah 53:12).
 
The Tenth Station:   Jesus is stripped of His clothes (Psalm 22:8).
 
The Eleventh Station:  Jesus is nailed to the Cross (Luke 23:33-43 and Psalm 22:16-19).
 
The Twelfth Station:   Jesus dies on the Cross (Lk 23:44-46) (John 19:28-30) (Romans 5:19).

The Thirteenth Station: The body of Jesus is taken down from the Cross (John 19:31-34).
 
The Fourteenth Station:  Jesus is laid in the tomb (Matt 27:59-60).
 
Widely accepted as The Fifteenth Station is of course The RESURRECTION, where we celebrate Christ's victory over sin and death when Jesus rises from the grave on Easter.
 
Praying in a reflective way using scripture draws us closer to Christ and opens our hearts to be changed. 
Through this prayer, we can grow in our relationship with Jesus who loves us - to death.
 
God truly does Love us, and He has already proven it.  Let's be open to His redemptive Love in a New Way,
Today.
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Guided By The Spirit

2/21/2015

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Picture
"Dear Lord, you know the way I should go.  I pray for the grace to be guided by you.  Please open my heart to the actions of your Holy Spirit in my life.  Please grant me the grace to flow with your Holy Spirit wherever He wants to move in my life.  Grant me the grace to trust you, in all things, and at all times.

Father, Son and Holy Spirit, you have created me, you saved me, and you live within me.  Please show me the way to Heaven.  Thank you for the gift of yourself.  Thank you for loving me in every moment of my life.  I now pray for the humility to be led by The Spirit of Love. Help me not to fear because I know that wherever you lead, you will always be there with me.   In Jesus' name.  Amen."

(This prayer is from New Way Today's book, "Prayers For A New Way. A Prayer Book For The Heart."  Visit our Amazon page for more.)


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