[Faith-talk] FW: [ByHisGrace] LENTEL THOUGHTS - DAY TWO

[Eric Calhoun]

Original Message: 
From: "Mary Ann" <serenity77 at shaw.ca>
To: <Undisclosed-Recipient:;>
Subject: [ByHisGrace] LENTEL THOUGHTS - DAY TWO
Date: 
Thu, 23 Feb 2012 08:06:39 -0700






LENTEL THOUGHTS - DAY TWO
40 DAYS OF PRAYER

In the cross, God is revealed  not as One
reigning in calm disdain all the squalors of
the earth, but as One who suffers more keenly
than the keenest sufferer - a man of sorrows
and acquainted with grief.  
... Oswald Chambers

Would one of you hand his son a stone when 
he asks for a loaf of bread..  If you, with all your sins,
know how to give your children what is good, how much
more will  your Heavenly Father give good things to anyone
who asks Him.  Matthew 7: 7-12

Reflection
Jesus has a knack for explaining God's goodness in a simple
way. We do not have to be well-read or clever with theological
concepts to understand what the Father is really like.  All we
have to do is to be thoughtful of other people.

The message today is give bread, not stones.  But Jesus 
is talking about more than just food.  He is addressing the whole
area of being kind to others, offering to help, willing to listen,
spending time to make someone feel at ease, assured, less worried,
more hopeful.  These activities are what we do when we - give bread.
They are our clues for understanding God - the only clues we need.

Let us follow love's ways and become aware of the ordinary
things we can do for others.  Let us learn to like ourselves a little
more
as well.  This is the only way of understanding how good - how much
better than our best - God is.

Jesus Prays for us
Father, look with love on my Disciples, our friends.  So many of them
have mixed feelings about You.  Sometimes, they believe what I have told
them - that God is Love, and that they can trust in Your kindness.  But
other times, they want nothing to do with You.

Please, Father, give them right wisdom, so they may know the truth
about You.  More than anything, I want them to overflow with
thankfullness.
I want them to love others with courtesy and consideration.  Then, from
the
vantage point of their own goodness, they will understand that You do the
same for them.  Amen.

Gospel Response:
Give bread to someone today.  In some way great or small, help another
person know how much God loves us and cares for us all.
...Rev. Isaias Powers



Take some time to become still in Gods presence.

Inhale:  Breathe in the Peace of Christ.
Exhale: Breathe out the anxiety of the day.
Inhale:  Breathe in the gentleness of Christ
Exhale: Breathe out mental clutter and distraction.
Inhale:  Breathe in the freedom in Christ.
Exhale: Breathe out that which binds you
Inhale:  Breathe in the Joy of Christ
Exhale: Breathe out discouragement
Inhale:  Breathe in the Love of Christ
Exhale: Breathe out selfishness and personal agendas.

Offer Yourself to Him for His purposes during your time of
contemplation at the cross today.
... Tricia McCary Rhodes

Oh Lord My God you are very great, You have
laid the foundations of the earth.  Psalm 104: l.5

God's love did not begin at Calvary.  Before the morning
stars sang together, before the world was baptised with the
first light, before the first blades of tender grass peeped out, God
was Love.

Turn back to the unwritten pages of countless eons before God
spoke this present earth into existence, "when the earth was
without form and void" and the deep silent darkness of space
stood in stark contrast to the brilliance of Gods glory and His
cherubim and seraphim.
Even then, God was Love.  Before the world was created.
He knew all about us and the need we would have some day
for Christ to die for us.  So in His love, "He chose us before
the creation of the world."  Eph. 1.4

God does not change - and neither His love.  He loved you
before you were born.  He loves you now and He will love you
forever.  Will you love Him in return? ...  Billy Graham

Jesus did not come to make God's love
possible, but to make God's love visible.
Author Unknown.

Blessings N Love
Compiled by Mary Ann Trott