dickbraswell

Word for Today:  December 11

Worship God.

Come before His Presence.  Stand in Awe of His Glory and His Goodness and His Power.  Be still.  Listen.  Wait.  Be quiet.  Weep.  Tremble.  Fall on your face.  Bow down.  Kneel. Worship God.  Get lost in God.  Get “caught up” in God.  Stand before Him.

When the Glory filled the temple in the Old Testament the priests could not minister so powerful was the Presence of God.  On the Day of Pentecost in Acts, the saints who were filled with God staggered as drunk men and spoke in unlearned languages.

All around them people knew that something supernatural had taken place.  Some were amazed.  Some were confounded.  Some marveled.  All were moved by the awesome Presence of God… They Worshipped and God responded.

I walked into a convention center filled with over 1000 people 40 years ago and was met by an overwhelming Presence of the Holy Spirit.  Those present were mesmerized in True Worship.  They were singing in the Spirit.  They were praying in the Spirit.  Some were standing with uplifted hands, others were kneeling…. They were weeping and rejoicing and dancing and many were prostrate on the floor laying at the feet of their Glorious God.

They were as one and they all were literally “drunk with the Holy Spirit” (Acts 2).  It was the most moving and emotional meeting I had ever experienced in my entire life.  It was at that moment God let me know I could have More of Him than I had ever received.

This revelation came in the atmosphere of True Worship.  I remember rushing to the altar for prayer.  I remember a saintly Episcopalian Rector who laid hands on me and gently prayed for me.  I was literally flooded with the awesome and Real Presence of the Holy Spirit… and my life (and ministry) was forever changed.

God-Life has it birth in the Womb of Worship

Word for Today:  December 9

The Word was made Flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth… John 1:14.

He is more than a HELPLESS BABY wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.

He is more than a once-a-year Christmas celebration.

He is more than a mere Carpenter’s Son

He is more than an itinerant wandering Preacher

The world saw Him (and still does) as a religious radical.  A revolutionary fanatic.  A miss-guided dreamer.  A disillusioned Jew and a false messiah.

Religion sees Him and a handy Crutch to lean on.  A “last minute” and last resort relief for panic and pain.  A “security blanket” to embrace when times are tough.

He is greater than Adam.  He is greater than Abraham.  He is greater than Moses.  He is greater than the angels.  He is greater than the prophets.  He is greater than the apostles. He is the Epitome of Perfection.  He is GOD.

He is the BREAD of LIFE

He is the LIGHT of the WORLD

He is the DOOR into the FOLD

He is the GOOD SHEPHERD

He is the RESURRECTION and the LIFE

He is the TRUE VINE

He is the WAY the TRUTH and the LIFE

He is the ALPHA and the OMEGA

He is the GREAT I AM

He is KING of kings and LORD of lords

For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.   Isa 9:6

Word for Today:  December 6

The Heart of Scripture.

The heart of revealed Scripture is prophetic and messianic in nature.  God promised our deliverance from sin’s control and dominion in the first Book of the Bible.

And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel. Gen. 3:15

The moment Adam sinned, God immediately set in motion a Plan to redeem His Dream.  Here God promises to do Something to bruise the head of satan.

The “It” that will bruise satan’s head is the seed of a woman.  That Seed is Jesus.  The bruise that satan renders to the Seed of woman is the Crucifixion of Jesus.

Here in the very beginning of the written Word, God accurately prophecies that Jesus will come to earth and do something about the devil.

It will take God’s immeasurable Grace and the Obedience of His Immaculate Son…

It will take a Calvary and a Cross

Word for Today:  December 2

Forgive.

Father, forgive them… they don’t really know what they are doing…  Luke 23:34

The Revelation of the Person of Jesus in this statement is a Revelation of Forgiveness.  “Forgive them…”

Can you forgive?  Have you forgiven?  Do you have anything against anybody?  Are you holding a “grudge”?  Are you not speaking with someone?  Have you “written off” a previous personal relationship?   What right do you have to harbor unforgiveness in your heart?  Have they done to you what these individuals did to Jesus?

Notice that Jesus looks beyond the outward act into the intents of the human heart… “They do not know what they are doing…”

In essence Jesus is saying “They are not responsible for what they are doing… they are being driven by a force they do not understand… it is the nature of satan in them….Father… be merciful to them… they do not realize what they are doing…”

The force driving of any unforgiveness in your heart is not God.  If it’s not God, then it is pretty obvious who it is…

Love forgives

Word for Today:  December 1

The Word declares:

Looking unto Jesus, the Author and Finisher of our faith:  Who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God…  Heb. 12:2

How could Jesus possibly have “joy” before Him in the midst of such torture and agony?  How did this “joy” give Him strength to “endure” the cross and bear the shame connected with it?

Why did He not call for “10,000 Angels” to come and loose Him and rescue Him from such pain and shame? He could have!  He willingly laid down His life… for He had declared that

…no man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself…  John 10:18

Why?  How?  Because Jesus looked through His Eye of Faith and saw into the future… He saw the time when you and I would hear the Word and Believe it, Act on it, and make it a part of our living and our breathing.  He knew by His death and obedience to the Father, that He would become the Firstborn of many Brethren… that He would establish a New Race and New Breed and New Creation that would crush the head of satan and trample demon powers underfoot.

That is the reason for His Joy in the midst of His suffering, His agony and His death