You are uniquely you-nique!!

 

2 Timothy 1:7 (ESV) for God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control.

Psalm 139:13-14 (ESV) For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother's womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well.

You're unique! Why stress over "fitting in" or "being like everyone else" ??



Each of us has the capacity to generate 10³⁰⁰⁰ eggs or sperm with unique sets of genes. If we consider 10³⁰⁰⁰ possible eggs being generated by an individual woman and the same number of sperm being generated by an individual man, the likelihood of anyone else with your set of genes in the past or in the future becomes infinitesimal.  
- "Behavioral Genetics" Robert Plomin, J.C DeFries, & G.E. McClaren

No one can duplicate your life. Scan history for your replica; you won't find it. No box of "backup yous" sits in God's workshop. You aren't one of many bricks in the mason's pile or one of a dozen bolts in the mechanic's drawer. You are it! And if you aren't you, we don't get you. The world misses out. You offer a gift to society that no one else brings. If you don't bring it, it won't be brought.
- "Cure for the Common Life" Max Lucado

Your passions are purposeful; not pointless. Your thoughts and feelings are meant to be considered; not ignored. 



If you are a faithful believer, a disciple of Christ, you can know with certainty that you were created with loving care for a unique purpose that only you can complete!!

Jeremiah 29:11-13 (ESV) For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare^[a] and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart.

Ephesians 2:8-10 (ESV) For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

So don't ever be tempted by resistance or a seeming lack of resources to stop you from resourcefully trusting in and approaching our Holy Creator in prayer when it comes to living with intention of being on task to completing your purpose as Christ's ambassadors completing the ministry of reconciliation, reconciling the world to Himself as we live out the days of our lives!! (2 Corinthians 5:17-21)

For more:

• Philemon 4:8 - Thinking Upon These Things
• Community of True Communion
• Way of the Warrior

CORAM DEO
1 John 3:18

Pondering Prayer

Acts 1:12-14  (ESV)
Then they returned to Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet, which is near Jerusalem, a Sabbath day's journey away. And when they had entered, they went up to the upper room, where they were staying, Peter and John and James and Andrew, Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew, James the son of Alphaeus and Simon the Zealot and Judas the son of James. All these with one accord were devoting themselves to prayer, together with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and his brothers

"Let me tell you a little secret: whenever you cannot understand a text, open your Bible, bend your knee, and pray over that text; and if it does not split into atoms and open itself, then try again. Prayer is the key that opens the cabinets of mystery. Prayer and faith are sacred picklocks that can open secrets, and obtain great treasures! There is no college for holy education like that of the blessed Spirit, for He is an ever-present tutor, to whom we have only to bend the knee, and He is at our side--the great expositor of truth! You will frequently find fresh streams of thought leaping up from the passage before you, as if the rock had been struck by Moses' rod! New veins of precious ore will be revealed to your astonished gaze as you quarry God's Word and use diligently the hammer of prayer!" (Charles Spurgeon)

"Every text prayed over opens a mine of 'unsearchable riches,' with a light from above, more clear and full than the most intelligent exposition." (Charles Bridges)

"A humble and prayerful spirit will find a thousand things in the Bible--which the proud, self-conceited student will utterly fail to discern." (J.C. Ryle)

"There should be a definite asking Him to graciously anoint our eyes--not only that we may be enabled to behold wondrous things in His law, but also that He will make us of quick discernment to perceive how the passage before us applies to ourselves--what are the particular lessons we need to learn from it. The more we cultivate this habit, the more likely that God will be pleased to open His Word unto us." (Arthur Pink)



Hebrews 12:1-3  (ESV)    
Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.

For more:

• Have you prayed today?
• The "Nevers" of the Gospel
• That's How You Change The World - Newsboys
  

  
  

The Anchored Heart

Where do you find your heart seeking harbor?

Is it anchored in the Word or the world?

In 2 Corinthians 4:13-18  Apostle Paul calls us to not be distracted by “what is seen” as we focus on the “eternal” and  “fix our eyes on what is unseen”, as he manifests the reason for any believer’s courage and resolve - even in the face of life’s most difficult tragedies & challenges - which is biblically defined as “light and momentary challenges”.  That reason is cited in vs. 14 - “because we know that the one who raised the Lord Jesus from the dead will also raise us with Jesus” – is nothing short of the great “I AM," who first revealed Himself to Moses in the burning bush in Exodus 3:14,  the very same Word who was with and was God since the beginning (John 1:1, John 14:6), and the Advocate who is with us forever (2 Corinthians 1:21-22) teaching us all things as well as testifying (John 15:26) about and reminding us everything Jesus taught (John 14:26), the Triune Excellency (John 1:1) that is the endless fount of daily refreshment and renewal, providing rivers of living water (John 7:38), bringing forth not only courage and resolve, but true spiritual nourishment from the milk (1 Peter2:2) and the meat (Hebrews 5:14) of Scripture, that transforms us into being more Christlike by having us feeding upon Christ Himself (John 6:51)!!!

Do you, dear reader, currently find your heart seeking safe harbor of complete confidence in Father God, The Breath of Heaven, “who raised Jesus from the dead"  and who "will raise us with Jesus” and on one future day will corporately present us to Himself (2 Corinthians 4:14)? Or by chance do you find your heart on a course that is similar to the Scriptural warning left behind for us in the pillar of salt, that was once a woman, married to a righteous man, who was related to the man renamed by God as “Abraham” meaning blessed father of many; known in human history as the man who is the father of the Jewish, Christian, and Islamic faiths? 

We are of course talking about Lot’s wife, whose name wasn’t even worth recording in the pages of Scripture.  She, who despite coming from a family who God graciously established His covenant, and despite obediently fleeing the doomed city of Sodom along with her husband and daughters, willfully disobeyed the strict injunction which the angel had laid upon her by looking back towards Sodom as she fled (Genesis 19:26), obviously due to recklessly harboring her heart in the city that was increasing in distance behind her.   Do you dear “Christian”, find yourself "walking with the Lord” while your heart is setting sail for, or possibly even already anchored elsewhere?

While we are needfully located in this world, we should take care to not be “of” this world.  So during this time of our lives, let us take care to continually thank our God for placing eternity in our hearts (Ecclesiastes 3:11) and take steps to guard that it stays there.  For if we permit to have the world, for any reason, slip into our hearts, we run the risk to one day despairingly find our hearts to be trapped in the world, and our souls forever without excuse, to be “not right” and eternally unforgiven in the sight God.

THE VOYAGE

A timeless 200 Year-old Puritan Prayer that is just as relevant today as the moment it was first penned.

"O LORD OF THE OCEANS,

My little bark sails on a restless sea,

Grant that Jesus may sit at the helm and steer me safely;

Suffer no adverse currents to divert my heavenward course;

Let me to harbour with flying pennants, hull unbreached, cargo unspoiled.

I ask great things, expect great things, shall receive great things.

I venture on Thee wholly, fully, my wind, sunshine, anchor, defence.

The voyage is long, the waves high, the storms pitiless, but my helm is held steady,

Thy Word secures safe passage, thy grace wafts me onward, my haven is guaranteed.

This day will bring me nearer home, Grant me holy consistency in every transaction,

my peace flowing as a running tide, my righteousness as every chasing wave.

Help me to live circumspectly, with skill to convert every care into prayer,

Halo my path with gentleness and love, smooth every asperity of temper;

let me not forget how easy it is to occasion grief;

may I strive to bind up every wound, and pour oil on all troubled waters.

May the world this day be the Saviour's cross,

and every oncoming wave the fountain in His side.

Help me, protect me in the moving sea until I reach the shore of unceasing praise.

(The Valley of Vision, Puritan Prayers and Devotions, p. 202-03)

  

For more:

• Don't Blink!!
• Keystone Considerations
• Life Abundant
• Only One Life
• Philippians 4:8 - Thinking Upon These Things
• The Bike Ride
• You Woke?

CORAM DEO

Jude vs. 20-24