As a bond-servant, one who had yielded their will to God’s will, we are positioned to receive a call from God. Paul was called to be an apostle, a ‘sent one.’ What are you called to BE? Notice it did not say ‘to do’ but ‘to be.’

Once our hearts – our mind, will and emotions – are yielded to God, He can trust us with His purpose for us. Many people are still searching for their purpose and call. Until we yield our will and way, we would only corrupt God’s call by trying to ‘do’ instead of simply ‘being’ who we are to be.

Today, ask God to reveal where you still maintain control. Then ask Him to help you yield. Now be ready to receive your life call and purpose.

God needs bakers, nurses, moms, dentists, mechanics, engineers as well as ministers and Sunday School teachers. Your call will bring you great joy and delight. It will be what God created you to be. You will be ‘in your element’ and ‘in the zone.’ The God Zone that is!

Paul introduces himself as a bond-servant of Christ Jesus. A bond-servant is “one who fully gives himself to another’s will.” Paul gave himself fully to Jesus’ will. It was the secret of his life. He was completely given to Christ’s will.

Our challenge is to do the same as we focus on Jesus.

It is a choice made of our own free will and volition to come under the Lordship of Christ, accepting His will, His Word, His way as my way of existence. I do nothing unless HE initiates it. I say nothing unless He inspires it.

What power will be contained in those words!
What great peace will prevail in a life governed by His will!

Ask Jesus to bring you to this point. “Therefore Jesus answered and was saying to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, unless it is something He sees the Father doing; for whatever the Father does, these things the Son also does in like manner.”  John 5:19  New American Standard Bible (©1995)

We need Your Presence.

We need Your beauty.

We need Your rest.

In Your Presence is fullness of joy.

Circumstances are overcome.

Needs are met.

Desires are fulfilled.

Draw us into Your Divine Presence.

Let us bask in Your sweetness.

Let us inhale fresh life and vitality.

Fill us Father.

Fill us with Your Presence.

Cleanse us from the depths of our souls and spirits.

Create in us a new and right spirit,

A spirit that desires You as much as You desire us.

Restore to us the joy of our salvation.

We invoke Your Presence with us here today.

Make us mind-full of You, O Lord.

Let us rejoice in You today, Heavenly Father.

Bless Your Holy Name.

Bless You and thank You O Lord.

Amen.

“The first-fruits, or the first sheaf of ripe grain was required to be offered to the Lord, and was waved before him by the priest, as expressing the sense of gratitude by the husbandman, and his recognition of the fact that God had a right to all that he had; Leviticus 23:10-14. The word, therefore, comes to have two applications:
(1) That which is “first,” the beginning, or that which has the priority of time; and,
(2) That which is apart and portion of the whole which is to follow, and which is the earnest or pledge of that; as the “first” sheaf of ripe grain was not only the first in order of time, but was the earnest or pledge of the entire harvest which was soon to succeed.” (Bible.cc)

Christ was raised with mighty resurrection power to immortal life. He was the first to rise from the dead never to die again. He presented Himself to God as the perfect sacrificial Lamb to take away our sins.
”The firstfruits were the best, what was then ripest, and so most valuable; Christ is the first, and rose the first in dignity, as well as in time; he rose as the head of the body, as the firstborn, the beginning, that in all things he might have, and appear to have, as he ought to have, the pre-eminence. The firstfruits sanctified the rest of the harvest, represented the whole, gave right to the ingathering of it, and ensured it; Christ by lying in the grave, and rising out of it, sanctified it for his people, and in his resurrection represented them.” (Bible.cc)
As His people we rose with him, and in him; and our resurrection is secured by his; because he lives, we shall live also. Let us focus on Jesus the firstfruit. Then let us live as holy, sanctified Easter people!

Rockingham Civil Wars 1000 a.m. Behind the tower @ Rockingham Dragway, NC

Farmington Bracket Race 11:00 in the Grandstands @ Farmington Dragway, NC

TPR Bracket Race 9:45 with CORE @Tulsa Raceway Park, OK

Jesus is acquainted with every, EVERY! trial and temptation you and I will ever encounter. I’ve read this verse hundreds of times. I’ve thought of how Jesus was betrayed by the disciples. I am pained when I think of his family publically calling him crazy. Family and best friends, his posse, betrayed him, devalued him, didn’t believe in him!
And of course I have shed tears of sorrow and repentance as I consider the sufferings Jesus endured in Gethsemane, the beatings in Pilate’s court and the torture of the cross. What a savior!!!
But only today did it dawn on me that Jesus was acquainted with fear and doubt. He was made like us in every respect. Jesus was tempted with fear and doubt! Those are the two monsters I face regularly. They battle my mind to make me doubt whether God will do for me what He did for Jesus.
So where do I find that Jesus faced doubt?
Matthew 4: 1Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil. 2After fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. 3The tempter came to him and said, “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.”
4Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”
5Then the devil took him to the holy city and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. 6“If you are the Son of God,” he said, “throw yourself down. For it is written: “‘He will command his angels concerning you, and they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.’”
7Jesus answered him, “It is also written: ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’”
8Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor. 9“All this I will give you,” he said, “if you will bow down and worship me.”
10Jesus said to him, “Away from me, Satan! For it is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.’”
‘If ‘ is a doubt word. Jesus faced doubt. But look how He overcame it. Each time He rebuked doubt with the written word of God. Jesus made a decision of His will to live by God’s words. Therefore when faced with doubt and fear, He let the Word answer for Him. For every temptation, there is a WORD to contradict it.
Let us fix our focus on Jesus and live as people of the WORD!