iTrain30

Reading for Day 14

September 14

Eph. 3:14-20
Psalm 12:1-8
Prov. 3:13-15

Ephesians 3:20-21 is one my most often recited verses. I often pray this verse back to God as I dream for our Church. I dream of the building filled all the way to the balcony. If I was going to dream big, I would ask for God to use us to reach people with the gospel and then see the chain of evangelism reach within their families and friends. I have seen God do this recently in a family who is in our church. My big dream is that this story would be repeated hundreds of times. If I dream big about my family, I pray that my children would walk close to the Lord and serve Him great passion and carry the message into the next generation. And so I will go to bed with this verse on my mind and will probably recite it before I get out of bed tomorrow morning. He is a God who is that powerful.

Ephesians 3:20-21

Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.

"Lord come and manifest your presence among us. Do your work through us. Let us be your church. Let us raise up a godly generation to keep the message of your great love and wonderful salvation going."

Reading for Day 15

September 15

Eph. 4:1-16
Psalm 13:1-6
Prov. 3:16-18

iTrain30

Reading for Day 13

September 13

Eph. 3:1-13
Psalm 11:1-7
Prov. 3:11-12

Do you ever feel like up is down and down is up in our world? The morality that our culture once acknowledged seems to be getting challenged at every turn. It very much feels like foundational truths are collapsing. When we talk about the Biblical truths that guides our lives we seem out of touch and old fashioned. It is easy to feel intimidated because many times we are in the minority. Psalm 11 reassures us that the Lord still rules from heaven, from His holy Temple. He is still in charge and His ways are right.

The tragedy is that the further our culture gets from the truth that God has established, the more pain, suffering and desperation will be experienced in our world. This is a great opening for us to be the light in the darkness. Our challenge is to be this light with grace and love.

Reading for Day 14

September 14

Eph. 3:14-20
Psalm 12:1-8
Prov. 3:13-15

iTrain30

Reading for Day 12

September 12

Eph. 2:11-22
Psalm 10:16-18
Prov. 3:9-10

Hearing from the Lord is a funny thing. Sometimes you read and it comes so easily. The words on the page of your Bible seem to go bold and italics all at the same time. The word captures your thoughts, heart and spirit in a flash. Other times you read and while the power of the word is not diminished, there is not a great moment of inspiration. You may have had one of those times since starting our iTrain exercise. Today, I kind of had one of those moments. My greatest moment of inspiration really came with yesterday's reading and it is still has me. So I will start there.

Ephesians 2 starts with one of the greatest descriptions of human beings. We are either dead or alive. Jesus made us ALIVE. We were dead in trespasses and sins, trapped in the sinful thoughts and actions and having a spirit of disobedience. And then we met the grace of God. God who is rich in mercy and motivated by His great love saved us. FOR BY GRACE YOU HAVE BEEN SAVED. And because of love and mercy and grace we sit together with Christ Jesus. Jesus now shows us the "exceeding riches of His grace". We are overwhelmed by His kindness. Now that is something to celebrate.

I pray that we will be aware of His kindness today.

Reading for day 13
September 13

Eph. 3:1-13
Psalm 11:1-7
Prov. 3:11-12

iTrain30

Reading for Day 11
September 11

Eph. 2:1-10
Psalm 10:1-15
Prov. 3:7-8

It is September 11. This is a day that we are reminded that we live in a world of evil. Psalm 10 talks about the burden of evil that every generation since the fall has had to deal with. We are no exception. This Psalm begins with "Why do You stand afar off, O Lord? Why do You hide in times of trouble?" When evil prevails we struggle. And then in verse 14 the writer takes a turn in his thoughts. He remembers that in fact God has seen and is active against evil. "But You have seen, for You, observe trouble and grief, To repay it by Your hand." God is not aloof and uninterested. He does see and observes trouble and grief and He cares.

Watching the coverage of the memorial ceremonies today, the camera picked up a mother hugging her son who would have been in his early teens. This boy lost a loved one when he was very young. Today as he remembered, the tears would not stop flowing as he held on to his mother and wiped the tears that would not stop. God saw that also. I am not certain, but assume that this boy most likely lost his father. This Psalm goes on to declare that God is a helper of the fatherless. Today God is watching and today, God is the helper we need. I thank God that He has limited the onslaught of evil since September 11, 2001. There have not been other September 11 days for our nation. This is evidence of the goodness of God to hold back evil. I pray for our President, the Vice-President, Cabinet, our military and other leaders of our nation. They carry bigger burdens for us than we often call to mind. Thank God for his blessing America.

Reading for Day 12

September 12

Eph. 2:11-22
Psalm 10:16-18
Prov. 3:9-10

iTrain30

Reading for Day 10

September 10

Eph. 1:15-23
Psalm 9:13-20
Prov. 3:1-6

Sometimes our prayers for people can be shallow. We often use the phrase, “and bless” so and so. Our prayers for each other can be taken up with important, but kind of temporal requests for money, health, relationship problems and the like. It is so interesting to read exactly how Paul prayed for these saints in Ephesus. These are not the run of the mill prayer topics. They run deep – here are some of them.

Paul gives thanks and then asks for the following:

• That they would have the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him.
• That they eyes of their understanding would be enlightened.
• That they would know what is the hope of His calling.
• That they would know what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance as saints.
• That they would know the exceeding greatness of His power toward those who believe. This is the power that raised Jesus at the resurrection and then elevated Him to the right hand of the Father above all principality and power and might and dominion and above every name in this age and in the ages to come.
• This power is in Christ and the focus of Christ is the Church. We are the Church and we are His body.

Now today I am going to pray this prayer for you and our Church. How about if you we all pray for our spouses, children this way. Pick out a few people in church and pray this prayer for them. Then lets all pray for our Church. This is the key to our Church being all God would want us to be.

Dear God, I thank you for my wife and children, my church family. Now God I pray that the eyes of their understanding would be enlightened. What a great thing this kind of supernatural enlightening would be for my kids and for all of us. I pray that we would all be more aware of the hope of Your calling. Your calling is not a burden, but it is the source of our great hope. God help us all to know and remember that we have been adopted into Your family and ours are riches of glory – an inheritance that is amazing. God help us to have a greater awareness of Your power in our lives and in our Church. Amen.

Reading for Day 11

September 11

Eph. 2:1-10
Psalm 10:1-15
Prov. 3:7-8

iTrain30

Reading for Day 9

September 9

Eph. 1:1-14
Psalm 9:1-12
Prov. 2:16-22

Have you ever had fickle friends? You know they get a plan going and invite you to go along. Your anticipation and excitement builds and then at the last minute they tell you that there is not room for you. Sorry. Sometimes people you love and grow to trust stop loving you. They change their mind about you and it hurts. It also leaves us with a new insecurity. People who have been abandoned, betrayed or just forgotten often have a hard time trusting.

Ephesians 1 is a beautiful passage where we see this love of God directed toward us as something that is not going to change. The spiritual blessings God directs toward us through Jesus Christ are not temporary or changeable. We have been CHOSEN BEFORE THE FOUNDATION OF THE WORLD, we have "according to the good pleasure of His will" been adopted. I love the “good pleasure of His will” because that means that God wants us. It is not just a sense of duty but there is this divine enthusiasm to adopt us. We are also ACCEPTED in the Beloved. Acceptance is something we all long for. And so if God’s accepts me what more can there be. It may hurt when people don’t accept us, but somehow since God has accepted me I can survive. The rich language goes on and on in this passage.

What I take away from this is a great sense of security in my relationship with God. He did not choose me on a whim that will pass. I am part of His eternal plan of the ages. This relationship I have with God is firmly established. I can trust and rest and rejoice in this. This is great stuff.

Reading for Day 10

September 10

Eph. 1:15-23
Psalm 9:13-20
Prov. 3:1-6

iTrain30 – I want to thank those of you who take time to offer a comment or just say that you are reading. This has been a great experience for me personally. There is something very amazing about having personal time with the Lord, knowing that others are there with me. The accountability and encouragement is great.

If you have gotten sidetracked, I encourage you to jump back on board. If you are just beginning, welcome.

iTrain30

Reading for Day 8

September 8

Phil. 4:10-23
Psalm 8:1-9
Prov. 2:6-15

“I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” There are a lot of reasons to need to remember this verse. There are times I have to do things I have never done before. There are times when I have to do things I don’t like. There are times I have to do things that are hard. There are times when I have to do things and I am tired. To think that Christ is at my side to give me strength makes a big difference.

This comes the same day that Psalm 8 reminds us of how great God is. And to think that God is mindful of man is amazing. And then in Philippians this God sends Christ and He gives us strength in all things.

A great God who is mindful of us and personally involved in giving strength for whatever comes our way. Life in relationship with God is the best.

Reading for Day 9

September 9

Eph. 1:1-14
Psalm 9:1-12
Prov. 2:16-22

Today I went up to Kansas City to speak at a Pastor's Fellowship Meeting. Joey Candillo was the host pastor. He shared his testimony of how he was in prison and walked into hear a chaplain. He described how a great guilt came over him and he began to cry. The chaplain shared the gospel and asked if anyone wanted to be forgiven. He went forward and prayed for forgiveness and he described how he got up from his knees and felt as if a weight of bricks had been lifted. He said everything changed. He smiled so much the prison authorities asked him what kind of drug he was on. After getting out of prison he went to Eastside Baptist and asked Pastor Otis Nixdorf if he could attend church there. From there he went to BBC. After college he started a church in the inner city of KC. There was a Baptist Church near them that had dwindled down to 15 members. They approached Joey about merging churches and the rest is history. We met in that church today. It is a historic turn of the century building. Amazing how God works. He is mindful of us and gives strength to those who are in Christ.