Good day and give thanks unto the Lord, for He is good and His mercy lasts forever. I am in a place of repentance this morning. I let myself be coerced into a bad mood by circumstances that were beyond my control. So I am bound and determine to pick myself up and continue the journey. Who’s with me?
Today’s Prayer
(A personal prayer)
Father, as Easter approaches, let us take time to examine our hearts. Your Word says that we are to grow in holiness, that we must “be holy as You are holy” — not an option, but a requirement. Our Easter should not be just lilies and bunnies, or even just hymns and cantatas — a once-a-year commemoration. Rather, Easter should follow a time of personal assessment – have I grown this past year, in building a deeper relationship with You, reading Your Word, and seeking to know Your will for my life? Or have I forgotten the commitment that I made, putting my Christianity “on hold,” believing that I am “good enough” to suit me? Remind us that Jesus became the sacrificial Lamb for us that we might be freed from the bondage of sin and have eternal life. Remind us too, that we are to tell others about You. Help us to strive to “be holy as You are holy.” In JESUS’ name I pray, Amen.
Let’s eat.
The Patience of Job
Job 14
“How frail is humanity! How short is life, and how full of trouble! Like a flower, we blossom for a moment and then wither. Like the shadow of a passing cloud, we quickly disappear. Must you keep an eye on such a frail creature and demand an accounting from me? Who can create purity in one born impure? No one! You have decided the length of our lives. You know how many months we will live, and we are not given a minute longer. So give us a little rest, won’t you? Turn away your angry stare. We are like hired hands, so let us finish the task you have given us. “If a tree is cut down, there is hope that it will sprout again and grow new branches. Though its roots have grown old in the earth and its stump decays, at the scent of water it may bud and sprout again like a new seedling. “But when people die, they lose all strength. They breathe their last, and then where are they? As water evaporates from a lake and as a river disappears in drought, people lie down and do not rise again. Until the heavens are no more, they will not wake up nor be roused from their sleep. “I wish you would hide me with the dead and forget me there until your anger has passed. But mark your calendar to think of me again! If mortals die, can they live again? This thought would give me hope, and through my struggle I would eagerly wait for release. You would call and I would answer, and you would yearn for me, your handiwork. For then you would count my steps, instead of watching for my sins. My sins would be sealed in a pouch, and you would cover over my iniquity. “But as mountains fall and crumble and as rocks fall from a cliff, as water wears away the stones and floods wash away the soil, so you destroy people’s hope. You always overpower them, and then they pass from the scene. You disfigure them in death and send them away. They never know if their sons grow up in honor or sink to insignificance. They are absorbed in their own pain and grief.”
Quote of the Day
If my attitude be one of fear, not faith, about one who has Disappointed me; if I say, “Just what I expected,” if a fall occurs, then I know nothing of Calvary love.
Amy Carmichael
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REV. ELDER G E STERRETT
FOUNDER
GCKRS HELPING HAND FOUNDATION – THE RELATIONSHIP FACTORY
James H. Taylor Sr. – Kankakee City News has published my Daily meal message for a decade.