Κύριος Notes

Adoration

REFINER'S FIRE

Purify my heart Lord,
Let me be as gold and precious silver.
Purify my heart Lord,
Let me be as gold, pure gold.

Refiner's fire
My heart's one desire is to be holy
Set apart for You, Lord.
I choose to be holy,
Set apart for You my master,
Ready to do Your will.

Scripture Reflections Luke 17
1 Jesus said to his disciples: "Things that cause people to sin are bound to come, but woe to that person through whom they come.

Lord Jesus I live in a time and culture where the limits are always being pushed. You know the way it is better than I do.

There was Alice Cooper who is now and Christan...there is Ozzy Osborne who jokes about the occult while drunk living on a television "reality show demonstrating his dysfunction family for everyone to emulate and think is normal. We have gone from Ozzy and Harriet and the Nelson family to Ozzy Osborne.

Let's not even mention Marilyn Manson...a stage name taken from a crazed mass murderer. Pop culture is such a collision of the bizarre and the horrendous with a bit of humor and light through in from time to time.

2 It would be better for him to be thrown into the sea with a millstone tied around his neck than for him to cause one of these little ones to sin. 3 So watch yourselves.

So what are You saying about those who glorify ,trivialize and who stylize sin? What would you say to those who make thier living off of poking fun at and trivializing faith? There will be a price to pay for a life lived in the shadow of the profane.

I would like to make all of the danger of this warning to be out there but the truth be known it is as close as my next breath...Lord Jesus help me as I live my life to be someone who realizes the importance of Your grace and the importance of the little ones who are watching.

"If your brother sins, rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive him. 4If he sins against you seven times in a day, and seven times comes back to you and says, 'I repent,' forgive him." 
5The apostles said to the Lord, "Increase our faith!"

It is in the middle of relationships Lord where my faith seems so small. In the times that forgiveness is asked for and I just don't have what it takes to forgive that the realization comes crashing in on me. It is in that moment that the need for your work in my heart is so clearly visible.

It is in the middle of my life lived out in the context of the real world that faith is made visible. A life that You call me to live out Lord knowing that I am an example and that people will be impacted by what I say and do...how I handle the need to forgive and the times when I need to be forgiven.

The disciples got it exactly right...increase my faith! Make the impossible possible.So the Refiner's fire burns bright in the context of relationships and I can feel the heat changing me and melting me...bringing me to the place where holiness is lived out.

Holy Spirit give me the grace to live this day as you would have me to...forgiving and being forgiven.

Κύριος Notes

Adoration

Farther Along
Tempted and tried we're oft made to wonder
Why it should be thus all the day long
While there are others living about us
Never molested though in the wrong

Farther along we'll know all about it
Farther along we'll understand why
Cheer up my brother live in the sunshine
We'll understand it all by and by

When death has come and taken our loved ones
It leaves our home so lonely and drear
And then do we wonder why others prosper
Living so wicked year after year

When we see Jesus coming in glory
When he comes down from his home in the sky
Then we shall meet him in that bright mansion
We'll understand it all by and by

Scripture Reflections Luke 16

19"There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and lived in luxury every day. 20At his gate was laid a beggar named Lazarus, covered with sores 21and longing to eat what fell from the rich man's table. Even the dogs came and licked his sores. 22"The time came when the beggar died and the angels carried him to Abraham's side. The rich man also died and was buried. 23In hell, where he was in torment, he looked up and saw Abraham far away, with Lazarus by his side. 24So he called to him, 'Father Abraham, have pity on me and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, because I am in agony in this fire.'

There eternal issues at stake in the every day things of life. Eternal issues in the way that we deal with poverty and the way that need is responded to. Lazarus outside the rich man's house is ignored. He is faceless, nameless, a non-person. His need is unnoticed, untended.

It is interesting that this rich man just does not get it...he finds himself in hell and he still thinks that Lazarus has nothing better to do than to help him out.

25"But Abraham replied, 'Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, while Lazarus received bad things, but now he is comforted here and you are in agony. 26And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been fixed, so that those who want to go from here to you cannot, nor can anyone cross over from there to us.'
27"He answered, 'Then I beg you, father, send Lazarus to my father's house, 28for I have five brothers. Let him warn them, so that they will not also come to this place of torment.'
29"Abraham replied, 'They have Moses and the Prophets; let them listen to them.'
30" 'No, father Abraham,' he said, 'but if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent.'
31"He said to him, 'If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.' "

So what is the point Lord? The point of the parable is that eternity is a place where destinies have been determined. So what is the application for today, Lord? What do I take with me to work today from this scripture?

Lord Jesus you did come back from the dead and many still did not believe.

Everyone is important and has an eternal destiny. There are no beggars that you are not aware of and concerned about...there are no rich men who are beyond the need for grace. Belief and acceptance of the good news is a mysterious thing only possible by the grace of God. It is not based on income level, it is based on the simple yet difficult ability to accept my need and Your willingness to meet my need.

Lord Jesus I don't understand Your grace, but desire to live it out in this day that is going to begin in just a few hours. Help me to see need in all the forms that cross my path in this day.

Κύριος Notes

Adoration

Draw Me Close

Draw me close to you
Never let me go
I'll lay it all down again
To hear you say that
I'm your friend

You are my desire
No one else will do
Cause no one else could take your place
I feel the warmth of Your embrace
Help me find the way Lead me back to you

Scripture Reflections Luke 16
16"The Law and the Prophets were proclaimed until John. Since that time, the good news of the kingdom of God is being preached, and everyone is forcing his way into it.

The way that You defined Your ministry Lord was through the preaching of the gospel to the poor...

Matthew 11:4-5 Jesus answered, "Go back and tell John what you are hearing and seeing: 5 the blind can see, the lame can walk, those who suffer from dreaded skin diseases are made clean, the deaf hear, the dead are brought back to life, and the Good News is preached to the poor.

The good news was being preached to people who were not within the normal listening range of the religious establishement. They were hearing for the first time that God loved them with an everlasting love. That it wasn't about power, control, influence or money. The kingdom of God is something so much more!

When You are involved the impacts on my life is transforming and liberating. Ears that have not heard music suddenly can hear, eyes that have never seen colors are amazed by the wonder of royal blue, the dead are raised to new life...and the Good News is heard by people once left out of the religious dialogue.

Who are the people you would be reaching out to in our community Lord Jesus? Who needs to hear the message...where are the people that need healing? Send them Lord and I wil depend on your power to effect change in their lives and in mine.

17 It is easier for heaven and earth to disappear than for the least stroke of a pen to drop out of the Law.
18"Anyone who divorces his wife and marries another woman commits adultery, and the man who marries a divorced woman commits adultery.

Lord Jesus you fill up to over flowing the law and the prophets. Stuck right in the middle of this teaching on managment, honesty and fidelity you put in this small segment on marriage. It looks as if it is almost an after thought but it is all a piece of the same thought.

Faithfulness, honesty and trust are the same qualities...the same charactor traits no matter where they are found. In a sense marriage is the next logical place to touch on...marriage is a partnership that requires the same qualities lived out over time in the most intimate of surroundings. Small inflections on words can change the meanings. Fidelity of content can be lost so easily in the flow of the communication. Here in the middle of a call to absolute honesty lived out in life's context, you remind your audience of the need for a marriage to be founded on trust that does not allow for anything less than a life time of relationship lived out in plently and in want...in sickness and in health...

So the implications of these two little verses in the middle of this teaching on trust, honesty and management in the middle of a crooked world is: Live out honesty and faithfulness in the little things and in the large things of life...live out fidelity with intensity and grace in the middle of public surrounding and in the middle of the most private of interchanges.

Lord Jesus draw me close to you in this day and never let me go. May my thoughts and my actions be what you would have them to be. Ground me in honesty, faithfulness and fidelity in a world that sometimes is crooked and twisted.

Κύριος Notes

Adoration

A Thank You

Thank You for this Morning
The light defused not radiant.
The night chill just lifting.
Light and warmth come with the Sun

Help me to turn my soul toward You in these few moments.

Scripture Reflections Luke 16

10"Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much.
Lord Jesus it is the little things that count more than I realize, isn’t? Little things need to be superintended and watched over. Little things that need to get back where they belong. Help me be careful with the little things.

11So if you have not been trustworthy in handling worldly wealth, who will trust you with true riches? 12And if you have not been trustworthy with someone else's property, who will give you property of your own?

Trust is a building thing…it starts out in small almost insignificant tasks and issues and then progresses. It is over time that the trust grows. Lord that same spiritual principle is at work in the church isn’t it? Faithfulness in the small things…the details will result in blessing.

Faithfulness in the phone call or the contact or the email that you just impress on me to do…when they are done…you bless and the church moves forward.

13"No servant can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money."

There is a need to hold everything…lightly. Nothing except You and Your work within me is really all that important Lord. Help me remember that in this day…in the comings and goings that are a part of this life that you have called me to. Lord lead me to serve you with a clarity that can not be ignored.

14The Pharisees, who loved money, heard all this and were sneering at Jesus. 15He said to them, "You are the ones who justify yourselves in the eyes of men, but God knows your hearts. What is highly valued among men is detestable in God's sight.

So where my heart is that is where I am going to be focused…where my attention is going to be…Lord help me to focus.

Sometimes it feels like I have ADD of the soul. Attention Deficient Disorder always on the lookout and never able to focus with clarity and duration. Lord Jesus, help me to focus on the truly important issues and to let the rest go.

Κύριος Notes

Adoration

I Don’t Have It All Down
Mistakes and missteps dog me
The still small voice of your Spirit calls to me
I am who I am and yet I am not satisfied…are you?

I am not lost, but I do take wrong turns.
The journey is daunting and the quest important.
Don’t let me miss the mission in the middle of the details.

Teach me how to be yours in the middle of the managing mistakes.
Help me to be all that you would call me to be
Teach me to risk rightly for your glory.

Scripture Reflections Luke 16

1Jesus told his disciples: "There was a rich man whose manager was accused of wasting his possessions. 2So he called him in and asked him, 'What is this I hear about you? Give an account of your management, because you cannot be manager any longer.'
3"The manager said to himself, 'What shall I do now? My master is taking away my job. I'm not strong enough to dig, and I'm ashamed to beg— 4I know what I'll do so that, when I lose my job here, people will welcome me into their houses.'

The goal of this manager was to have a safe place to land…a parachute in the middle of what looks like the end of a career.

You are the One Lord Jesus who has lead me to this point in my life. I know that you want me to be wise and skillful in the management of the resources that you put into my hand. Teach me the lesson of the shrewd manager…a lesson of picking out the gold among the rubble. This servant and an understanding that there was a future that he needed to plan for even when hard things happen.

What needs to happen in that kind of situation? I need to keep my head…manage the available resources to the best of my ability and trust you for the rest.

5"So he called in each one of his master's debtors. He asked the first, 'How much do you owe my master?'
6" 'Eight hundred gallons of olive oil,' he replied. "The manager told him, 'Take your bill, sit down quickly, and make it four hundred.'
7"Then he asked the second, 'And how much do you owe?' " 'A thousand bushels of wheat,' he replied. "He told him, 'Take your bill and make it eight hundred.'
8"The master commended the dishonest manager because he had acted shrewdly. For the people of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own kind than are the people of the light.

Lord Jesus people of the world are able to understand the use of money in a way that does understands both the influence and the power of money to impact situations. Being mindful of the results of money...and the influence of resourcing is important, I need to assess and reassess the impact of money on my decisions. Money can not be the driving force in decision making the goal of the mission is always the most important.

9I tell you, use worldly wealth to gain friends for yourselves, so that when it is gone, you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings.

What does this mean Lord Jesus? Do I trick people in money deals? “Use worldly wealth to gain friends for yourselves”...how does it work.
It is clear that You are not asking me to go out and cook the books...but the point seems to be...that money is an always means to an end and not the goal.

Wise as serpents and harmless as doves…was aiming at much the same thought

The goal should be eternal always with managing money. The goal should be to manage the money that comes my way in a shrewd way...a useful way but not to be managed by it. It is always to be understood in the context of the mission and the quest…that there are lives that can be changed by the wise and shrewd use of money.
.

Κύριος Notes

Adoration

Thank you Lord for hope that is beyond my limited view.

Thank you for the reality of your life experienced in me.

Thank you for the peace that comes from a life given to your care.

Scripture Reflections Luke 15
25"Meanwhile, the older son was in the field. When he came near the house, he heard music and dancing. 26So he called one of the servants and asked him what was going on. 27'Your brother has come,' he replied, 'and your father has killed the fattened calf because he has him back safe and sound.'

Lord Jesus--This almost reminds me of a meanwhile back at the ranch story...this is the older sons story. It is a story that every prodigal should listen to and understand.

There are many ways to lose track of what is really important. There is the far country way. A way that I have traveled Lord...a way of bad choices and bad company...a way of pain that leads you to a dead end in some pigsty or another.

There is also a way to lose track of the important by just staying home and working and doing the right thing by the people that matter. It is a way of work and a way of resentment for the work. It is a way of anxious activity without the sense of any good thing being accomplished. It is a way of little rejoicing but many thoughts of what the far country must be like.

28"The older brother became angry and refused to go in. So his father went out and pleaded with him. 29But he answered his father, 'Look! All these years I've been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders. Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends. 30But when this son of yours who has squandered your property with prostitutes comes home, you kill the fattened calf for him!'

There is anger here Lord...anger of a son that is a hard worker. It is the anger of an older brother that just does not get the value of relationship. It is all summed up in the simple reference to his brother as "this son of yours." Those words must have hurt and hit with such a force.

31" 'My son,' the father said, 'you are always with me, and everything I have is yours. 32But we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.' "

There is reason to rejoice over the return of the lost. The far country Lord is still just a place of pigstys and lose. Sometimes I wonder about the places that are the far country in this time and place. Lines like "What is said in Vegas stays in Vegas" comes to mind...as if there was a weekend pass when it comes to living the life that You have call me to.

Does Vegas look attractive? Yes sometimes...The part I miss is the parting words to the older son..."everything I have is yours."No Vegas is a place of broken dreams and illusions that look like wealth. They vanish in a mirage of pain to those who think they are real. In the middle of doing life the way you want me to Lord there are times of celebration don't let me miss them like the older brother.

Lord Jesus Thank you for this day help me to focus on the grace and the goodness and the mercies that you have showered on this prodigal come home. Thank you Jesus for your grace to me today.

Κύριος Notes

Adoration

Did You Feel The Mountains Tremble?

Did you feel the darkness tremble?

When all the saints join in one song

And all the streams flow as one river

To wash away our brokeness

And here we see that God you're moving

A time of Jubilee is coming

When young and old return to Jesus

Fling wide your heavenly gates

Prepare the way of the risen Lord

Written by Martin Smith

Scripture Reflections Luke 15
21"The son said to him, 'Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.'

Far from home these are words must have rehearsed many times. These were difficult words and honesty words. The words that face the truth and are real many times hurt to say. They are words that do not avoid the reality of sin, that know the damage that has occurred to a relationship that may never…will never be just the same.

The fact that the relationship will never be the same is no reason not to attempt to repair and restore it. The sad truth is that this father and son can restore their relationship but it will always have this scare. Your grace Jesus reaches me, but it can not take the scares of the past away. You can restore and you can forgive, but the scares remain until we see you face to face.

This son did not expect to be considered a son anymore. He knew the need he had for grace. The grace that could be extended to a servant or a slave that had run away was what he was looking for. That was enough for him.

The impact of sin and the scares that are left, are real…Time that can not be restore, opportunities that are missed are gone forever. The are no match for your grace, mercy and your arms wide open for the lost to be found.

22"But the father said to his servants, 'Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. 23Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let's have a feast and celebrate. 24For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.' So they began to celebrate.

Lord Jesus this is a picture of unconditional love…of love that is looking for the son and runs to meet him with open arms of a father, with celebration in mind…with a ring, a robe and a feast on the agenda.

There were no buts that this father said to his son…there were no conditions made on this son’s return from the far country. Teach me to have arms wide open for those who need your grace…learning their hurts, ready to demonstrate grace.

Lord Jesus the darkness trembles at the love that reaches out to the lost. The darkness knows that it is defended by a cross and an empty tomb.