Hope #6

Wait on the LORD, and keep His way, and He shall exalt you to inherit the land... ... the salvation of the righteous is from the LORD; he is their strength in the time of trouble.

Psalms 37:34, 39, www.solascriptura.com

Father may we exhort one another to love and obey your Holy word and to keep Your way. Teach us new truths, afresh every day, so that the life You have given us might bring glory to you.

Help us Father not to be overwhelmed with the cares of this world, so pre-occupied that we leave You out of the issues we face and the decisions we must make.

We pray this day for your Spirit and our spirit to be as one. That is a huge hope, Father, but we know it is Your will for each of us. In Jesus' Holy name, we pray, amen.

Bruce Caldwell

Marriage #1

And the LORD God said, "It is not good that man should be alone; I will make him a helper comparable to him." And the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall on Adam, and he slept; and He took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh in its place. Then the rib which the LORD God had taken from man He made into a woman, and He brought her to the man. And Adam said: "This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man." Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed.

Genesis 2:18, 21-25, www.solascriptura.com

Father, these Scriptures mark the beginning of "marriage". You tell us of Your perfect plan for a man and a woman. Father, each of us will read these verses from a different perspective but here we see Your perspective. O' Father, if we could always simply follow Your expectations, life for us would be as You expect.

You have taught us that we should seek to be obedient and seek to know Your Holy word and to follow it. Yet, You told us that every man has sinned and fallen short of Your glory. We look back at some of our past sins, sins which You have blotted out, and we wish we had never sinned. We know, Father, that it is not Your will that we dwell on the past but that we truly put it behind us, just as You have, and that we look to new possibilities, new levels of faith and obedience, made possible by the power of the Holy Spirit in us.

Thank You Jesus for being the enabling power that we never had before we committed our lives to You. Help us, today, to commit our lives to Your service, meeting Your expectations, in all that we do, say and think. Your grace and mercy exceed anything we could reasonably hope for. Lead us as we seek to treat others the way you have treated us. In Jesus' Holy name, we pray, amen.

Bruce Caldwell

Love #2

"Now this is the commandment, and these are the statutes and judgments which the LORD your God has commanded to teach you, that you may observe them in the land which you are crossing over to possess, "that you may fear the LORD your God, to keep all His statutes and His commandments which I command you, you and your son and your grandson, all the days of your life, and that your days may be prolonged. "Therefore hear, O Israel, and be careful to observe it, that it may be well with you, and that you may multiply greatly as the LORD God of your fathers has promised you--' a land flowing with milk and honey.' "Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one! "You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.

Deuteronomy 6:1-5, www.solascriptura.com

Father, for clarity of Your commandments, we are grateful. You literally carved them in stone and they are as right today as they were then. We see here that fearing You is followed by the command to love You. You are an awesome God, more powerful, more present and more omniscient that we can easily understand.

A proper response, when we enter into that moment in time in which our souls are judged, will be fear, especially if we only have a casual awareness of who You truly are. But we know it will go well for us when Jesus and His angels separate the sheep from the goats, the saints from the sinners, as long as we have loved You with all of our heart, soul and strength and loved our neighbors as ourselves.

Maybe that is why fear is necessarily our initial response. Father, our love for You is too imperfect, our witness is too weak and our fidelity too uneven for us not to have fear. We hear the words of Jesus; fear not, for I will be with you. Father, absent the power of the Holy Spirit we are in big trouble. We will not overcome fear by good works. It is only by faith that we are saved and we pray that our faith gives rise to obedience and good works, works that bring glory to You. In Your Holy name, we pray, amen.

Bruce Caldwell

Love #1

'You shall not hate your brother in your heart... ...you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the LORD.

'And if a stranger dwells with you in your land, you shall not mistreat him. 'The stranger who dwells among you shall be to you as one born among you, and you shall love him as yourself; for you were strangers in the land of Egypt: I am the LORD your God.

Leviticus 19:17-18, 19:33-34, www.solascriptura.com

Dear God, Jesus taught us that there are two commandments that encompass the 10 commandments and they are not hard to learn: Love God with all of your heart, mind and soul and love your neighbor as yourself.

Here in Leviticus we find that Jesus was quoting Moses and of course You told Moses what to say. It is so helpful to us Father when the Old and New Testament shed light upon each other.

Our problem, Father, is not in not knowing what You expect, but it is in fulfilling Your expectations. We have learned that You will require evidence of how we showed our love to You and to our neighbors. The wonderful truth is that when we failed to meet your commandments, before we had our record of sin expunged by Jesus, our failure will not be held against us.

Now that we have confessed our sins and been cleansed of them, we are creating a new record. Give us wisdom, discernment and Your grace to love You and others in a new way, Your way. We pray these things in Jesus' name, amen.

Bruce Caldwell

Love #3

Hatred stirs up strife, but love covers all sins.

Better is a dinner of herbs where love is, than a fatted calf with hatred.

...love is as strong as death, jealousy as cruel as the grave; its flames are flames of fire, a most vehement flame. 7 Many waters cannot quench love, nor can the floods drown it…

Proverbs 10:12, 15:17, Song of Solomon 8:6-7

Father, there is no question in our minds about the effect of hatred. We see it everywhere and it seems so irrational, so distressing and so destructive. To choose hatred is to choose misery, not only for ourselves but for others. How could we have drifted so far from Your will?

Here, Solomon teaches us that love covers all sins. Is that true Father, that the reality of love actually covers all sins? You have taught us that is true and you told us Jesus that there are two over-arching commandments and if we satisfy those commandments we fulfill the entire law. We must love You with all of our heart mind and soul and our neighbors as ourselves. When we do so, love is the key to forgiveness and eternal life. Is hatred ever O.K.? We know you hate sin but You are the Judge, not us. Help us to work toward the redemption of every soul, even our enemies.

We also see that a life style of abundance, if lived in a hate filled circumstance, is much worse than a simple meal, even in an atmosphere of poverty. If love is absent, so are You.

You teach us that true love will make the ultimate sacrifice but when we are jealous, it results in cruelty greater than the grave. Jealousy truly fans a flame than can destroy relationships. But again You tell us that even a flood can not drown out the flame of love. Return us to the spirit of our first love with you and all of those we have ever loved. In Jesus' Holy name, we pray, amen.

Bruce Caldwell

Holy Spirit #2

"These things I have spoken to you, that you should not be made to stumble. "They will put you out of the synagogues; yes, the time is coming that whoever kills you will think that he offers God service. "And these things they will do to you because they have not known the Father nor Me. "But these things I have told you, that when the time comes, you may remember that I told you of them. And these things I did not say to you at the beginning, because I was with you. "But now I go away to Him who sent Me, and none of you asks Me, 'Where are You going?' "But because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your heart. "Nevertheless I tell you the truth. It is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I depart, I will send Him to you. "And when He has come, He will convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment: "of sin, because they do not believe in Me; "of righteousness, because I go to My Father and you see Me no more; "of judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged. "I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. "However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come. "He will glorify Me, for He will take of what is Mine and declare it to you.

John 16:1-14

Jesus, here You teach us that you are preparing for us "not to stumble" if we absorb what You are telling us. Then You explain to us that we should expect persecution as we seek to serve You.

You teach us one of the most fundamental truths of our faith; when You left us to be with the Father, You said it was to our advantage that you go away. Why… because unless you went away the Helper would not come to us. But, You did ascend and you did send the Helper, the Holy Spirit and You referred to the Holy Spirit as "Him", saying He would make our hearts aware of our sin and we would know of righteousness and judgment.

This gift, this indwelling Spirit, was sent to all but not all have chosen to acknowledge Your presence, yet. When one does respond, You tell us that this indwelling Spirit of truth will guide us and that His instructions are directly from You. Jesus, You have taught us before that our names are in the Book of Life because of this freely given gift implanted in our hearts. Help us not to work towards elimination, the voluntary blotting out of our names from that Book. Instead, let us appropriate, by the grace of God, Your calling, Your willingness to change our lives forever. We seek Your Holiness and see here that it is not far from us. Amen.

Bruce Caldwell